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A Conversation With Anthony Cistaro, Part One
(Kenneth Irons) April 2001
Q: All right Mister Irons.
A: Yes.
Q: Where is he? Where is the series taking Ken Irons?
A: Well, I'll tell you. It's funny. We're on a need-to-know basis, which is kind of fun. And you know that the pilot was very enjoyable and it was just so frustrating because there was just so - there's only so much you can do in two hours. And what I like about what's happening now is that this is being treated as if it's eleven episodes, an eleven-hour movie. I mean it just goes right from start to finish. So we get a nice, nice flow as far as what happens. I think we'll get a little bit more insight into Iron's relationship with Nottingham, a little more insight into just how badly he wants that Witchblade and what extents he'll go to do it. Also I don't have the final final script and I'll be waiting like everybody else. But there's a sense that he's certainly putting all the elements together. He may not necessarily - I mean in certain cases, he's the puppet master but there will be definite connection as far as how Iron's figures into the story.
Q: You say you're on a need-to-know basis. How often do you get a script and what's it like when you get it?
A: Oh, everybody gets really excited when the scripts come out and it's tracking so the scripts come out a few weeks ahead of when we actually shoot them. So we get the first draft and then, even new drafts I find, we're all finding, are very exciting because they're putting in a lot of nuances and the writers are taking characters in certain directions and amplifying certain relationships or antagonisms, as the story goes on or as - I'm wondering if maybe, even as they see what we're doing in the dailies, they might nip and tuck and lift and twist things a little bit.
Q: So how fun is it to not know where your character's going and to turn that page and realize, 'oh cool!'
A: Oh it's great. It's a lot of fun. . . If you don't know where your character is going it's good to have a certain idea of where you think your character might go and sort of go in that direction and then adjust as necessary. It's like real life, isn't it? You think you're going in one direction and then something else happens. So it's fun. . .. it's just flat out fun. All of this has just been great.
Q: What is the Witchblade?
A: Well the Witchblade is a sentient weapon and it's something that's been around for a long, long, long, long time. It takes the form of a bracelet. It can take the form of a gauntlet. It has all sorts of powers that are connected with it in terms of being able to see into the future and I think there is a certain -- I think healing is also involved and it has a mind of its own. And we're not really sure if it's good or if it's bad or if it's sort of. . . if it does good things, it does bad things. I think that's what's really a lot of fun about this. I mean it's not Wonder Woman's bracelet you know. It's not something that Sara has and she uses and I think that's also the attraction that the Iron's character has. He realizes it's a very deep, deep source of power and energy and it has it's own mind in a way, and it's fun because even as they're writing the scripts, Irons sort of muses on this Witchblade and he says, 'well you know at first I thought that it showed up doing times of great crisis, but now I wonder if maybe it causes the crisis,' you know. So even even for him, he's sort of figuring it out as he goes along.
Q: And you're saying that you don't think Sara is ready for this. That you think the Blade may be leading her some place. Where do you think the Blade is leading Sara?
A: Well what's important I think for Irons is that she is ready to assume or to be a wielder of this Blade at the right moment when she's ready for it physically, mentally, spiritually and so there's always the question of is this the time? Is she ready? She will have to undergo a great test. . . I really liked it because. . .it's sort of an internal test. It's not something that you normally see on television, at least in this kind show. And so he wants her to be ready to fully assume this blade. At this point, early on, Sara's this police officer, she's got this thing and she doesn't know whether she wants it or doesn't want it. It's sort of chosen her and so what has to happen is the two of them have to sort of find a middle ground where they work with the weapon and work with each other for the Blade. It's more than a weapon.
Q: Does the Blade control Sara or does Sara control the Blade?
A: Again, it's a little bit of both. It's really an entity. She's in a relationship with it, so sometimes we get the sense that maybe it controls her and sometimes we get the sense that she might be developing a certain mastery over the blade in certain situations.
Q: Does Sara Pezzini fit the stereotypical image of a cop?
