At long last, the wait to learn the backstory behind this:
is over.
Tonight, Cha0s returns to LEVERAGE, to bring his own special brand of delightful evil badassery to bear on the good guys.
The Ho Ho Ho Job airs at 9pm EST and PST (8pm CST MST) on TNT. Immediately after (at 10pm EST), I'll be joining the cast for a live webchat at TNT.tv.
I hope you'll watch, and I really hope you'll join us for the webchat, because I haven't done one of those in at least a decade, and they are awesome examples of why it's so cool to live in the future.
I love these alignment charts that are currently going around the Internets at the speed of meme; it isn't very often that D&D and pop culture references overlap, after all. As you can imagine, I especially love this one:
There are several other charts at Mighty God King, where they're in the middle of a week of alignment charts.
This Sunday, I return to LEVERAGE on TNT as the evil computer hacker Cha0s, in the holiday spectacular episode The Ho Ho Ho Job. Immediately after the episode airs, I'll be joining the cast for a live web chat. I'll give links when I have them, if you want to watch us.
How do your characters interact in this episode? What is the animosity or mutual respect, being that you’re both hackers?
Aldis Hodge: I think there was a bit of jealousy established between our characters and, Wil, you can definitely jump in on this one if you – I think in the first episode that we did together when Hardison was kind of beat for the very first time. And of course he doesn’t like Chaos, but there’s a general respect for his skill level because there’s nobody else in the world as good as Hardison.
I mean, Hardison can go work for the FBI, who has the best hackers in the world working for them, so he chooses to do his own thing. So, I think there is a bit of jealousy established. And I think that Chaos, once he got beaten himself, had to give us his crown, his thrown; his pride was beat down a little bit. And, you know, I think there may be a little bit of jealously on his end.
So, I think because of that these two are going to continually go back and forth, back and forth for seasons to come.
Wil Wheaton: Yeah, these guys are – they’re Holmes and Moriarty. It’s Superman and Lex Luthor. You know, it’s Kennedy and Khrushchev. These guys are complete nemesis to each other and I think if you asked Hardison who the greatest hacker in the world is he would say, “Well, it’s me of course.” And if you asked Chaos he would say, “Well, it’s me of course.” And then, who’s the second best and each would probably say the other.
And that’s what makes it really fun to bring these guys to life and have them clash, because they probably – I mean, if you were to make them characters in a role playing game and build out their stats, they’re probably really close. They’re maybe separated by one point in either direction in a few different places. And they, you know, they are both, from their point of view, without peer. And the truth is, these two guys, you know, if they were on the same side the world would really be in a lot of trouble.
A lot of people loved Wesley, but you also took tremendous heat during TNG’srun. Despite the fact that you were just a kid playing a character written by others, those people who simply hated the character more or less took it out on you. How personally did you take the criticism?
Wheaton: I’m 38 now and I meet people all over the place, in airports, in coffee shops, at restaurants, at conventions. I meet people who grew up watching TNG,who are around my age, and they tell me how much they loved Wesley Crusher and how much they related to him. Whenever I go to anything associated with science or medicine or engineering, when I go to speak at universities, when I go to do things with NASA, I meet people who were inspired to become what they are today, working in some sort of science-based field, because they loved Wesley Crusher. So I have discovered over the years that the people who are adults now, they didn’t have access to Usenet and the Caps Lock key when they were kids. What I was hearing back in the old days were older people who were just sort of predisposed to not like a young character on a show. I think the writers could have navigated around that and made him more relatable, instead of like an idea, but they had a hard time overcoming a lot of that stuff. And when I was a kid it was very hard. It was hard not to take that personally. Kids are awkward. Kids are insecure. I spent 50 hours a week doing Star Trek when I was a kid. That was really my life. To go to conventions back then and have people criticizing me and attacking me personally instead of maybe talking about the writing, it was hurtful.
Are you in Los Angeles? Are you looking for something to do tomorrow night? Well, you're in luck, person-I-just-made-up! Come on down to the ACME in Hollywood to see me join my pal J. Keith vanStraaten for The Fix-Up Show!
Time is running out to get your very own How We Roll v2.0 T-shirt from shirt.woot. I'm not sure if it will go into the reckoning, or the Land of Wind and Ghosts on 12/10, but either way, you should really buy 100 of them right now, just to be sure.
I'm putting together a Wil Wheaton Holiday Gift Guide that should be published tomorrow, but here's a preview:
A few times a year, I get to go over to the Spitzer Science Center at Cal Tech, and do some voice over work for these wonderful educational shorts. I'm really proud to be a small part of IRrelevant Astronomy; we're making science accessible and entertaining, and hopefully inspiring people to learn more about our universe.
