Millennium - This Is Who We Are site logo
Menu

Movieweb Sits Down with Millennium Star Lance Henriksen (excerpt)

This is an excerpt from Movieweb's interview with Millennium star Lance Henriksen. Visit the original interview to read about Lance's thoughts on his other roles.

 

Welcome Frank.
There are 279 days remaining.

 

Profile Link

 

Millennium Cast Profiles

Main Cast Profiles


More Cast Profiles:


 

Popular Millennium Cast profiles

Our top 5 most accessed Millennium Cast profiles are:

(More...)

 

Recent Millennium Cast profiles

Our recently accessed Millennium Cast profiles are:

(More...)

 
 

Interview Info

This interview has been viewed 36570 times.

It was last viewed on Thursday, March 28, 2024, 10:42 AM (UTC).

Interview Source:

This interview is courtesy of Movieweb.com.

Interview Date:

September 6th, 2005


Millennium Cast or Crew Interview:

This is a cast interview with Lance Henriksen.

Born:

  • Lance Henriksen was born May 5 1940.

Personal Trivia:

  • Lance Henriksen's parents are James Henriksen and Margueritte Henriksen.
  • Lance was married to Jane Pollack (m. 1995-2006) and Mary Jane Evans (m. 1985-1989)
  • Lance has 2 children, Sage Ariel Henriksen and Alcamy Henriksen.
  • Lance Henriksen appeared in 67 episode/s of the Millennium television series.

Movieweb Sits Down with Millennium Star Lance Henriksen (excerpt)

Millennium Profile image of Lance Henriksen.

Interview:

Today Movieweb had a chance to catch up with big and small screen icon Lance Henriksen. His seminal Chris Carter (X-Files) created TV show, Millennium, hits DVD shelves Tuesday, September 6th and he was gracious enough to sit down and talk about not only the show, but his relationship with Chris Carter, his role as Bishop in the Alien movies, as well as what it's like working on such films as Network and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. During the interview, Henriksen was jovial, full of insights and eager to answer any questions we threw at him. In short, a great interview.

What kind of prep work did you do for the Frank Black character?

Lance Henriksen: I got a lot of books on it. I got a lot of books that were directly from the FBI and they were case studies and they were pretty frightening. They were the real thing. Then I started reading books that some of the agents had put out after their careers were over. As an actor, one of the things you do is gather a lot of details and I never saw this guy as a psychic in any way shape or form. In fact, I had a meeting with some guys from Manassas, Virginia, they were part of the Academy Group. I met with with those guys and one of the things they said after the first season was, “We wish we had that kind of ability.

Lance Henriksen: To be able to grab a doorknob and see a flash of what was coming. The thing is, not playing it like a psychic in any way, shape or form, it was for me more like a brilliant chess player. Where all the pieces represented issues and he was able to put them together like a chess player would; as opposed to a psychic.

You would then be trying to think many moves ahead of whoever you were going after?

Lance Henriksen: Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, as the years have gone by since Millennium, it was really ahead of it's time in a lot of ways. It became a forerunner for a lot of stuff. You know what I mean? That has come on television since.

Oh definitely, as I rewatching the show on DVD, I was thinking that you see a lot happening in this show that you see tonally and stylistically happening in today's current shows.

Lance Henriksen: Absolutely. You know, Chris Carter and his writing team, I gotta tell you, those guys were brilliant. For me it was really hard to keep up, in a way to absorb all the incredible ideas that these guys had. You know what I mean? You had a team of maybe six or eight guys that are very, very good writers and they would keep firing these scripts to me, and boy, I gotta tell you, it was hard to absorb it all.

Lance Henriksen: They were very bright.

That's another thing I was thinking going through the DVDs, there was a lot going on in every episode and none of it was small. Every episode was it's own little capsule of this very interesting set of events. It's very interesting to be able to do that time after time and week after week.

Lance Henriksen: Oh yeah, it was wild. You know, when the whole thing was over, I sat back at one point and thought, 'We were making 12 movies a year.' Every script was like 46 or 48 pages, and if you add those up after a year, doing 23 shows a year (or in that range) you've done 12 movies.

Lance Henriksen: That's a Herculean amount of work for them and me. It changed my life doing that show for sure, because you had to absorb so much. It was a great thing for an actor to have to try to do.

What was it about the Frank Black character that made you want to do that role?

Lance Henriksen: Initially, when I met with Chris Carter, my agent gave me the script and wouldn't tell me if it was a feature or television.

Oh really?

Lance Henriksen: They just said, “I want you to read this.�? And when I read it, I thought it was so well written, it was Chris Carter's pilot script and I thought, “Man, this is a great script.�? It is so dark though and I thought, “Where is the light? What is the light?�? And I had lunch with Chris Carter and he explained to me what he thought Frank Black was. That that yellow house represented the light and the family. You know, this little girl, Brittany Tiplady, that was my daughter, she was the light. My wife..., those things were the light and it went off in my head. I understood it, but boy, I tell you, it was like staring into the pits of hell at times.

It's interesting that you say that because your daughter... that's what kept you going.

Lance Henriksen: Oh absolutely, and I needed that to hang on to believe me; through the seasons. The girl was the most wonderful child. And I have a child of my own too. I'm married, I have a five and half year old. And that feeling of “there's are oasis in a world gone mad at times,�? it was really a brilliant stroke on Chris's part.

Interview Source:

This interview is courtesy of Movieweb.com.

Interview Date:

September 6th, 2005