Christian Kane

Being a lean, mean fighting machine on TNT’s LEVERAGE has been a blessing for actor Christian Kane who plays Eliot Spencer, one-fifth of a team of thieves whose job is to help the hopeless against corporate greed.

Being the muscle on the show has been a blast according to Kane, but he’s also relished in getting show off his comedic skills as well. As the first season of LEVERAGE wrapped up this week, Kane spoke with iF about the series and what the future holds.

iF MAGAZINE: What do you have to say about people wanting to have your hair cut on the show?

CHRISTIAN KANE: F*ck ‘em. [laughs] I based this character off of Richard Marcinko, who was the founder of SEAL Team Six and he wrote one of my favorite books in the world called ROGUE WARRIOR. He’s infamous in so many countries. He was a NAVY Seal. He had to grow his hair long and his beard long so they wouldn’t recognize them because there were so many bounties on his head. People realize that in the season finale of how many bounties are on my head. Eliot the character, is known in many countries, so he had to grow his hair long. They didn’t hire me because I had long hair. This is a character choice I went over with [executive producers] John Rogers and Dean Devlin. And I’m tired of people talking about it like it’s me, being me. It’s a character choice. I might cut it, I might not, but I’m tired about hearing about my hair. [laughs]

iF: How fun has been to work on LEVERAGE?

KANE: It’s like a different movie every week. It’s not the same stuff. You go to other shows, it’s “who did what, they did it, we put them on trial, we win.” We’ve got a team of unbelievable writers, who are writing for their actors, which is very rare. They’re doing it in such a great style, it’s never boring. Every time we got a new script, it’s a new awakening. A lot of that has to do with the fact the show we’re doing is about cons. If you’re doing a con, whatever situation you’re in, you erase the characters, so there’s no carry over into the next episode. You’re done, you’re gone. If there is a trace of you, one of you is going to get busted and if one of you gets busted, the team goes down. So they erase us every time. We need to do a new con, which is like a new movie every week.

iF: There’s been some great camaraderie between you and Hardison [Aldis Hodge] throughout the season.

KANE: It’s Murtaugh and Riggs [from LETHAL WEAPON], I’m Gibson and he’s Glover. We know how to take each other to the limit without pushing them over and Hardison is best at that. Aldis, by the way, has put that into the character. It’s something that’s written, but it’s something you can’t act. He knows how to do that with me, to push me to the point of where I’m going to break, and walks on the edge. That you can’t teach people, and it’s going to continue to be a Murtaugh and Riggs thing and I’m looking forward to more of it.

iF: You’ve had a lot of cool fight sequences this season. One was with the Butcher of Kiev and the other was the first part of the season finale where you got the crap beat out of you, but you still came through.

KANE: That was a lot of Dean Devlin. He was like, “Eliot gets his ass handed to him” and I brought in one of my best friends in the world, Clayne Crawford. We had to have an actor, but I needed to trust him to throw punches. But you get an actor and they can’t throw punches, and they end up hitting you. We got him, he’s throwing punches and he misses. We were fortunate enough to have him and Dean Devlin said, “he’s beating my ass, it’s cool. Eliot is taking this stuff. He’s one of those guys, who is taking stuff, but he’s figuring out the guy’s moves.” Dean helped me out a lot. I didn’t want to get beat up this bad, but Dean was like, “you have to get beat up this bad, because all you’re doing is taking it to a certain point, but you’re literally learning about the guy,” and that’s why when he comes in with his final blows and I make my final blows, and it’s over. I had to take a couple of them, just to study this guy, because he’s good. And that’s what makes Eliot so good, he’s precise.

iF: You’ve mentioned that you’d like to see your ANGEL co-star and friend David Boreanaz direct an episode of LEVERAGE next season.

KANE: I talked to David, he’s my best friend, and he said, “dude, I should come and direct.” And David directed me a couple of times, and he’s directed on BONES, so hopefully, god willing, we can get him over to direct an episode of LEVERAGE next season.

iF: Do you think if he directed, he’d make an appearance?

KANE: I don’t know if he would make an appearance. It would be very cool if he walked by. He could possibly come in to a play a nemesis. That would be fun. Sam [Anderson] was just on a couple of episodes ago. He played my boss on ANGEL and so it was really cool to work with him, so you never know.

iF: You’ve brought a lot of people you’ve worked with in the past on the first season.

KANE: I brought Anthony De Longis in. He taught me everything I know about a blade. It became a numbers game and he taught me that game and it worked, so they needed somebody who could use that talent too, I said “you have to call Anthony De Longis.” And Dean and John were gracious enough to hire him.

iF: When I talked to Sam, he said you did a little wink to each other during your scene together.

KANE: We wanted to stop a little bit, look at each other and have a look. But if it were three or four seasons of LEVERAGE, it would have made sense, but right off the bat, four or five shows in, you have to be careful with stuff like that. We had fun. We said [to each other] “we’re not going to let that stop us, so Sam and I created a wink.” You can barely see it in the show, but it’s there. ANGEL fans will catch it.

iF: What were your favorite episodes?

KANE: My favorite was “The Bank Shot Job,” because I love what Tim and Gina did and it showed Parker in the light she is supposed to be in and Hardison was just being him. I was the first guy up that day, it was a huge fight scene. After six months of not filming, I was there by myself, I was the only actor and I was really, really nervous. He goes “action, cut, moving on.” I thought man, that guy trusted me more than anything, now I can do any of the fighting he brings.

iF: You’re currently working on a lingerie line?

KANE: I’m in Vegas now with one of the top designers in Dallas – Abi Ferrin (www.AbiFerrin.com). She’s let us have a little space — we’re selling swimsuits and lingerie that I designed with Heather Robinson. It’s called Maverix and Abei has let us come in and hang. We’re in Vegas right now, trying to promote this stuff and we’ve sold a lot stuff. [For more information check out www.christiankane.com]

iF: Is your album coming up soon?

KANE: I’m back in Nashville right now trying to figure that out. So in April, I will have a single out.

iF: I love how the season finale ends on a cliffhanger, but also wraps everything up. Was it bittersweet when you were filming it, since you weren’t officially picked up for a second season at that point?

KANE: I was never worried about getting picked up. We are on a network that believes in this. TNT is the best network to be on. I’ve worked with them numerous of times. I have a track record with them. I was on the number one watched television movie CROSSFIRE TRAIL with Tom Selleck, and we beat it with Steven Spielberg with INTO THE WEST. I’m on every morning at 6:00 am on ANGEL and I’m on Tuesday nights and Saturdays with LEVERAGE. This is my favorite network and they get behind their people. I was never worried about getting picked up, but we saw the fans come out and we invited them into your home. When you got off work from a long, long day and tune on the TV, they chose LEVERAGE. And TNT is the working man’s network. We owed you. We can’t do what the other networks do. So it is okay to fall in love with LEVERAGE, because we’re going again.