CusickGallery.net: Henry Ian Cusick

First, detailed descriptions of Ian’s SVU eppys.  Don’t look if ya don’t wanna know:

NBC “Premiere Week” Episode Descriptions (Spoilers!)

“LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT”

“LOCUM/BULLSEYE”

09/22/2010 (09:00PM – 11:00PM) (Wednesday) : DETECTIVES OLIVIA BENSON (MARISKA HARGITAY) AND ELIOT STABLER (CHRISTOPHER MELONI) HELP A FOSTER COUPLE (GUEST STARS JOAN CUSACK AND PETER STRAUSS) FIND THEIR MISSING CHILD

A foster couple (Cusack and Strauss) call Detectives Benson (Hargitay) and Stabler (Meloni) to the scene of the crime when their ten-year-old adopted daughter disappears. It soon comes to light that she ran away to meet with a man named Erik Weber (guest star Henry Ian Cusick), whom she met on the internet and whom Benson and Stabler suspect of ulterior motives regarding the girl. Weber denies any wrongdoing, and also expresses romantic interest in Benson. However, as the investigation continues, the detectives realize that the girl’s foster parents may be hiding something that could change the entire course of the case. Also starring: Ice-T (Detective Odafin Tutuola), Richard Belzer (Detective John Munch), Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner), and B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang).

DETECTIVES OLIVIA BENSON (MARISKA HARGITAY) AND ELIOT STABLER (CHRISTOPHER MELONI) ENLIST THE HELP OF A SUSPECT (GUEST STAR HENRY IAN CUSICK) FROM A PREVIOUS CASE TO CRACK A NEW ONE

Detectives Benson (Hargitay) and Stabler (Meloni) are called to the hospital after a 10-year-old girl is raped. They arrive to find her so traumatized that she cannot even tell them her name. With the help of Detectives Odafin Tutuola (Ice-T) and John Munch (Richard Belzer), they are able to identify the young victim. But they soon realize that her home life is far from normal as Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong) discovers that her mother suffers from a rare condition that renders her unable to recognize that the young girl is, in fact, her daughter. When the detectives find themselves without a lead, Erik Weber (guest star Henry Ian Cusick), a man they met on their previous case, decides to get involved. But he may be overstepping his bounds. Also starring: Tamara Tunie (Dr. Melinda Warner)

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Today we had a real treat!  Ian and Neal Baer (SVU) were interviewed about the upcoming Season 12 premiere eppys.  Posting some of the various “articles” with a mishmash of questions and answers…some may be redundant:

Interview: Henry Ian Cusick moves on from ‘Lost’ with ‘Law & Order: SVU’

Henry is back on TV.

Photo: Getty Images

It didn’t take long for Henry Ian Cusick to get back on TV. The veteran actor was a staple for many years as Desmond Hume on ABC‘s “Lost,” and now he is attempting to work some magic as a guest star on NBC‘s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” Cusick’s character of Erik Weber will make her debut during the season premiere September 22 at 9:00 Eastern (8:00 Central). The premiere will immediately be followed by another episode featuring Cusick.

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to talk with Cusick and Neal Baer about the guest appearance.

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Matt Carter: Henry, after being on such a successful show for so long, how important was it to get back on TV soon? What drove to this project in particular?

Henry Ian Cusick: I was looking to get back into TV right away — I was looking to get away from Desmond. I was no longer Henry Ian Cusick, I was Desmond. So I wanted to shed that skin. Then when I met Neal and he called me into his office I was very charmed by him. I talked quickly to the writers [about the characters] and I was sold, really. It was as simple as that. I like them, I like their idea, and it seemed like a really cool thing to get involved with — so I went for it.

So how would you two describe the character of Erik Weber?

Cusick: He’s a graphic designer that you meet very early on in the episode, and he’s very taken right away with Mariska Hargitay’s character and tries to help them out.

