HIGHLANDER WORLDWIDE WORKSHOP: LIVE CAST AND CREW COMMENTARY

By: Abbie Bernstein
Date: Friday, March 04, 2005

Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield, swordmaster F. Braun McAsh and post-production supervisor Don Paonessa all take the stage together as the last HIGHLANDER episode Paul directed, "The Modern Prometheus," is projected onto the big screen between them.

"It's a good episode," Paonessa opines.

McAsh recalls that the filming of the conservatory scene seemed jinxed. "Two hours late the first day, waiting for the makeup truck. The second day, [the driver] picked up the wrong actress from the hotel two hours late again."

Paul chose to shoot the footage of rock star Byron in concert utilizing footage that was colorized and made grainier-looking in the editing process. It was Paonessa's suggestion to use a lot of handheld footage in the present-day scenes, with dolly shots and tripods predominant in the flashbacks.

Paul says of Jonathan Firth as the nihilistic Byron, "I loved the way he plays this manic. I don't think [the character] changed much, except he's a little more desperate in the present."

Watching the scene where MacLeod, Methos, Byron, Joe and Joe's protégé Mike all meet up, Wingfield asks, "Adrian, what is that thing of you playing up the edge right from the top of the episode?"

Paul describes MacLeod's attitude on encountering Byron for the first time: " 'I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but there's something not right.' "

Paonessa observes Methos' reaction on his reunion in the present with Byron: "It's not a warm, open, 'Hi, buddy.' "

"It's textural," Wingfield says.

"You could have played that ten different ways," Paonessa responds.

"And with Adrian directing," Wingfield rejoins, "we'd shoot it ten different ways."

"And then," Paonessa concludes, "you get it in the editing room and you think, 'I wonder what they had in mind here?' "

Of the carriage race in the flashback, Paonessa asks Paul, "You used a lot of long-lens shots to compress the shot and make it more romantic?"

"Yes," Paul agrees. "I wanted the background to look mystical."

"The thing that's great about this period the clothes had a sensuality," Wingfield says of the 19th century. Then again, there were drawbacks. "But the guys' hairstyles ..."

When the quasi-orgy scene comes up, Wingfield discusses the vagaries of depicting sex on television: "You're trying to suggest debauchery, but there's a limit to what you can show. Somebody doing up an apron says what has happened."


"We talked about what was Methos like in this period," Paul adds. "He was probably as debauched as Byron ... I always loved the idea that Mary Shelley came from the Byron episode."

Paonessa reveals that the episode's writer, James Thorpe, was inspired to write about Mary Shelley getting the idea to write FRANKENSTEIN after witnessing a Quickening when the power came on after a blackout. Thorpe reportedly thought of the sudden electrical surge, "That's kind of like a Quickening!"

Wingfield elaborates on the relationship between Methos and Byron: "It's an echo of the Methos/Kronos thing ... there is an attraction and a revulsion ... Methos spent a lot of time growing up with the Greeks, so the attraction between him and Byron is also sexual. It's very complex."

It's noted that Jeffrey Ribier was cast as Mike due partly to his resemblance to a young Jimi Hendrix, while Paonessa thinks that Firth as Byron "kind of looks like [Jim] Morrison."

Paul says of the script, "The great thing about this for me as a director is that I wasn't in every single scene."

Paonessa watches Methos jotting something down onscreen. "What are you writing there, Peter, notes from the director?"

"Acting 101," Wingfield replies. "Always be doing something."

What Elizabeth Gracen is doing right now is leaving she is brought up onstage to hug her colleagues goodbye and say her farewells to the audience.

McAsh watches his onscreen Immortal character Hans Kirchner battle Byron. Despite his acting background, McAsh rarely appeared in HIGHLANDER episodes for a simple reason: "Every minute in front of the camera is a minute denied to people who need me behind the camera." However, he gets a fight in "Modern Prometheus." "Every now and then, [Firth] would whack me and I'd hear Adrian on the camera truck going, 'Heh heh, now you know what it feels like.' "

Fighting and "dying" on wet gravel caused a new problem for McAsh: "When I stood up, I had five pounds of gravel stuck to the front of my costume."

In a scene of Methos and Byron arguing in the present, with Byron telling Methos, "You know what I've become," Paonessa feels it resonates: "What's cool is, it's so contemporary."

"I think [Firth] did a terrific job with the despair of the whole thing," Wingfield adds. "You can see the connection between them, you feel the pain of separation."

"But," Paonessa observes, "You also sense a loss of patience on Methos' part."

Wingfield agrees. "At heart, Byron hates and despises himself Methos likes himself."

In the fight between MacLeod and Byron, McAsh points out, "Once Mac is injured, he is much more defensive than offensive."

Paonessa asks Paul how he achieved Duncan's shot-in-the-leg limp in the latter half of the fight. "I can't remember if I imagined [what it would feel like] or put something in my shoe," Paul replies.

Wingfield asks Paonessa if "Modern Prometheus" was more complicated than other episodes to edit. "It takes more time to find the images, yes," Paonessa acknowledges, "but it's more fun."

The last scene finds MacLeod, Methos and Joe contemplatively back at Joe's bar. "It's release after all the tension," Paonessa observes.

"Byron was all about excess, and now we're back to the simplicity," Wingfield concludes.

To be continued...