Jeffrey Vincent Parise - Driller Thriller

Interview:

Actor, director and painter, Jeffrey Vincent Parise has appeared in many films, plays and television shows. As fans of Millennium and Lance Henriksen will no doubt be aware, Jeffrey's most recent film was a lead role in the feature film “Dark Reel”, a comedy/horror/thriller starring Lance Henriksen and Edward Furlong. Jeffrey holds the distinction amongst fans of Millennium of being Frank Black's final case. As Lucas Wayne Barr, Jeffrey was to become the last antagonist to battle Frank before he, Jordan, and ultimately the show itself, drove off into the wilderness. Jeffrey recently took time from his busy schedule to speak to us and we thank him for the kindness and support he has extended to us and to fellow fans of the franchise.

BACKTOFRANKBLACK: The creative conceit behind the character of Lucas Barr is that he possesses a transplanted evil rather than an organic one. You perfectly represented that conflict in your portrayal, shifting, in some scenes, between light and dark in quick succession. When you are building a character as surreal as that, from what do you draw your influences for that portrayal?

JEFFREY VINCENT PARISE: I think that each and every one of us has the potential to change from the extreme of light and dark on the drop of a dime and that we practice our whole lives to keep that under control. We chose light, or in some cases dark and stick with it. I draw on my own capacity and conflict of conscious choice and hedonistic, instinctual choice when playing a character like Lucas Wayne Barr.

BTFB: There is a particularly poignant moment towards the close of the episode that almost serves as a resume of the whole narrative purpose of Millennium. During an exchange between your own and Lance's character, Lucas Barr wonders if he was innately capable of such horror anyway to which Lance's character asserts that we all are. Do you agree with what is, essentially, an assertion that Millennium sought to explore?

JVP: As I touched on in the first question, I agree that we are all capable of anything. I think that we start early on in life forming an agreement with society as to what is acceptable and what is not. What works and what doesn't.

Read the full interview over at BackToFrankBlack.com.

Interview Source:

This interview is courtesy of BackToFrankBlack.com.

Interview Date:

2009