Mark Pellegrino Learns How to Die in "Spartan"

Mark Pellegrino has a history of playing characters with shades of grey -- from Rita's ex-hubby Paul on Dexter to Jacob on LOST to Lucifer on Supernatural to Bishop on Being Human. In Spartan, he plays a convict on death row who is being transported for medical care when his world is blown apart by Val Kilmer.

"I never really play 'bad guys' per se," Pellegrino told Current. "For me, it comes down to what is the human thing going on, and is that interesting? All of my characters have a mission. Paul's mission was to reunite with his family. Lucifer wanted revenge. Jacob wanted redemption, and he wanted to find a candidate to replace him. And Bishop, well, you'll see what his mission is as the show goes along. And in this case, it's a guy in a jam, he's trying to escape, and he's trying to placate the person who now has the power of life and death over him."

In Spartan, Val Kilmer plays Scott, a former Marine Master Sergeant on a clandestine op, tracking down the kidnapped daughter of the President. In the course of this, he has to perform a kidnapping of his own -- to intercept a federal prisoner's transfer for information he needs. It's just bad luck for Pellegrino's character that he's being transported with the other convict -- and that Scott knows about his death sentence, which makes him seem dispensable. Scott pretends to be a criminal on the run, and stages a robbery that would require him to do away with the convicts' guard and allow him to steal the car. Pellegrino's convict thinks he's got a chance to get away, and tries to make friends.

"[Writer/director] David Mamet gave me some pristine direction here," Pellegrino said. "Usually you just get some shorthand direction, something results oriented, but David told me, 'This guy is always trying to escape. He's always trying to get away.' So he's trying to play on Scott's heart strings, and get sympathy. Even asking for a cigarette, that's what you do in prison, because it's a kind of currency. He's slick, and knows the way to get under someone's skin, and how to play the system. He's an opportunist. So it might be just a ruse, but he's trying to get on his good side."

Kilmer stayed in character on set for the scene, and was completely cut off from the actors playing the two convicts, sitting in a car and listening to music in between takes. "It made me try even harder to get on his good side," Pellegrino said.

Since Kilmer's character knows that he's going to have to kill Pellegrino -- to "travel light," as he puts it -- he doesn't listen to any entreaties or offers. And in the middle of Pellegrino's praise of him -- calling him "the hand of God [who] came down with an outstretched arm and freed my ass" -- Kilmer shoots him.

"I get blown off a bench and fall backwards," Pellegrino said. "My death only takes a split second."

Pellegrino used to have a hard time dying on camera -- even for Method actors or those trained in the Meisner technique, as he is, dying is tricky. It's not something you can practice or have experience with. 

"Dying is something you have to manufacture all on your own," he said. "Some people do it amazingly well -- Robert Duvall in Colors, Giovanni Ribisi in Saving Private Ryan -- but it's definitely unique to the actor. And when I started out, for my very first dying scene on camera in Fatal Beauty, I just imitated what I had seen other actors do, because I had no idea. But my take now is to be fully in my imagination, to use all of my imagination in the moment, and to make that work. All I would say now about dying is you have to really do it. Don't really die, but really do it."

Spartan airs on Current TV on Thursday, March 10 at 12 am ET/9 pm PT and Saturday, March 19 at 12 am ET/9 pm PT.