I spoke with Nick Eversman about Missing, his new show with Ashley Judd on ABC. Nick plays Michael Winstone, the kidnapped son of Ashley Judd’s character. I was already familiar with Nick’s work from his guest starring roles on House and CSI: Miami. It was such a pleasure to speak with Nick and words can’t even describe how kind and considerate he was. I certainly know why everyone in the industry enjoys working with this bright, young talent. I’m looking forward to watching him every week in Missing.
Lena: I loved your episode of House (“Black Hole”). It’s sad that the series is ending.
Nick Eversman: Thank you. I know, I guess they just decided to call it quits.
Lena: It’s been on for a while but it’s such a staple in the television world.
Nick Eversman: I guess how many more ideas can you get for episodes.
Lena: What was it like working on that show?
Nick Eversman: It was fantastic and a little bit surreal. House to me was one of those really good shows that everybody wants to get on and to find out that I was actually going to be working with Hugh (Laurie) was quite intimidating. Hugh is a total professional, a great guy to work with as a fellow actor. The fact that I was having difficulty at one point working on a scene figuring it out for myself and every single time that we would pass between takes he would just go “think about this, think about this” and so he helped me along with that scene. It was also a little intimidating because the night before I worked with him was the People’s Choice Awards and he won for Best Actor and they won for Best Show. It was a little bit daunting.
Lena: That puts the pressure on you to really do a good job.
Nick Eversman: That’s for sure. I’m happy with the work I did on the show.
Lena: It was definitely a great episode. I also caught your episode of CSI: Miami (“In the Wind”).
Nick Eversman: Yes that was a nice little guest star role with Anthony Michael Hall. That was kind of interesting. I didn’t know that he was playing my dad until I was on set and I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” It was pretty cool. Caruso, man he’s intense. He definitely gets into his character. That one was pretty cool and it was pretty quick. It was only a three-day shoot. It was kind of one right after another, I actually found out that I was doing House while I was filming CSI: Miami. That was just after doing Ghost Whisperer. It was a very good few months for me.
Lena: Denis O’Hare from American Horror Story was also in that episode. He played the lawyer. What a great episode casting wise.
Nick Eversman: Oh, yeah. It was definitely chock-full of great actors.
Lena: When Caruso entered the room did he do a one-liner and the sunglass move for you?
Nick Eversman: Yeah, you know that is actually kind of his thing and not just on the show, he actually did that.
Lena: Oh, you are definitely a great actor because I would have laughed a lot (laughing).
Nick Eversman: It was tough (laughing). No, because the guy is just so intense you don’t want to say the wrong thing. I always try my best to be as nice to people as possible. I made sure to treat him and his character with respect.
Lena: When I interviewed someone that worked with him before they said that when stuff goes wrong on the set he yells out “Diet Coke.”
Nick Eversman: Yeah, yeah I saw that happening.
Lena: (Laughing) What a weird thing to yell out in the middle of something. (I would love to interview Caruso sometime and get the reason behind his word choice.)
Nick Eversman: He was a character.
Lena: I’m looking forward to the premiere of Missing. Ashley Judd and Sean Bean play your parents.
Nick Eversman: Thank you. Yes, they do. The last few shows that I’ve worked on have been with amazing parents. In Cinema Verite Diane Lane and Tim Robbins were my parents. Working with those two, Tim was in one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption. He’s one of my favorite actors, so that was crazy. Diane Lane, I’ve seen several of her films growing up and then to work with Ashley Judd from Double Jeopardy, Frida, and a host of other movies. With Sean Bean, you’ve got 006, Alec Trevelyan, and Eddard Stark (Game of Thrones). They really upped my game big time. It was pretty cool working with those guys.
Lena: You’ve definitely had a couple of beautiful moms with Ashley and Diane.
Nick Eversman: Yeah, no doubt. I guess I came from a good gene pool (laughing).
Lena: (Laughing) There you go. I know I loved Ashley in Kiss the Girls.
Nick Eversman: I actually haven’t seen that one.
Lena: Oh, you have to see that. Sean was in Equilibrium, one of my favorite films.
