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Forbes March: 5/02 Starlog interview, on Unofficial Forbes
Of Mutant Agonies
STARLOG - #298 - May 2002
by Peter Bloch-Hansen
With a painful sight, Forbes March settles himself into one of those canvas-backed directors chairs that are set staples on any movie or TV production. The actor has just risen from a nearly two-hour-long back massage. A luxury of the glamorous life of the leading man on Mutant X? No, more like a therapeutic necessity. That's because, earlier, March, who plays superhero Jesse Kilmartin, injured his back while rehearsing a fight scene for the day's on location shooting in Toronto.
'It's just the end of the season,' March explains. 'I'm getting a little tired, a little lazy. I didn't stretch out properly this morning. So when I did a little duck move, I tore the muscles in my lower back. It's part, I guess, of doing an action show.
'It's a funny thing,' he adds. 'When [you're filming an action scene], there's all this pressure, and you're told you have to do it right now. You're conscious of so many other things, a very simple stunt can get you hurt.'
Despite his very evident and all-too-human discomfort, March submits good naturedly to being questioned about his role as more-than human mutant superhero. 'What have I learned?' he laughs. 'Ask for more money. Make sure I've got a good staff of masseurs, chiropractors and doctors. Make sure I've got a good quality stuntman. Actually, it has been a good thing doing the stunts myself, good for the fans. It helps with the suspension of disbelief when you actually get a close-up of the actor doing it. But I think next year they're going to make the stuntmen do more of our stuff.'
Heroic Bruises
After an inaugural season of bumps, bruises and backaches, March has learned his lesson. 'When I first started, I was all "mucho macho", you know? "Oh just give me an Advil. Let's get going" It catches up with you,' he confesses. 'I haven't been going to the gym for about six weeks or so, because at the end of a 14 hour day, you just want to have a glass of wine, give the wife a kiss on the cheek and go to bed. When I don't work out, I get skinnier, so you can see at the season's beginning that I was bulkier. Then I got thinner and thinner, until at one point, like William Shatner [on the Star Trek series], I started working out again and got bigger. Then I got thinner again.'
Having previously acted in the soap opera All My Children, March knows the rigors of television production. Helping to ease that burden are his Mutant X co-stars. 'It's rare that a cast will voluntarily have fun together,' he points out. 'They'll go out to charity events together, or when the producers take them out for dinner. But we get along really well. Everybody always says that, but here it's really true. Lauren [Lee Smith], Victor [Webster] and I go out about once every two weeks. Vickie [Pratt] goes home to LA quiet often, but she still comes out and has a good time with us - and she likes to flirt. John [Shea], Victor and I just had a boys' night out two weeks ago. We [the cast] also go and hang out with the crew, which is rare.'
Like any performer, March enjoys positive audience response. 'There has been some,' he says, 'but not as much as when I did the soap opera. I think it'll kick in more during the second season. No offers of marriage yet, although there's one All My Children fan who still sends me photos of herself in a bubble bath with a bottle of champagne and roses. - that one's on my trailer wall - and lingerie shots.'
One thing's for sure, March definitely likes what he's doing. 'I have loads of fun with Jesse,' he says. "Early in the season, somebody asked me how I was going to keep a nice guy like Jesse from becoming two-dimensional. I know the last time I played a good guy [on All My Children], I thought I was doing some really fine acting, but I did not realize what the most crucial part of playing a nice character was until it was too late. So I learned something from that experience. I've got some episodes on tape, and it's, "Ow! Shoulda, woulda, coulda!"
'If you're the bad guy, it's in some ways easier, because your character is given all sorts of inner conflict and it's all clearly laid out for you. I think human nature is about conflict between who you want to be and how you really are. Nice guys aren't necessarily much nicer on the inside, they're just more effective at being who they want to be. But they still have the same problems, and they still have to do the work that it takes to be a good guy. With Jesse, I have fun keeping that conflict alive.
'It has been a real exercise as an actor,' he admits. 'If you just play what's in the dialogue, you're going to create a very two-dimensional person. In scripts, you're told what is spoken, but not what's thought or felt, so you have to come up with those things yourself. For example, in In the Presence of Mine Enemies, Jesse's in love, but it seems the young lady may be betraying him. Adam tries to tell him that this girl could be working for the other side, but Jesse defends her. With the words as written, it would have been easy just to be steadfast and to refuse to believe what Adam was saying, but there were beats where I allowed Jesse to be convinced. Jesse loves Adam and believes him, but he resents him for saying it.
