J. August Richards is guest starring this Wednesday on Arrow, playing an incredibly effective assassin called Mr. Blank. It’s a busy time for the Angel alum, who also has a mysterious role in the top secret Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. pilot, which reunites him with Joss Whedon.
I spoke to Richards about his Arrow appearance and the appeal of genre material. I also tried (but failed, alas) to get him to say anything about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and we looked back on the epic ending of Angel.
IGN: How would you describe Mr. Blank? It sounds like he’s quite a dangerous character, to say the least.
J. August Richards: I would describe Mr. Blank as a sociopathic Nate Berkus. Now, I don’t know if you know who Nate Berkus is, but he’s an interior decorator and he’s very passionate about the way that spaces feel. And so my character has no emotions regarding human beings. However, he’s very sensitive to the energy of a space, which I found very strange and very difficult to play. Also, he takes his work so seriously, that he spends his entire life making himself invisible, so that he can creep in and out of the shadows to do his work, which is killing people. And for him, it’s just liked data entry. It doesn’t mean anything. Killing somebody, there’s no emotion behind it – it’s just like punching a number into a computer.
IGN: You mentioned the challenge this was an actor, which I can only imagine. Usually, you’d be looking to tap into the emotion of a scene, but here you have to turn away from that.
Richards: Exactly, and that was very difficult - to do things and kind of have no opinion about it, as an actor. And it’s hard for me because I’m a very empathetic person. I like to engage with people onscreen and off, so to find a way to not do that yet -- stay emotionally alive enough to feel the room -- was very, very difficult.
IGN: Mr. Blank is not from the comics, but was it fun to jump into the whole comic book-derived world that Arrow has created?
J. August Richards: Absolutely. I really enjoy working in genre series, because you really have to create the characters. You can’t look at a lot of other things to figure out how to play it. You just have to really do the work and find it yourself and I really, really enjoy that. I love creating characters that people may or may have not ever seen before. But I enjoy the opportunity to try to make something new and that’s when I really come alive as an actor, so I really enjoyed working on Arrow.
J. August Richards in Arrow
IGN: Can we expect some physical confrontations between Mr. Blank and OIiver?
Richards: You know, that was the other thing that really excited me about taking the role was there are a lot of stunts. Over my career, I’ve had to do a lot of shows that involve stunts and I so enjoy stunts. So yes, Oliver and I have an epic fight scene that I think people are going to love and that was so much fun to work on. There are other stunts in there too that I get to do that I just love.
IGN: What was it like working with Stephen Amell on the show?
J. August Richards: It was great. He’s in so many scenes and the hours are so long, and I’m always impressed by an actor who can do that volume of work and still say very positive, so I enjoyed working with him a lot. He really throws himself into the part. He has the opportunity to really do a lot of the stunts and a lot of the fight scenes and he does a great job with them.
IGN: Some people come out of their encounters with Oliver alive, some don’t. But if the opportunity were there, would you hope to play Mr. Blank again?
Richards: Oh man, in a heartbeat. Let me tell you though… I know that actors say this all the time, but just please feel my sincerity… Their crew for Arrow is just one of the most wonderful crews that I’ve worked with. I know that actors say that all the time and it sounds like trash coming out of my own mouth, but it’s so true. Let me tell you how nice their crew is. I complimented one of the crew members on their hat, and he sent me two in the mail, when I got back to L.A. I mean how nice is that? His name is Chris in FX. So I would jump at the opportunity. I know Marc Guggenheim and Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg and I love those guys as well, so I would jump at the opportunity to work on it again. And working for The CW always feels like old home week for me.
IGN: I was going to ask you about that, because obviously it’s not directly The WB, but it was sort of spawned from it. So you do feel that connection still?
J. August Richards: Oh, absolutely. I feel like one of the originals. [Laughs] I’ll never not feel that way. I don’t care what they call the network. But it’s always great to work for the CW again, because as you know, I did my first series there and I have nothing but fond feelings for the network and my experiences there and my experiences working on Angel. And I love that I get to stay alive in genre series, because it’s one of my favorites to work in – one of my favorite styles to do.
Continue to Page 2 as Richards dodges S.H.I.E.L.D. question and looks back on Angel's final episode.
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