Noah Wyle on his New Role on "The Red Line"

[JamesG]

On "The Red Line", you get to play a person who isn’t typically represented on TV, and the story is something that touches on real, topical issues in America.

All of these things are obviously appealing for an actor, but as you started filming, and as you started reading the subsequent scripts, how did you feel about this story and being able to help tell it?


I've never seen any scripts coming out as consistently well-written as these were, and I've worked with some really amazing writers. This is a strange situation because episode five wasn't written when we started episode one. The stories were broken, but the scripts weren't written. We were course-correcting quite a bit as it was unfolding, because certain relationships were dissolving, certain ones becoming better.

Certain new stories were unfolding that had to be incorporated into our narrative to be accurate to the historical record. So, this wasn't like all eight scripts were written, and it was perfect, and I said, OK, I see all this now. The investment was in the talent, and the promise that they'd deliver.




It was a leap of faith to sign on just to shoot the pilot. I didn't think the pilot had a chance, really, to get picked up, because I'd shot a pilot for CBS three years ago that I thought was perfect and they didn't pick it up. I understood that you could do it right and have it still go wrong.

And I assumed because it's so good that this would be one of those, but the thing that this had in its corner was Peter Roth at Warner Bros. who was telling me, "I'm going to back this all the way down the line because I love it. And if CBS isn't interested, I'll take it someplace else. And I believe in you and I believe in Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss."




It also had a wonderful pedigree, these joint titans of Greg Berlanti and Ava DuVernay in its corner, so I thought, OK. It's not my riskiest gamble, it's just a long shot. And then it started to unfold. The show actually became, I think, the very thing CBS needs right now. It's who they're going to be in the future in TV and join the conversation that they haven't really been part of. So it just sort of worked out.

There was no guarantee of that.







What is it like to know that, as opposed to a show like "ER", on "The Red Line" you have a contained story that you’re telling in eight episodes?

You know, in real practical terms, you go to work, you have breakfast before you go. You get brought in to do a blocking rehearsal. You go back out and do makeup. You do costumes. You go to set, you shoot the first day. You shoot for six hours. You get some lunch. You shoot for another six hours. You go home. Sometimes it's cold. You're in the rain. That's the circus life.

When you put them all together they become what they become. But for most of why enjoy that TV is that hard hat, lunch pail, blue collar, going-to-work-every day mentality, because there is a regularity to that. You work with the same people and you get very close with them. Twelve years is long enough to watch people die and divorce and get remarried and have children and you go to all sorts of events and become really enmeshed in their lives.

And I enjoy that. I enjoy that sense of camaraderie. You don't always get that when you work on a movie, because you come together and it's one story.







You’ve done drama, you’ve done comedy, you’ve done adventure, and you’re back to emotional drama with "The Red Line".

What do you want to tackle next? Did you like working on a limited series? Would you want to direct more? Would you want to go back on a network drama?


Yes to all of that. I'd be interested to see how the [ending] plays and whether or not there'll be enough interest to see whether or not a second season is merited, warranted. Exploring where these characters could go from here would be interesting to me. I really felt as we were finishing — it often happens — you're just starting to figure it all out, you know? I'd like to take one more crack at that, anyway.

Beyond that, I love directing. I love writing because I can do it from home and be with my kids and my wife, sleep in my own bed. Directing, you need to do all of it, which is really exciting and sort of nice. I got to fall in love with acting again by playing this part. I figured out a wonderful technique to use that was new and different and extremely reliable for me that I decided to try again on something else.

I'm just looking for another challenge that has a good story and a good character arc.







This guy has a good arc. You got some really good emotional speeches too. I like when you get to do a good emotional speech.

I like to do emotional speeches too. If you ask me, honestly it's going to sound so trite, because my name is Noah, but I look for arcs. When I read the pilot script for "ER" I thought, "Of all these characters, this guy has got the biggest story. Because he started on the job today, which means he's got the most to learn.”

So, I can stumble and drop trays of penicillin on myself for a year before I even get this guy in [the operating room]. That was great. Everybody else had to look like they knew what they were doing. I could steal all the scenes by being the guy who didn't know what he was doing. So similarly, Tom Mason from Falling Skies, he was a history professor who became this leader of a little army [fighting aliens].

And then Daniel Calder [on The Red Line], how do you rebuild your life when everything you defined yourself by is taken away? It's a leap of faith.

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