PERSON OF INTEREST: Jim Caviezel Reflects on 'Terra Incognita' - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

PERSON OF INTEREST: Jim Caviezel Reflects on ‘Terra Incognita’

January 11, 2016 by  

Terra IncognitaPERSON OF INTEREST fantastic fourth season (which is, finally, streaming on Netflix) dove deeper into the dueling artificial intelligences, but one of the finest hours was decidedly human: “Terra Incognita,” as a dying Reese (Jim Caviezel) hallucinated a do-over with Carter (Taraji P. Henson).

“This felt like a great way to put those characters back together again, and get the opportunity for them to have a last goodbye, from their perspective,” PERSON OF INTEREST creator Jonathan Nolan said at the time.

Caviezel pointed to the hour as a particularly important one for Reese. “Last year, during the scene in the car with Carter where he doesn’t realize he has all these protective things around him — he was devastated by the loss,” he shared late last year on the set of the show’s upcoming fifth season. “He was in love with her. But because he’s so good — like special operators can do, they can separate heart and mind. They can compartmentalized so much that when he lost Carter, he never realized that he loved her. And very deeply. That loss, he’ll never get that back. In human behavior, he starts to play a new kind tape in his head, that this is what really happened, when it didn’t happen that way. Now, it gives him a purpose [going forward].”

The hour also posed a challenge for Caviezel as an actor. His first reaction when he got the script? “Fear. Tremendous fear,” he said. “Yes, I’m happy I have the script. But the anxiety is, ‘Can I pull this off? Can I do it?’ And I have to think, people who say they aren’t [afraid], I don’t know if they’re necessarily really good at their job. It should scare the hell out of you. And it did.”

But when it came time to film, “you forget [that], and you get it, and you work, and you mull it through,” he said. “And then you forget about everything. Because when you work with someone like Taraji Henson, she brings so much to it; spontaneity to it. Literally, I don’t have to remember anything, I’m just right there, from one moment to the next. She can make you laugh. She had a way with Carter — it just makes me sad she’s not on our show anymore.”

“That was so pleasurable; I prepare for the worst when I go and do these things,” he continued. “But she made it so easy. There was a lot of humor that wasn’t written on the page. Michael [Emerson (Finch)] does that all the time[, too]. Michael comes up with line reads I’m not expecting, but that’s when it’s really fun: when it’s not work. When you get to those moments when you’re working with some really top-notch, talented people. Some of the best in the world. I’m fortunate to have that.”

PERSON OF INTEREST returns to CBS in 2016.

Related:

PERSON OF INTEREST: Greg Plageman and Michael Emerson on the ‘Satisfying,’ ‘Philosophical’ Season 5
PERSON OF INTEREST: Michael Emerson on the Show’s WGN America Run, Season 5’s ‘Events’
PERSON OF INTEREST: The Cast, Writers Pick Which Episodes Will Hook You
PERSON OF INTEREST: Sarah Shahi and Greg Plageman Preview Shaw’s Season 5 Return
PERSON OF INTEREST Post-Mortem: Greg Plageman on Season 5’s ‘Greatest Mystery,’ Rebuilding the Machine, Exploring Backstories, and More

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Filed under Person of Interest

Comments

9 Responses to “PERSON OF INTEREST: Jim Caviezel Reflects on ‘Terra Incognita’”

  1. Jazz on January 11th, 2016 7:01 pm

    JOHN REESE and JOSS CARTER are my absolute favorite characters of Person Of Interest ever. Jim Caviezel and Taraji P. Henson have a one of a kind chemistry. Would love to see them in a different kind of remake of The Bodyguard. It would ROCK!

  2. Kat on January 11th, 2016 7:04 pm

    LOVE LOVE LOVE JIM CAVIEZEL!! Hope we see much more of him after POI!

  3. Marie on January 11th, 2016 7:09 pm

    Have been a fan of Jim since I saw him in the Thin Red Line a couple of years back (a little late). 😀 In my opinion, the writers have been underusing his fantastic acting skills in season 4 by leaving him out of the main story. Too bad, great mistake for the show. Episodes like Terra Incognita were the absolute highlights of the season. Went by like nothing. 45 minutes seemed like 10.

    Fantastique! What is next for Jim? Want to see him soooooon! 🙂

  4. indsys on January 11th, 2016 7:47 pm

    Terra Incognita is the best episode in Person of Interest season 4.. Jim Caviezel & Taraji Henson are the best performers for such an episode.. I watched it like ten times, and every time it affects my feelings as if it was the first time.. Masterpiece written by Erik Mountain & Directed by Alrick Riley..

  5. Carol on January 11th, 2016 8:03 pm

    Excellent interview about an exceptional episode, by far the best of season four. The chemistry between Caviezel and Henson was the heart and souls of the show, now sadly torn apart and discarded. It’s good to learn that Caviezel understands the magic they created together on POI and that he misses Taraji as much as we do.

  6. Lionsassy on January 12th, 2016 10:41 pm

    Wonderful insightful article. Loved Terra Ingocnito.

  7. Idalia on January 13th, 2016 10:24 am

    Person of Interest is an exitingbgroup of actors…THE BEST

  8. Keri on January 14th, 2016 1:52 pm

    I miss Carter and Reese!!!

    Without this Team Person of Interest became totally lame.

    She MUST return.

  9. su on January 24th, 2016 7:23 pm

    Root is my only GOD