Are you a television showrunner currently in need of an actor to help inject some much-needed gravitas into an upcoming guest spot? Have your people call Adrian Pasdar’s people, and stat!
“This will probably come as a shocker and a detriment to my agents and mangers who will hate hearing this, but the real interesting characters are the ones that support.” said Pasdar to the TV Addict during a recent one-on-one interview promoting tonight’s guest appearance on CASTLE. “Leads are so overwritten and underdeveloped, the real juice is in these supporting roles, they’re far more interesting.”
Case in point: Tonight’s episode of CASTLE, the first of an explosive two-parter that sees Pasdar play arrive on the scene as a hard-nosed no-nonsense Homeland Security Agent when a routine murder investigation unveils a far more sinister plot.
“Agent Fallon is an entirely fictional character as written, but as I played him he’s based on an entirely real person that I know. I’ve been very fortunate to make friends and spend some time with a handful of government agents and this character is drawn from my experiences with them.” revealed Pasdar when asked about the type of preparation that went into playing his CASTLE character. “There’s a very well canvased feel to this guy, he’s very well rounded and just when you think you get to know him and you’re certain that he’s an a**hole, you get some information that forces you to recast the light in which you look at him.”
Of course, one thing CASTLE fans needn’t worry about when it comes to the next two episodes — aside that is from the fate of millions of New York city residents as a result of a terrifying threat reminiscent of 9/11 — is the status of Castle and Beckett’s will-they-or-won’t-they. Unlike the majority of the men who seem to drop by NYPD’s 12th Precinct, Fallon isn’t that kind of guest star!
“If anything, Fallon’s presence really isolates Castle and Beckett more as a collective entity, it polarizes the show, and really puts them together. I become one end of the seesaw and they are both on the other end.” explained Pasdar on the affect his guest staring role will have on our leading players. “In a strange way, Fallon unites the twosome, putting them literally physically closer together by virtue of the fact that I am such a presence on the other end. Not me Adrian, but the character of Fallon, he’s that strong and well drawn of a character.”
Which is just one of the many reasons Pasdar relished his guest-starring role on the show.
“So often it gets said, but it’s no less true here that it was just an amazing experience working with Nathan [Fillion], Stana [Katic] and the entire cast and crew. The stakes were raised, the game seemed to be played on a higher level — not then they usually play it but then it’s usually played in general on TV due to the nature of what we were dealing with: A potential threat to New York City that echoed 9/11,” admitted Pasdar. “While there is tongue-and-cheek comedy that Nathan delivers so well, and Stana and the rest of them, there is a gravitas to the show and I got to spearhead that which was really just a wonderful experience. I was never once asked to take my foot off the gas which is rare. It really is an amazingly written turn of events that Andrew Marlowe put together, and was a joy playing.”
CASTLE airs Monday nights at 10PM on ABC (CTV in Canada)