A: Well there are many, many cops in my family, and actually I've got two brothers-in-law, I've got a sister. I've got a brother who's with law enforcement, a cousin. Does she fit the stereotypical image of a cop? When I think about my sister, she is similar in that she's confident. She's her own person. She certainly doesn't fit the stereotypical image, at least the way Yancy's playing her. She doesn't fit the stereotypical image of a female cop you see on television. I haven't seen anybody who's just as tough as she is. I mean she has certain tenderness but when I watch her in these scenes where she has to deal with these various characters, she's all about something. She just looks like the real thing. She certainly looks like she can handle herself. But back to Sara. Does Sara fit the typical image of a cop? I would say all the best attributes, sure.
Q: What does Irons see in Sara?
A: He Iron sees in Sara the fact that if he ever hopes to have any kind of control or use of this blade, she's the ticket. Because it's only going to be through Sara that Irons has any hope of controlling this. Which sets up a very interesting dynamic. I mean here is this tremendously powerful person, has everything he could possibly want and is perfectly comfortable in all levels of society, and yet the thing he wants the most, he can't have, unless he sort of negotiates this path through Sara.
Q: So what is their chemistry?
A: I'd like to think their chemistry is -- there's a certain tension. That is, she really doesn't quite trust Irons, it seems, and yet at the same time there's hopefully something about Irons that is arresting, as it were, to her and she just can't quite shake maybe the feeling she has after any of these encounters. And she's not sure what that is. I know the writers have love interests for Sara, but I certainly want to make sure that there's some sort of sense that maybe in some strange, twisted situation she might find herself -- in fact she does -- in obligation to him, where maybe that might not be out of the question.
Q: Irons seems like he can pretty much manipulate anything. He has a hand in industry, media. But his weak point may be Nottingham. Where do you think Nottingham's allegiance lies?
A: Well. . . Nottingham is somebody who's been another project of Irons, his protègè. This is the perfect assistant, bodyguard that anybody could possibly hope for. And it's a question of control and a question of, well, it's like the actor who plays Nottingham. Eric has a Rottweiler, a great big dog, and we talk about it sometimes, because I think Irons and Nottingham's relationship is similar to Eric's relationship with this Rottweiler, because Eric says 'that dog could probably tear me apart if he really wanted to. But just because of my relationship in raising him and taking care of him, keeping him' -- and he pretty much keeps that dog on a short leash. And I think that Irons keeps Nottingham on a short leash. The only exception I would make is I don't want Nottingham to think that he could tear me apart. I don't know what would happen if Irons and Nottingham ever square off. And it looks like they they might at some point. So . . .
Q: What would happen if Irons doesn't get control of this thing he so badly wants control of?
A: Good question. I don't think that's the whole thrust of where Irons is going. He's just not going to stop until he does. And if he doesn't get it the first time, he'll try again and again and again and again.
Q: What are some of the burdens of the Blade, as opposed some of its blessings?
A: I think one of the burdens of the Blade is that it does have a mind of it's own, and so, to that extent, you have to work with it. You have to coax it a little bit, tease it a little bit. I think the analogy that we were talking about in an interview before was it's like a woman for him and a very complicated woman at that. So the complications involved with a complicated woman are probably similar ones of the Blade, you know. And so the other question would be can you really truly master this? And what price you have to pay?
Q: Why does this show fit into great drama?
A: I know exactly why it fits into that genre. The thing I like about this first of all, like I said, it has a nice, great sweep. You're not watching an hour every week and here's the bad guy of the week and here's this episode and here's this situation. You've got a whole broad, broad stroke of a story that goes for all these episodes. The other thing is the sources that it draws from. I don't know of any other show in its genre that is as ambitious in terms of drawing from from mythology, from religion, from ancient history, from -- you know the episode we just shot, one of Irons' former protègès, their initial battle takes the form of trying to one-up each other with quotes from William Blake. So the writers have set a high standard for themselves, while at the same time trying to keep a sense of popular appeal. I think, after all, it's to entertain. But at the same time we hope to serve it very nicely.
Q: Are those the forces that keep it grounded in reality?
A: Sure. Or that what if this were true? I think it is very well thought out. The effort is made to keep it realistic in the sense that well, this is plausible. This could happen and everybody's trying to treat it in the sense that it's not just a comic book type of reaction to everything. But that the thrust is on the relationships even more so. So that even this Witchblade, the thrust is on her relationship to it, his relationship to it, the characters' relationships to each other, and that's great. It's fun to play. It's fun to watch.
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