|PROMO| 4.07 - Blinking Red Light - CBS 2

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Source: TheRedBlog.

|PROMO| 4.07 - Blinking Red Light - CBS

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Source: televisionpromos.

|PROMO| 4.07 - Blinking Red Light

Directed by Simon Baker.

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Source: moon0xygen.

|PRESS RELEASE| 4.08 - Pink Tops

WHEN AN UNDERCOVER NARCOTICS COP IS FOUND DEAD, JANE AND THE CBI RETRACE HER INVESTIGATION TO FIND HER KILLER, ON "THE MENTALIST," THURSDAY, NOV. 1

Samaire Armstrong (“Dirty Sexy Money”) Guest Stars as Summer Edgecombe, a Prostitute Who Helps Cho with the Investigation. Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”) Guest Stars as Sergeant Don Henderson.

"Pink Tops" — In order to find the killer of an undercover narcotics cop, Jane and the CBI team retrace her investigation, on THE MENTALIST, Thursday, Nov. 17 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Samaire Armstrong (“Dirty Sexy Money”) guest stars as Summer Edgecombe, a prostitute who helps Cho with the investigation. Dean Norris (“Breaking Bad”) guest stars as Sergeant Don Henderson.

SERIES REGULARS:

Patrick Jane ................................. Simon Baker

Teresa Lisbon ............................ Robin Tunney

Kimball Cho ...................................... Tim Kang

Wayne Rigsby ......................... Owain Yeoman

Grace Van Pelt ...................... Amanda Righetti

GUEST CAST:

Samaire Armstrong ......... Summer Edgecombe

Dean Norris ..................... Sgt. Don Henderson

Natalia Castellanos ................ Yoli Concepcion

Wilmer Calderon ................... Lalo Concepcion

Victoria Platt .................. Officer Bianca Trotter

Stephen Bishop ......................... Try Holcombe

Kamar De Los Reyes ..................... Omar Vega

Scott L. Schwartz ..................... Huge Bouncer

Cullen Douglas ......................... Vince Candide

Gina Rodriguez ....................................... Elvia

Scott Victor Nelson ......................... Bartender

Paul Clausen ........................................... Man

WRITTEN BY: Erica Green Swafford

DIRECTED BY: Tom Verica

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Source: CBS Press Express.

Special thanks: The Mentalist en Español on Facebook.

|INTERVIEW| Simon Baker is 'cougar meat' says co-star Robin Tunney

When Simon Baker inked a new $30 million deal to continue his starring role on The Mentalist, his female co-star was quick to hit him where it hurts.

Robin Tunney, who plays detective Teresa Lisbon opposite Baker's psychic consultant Patrick Jane, wasn't going to miss her piece of the action.

"When they published how much money he's making," she tells Switched On, "I sent him a text asking if I could borrow $3000. I was like 'you can't tell me you don't have it'."

The joke says everything about the relationship between Tunney and Baker, who she laughingly calls "cougar meat".

They are more teasing siblings than your average, will-they, won't-they TV couple.

As the 39-year-old explains, the jibes go both ways, with Baker returning fire on his co-star.

"Are you kidding ... there are so many lines of attack," she says. "He's constantly teasing me. We've joked around that on television, it's too busy a schedule to do much acting. So whatever is going up on screen - the teasing, the fondness, as the relationship's progressed - it's just us in real life and how comfortable we are with each other. There's very little acting involved. We're pretty lucky."

In an industry where egos can be measured against bank balances, the attitude of Baker and Tunney is more than luck, it's a rarity.

Rather than showing any sign of jealousy, Tunney says she's grateful for the opportunity to work alongside TV's golden boy.

"Let's face it, most actors aren't rocket scientists and are really fragile," she says.

"The idea that I'm working with somebody who makes my day so much shorter ... he just makes me better."

Their bond is central to the success of the show, now in its fourth season on Nine.

Fans were left hanging about the fate of Baker and Tunney's characters at the end of series three with Jane killing the man he believed to be his nemesis Red John, while Lisbon was shot in the hunt for the serial killer.

Joining the cast this year is actor Henry Thomas (of E.T. fame), who plays the bounty-hunting brother of Lisbon.

Tunney says Thomas reveals "why Teresa can put up with so much from Jane, because she's had this brother always getting her into messes her whole life. It's normal to her."

