Movieweb Sits Down with Millennium Star Lance Henriksen

Movieweb Sits Down with Millennium Star 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.

Is there one role that you’ve done that you’re the most proud of?

Lance Henriksen: I’m not being an egotist when I say that there’s several. You know, I’ve done almost 100 films and there were some roles that reached me really quite deep, and I loved doing them for very different reasons. I have Powder as one of my favorite characters I have ever played. And in the movie Near Dark, I loved playing Jesse Hooker for a different reason. And of course Aliens, when I played Bishop, that was groundbreaking for me. But all of them for different reasons. The ironic thing is when I start acting, I go back to zero every time when I take a job on. And I don’t know what the adventure is going to be. I don’t know how it’s gonna go, but I’m ready to do it, you know? When you go back to zero like that, one of the things that happens is you have a provisional experience each time.

What was it like in Alien vs. Predator to carry that character over again?

Lance Henriksen: I thought it was a great idea. Paul Anderson called me, I think I was the first one cast in the movie, and he said, “I got this idea... .”? And we went and had lunch. I love having lunch with directors because that’s your time, you can pick their brains and find out what they’re really all about. He said, “One of the things we can do is have it be the man that the later Bishop was created after... as a tribute to him.”? And I said, “That’s great, but we’re living in world when anybody who is a corporate billionaire is considered bad.”?

Lance Henriksen: Every Democrat I talk to, I say, “I’m playing a billionaire and they say ‘Oh, a bad guy, huh?’”?

Lance Henriksen: Of course he wasn’t. He’s just a guy who’s dying and he’s doing the last decent thing he knows how to do. And so there was a tribute element that I really liked. That’s a miracle you know? I thought Bishop was cut in half and gone.

I did too!

Lance Henriksen: I’d like to do another one so who knows what writers are gonna do at 4 o’clock in the morning.

Lastly, when you do movies like Aliens, or let’s say Network, or Dog Day Afternoon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, do you know that you’re doing something special? What’s it like working movies like that?

Lance Henriksen: That’s a great question. It really is because I’ve been on sets so long now, and so many times, that one of the things, when a movie has it’s own kind of power taking place, even outside of what the director is doing, you get a sense of it. Everybody on the set gets lit up by it. Even though they’re not sure why. And then history tells the rest. You know, whether the movie takes off or not. Movies they say is like gambling but in reality there’s so much effort that goes into it, the gambling aspect is how it’s going to be received. It’s not what they’re trying to do. So when you’re on the set you get lit up by it. And I’ve been lit up a few times and really know..., when I was on the set of Aliens I knew that thing was gonna be good. I absolutely knew, I saw what Jim was doing and it was really a pleasure to be there. You know, you just get lit up and you know it. The whole crew does. I’ve done a couple of things recently that I’m really proud of. One is called Bone Dry, a movie we did out in Death Valley in the heat of the summer at 130 degrees.

Lance Henriksen: At Arclight on the 6th, the same day that this is coming out, they’re showing A Message From Fallujah which is a short I did in Australia. So I’m really having a great time right now.

Millennium: The Complete Third Season comes to stores Tuesday, September 6th.

Interview Source:

This interview is courtesy of Movieweb.com.

Interview Date:

September 6th, 2005