It didn't take long for Henry Ian Cusick to get back on TV. The veteran actor was a staple for many years as Desmond Hume on ABC's "Lost," and now he is attempting to work some magic as a guest star on NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Cusick's character of Erik Weber will make her debut during the season premiere September 22 at 9:00 Eastern (8:00 Central). The premiere will immediately be followed by another episode featuring Cusick.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to talk with Cusick and Neal Baer about the guest appearance.
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Matt Carter: Henry, after being on such a successful show for so long, how important was it to get back on TV soon? What drove to this project in particular?
Henry Ian Cusick: I was looking to get back into TV right away -- I was looking to get away from Desmond. I was no longer Henry Ian Cusick, I was Desmond. So I wanted to shed that skin. Then when I met Neal and he called me into his office I was very charmed by him. I talked quickly to the writers [about the characters] and I was sold, really. It was as simple as that. I like them, I like their idea, and it seemed like a really cool thing to get involved with -- so I went for it.
So how would you two describe the character of Erik Weber?
Cusick: He's a graphic designer that you meet very early on in the episode, and he's very taken right away with Mariska Hargitay's character and tries to help them out.
Neal Baer: I know ['Lost' executive producer] Carlton Cuse very well, so I joked that 'Carlton, we're going to take everyone from Lost and put them on. We've run out of people from Oz and The Wire -- we gotta go to Lost.' Naveen [Andrews] was on last year, and I love the show and I love Ian's character so it's like 'great, I have this two-episode part.'
When we witched it to him, we needed someone who is extremely charming because Benson had a number of men interested in her over these twelve years and we needed someone who really has charm and could serve as a counterpoint to Stabler because he's just as smart as Stabler, and we immediately thought of Ian for that. That's what interesting particularly about the second episode -- Ian carries us through both episodes, and we don't really see someone often who can pull Benson in his own direction and be a competitor with Stabler, and I like that element of him too ...If you go to our bubble tweet on Twitter, you will see that there's this moment between Maloney and Ian that's really intense because Ian is standing his own ground. That was really important to us to. (See the video here.)
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Stay tuned for more coverage of "Law & Order: SVU" leading up to its season premiere.
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Comments
Interesting article. Needs basic editing. xoxo
Umm, how can someone write articles like this and NOT use spell check. Bizarre.
I don't believe Cusick should be referred to as "her"
most people pitch an idea not witch it
and link does work either
edit edit edit
wow, this needs some serious fixing.
Who gives about the editing I can't wait to see September 22 premier of SVU!!!!!
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