She says her ease around Baker can be explained by the relationships she's had with Australians, on-screen and off.

"I can't seem to get away from Australians," she says.

"I used to go out with an Australian (Chopper writer/director Andrew Dominik) for a really long time. Ben Mendelsohn is one of my great friends. The cultural teasing is there ... but you always know where you stand. If they tell you you've done a great job they mean it."

But she stops short of wanting to see her "TV marriage" to Baker cross that romantic line.

"All these people are dying for you to get together but it's not a soap opera. It's not Grey's Anatomy, it's not about people in the bedroom," Tunney says. "I mean, are we supposed to be giving furtive glances over dead bodies? How's that going to work? It's much more fun for people to want it, than for it to actually happen."

Two people who would like to see it happen are Tunney's parents, big Baker fans.

"I think my mother would like to come out and be my kissing double," she says.

"He's incredibly sweet to my parents and I'm pretty sure they like him more than me. My dad will call and say 'you must tell Simon, in tonight's episode, he took my breath away. The show was amazing'. No mention of me and I'm like, 'Daaaaaaad'."

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Source: News.com.au.

|INTERVIEW| Simon baker: “I don’t see myself as sexy because I’m not in the market”

Simon Baker, one of the most attractive men in the world is on the fourth season of “The Mentalist”.

Translation by Chizuru-chibi.

The fourth season the ‘The Mentalist’ (La Sexta, tonight at 22:25) has come to Spain in incredible success. Thanks to the show, the network has beaten the record of audiences this year (1,9 million). And part of that success is because of the main character, the Australian Simon Baker (Tasmania, 1969) named one of the most attractive men in Hollywood. He infuses seduction and cynicism to Patrick Jane, a detective halfway between Sherlock Holmes and Columbo, who analyzes and observes every case until finding the guilty party.

In the third season he ended up killing Red John, something that didn’t surprise the audience.

The surprise is coming. It’s true that Jane has said to exhaustion that when he found Red John he was going to kill him. Finally, he’s gotten his revenge, but maybe he’s only just begun.

What do you mean?

- There’s so much to discover. The fact that he’s killed Red John in a public place and in total calm is symptom of his bleakness, but that’s a great burden for Jane. A big part of the speculation of the series was if he’d dare or not to execute his revenge. Now another cycle starts.

Patrick Jane is a detective with a brilliant acuteness. Do you find yourself more observant since you play him?

- No. I’ve always been reasonably observant. Playing Jane doesn’t influence my life. I don’t try to mentalize myself for the character. The only thing I do is desperately trying to remember the lines.

Have you learnt something about human nature thanks to Jane?

- Every actor is different when facing work. I’m not a technically trained actor. But the study of mentalism and the idea of creating a profile by reading people is very similar to interpretation. A big part of the acting is found in the moments of silence because you receive the other person’s energy and what they don’t give you with the dialogue. There are elements that help me to read human nature. Obviously, this show forces me to concentrate more in that aspect.

Do you get compared with Sherlock Holmes and Columbo?

- Since the pilot episode I’ve developed Jane thinking of Pagliacci from 'The Tramp', Chaplin and Peter Sellers. But he’s definitely got abit of Columbo and I understand the comparisons. He has a lot of Sherlock Holmes because they’re both observant, they are not actual policemen and they work on their own account.

What would you say is the secret of ‘The Mentalist’?

- The protagonist is surrounded by characters that work for him to stand out among them. Jane is the hero, he’s not a tough guy, and he’s mysterious, different. He’s a valiant that doesn’t like guns.

The show does quite well around the globe.

- It goes well because it’s pure entertainment. It’s got humor, intelligence, sex… All of those things are part of international language. When something amuses you and entertains you it ends by getting you hooked.

What does your family think of you being named one of the sexiest men in the world?

- My wife says “Let’s see when you get number one. You’ve been third for three years.” I’m determined to get number one for her. My eighteen year old daughter doesn’t understand what I’m doing in that list at all.

And you, do you think you deserve to be in that list?

I’m over forty and I’ve got three kids. I don’t see myself as sexy because I’m not in the market.

