CusickGallery.net: Henry Ian Cusick

First, a lovely interview with Ian by Jon Lachonis, otherwise known as DocArtz:

TVOvermind Speaks with LOST’s Desmond – Henry Ian Cusick

Since he first appeared on LOST, Desmond has become synonymous with revelation. He was the answer to “what is in the hatch?”, was a reluctant prophet throughout season 3, assured the rescue of himself and the Oceanic 6 in Season 4 – along with providing a graphic example of what it means to need a constant, became a telegraph through time and space in Season 5, and now has brought closure to just what the flash sideways are – and where they may be going.

It’s that last part we are still a bit unclear on, but after last week’s episode of LOST, “Happily Ever After,” fans once again owe Desmond, and the actor who portrays him Henry Ian Cusick, a debt of gratitude. LOST now seems to be hurtling towards its conclusion with equal parts emotion and mystery, once again thanks to Desmond. In a turn of events that could only happen on LOST, Desmond now possesses a combined consciousness from both universes, and a new mission – to reunite these forlorn `verses in the name of love.  Cusick’s significant impact on LOST was felt full force in this episode: his ability to present an emotionally vibrant character whose humanity rises above the weirdness and keeps the stakes anchored to the heart strings of the audience, and the characters.

I had the opportunity to speak with Henry Ian Cusick, who prefers to be called “Ian,” about where the show was heading, where it’s been, and what his plans are once it is over.

When you first took the part of Desmond, did you have any idea he would turn out to be such an integral part of the story?

No, I’m totally surprised, you know, I turned up in Hawaii four years ago on a three episode arc, but it was one of those gigs where I looked around and I thought wow this would be just the coolest job to get, so when I think about it, I wanted it so much.  I wanted to come back here,  more than any other job, it just seemed like the right fit when I was working here.   I remember being on set and everything just seemed to be easy it wasn’t a difficult transition, just one of those things I kind of manifested it. I set my heart on it and it just sort of worked out.  It was just one of those strange things in life and it just seemed to all work out perfectly. But I had no idea that Desmond would end up being the character the writers have written.  It’s been a long journey and I’m delighted with the way the characters turned out, even though I don’t know the ending but so far so good.

What has been your favorite episode for Desmond so far?

The end of season two, “Live Together, Die Alone.”  When I was given that script, I got very excited and I think the exciting part of any character is discovering where you are from, and what you’re doing, and for me that was when I got a lot more information about Desmond.  I was just about to be a season regular so it was a very happy time also. The Desmond story at the end of season 2 was very strong and yeah I would say that all my episodes have been pretty strong.  I love doing the “constant” and “Happy ever after,” I loved doing that one as well, so I’ve been very lucky.

Desmond episodes tend to carry both the overarching mythology and a heavy human story at the same time.  Must be a lot of pressure.

I’ve never really felt the pressure.  It’s a weird thing.  You give me the script and I’ll do the best that I can. It’s always been that way.  I’ve never felt any pressure in terms of ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to hit this perfectly’. The only pressure I put on myself to do the best that I can and I’ve always done that no matter what I do, so no matter how much of a part I have in any episode, I always want to try and do the best that I can given any scene.

I do remember after shooting season two I was shooting for about ten days I think.  And I remember we finished on a Saturday night, late Saturday night and I remember sleeping on Sunday and I didn’t wake up until five in the afternoon.  I couldn’t believe that I’d slept so long. I guess they do take it out of you. Especially during season two I remember being very tired after that, but at the time feeling when I was shooting feeling so alive and feeling so energized by doing the whole thing.  I loved working and being involved in doing all that stuff. It was only later that I thought wow, that took a lot out of me. Maybe not during “Happily Ever After,” that was a gentler sort of episode not a physical one.

You were famously involved in a red herring ending for Season 4 which has Desmond as the man in the casket.  Were you aware that this was just to throw people off?

