411mania Interviews: Mark Valley

Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 01.17.2010

Mark Valley checks in with 411mania to talk about his starring role in the new Fox TV series, Human Target.

Mark Valley (Keen Eddie; Shrek The 3rd; Boston Legal; Fringe) stars in the new Fox midseason series, Human Target, premiering January 17. This is an awesome action-adventure series based on the DC comic of the same name featuring Valley as the private security specialist, Christopher Chance. Also appearing in the show alongside Valley will be Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen; the upcoming new Nightmare on Elmstreet) and Chi McBride (Boston Public; Pushing Daisies; I, Robot; The Terminal). Earlier this week, Mark Valley checked in with 411mania for an exclusive interview to talk about the show:


Mark Valley (C) stars as Christopher Chance. Jackie Earle Haley (L) as Guerrero. Chi McBride (R) as Winston.

Jeffrey Harris: We actually met very briefly last summer at the San Diego Comic Con, and I think you told me that was your first Comic Con.

Mark Valley: That was the first Comic Con I've ever been to.

Jeffrey Harris: What were your thoughts and feelings on going to Comic Con for the first time?

Mark Valley: I was pretty impressed. The attention that most of the people, the love everyone had toward their favorite character and their favorite shows, it was just absolutely fascinating to me.

Jeffrey Harris: Did you get any cool merch and did anything crazy happen over there? Con can be quite ferocious.

Mark Valley: No, I didn't get trampled. I had a room where I could look over all the events going on down there and I was just sort of visually blown away with everyone there and everything that they were wearing, the costumes and so forth. And I also a left with like a really cool sword, an inflatable sword.

Jeffrey Harris: That was the sword I gave you.

Mark Valley: Oh, that was you! OK, I get it now. I had a bag with my face on it, but I like the sword though.

Jeffrey Harris: It's weird because I live in Los Angeles and I never have any cool stories where I run into a movie star or TV star, but in San Diego my friend and I will just run into everybody when we are just walking around the streets and in our hotel. That's why I love Comic Con and San Diego.

Mark Valley: It's definitely a great place to venue a show because it's really a discerning audience. They're people that really think about what they watch and about their stories and that sets it apart from other conventions.

Jeffrey Harris: You probably wouldn't believe how big of a Keen Eddie fan I was several years ago, and I'm very excited to see you headlining a show like this again. I watched the first two episodes of this series [The Human Target] and I get it. This is like a 1980's action-adventure throwback like The A-Team, Lethal Weapon, Indiana Jones, and Die Hard. And I think the advantage your show has is that there are not a lot shows like this on TV right now. What do you think?

Mark Valley: Well I think with '80's, Indiana Jones and so forth, I think a lot of people were sort of seduced by the technology of being able to make those action shows a lot more realistic and as a result they became -- they took themselves a lot more seriously. I think what we're doing now is, we're kind of realizing we have enough technology to make it look realistic even on television but let's have some fun while we're doing it as well.

Jeffrey Harris: Did you have doubts or concerns at all about taking the lead role in a series again after what happened with Keen Eddie?

Mark Valley: Oh no, not at all really. I think having done Keen Eddie makes this an awful lot easier. I had that experience before and granted I'm extremely proud of it, what I did on that show, and I sort of learned that's what's important. Whether or not people are going to watch it just sort of dictates how long it goes and I'm not too wrapped up with that to be honest with you. It sort of feels like, well Keen Eddie didn't go and I'm still here, so . . . What's the worst that could happened?

Jeffrey Harris: In the pilot, the action sequence that made me go nuts was the hand-to-hand fight scene you had with the assassin in the air duct of the bullet train. I don't think I've ever seen a sequence like that before. What was that like to shoot and was it difficult?

Mark Valley: No, it was actually a little bit easier because when you're that close you actually have a limited amount of choices to make. I can't hit somebody with an elbow, I'm not going to wind up and run and punch you know. It was sort of indicative of the way the whole show is working, is that we're trying to save money by limiting what we can do but in creating those limits we also feel a little bit more reach to kind of experiment and kind of improvise with those limits. So I think that's starting in the show as well overall, not just that duct fight which I thought was a lot of fun actually.

Jeffrey Harris: I really like Christopher Chance's moral stance and his charisma, wit, and physicality. It looks like it's you doing a lot of the fighting and stunts. Do you practice any martial arts outside of the show?

Mark Valley: Yeah, I've done some in the past but it's really different doing it on camera. It's kind of like learning a well-choreographed dance. And we've got some great stunt coordinators and some great stunt doubles who are accomplished martial artists and they sort of plan the stuff and I work on it a little bit, whatever adaptations that I might want and have to make, and sort of run those moves like I was running lines.