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Source: Elcorreo.com

Special thanks to: The Mentalist en Español on Facebook and @Chizuruchibi

|SPOILER| 4.11 - Always Bet On Red

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Episode 4.11 of The Mentalist will be called "Always Bet On Red". Written by the awesome Ashley Gable.

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Source: @Mentalistwriter.

|ARTICLE| Before 4.06: Robin Tunney and Henry Thomas

We’re less than a week away from 4.06 Where in the World is Carmine O’Brien, and if you follow us on twitter, you may have seen great excitement for this upcoming episode in particular.

Riders of the Purple Sage (1996).

Maybe you don’t get what’s the big whoop.

Because it’s not just a episode centered on the lovely Senior Agent in charge of the team, but it’s also a reunion of sorts of two actors who have played together before and have shared the spotlight. And to top it all off, this time, they are also related.

Why yes, I’m talking about Robin Tunney (Teresa Lisbon) and Henry Thomas (Tommy Lisbon).

They shared a couple of scenes in the western Riders of the Purple Sage (1996), where Henry’s character discovers the injured masked bandit is actually a woman (Robin) and nurses her back to health; but they shared the whole movie in Niagara, Niagara (1997).

Robin Tunney won the Volvi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for Best Actress for her role in Niagara, Niagara.

In this independent film, Robin plays the character of Marcy, a woman with Tourette Syndrome, which -and I quote from the online summary- causes her to compulsively curse, flail about, and indulge in anti-social behavior. Henry Thomas plays Seth, the son of an abusive father. Both of them meet while shoplifting the same store.

This is not your usual love-story.

Niagara, Niagara (1997).

Both characters deeply scarred in their own way, they instantly form a connection, a bond, and decide to start a long journey towards Toronto, Canada, in search of Marcy’s long time wish of having a black "You Do The Hairdo" Barbie head.

As they decide to hit the road, Marcy can’t hide her tics any longer and snaps at a group of people in the street who were verbally bullying Seth, cursing and severely hurting one of them, before Seth pulls her away. That night, she tells him about her condition.

The real problem starts when they’ve travelled awhile, when they try to refill Marcy’s prescription drugs and the pharmacist refuses to comply, as well as all the others they try to go to. Her condition just gets worse over time and things take an even worse turn when they fail to rob the drugstore to get her meds and Seth gets shot in the leg as a result.

Now, they’re fugitives.

There’s a lot more in store for them, but I won’t tell you what exactly, as I’d be ruining what it is a truly unique film.

Venice Film Festival (1997).

I’ll admit I was a bit scared before I watched it the first time, I thought it’d make me look at Lisbon differently for some reason. But Robin Tunney really turns into a whole different person while embodying Marcy. You can feel her frustration, her pain and her innocence. Henry Thomas’ performance was raw as well, Seth being the ideal albeit not typical understanding companion.

Unconventional as it is, the characters had a beautiful love story.

Which is why we’re so excited to see them reunited on-screen, even if they are going to play totally different characters now, fourteen years later.

Watch it on Megavideo here.

Download it here.

We highly recommend you watch this movie before the episode airs.

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|PROMO| 4.06 - Where in The World is Carmine O'Brien - CBS 2

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Source: TheRedBlog/@ohsheepdip.

|INTERVIEW| Simon Baker for Collider.com

This is an extract of a phone interview with Simon Baker by collider.com about his new movie, Margin Call, The Mentalist and other things -they even provide the audio (here). 

The Mentalist related questions & answers are here. For the full interview, check out the source at the bottom.

Do more people want to talk to you about The Mentalist or The Devil Wears Prada?

Baker:  The Mentalist.

I was figuring that it was maybe The Devil Wears Prada because it is still an important thing among women.

Baker:  Yeah.  For a while it was that.  It is funny because I sort of have a range….Devil Wears Prada hit a certain audience and African-American woman really responded to a movie I did called Something New, which is an interracial love story.  I always get a bit of a giggle whenever I am down at the supermarket and I am at the queue when an African-American woman goes, “I saw you in that movie!”  That’s always cute.  The Mentalist is on television, free to air, and it is in people’s living rooms.  It’s also in 30 something countries in the world.  So a lot of time I get recognized for that.

I definitely want to ask about your very popular TV show.  You guys are in your 4^th season right now.  Is it sort of like a smooth running machine at this point or do you still have hiccups along the way?

