ZACK-RIFICE

Dreamwatch (December 2001)
copyright held by the magazine
transcribed Xerianna

During the first series of Dark Angel, WILLIAM GREGORY LEE is featured as Zack, Max's genetically engineered 'brother', who makes the ultimate sacrifice in the season one finale.

Dreamwatch: How did you get cast on the series and how have you felt about the characters progress?

William Gregory Lee: I guess with luck. As with anything in LA there are a million guys going up for a James Cameron series, but luckily for me they had established the character Zack in the pilot as a young kid, so they had to match the young kid to an older version. There are still 50,000 guys in LA that fit that type, though. I'm not sure how I actually got the part: hopefully I was the best all round choice.

The first season was phenomenal; it was so much fun to do. I was brought in for one episode. That was all that I was told I was going to do. They said that the possibility of a second episode was there, but that was it. I think that I did the job that they wanted me to do, as I continued on for most of the season. I shot nine episodes in total out of 20. I'm very blessed to have had that opportunity.

How involved was James Cameron?

Everyone thinks he's the silent partner, that we're using the name to launch the series, but he was a part of it from the get-go. Every time there was a problem with the script James could read it and switch it around. He would do that a lot, put his input in on characters and storylines. I didn't get to meet him until my very last episode when he was up in Vancouver testing out a new camera for the second season. He's an amazing man to meet; he's nice as can be. You're intimidated though, y'know, the so-called 'King of the World….' You're having a conversation thinking "This is really weird," but he's just another person at the end of the day.

Zack did become more important as the series went on.

He had more responsibilities and they played with how does Zack exactly feel about Max: is it brother and sister? Does he love her? Is there more to it than the brother and sister relationship? So they left a lot of things open, even in the finale: putting a gun to your head for someone you love - what kind of love is that? They left those question marks there, which is interesting.

That must've been gratifying to you as an actor, to have been brought on for just one episode and have that part expand.

It became more and more and that was extremely gratifying. They told me at first that they weren't sure what was going to happen, then before I knew it they put me under contract for the back nine episodes as pilot season was about to start up. I pretty much knew that I'd finish up the first season, but I didn't know what the rest of the show had in store for me…I wasn't sure. It was pretty cool though.

As an actor how do you cope with something that vague, where the character is developing but you don't know where it is going to go?

You don't ever hold your breath in anything in this business, because the second you do you find yourself suffocating. You take it episode by episode and go you have to try to have the security within yourself that you did the best you could. Hopefully, in the grand scheme of things, you satisfied the 100 people - the writers, creators, studio heads, executives - everybody who has to say "He's doing the job we want him to". You can't think about that stuff. You have to just go "I finished up and if they don't kill me off, most likely they can bring me back. In fact, even if they do kill me off in a sci-fi show, they can still bring me back." That's the beauty of it…

You made your biggest impact in that last episode of the season. How did you feel reading that climax?

They didn't put it in the finale script. Nobody knew, up until two days before we shot it. They didn't want it on the internet or have the fans find out about it. I had a feeling for a while that they were going to do it to Zack, before I got it. It was weakening the character to have him leave and always come back again. It weakens who he was if he's bouncing back and forth. So I wasn't that shocked when I was told, but James Cameron, when we were filming, said "This doesn't have anything to do with you and the job you've been doing. We can't leave Max dead at the season final [which was the original plan]". A lot of people got upset at the fact that they were going to leave star of the show dead at the end of the season finale. You can't do that in your first season, maybe season two or three, that's fine because you've established a groove. That's fine. The other choice was [to kill] Michael Weatherly as Logan, but they didn't want to do that either. The next choice, the next person that would be closest to Max in her life, would be Zack. What's the ultimate sacrifice, what's the ultimate heroes end? He's going to kill himself to let her live. I was actually really excited when I got that. I thought "Yeah, this is great. It's the ultimate heroes' death or ultimate warrior's death…"

Shooting that episode, were you thinking of that as being the end for the character? Or was there a hint that there was something else going on…?

I still look at it as the end, it's done. I'm no longer a part of Dark Angel. But…

We know you're coming back…!

[Laughter] As far a I know it's done, until I'm told otherwise…if I'm told that I'm coming back tomorrow then I'll jump at that opportunity. How many times did it happen on Xena? A million times. People die and they're brought right back…Lucy Lawless once said to me, "You haven't really been a part of the show until your character dies and comes right back…" You take it as it comes. The opportunity has been wonderful so far, and I'm looking forward to the future.

What if the show were to run five or seven years? Would you be along for the ride?

I would hope so. I would like to do that, but ultimately it's not up to me… Given the opportunity, I would. Zack is a hard character for me to play as my character type is so far away from his; you sometimes have to do so much more work than you might think. It's not just run around, don't smile, shoot gun… You can't be emotional as you're supposed to be the perfect soldier, the perfect leader, but you're flawed…He's just a little kid and the only person he's ever really known or trusted in his life is Max, but how does he feel about Max? That character has so many more levels to him than you see…

Brian J. Robb, Brigid Cherry

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Very many thanks to XERIANNA for transcibing the article!

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