CONTINUUM - SCIFI AND TV TALK: ROGER CROSS INTERVIEW
Sense of Belonging - Interview with Continuum's Roger Cross
by Steve Eramo
07/19/2013
In 2077 Vancouver, Continuum‘s Travis Verta was one of the test subjects in a corporate government-sponsored super soldier project. He was endowed with extraordinary abilities that would serve him well when helping enforce corporate policies. When the project was later terminated, Travis suddenly became a loose end that had to be disposed of as well.
Luckily, someone intervened and saved him. Betrayed by those he so loyally served, Travis joined the anti-corporation terrorist group Liber8. In the show’s first season, he and a handful of other Liber8 members traveled back in time to 2012 to change history and prevent the corporations’ rise to power. Their task was undermined by local law enforcement and Kiera Cameron, a CPS (City Protective Services) officer also from the future. She remains a thorn in Liber8’s side in season two of Continuum, but that is just one of the complications for the terrorists, as Roger Cross, who plays Travis, explains...
... “I’d have to say that my character’s experience this [second] year hasn’t been the greatest of experiences,” says the actor. “Travis has been betrayed several times in his life, and that’s not going to stop. The only real truth for him and the one thing he can count on is his commitment to the mission of enlightening people and waking them up to the hypocrisy of the government and how it’s controlling them and making them do its bidding. They could care less about the people, and Travis has firsthand knowledge of that.
“For me as an actor, the challenge as well as joy of doing what I do on Continuum and playing someone like Travis is that he’s not a one-dimensional psycho who just wants to hurt people. Travis isn’t a stone cold killer, and in season two, you gain a clearer understanding and opinion of the man. For example, viewers get to see his first meeting with Lexa Doig’s character of Sonya Valentine, and Travis reveals a side of himself that was not always militant.
“This is someone who has gone through certain experiences that made him who and how he is, and now Travis has a belief in something greater than himself. He has found a place where he belongs, and it’s his mission in life. As a solider, he was out there defending people for a long time, but then Travis realized he was being used and manipulated. That’s why it’s important to him that people wake up and take charge of their lives. If they choose to ignore things, then they’re dead anyway. They’re like sheep, so what does it matter if he’s out there killing, Yes, he’s got a bit of a twisted view on things, but what I’ve tried to do is make sure I show you all his sides and that Travis isn’t just killing because he enjoys it...”
Continuum airs Friday at 10/9C on Syfy in the US. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EPISODE TRAILER FOR 'SECOND LISTEN,' AIRING JULY 26, 2013.