Baker:  We still have hiccups.  I think hiccups are good because in a television show you are going to do 24 episodes a year.  You want a smooth running machine so you work towards it being that, but what comes with a smooth running machine sometimes is complacency.  With complacency you end up with a bit of mediocrity.  So I think it’s important that every now and then there are a couple of hiccups, which we still have.  It is a challenge every now and then and we say, “Hang on a second.  Can we do this better?” just to keep the bar raised.

You guys have had the Red John storyline, which is obviously an integral part of your character and the show.  Do you see foresee that storyline wrapping before the end of the show where there would be another arch or do you think the storyline will be with you throughout the entire run of the show?

Baker:  It is hard to ask me that question because I kind of know the answer and I don’t want to tell you. [laughs]

So, in other words, Bruno [Heller] has told you the answer?

Baker:  We have discussed it a number of times at length.  It’s not something that I can really start to talk about without giving things away.

There have been some shows like The X-Files that, in my opinion, ran a storyline for far too long.  I think that it would’ve been better to mix in a new storyline.  But you guys have done a good thing with the Red John storyline.  It has been interesting and the show has been able to balance the mythology with stand alone episodes.  Can you talk about that?

Baker:  I think it is important to have the balance of the idea of the mythology and still not hang your hat completely on that.  If you are hanging your hat completely on the Red John concept, it is going to move very quickly and you have to move it along very quickly.  If you dance around it a bit, touch on it here and there, keep it alive, and keep the show entertaining in its stand alone procedural beats then it sort of balances into two worlds.  For me, it is important to have a balance of comedy and drama in a show.  You have to have the stakes, but you also have to have a brevity and lightness.  Otherwise, it could become a little heavy and get weighed down by the melodrama.

~~~~~~

Are you a fan of comic book movies?

Baker:  I do like comic book movies, but only the ones that I read as a kid.  I thought that the Batman stuff was really good and I thought that Iron Man was fantastic.  That was a very well made movie.  I thought Captain America fell short.  Thor…not so much.  I actually did like The Hulk.  I liked them both, actually.  I thought they were interesting.  I am interested in seeingThe Avengers.  Doctor Strange…I don’t know.  I am not familiar with that one.

There is a lot of talk that Marvel is going to try and go for 2013 and are trying to make two movies a year.  You are working on a 24 episodes a year show and I am assuming that you are under contract for another year or another three years.  I imagine that your hiatus is a delicate balance between your family and deciding to do something that you are very passionate about.  Could you see yourself on this upcoming hiatus wanting to do a big Hollywood movie?  Are you already thinking about that?

Baker:  I have been thinking about it.  Films like Margin Call are fantastic because they give me a break and I also do something that I think is interesting, challenging, and very different.  I’m also developing a couple of different things myself.  There are also a couple of things out there that are kind of looming.  It is a balance.  As it stands, with the success of my show at this point….when I am 85 and I am going to buy diapers for myself in the supermarket and people don’t associate me with The Mentalist.  For me, it is important to fight against that and do other things as well.

Saying that, are there certain things that you are thinking about for next year’s hiatus?  Would you like to do a dark R-rated movie or ss there something that maybe your agents are pitching you on?

Baker:  I’ve done two dark movies.  Margin Call is a pretty bleak kind of character.  Then Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me is a film that I did before that.  It was a very dark film.  I would like to do something a bit lighter.  I would like to do something that is just a bit more….I don’t know, broader maybe.  I am not sure.  I’ll look at them all and assess how I feel at that time.  I’m also very, very tired by the time that I get to my hiatus.

I was actually going to ask you about that.  The actors that I have spoken with who are on very successful TV shows who are doing 24 episodes a year and there is almost…you burn pretty bright.  At some point, you can’t play the character anymore because you have done it for so long.  You guys are in your 4^th year.  Do you see…

Baker:  We are in our fourth year, but I think my character is unlike most characters on TV.  My character has so many facets.  So if I put my mind to it, I can still make the character entertaining for me to play.  I can still challenge myself a little bit with the character.

I’m a fan of the series and of your work, but do you see yourself going for 8 or 9 years?  Or is that so far ahead that you can really only look at it as a one year at a time thing?

