The season finale of Person Of Interest airs tonight at 9PM on CBS, and a few weeks ago, KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne spoke with the series leads, Jim Caviezel (Reese) and Michael Emerson (Finch) before the “Evening With Person Of Interest” event that was at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills two weeks ago.
The first subject, of course, was what drove the actors to the project. Jim Caviezel says he was attracted to Person Of Interest because “not a tyypical show, where you introduce three characters on a television show and say ‘one of these are going to be the bad people’.”
“If you look at how Jonah writes… in Memento, he found his own formula. He did it again with Inception. He’s done that with Batman,” Caviezel explains. “When he found me, for example, he said ‘I knew who you were from when I was in college in Georgetown, and the Thin Red Line came out, and I kept watching this character over and over again, and watched it.’ He does stuff that, to me, is very, very interesting. I like that I can get my teeth into it. People that watch, maybe one time, they won’t see all the nuances… but he makes a character very personal to the people at home who watch it, and go ‘I know who this guy is’,” he says.
“I didn’t know that there would be so much backstory. I’m glad there is. I enjoyed that about LOST when I was on that show, so I’m happy that there’s some overarching story that we can hang on to from week to week,” Michael Emerson says, telling us that the last episodes of Person Of Interest Season 1, leading to tonight’s finale, all peel back the layers. “There’s a growing momentum of backstory information, and then adversaries coming in from all directions. It reaches a point where the lid has to blow off, and it does in a good way,” he teases.
Jim Caviezel says that everyone had to work hard to get the finale to the “high climactic ending” that it needs to be.
As for Season 2, do the actors have any hopes for their characters?
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s one day at a time,” Caviezel says. I know my work will be cut out for me. Wait until you see how this ends. When you see how this ends, you kind of understand they have more than enough for two seasons, to go to a whole new level, when you’ve watched the last episode.”
“I’m on the show, but I’m also a viewer of the show,” Emerson says. “I hope to get more backstory. I’m hoping to answer the question of how Finch got crippled. A whole bunch of that stuff is just unknown.” Caviezel agrees, revealing that he’s even tried to find ways to get details out of the writers. “I take these guys to hockey games and they keep it so close to their chests,” he laughs.
Don’t miss the first season finale of Person Of Interest titled “Firewall,” tonight, May 17, at 9PM on CBS.
4 Comments
great interview. POI is going to kick ass tonight.
The Finale was Excellent finish to such an Awesome show, Loved the show, Jim Caviezel was beyond words as usual, looking forward to Season 2, WELL DONE…
Person Of Interest is officially one of my all time favorites now. They don’t make season finales better than that. I don’t think there was even a single below average episode in the whole season. It has gotten better with every episode and continuously finds new ways to surprise us. You can’t take your eyes off the screen even for one moment. Sky is the limit for this show and its team,and with the talent in front of the screen as well as behind it, this show has the potential to reach places where no other show has gone. Take a bow POI.Take a bow.
Best show on TV EVER!!!!