J. August Richards On Familiarizing Himself With DEATHLOK; Would Like To See Him Be "Redeemed"
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s J. August Richards talked about getting to see his "Angel" co-star Amy Acker appear on the show, and discusses preparation for his role as Deathlok, as well as saying that he'd like to see redemption for the character.
Mike Peterson, now known as the deadly Deathlok, is starting to become a recurring villain on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and J. August Richards is a great person to portray the character. In a lengthy interview with ComicBookResources, Richards talked about needing to become familiar with the character. "Honestly, not much," he said when asked if he was well aware of the character before playing him. "I'd seen the character before, because I was an avid comic book reader as a kid. Once I found out that I was playing Deathlok, I thought that it would be really poetic for me to start my research in my childhood comic book collection. So I cracked it open, I went to the ["Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe,"] which I had every issue of, which I was really happy about, and started in issue "D" and found Deathlok, and read about him there. Then, Marvel was kind enough to grant me access to the older comics via the Internet, and I read those."
He was asked if he'd like to see Deathlok head down a more heroic path on the show, which could potentially lead to him teaming up with the agents. "God, yes," he says, "because I know how badly he wants it, and I know that from the beginning -- from the very moment we saw him -- he just wanted to be a hero for his son. Just as a human being, not as the actor playing him, but just as a person, I just want nothing more than to see him be redeemed in his own eyes. I didn't realize how guilty this character felt about everything -- about the stuff that he did when he was under the influence of Centipede. If it were me, I'd be like, "That wasn't me, that was the Centipede tearing up the train station." But he feels so incredibly guilty about everything. So just as a human being, I want redemption for Mike, and I hope he gets it. He also got asked if it was fun to see that Amy Acker, whom he worked with on Joss Whedon's Angel, got the chance to appear on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. despite the fact that they didn't share any scenes together. "Oh man, so much fun. I was really disappointed that we weren't going to work together when I found out, but it was great to see her on the show. I love her so much. She's a really great actress and a great person." As the show's first season is coming to an end very shortly, be sure to check out the final episodes of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. every Tuesday!