Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but ABC’s Castle is bringing on a familiar face to help the NYPD get to the bottom of a case a bit bigger than they’re used to tackling. But whereas a year ago it was Dana Delany playing a prickly G-Woman, this Monday at 10/9c, you get Adrian Pasdar as a hardcore Homeland Security honcho. And whereas Delany’s FBI Agent Jordan Shaw was enlisted to track a serial killer picking off innocents one-by-one, Pasdar’s Agent Mark Fallon is on hand to stop someone from killing a whole lotta people at once.
Pasdar spoke with TVLine about his 24-like, two-episode arc and if — as Delany did with ABC’s Body Of Proof (premiering March 29) — he stands to parlay this plum gig into something more.
TVLINE | What kind of welcome does Agent Fallon get when he arrives on the scene this week?
Ice-cold. I mean, who wants some dude coming in telling them how to cook their pancakes? But it warms up, which is really cool, because toward the end of the first episode you get an inkling of who he really is.
TVLINE | He does some things early on that won’t make him popular with viewers.
That’s the great part about playing somebody like this – you’re not responsible for the likeability, just getting the job done.
TVLINE | And based on the way he interrogates one woman as she’s holding a baby, you get the sense this is a guy who will do whatever needs to be done.
Great, that’s exactly what’s supposed to be drawn from that scene. And in the middle of the second episode there’s a reason that’s made clear to Castle and Beckett why he is who he is. He’s kind of forgiven for his a–hole behavior, based on what’s revealed.
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TVLINE | What’s Fallon’s take on Castle’s presence during this highly sensitive, high-stakes drama? After all, he’s not a cop, but a novelist.
[Laughs] I get to address that. Fallon is kind of baffled at first – “I don’t even know why you’re here,” I say at one point. And then he starts accepting, based on the fact that Castle comes up with some good ideas.
TVLINE | Does he at any point come to suspect there’s a little “something” between Castle and Beckett?
Yeah, I do say something about that. Like, “I thought you guys were together?” Castle says, “No, we’re just friends,” and I kind of look at him like, “Yeah, right.” There’s a moment of levity there.
TVLINE | As you were reading this script, did you get the sense it would have a 24-like intensity to it? Because that’s how it plays on screen.
Oh, it was definitely written like that. And though the character was written as an entirely fictional creation, I based him on a very real person, a friend of mine. That combination of escapism combined with the realism of the person I based Fallon on gave it that 24 feel, that sense of immediacy that things had to get done now.
TVLINE | About a year ago, Dana Delany had her own two-part Castle arc, and at the time she was awarded the lead in the pilot for Body Of Proof. Are there any offers on the table for you yet?
I was made aware of that when I stepped into this, that that was a possible outcome. But man, you never know. So many things have to come together for a TV show to work – and for a good TV show to work, a million great things have to come together. And the rarity of that…. I’ve been on some really good TV shows that have turned into… [Clears throat]. Anyway…. So yeah, it’s a possibility, but who knows? If more than five people choose to do it, it could happen — based on which six people they are.
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TVLINE | If you could pick any of your past TV series to have run longer, which would you choose?
Profit. Without a doubt. That was television before its time, TV doesn’t get better than that. But David Greenwalt, one of the writer-producers on that show, has a new [pilot in development for NBC], called Grimm, and it is just as good. It’s amazing.
TVLINE | And Heroes? Dead, done, finito?
[Inhales sharply] Uh, yeah. I think it was done somewhere in the middle of Season 2, wasn’t it?
Castle fans, are you excited for Adrian Pasdar’s two-episode run?