Neal Baer: I know [‘Lost’ executive producer] Carlton Cuse very well, so I joked that ‘Carlton, we’re going to take everyone from Lost and put them on. We’ve run out of people from Oz and The Wire — we gotta go to Lost.’ Naveen [Andrews] was on last year, and I love the show and I love Ian’s character so it’s like ‘great, I have this two-episode part.’

When we witched [sic] it to him, we needed someone who is extremely charming because Benson had a number of men interested in her over these twelve years and we needed someone who really has charm and could serve as a counterpoint to Stabler because he’s just as smart as Stabler, and we immediately thought of Ian for that. That’s what interesting particularly about the second episode — Ian carries us through both episodes, and we don’t really see someone often who can pull Benson in his own direction and be a competitor with Stabler, and I like that element of him too …If you go to our bubble tweet on Twitter, you will see that there’s this moment between Maloney [sic] and Ian that’s really intense because Ian is standing his own ground. That was really important to us to.

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LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: Executive Producer Neal Baer and Henry Ian Cusick Talk Guest Stars, L&O:LA Crossover

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT will step outside of its comfort zone in the September 22nd season premiere.

Not only will special guest star Henry Ian Cusick (LOST) be appearing in both episodes of the two-hour premiere, but the show may be toying a bit with a potential romance between his character and Mariska Hargitay’s Olivia Benson.

“There’s a bit of a flirtation, certainly from Erik Weber’s point of view,” says Cusick of his character. “He’s very interested in Benson and I think it becomes a rivalry with Stabler and Weber.”

“We needed someone who was extremely charming, because Benson has had a number of men interested in her over the past 12 years,” executive producer Neal Baer adds. “I said, we need someone who really gets charm and can be a counterpoint to Stabler, in that he is as smart as Stabler. And we immediately thought of [Henry] Ian for that, and I think that’s what’s interesting, particularly in the second episode [of the arc]. We don’t often see someone who can pull Benson in another direction with his own smarts and kind of be a competitor with Stabler and I liked that element of him, too. He’s a strong character…and can stand his own ground.”

So, could the character come back after these first two episodes?

“I think my story has been told,” Cusick says.

But Baer is quick to add, “You never know.”

Hmm.

What we do know?

Benson might get what she wants this season…but Baer is hesitant to tell us what the heck that means: When I questioned Baer over the phone about his comments regarding Olivia finally getting what she desires and the role Erik might play in that, I could practically hear him squirming over the line. “[Long pause] Well isn’t that a cagey question!” he laughed. “I guess you’ll have to watch and see. She wants many things…[well] I wouldn’t say Olivia wants many things. She wants a couple of things and so I think that [Erik] represents something she indeed might want. Did that answer your question?”

Since it did not entirely satisfy my curiosity, I asked if the thing Olivia is getting may be a child — longtime fans know that Olivia was rejected as an adoptive parent a few seasons back — and was met with yet another pause. Baer then responded with, “I will tease and say — what can I say? — I will say that Maria Bello’s character has a lot to do with this as well. That’s episodes 7 and 10.” Hmm…

Christine Lahti will reprise her role as disgraced ADA Sonya Paxton in episode 9: As Baer explained it, it’s an episode “about alcohol abuse on campuses, which pulls Chris Meloni’s character, Stabler, again, head-to-head with Christine.”

The return of Marcia Gay Harden might spell trouble for Stabler: “Let’s see, first episode, she almost shot Stabler,” Baer reminded us. “Second episode she almost blew him up. So third episode, there’s no telling what will happen!”

