Interview with Ron Rifkin

AE: Speaking of Alias, how would you compare Saul Holden with Arvin Sloane?
RR: Arvin Sloane became, through the years, an iconic villain. I didn't know until the fourth season how evil he was. I certainly didn't play him as evil. I played him as a man who had a passion, who was interested in saving the world. Saul is a totally different character. He's filled with love, filled with humor, filled with a robust energy for life. He loves wine, loves food, loves his family. He's just thrilled with everything going on around him. He's highly intelligent, highly interested in things of the flesh and the spirit. He's just an open, loving guy. Arvin was closed and secretive and hidden. The only thing that's closed about Saul was his closet door.

AE: My editor wants to know what was up with Arvin's constantly drinking water.
RR: [laughs] So do I want to know that! That also started from the blogs. People came up with the idea that every time Arvin Sloane drank water, something bad was going to happen. So we put it in every script, and every time we went to block a scene, I'd be like, "Can I have some water?" They even made an action figure of Arvin Sloane, and he's holding a glass of water.

The people who produce and write the shows read those things. I never read them because I'm afraid they'll say something bad about me. One time I did. I went on Television Without Pity and they said something like, "I love my Arvin Sloane, but I wish he wouldn't take his shirt off." So I never read it again. I was always teasing Victor [Garber] because he'd never take his shirt off and I had to take my shirt off many times.

AE: How was it going from a high-action, fantastical show like Alias to a drama like B&S? Do you have a preference?
RR: No, I don't have a preference. I was very challenged with Sloane because I'm so different from Sloane. There are so many elements of myself in Saul that I can bring to it. I'm looking forward to the complexity of Saul's secret life and my relationships with all my family. I'm looking forward to playing that. I'm looking forward to speaking for a character who has a complicated side to his life and what that will mean for people out there who have similar kinds of issues to deal with.

I think that's important. Because I live in New York and I'm basically of the theater, I really don't have a sense of how we affect people's lives, we in film or whatever. In theater, you really do get a sense every night after the show how you affect people because they tell you. We see it. We hear it during curtain call or as we leave the theater.

On television, it's quite different. Picking up on last year's Chanukah/Christmas episode where I lit Chanukah candles during a scene, people came up to me and thanked me. They said they appreciated that being on the air and stuff like that. One starts to get an idea of how valuable and how important television can be.

What a responsibility it is — on every level — Matthew playing that character, me beginning to play this character, and what that represents. I think it's an enormous responsibility, and I feel it should be taken seriously and should be honored. And I guess that's what AfterElton.com is about in some ways. That's why you have that. That's why it's so important to you all, to all of us.

AE: We interviewed Greg Berlanti and Matthew Rhys last season and asked both of them to name some of their favorite Brothers & Sisters scenes. Can you tell us some of yours?
RR: I think the scene I filmed with Sally when I told her there was a daughter with Holly, I think that was a highly emotional scene for both of us. Then there was another scene with Sally and I on a staircase, where she was having a date in a restaurant and I was having a date with Holly, and she was a little tipsy, and I couldn't control myself from laughing.

Both scenes were really a tremendous indication of how much this brother and sister love each other. The scenes that show that kind of love and that kind of emotion for me are really important. Like that scene with Matthew that I had in my office when he gets really pissed off with me for telling his mother — it may have been the same episode — and he comes to my office and challenges me. Matthew and I had never had a chance to play a scene together, and I got really, really pissed off. Matthew, at one point, looked at me and said, "Ron, wow! I didn't know you had that side of you." I think that's always something, when you're working with somebody who you really enjoy working with and all the stuff that just happens.

AE: Ron, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. I've really enjoyed talking to you and I think our readers will enjoy reading it as well.
RR: Good! Just know that I am treating this character with as much respect, and as much dignity, and as much humanity, and as much love as I possibly can, because I feel it's to be paid attention to.