“We started jammin’, and that built a rapport as artists and actors which translates on screen” reveals Michael Dorman of his relationship with the man who plays his father, Terry O’Quinn, on “Patriot.” In our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video above), he explains that “when we first met, that’s how we hit it off. He writes his own music so we mess about with his stuff. Or I show him stuff that I’ve been writing. There was that Townes Van Zandt cover (“If I Needed You”) that we did for the show’s pilot. But we mainly play original stuff or we’ll make stuff up just for fun on set.”
In the Amazon spy drama series, Dorman plays John Tavner, a non-official cover spy operating as an employee at an industrial piping firm, who is trying to stop Iran from going nuclear. Dorman adds that “John is really fractured. It’s clear he’s suffering from a mental illness or PTSD. I tried to create a character that, for him to say hello is an extreme effort.”
With John having just returned from a failed military mission, Dorman says that “he has so much mental discomfort in his character’s foundation. But he’s put in a scenario where he’s there to save the world. Most times when you see him, he’s trying to just keep breathing. I have to try and channel these things through his eyes. Which for us is very comic and we have a lot of fun doing it.”
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Related: Watch many interviews with 2017 Emmy contenders
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