what did people work as in london in the mid
Jungle Fever: Interview with The River's Paul Blackthorne
Throughout the centuries there has been more than one brave explorer who set out with the hope of making the next Earth-shattering discovery, only to never be heard from again. History seems to be repeating itself, albeit fictionally, in the new eight-part ABC TV series The River. In it, world famous wildlife expert, explorer, and TV personality Dr. Emmet Cole went looking for magic deep in the uncharted Amazon and never returned.
Family, friends, and admirers were more or less resigned to the fact that he was lost forever, but one day that all changed. Now the search is on for Emmet, and his ex-producer Clark Quietly is tagging along to film it all for a new reality TV show. Is he doing this, though, out of genuine concern for his longtime friend, or for a chance to make TV ratings history? Actor Paul Blackthorne, who plays Clark, ponders that very question.
"Some people have asked whether my character is a good guy or bad guy, and I think the interesting thing about him is that he's ambiguous in a sense," says Blackthorne. "Obviously some might perceive his actions as being self-serving, but at the same time Clark is helping people close to him find their loved one. He's doing that through the means at his disposal, which, I suppose, is making a TV show. Does Clark get something out of it? Yes. Do other people get something out of it? Yes.
"Clark's relationship with Emmet Cole [Bruce Greenwood] is a very deep-rooted one. They've known each other for a long time and there's a slightly brotherly bond between them. They fought a lot, they laughed a lot, and they created a lot. At the end of the day, Emmet and Clark had a great respect for each other. So my character is trying to find someone he cares very much about as well.
"An important aspect of the Clark character is that he knows and understands people very well. If you put eight or nine people on a boat in a small environment, like any good reality TV producer he's going to know how to stir up a little bit of drama. It's in his interest to make the show appealing in order to sell it. That's all wonderful in Clark's world, until peculiar things start happening on the boat and things begin to go bump in the night in the middle of the jungle.
"Suddenly, Clark is treading this fine line of making a compelling TV show and stirring up his 'characters,' but at the same time realizing he is in the middle of nowhere with strange paranormal things happening. That makes him just as worried about the next hour as the next person. So Clark has to walk that fine line, and how far does he push things in terms of creating conflict when he and everyone around him are doing their best to survive throughout all these weird escapades."
