The Tail Section

Michael Emerson Answered YOUR Questions!

Lost Interviews, TheTailsection Interviews — March 14, 2007 at 12:27 pm by DavidHume

As promised, the poll concept went exactly as planned and the top three questions were asked.  Your going to see a lot of other questions that were suggested as well because I already had them down myself!  (If you don’t believe me, meet me by the failsafe and we’ll take a little time whirl.)

So without further ado… Here are your questions answered by Michael Emerson.  (I am not responsible for the length of the answers.)


Did Ben and the Others know what would happen if the button wasn’t pushed or did they think it was just part of a Dharma experiment?

I think they knew in general what would happen, but not in particular.

The next reader question:  Last season there was a scene where your character said, “If I told you about them, you have know idea what He’ll do and He’ll kill me,” obviously speaking of the mysterious Him.  At that point did they know that you’d go on to play the leader of the Others?  Did you know that you were going to have this authority position with the Others or were you really playing that from the vulnerable standpoint?

Well that was one of those days where I had to have a little chat with the director.  Already by then, even that early on I thought, “there’s more to me than meets the eye.”  I said to the director, because the director came and said, “I need you to be really terrified of Him.”  And I said, “Okay, I’ll do it, but what if I’m Him?”  And he said, “I can’t talk about that,” and walked away from me.”  So we played it as if there was someone that Ben was terrified of.  You can either chalk that up to him being a good actor, if the Him in question was himself, or maybe there is somebody out there.  I think there’s somebody else coming down the line.   In fact, there almost needs to be.  This whole dance we’ve been doing on the border of whether Ben is a good guy or a bad guy, I think the presence of someone more powerful and more malevolent will make that really nicely ambiguous again.  If our sympathy suddenly shifts toward Ben, that will be interesting.

This final user question: Is there one thing that you can tell us about your character that you wish the viewers knew?

Wow, that I wish the viewers knew… Oh. Something that’s been sort of at the back of my mind and sort of simmering underneath my playing this season is that he’s a romantic.  And that he longs for a different life than the one he’s leading. He’s trapped in a kind of life. He’s a man either born at exactly the right time or exactly the wrong time and he has to push on.  He has to play the hand that he’s been dealt but he may not be crazy about it.  I think he wishes for a softer life and softer relationships (laughs).

The FULL interview is available right now at BuddyTV.com!  Thanks to everybody who submitted questions, I hope you like the way it worked out.  I felt the voting was very democratic and the quality of the questions were fantastic.

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