Lena: What can you tell me about Missing and your character Michael?
Nick Eversman: The show is about a mother, played by Ashley. Sean plays the dad that was killed in a terrorist attack ten years prior, and you see that played out in the first few minutes of the show. You fast forward and Michael, who just graduated high school, got accepted in a graduate level architecture program in Rome and kind of against his mother’s wishes, he convinces her that nothing bad is going to happen to him and he’s safe and smart enough to go out into the world on his own. She reluctantly lets him go but unfortunately, a few days after he gets there he goes missing. There isn’t a trace of him and nobody knows where he is. Being the concerned mother that she is she goes over to find Michael and in the course of it we just happen to find out that she’s ex-CIA. Not only is he kidnapped but she is going through every means necessary to find him in a foreign country. It’s a little bit crazy. It’s a very cool action, adventure, suspense, thriller, and more kind of thing.
Lena: This is your first series regular television role. How much are we going to get to see you? Are you going to be in every episode?
Nick Eversman: Yes. I’m in every episode and you will see me quite a bit. I’m in the first one a lot, the second one not as much just because she is still trying to find me. The search continues but in the third episode you pick up kind of where you start following my story as well as Ashley’s. Ashley will definitely always get a little more face time than I will but you follow the two stories. Michael isn’t a dimwitted guy, he’s a very smart young man who is put in a very desperate situation and he’s going to try his best to get out of it as well.
Lena: How was it working with the cast?
Nick Eversman: It was interesting. I wasn’t able to see most of the cast just due to the nature of what it was, me being kidnapped. It was mainly me and this young lady that I can mention, Tereza Voriskova. She plays Oksana and I really can’t give away exactly who she is yet, but she was the one that I was working with continuously. She was absolutely fantastic. We were definitely very blessed to get the cast that we did. It’s not just some great actors from the U.S. but internationally as well. We got Cliff Curtis, Adriano Giannini, and a few people from Prague. We got people from all around the globe and of course, Sean from the U.K. We have some Irish people as well. It was just incredible to go to work everyday and just see this melting pot. It really is a global type series. We all got along great and it was a lot of fun.
Lena: Did you actually film it in Italy?
Nick Eversman: We actually filmed in Prague for about four months. We filmed in Hvar, Croatia for a few weeks. We also filmed in Istanbul for two weeks. We were definitely stationed in Prague but we went all over to film. We hardly used any sets, we liked to use Prague because it’s one of those cities that has such a rich history to it that you can go just a few blocks over and it looks like you are in a different time, in a different city, in a different part of the world. It was cool working in a place like that.
Lena: That must have been a nice change of scenery for you.
Nick Eversman: It was definitely a learning experience. I didn’t speak any Czech but I do a little now with the help of some of my co-stars. It was just absolutely gorgeous to wake up every day next to one of the monuments that they have in Prague. It was just such an amazing feeling to wake up in this Old European apartment and then walk down these cobblestone streets to go to the markets. It’s about as much as a 180 from Los Angeles as you can get. It was very cool but tough being away from home. It was a great experience.
Lena: I hope you took a lot of pictures.
Nick Eversman: I did. I actually bought a camera over there and gosh I think I took over a thousand. I definitely took full advantage of that.
Lena: Please tell me that at some point they are going to have Liam Neeson (Taken) guest star? His specialty is getting people back so that would be awesome.
Nick Eversman: (Laughing) I don’t know if they went to the same school, or were in the same class, but Liam never showed up. Although, I think I can say without ruining anything that I don’t go into slave prostitution or anything like that (laughing).
Lena: Well, that is good (laughing).
Nick Eversman: I know, I explicitly had that in my contract.
Lena: Ah, no nudity or Spartacus scenes for you. I would love to see the contracts that they sign to be in Spartacus. I bet they are pretty interesting.
Nick Eversman: Yeah.
Lena: The show definitely has all the markers that make a hit show, a great cast, story, and a lot of action, so I really hope it does well for you.
