In honor of the Person of Interest second season premiere tonight, here’s a brief intereview I got to do with actors Tarji P. Henson (Carter) and Kevin Chapman (Fusco) at Comic-Con in July. We only had a few minutes, but they gave us some pretty fun answers to our questions. No spoilers!
So your characters know about each other now. Can you talk about that?
T: Yeah, I didn’t like him at first. He was just damn dirty. I didn’t trust him, he just rubbed me the wrong way, he gave me the creeps. I think in that last episode, when I found out who he was working for I was like, ‘Okay, it all makes sense.’ It took a little bit of the tension off. I’m not saying she totally, totally, totally trusts him, but it takes the edge off.
K: How can you not trust this, come on? (everyone laughs)
T: She’s not one hundred percent sold on this yet.
Can you talk about your characters for next season?
T: I wish we knew.
K: You know anything? You know about something?
T: They didn’t tell us anything. I promise you, we don’t know until we get the script.
Where would you like to see your characters go?
T: Oh gosh…to the moon. (Laughs) I like to see me do undercover stuff. I eluded to that, I don’t know if it’s going to make it to the storyline. Me struggling with more and more stuff. Carter is so straight laced, I want to see her with her hands dirty. That would be great. I could go on. (turns to Chapman) What would you like?
K: I’d like to see more of Fusco’s personal life. Is there a kid and a little bit more of the backstory. What shifted him in that direction? How did he became morally challenged? It’s the first character I ever played where I walk the streets of New York and people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, how about being shot?’ You go, ‘Right now, is that for me, or my character, or are you not quite sure?’ (Laughs)
When you began into this, did you know that Fusco was going to become as popular as he has been, or did you read this and go ‘Oh crap, here’s another dirty cop, everyone’s going to hate that?
K: We just kind of played what was on the page to the best of our ability and the writers, Jonah and Greg and Tom, see something and they decide if they want to bring it to another direction. You start to play it truthful as you can, that’s the only thing I ask. Whatever it is I’m playing I’m given I have the ability to play it truthfully. What I do like about it is he has duality, is he a good guy doing bad things or a bad guy doing good things? That’s up to the viewership. If you give the most truthful performance that you possibly can, the rest is up to the viewers.
T: He’s definitely a good guy…a bad guy that you love to hate. It’s hard to play that though, so hard to play that. Cause some people can come off as, ‘I just hate him, he’s horrible.’ But you kind of feel for Fusco. I think Carter does too. I think Carter tries to look for the good in all humanity, cause if you didn’t she would go, ‘What are we fighting for?” I like she sees (Fusco) is a good person, but something went awry. “What happened? We’re humans, all of us.” But you (Chapman) definitely play that really well.
K: I definitely feel that Reese, and Reese’s positive (outlook), he has brought Fusco back to the once world image of himself which initially got him involved. That’s been a subtext, he’s kind of grown as the series has progressed. I wish I could take credit but it’s been him.
Watch the Person of Interest premiere tonight at 9pm on CBS.
