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Interview: Scott Wolf Talks About V Season 2!

by Craig Byrne

Scott Wolf was one of the most well-known actors to join V when it launched last year. As Chad Decker, a character many might describe as a bit of a "slimeball," Wolf gets some fantastic material, often opposite Anna herself.

In the second interview from our V set visit, we and several other media outlets spoke to actors and crew about the show's second season, which premieres in less than a month, Tuesday, January 4 on ABC. Be sure to come back to the site every Tuesday until then for new interviews, and past interviews can be found at the bottom of this page.

This week, however, enjoy Scott Wolf!

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"Chad is trying to save his ass," Wolf tells us of his character's primary goal for the season. "It's pretty much the driving force behind most everything he's doing. I think he has gotten himself way in over his head. The way I like to think about the first season, was that this was a guy who pretty much operated the way he wanted to in the world. He was pretty successful. He wasn't as successful as he wanted to be. But I think he was a guy who was pretty good at getting a room and figuring out a way to make somebody feel comfortable, connect with somebody, and get what he needed from them."

"I think he approached the leader of the alien race that has arrived on Earth like he would have treated any other subject sitting in front of him," Scott continues. "Not until maybe halfway, two-thirds of the way through that first season in our story do we see a guy wake up to the fact that his life was on the line, and all of our lives were on the line. And while he might have known that in some way, I think he's one of those kinds of people who is able to compartmentalize things in such a way where for him, this was a common quest like any other. This was a game like any other. And before it was too late, he realized that it was a game of life and death; namely his own. And so now when we jump into our second season, we very much see a guy who is trying to set himself on a new and better course, and one that will save his own ass, and hopefully a lot of asses along the way."

Wolf explains that Chad is seeking redemption for some of the mistakes he has made in the past. "Where we've seen him kind of doing this dance in the middle and waiting to see which was the better team to pick, we now see a guy who is going to pick a side, and ultimately knows that the key to his survival is staying in good graces with Anna. [But] I think he's smart enough to know that the minute they decide they don't like him/don't need him/don't want him around, he's gone and dead. And then Scott's looking for work, and that's not good. Xo while I think it's still important to remember that he knows far less than you know, and than a lot of other characters in our story know, some of it he's blinded himself to, but some of it he hasn't seen with his own eyes. Thus far, all he has seen is what looks like some sort of torture device. So it's not good. It definitely has opened his mind to 'what if everything I have been told about what I need to be afraid of is true?' It'll be interesting to see how our audience manages the Chad of it all, because he did serve as a bit of a villanous kind of character within the story, and I think he wants to change that. So it'll be interesting to see how people handle that," he says.

Scott says that interactions between Chad and Anna are a bit of a balancing act, particularly from an acting standpoint, because he knows that Chad can't demonstrate his fear to her in any way. "If she smells blood, she'll eat it. [But] he needs to be in rooms with her, and showing himself to be the relaxed kind of professional and confidante that he's been to her thus far. So, where to allow to for the truth of that to slip in - and it has - it's fun," he says, revealing a hint of a scene that we will see in one of the season's early episode. "We just did a scene last night where I've found out some incredbly revealing information about who they actually are, and even what they look like, and I played this scene where it's the first time Chad is in a room with her after he has come to understand what's going on beneath. It was fun to do. From the standpoint of just having an incredible amount of life underneath what you're portraying on the surface is a blast, but also to play a guy who's kind of morally ambiguous and vulnerable, is fun. Most of the people that I've played have been people who you kind of know exactly who they are, and they tell you in every moment, and this is a guy who probably wants people to know less about him, and that's where he gets his power and his control. It's been fun," he says.

If Chad finds out that another Visitor, such as Lisa or Diana, can come up with a better offer than Anna has, would Chad still take it? "I do. I don't need to think about that one," Scott says. "I think he's a pretty clever guy. I think you don't get to where he's gotten in his line of work without knowing how to manage people, read people, and go to where your bread is buttered. What's fun about this year is, he's still fighting his own fight. I don't think he's given up on the fact that he does want to be a powerful person. He does want to be in the middle of this story. He wants to come of this thing on top. Not just alive. But the alive part is here now too, and you don't come out on top without coming out alive. Seeing him try and fight both of these battles at the same time has been really fun," he continues.

Another character who may have a "better deal" for Chad is Father Jack, played by Joel Gretsch. Wolf reveals that Chad and Father Jack do interact again very early on in the second season. "Chad's first step at some sort of redemption comes through Father Jack," Scott reveals. "He's the best 'out' that I think Chad has to changing directions, or to fighting a different fight than he's been, making up for some of the mistakes that he's made. So we definitely see him and Father Jack."

Wolf believes the interaction between Jack and Chad is one of the most intimate relationships in Chad Decker's life. "While he and Anna are engaged in this kind of dance with each other, with Father Jack, there are these two men who see something in each other, believe something about each other, and are trying to break away what's in the way of them really finding each other and maybe doing great things [together] with who they are. And there's the frustration that they keep on missing each other. They don't fully trust each other. I think one of the fun things about our story is it's about what happens to human beings when this kind of event is happening, and I think what's going on between Chad and Father Jack, is you see what an event like the Visitors arriving on Earth can do to two people who might otherwise really have an easy communication. But they don't fully trust each other. They don't know if the other person's going to ultimately hurt them. They want to believe in each other. So I love what their relationship represents in the story, and it does continue to progress. It doesn't get easy right away. That's what I like about what our writers are doing. More and more, they're allowing for the complexity of these relationships to really flourish," he says.

V Season 2 premieres Tuesday, January 4 on ABC. Come back to VisitorSite.net next Tuesday for another interview!

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More V Season 2 Interviews: Jane Badler - Elizabeth Mitchell

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V returns January 4, 2011 on ABC.