The LOLA-SVU crossover isn’t exactly a crossover: “What happens is episode 3, airing September 29th…Jennifer Love Hewitt [delivers] an amazing performance as a woman confined to her home, afraid to leave because she’s been raped by this guy a number of times over the years and [Olivia] tries to bring her out,” Baer revealed. “And [Olivia] ends up going to Los Angeles because she goes across country — she goes to Detroit and Chicago, as well — to open rape kits, because there’s a backlog of rape kits in this country in many, many cities. The rape kits haven’t been opened or tested so they’re just sitting and in some places literally degenerating…so a lot of perps are going free because the kits haven’t been opened yet or tested, as I said. So she’s on a mission and that takes her to L.A. which then takes her to meet Skeet Ulrich’s character Rex Winters from LAW & ORDER: LA. So what’s interesting I think about this is he appears on SVU before he premieres in LAW & ORDER: LA, which is kind of a new thing. It’s a chance for him to make an appearance with Mariska — which is pretty fun, we’ve never done anything like that — and when LAW & ORDER: LA premieres right after us, it’s strictly an LA show. Mariska’s not in that. There’s no plans for a further crossover, unless we figure out some way for them to do something in New York or Mariska or Chris or Ice-T have to come back to LA.”

We may see a familiar infamous face return to the show: When Baer was questioned about whether or not we may see any of SVU’s past perps pop back up again — a move the show rarely does — Baer actually responded, saying that it was in the works. “I was just talking about that on Friday and the answer is yes,” he said. “Probably one of our worst perps ever may return.”

Any guesses on who the baddie might be?!

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‘Law & Order: SVU’: Benson heads to Los Angeles

“Law & Order: SVU” will try to help out the newest member of the franchise, “Law & Order: Los Angeles,” with a character crossover on Sept. 29. No surprise there.

There is a little wrinkle to the crossover, though: Fans will meet Skeet Ulrich‘s “LOLA” character in the “SVU” episode — before his own show’s series premiere. “SVU” executive producer Neal Baer explains how Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) ends up in Los Angeles to meet Ulrich’s Detective Rex Winters.

The Sept. 29 episode guest-stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as a woman who’s afraid to leave her house after having been repeatedly raped by the same man. “[Benson] ends up going to Los Angeles — she goes across the country, to Detroit and Chicago as well — to open rape kits. There’s a backlog of rape kits in this country in many, many cities,” Baer says. “… A lot of perps are going free because the kits haven’t been open yet or tested. So she’s on a mission, and that takes her to L.A., which then takes her to meet Skeet Ulrich’s character.”

Other bits of “SVU” news:

– Other guest stars this season include “Lost’s” Henry Ian Cusick and Joan Cusack in the season premiere, while Maria Bello, David Krumholtz, James LeGros and returnees Marcia Gay Harden, Christine Lahti and Gloria Reuben will appear later on. Baer says that the show may add another ADA character in addition to Paula Patton‘s recurring part.

– Baer also says he’s considering bringing back “probably one of our worst perps ever” may return later in the season. “We haven’t really done that before, and we’re actually thinking hard about it. So it’s like, who is your favorite perp who could be coming back?” (Who’d you want to see back? Let us know in the comments.)

– Cusick on why he jumped back into TV so soon after “Lost” ended and his character: I was looking to get back into TV as quickly as possible. I wanted to get away from Desmond — it just seemed like I was no longer Ian Cusick, I was Desmond. So I wanted to just sort of shed that skin. … It just seemed like this would be a really cool thing to get involved with. [The character] Erik Weber is a graphic designer. … He’s very quickly taken with [Benson] and tries to help them on a case.”

– Cusick’s character also “represents something that [Benson] indeed might want,” Baer says, though he won’t say much more than that. Asked if what Benson wants is a child, Baer allows that “Maria Bello’s character has a lot to do with this as well. That would be episodes seven and 10.”

– “SVU” has moved from its previous base in New Jersey into the Chelsea Piers stages that housed the original “Law & Order.” A “calamity” in the season’s fourth episode will mark the end of the old set, and the fifth episode will be the first shot on the new set in Manhattan.

“Law & Order: SVU” has a two-hour season premiere at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday, Sept. 22 on NBC. “L&O: LA” debuts at 10 p.m. Sept. 29.

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Ian, we loved your answers…stand your own ground, indeed!!