Here comes the all-new MacGyver

BEVERLY HILLS, California — The all-new MacGyver, a reimagining of the classic series, is an action-adventure drama about a 20-something Angus “Mac” Gyver who creates a clandestine organization within the US government where he uses his extraordinary talent for unconventional problem solving and vast scientific knowledge to save lives. Joining his team on high-risk missions around the globe is maverick former CIA agent Jack Dalton. Under the aegis of the Department of External Services, MacGyver takes on the responsibility of saving the world, armed to the teeth with resourcefulness and little more than bubble gum and a paper clip.

Playing Angus MacGyver is Lucas Till who has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most promising young leading men by starring as Havoc in the X-Men franchise, one of the most popular film series of the decade, and has also starred with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse.

Playing Jack Dalton is George Eads who is best known for starring as Las Vegas forensic scientist Nick Stokes in the megahit series CSI and has appeared in nearly 350 episodes during the series’ 15 seasons. His other TV starrers include Monte Walsh, Evel Knievel, Just a Walk in the Park, The Spring and Crowned and Dangerous. He was in the films Sex Ed with Matt Walsh and Haley Joel Osment, Gunshot Straight with Anna Lynne McCord, Only in America and Dust to Dust.

Together with MacGyver executive producer and writer James Wan, Till and Eads were at the recent international press conference at the Beverly Hilton focusing on eight other films by CBS Studios International.

Excerpts from the presscon:

(To Till) What do you like about your character?

Till: Well, I get to show up and do something fun every day. We’re not a courtroom drama so I don’t have to learn a bunch of legal stuff and sit in a courtroom all day. I get to run around punching people, but punching doesn’t come first. I kind of figure my way out with the things around with me, and then I have him (Eads) do the running and the gunning over here.

But yes, it’s like every day, it’s something new and exciting and really like not a whole lot of studio work. It’s a lot of location stuff, which looks really cool on the screen, but it can be kind of stressful when you’re going all over the place, can’t it?

Do you make it slightly more comedic? How do you approach going back into it as a serious show when people have had fun with the brand for so many decades?

Eads: From an acting standpoint, it helped me find the humor in some of the scenes that maybe — because I was a big fan of that spoof, that “MacGruber” spoof. So there have been a couple of situations where it’s been pretty heavy where I had to be reminded that I wasn’t in a comedic situation. But I keep trying to find — trying to just take the edge off of…hey, here comes the drama…find the dark humor, and we did that a lot on the other show I was on. We try to find dark humor over there, too.

With the original, a lot of MacGyver’s fixes were sort of wonderfully low-tech. Are you going to continue with that or are there going to be some concessions to 2016 technology?

Till: Okay, I’ve been asked this a hundred times already. I think we have to address the fact that we do live in the 21st Century and there’s a lot of technology around. But we have a character for that, which compartmentalizes all of that, and Tristin Mays, who plays Riley, does a lot of tech stuff. So she is a part of the team, which leaves me able to do stuff that is still somewhat low-tech. That’s what it’s all about because once you start making it you know “MacGyver: Cyber.”

(To Eads) How did you get the part? 

Eads: They called me about it and the name alone had me running as fast as I could to get over there. I was familiar with the program and always thought it was a great idea, and thought it was an idea for a character that did stand the test of times. When I thought of a reboot ­— you know, you hear of a lot of reboots that maybe wouldn’t blow my skirt up — but when I heard of this one, I was like, “Oh man, I’m in because I just didn’t think it was ever going to be boring.” I saw all the action and I saw that I got to play an ex-military kind of PTSD kind of junkyard dog, and that is such a departure from the other stuff I’ve been doing, so I was in.

(To Wan) This is your first TV show. What made you go into a new medium (from writing for movies)? What did you like about the original?  Did you think that you could make a new show out of it that would fit into 2016?

Wan: Yes, it is a new medium for me. I’ve actually always wanted to get into the TV space for a while. I really admire what these guys were doing. I love long-form storytelling. I actually think in a lot of ways, you know, I always joke that my horror sequels in some ways are like TV. 

And that’s not quite unlike directing a pilot in some respect, and especially with MacGyver it was just a passion project of mine for a very long time. I love this character. I love the world. And yeah, I just wanted to kind of play in it, and it’s a crazy hectic fast-paced world. I thought I was used to it from the independent filmmaking world, but TV is incredibly fast and I think I have even more respect for what people that work in TV do.

(To Till) You love to do your own stunts. Can you talk a little bit about the most challenging things you’ve done?

Till: I was watching a James Wan Fast and Furious movie because I go to the midnight screening of every one of them with my buddies. And I stood up and screamed an expletive I can’t repeat right now. It was a scene where The Rock rock-bottoms Jason Statham into a glass table, and it does one of his classic camera moves of the twisty cam and it goes into this glass table. At this point, I’ve already run through the choreography and I got to the end and I thought that maybe I can use James’ ego to make this work. 

And so it was letting this big dude who was about 250 pounds slammed me. I mentioned it to him — remember in your movie when you did that? And I was like let me get rock-bottomed. So this guy picks me up and really does slam me into the ground. I wouldn’t say it’s the most challenging, but it was one thing I was kind of proud of that I got to be able to do because you see this guy slam you down.

Wan: It is pretty incredible working with someone like Lucas, especially when it comes to all the action stuff…he’s just so in there.  He’s so hands-on and he loves doing it. And for a director, that’s a dream because I don’t have to keep cutting away and use a stunt guy. Lucas can actually not only do it, but do it so great. And he can probably even do it better than you know, some of the stunt people that have to double for him.

We were constantly referencing how much Harrison Ford likes to do his own stunts and it’s just so fun and because you know it’s not just getting physical with it, it’s also still keeping the performance of that character. When MacGyver hits someone, his hand hurts because you know he’s not Jason Bourne. He’s not James Bond, right, but he keeps the spirit of this guy who is physical, but not necessarily the best fighter.

(The all-new MacGyver premiered in the US on Sept. 23 on the CBS Television Network. It will premiere in the Philippines tonight at 9 o’clock on AXN on Cable Link Channel 38, Cignal Digital TV Channel 61, Global Destiny Cable Channel 61, Dream Channel 20, GSat Channel 51 and SkyCable Channel 49.)

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