Baker:  I am contracted for another 3 years.  Whether or not the show will go that long, I’m not sure.  But if it does, I will be there unless they replace me.

I don’t see that happening.  You have directed a few episodes.  Will you be directing more in the future?

Baker:  I actually just finished one.  I just locked the picture on Friday.  I’m really happy about it and I just got a text from Bruno, who saw it and reckons that it is the best episode that we have done.  I was pretty happy with that little text.

Do you get to cherry pick the scripts or do you put your name in the rotation?

Baker:  I am in the rotation.  What I do is that I get the script early and work on it pretty hard.  Did you see the one that I directed last year?

I have seen all of your shows so yes.

Baker:  So you saw the one that I directed last year?  It was the one about the guy who is on fire.

Yes.  I do remember that one.

Baker:  So with that one…I just work the scripts a little bit harder than probably most of the directors do because I get the script earlier than they do.

A lot of TV directors that I have spoken to obviously want to stay within the format of the show, but they always try to add a shot or two that are new or interesting.  Are you on set looking around and analyzing what is an angle that you haven’t shot?  For example, was there a shot or two that you have been saving for the episode that you just locked?

Baker:  Sort of, but not really.  A shot is only as every as good as how well it tells the story.  I think that you first and foremost have to get your story right, and then you create the shots.  I am a pretty visual director.  I do like to move the camera around and I do like to see a refreshing take on stuff, but if it takes you out of the story then I am not interested in using it.  That often does happen when people go for a really fun, tricky shot.  In my episode, we did some amazing shots.  The last shot of my episode is pretty incredible.

I want to ask you about pranks on set.  Have you ever been a part of a great prank or have you ever had a great prank played on you?

Baker:  Robin Tunney has done it a couple of times when we have guest actresses.  She always tells them to say, “My grandmother loves the show.  I need to get a photo of you for my grandmother.”  It’s just a gag that she does for some reason.  We have a really cute girl working on the show and she comes in to the guest actor and always says, “Can I take a photo of you for my grandmother?”  I always say, “It’s always the grandmother…” but I didn’t realize that Robin would put them up to it.  But pranks I don’t really have that much time for.  There is enough stuff that happens by accident that I don’t need to actually put the effort into making things happen.

You obviously have a lot of dialogue that you have to work with and you mentioned the 8 day shooting schedule.  Do you take it home with you and work on it at night or are you working on it in your trailer?  Can you talk about your work process on the show?

Baker:  Constantly. It’s just constant.  It never stops.  On the way to work, on the way home from work, in the car, at home, in the trailer, on set – it is constant.  I always sort of feel like I am behind the apple.

Can you talk about the dialogue?  You have played a character for 4 years now and I am sure you are very familiar with your character’s mannerisms and how you inhabit the character.  How much changes now when you get a script in terms of tweaking the dialogue?

Baker:  I don’t like to mess around.  I mess a little bit with the dialogue here and there, but I don’t like to mess around too much. Bruno has always given me enough rope to play around with and in some cases to hang myself with, but he has always been very lenient with that stuff.

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Source: Collide.com
Special thanks to: The Baker Boy

|PROMO| 4.06 - Where in The World is Carmine O'Brien - CBS

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Source: televisionpromos.

|PROMO| 4.06 - Where in The World is Carmine O'Brien - CTV

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Source: moon0xygen.

|PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS| 4.08 - Pink Tops

"Pink Tops" -- In order to find the killer of an undercover narcotics cop, Jane and the CBI team retrace her investigation, on THE MENTALIST, Thursday, Nov. 17 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

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Source: SEAT42F.

|SPOILER| Craig Bierko to guest star

Craig Bierko will guest star on an upcoming Season 4 episode of The Mentalist, TVLine has learned exclusively.

Bierko will appear in Episode 9 as Trevor ‘Doc’ Dugan, a famous quarterback who’s enjoying the excesses of his superstar lifestyle. But after Simon Baker’s Jane gives him a second look, “He learns there is more to life than fame, fortune, and women,” reveals creator/executive producer Bruno Heller.

The episode is tentatively scheduled to air on Dec. 8.

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Source: TV|Line.

|VIDEO INTERVIEW| Inside the Mind of Simon Baker

