The
Witchblade baddie Anthony Cistaro, talks Kenneth Irons, expensive
props, and playing demons on Angel.
Kenneth
Irons, the insanely powerful businessman and nemesis of Witchblade leading
lady Sara Pezzini has riches beyond most folks' wildest dreams -- and attitude
to match. Prowling about, snow-white hair slicked back, mouth drawn into
the perfect curl of a sneer, this man ain't exactly Daddy Warbucks -- in
fact, he's more like Bruce Wayne's evil twin.
"That's
terrific, I think I'm going to steal that!" exclaims Anthony Cistaro, the
actor behind Irons' glower, when the character is described to him as such.
"[He's] very much like that, I think. The only thing I would add is that
[while] there are evil elements, I want to make sure that just like any
person that has complexities, Irons won't appear two-dimensional. I hope
you'll be able to see cracks in the armor that might give you the sense
that there's something else going on besides just a power hungry mogul."
Though
you can now view Cistaro facing off against Sara and her powerful gauntlet
every week on Witchblade (Tuesdays, 9 pm on TNT), you probably won't recognize
him from his previous sci-fi work -- he's popped up twice on Angel, encased
in various prosthetics.
"I
had just played one of the demons [on Angel], and I had come back for another
role on Buffy," he relates. "[Buffy mastermind Joss Whedon] said, 'You
know, there's actually something else on Angel I'd like you to do next
week.' The great thing about wearing prosthetics is that you can come back
as a completely different character the following week! I got to wear red
contact lenses one episode, green the next, and I got to have a head mold,
because that's how they build the prosthetics."
In
addition to his genre TV connections, Cistaro also has a rather unique
tie to the comic book that Witchblade is based on -- his former college
roommate, comics whiz Brian Haberlin, had a hand in creating the character.
"He
certainly gave me some good tips, as did [co-creator and exec producer]
Marc Silvestri," says Cistaro. "Marc said, 'Think Donald Trump on crack,'
just in terms of having that absolute manic energy and the ability to be
a great, huge thinker. Brian, for his part, just said, 'Remember, this
is somebody who is comfortable in every level of society, every door is
open to him. He can't be thrown by any sort of social group.'"
Though
Cistaro conveys many levels of mogul-dom via the television screen, chatting
via phone, he's surprisingly soft-spoken -- one can detect, however, the
hint of mischief that also lurks beneath Irons' steely visage. Whereas
the mischief in Irons translates to evil grins and mind games, in Cistaro
it equals a sense of wonder about the project.
"My
first response walking onto the set was one of awe," he says. "They did
a great job with [Irons'] office and his lair. Those are real antiques
in there -- there are some very polite messages from the set decorators
saying, 'Please, keep in mind that this is a $10,000 chair, irreplaceable,
one of a kind!'" he laughs.
"The
people who make the props are very responsive and very good at coming up
with great, workable prop suggestions," he adds. "They do the research.
There was this scene that was cut, but we got on this whole issue about
Irons decanting this expensive bottle of Bordeaux, and of course they go
into the process of how he decants it over candlelight, and what the Bordeaux
bottle would look like. The scene was cut, so it never got shot, but that
attention to detail even on the small things really help and enrich my
experience playing the character."
Another
aspect of Cistaro's experience is working closely with Eric Etebari, who
plays Irons' mysterious, black-clad henchman Ian Nottingham.
"That's
been great fun!" he enthuses. "Eric and I always meet before we shoot the
episode, and we're both very conscious about trying to move this relationship
beyond one-note. We play little games once in a while, but it's all in
a good sense. He's throwing curve balls at me, I'm throwing curve balls
at him and it's a lot of fun to shoot as a result.
"You
look at [their relationship] and go, 'What's going on here?' Sometimes
[Irons] treats [Nottingham] like a servant, sometimes he treats him like
a son, sometimes he treats him like an animal that's acting up. There's
a whole question of shifting power. If Irons misjudges Nottingham, there
can be some real challenges there. And Eric, as the actor, I have to be
careful that I don't misjudge him. I have to say, I use some of what Irons
uses on Nottingham when I work with Eric! But it's great, and I think he
knows that's part of the game. I really like working with him for that
reason."
Overall,
Cistaro says he doesn't mind playing the bad guy -- so long as it's a multi-layered
bad guy. "It is a privilege to play the fallen angel, the person who's
sort of wrestling with good and evil," he says. "There will always be that
doubt -- he can go from playing bad to possibility turning good, [and]
it leaves more room to do more things."
And
speaking of other things, though Cistaro hopes Witchblade will return for
more after this summer, for now, he's off to London with the American Repertory
Theater. "We're doing a show that Julie Taymor had originally designed
called The King Stag. So I go from playing Kenneth Irons to playing a giant
parrot with twenty-foot silk sleeves," he chuckles. "It'll be a nice change."
