Fringe Stars Mark Valley and Anna Torv Tie the Knot

[Zoneboy]

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Here’s some surprising news: Over the weekend, “Fringe” star Anna Torv secretly wed Mark Valley, who plays her love interest on the Fox series.

Valley, who spoke with reporters Thursday, failed to mention he was about to get married, or that he and Torv were even dating.

“I think [Anna] is just a fantastic actor and I really like working with her," he said. "She's my favorite on the show, to be honest with you.”

On “Fringe,” Valley plays Jon Scott, the former lover and FBI partner to Torv’s agent Olivia Dunham. Scott may or may not be dead; he may or may not be a figment of Dunham’s imagination, and he may or may not be a good guy.

It’s all kind of iffy, which makes Valley’s job a challenge.

“It is challenging trying to think of where he comes from, where he's going, what he's aware of, what is he not aware of, and what does he remember, and what does he not,” Valley said of playing scenes where Dunham imagines Scott is present. “It is sort of taking the character out of the ether and placing him somewhere and trying to figure out how he would react.”

Fans might get an idea of what’s happening with Scott during Tuesday’s 8 p.m. episode called "The Transformation." In it, Dunham and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) go undercover to investigate another bizarre airplane incident. (Remember the series premiere? What’s with J.J. Abrams and planes?)

Valley said that the upcoming episodes do answer questions that have been bugging him about his character—like who he works for and how he feels about Dunham. As for Scott’s motivations, Valley calls him “a real believer.”

"I think he’s really serious about what he does, and whoever it is that he is working for, he’s extremely loyal to them,” he said. “Aside from that, I don’t really want to judge it, to be honest with you. … I think that whether he’s good or bad, there’s a degree of guilt that he carries around with him."



Will we ever see John in the flesh again instead of just in Olivia's mind?

I can't really say. I think you'll probably see both, but I can't really confirm, nor what condition he's going to be in in either of those situations.

The action on the next episode centers on an airplane again. How is that different from the pilot?

It’s a completely different airline. [Laughs] The first one was a Boeing 727. This was an Airbus 380. Oh, 627, sorry. [Laughs] No, I have no idea, to be honest with you. They were both big airplanes and they had a lot of people on them, but in terms of how it was different, yes. A lot of airplane crashes on J.J. Abrams’ shows.

Can you imagine being on an airplane with J.J. Abrams, just kind of sitting there, what’s going through his head? He’s probably thinking about people screaming and luggage flying everywhere. [Laughs]

When you signed on to the show, did anyone assure that, even though you "died" in the first episode, you would come back for more episodes?

To start out with, sometimes I need assurance as to what to wear when I leave the house. That having been said, I think you can make an assumption on that. I always felt that, for a guy whose character dies in the pilot, I've gotten an awful lot of work on this show.

What do you think of Anna Torv as an actor and as a person?

I think she's just a fantastic actor, and I really like working with her. She has such a solid idea of what's going on in a scene and what her objective is and what she's going to do. Yes, I've enjoyed working with her, and as a person, she's just delightful.

Since you still don't really know if John is a good guy or a bad guy, does that affect the way you play him?

I think that whether he's good or bad, there's a degree of guilt that he carries around with him. Actually, now that I think of it, I actually forget to play that, but it makes a lot of sense though, doesn't it?
I think that when you watch it, you'll have to make up your own mind about that. I just look at him as a regular person. He's done some things … because he believed in them and there is sort of a tragic situation that comes out of it.

Do you have a theory as to what is really going on with John?

Yes. My theory is that he is working for the government—for the Postal Service, and he's not very happy about it, and he is a disgruntled postal worker. I'm just joking. I don't have any theories, to be honest with you, because every time I've gone down that road and come up with something, it seems to take a turn in a different direction, so I try to keep an open mind about all of that.

Do you play him differently whether you know he's alive or dead?

I think when you're talking about John Scott being inside Olivia's brain, then you're dealing with a consciousness, or the way someone remembers someone, as well as his own particular memories and his own conscious. I like to think that his consciousness is actually in her head, so it's actually as if he were alive.
No, I think when somebody is dead, your job is a lot easier. I just kind of lay there. You don't really have to do anything, so that's probably the big difference. Work's a lot easier when John is dead.

You majored in math and engineering at West Point. Has that background helped you with some of the scientific concepts?

A lot of the stuff that comes up on the show, like repeating series and things like that, I'm a little embarrassed because I've forgotten what it all is. I need to be reminded, so it's really pretty humbling in some ways. But I guess having been a math major, I am sort of fascinated with numbers and series and formulas and models and simulations and things like that, but there hasn't been a lot of really heavy math on the show. Most of it's been biology and chemistry.

Has sci-fi influenced you at all? Were there any TV shows or films that impacted you?

I would have to say it was “Star Trek,” because whenever they beamed someone down, we never knew what there was going to be. There were always repeats on after school. My sisters wanted to watch Brady Bunch, and I always wanted to watch “Star Trek,” so we would have to negotiate.

Who was your favorite character on “Star Trek”?

It was Captain Kirk, [played by] William Shatner.

Who do you enjoy working with most and seeing as an actor?

I would say I enjoy working with everybody in the cast. Most of my scenes have been with Anna. She's delightful. She's my favorite on the show, to be honest with you. But as far as the others go, Kirk [Acevedo, who stars as Charlie Francis] is a really good actor and I always wanted to work with him. I never met Josh Jackson before, and I never met John Noble [plays Walter Bishop] before, and I haven't had any scenes with them either. Blair Brown [plays Nina Sharp], she's a wonderful experienced actor, and Jasika Nicole [plays Astrid Farnsworth], they're all just really nice people. There's no drama on the show at all, but I would say Anna and Kirk are probably my favorites.

What has been the most memorable moment you've had from filming Fringe?

The most memorable moment was probably in the pilot when I was covered in an inch of goo with prosthetic muscle and veins running all over me. I think it was once I was walking down the hallway and somebody saw me and freaked out, and I realized just how grotesque I looked.

Is there room for John Scott to come back next season or later on the show?

I think there's room for even you to be shot with a tranquilizer gun and dragged onto the set of Fringe for a couple of seasons. I think it could happen to anybody, so I'm not going to rule it out.

What's the coolest thing you've learned about fringe science since starting the show?

Probably that LSD can actually be used for practical purposes [laughs], and maybe the idea that a virus could actually be grown into some sort of parallel organism. That cold virus [that became a giant slug in a recent episode] is still kind of creeping me out, especially because I have a cold right now. Every time I cough I hope it's not like one of those things.

[catlover79]

Thanks for sharing that, Charles. My sister's had a crush on Mark Valley going back to his years on Days of Our Lives. Great interview.

[AB]

I really enjoyed the article. Didn't have a clue they were even dating though. lol!