Nick Eversman: Well thank you very much. Right now I’m just excited about the fact that they are promoting it pretty well over here. There are posters everywhere and billboards. They actually have a poster for it about a block away from my house so it’s nice to drive by that every day on my way to work, auditions, or what have you. I’m hoping that it will do well. We actually have a pretty global release for it and as far as I know, we are in 194 different regions. That includes around the world in India, Asia, Europe, and I think I heard Australia. We are kind of all over the place and it will definitely change a few things for me, that’s for darn sure.
Lena: I was just in Boston and I saw a poster advertising it. I haven’t seen any in Rhode Island, but it’s not really a hot spot here (laughing).
Nick Eversman: Yes, I used to live in New England.
Lena: How would you describe how Michael handles himself in the face of danger?
Nick Eversman: He’s definitely not a guy who will roll over and give up. Michael’s a very strong-willed person and he was raised that way. After what happened with his family, safety kind of became rule number one and being able to take care of yourself. Ashley’s character Rebecca is a single mom is doing the best that she can. Michael also doesn’t know that his mom is CIA, so that being said she can’t teach him how to handle a gun or how to take down an enemy without the use of weapons. I can definitely tell you that Michael is a strong guy. He’s very caring, cares about the people around him, and he wants to get out of the situation that he is in.
Lena: How would you describe your kidnappers? Can they be compared to some movie or television kidnappers that we have seen?
Nick Eversman: I can’t really describe them because he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know who kidnapped him. There are a few characters that you will meet that are definitely not on the good side. They are not soldiers or anything like that. Michael is kidnapped by what looks to be a group of thugs and thrown into the back of a car. He’s in a castle, kind of alone in a castle. It’s just a weird situation and there may be a few people there. Michael will occasionally push the limits of that but he obviously has no idea where he is or how to speak to anybody. What is the best way to describe the kidnappers? They are not very good people.
Lena: What were some of the challenges that you faced filming it?
Nick Eversman: Well, being far away from home is definitely number one on the list and also just the grind of it. We had some very long shooting days. It was grueling but I wouldn’t change that for anything in the world. That’s the good stuff. I think one of the more difficult things, but it was one of the things that I really loved, was that I did a lot of my own stunts. There were a few times that I walked home with a few bruises, as can happen when you do stunts (laughing). It was a lot of fun; I loved it.
Lena: Steve Shill (Dexter) (Law & Order: CI) (The Tudors) (The Beast) directed the pilot. What was it like working with him?
Nick Eversman: He was great. He was very open in listening to what you thought of the character and to be honest, a lot of the directors were. They each had their own vision of it and it was so great. All of them, especially Steve who directed a few of them, they were so accessible and you could talk to them about things and if something seemed a little corny or didn’t work, we would try it another way. He was very open to listen to everyone’s opinion but also at the end of the day, he let us trust our own instincts and trust the characters that we knew, the characters that we had created together. He was a pleasure to work with. He’s a good guy.
Lena: He’s directed a lot of really fantastic things.
Nick Eversman: Yes he has. It was a little bit daunting when I first met him because he directed Dexter. That is one of my favorite shows, along with a host of other ones. He’s a very nice guy.
Lena: Yes, The Tudors, The Beast, and awhole bunch of other cool things. So you like Dexter?
Nick Eversman: I do and there’s something about a twisted good guy. There is something kind of cool about somebody that is doing the right thing in the wrong way but you want it to happen. It’s a pretty cool premise. He’s like the angel of vigilantism. He’s definitely the angel of death but he’s doing the right thing in most cases.
Lena: Yes, I wonder what they are going to do with it next season.
Nick Eversman: I have no idea after the way it ended.
Lena: Now she knows so…
Nick Eversman: They’ve got some good writers over there. I’m looking forward to it.
Lena: What are you planning on doing on premiere night?
Nick Eversman: You know what, I’m not exactly sure. I might actually have to work. I may be filming something else. We’ll have to see but there will be no better reason to miss your series premiere other than to say that I’m working on another project. That’s great as an actor to just love to create and flex those muscles anytime you can. That being said, if I’m not working I’ll probably be at home watching it with a few of my close friends and family.
