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Zap2it
April 24, 2003
David Carradine Knows Secrets of 'Alias'
by Kate O'Hare
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - In "Countdown," the episode of ABC's spy
melodrama "Alias" airing Sunday, April 27, at 9 p.m. ET, Sloane (Ron
Rifkin), the former head of evil espionage agency SD-6, heads to
Nepal to receive a life-changing revelation from a mysterious monk,
concerning his quest for the artifacts of the 15th-century prophet
Rambaldi.
To likely no one's surprise, "Kung Fu" star David Carradine plays
that monk, oddly named Conrad.
"Well, they needed [a monk]," says Carradine, "and I'm almost the
only game in town for that. I think it would be interesting if fans
didn't know about it until it happened, but how do we get them to
watch it except to tell them it is going to happen?"
Coincidentally, Carradine just finished shooting the feature
film "Kill Bill" with director Quentin Tarantino, who has been a
guest star on "Alias."
"He did two of them," Carradine says. "They told me about it. I
haven't actually talked to [Tarantino] about it. This came up after
the picture was wrapped, and Quentin is almost incommunicado right
now, because he's buried in his editing."
Asked if he watched "Alias" -- which stars Jennifer Garner as
beautiful spy Sydney Bristow, who used to be a double agent at SD-6
and now works solely for the CIA -- Carradine says, "I don't watch
much television, and I fell into 'Alias' accidentally a couple of
months ago in passing. I went, 'What the hell is this?' When I found
out I was going to do one ... I got a hold of JJ [Abrams], who's the
executive producer, and I said, 'Look, could you give me a couple of
segments?'"
"And so he gave me the pilot and one that he thought was really
interesting in the middle. I think he gave that one to me because it
kind of related to the one that I did."
"So I made sure to watch -- not just because I wanted to get to know
the series or just because I wanted to know what I was doing -- but
because I wanted to get the feeling that it was a series that I
watched, and I was just so happy to be in it and now, as a fan, I've
been brought into this fantasy world that I've been interested in."
"This was the exercise that I gave myself, and it worked pretty good.
There I was, I knew what was going on, and it just felt so delicious
that I actually possessed secrets that the people in the show, when
you watch them, don't have."
Unfortunately, Carradine didn't get to work with most of the show's
cast, but he did have a unique experience with Rifkin.
"I got to look at Ron Rifkin and watch him cry all day long. He
didn't cry for the entire day, but in virtually every shot we did,
there's this moment we come around to again where a tear comes to his
eye. Watching him produce that tear, maybe 30 times in a day, was a
remarkable feat of acting. And it helped me a lot."
"It's a very emotional show. It's not just shoot 'em ups and
intrigues and stuff like that. Basically, what this show's about is
love and lost love and loyalties and betrayals and all of these
really deep emotions that go on. It's the ties that bind, and the
fact that there's more going on than we can possibly realize, and I
know that's true."
Carradine also became a fan of Abrams'. "He reminds me of a pint-
sized Quentin Tarantino. There's that same boundless enthusiasm and
total knowledge of film."
As to whether Conrad might return to "Alias," Carradine says, "You
know, they haven't told me. It's entirely possible. At least they
didn't kill me. This guy, he knows more about Rambaldi and all of
that than anybody. He's the guy that set Sloane on his quest in the
first place, though Sloane is really pissed when he shows up."
"I sent him off on a kind of new quest, which I won't spoil
everything by telling you about. He also needs to know that it wasn't
all in vain. This is kind of a cliffhanger. It's going to be
interesting, not to say that every damn segment of the thing isn't
pretty damn interesting."
© Zap2it 2003
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