A few days ago, the most recent episode I did was released. It's called DESTROYER OF WORLDS.
In this one, I play a character who may be familiar to some of you, called The Physician. I hope you enjoy it.
And as long as I have your attention, I thought I'd share a few astronomy-related links that I find educational, inspiring, entertaining, or all of the above:
Hey, did I mention that I'm on The Big Bang Theory tonight?
I didn't? That's weird. I could have sworn that I did. Well, allow me to just put this gentle reminder out there: Evil Wil Wheaton returns in "The 21-Second Excitation" at 8pm on CBS.
In the crazy world of big time Hollywood casting, it's common for several actors to audition for one role. Usually, we never find out who those actors were, or get a chance to see their audition tapes ... until now.
Before settling on Wesley Crusher for yesterday's stupid video, I auditioned several other hopefuls who happened to be in my office; here are some of them.
So, some of you may know that Evil Wil Wheaton is tormenting Sheldon Cooper again this Thursday at 8pm on CBS ... but for those of you who don't, I made a stupid video to help you remember:
In other news, I did not book the job I auditioned for last week. The feedback I got was that I gave a good performance, but they "went another way." "We went another way" is usually a euphemism for "you sucked", but when it's coupled with "you were good", it usually means exactly what it sounds like. In this case, I'm not too surprised. I was older than everyone else there, and I wasn't as ... edgy ... as just about everyone else was. I know, I know.
The good news is that I didn't suck, and now that casting has seen me, they are more likely to bring me back for other roles on the show that are more in my wheelhouse. I hope this happens, because I really like the show, which is called Fringe.
All this week, I'm recording the audio version of John Scalzi's The Android's Dream. It's a delightful book, with wonderful characters, smart dialog, and some of the most enjoyable side trips into world building I've ever read in a SF novel. Also, it's really, really funny.
Tomorrow, I'm going in later than usual, because I have an audition in the morning for a show that I'm really, really excited to possibly be on. I can't say what it is (whether I book the job or not, when it's all resolved I will reveal at least the title of the show), but it's something I've wanted to work on for years, with some creative people I really respect. So, yanno, fingers crossed and all that.
The sides I got for the audition are just wonderful (an incredible rarity these days, sadly) and the character is one of the best-drawn and most clearly-defined characters I've read in years. I'm really looking forward to trying on his skin for a little bit, and seeing how it fits. And then making a lampshade and some luggage out of it, so I can carry him with me wherever I go forever and ever and ever.
I'm really looking forward to this audition, and no matter what happens, I'm grateful to the writers and to casting for giving me something I can really work with, instead of something I have to overcome, which seems to happen more frequently than not, (and which I will blame on Reality TV, because ... why not? Fuck Reality TV, man. Fuck it right in its empty soul and black withered industry-destroying heart.) This character is a thinker, reclusive, intense, and broken. The sides just hint at it, but there is something seriously wrong with this guy, and the scenes are so well-written, I can set my twisted imagination free to run around in the field of dark and fucked up things, and use whatever it digs up to inform the character choices I make. This sort of thing hardly ever happens (the material we typically get for television just isn't this solid), so I'm making the most of it; it's pretty fun, and tremendously satisfying.
This afternoon, I told my manager, "even though this guy is nothing like me, he's right in my wheelhouse as an actor, and I'm really looking forward to this, and I feel like I'm less likely to suck than a year or two ago, because I've been lucky enough to work a lot recently, and I don't feel like I'm all rusty and weird." He pointed out that I've been getting cast in a lot of roles like this, lately, too, so something is working when I play these guys ... though both of us decided it was probably a good idea not to dig too deeply into the roots of this particular mystery. Besides, my imagination is doing a pretty disturbing job all on its own, and I don't want to mess with its mojo, lest it decide to turn me into a lampshade or something.
We filmed until 330 this morning, and when I finally got home a little after 4am, it was all I could do to convince myself to wash off my makeup and go to sleep. I woke up at 1230 this afternoon in the same position I fell asleep, and I probably could have easily slept another 3 hours or more. When I wrap (I'm writing this from the set) in a few hours, I go straight to the airport, fly up to Vancouver, drive two hours to location, and start work on Eureka at 655 tomorrow morning.
Ever since I woke up, I've felt like I'm wrapped in this warm blanket of happy exhaustion, and I'm so grateful that I'm only in 4/8 of a page tomorrow, so by the time I really hit the wall tomorrow afternoon, I'll be able to fall into bed and stay there.
