V waited all the way until the second season finale to bring in the original visitor resister, Marc Singer. Now we don’t even know if we’ll get to see him again since a third season is questionable. Singer made the most of his V appearance and joined the gang for a WonderCon panel. That meant I got to ask him some questions in the press room too.
CraveOnline: Did they have conventions like this when you were doing the original V?
Marc Singer: They didn’t have conventions like this when I was a kid, I’ll tell you that first of all. And I wish they had because I think a lot more young people would be involved in the creative arts and realized that there was a life for them beyond the proscribed hometown life that they were identified with. So that’s number one. I’m really grateful for these conventions today just as a means of outreach, not only from Hollywood to people who are interested in Hollywood, but just in communities themselves where people now are more creative and getting together and doing stuff like that. Your question was did they have these back when I was doing V originally. My answer is yes I believe there was a Con community. It was however not nearly as vibrant as it is today and I believe it was a little less well organized also, but there were Cons. I did not however participate in them when I was doing V because our days were so long that when the weekend came, if you had a day off and you weren’t doing publicity or practicing some special stunt that you had to do next week, you were basically on your hands and knees. The longest day that I recall us working on the original V was 22 hours long. It could be pretty taxing.
CraveOnline: No one stopped you from doing it back then.
Marc Singer: No, that’s right.
CraveOnline: In the ‘80s series, you got to do V: The Final Battle as a miniseries conclusion. They don’t really do network miniseries anymore so is it weird that they could just leave V hanging on a cliffhanger?
Marc Singer: I think what you’re speaking to when you talk about series endings and cliffhangers that simply remain dangling, I think is part of the new media. I think people are more used to that. There are not so many sweet answers and circular conclusions leading you back to where you began these days in the entertainment business as there used to be, and I think in a way it’s a good thing because it leaves the possibility of further creation along the same lines with the same themes with the same stories open to succeeding generations of storytellers. So that’s a good thing I think.
CraveOnline: How will you feel when the inevitable happens and they remake The Beastmaster?
Marc Singer: [Laughs] Well, by then I don’t know. If I had some involvement in that I would hope it would be before I’d be playing the old guy in the loincloth up in the cave on the side of the mountain dispensing wisdom. I’d still like to be able to swing a sword or two, which by the way I still practice as a regular thing. In fact, I just got a new sword that I’m really happy with.
CraveOnline: Did that become a hobby from that movie?
Marc Singer: No, that’s part of the kit bag that I bring with me as an actor. Back in the day when I was breaking into the business, many of the things that we call stunts now were just a given. That’s just what you did as an actor. That’s kind of a tradition in filmmaking that Elizabeth [Mitchell] carries on now as a matter of fact in V, and I think does so heroically. The idea that you should be handy and relish the action side of films because that’s what the audience wants to see, they want to see your face. They spend so much time in a film or a television series identifying with you, they want to see you, how you identify with the actual physical privations as much as you can. So the sword work and stuff like that was something that I brought with me to Beastmaster.
CraveOnline: Did being on the set of this V bring back any nostalgia for the original series?
Marc Singer: It does. It brings back a great deal of nostalgia. That’s what I was saying earlier on the panel regarding this series. I bring a sense of history, not only in the storyline but I also bring a sense of history in the actual filmic history of Hollywood and television. So there is a layering of the sense of what I contribute but there’s also a layering of the sense of what I feel every time I walk on that set.
