Date of publishing: 26th
March 2007
The handsome and talented, Ed Quinn brings a charm
to Hollywood that is comparable to the leading men
of yester year and can currently be seen dazzling
his fans on the hit TV show “Eureka”
on the Sci-Fi Channel. The show is set in a small
town called Eureka that is nestled in a remote part
of the Pacific Northwest. The town which is very unassuming
to the average onlooker is anything but ordinary!
Developed after WWII by President Truman, Albert Einstein
and other trusted advisors, the President brought
together the nation’s top scientific minds to
conduct top-secret research on behalf of the government.
However, what they've unintentionally created is a
place where anything imaginable can happen and usually
does. On the show, Quinn plays one of three lead characters,
‘Nathan Stark’ a charming, Nobel-prize
winning mathematician and Eureka's head researcher,
The series had the most successful season ever for
the network and brought in over 5 million new viewers
and made the channel the #5 most watched cable channel
on TV and “Eureka” the #1 watched show
for the network! The show starts production on its
second season in March 2007.
Quinn grew up in Berkeley, California, and earned
a Bachelor's Degree in History from the University
of California, Berkeley. After graduating he worked
as an actor and model in Paris, Barcelona, and Milan,
tearing up the runaways and landing parts in more
than 35 international television commercials. Things
were going so well with his commercials/modeling that
the he was encouraged to return to the States and
focus on his acting, as they could see that he had
a natural gift for the craft. With that encouragement,
he soon returned to the States in 1995 to pursue his
acting career. He has starred in feature films such
as Touchstone’s Starship Troopers II
and Beeper, opposite Harvey Keitel.
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Linda Craddock: Looking
back on your first introduction to the script for
“Eureka” what was your first impression?
Ed Quinn: Another show that looked
like it would be a lot of fun, but it was going to
be a very difficult show to shoot, especially to get
the entire series to land in the same tone that the
pilot was written, but sometimes you just got to have
faith, and executive producers have to have faith,
and the directors and the actors and you just kind
of go for it and fortunately we were able to pull
off pretty close to what we wanted. I think everybody
wanted to do even better, but it was the first season,
it was challenging so we’re ecstatic to get
back for season 2. We’ve just read to the first
two scripts. I think they’re fantastic; the
show’s really picking up right where we left
off. Everybody already seems to be right out of the
gate, just right where we were last season. I think
it's going to be a phenomenal second season. Yeah,
everybody is really like excited.
Linda Craddock: Great.
This statement was written in October: Sci-fI’s
highest-rated, most-watched series of 2006. To what
do you attribute to its success?
Ed Quinn: I would say it was a blend
of science fiction, first and foremost. Because the
science fiction fans are so loyal and they are not
only willing to give a show a chance, but stick with
it. You can take risks and allow them to really grow
on people. And I think the other thing is the show’s
sense of humor and character development really attracts
maybe a kind of an audience that doesn’t really,
maybe think itself as sci-fi fan, but found the show
very funny and very watch-able and very intriguing
through the humor and character development.
Linda Craddock: A
great deal of imagination swells into the story line
with each episode. From your conversations with the
writers, what would you say motivated the creation
of the show?
Ed Quinn: It’s the mind of
Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia. I think Andrew Cosby
is one of the owners of “Boom” comics.
I mean his mind is just a fountain of stories and
of adventure and intrigue and Jaime Paglia has this
incredible knack for putting dialogue and real sort
of human characteristics with kind of larger than
life archetypes. And the two of them together, this
is the perfect marriage. The two of them together
are able to just sort of create a show that’s
really fun but also really grand and real.
Linda Craddock: Tell
us a little about cast/crew chemistry on the set?
Ed Quinn: Well, we are incredibly
fortunate. We inherited the crew that was working
on the “Dead Zone” of Robert Petrovicz,
who is our supervising producer up here in Vancouver,
it's really his crew. Not only are they such a type
knit family, but they are so incredibly competent,
especially working on tight schedules, with tight
budget, and very ambitious scripts and so, I think
the crew is really what sets the foundation for allowing,
and the actors we really just all get along, it's
just fun. We came back, we just had a big welcome
dinner and you couldn’t even hear yourself think
cause of the laughter and the stories, and everybody
was so excited to see everyone. It’s so hard
to get a show together where everybody pretty much
gets along. We just really kind of hit the jackpot.
Linda Craddock: Excellent.
Any similarities between Ed Quinn and “Nathan
Stark”?
Ed Quinn: I think there’s a
bit. I think the sense of humor and maybe a serious
side when it comes to work, but always trying to solve
problems with humor first and really kind of enjoying
life. I think “Nathan Stark” has these
huge obsessions but, fortunately, I’m not plagued
with (laughter), but besides that, yeah, I think he’s
a little more metro than I am too.
 Linda
Craddock: The writers
maintain this contest between “Stark”
and “Carter” for “Allison’s”
romantic interest. Can we expect romance to bloom
with your character and his wife?
Ed Quinn: I believe so. I think,
like I said because so much comes out, so much personal
character development comes out through relationships,
especially relationships with a love triangle, if
you will, and so I believe it will continue. I think
we just sort of scratched the surface in the last
season and I think it will be an ongoing battle, if
you will, for seasons to come.
Linda Craddock: “Stark’s”
politically brilliant accomplishments and ego cause
him to constantly push the boundaries of science as
it is described. Do you think this is what gives your
character an edge as lead researcher?
