Mark Valley brought the season finale of Human Target to the comic book fans at WonderCon, so they got to see it a couple weeks early. There are some spoilers about the backstory revealed for Christopher Chance since this audience saw the episode, but here’s what Valley had to say about the climactic action and story of Human Target’s first season.
Q: What was it like finally getting to fight Jackie Earle Haley?
Mark Valley: The fight scene with Jackie, I was thinking the one on top of the characters which actually was on top of containers stacked about three high. Yeah, I finally got to do a scene with Jackie, we got to fight.
Q: Besides your own military background, what sort of fight training did you have to do?
Mark Valley: Well, the fight scene in that one was mostly just punching and kicking which we have some very good stuntmen who can act like they’re getting punched much harder than they actually are. Lennie [James]’s not that good of a stuntman. He’s very athletic, excellent fighter but you have to really hit him in order for him to act like he’s been hit. He feels the same way about me as well. So after the fight scenes with Lennie, I usually need like a half a bottle of Ibuprofen to carry with me throughout the day. But they’re such a centerpiece and I’m really lucky Jon [Steinberg]’s written those into the storyline because it’s a lot of fun. It’s invigorating and it’s usually one or two days in each episode I’m just running around kicking and punching and fighting. I have to hold myself back from actually making the sounds when you hit somebody, like “Bam! Smash!” I just try to keep my mouth shut and go through the moves.
Q: How much of this backstory did you know when you started out, and did you have to change anything when you found out this episode?
Mark Valley: It was always exciting to read the next script. It was almost like being a kid and waiting for the next comic book to come on the stand. Thick comic book though.
Q: If it does get picked up for season two, where do you want to see Chance go?
Mark Valley: I’m kind of looking forward to finding out what happens to my character when he has to go back to his previous life. I want to see a little bit more of Armand Assante and I’d like to see how he deals with going back into something that he actually left, more or less paying the fiddler for his previous life. I can’t speak for Jackie, for Guerrero’s character but I know Chi McBride would like to see his character go to the Bahamas. That’s what he told me to tell you guys.
Q: Did you do anything to bond and form the chemistry with the cast?
Mark Valley: I met Chi once before. He doesn’t remember it but I did meet him once before and we talked for a little bit, briefly. I’d never met Jackie before but I’d certainly been aware of his work and actually kind of a fan. Anyway, now that I’ve gotten to know them that’s kind of calmed down a little bit but I’m thinking maybe by the end of WonderCon I can get his autograph. We actually met on this one scene that we had to shoot in the pilot when we’re all in the office. We were all sitting in the back on little chairs. I think the first conversation we all had, we all started complaining about our kids. Then we all sort of bonded a little bit and talked a little bit more about this and that and realized that the three of us are all sort of lucky. The three of us have pretty varied experience in the business in some ways. We all come from different places but the three of us our smart enough to realize that we’ve got a really good deal going here and let’s not screw this up. We’ve got Jon leading a great writing team and we’re just kind of appreciative because well now what the alternative could be, which is either unemployment or working with, well…
Q: What sort of fighting style are you using on the show?
Mark Valley: I draw on my experience pillow fighting, thumb wrestling… God, I wish I had a good third one.
Q: Rock, paper, scissors.
Mark Valley: Let’s just rewind. “and Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Thank you for that. We have a good stunt coordinator named Dean Choe who’s very experienced in the more traditional forms of karate. My stunt man and stunt double, his name is Jeff Robinson who is just incredibly educated in a variety of different forms but I have to say they’re all based in some kind of traditional Japanese style. I took some Kung Fu, a little bit of kickboxing here and there. I had to take boxing in college. They made us do that until our noses bled. Other than that, what you’re seeing is kind of a genuine mix of styles that really suit the moment. As we’re moving on we’re discovering that wow, Chance does have sort of a style. That speaks to the way we’re shooting as well, the way Jon envisions these fights going on. There’s a little Muay Thai. I’ve always liked to kind of mix it up and try to add something else in there but we’re finding Chance does have a certain kind of style and it’s interesting you’re picking that up. I don’t really know what it would be called, but it’s all of Chance’s stuff, Rock, Paper, Scissors and the rest.
Q: Do you think you’re ever going to get into the are of the comic book where Chance changes his appearance every week?
Mark Valley: When I first read the script, he doesn’t change, he just speaks Japanese and has these skills. Once I started looking into the comic books and reading about it later, I thought, “God, how confusing this is,” because he looks just like this person, and he looks like that person. I’d have a few more days off if they did it that way, that’s for sure. But I think they really wanted to bring on a character that you get to know him first. How it would exist in the real world, in real life, realistically, it’s going to take an awful lot of work to get someone to look just like somebody else. I don’t really know if that’s technologically possible. So we wanted to keep at least one foot in reality, so that I could take a 60-foot jump on a motorcycle, that you might believe that. Doing that looking like Christian Slater at the same time might be a bit much.
Q: Were there any concerns with taking on a character that was very popular in the 70’s and a lot of people may not have been aware of in the current generation?
Mark Valley: I just sort of trusted with the writers and just kind of went where they thought. Len Wein was one of the guys who’s really behind this, and he’s one of the original guys who came up with the character. I felt well, they believe it. He’s the guy who created this character. I’m just going to kind of trust them and what we end up taking is sort of the essence of who that guy really was. Maybe that one aspect of it is something we might not be able to get to the first season, the second season, maybe later on we will integrate that in, where he does take on somebody else’s personality. But I thought it was just fantastic. I just gobbled up as much information as I possibly could about the guy and used that as like a point of departure. Really, as an actor, I’m not creating a sculpture of Christopher Chance. I’m an interpretive artist and I take the information that I can and the current script and then I just sort of interpret that into what I believe.
Q: In the second episode, “Rewind,” he had that really good introspective moment in the car about “Why are we doing this?” Will he continue to think about that?
Mark Valley: That scene sort of snuck up on me. Sometimes you read it like it’s only half a page, or a page, I can work on that one when the time comes, but when we’re actually sitting in the car I realized he’s kind of been thinking about this whole episode, and what happened to that girl, and why didn’t she come, and why me, and I think he might have a little bit of survivor’s guilt as well. It’s interesting, you can come up with all this interesting stuff after. I was just sitting there looking out the window.
Q: Is there going to be a female lead or continuous love interest for Chance?
Mark Valley: I think anyone who’s really been on this show could be a female lead. I’d like to see them bring back as many of our guest stars as possible that we’ve had. As far as a female lead there’s been some talk about that. There might be. There may not be.
