In a
recent interview to promote The Blacklist, showrunner and executive producer
John Eisendrath talked about getting inside the mind of a criminal, casting
James Spader, knowing the origins of his character and more.
Question: What was the inspiration for The Blacklist?
JOHN
EISENDRATH: There have been many police
procedural or crime shows that center around the heroes who are trying to catch
the criminals. And the idea was kicked
around to center a show that is about catching bad guys, but with a bad guy at
the center of it. And that came about at
around the same time that the real world criminal Whitey Bulger was found. In fact, he’s now on trial in Boston. He was one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives
for 20 years and he was found living in Santa Monica, in an apartment.
So,
the idea was, “Well, what would happen if a man like Whitey Bulger turned
himself in and said, ‘I am here. I have some rules that I want you to follow,
but if you follow them I will give you the names of people that I have worked
with, during the 20 years that I have been a fugitive.’” So, there was a real world influence that
affected the shaping of the show that was already being thought about. How can you put someone that you don’t trust
in the center of a show about trying to find criminals? And here was an example in the real world of
just such a person. It was a fortuitous
turn of events, where the idea for a show was being considered, and then here
comes a real life story that helped give it some shape.
…
Why
James Spader?
EISENDRATH: Now that we’ve seen him in the show, it’s
easy to look back and go, “I can’t believe James Spader has never played a part
like this. He’s perfect for it.” It’s hard for me to believe that he’s never
played a master criminal before because he has the ability to be mysterious,
dangerous and mischievous, in a way that seems perfectly suited to playing
someone where you don’t know whether he’s good or bad. There’s a certain amount of luck that is
always a part of whether a show turns out to be good or bad. The script that Jon Bokenkamp wrote for the
pilot was great, but there are plenty of times where a great script does not
turn out to be a great pilot, and there are a lot of reasons why that
happens. In our case, I feel like we
were incredibly lucky, in that James Spader, as an actor, fit so perfectly with
the character that was written. And it
was incredibly fun to watch, just to see him become this person that was
written.
It’s
hard for us to take credit for wanting James Spader on The Blacklist. We were smart enough to know that he’d be
someone who would be good to get in it, but I don’t think any of us knew just
how good he was going to be. He’s
amazing in it, and it was really fun to watch him just become this person. That was a joy to see. He’s just so this character, and he
understands the character so well. He
always thought that his character should wear a hat and we were all like, “No,
no hat. No hat. Nobody’s going to want to see a guy with a
hat.” And he was like, “I think he wears
a hat.” He was very insistent that his
character would wear a hat. And he was
totally right. I love the hat now. Now, everybody is like, “Oh, my god, the hat
is fantastic! It’s so him! He has to wear a hat!” That was an example where he just had such a
great feeling for how to bring this character to life, in ways that we couldn’t
imagine, that were really enjoyable to see.
…
How
important is the reason that Red (James Spader) turns himself in, and will
viewers find out this season?
EISENDRATH: I think it is very important. It is one of several big questions hanging
out there. Why does he turn himself
in? Why does he turn himself in now? Why did he pick Elizabeth Keen (Megan
Boone)? I think those are three central
questions. We will give answers for all
of those questions, in the first season.
It is central to the show, and he has a reason that we hope viewers will
find worthy of the number four on The Blacklist deciding to up and turn himself
in.
How
soon will viewers learn Red’s motivation for turning himself in?
EISENDRATH: I like to think of it as teasing out, rather
than dragging out. We will tease it out
throughout the series. I think there will
be a period of time where some of our heroes will think, “We’re just doing his
work for him, taking out his enemies and rivals, so he can go back into the
criminal world having used us to take out a lot of people who were in his
way.” But for part of the time, I think
viewers will wonder if he turned himself in because he was scared. Is there someone out there who scared Red Reddington so much that he looked for protection from the FBI? And then, there will be other times where we
may feel like he has genuine penance that he’s trying to pay. It’s not mutually exclusive. Part of the fun of the show will be, just
when you think it’s one thing, we may do an episode that makes you think it’s
something else, and then we can circle back.
Part of the joy of the show will be the guessing game of, “What is the
reason that he turned himself in? Can we
trust him? Is he using us?” The moment Liz begins to trust him, something
might happen that makes her go, “I can’t believe I thought that maybe I could
ever trust this guy.” And the back and
forth of that, we feel we can prolong for the foreseeable future.
…
Will
you ever explore Red’s backstory?
EISENDRATH: We will get glimpses of his back story,
frequently. He’s going to introduce us
to people that he knows and that he’s worked with. He’s drawing us into the world of the
blacklist. He’s going to be showing us
glimpses of the life that he led. He has
been in America, part of the time, but
you may wonder why he chose not to turn myself into the CIA. Is it possible that there are people within
that community that want him dead? The
question of the enemies of Red’s that are out there, they can be in the world
of crime. They can be in the world of
government. The enemy within, as well as
the enemy without. He’s got people on
the blacklist that are going to take our heroes all over the world, so why not
then turn himself into the CIA? Is there
a reason for that? So, we are going to
get glimpses of his life, not only in the blacklist stories we tell, but with
his wife and daughter. Of course, we’re
going to revisit that story and find out what happened to his family, in the
intervening 20 years, and what his relationship, if any, is with them.
…
Is
this show going to be one crime per episode, or is it going to be serialized,
so that viewers have to follow the whole season to really know what’s going on?
EISENDRATH: In the beginning, and for the foreseeable
future, there will be someone on the blacklist that Red offers up, and that we
take down. So, there is an episodic
nature to those stories. Obviously, like
any show that isn’t a show like CSI or Law & Order, the character stories
are serialized. There will be the story
about Liz and her husband, and the bigger mythological questions of, “Why pick
Liz? Why did Red turn himself in?” There will be tentpole moments, throughout
the first year, that address those questions, but not in every episode. But on an episode-to-episode basis, we will
have someone on the blacklist that we go after and take down.
The
Blacklist premieres on NBC on September 23rd.
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