Christian Kane

The award-winning actor/singer/songwriter talks about everything he’s doing, including starring in the new TNT series

As an actor, Christian Kane has earned fans from his gigs on FAME L.A., as the morally ambiguous lawyer Lindsey McDonald on several seasons of ANGEL and as a stalker in an award-winning performance in KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. As a singer/songwriter, Kane has captivated listeners both as frontman for the band Kane and as a solo artist.

Now Kane is coming up as a triple threat. He costars as Elliott Spencer, the most physical of the group of contemporary outlaws fighting on the side of good in TNT’s new series LEVERAGE (which debuts December 7). He’s also got a new album due out from Columbia Records in 2009. And he’s co-designer of a line of women’s lingerie (seriously – more about that in Part 2 of our interview).

Naturally, this seemed like a perfect time to catch up with the actor about the very busy plate he has.

iF MAGAZINE: LEVERAGE is about a small band of people who use sometimes illegally iffy methods to right wrongs committed against innocent people. How does your character, Elliott Spencer, function within the group?

CHRISTIAN KANE: I can probably say my character’s a Jason Bourne-ish type character. He’s very mysterious – you’re not sure where he got his military or fighting training. He’s the muscle. Timothy [Hutton’s character] is the trigger; this guy’s the bullet, but he’s not one of those quiet guys. He’s kind of like B.A. Baracus from THE A-TEAM. He gets pissed off pretty easily, which is where his strengths come from. He actually uses his anger as another weapon. Related Articles Exclusive Preview: A SNEAK PEAK BEHIND TNT’S LIGHT-HEARTED THRILLER SERIES ’LEVERAGE’ 6/2/2008

iF: By Jason Bourne-type character, you don’t mean that he’s got amnesia …

KANE: No, absolutely not. Physically, he’s the guy who can go in and take care of six or seven guys just by himself. He’s almost untouchable. Although he might possibly find someone who [makes him] not so untouchable.

iF: How does he get on with the other team members?

KANE: We’re all outsiders and we’re playing as a team. I feel he may be one of the most outside people on the team. He doesn’t work well with others. He’s learning that process. He’s doing it because he trusts Tim’s judgment. He does not work well with others, obviously. So it’s a complication. It’s a task for him to fit into a group. He’s such a loner and so used to working by himself that a lot of his anger draws from that.

iF: In an interview awhile back, you said you were looking forward to having a sword in your hand again, as you did in ANGEL and the film SECONDHAND LIONS.

KANE: [In LEVERAGE], there are knives, there are no guns – this guy doesn’t like guns that much – but yeah, this is exactly what I was talking about. When I said I wanted a sword back, it was basically the action stuff and the fight stuff. [LEVERAGE creator] John Rogers writes brilliantly for me. It’s just easy to work with [LEVERAGE] executive producer Dean Devlin, because he’s the kind of director and the kind of producer that I like, that I work well with. He’s like working with [ANGEL co-creator] Joss Whedon. He wrote stuff that I love to play. Same thing with Dean Devlin and John Rogers. [LEVERAGE] is a really, really close-knit family.

iF: Did you have to do any type of training for the LEVERAGE role?

KANE: I have a lot of friends that fight for IFL and UFC and stuff like that, so I’m watching them and hanging out with them a lot. I did some stuff and I grew up with tough guys. A lot of the fight stuff I did [in other acting roles like] SECONDHAND LIONS – I love [the film’s sword master] Anthony De Longis. He taught me everything I know about swords. He’s a really good teacher. He’s a very patient man — you learn faster with somebody like him. He’s the best in the business when it comes to that, as far as I’m concerned. When I was on ANGEL, I was always in a fight, so I actually have been training my whole career for this role. The fight stuff is what I do best.