James Spader, Red Redington Interview

James Spader

Will we find out this season if Red is Liz’s father?
No, you won’t find out about that. I think what you will find is you’re going to get closer. If it’s done the way we intend, once we reach the inevitable end of the series, you’ll look back and you’ll realize that there were things you found out along the way that you weren’t sure how to process and all of a sudden those things will connect. And that’s the fun of it; it’s almost like a puzzle, but unlike a puzzle where you empty the box and all of the pieces are laying in front of you, instead this is a puzzle where we’re giving you pieces as we go along, and eventually you can put them together and they fit. But I think that the show has to grow into that issue. I think it will be interesting if we can sustain curiosity about the very first question from the very first episode—what is the relation between the two. It’s such a simple question yet it’s not at all. It’s funny because it is the very first question that people asked after the pilot, and they’re still asking.