'I think the writers have picked up on that,' he argues. 'In Blood Ties, there's some stuff where the characters contradict themselves. That's the way people really work, and that's what keeps characters alive - having to overcome their inner tumult. Otherwise, they're like the bad guys; perfectly dressed and perfectly shiny.'
Still March knows there's more progress to be made. 'I would like to see Jesse's estrangement from his dad developed further. We address that in the episode we're finishing this weekend, though it's not resolved. I would also like to see all of the relationships continue down the path that they're now on. They've been throwing bits into each episode. I want our show to become a little deeper, so the storylines and relationships are carried on more. That would give us more time to get into them.'
Mutant Wounds
Like many other superheroes, the Mutant X team's secret origin is rooted in science, in this case, biotechnology. 'Surprisingly, we haven't addressed that,' says March. 'The ethical issues associated with biotechnology haven't been dealt with on the show. It's almost as if the whole issues of genetics was an excuse to create the rivalry between Eckhart [Tom McCamus] and Adam. Where or not it was the right thing to manipulate these people in the first place hasn't even been explored, and Adam continues to tamper with our genetics. I definitely want to see that topic discussed in Season Two.'
One of the shows more interesting relationships in that of Jesse and Brennan, who have a kind of love-hate thing going on. 'I think that Jesse hates loving Brennan.' March smiles. 'He's resentful of Brennan's presence because Jesse used to be the alpha guy who was Adam's favorite, the one who always went out on the missions. Then in walks Brennan, and now it's "To hell with Jesse!" But Jesse really views Brennan as a brother. Victor and I play that as often as we can. There's a rivalry there, this dance those characters do.
'Actors don't usually sit down and explain what they're going to do in advance. The whole thing is that I'm trying to find out what his game is, and he's busy trying to find out mine. Because as soon as you know what each other's game is, you have to change it. It's like knowing the other guy's hand in poker. That's something we make up. I don't know what Victor's game is or why Brennan doesn't like me, but I suspect it's because Brennan doesn't like rich kids. But who knows?'
And what about things between Jesse and that feline fatale Shalimar Fox? 'Obviously, Jesse would love to have an affair with Shalimar,' March replies, 'but he can't and he won't. We're teammates. That gives our relationship a dimension, and that's not in the script; that's what we bring to it. There's a greater chance of Jesse getting together with Emma, because it's not as physical an attraction. Jesse has a much more big-brotherly kind of love for Emma. He's always defending her. The relationship between the two of them is a bit more honest and simple, and Jesse really hasn't had a conflict with her. I guess I'll have to add something to that.'
Conflict could be brewing between Adam and Jesse, March reveals. 'Jesse looks to Adam as a father figure, and sometimes sons resent their fathers and feel a need to challenge them. SO more and more now, I'm throwing these little one-liners that are kind of cocky, because Jesse is starting to wonder if Adam is always right. They're letting me get away with that. On Friday, we were shooting an episode where there's this crazy guy going around who has the ability to fire microwaves at people. He can basically cook you from the inside out. We can't find him, and Brennan and Shalimar are out doing their thing, so Adam tells me, "Get them in until we find this guy. We don't want him using them for target practice." I just rolled my eyes and said, "Oh, we wouldn't want that, would we?" I threw that in there, and no one said anything, so I kept doing it every take.
'The writers have picked up on that from me, so I've been doing it fairly regularly. Jesse's challenging Adam a little more now than at the season's beginning. He's more confident and willing to take a few risks in questioning the big guy. And Adam is responding to this like John would if I were to criticize his acting: "Oh is that right sonny?" John is a well respected actor, and as in any profession, if some pup rookies walks in and challenges someone who has won a great deal of acclaim, he's going to receive a well-deserved response: "Sorry, you spoke?"
