Exclusive! SofaChip catches up with Christian Kane of TNT’s Leverage

I recently had a chance to chat with Christian Kane who plays Eliot Spencer on TNT’s Leverage. Kane is warm-hearted, completely sweet and having the time of his life playing Eliot, designing women’s lingerie (with a sophisticated approach he feels stores like Victoria’s Secret are missing), and cooking. When we talked, he’d recently gotten seventeen stitches taken out of his forehead, which is the price you pay when you do all of your own stunts. In fact, during our call he started going over himself and counting the scars he’s amassed during his acting career and the count was approximately five (although he actually has more from non-acting gigs).  Christian Kane is moving through life and positive about the future. From where I stand, he has no reason to feel otherwise.

Jessica Rae: In The Tap-Out Job trailer, we see Eliot being a pro and showing Sophie about wrestling, using Hardison and Parker as sort of puppets. Was there a lot of laughter going on when you guys were trying to film that because you look really straight-faced? Tell us about that.

Christian Kane: So much it was ridiculous, man. It really was ridiculous. I mean we were just – we laughed the whole scene. I mean it was – it was – it was – you’re never going to see… They should – they should get the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s never in because the stuff we do is just like unbelievable. We’re always cracking up. And it was really hard to shoot that scene. I think it actually put us behind on the day because we were laughing so hard and because you know Aldis kept doing these, like, juke and you know Muhammad Ali moves and stuff like that. And I was – and I had to wait to tell Parker to hit him because I was, like, I had to wait for him to settle down because you know I choreographed this whole thing with Beth.

And I choreograph a lot of the fights, and so this was – this was one that I was in on. And I was, like – I was, like, “Beth you know you can’t hit him, so you’ve got to hit him you know by the face because obviously we’re not really punching people. But he kept moving so much that I was, like, “You’ve got to wait, you’ve got to wait,” and so then, I’m, like, “Now, now punch him.” And it was – it was just really, really funny. And Tim pretends not to watch, but Tim was watching the whole time, and we were – we were cracking up. It’s a really funny scene.

Jessica Rae: Yes, I think fans are really going to enjoy seeing that play out the whole way. Do you have another favorite scene from the episode “The Tap Out Job”?

Photos by Erik Heinila

Christian Kane: Yes, I have a really good – I have a – you know one of my favorite and Dean Devlin has gone – has gone on record in saying that his ((inaudible)) probably his favorite of – you know of the season. At the very end when I’m talking to Gina, and Gina you know is from England and you know she’s a tough girl.

Jessica Rae: Yes.

Christian Kane: But she doesn’t understand the mentality of a fighter, and when she walks up to the ring and she’s talking to me and she doesn’t understand why I’m doing this and it’s really not for personal gratification. It’s just because you know Eliot has to fight. And there’s a really, really close, close moment there with me and Gina which you’ve never seen before because we don’t have that much stuff together that I absolutely love. And it’s probably when I’m in the ring and she comes in towards the end and says, “You know you don’t need to do this,” it may be – it’s probably my favorite scene of the whole – of the whole – this far of the entire show.

Jessica Rae: Oh, that’s powerful. And do you hope something happens with Eliot’s love life in season two? Maybe we’ll see Aimee?

Christian Kane: You know I think that – I think that Eliot’s a little bit you know – Eliot was – doesn’t have a heart, and the only way he really does is because Nate’s given him one now because he’s helping people. So, I think that I don’t know to be honest with you. I wouldn’t mind seeing something that. I don’t know if it’ll work for the character. It would be – it would have to be something that John Rogers would have to write because it’s very, very tricky. Tricky to deal with Eliot being you know – he thinks he’s 007 and you know it’s – you know there’s a lot of girls and stuff like that. But it would be very interesting to see. I would love to see it. It’s just – it’s – it’s such a tricky, tricky thing to write you know because then he actually has to start caring about something and I think that you know that’s the worst thing in the world is if he starts you know thinking with his heart instead of his fists. He could find himself in trouble.

Make sure to tune into Leverage on Wednesdays at 9:00 Eastern Standard Time on TNT. The episode that airs next Wednesday (July 22nd) is also the day that Kane’s single will be released.

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