The actor talks about his character on 'The Mentalist', what storylines he would like to see, whether Jane and Lisbon will ever get romantic and all that tea he has to drink on the show. (Oct. 18)

Contains scenes of the upcoming episode, 4.05 Blood and Sand.





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Source: AssociatedPress
Special thanks to: @RobinTunneyBlog

|VIDEO INTERVIEW| Simon Baker at Live! With Regis and Kelly

Simon talks about directing on The Mentalist and his new movie, Margin Call.




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Source: indigenous4logic

|PROMO| 4.05 - Blood and Sand - CBS 2

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Source: TheRedBlog

|INTERVIEW| Mind Games: Robin Tunney resists Simon Baker's charm offensive

She talks about The Mentalist, Simon Baker, Jane and Lisbon and her new movie, See Girl Run.


Click on the images to see them in a bigger size.
(Edit: Clearly, Blogger has some issues :(, so to see them in the actual full-size, open the images on a new tab or a new window by right-clicking on it.)

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Source: dreamsofkate from cbiheadquarters at Livejournal.

|SPOILER| 4.10 - Fugue In Red

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*Edit

Episode 4.10 of The Mentalist will be called "Fugue In Red". Written by Daniel Cerone.

Two guest stars are Tom Wilcox, a family man who is found unconscious in a house fire. The second is Toby Rawlins, a fire-fighter who is the victim of a vicious attack whilst hosting a bachelor party. Look out for plenty of fire-fighters and a woman who thinks she has found herself a sugar daddy...

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Source: Spoiler TV & @Mentalistwriter.

|PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS| 4.07 - Blinking Red Light

Simon Baker directing the episode



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Source: SEAT42F & Daemon's TV.

|PROMO| 4.05 - Blood And Sand - CBS

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Source: televisionpromos.

|PROMO| 4.05 - Blood And Sand - CTV

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Source: moon0xygen.

|PRESS RELEASE| 4.07 - Blinking Red Light

DURING THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER, JANE ENCOUNTERS A BLOGGER WHO HAS DEVOTED HIS LIFE TO FINDING THE PERPETRATOR, ON "THE MENTALIST," THURSDAY, NOV. 3

Guest Stars Include Missi Pyle (“Two and Half Men”) as a TV Host, William Mapother (“Lost”) as a Suspect, and David Paymer (“The Good Wife”) as the Blogger

“Blinking Red Light” — The search for a serial killer hits close to home for Jane when he encounters a blogger who has devoted his life to finding the killer, on THE MENTALIST, Thursday, Nov. 3 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Simon Baker directs the episode. Guest stars include Missi Pyle (“Two and Half Men”) as a TV host, William Mapother (“Lost”) as a suspect, and David Paymer (“The Good Wife”) as the blogger.

SERIES REGULARS:

Patrick Jane ................................. Simon Baker

Teresa Lisbon ............................ Robin Tunney

Kimball Cho ...................................... Tim Kang

Wayne Rigsby ......................... Owain Yeoman

Grace Van Pelt ...................... Amanda Righetti

GUEST CAST:

Michael Rady ..................... Luther Wainwright

Missi Pyle .................................... Karen Cross

David Paymer ........................... James Panzer

William Mapother .................. Richard Haibach

FBI Agent Susan Darcy .......... Catherine Dent

Tom Maier ........................ David Carey Foster

Teri Maier ...................................... Ely Pouget

Paul Jenkins ................................ Paul Willson

Tony Winters ................................... Producer

Kelsi Cullimore .............................. Molly Maier

WRITTEN BY: Ken Woodruff

DIRECTED BY: Simon Baker

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Source: CBS Press Express.

Thanks to: Alejandra from The Mentalist: Foro en Español / Jello-Forever / @Ale_Jefa_CBI.

|VIDEO INTERVIEW| Digital Spy talks to Owain Yeoman!

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Source: Digital Spy UK
Special thanks to: Alejandra from The Mentalist: Foro en Español and Chizuru-chibi on Youtube.

|INTERVIEW| Owain Yeoman Talks The Mentalist

The Mentalist is one of the hottest shows around at the moment and when FemaleFirst got the chance to talk to Owain Yeoman, who plays Officer Wayne Rigsby in the show, we jumped at it. We quizzed him on everything from his similarities with his character, his previous acting roles, and his love for Daniel Day Lewis. Enjoy!

 - Let's start with your role as Wayne Rigsby in The Mentalist, how do you like playing him, what do you enjoy about it?

Oh it's great we have an absolute blast, it's a very small cast so it's nice and intimate and it's been a fun role for me to play. I made the slightly ill-informed choice in the first season to eat a lot and then I realised that character calories and real calories are the same! So if he gets fat, I get fat too and so I decided to rein that in a bit.

