launched “FlashForward” in September to generally good reviews and
ratings. Then, after only 10 episodes, it was pulled and has been off
the air for more than three months. The series returns to the
If you’ve forgotten (or never watched)
“FlashForward,” it deals with an incident that caused everyone on the
planet to black out for 137 seconds. They awoke with a glimpse of what
their future would be on
Before “FlashForward,”
was the period film “Shakespeare in Love” or the quirky modern day
“Running With Scissors,” the British actor knew the beginning, middle
and end of the character.
In most television series there’s only the present.
But “FlashForward” offers a different challenge for actors because all
of the characters have been given what they believe are glimpses into
their futures. The actors must decide whether to use the glimpses to
play their characters or just treat each episode as it blindly unfolds.
That acting dilemma has been a challenge to Fiennes in playing
“This is the first job where I haven’t been fully
cognizant of the role. That has been taken away so you rely on the
writers and hope they piece it together. You hope that what I have done
is justified several episodes down the line even though I might not
know what the outcome will be,” Fiennes says during an interview on the
set of the show. “Sometimes it can be frustrating and sometimes you
just have to let go.”
Fiennes has had adjust his acting style to fit the
uniquely designed show. He’s learned to be more willing to improvise,
accept contradictions in his character and adjust to last-second
changes.
“FlashForward” operates on the principle that to a
certain degree everyone is predestined. Fiennes believes that everyone
is predisposed genetically to a certain path and it’s just anomalies
along the way that make people different.
Fiennes knows enough about future episodes to say many of the mysteries from the first flash forward will be addressed.
“Hopefully it will satisfy everyone. But, at the same time, there will be something else afoot,” Fiennes says.
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FLASHFORWARD
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(c) 2010, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).
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