Not only me there was one other actor as well [Josh Holloway] and it was sort of to throw off all the people involved in the shoot, but it didn’t help.  They did 20 takes of Locke and one take of me and that sort of gave it away. I was given one shot in the casket as the other person in the casket, John Locke was given quite a few takes so it was pretty obvious who was going to be in the casket. It was not so much for the crew, I don’t know who gives out these spoilers.  I don’t know.  I think it’s for the people watching outside, taking photographs who are trying to figure it out.  Because sometimes you can tell what’s going on just be taking photographs and seeing who’s on set. We were asked if we would do it knowing we weren’t going to be used for the scene.

Desmond is obviously one of the fan’s favorites.  Are fan’s going to be satisfied with where he ends up?

You know what?  I don’t know where he ends up yet, we haven’t been given the final chapter of the script so we’re all waiting for the season finale’s final act, so I can’t answer that honestly.  I think the writers have done pretty good so far, so we’ve just got to keep going with them and trust that it’ll be good. I don’t know, and nobody knows how it’s going to end up.

Is Desmond on Team Jacob, or Team Smokey?

I think Desmond has always been on the side of doing what’s right, whatever that would be, trying to always do the right thing. So far I’ve never seen him do anything for his own personal satisfaction.  He’s never come across as a selfish character.  He’s come across I think even more now, a self-less character, so I think that’s the side he’s on.

With LOST closing up shop, are you planning to stay in Hawaii?

I’m gonna stick around.  I have three boys who are very happy at school and I’m very delighted with the schooling here.  Not only that, I love the island.  The quality of life here is pretty cool. I haven’t got a job anywhere else. It would be a bit upheaval and you never know where you’re gonna end up working so I might as well just stay here.  A place that I’m very happy in, see what comes along and make a decision after that, but I think we’re gonna stay here for a couple more years anyway, and I’ll probably commute should I get anything.

Hawaii is just a phenomenal place. The show is very lucky to be in Hawaii.  You come to Hawaii and it’s remote, in the middle of nowhere.  When we first got the show we thought where is Hawaii… and when you look at it on the map, it’s tiny. It’s in the middle of the pacific, six hours from the nearest big piece of land.  It has these incredible volcanic mountains that are just forbidding and kind of spooky when you first see them.  Now I’ve grown to love them. They are straight up vertical.  You get beautiful weather here, but when it rains it rains hard.  It’s so dynamic this place.  It has so many different feels to it. It’s added so much to the show, which people forget I think. I don’t think this show could have been shot in any other place. Hawaii is such a big part of the show and the people of Hawaii have just been phenomenal.

What’s the dynamic like on the set now that everybody realizes it is coming to an end and everybody has to make these decisions to stay or go.

I think everyone is realizing now, it’s a slow realization that it’s coming to an end.  What we’ve achieved.  There’s a sense of pride.  A sense of sadness.  People are really enjoying working at the moment knowing that it’s gonna come to an end.  There is a real camaraderie feeling on set.  It’s a very happy set, and very beautiful feeling on set at the moment.  It’s a good place to be.  What we’re doing at the moment is very, very intense and physically demanding for a lot of the crew, but I think everyone’s aware that this is a very special thing that we’ve created together so they’re very proud I think.

Has anybody made any plans as far as watching the final episode or what they’re gonna do when it airs?

I think there’s some sort of press thing happening in LA for the finale. I haven’t thought about it yet and I’m not entirely sure.  At the moment I’m just thinking and concentrating on the work.

When do you guys actually wrap the season?’

We finish on April the 21st or 22nd, I can’t remember the exact date but in two weeks.

It’s gonna be a strange thing. I don’t know how I’ll react the day after, when I realize I haven’t got a job. So that’ll be interesting.

Do you have any teasers you can give for tonight’s episode which is the “Everybody loves Hugo”?

I think it’s a good one.  I really like this episode. Jorge’s episodes are always very charming.  It’s got a good story line.  Love is involved there somewhere.  I hope you enjoy it.

