The last time we saw The CW’s Nikita, it looked like the show’s Big Bad, Percy, might finally be escaping his glass-encased captivity, but at the same time, a “clean sweep” might eliminate all of the members of Division.
Those game-changing developments should rearrange the chairs on the deck of the U.S.S. Nikita, as it were, and we’ll now see what happens next as the show returns tonight (February 3) at 8PM on The CW.
We were able to speak with Xander Berkeley, who plays the villainous Percy, and in doing so, we learned quite a bit about what’s going on in Percy’s head-space. Like the best villainous actors, it sounds like Xander knows exactly what’s going on in Percy’s mind. Enjoy the interview, and please don’t forget to watch tonight!
A gallery of “Clean Sweep” images can be found here.
This interview was conducted by KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne. Questions to Mr. Berkeley can be found below in bold; his answers are not. Please do not reproduce this interview onto other websites; instead, just place a link to KSiteTV! Thanks!
Where the show left off, it seemed that Percy might finally be out from captivity. Was this something he had been planning all season?
Oh, yes. He was definitely, like a cat, lying in wait for his pounce and moment.
Do you believe that Percy cares about people other than himself?
Yes, he does, in his own peculiar way.
Do you think there is any hope of any actual romance between him and Amanda at some point?
I think there’s the implication that there has been something. Whether it was romantic or not remains an open question.
There is a history there. Something has transpired, and he stopped it. Work was always his priority.
The notion that Amanda almost put Percy in a coma – do you think that’s going to change the dynamic a lot?
He won’t be forgetting that any time soon.
How does Percy’s vision of Division contrast with Oversight’s hopes for it?
I think he sees Oversight as being something too steeped in the past, and irrelevant, and that he seems himself as a bit more modern and adaptable to the changing dynamics of the global power scheme.
So he would defy them to build Division into what he wants it to be?
Yeah. What he feels it needs to be. He feels that they’ve undermined it. They have too much at stake with their personal reputations, and they’re too tethered to the Washington system, which he thinks is becoming more and more moot in the global scheme of things.
Do you believe that Percy thinks he’s a good guy?
You know, I think he’s shut down certain areas of his brain to question the use of even the words “good guy/bad guy.” He has a survivor’s instinct. It’s very, very strong, and he was forged from being a kid in the fires of the Cold War, and those ethics of good versus evil, and he never had any question that he was on the side of freedom and the free market versus Communism and what he saw as the Evil Empire. He’s rolling on the momentum of that ever since, and he’s just continuing to survive as the world changes, and whatever side he’s on is the right side, in his mind.
Do you think there could ever be a time when Percy would work with Nikita again?
Oh, yeah. Right off the bat, as he gets out of prison and goes rogue, I think the first thing that occurs to him is that they share a common enemy in Amanda. He wants to enlist her help in eliminating her from the picture.
What did Percy think of people like Nikita and Michael defecting from Division?
When Nikita did it, it was a deep disappointment to him, because she was like his star pupil and his protege. He had a very Svengali-like attitude towards her, that he created her and got her off of Death Row and gave her a second chance, and she’s such an ingrate for not appreciating that. She put her personal interests first, in getting involved in a relationship she shouldn’t have, and suffered the consequences. She was immature in reacting the way she did to what happened, which was inevitable.
He sees her attitude as being self-indulgent, idealistic, and naive, and that she sees the world in black and white. He sees it in shades of gray. He doesn’t think that she sees and understands the big picture, in what makes the world work. It’s a big, dark story, and the world needs people like him in order for things to continue.
Do you think that Percy and Nikita could learn from each other?
Yes. I definitely think so. He wants to teach her that things are not always what they seem, and that some of the things that he’s doing that may seem gratuitous, careless, or evil actually turn out for the better in the long run. He hopes she sees that, and I think that she hopes to teach him a lesson about being selfish and careless and evil. [laughs]
What about when Michael left?
He definitely was a protege, and I think Percy almost had a paternal feeling towards him. Once he found out that Division was involved in what happened with his wife and child, it became increasingly difficult to keep him in the ranks. And then when he had contact with Nikita, in Percy’s mind it’s almost like somebody who starts hanging out with the wrong crowd. She was a very corrupting influence on his thinking, because she starts to make him think that the world is simple and that he can be a good guy, and that I’m a bad guy, and all of these things that [Percy] thinks are simplistic and naive ways of looking at the world.
Is it nice to finally be out of the glass room?
Yeah, but I have to say, I really enjoyed my time in there, and I think Percy did too, strangely. I think that this is the first time in years and years that he hasn’t had the burden of heavy duty responsibilities, and that he hasn’t had to suffer fools or worry about the consequences when things went wrong. He had a little bit of peace and quiet time to read, watch some TV, sip some tea, and play cat and mouse with the attractive women who’d come down and be doing their bidding for him.
What did you think when you first saw that set?
I immediately saw it as a challenge, because it’s constraining in terms of where you get to go. You don’t have any props. I started out in the theatre, and so, to me, it was like an empty stage; an avant garde theater in a way. There was something compelling and mesmerizing about it, and I immediately began to ask myself with each scene, how I could do something differently than I’d done it before. How can I use the space architecturally and theatrically in a way that I haven’t before? Because I think Percy would want to use his posture and his stillness as a way to command respect and maintain power in that situation.
It’s been hinted by the producers that some characters might be getting killed off. Are you worried that Percy might be on that list?
I think they should worry more about Percy than Percy should worry about himself.
If Percy could have his way with anything in the world, what would he want to happen?
He’s a free thinker, and he would like to see a game change on a global scale. And he’d like to be a player in that transformation of power on the planet.
Nikita returns tonight at 8PM (ET) on The CW. Take a look at some images and be sure to check out KSiteTV for more Nikita content!
1 Comment
Percy is the Best Villian in Nikita IMO