At last weekend’s New York Comic Con, I had the chance sit across from Kevin Chapman (Detective Lionel Fusco) from Person of Interest. With Season 2 of the series now two episodes in, Kevin wasn’t providing many details on what was in store for this season but did provide a lot of insight into his character’s position on the show.
Kevin describes Fusco as “the little brother that nobody wanted” who’s trying to be involved but isn’t always let in due to his past as a corrupt cop. When asked about this making Fusco the weak link of the “team”, Kevin stated he wasn’t, that rather Finch and Resse treat him “like a gun” they can point and shoot because they know he’ll get results without necessarily letting him know the hows and whys of what is going on.
Kevin’s approach to working on a show with multiple secrets and storylines is to focus on his character specifically without taking in too much information from other character’s arcs and having it influence his mindset. He learned this approach from director Todd Field who had learned it from working with Stanley Kubrick.
One of Kevin’s favorite parts has been Fusco’s redemption. He thinks Fusco may have become a cop for the right reasons but eventually “fell in with the wrong crowd” because he wanted to go with the flow. Having the opportunity to work with Resse and Finch allowed him to get away from his bad decisions. Kevin does find the dual nature of the character fun to play because you never know if he’s a good guy doing bad things or a bad guy doing good things and it’s open for interpretation to the audience.
Check out the clip below, and watch Person of Interest on Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS (9pm ET/PT on CityTV in Canada).
Photo and Video by Bill Dean, Copyright © 2012 TheTelevixen.com