Is Desmond more or less going to be involved in every flash sideways going forward,  what we can expect for the rest of the season?’

You know the show that comes on after Hurley’s episode is…do you know anything about that episode.

I’m trying to avoid the spoilers.

I think you may know that there’s gonna be no cast members.  No regulars in that episode. I’m not involved in that one.  I’m not involved in a couple.  I’m not involved in every single episode, I mean I sort of turn up here and there.  Not as heavy as “happily ever after,” but I do turn up and I will be in more flash sideways but I think other people are gonna become very important characters closer to the finale.

After “Happily Ever After” it would seem that Desmond is a man with a head in two Universes, and seemingly two different missions as well.  In the sideways, he’s determined to enlighten everyone, but on the island it seems like he’ll willingly follow anyone who demands his allegiance.

Right. That was a kind of bizarre ending to that thing,  I remember speaking to Damon and Carlton and asking ‘How can he…one minute he’s happy to help Widmore and the next minute he’s off with Sayid, who obviously seem very opposed to each other so how can he be happy to go with both?’  Essentially I think, my own take on it was that Desmond is coming from a place of love.  He has no fear.  I think when you’re working from a place of love you don’t have fear, and so he knows what he has to do. Not only in the sideways world but that seeps over into the island world.  It’s connected I think and…I don’t want to give too much away but it’s the same mission.  It’s the same mission, he knows, he’s consciously aware of the other world and both sides.

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Next, Mike Ryan from Vulture at NY Magazine, who asks some fan-submitted questions:

Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick on Desmond’s Big Episode and the Secrets of the Finale

Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

This week’s episode of Lost focuses on everyone’s favorite unlucky (but now, quite lucky) millionaire, Hugo Reyes. For a preview of tonight’s show, as well as Lost‘s fast-approaching series finale, Vulture spoke to the affable, Desmond-portraying Henry Ian Cusick just this afternoon. We, of course, discussed last week’s Desmond-centric episode, “Happily Ever After,” and Cusick answers some questions from Vulture commenters.

Welcome back. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Desmond.
Well, yes, you’re right. Although he did appear briefly in the first episode of the season. Before that it was season five, and season five wasn’t much of a season for the Desmond character. So, yeah, it’s nice to be back and have an episode that affects the ending of the show.

Was it in your contract that the episodes focused on Desmond need to be epic ones?
No, [laughs], I have nothing in my contract. It’s been a fluke, really. When Carlton [Cuse] told me about the possibility about coming back, I had no idea what they had in mind. The episodes that I’ve been given have all been great pieces of writing and great fun to play. But now that the show is coming to an end I will not have another Desmond-centric episode. I’m delighted that it ended on one like “Happily Ever After.”

It could be perceived as a nice bookend to “The Constant.”
I don’t really compare it to “The Constant,” so I don’t see it as a bookend. What I liked about this episode was that it was a subtle piece of writing; there are a lot of clues in there that you might get when the show finishes. It gave Desmond a slight tweak — not huge changes to Desmond’s character, but ever so slightly.

It was nice to see the old team of Hume and Pace back together again last week.
Yes! Yes, it was. I don’t really keep in touch with Dominic [Monaghan], but it was nice to see him again — especially the bar scene. I was very pleased with that; I thought that come across very well. I think Dom gave a fantastic performance in that, but I also really like the way the camera was moving around in the editing of that.

Even in the sideways dimension Desmond was trying to save Charlie’s life.
I think in the sideways that they like to have a little feel of what happened in the previous episodes. But, I think this time, Charlie saves Desmond by showing him the truth — showing him a way to the truth. So he sort of returned the favor.

Does Desmond 100 percent know what’s going on now?
I would say … Desmond is in a place where he thinks he knows what’s going on. He’s very certain of what he must do to have resolve.