But I had a conversation with Bruno Heller, who's the show's creator, and we decided that it would be great to not see another one of those flash cops that always gets the girl and who slides across the hood of cars, effortlessly.

I quite like the idea of the guy who maybe could get the girl but couldn't express it, maybe emotionally dyslexic and bumbling and I feel that it's given more of a grey area and made him a bit more of a real life character, because no one in real life gets their own way all the time, so yeah, it's been fun to play that and also been fun to play an American, you know, I'm over here, stealing their jobs! (laughs)

- Do you feel you are similar to your character in any way?

 We look very similar, we have the same hair we have the same face, he wears different suits to me and he speaks with a different accent other than that we're identical.


- Really?

And we've got a different name, but I'm very similar to my character in all those ways (laughs).

-You said it was a small cast, so who is the worst for messing up their lines and giggling during takes?

We're quite serious when it comes to actually shooting, I'm a bit of a class clown, I like to keep things light but when it comes to work I like to work hard. I think TV's a funny one we work very long hours, 15/16 hour days when we're on location and I think, in the words of my old grandmother "you have to laugh or you'll cry" and there's always a good deal of that.

Also everyone pulls really hard, it's a small cast but it's a massive crew and we're enfranchised by the incredible team of hair and makeup and stage lighting groups, all those guys they've got the heavy lifting, we come in a do the easy bit in many respects. 

I think when it comes down to it, it's always interesting to me because Tim is the one who is most different to his character, he's so upbeat and lively in real life so to see him with the whole dead-pan thing is very weird 'cause that's nothing like him in real life.

 - Yes, he comes across with such a dry humour in the show

Yeah and I forget that's how people perceive him and they're like "oh my god, he smiles?" and I'm like "yeah he smiles all the time" and he's made the genius choice to keep him very businesslike and dead-pan and he plays it brilliantly, he's a phenomenal actor.

- If you could play any other character on the set, who would it be and why?

If I could play any other character? I'd like to play Red John but we haven't really seen him yet, that would be cool. Maybe I am Red John, let's just start that rumour that I am Red John, I am a serial killer, there we go! (laughs)

But yeah, Jane has such an irreverence about him and he has such a playfulness about him and I think we've all, at times, being doing our cop mode and thought "god how great would it to be Jane and be like 'yeah I can see those are the rules but I don't really care'" you know what I mean?

So there's an element of that but I'm really happy playing the character I play. I've got to say, I think everyone brings their own special thing to their character and I'm really happy and comfortable being part of that ensemble.


- I think one of the shows favourite couples was definitely Rigsby and Van Pelt, is there any chance they're going to get back together in season 4?

Very much so, I think it's one of those moonlighting scenarios where you bring a couple together and it's like 'where do you go from there?' And they (writers) rushed it together very soon and I think they were then faced with the creative problem of, no one wants to watch a drama and see all happy families, so ever since then they've (writers) been finding ways to obstruct it, but there's a lot of tangible feelings between the two characters and I think towards the end of season 3 now you see that the wedding between Van Pelt and O'laughlin doesn't go quite as smoothly as we'd hope.

That will open up in season 4 a real possibility for Rigsby to check in with himself and see where he's up to in terms of his affections for her (Van Pelt) and for her to say, he is brilliant, he is handsome and I do want him after all (laughs).

- You mentioned Red John before, I've heard in the season finale his mole is uncovered, is that true?

Yes the mole in uncovered. Well, there's two massive things really, the revelation of who's been working within the CBI for Red John and also a confrontation, for the first time, between Patrick Jane and Red John.

- So we will actually see Red John?

You actually physically see him (laughs), and we have an incredible actor playing him, a very well known actor who I thought was a genius piece of casting. It's a fascinating moment in season 3, I'll put it this way, when we came to the end of season 3 we actually had to ring the creator and say "how are we able to do season 4?" it's literally that much of a cliff-hanger.

Jane does something so out of character, so stupendously left field that it will leave you as wondering how we will pick up in season 4.

- I heard that you didn't initially plan to be an actor but that you wanted to be an accountant is that true?

