The compelling antihero of The Blacklist

MANILA, Philippines - When this writer flew to New York last week, it was to rendezvous with the notorious criminal Raymond Reddington, known the world over as Red, because he was supposed to be in town chasing after his nemesis Berlin, who almost had him and FBI agent Elizabeth Keen killed several months ago. And, while in town, I also got to meet with a “transformed” Elizabeth, her fellow FBI agent Donald Ressler and their boss Harry Cooper.

I received the invitation via e-mail a couple of months ago and everything was vague until about a week ago when I finally got the confirmation including my flight details.

The flight was uneventful, thankfully. I flew on the same week New York was to commemorate the 13th year of the 9/11 terrorist attack and this writer was a little bit hesitant to fly — not to add the curious timing of having a terrorist in the big apple on the eve of the anniversary of one of the worst attacks in US soil! But I marched on! It’s not every day you get to be on someone’s exclusive invite list, right?

And it is one list you normally wouldn’t one to be on!

Okay, before we all get carried away, it’s time I start telling you the truth: This writer did not meet with a terrorist — a real-life terrorist, that is. Raymond Reddington is the character played by Emmy-winning actor James Spader in the worldwide television hit The Blacklist and this writer was among a select few who received the exclusive invitation to meet with Mr. Spader and the rest of the cast of The Blacklist. We were also given a tour of the show’s impressive set inside a huge converted storage at the old Chelsea Piers in Lower Manhattan. During the same visit, we also got a glimpse of the iconic props and the distinctive costumes used on the show — including the fedoras used by Red in the series.

The cast was filming the fourth episode during our visit and the actors had to be whisked away to have a quick chat with us whenever there’s a lull in production. Mr. Spader was the first actor to see us. He was the complete opposite of Red in person. He was charismatic in person like Red but without the mysterious and terrifying demeanor that fans of the series has come to expect every week from him.

It’s funny but most of the journalists, including this writer, was addressing him Mr. Spader when we would normally call any actor by their first names. We were either in awe of his greatness or we were scared of Red. I think it was the latter. James is one of the few actors to have won multiple Emmys — and he is the only actor in history to have won Emmys for the same role in two different series. He won Best Actor at Cannes and he is the title character in the sequel to the record-breaking Marvel movie The Avengers — but we are not talking about it today.

During our interview, I asked James for his thoughts on what made The Blacklist so popular all over the world. The series features a really bad character on the mend but appears to be somewhat above the law. Why is a character that’s done really bad things connected with audiences worldwide?

“I am not entirely sure what it is that people respond to,” he replied. “Over the years, I’ve never been able to figure out what people might like and not like but I think people respond to the dichotomy in any antihero. I think they really respond to that and if you pay real service to both aspects of that word, if he’s at times the antagonist and other times the protagonist, if you really pay service to that balance, I think everybody will be enormously disappointed if all of a sudden you discover that Reddington is really a righteous guy. That he is really doing the right thing; that it’s all about redemption. I think that would be so disappointing.”

(The interview with James lasted about half an hour and will be featured in another story.)

As Red in The Blacklist, James portrays an ex-government agent who, for decades, has been one of the FBI’s Most Wanted fugitives. Brokering shadowy deals for criminals across the globe, Red was known by many as “The Concierge of Crime.” In the series’ first season, Red mysteriously surfaced and surrendered to the FBI but, instead of being put to prison, he was able to strike a deal with the FBI by proposing to release a “blacklist” of politicians, mobsters, spies and international terrorists. He promised to catch them all with only one condition: Elizabeth “Liz” Keen, a rookie agent, would become his partner in tracking all the criminals in his list.

The Blacklist is part police procedural and part serialized drama with the main narrative hook being the unanswered question on whether there’s something that connects Red to Liz — could Liz be Red’s daughter? That is one of the lingering questions from Season 1 that no one among the cast would dare to answer.

 “No, you will not find out about that,” was James’ quick reply when asked if Season 2 of the series would finally give fans a definitive answer.

And when we asked Megan Boone, the actress who portrays Elizabeth Keen, about it, she played coy as well. Although she did tell us that only her and James, among the cast, knew the answer to the mystery.

 “Oh, I know!” she exclaimed. “I am probably the only in the world who isn’t frustrated by the mystery — me and James are the only two that are not frustrated.”

 “Towards mid-season, you will start to really know the root of her behavior and her actions,” she teased. 

At the end of Season 1, Liz’s husband, Tom, was shot and is assumed to have died although majority of fans are hoping he is still alive. “Everything about Tom is a mystery,” was all Megan would allow herself to share. (Note: The actor who portrays Tom was not on the set during our visit. Is it a hint?)

But one actor who is happy that his character is still alive is Harry Lennix, who plays FBI head Harry Cooper, who was in mortal danger, too, during the first season. “You are going to see me from the first episode,” he declared to our amusement.

Harry, who is also an accomplished film and stage actor, offered some theory on why people all over the world are connecting with a bad guy like Red. 

“There’s something about James Spader, the fact that he’s playing the character makes him, kind of, delicious,” he said. “It fits into the mold of a classic American antihero. It’s the 21st century and I think we’ve come to realize that good and bad is a lot more nuanced and there’s a million shades of gray and we all fit somewhere along the shades of gray. How much bad are we willing to put up with in order to get something good, something valuable? I think Red, more than anything, presents us with that question.”

During the course of our set visit, this writer also got to meet with several other cast members including the latest cast addition Mozhan Marno, who will portray a Mossad agent who may or may not have a shared personal history with Red.

The last actor we interviewed was Diego Klattenhoff who portrays FBI agent Donald Ressler in the series. It was about four in the afternoon when Diego sat with us for a quick chat.

He was in a good mood. The handsome actor, who has German ancestry, even obliged to speak his version of the German language after a German journalist asked if he could say something in German. “Hmm… Tune in next week?” he uttered. Apparently he can’t speak German, after all.

And much later on, Diego would crack another funny joke about his character’s fate this season after the bloodbath in Season 1 that killed off many characters.

“I’ve been shot enough and beat up enough, I made my donation to the blood bank, so I think I might be safe for a while,” he said before adding the all-important word, “hopefully.”

(Season 2 of The Blacklist will premiere tonight at 10 on AXN.)