Extracts from Interviews with Ron given in Starlog magazine, and New York Vue Daily News, 1998.

During his interview for the February issue of Starlog (#247, Feb. 1998), Ron Perlman also discussed his role in the CBS mid-season series, The Magnificent Seven, based on the classic John Sturges film of the same name. "We are in pre-production for the start of the first episode after the pilot. I approach this show like I approach everything else, which means I'm very, very humble, very very guarded," Perlman says. "There is work to be done. We're trying to depict a place that's hopefully interesting for an audience. We have seven characters that haven't realised their capabilities yet, who are dark and brooding, but have these incredible streaks of humanity and heroism to them. We're very much in a building process. I don't ever approach anything from an external point-of-view, like, 'This is going to be a great success.' We're just trying to get it right and trying to make the material as interesting as possible, with these characters, for a show with the potential to be really interesting.

"I'm a huge fan of Westerns, great Westerns. I'm a huge fan of John Ford. I'm a huge fan of the original Magnificent Seven. I've become a fan of late of many of Clint Eastwood's movies that I've been studying as I prepared for the series. I actually like the genre more than I like SF. Anyway, my character on Magnificent Seven is based very loosely on Bernard O'Reilly, Charles Bronson's character in the original film. He was half-Irish and half- Mexican."

Perlman didn't know any of his co-stars in the Magnificent seven before they met on set. They include several familiar genre names, including Michael (Terminator) Biehn, Dale (Time Trax) Midkiff and Eric (Dark Skies) Close. The other three characters who make up the seven are played by Anthony Starke, Rick Worthy and Andrew Kavovit.

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Ron Perlman was also interviewed by Richard Huff for an article in the New York Vue Daily News entitled 'Magnificent Seven' Rides Again. Huff begins by mentioning the well known musical score to the original movie which was written by Elmer Bernstein. Luckily CBS was able to acquire the rights to the music along with the characters.

"It's the most distinctive score in the history of Westerns," says Perlman.

The series is described as revolving around seven disparate men who come together with a common goal of justice. Each has dark secrets in his past and an experience of violence and tragedy. Together they face the violence of the Wild West.

Working in a series which is a spin-off from a well-known film can be both a blessing and a curse. "We get to fashion what it is we are doing and hope to aspire to something that's truly classic," Perlman explains. "It's up to us to approach the same level of integrity they reached in [the movie makers'] telling of the saga.

Perlman goes on to say that he is not a fan of the Western genre in particular, but of good movies in general. John Ford, who did many classic Westerns, "made as good a movie as anyone who has ever had a lens finder around his neck," he says. "And the Duke [John Wayne] was probably one of the most underrated actors who ever paid dues in the [Screen Actors] Guild; he made some great, great films."

"Westerns a genre have endured because people relate to the rugged individualism involved," Perlman continues. "There's an evocation that takes place when you see a guy ride across the high plains on a horse."

He adds that working on a Western requires a fair amount of research. For example, people in the Old West tended to deal with each other in a formal, Victorian fashion that's unfamiliar today.

For Perlman, research included refining his equestrian skills. "In terms of physical stuff, you want to be as good on a horse as you can," he says. "I grew up in New York, so I didn't get as much experience to participate in the endeavors of the great outdoors. I had learned to ride for another film, though I never really got good at it."

Meanwhile, Perlman will be part of a group of seven, attempting to bring peace to the Plains.

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Extract from an interview with Trilogy Executive Producer John Watson, September 4, 1998

Question: I've seen a copy of the original pilot script and realized that you did a very interesting re-write on the end of it, as far as who the Seven ended up being for the series.

Watson: In the original conception, we were going to kill off one of the original Seven and replace him with one of the guys from the confederate group that they were fighting against, the character of [Francis] Corcoran. And in the course of the casting process, at different times, we thought about killing off the Buck character (Dale Midkiff) and killing off the Josiah character (Ron Perlman). In the end we were so enthusiastic about the actors that we cast, and the actors that we cast wanted to be in the series and not just do a one-off. Originally when we went to Ron Perlman to play Josiah, who at the time was the character we were planning to kill off, we thought that he would only be interested in doing a guest role in the Pilot. And he said that he would love to do a series, so we went, "Oh. Okay. Well, how do we keep him alive?" And rather than completely changing the script, we decided to wound those two characters and really not have them die.

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These interviews were originally printed in the 'Perlman's Progress' Newsletter, Issue 2 and Issue 5, 1998.

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