I didn't want to be an accountant, I found myself being a banker which was a bit different. I went to university and I was going to do a PHD in the states but I didn't get the funding for it so I had two years where I had a bit of a wobble and didn't really know what I wanted to do and I ended up working as a banker.

I probably did more acting in that job than in acting because I literally didn't have a clue what I was doing. After two years they went "you don't have a clue what you're doing, do you?" and I went "no" and so they let go of me, but fortunately that allowed me to earn enough money to put myself through drama school.

I thought if I'm going to be an actor, I don't want to patronise the acting profession, I want to take it seriously and if I want to be an actor, I'm going to train and so I trained for three years at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) and then found myself acting.

- Are there any other professions that you would like to try your hand at?

I would have loved to have been a chef, I love cooking and I had a dream job a few years ago I was on a show called Kitchen Confidential and I had such a blast doing that because it was basically just, me playing a chef and I was like "oh what's wrong with that, it's brilliant!" and they had this amazing thing where they would take whatever slop we would cook up and turn it into something beautiful. We would be roasting some mushrooms, frying and burning everything and they would go "Tada, aubergine on a bed of wild saffron rice" so that was all good.

I had fun doing that, I think it's just possibly because I'm allergic to hard work so I couldn't be a chef, the hours the guys work, they're like rock stars. A friend of mine is a chef in Bali and another friend said "god, he's like brad Pitt" and I said "yeah, I think he's more like arm Pitt" 'cause you know, Brad Pitt would be a bit of an over statement.

- You were in Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, that must have been worlds apart from your role in the mentalist? How did you like playing that role, do you like having variety?


How did I like playing an indestructible robot? Yeah it was alright, yeah (laughs). It was a bit limiting as well, I had the chance to go on a do the rest of the series and I didn't just because I felt like I didn't want to become robot of the week.

I think the genius of those movies was that they were an elevated chase sequence and every movie kept you on the edge of your seat but you knew it was a very reductive formula. At the end of the day John Connor would either get away or wouldn't and the robot would catch up with him. In terms of a series I wasn't sure how long that had legs for.

I got offered the chance to be part of generation kill with the guys who did The Wire which is, as far as I'm concerned, is as good as TV gets. I jumped at the chance to play a human being as opposed to a robot, I thought that would be more interesting as an actor. But it is quite nice to be run over and shot at and get your head blown off and just put it back on and carry on, that was quite fun (laughs).

 - Are there any films you wish you had been cast in, any film, any time?Any roles I wish I'd been cast for? I've done all the table reads for Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow for all the pirate movies, because he's just been doing other stuff and I just love the whole Jack Sparrow thing he's got going on, it is just genius and I just think he has so much fun with it.

The second time I did the table read I actually joked with Gore Verbinski and all the people doing the table read, I was like "fortunately, the guy who's playing this hasn't done anything with this role, so in carte blanche I can do anything I want with it really, erm I can't remember his name, Geoff Depp, John Depp so, sad that he couldn't be here but just enjoy my take on the character."

I think he just had so much fun doing that and it's very seldom you see something truly creative become truly commercial and I love that. I think he's doing something really out there, really left field but it's also a massive, massive business that's doing really successfully, so good on him.

- Are there any particular actors you'd like to work with in the future?


Oh my goodness me, Daniel Day-Lewis, huge huge fan of his. I've always loved his philosophy on acting, he always talks about returning to a state of play.

He said that before he does a role he goes and watches children play because as adults, I think we learn inhibitions, we learn all the things we're not supposed to do and kids are so uninhibited and completely free and I think that's an amazing quality to have.

I think that state of play, it's important to return to because you find yourself getting embarrassed or inhibited doing things with a self-consciousness or external awareness, you're already making judgements on your character and you're already sort of dead in the water so he's a huge role model of mine. I wouldn't mind his career, that would be alright (laughs).

The Mentalist Season 3 is out on Blu-ray and DVD on 10 October 2011, courtesy of Warner Home Video.

FemaleFirst Cara Mason

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Source: Female first UK
Special thanks to: @mentalistwriter on twitter.