By Jorge Solis (j.solis@mstarsnews.com) | Mar 05, 2015 03:00 PM EST
With its string of popular dramas, such as White Collar and Suits, USA Network continues its hot streak with an exciting new thriller, DIG, created by Tim Kring (Heroes) and Gideon Raff(Homeland). In an exclusive interview with MStars News, actor Jason Isaacs discusses playing an action hero as Peter Connelly, after playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.
As we previously mentioned, DIG follows FBI agent Peter Connelly (Isaacs), who carries his personal demons with him as he takes a job stationed in Israel. Under the guidance of his new boss and occasional lover, Peter sets out to solve the murder of a young American.
The investigation becomes an international mystery that will lead Peter to cross paths with Tad Billingham (David Costabile), detective Golan Cohen (Ori Pfeffer), and Emma Wilson (Alison Sudol). Soon they will all discover the Holy Land’s darkest secrets.
Before the USA premiere on Thursday, March 5, at 10 pm, MStars spoke with the DIG actor about his lead role, working with co-star Anne Heche, and shooting on location.
MStars News: Tell me a bit about your character.
Jason Isaacs: I play Peter Connelly who’s an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem. He’s a guy who’s really paralyzed in his life. He’s run away from a terrible tragedy and he’d like just to pull the covers up over his head and not engage with the world.
But a murder that he’s investigating starts to throw his life into chaos. He begins to see a bigger picture, that might just threaten the entire world as we know it, but no one believes him. So he’s a guy who’s struggling with his faith and himself. He’s getting a nasty jolt by real-life events.
MS: Tell me about shooting on location. Was it different than shooting on set and being in front of a green screen in the Harry Potter movies?
JI: I’ve been on location many times, I’ve been in many countries around the world in my life, but what I’ve never done is been somewhere like Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a place that has been maybe the most contested, controversial piece of real estate in the history of mankind. You can feel it when you’re there.
The stones have stories to tell. You can see the evidence of every civilization that’s ever conquered it. You only need to look around you in the streets to see how all the world’s great religions are packed into this tiny space, all of them seeking dominance.
And our story is actually not about them. It’s about other people, many of them in this country, who think that they’d like to set the world on fire to bring about a new world. And Jerusalem is the place they’re going to light the spark.
Check out this Behind-the-Scenes Interview with Jason Isaacs here:
MS: Tell me about working opposite with Anne Heche.
JI: Anne plays my boss, Lynn, and she used to be my student, my prodigy now. I ask her to rescue me and get me out of Washington so I can just go and hide somewhere and we’re sleeping together, but out of convenience. She’s really my friend and we’re not romantically involved. And as you can imagine, that’s far more complicated then it sounds.
MS: Tell me about playing an action hero for the show.
JI: Well, I was sore. I did that thing that actors do stupidly and shouldn’t be allowed to do, which is I did all of my own stunts, the ones they’d let me do, which was all of them. And now I am waking up to a breakfast of Motrin.
JS: What other projects are you working on now?
JI: Well, I just wrapped this two days ago. So what I’m working on is trying to get some feeling back in my arms and legs. I’ve been freezing cold in caves deep down under Croatia and I’ve been battered and beaten and run over and shot and stabbed. So, I’m just trying to get the sensation back in my nerves.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of MStars interview series with the DIG cast, including Ori Pfeffer, Alison Sudol, and David Costabile.
DIG premieres on USA Network on Thursday, March 5, at 10 pm.
