Page 4 - TVTimes.3.5.17

4 March 5 - 11, 2017
El Dorado News-Times
cover story
‘Taken’ on TV
Clive Standen stars in small-screen trilogy adaptation
Leah Lee, LSW Counseling Service
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By Cassie Dresch
TV Media
Bryan Mills has a very particular set of skills — skills he acquired over a very long career, skills that make him a nightmare for baddies. We saw those skills in action in all three of the Taken films starring Liam Neeson (“Schindler’s List,” 1993), the most recent one having pre- miered in 2014. Now, NBC brings TV audiences the story before the story, when Mills was a fresh-faced CIA operative who is trying to overcome a personal tragedy. A new episode of “Taken” airs Monday, March 6, on NBC.
Clive Standen (“Vikings”) steps into the role of a young Bryan Mills, an ex-Green Beret who is recruited into the CIA following the tragic death of his sister, Cali (Celeste Des- jardins, “Lost & Found,” 2016). We see Mills build those skills that prove so beneficial to him later in his life, but we also see the character in a new light — one that Standen gets to make all his own.
“It enables me to kind of start Bry- an off anywhere, and really reinvent the character a little bit, because you want Bryan to grow and get better, get more refined,” Standen said in an interview with ET. “That’s what’s nice, is that you can really reinvent
the character in the TV series, until he gets to [Neeson’s] point. Liam’s famous speech in the film when he talks about his particular set of skills, this Bryan hasn’t got those skills yet. He’s still learning. He’s a rough dia- mond, so he’s far less refined.”
One woman who really helps refine his skills is Christina Hart, the leader of a CIA Operational Control (OPCON) team, played by Jennifer Beals (“The L Word”). “If you were to interview Bryan Mills and the people who defined him, this woman would be at the top of the list,” showrunner Alex Cary said at the Television Crit- ics Association winter press tour. “He welcomes her guidance and leader- ship, but he doesn’t have an easy relationship with authority.”
Cary is certainly no stranger when it comes to developing a spy thriller series, having worked extensively
on “Homeland” (for which he won an Emmy) as both an executive producer and writer, as well as serv- ing as an executive producer for the Sean Bean (“Game of Thrones”) series “Legends.” Other titles to his name include the Emmy-nominated and People’s Choice Award-winning series “Lie to Me,” as well as writing credits for “In Plain Sight” and the TV movie “Anatomy of Violence.”
“He’s a fantastic writer. It’s really written in the real world. It’s not a crazy, silly action show,” Standen said in an interview with review ag- gregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
“In ‘Taken,’ everything [Mills] does is real. He’s a spy. He’s not going to be running
and doing back flips and spin-kicks up the walls
like he has been in some of these silly action films that have just been full of sound
done well. The Northern Irish actor is as close to peak physical condition as you can probably get, and even had to slim down from his muscular 220- pound frame he sported to play Rollo in “Vikings.”
“I tried to kind of lose a bit of weight, to still be lean and to be
in peak physical condition, but someone who would look like they could break your neck with their bare hands and then disappear into obscurity. It’s pointless if you look massive,” Standen told ET.
He is also a big fan of doing his own stunts, especially since it ben- efits the viewer. “I do all of my own stunts, ... not because I have an adrenaline rush, but because I want the camera to be on my face, rather than the back of my head,” he said. “If the stunt guy does it, then all you get is the back of someone’s head in all the action scenes, and you get lots of noise, and it doesn’t really show anything. It’s just loud explosions. But if you can put the camera on the actor’s face, the character’s face, then you’re with Bryan through the action.”
Also with Standen, aside from Beals, through the action are the likes of James Landry Hébert (“Gang- ster Squad,” 2013), Gaius Charles (“Friday Night Lights”), Monique Gabriela Curnen (“The Following”), Michael Irby (“Almost Human”) and Jose Pablo Cantillo (“The Walking
Dead”), all members of the OPCON team. Brooklyn Sudano (“My Wife and
Kids”) and Simu Liu (“Kim’s Convenience”) are also tapped as series
regulars.
Bryan Mills has a very
particular set of skills, but before he got
those skills, he was just an ex-Green Beret who suffered
a terrible personal loss. Standen steps into the role
originated by Neeson, and you
can see all the action unfold in a new episode
of “Taken,” air- ing Monday, March 6, on NBC.
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and fury. ... It’s very different than anything out
there at the mo- ment, I think.”
That isn’t to say there won’t be some stunts, and with someone like Standen in
the lead role, you can bet your bottom dollar they’ll be
Jennifer Beals as seen in “Taken”
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