Ed Quinn: I think so. I think whether
it’s the field of science. “Stark”
is a pretty good politician as well. You have to have
that ability to be cut throat, not only in the development
of your profession and your passion, but also in your
ability to enable yourself to realize your vocation
and I think that’s what “Stark”,
I think we saw a bit of that last season, in which
he was able to we really found out yeah he is a brilliant
scientist, but he also realized that he wanted to
do exactly what he wanted to do, he was going to need
to be able to grease the wheels, the financial wheels
as well and he did that very well and how he played
pretty fast and loose, and I think we’re going
to see some repercussions from his nature this season.
Linda Craddock: The
writers have generated a blend of entertaining stories
as well as continuity with the outcome of each episode.
Did you have any input regarding the direction of
any episode?
Ed Quinn: Not so much, no, I mean
I don’t always look at it, an actor’s
main job is – an executive producer has 30 jobs.
A lot of people have a lot of jobs. As an actor you
just want to make sure that your character is always
true and honest and if you just kind of focus both
on a micro and macro sense on your characters part,
script to script, scene to scene, episode, season
to season, you tend to shape the outcome of an episode,
almost be default.
Linda Craddock: What
is your wish list for your characters development
in season 2?
Ed Quinn: I hope to just get to see
a little more of the personal side of him. I mean
he was kind of up in that tower in “Global Dynamics”
and I think not only for myself but I think much of
the audience and the creators want us to see more
of who “Nathan Stark” really is.
Linda Craddock: What
are your views on a real life “Eureka”.
Ed Quinn: I hope there is one.
Linda Craddock: Tell
us a little about your current project “The
Neighbor”.
Ed Quinn: Oh, it was a phenomenal
experience. I got to work with a fantastic young director
named Eddie O’Flaherty, best know for directing
“Fighting Tommy Riley” and he’s
just such an amazing director to work with and as
an actor, working with Matthew Modine. I have mutual
friends who are good friends with him so I heard so
many good things and they were all true and then Michele
Laroque, who is just – I can’t even imagine
being able to act in two different languages and be
– she is rather a big star, globally and just
so humble and the work load. I mean we shot the movie
in 25 days. I mean, just hour upon hour of production
and she, you never heard, now she would get in a car
and the poor thing would fall asleep, (Laughter) on
the way home, and crawl in to bed and be up at 4 in
the morning where we were shooting far outside of
L.A. at the time. I’ve heard the dailies look
phenomenal, the scenes that are coming together are
fantastic. I know they’re going to turn the
movie around quickly. They want to be in the Toronto
Film Festival by September. I hope that happens because
I would love to see that movie out and about sooner
than later.
 Linda
Craddock: Can you
see yourself staying with “Eureka” for
4-5 years/seasons?
Ed Quinn: Oh, I hope so. I mean this
is, I think one of the best jobs in television, to
have a shooting that you love and a show that you
love and people that you work with that are fantastic,
but we only shoot 13 episodes. I have 7 months a year
to pursue other projects. Then I can come back and
do a show, I mean it’s just, yeah, this is the
best scenario. Everybody wants a job like this right
now, movies are getting more and more scarce and more
and more corporate and people want the ability to,
you want to have your day job. Eureka is just perfect,
it couldn’t be more fun, it couldn’t be
more intriguing and also the fact that being on a
small cable network allows you to not have all the
pressure needing to pull huge numbers, I mean like
we started this off saying how high our ratings are
and they were, the were phenomenal. We’d be
cancelled on any major network show, any network channel
so we’re viewed as a success. Other shows may
have great potential, but failures find audiences
right off the bat.
Linda Craddock: Tell
us a little about the differences you encountered
in your acting career between Barcelona, Paris, Milan
and the U.S.
Ed Quinn: Well, Hollywood is big
business, Hollywood is the Superbowl. When you can
come to Los Angeles, you come to try and work with
the biggest productions, I mean, I’d like to
say we have our little show, but our studio is NBC
Universal. I mean we’re not exactly some little
tiny independent television show, syndicated show
or something. I mean we have big muscle behind us
where I think it was over seas which is one of the
reason why you see so many provocative movies and
television series come out of Europe is they don’t
have the pressure to perform, the pressure to produce
but there’s drawbacks to that as well, not having
the finances, not having the accessibility to big
budgets, big directors, big production. So there’s
a balance between the both. I think most actors feel
they, well, look at Michele Laroque, she was going
to back to shoot two or three more films in Paris,
back to back to back but she thought it was important
to take a movie, it was a remake of a movie she did
in Paris and she wanted to come over and do this film
in English for an American audience, it is important.
Linda Craddock: I
understand music is another passion of yours. Can
we look forward to both talents in television or movie,
in the near future?
Ed Quinn: I hope so. I’ve been
working the studio, playing with a band, but music
is very, very, well … I’ll always play
music. Whether I ever do anything that anyone will
ever hear it (laughter), that’s another story
but music I’ve been playing since I was 12.
I was playing music before I ever thought about acting
so it’s always going to be a part of me, of
my life. It’s just whether or not I will be
able to have the time to sustain, it’s a lot
of work, I mean I would never want to go out to, I’ve
played with some pretty amazing musicians in my life
and I have a great respect for the craft. I would
hate to be one of those stereotypical actors whose
decides he wants to be a rock star for now so, I’ve
done the music thing, I’ve done tons of recordings,
had a deal, it’s tough, but I’ll never
stop working on it. Maybe one day if I get good enough,
Universal might give me a shot.
Linda Craddock: Great!
Which actor or actress would you really love to work
with on the big screen?
Ed Quinn: Well, for me the reason
I started acting was Clint Eastwood, I mean it’s
just was, the spaghetti westerns, and “Outlaw
of Josey Wales”, all the way to “Unforgiven”,
he’s my icon. So hopefully one day I will get
the opportunity to just (laughter), I’ll cater
one of his movies, I don’t care (laughter).
Just to be around that talent and that individual
I would feel like I got nothing else to prove.
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