'I've noticed that when you're talking on set to another actor at or near your own level, you're not nearly as open as when you're with someone who's much higher or much lower than you.' March candidly comments. 'John and I can sit down and discuss scenes to no end, but Victor and I are a little touchy with each other. There's more ego there perhaps. I know that I'm not going to offend John if I ask him something. And if John asks me, "Why are you doing that?", I'll say, "Oh because blah, blah, blah. What do you think?" But if someone at my own acting level questioned me, I would think, "Well what business is that of yours? Who are you going to ask?" If somebody taking their first acting class wanted to know, though, I would tell him. "Well I'm doing this because blah, blah, blah. So watch and learn."'
Super Headaches
Whatever the technical acting demands of playing Jesse may be, the character is essentially drawn from the superhero tradition of comic books. 'I used to read lots of superhero comics - although I wasn't one of those comic book fans who would collect them or go to conventions,' March remarks. 'I read Conan, X-Men and I loved Spider-Man. I watched Spider-Man on TV quite a bit. It's rare to find a young man who doesn't like comic books. They're so relatable to a young person's experience. Every culture has their own superheroes: they don't have to be in capes and flying around. The Greeks had Hercules. People need superheroes to inspire them. How depressing would it be if there weren't any superheroes in our popular culture? I'm not tempted to lift heavy objects, though. I'm quite aware of my humanity, especially today. But there's nothing wrong with my two-year-old thinking I'm a superhero.
'Our powers are meant to contrast our personalities,' March states. 'Jesse is probably the most powerful as he can turn into stone, so nobody can do anything to him - or he can just disappear. If he had lightning quick reflexes he'd be unbeatable, but that would be boring. So to balance it out, we made him a big goofy. The idea is that he's a normal guy with superpowers.
'There's a bit of Clark Kent in him,' says March, 'but he doesn't shed that persona the moment he steps out of his street clothes and into his superhero jacket, so to speak. He keeps that goofiness. It's usually Brennan who looks over his shoulder and says, "GSA agents," and then Jesse turns around and pulls it out just in the nick of time. Jesse has to have weaknesses, and his Kryptonite is that he's kind of goofy. He screws up sometimes. That makes him likable. Superheroes have to have some weaknesses to overcome. That's what humanity is about, right? Trying to overcome our own fallibility. It's the fact that these characters are normal people which makes them so relatable, charming and inspirational.'
Originally, Jesse was intended to be goofy in an entirely different way. 'When I was first asked to audition Jesse was supposed to split into three different characters and have conversations between "himselves". So, initially, I didn't want to do it because I had a whole bunch of other auditions that day and this was the equivalent of five auditions in terms of the work required. But my coach, whom I work with on all my auditions, gave me a little slap and told me how to do it, so I did it. It was a bit schizophrenic,' March laughs. He then breaks into a trio of distinct voices, impersonating what were to be Jesse's multiple personalities.
"Hi? How are you today?"
"I'm doing very well, thank you. Yourself?"
"Oh, I got shot today."
"You got shot?"
March throws up his hands and offers commentary on the confusing scene playing out. "He's dead, and then he comes back [to life]. How the hell do you play that?" March then tries his best to demonstrate:
"Hi. I'm back!"
"Oh my God. You're back!"
"Oh thank heavens you're back!"
March shrugs, then winces at a sharp pain in his back. 'One personality was supposed to be effeminate, one very macho and the third very logical,' he explains. 'Luckily, by the time I got to the next round, they had simplified Jesse to one whole being. The first audition was in New York. It was put on tape and sent to LA. Then I was flown to LA for the next and final round, where they narrowed it down to two or three actors. There was this huge, long table with all these big executives - those $10,000-suit guys who sit there and go: "Hmm, hmm." It was a very grim as they're such serious people. But they picked me. God knows why. I guess I didn't remind anybody of their ex-wife's new husband.
'Any more questions?' Forbes March asks as he's called over to the set. The subject of the approaching production hiatus is brought up. "I'm not sure what I'm doing,' he laughs. 'There's this inner conflict. There's the puritanical East Coast part of me saying: "You must work, you must work, you must work," and then there's the completely exhausted version of me saying: "Costa Rica! Costa Rica!" I'm going to visit LA for a few weeks, then I'm going to bomb off, maybe to Mexico, Florida, somewhere hot and sandy. It's cold up here.'
© Starlog
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