Jeffrey Harris: In the comic series, Christopher Chance would literally assume the identity of the clients he was protecting. For the TV series, the concept has been slightly altered to make it a little more realistic and feasible where Chance assumes a cover close to the client rather than actually disguising himself as the client. But the personality and character of Chance is very much intact. How much do you like to play with those ideas in developing the character in the series?

Mark Valley: Well, the original comic, the DC comic book character, was more just into the disguise and you definitely had a set personality all the way through. Then the Vertigo comics you could see that he was actually changing and kind of fighting with questions of, "Who am I, really?" And it got a little confusing to be honest with you and a little bit bogged down in a lot of that without fully fleshing it out. Fortunately, the show doesn't really go down that route. He's only really changed his personality or assumes an identity to which it was necessary to kind of accomplish the job. And who knows, maybe we will see him taking over the identity of someone but it would have to be a guest star like Thomas Jane or something, you know? Who knows?

Jeffrey Harris: Early on, the covers Chance takes on are white collar type covers. Do you think you will ever take a cover that's a little less glamorous where you might have to hide behind a dumpster?

Mark Valley: I don't know about the dumpster but yeah definitely there are some more interesting ones. There's one episode where he has to go to a monastery and dress up like a monk like the rest of them to move around freely without attracting attention. In this latest episode, he's more or less a mercenary, that we're working on now, kind of working with the Latin-American army. So we do have some pretty interesting identities. It's not always going to be the lawyer or the diplomat.

Jeffrey Harris: Like Christopher Chance, the rock star?

Mark Valley: Yeah exactly. I think he'd probably be a drummer, though. I think he'd want to like stay back and fade into the background a little bit . . . or maybe a roadie or something. Like a roadie with a beer gut, you know what I mean? Just kind of carrying cables around.

Jeffrey Harris: How do you like working with Jackie Earle Haley and Chi McBride?

Mark Valley: Jackie Earle Haley is a lot of fun. He's a really fun, really sweet guy. He's nothing like the characters that he plays. And then Chi is just like this force of nature that has this wonderful attitude and wealth of experience. And he's just a really great guy to have around.

Jeffrey Harris: Back in the days of Keen Eddie, you got to work with Sienna Miller early in her acting career after she transitioned over from modeling. What were your impressions of her as an actress back then and how did you like working with her?

Mark Valley: I thoroughly enjoyed it. She's a wonderful actress. She had a really good grasp of the comedic element. She had a really good kind of natural timing for the comedy, at least for that situation we had set up with Eddie living in her apartment, and her having a secret from her parents. It was actually, it was really a lot of fun. And yeah, I could see it that she would be exactly who she is today. I told her so myself.

Jeffrey Harris: Since we didn't get to see more of the show, do you think Eddie and Fiona would've gotten together or do you think it would not have worked out?

Mark Valley: I don't know, the series would have had to go on a little bit longer to kind of flesh that out. I don't know, I can't really remember back to be honest. I'd have to kind of re-watch it. You can always speculate.

Jeffrey Harris: I think with the chemistry Eddie and Fiona had, they would've gotten together eventually.

Mark Valley: Yeah, it was a funny show. It could've gone in a lot of different directions. I think in those kind of TV shows you can't have the two getting together and I think Cheers proved that.

Jeffrey Harris: I like that in this show Christopher Chance has a dog. Is that a Doberman or a rottweiler he has?

Mark Valley: Oh, it's a rottweiler.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you think we'll see more of the dog in the future?

Mark Valley: I don't know. I don't really know what they have planned for that. I know -- I think he's also sort of a good watch dog to have around the place. I mean I think rottweilers go back to the Roman legions where a similar dog used to guard the Roman legions I think. They're sort of a traditional choice I think for Chance.

Jeffrey Harris: Chance also has some Japanese swords in his apartment. Will he ever use those swords to like cut somebody?

Mark Valley: You know I think they're mostly for show or for training and practice. But I always wanted to do some sort of sword fighting or some kind of traditional thing like that. But I think we're going to find out that Chance uses things that are available like maybe he did train with swords but he'll be able to use -- like break a broomstick in half and be able to use that. A lot of that stuff is all more for show.

Jeffrey Harris: Do you have favorite babe guest star in the show so far? I can see you are working with a lot of hot babes like Tricia Helfer and I know Moon Bloodgood is also doing an episode.

Mark Valley: Oh no. I couldn't tell you if I did either.

Jeffrey Harris: But off the record, between you and me it's Tricia Helfer, right?

Mark Valley: Oh dude, we're never off the record, but you can make a good guess.

Jeffrey Harris: Good luck with the show and I hope it does well

Mark Valley: Excellent. Thanks for your support.


Chance faces down the barrel of a disgruntled, bomb-wielding banker.

Human Target premieres on Fox on January 17 and will move to it's regular time with another new episode 3 days later on Wednesday, January 20.