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Comic-Con Interview: Charles Mesure (Kyle Hobbes)

Article by Craig Byrne

The character of Kyle Hobbes was a powerful addition to V in the latter half of the first season.

VisitorSite.net participated in an interview roundtable where we got to talk to the actor who plays him, Charles Mesure. Mesure has recently been added as a series regular for Season 2, so Hobbes fans out there should feel very happy. Beware of some spoilers within this interview, and come back later this week for more V interviews from Comic-Con!

Please do not reproduce this interview on other websites. If you would like to re-post this, please e-mail and ask permission before posting. Questions are in bold type; answers are not.

When did you find out that you were being brought back to V as a series regular?

I heard a whisper while we were filming, and then it became official towards the end of us filming.

Will we learn more about Kyle Hobbes' past in the second season?

Yeah. I believe we will. Scott Rosenbaum just whispered in my ear, a fantastic part of my backstory that's going to become a major plotline on the show, and it's amazing and breathtaking. My jaw was on the floor. I can't tell you a single thing about it. The one thing that I can tell you is that in one of the last episodes, Marcus (Christopher Shyer) showed me this photo, and he said "Okay, we can't get to you, but we can get to this person," and it's going to be about this person, and my past with this person.

The other thing that I think we're going to explore is that Hobbes used to be British SAS or New Zealand SAS, or Continental British SAS, and he was fighting the good fight; fighting to protect people, fighting for a cause he believed in, and something happened where he lost his fight, and I'm not myself now. Forget all that. I'm going to make as much money as I can, and to hell with everyone else. I think we're going to find out what happened to him, and why he made that choice.

Do you think he's getting a sense that money isn't as valuable now that there's a new power struggle going on?

This show is so huge. You work in episodic TV, and most of the shows are cops and robbers, and doctors and nurses and whatever. This is like the entire human race against an enemy that is so powerful they can't even fully comprehend it yet. So that's huge. What's money in that? His whole career has been about making money; well, what are the percentages in siding with a side that's going to probably obliterate the Earth? We don't know what they're going to do. So, yeah. He's certainly finding out there are more things to life than money. Loyalty, for instance.

What is it that has value to Hobbes now?

I think loyalty is really coming into it. In the last episode, Joel Gretsch was delivering this beautiful sermon, and Hobbes had just come from doing a deal that possibly was betraying all of mankind. I just came from doing my deal, I sat down next to Erica Evans, a character Hobbes has some affection and some loyalty for, like it or not, against his nature. He's listening to this priest who again, despite his nature, he has affections and loyalty for, giving this really important speech, and he's sitting there in God's house. And he's thinking yeah, there's loyalty. There's duty to your colleagues; there's duty to your race, and there's all kinds of things going on now more than money.

He's going to ask those questions now. I'm not saying that he's going to become a goody two-shoes, but yeah. He's been an absolute mercenary who now has been forced to question himself because of this war.

Rebecca asks: Does Hobbes have an entire closet full of black shirts?

Yeah, that's all I wear.

Is it the same shirt every time, or does he wash them?

He washes them. He's very hygenic. It's really funny. I turned up on day one for wardrobe fittings, and I turned up in a tight black t-shirt and tight black jeans. That's what I auditioned in. Then we were there for two or three hours, trying on all kinds of military outfits. Old G-star jackets and fatigue pants... and then at the end, the designer showed the producers the picture of the clothes that I turned up in that day, and they went "Oh, no, that's the guy! That's the character!" So now it's the painted-on black t-shirt and the painted-on jeans, as I read in one review.

Was it by choice that you wore that that day?

That was just what I wore to the audition. In the backstory, the idea was that Hobbes used to meet with heads of state and heads of corporations and stuff, who would hire him to do these jobs; these acts of violence and so on. So I figured he'd wear a nice pair of shoes, a pair of jeans, and a black jacket. He puts on his camouflage jacket; he's ready to do some job. He puts on a dress jacket and he's ready to go meet with the head of state or whatever. He's on the run all the time. He has to travel light. So it's the same clothes he wears. That's where it came from.

Where does the Fifth Column meet? Is it in Jack's church or is it Hobbes' place?

That's my place. It's Hobbes' bunker.

Isn't that a breach of Hobbes' personal code?

Yeah, but Hobbes' bunker is secure. It got into one script. One of the first scripts, it said if anyone comes in unauthorized, the place would explode automatically. It didn't make the script, because we couldn't make it work. But basically, Hobbes' place is secure, so that's where they're safe.

It's a risk for him to bring these people in, letting them into his space, which is for him, a risk, because he's a lone ranger. Just even that, just shows these people are having an effect on him, for sure.

Thanks again to Charles Mesure for taking the time to talk to us. Come back later this week for more interviews!

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