So is Desmond going to try to bring all the characters near death, or will it be more subtle than that?
It’s going to be a mixture of both. I think everyone in the sideways might be slightly aware. When you see them all look into their reflections, that’s kind of a clue. I think that’s been a running theme so far, and it’s happened to a few of us — we look at ourselves in the mirror and the camera lingers on us. I think everyone has a taste of “something’s not quite right.” Everyone, just for a nanosecond, thinks something ain’t right in this world. You’ll see in tonight’s episode — some of it’s subtle and some of it’s not so subtle.

In the first episode this season, “LA X,” was there more than meets the eye to Desmond’s appearance on the plane? Are we reading too much into it?
I think you might be. I think we’ve moved on from the airplane. Do you mean that Desmond was sitting in the seat, then all of a sudden he was gone?

Exactly.
It could have been one of many things, maybe he was in the toilet. Maybe Jack didn’t see him because he was slumped in his seat? That’s the thing with Lost, you can put a spin on so many things.

This is Lost, dammit! It can’t be as simple as Desmond having to go to the toilet!
Exactly! Some of the things are that easy.

What will Faraday’s role be in this? It appears like there’s almost an inter-dimensional struggle between his parents.
Eloise wants Charlie Pace at the concert to begin with. And then, when he doesn’t turn up, she’s like, “Oh, good.” It’s a bizarre thing. Are they fighting over Faraday? Eloise is probably the most enigmatic character. We know very little about her. We don’t know how she manages to know everything and still function in all these timelines.

It almost seems Eloise is worried that if the dimensions unite, Daniel could suffer the same fate he did in season five.
Oh, I think that’s good. Okay, this is a little tidbit: We will visit something along those lines. That side of the story? We’ll go there in the show.

So … you’re currently filming the finale. Want to tell us something about it we don’t know?
Well … all the actors have been given a script that contains ten acts. There is an eleventh act that we haven’t got yet. And in that eleventh act, there’s a secret scene that no one — not even the people that [are in] the eleventh act — have got the secret scenes. At the moment, we have, what, 24 days to shoot these two episodes, the series finale. I haven’t been on set all that much recently, but, from what I understand, what they’re shooting now has been really physically demanding. There’s a lot of wetness and a lot of bruises. I think the stunt work is going to be pretty cool.

We have a few questions from Vulture commenters. You, sir, are popular with the ladies. There were a lot of questions about your shirtlessness that we didn’t pick.
Oh, really? [Laughs.] Well, I’m glad you didn’t pick those. What did you pick?

Srisesagain is wondering if you think you are a man worthy of McCutcheon Scotch?
Sixty-year-old scotch? I certainly wouldn’t drink it in the office. That’s a good question, actually. Am I a man worthy? Of course! We’re all worthy of 60-year-old scotch. It’s only 60-year-old scotch, you know? If it was 120 year-old scotch, it might be different.

Slimchicken was wondering why the Desmond episodes seem better than all of the other episodes?
That’s another very good question. I wish I could give you a good answer. All I can say is … here’s my theory: Desmond doesn’t appear in the show as much, so he always has that enigmatic quality. The less you know, the more interesting it is. So, when he does come up in those chunks, he seems more interesting. He’s been kind of lucky: He has the ability to foresee the future, and he had the ability to travel in his mind. So these are sort of cool qualities that we all sort of think, Oh, what would that be like? And he has the ability to withstand great amounts of electromagnetism. When you have these qualities, you’re always a little bit cooler than the rest.

Robinm was wondering if “brotha” came from you or the script?
Part of the script. See, I think it’s a very American saying. Don’t you think?

Yes, but it sounds cool when you say it.
Because it’s the accent. When it comes from someone speaking with a Scottish accent, it sounds very odd, I think, and that’s why it stood out.

Isgoodatmath approached a girl at a bar, asked for her number, and promised not to call until eight years later on Christmas Eve. Why did this not work for him?
[Laughs.] I’m surprised! Maybe it was the way he said it. What accent was he using?

So he needed a Scottish accent?
Absolutely. Tell him to try it again; I guarantee it will work.