Michael Emerson recently chatted with E!Online about the Lost Season 4 finale and what’s going on with Ben in Season 5.

Michael says that although Ben is not a sentimental character, he is now separated from everything he loves. He’s lost his equivalent of a family in being kicked off The Island and he’s adrift. “He can afford to be a little more mobile,” Michael says. “And possibly more ruthless now, but there is a lot to lose. The fight he’s fighting, the enemy that he is withstanding is a formidable one, and so much hangs in the balance.”

Michael feels that the show is moving towards more scientific explanations. “I don’t think it’s an esoteric or spiritual issue, I think it’s science. I think more and more, now, the show has scientific answers.”

As for Ben and Locke, it appears that the two are now allies. Michael says that Locke “has a condition or quality that sets him apart from all other Lostaways. John Locke is special…er. He is more special than the others.” That being said, the two have not yet worked together during Season 5. “They’re in different places,” Michael explains. He says he’s been working with the characters who are not on the Island.

In fact, Ben seems to have a plan this season. Michael says that it has surprised him. “Oh, I’ll tell you what has surprised me: That Ben seems to have a real plan! You’d think I would be the last one to be surprised by that, but he’s doesn’t miss a beat. It’s kind of interesting—it’s kind of breathtaking, really.”

Image Credited to Newscom

Michael Emerson sat down with 411 and chatted about the Lost Season 4 Wrap Up.

Michael starts off chatting about Ben being the puppet master, controlling things from reduced circumstances. “He’s having to improvise a lot, which maybe makes even more interesting, I think,” Michale relates. “Because he spends most of his time being bound and dragged through the jungle.” There’s a big game of some sort going on.

Who came up with Ben and who he is? The character is a total invention of the writers. “Some of the nuance of it and the way it gets played, might be me,” Michael says.

Michael chats about the “lack of glamour” involved in filming in Hawaii. It’s long days, physically exhausting, and dirty!

It’s great for the fans to have an end in sight. He predicts a killer ending. Michael also believes that the ending will be very sci-fi related.

Michael Emerson chats about developing and keeping his character on Lost. He also talks about not knowing what’s coming up and not being able to tell fans any spoilers.

Part 2 after the jump…

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Michael Emerson chats about the five creepiest characters in Television and Cinema!!

Lost
Episode 4.09
Airs: April 24, 2008
Spoilers

Michael Emerson promises that things will get kicking when Lost returns this week!

“It’s going to knock you out when you see that next episode,” he says. “It’s so full of developments and movement, I can’t tell you.”

Michael also says that Ben’s future fits his character. “Ben is a man who must sometimes be angry because he’s never going to have the quiet happiness of family and home,” he says.

“He’s always going to be some kind of global warrior. He doesn’t get to have the girl.”

Even his relationship with Juliet is a bit more possessive than good-intentioned.

“Whether Ben is capable of a conventional feeling of love I’m not certain about,” says Michael. “It’s clear that his feelings for Juliet sort of morphed over into a kind of not-very-pretty possessiveness. Now, I’m not saying Ben sent Goodwin out to die as an act of vengeance, but clearly he’s not that unhappy to have Goodwin gone.”

Source: NY Daily News

Michael Emerson was interviewed on The View. He practices his death stare - or as he calls it “his tender moments”!! He talks about his wife and other aspects of being on the show.

Check out Evangeline Lilly and Michael Emerson in these upcoming talk show appearances!

February 12th, 2008 - 10:00 AM EASTERN
Evangeline Lilly will be a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.

February 13th, 2008 - 10:30 PM EASTERN
Evangeline Lilly will be a guest on Live with Regis and Kelly.

February 14th, 2008 - 10:00 PM EASTERN
Michael Emerson will be a guest on The View.

February 14th, 2008 - 11:30 PM EASTERN
Evangeline Lilly will be a guest on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

IGN got an exclusive interview with Michael Emerson. He chats about the flash-forward reveal, a couple clues on Season 4, playing Ben, and much more!

Here are some key highlights…

IGN TV: What did you think when you read the reveal to the flash-forward in the script?

Emerson: Well, it wasn’t in my script! It was left out of everybody’s script except Matt [Fox] and Evangeline [Lily]. So I didn’t know what they were doing until it was broadcast. I didn’t see those scenes and had no idea. And at first, I suppose like everybody else, I was a little bit confused. I thought “Jack with beard… what kind of flashback is this? When did he ever let his beard grow?” And then when it dawned on me that this wasn’t in the past, this was in the future and that some survived, but not happily… And that their post island life is every bit as fraught and filled with regret and misjudgment as their life on the island… I just thought “Oh, that’s really grown up.”
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Michael Emerson chats about his role as Ben on Lost. He also reveals some insight into Season 4!

About Ben:

“Ben isn’t a villain, he’s just unknown. He’s been manipulative and occasionally violent, but we still don’t know what he’s up against,” he told TV Guide.

“I have played many villains, but only on TV. It’s a mystery to me because I don’t look like a villain. I don’t sound like one. But somewhere down the line someone decided that my mild-mannered exterior was the right delivery system for a wicked interior,” he explained.
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Michael Emerson chats at length with Starpulse regarding his character, shooting Lost, the new characters and flash forwards!

Your character Ben is pretty evil. How does it feel to play a villain?
Oh, there’s nothing better than being the villain. Who wants to be the hero? What a drag that must be. When you get to play the villain it’s so rich because it instantly suggests defeat or some kind of prevarication. It instantly suggests layers. There are complications. You have to put a face on it somehow. I’m not even saying that Ben is a villain. But he’s certainly a manipulator, and he’s certainly a person with a secret agenda. Whether he’s ultimately heroic or a villain, I get to play all those layers, which is great.

Last season we learned Ben was involved in killing the DHARMA members and his father, and he shot Locke. So what does that say about his mental state?
Well, we’d have to separate each of those acts and look at them individually. That particular episode was laden with violence.

It was shocking. It was great TV when I was watching that episode.
And it sort of shook my own vision of the character I’m playing. That’s the only time I ever had to have a little chat with the writers just to make sure we were all on the same page. I told them, ‘Have I been skipping down the primrose path?’ Here with the naïve notion my character may someday be revealed to be a great freedom fighter and a man with a heroic mission, and they said, ‘No, no. Keep thinking that.’ The story is not over yet. There’s more to be told, and some of the events of that episode will be recontextualized in future episodes. So again I just continue to play as if we’re going to see Ben in a different light. Someday.
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