Is Benjamin Linus Good Or Evil

Michael Emerson on Playing a High-Tech, Vigilante Crimestopper

Michael Emerson, who won a strong fan following for his portrayal of Ben Linus on the television show "Lost" returns to television this fall with "person of interest" which, like "Lost" co- produced by JJ Abrams company Bad Robot Production.

In the new show, the first Thursday, Emerson plays a billionaire shadow appointed Mr. Finch who recruits a former CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) to help prevent violent crimes from happening in New York. A police detective who served in Iraq (Taraji P. Henson) catches a whiff of self-defense and their mission on their tail.The pilot, written by Jonathan Nolan, has made "person of interest" one of the most anticipated new fall dramas, and landed the spectacle of the Thursday night time slot of 9:00 p.m. EST.

Speakeasy caught up with Emerson to discuss his new character, his co-star Caviezel and his former "Lost" castmates.

How did you prepare to play Mr. Finch, a genius billionaire shadow software?

I did a lot of things that actors have traditionally. I looked on YouTube and computer geniuses I read a little about the culture of surveillance and intelligence monitoring of the government.But there was not really for me a lot of good reference material out there from which I could build the character. Add to this that I did not build the character of Benjamin Linus that way either. I see now that I tend to do is build the characters frame by frame. By clicking inside each scene, to see how he ticks, how I can make it more exciting or interesting or dramatic, and then as I go along, I sometimes stand back from it and then say oh, this is something that is characteristic of this fictitious person.

For example, lameness that Mr.Finch was written in the script?

There was language in the driver, the first draft I read, that said Finch, a man wounded in body and psyche. The suggestion that he had some handicaps. So it's something that I had to spend much time thinking. I thought that if I do something too crooked or too difficult physically and then the show is a success, and then I end up having to do this thing, whatever it is, for years and years? And spend a fortune on massage and physical therapy. I thought, allow me to be proactive and find my own disability before you even start shooting.I played around with some things and I just assembled two disabilities in more disability, and I think they are not only effective, but they are actually healthy to do, for the most part, so it will not kill me over the course of many years.

'Homeland' review: Claire Danes, the CIA's (and Showtime's) secret ...

Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes in her first return to series TV since "My So Called Life") is a hopeless case. Seriously, it is potentially psychotic. It can also be the only person standing between the U.S. and another massive terrorist attack. In "Homeland," beginning Sunday (Oct. 2) on Showtime, Danes plays a CIA analyst with big-time doubts about a newly released prisoner of war. The show, based on the praise Israeli series "Prisoners of War" chronicles the personal mission Mathison to save the country from another terrorist attack 9/11-sized.Its Carrie Mathison takes personal responsibility for not preventing the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and therefore it is haunted and believe - if only she can understand, by all means necessary - the next attack can be avoided . He goes home to a complicated family situation - his wife thought like that it was not (draw your own conclusions) and her two children grew up without him around. Then there is the woman's best friend Brody, who died while a prisoner of war with him, who just wants to know how it happened and it was there? The guy is marked - but the question is how did he heal?Like all the best fictional characters - Carrie neither Nick nor are purely good or bad the first game and keeps us in suspense about who to trust and whether or not one or two is dangerous maniac. Nick is a "Manchurian Candidate" who was indoctrinated to support Al Qaeda plot its next hit? Carrie is a paranoid psychotic nymphomaniac who has too much potential access to sensitive information?

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