Lena: Do you have any pets?
Nick Eversman: I have a couple of cats, both of them rescues. I really do want to get a dog but I don’t know if I can have a little one. I had Golden Retrievers most of my life and I just loved to take them camping. I’ve had some good pets.
Lena: Yes, if you are going to get a dog, you have to get a real dog. Little dogs are just glorified cats.
Nick Eversman: (Laughing)
Lena: Do your cats always want to be in whatever room you just closed off?
Nick Eversman: Oh my gosh, yeah I just closed the door a little while ago and one of my cats was jumping up on the bed trying to say hello and the other one was outside of the door saying let me in.
Lena: Yes, I had to lock my cat out of the room because twice in interviews he’s thrown up. You know the noise they make, that noise before they throw up…(laughing)
Nick Eversman: Oh I do! I can actually do an impression of it but I won’t share that with you…(laughing). That’s great, I’ve had cats my whole life as well.
Lena: You worked on The Runaways and Vampires Suck. That’s a pretty interesting Twilight, Kristen Stewart connection.
Nick Eversman: It was and actually my only scene in The Runaways was with Kristen. It was my first film in L.A. and it was a little bit daunting. She had hit her peak and we were filming the scene outside and she had a little bit of paparazzi there. In the scene we basically just make out and I just wanted to make her feel comfortable. I didn’t want anything in the tabloids, “Kristen has a new beau, or whatever.” I actually found out that I was doing Vampires Suck before the screening of The Runaways. I actually pulled her aside at the screening and told her that she did a fantastic job. She did Joan Jett to a T and as side note, “I’m doing this film and I hope you don’t hate me afterwards.” (laughing) She kind of just smiled at me. I’m pretty sure that she knew they were going to get spoofed sooner or later but it was interesting. I had a great amount of fun on both of the films for completely different reasons. They were both just a lot of fun to work on.
Lena: Have any Twilight fans approached you angry about the film or do they get the joke?
Nick Eversman: Hardly anybody even recognizes me from it, which I’m fine with, because I really don’t want to suffer the wrath of the Twihards. I basically had a perm and blonde hair. I had yellow eyes and fangs. It’s hard to tell but there are a few people that I’ve talked to that are Twilight fans and I get a giggle or a snicker. One of my friends will say to someone, “he was in…” and they tend to get the joke. I don’t want anyone to come at me with a stake to the heart or something (laughing). Nothing vampire related.
Lena: What else do you have coming up?
Nick Eversman: I don’t know how much I can say about this but I did just do my first voice-over gig for a Disney film. What I can say is that it’s a sequel and it involves dogs that live in a certain part of the country. I don’t know if that gave anything away (laughing). I finished work on it about two weeks ago. That’s going to be coming out in September. There are a few films that are in production. I have on called Deep Dark Canyon that will be in the festival circuit soon. I have this one that I filmed in Berlin called Urban Explorer and that is coming out on Blu-ray in the U.K. I’m not sure if it’s coming out in the U.S. but we did win at the Screamfest here in L.A. with it. It’s a nice little horror film. If people can find it I would definitely recommend it. It’s one of the better horror films that at least I’ve seen in years, and I’m not just trying to toot my own horn. It has a good mixture of suspense and action.
Lena: I hope it comes out here.
Lena: Is there anything that you want to add about Missing. It is hard to talk about because it isn’t out yet, so it’s all on you.
Nick Eversman: The most I can say is that I had an absolute blast. I have my fingers crossed that we are going to get a second season. It was wonderful to work on and I’m so glad that people are putting skinny guys in action roles, even if we do get beat up a bit. I loved it. It was a dream come true, that was one of dream roles. I’ve always wanted to do a James Bond type movie.
Lena: That’s fantastic and I’m really looking forward to it. I hope it will be a hit for you guys.
Nick Eversman: Thank you, I really appreciate that.
MISSING
Nick Eversman Interview
“Michael Winstone”
Missing Premieres Thursday Night, March 15 at 8 EST on ABC
March 14, 2012
By Lena Lamoray