It's a lot to do, and it's as exhausting as it sounds ... but it's also a lot of fun. This has been my life to varying degrees for the last several months, and though it's overwhelming at times, and I don't have a lot of free time, all I have to do is look at the times I had as much free time as I wanted (from about 2001 to 2007) and everything falls into a wonderful perspective. I keep saying that I hope I don't wake up from this wonderful dream, and I mean it more today than ever.
Last night, we shot on the back lot at Warners. It was a night shoot, with about a hundred extras and all kinds of atmosphere - cars driving and lights changing - and I felt like I was really in the movies, more than I usually do. When we got to my scene, it took me several takes to find Evil Wil Wheaton, and I started to feel like I was screwing up and causing everyone to think twice about bringing me back for more episodes. After the second take where I just felt off, the director came over to me and told me to have more fun, don't be so controlled, and remember [SPOILER] and [SPOILER]. A few things clicked into place, and we shot a few really funny and truthful takes. I couldn't put my finger on exactly why, but Evil Wil Wheaton came to life, and I couldn’t believe that, even for a second, I hadn’t been able to produce him out of snarky air.
Earlier today, before we began shooting, I walked over to Mark, our director, and said, “I just wanted to thank you for helping me find Evil Wil Wheaton last night. Your notes made all the difference for me.”
He said I was welcome, and told me that the scene was really funny, and looked great, too.
“I always have such a good time when I’m here,” I began, and I then I knew exactly why I was having so much trouble finding Evil Wil Wheaton. “And I just realized why I was having so much trouble last night.”
“Oh?” Mark cocked his head a little bit to one side and waited for me to continue.
“Yeah. I was so exited to be working outside, at night, on the backlot, and so overjoyed to just be back on this show, it got in between me and Evil Wil Wheaton. My very real joy and happiness was so overwhelming, it informed my performance and pushed it in the wrong direction. When you told me [SPOILER], it brought me out of that nerdy joy enough to focus me back on finding the truth in the scene and the character.”
“I saw that happen,” Mark said.
“Usually, I have four days of rehearsals and run throughs to get that giddiness out of the way -- and I honestly feel like a real freakin’ noob to not have realized this right away -- but I only had the one rehearsal and the one run through on Friday, and then … well, there we were.”
Mark nodded slowly and smiled at me. “Well, you were great.”
“Thanks, man,” I said. “I feel so silly, because it’s not like this is my first rodeo, you know?”
Mark nodded, and was called away to do director stuff, so I came up to my dressing room to write this post, while the memory was fresh in my mind.
I’ve been an actor for just over 30 years. I’ve worked in nearly every environment possible, on all kinds of productions, in all kinds of roles. If I wasn’t playing an evil version of myself, I would have remembered that I was playing a character who is snarky and evil and lies about his grandmother and breaks couples up to win at bowling … but that blurring of the line between me and the character I play of the same name is something that is relatively new to me. I’m grateful that I had a fantastic director like Mark to help me find and define the line between me and Evil Me again.
Added long after we wrapped: Seconds after I finished writing this, I was called to the set to work, and then I got in a car to come straight to the airport. I’m waiting to board my plane back to Vancouver now, and I have a moment to edit and post this. Before I get on my plane and instantly fall asleep, I want to add that had a wonderful time on the show, like I always do, and I just want to take a moment to once again thank the cast, crew, writers and producers for making me feel so welcome. My episode airs on November 11 on CBS. I really hope you’ll tune in, and tell your friends to watch.
I’m in Portland, Oregon, shooting an episode of TNT’s prime time drama, Leverage.
Just about every night after we wrap I meet up with my friend John Rogers, who is the co-executive producer and head writer for the show, to have a beer and decompress after a long day on the set. Whether we talk about filmmaking, comic books, nerdy geeky gaming stuff, or technology, a common thread runs through our conversations: it’s pretty awesome to live here in the future, we sure are lucky to get paid to make stuff up and entertain people, and holy crap has the industry changed since we first entered it.
Leverage is totally shot in the future. We use the Red One digital camera, we watch takes right after we finish them to make sure nothing went wrong, and we get our dailies via secure internet connection anywhere we have computers and WiFi. John told me that at least once, they realized they didn’t shoot a single or needed a tighter angle to make something work, and were able to create coverage in post-production, which is done entirely on Final Cut Pro. During production, we could send pictures and updates from the set to Twitter and our blogs, and engage the audience in a direct and intimate way that is unlike anything I’ve ever done before.
I'm not going to lie to you, Marge, the future's pretty cool.
