There has been much fanfare about the new CBS series Eleventh Hour, partly because it inherits the post-CSI time slot (CSI being the single most watched franchise in the world) and that it comes from CSI executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer.  The so-called science drama about a brilliant biophysicist named Jacob Hood played by Rufus Sewell is set to debut this fall Thursdays at 10 pm ET/PT.

In an interview, British actor Sewell reveals what he thinks of his new assignment, as well as how you play someone with an American accent.

“The idea behind eleventh hour is that you have a scientist who works in some unofficial capacity for the government…  He's dealing with some v. powerful people, corporations, secret societies, people with a lot to lose.  I think what people might assume when they hear about it is that it's science fiction but it's not.  It's basically the fringes of science fact.”

Sewell describes his characters as one who “has no sense of danger.”  He is assigned an FBI bodyguard who is “all business.”  This “kind of a screwball relationship” is at the very center of Eleventh Hour.  “There's a little bit of friction but there's some great rapport.”

He moreover said that he loves doing accents because it allows him to be someone else.

"I don't want to play a British character for a long period of time, which people will assume is me," he said last summer.  "He's not me. He's got better lighting and he's much, much smarter."

Based on a British miniseries, Eleventh Hour follows Hood as he investigates scientific crises and oddities as a special science advisor to the government.  His jurisdiction is absolute, and he pursues of those who would abuse and misuse scientific discoveries and breakthroughs for their own gain.  He is called in at the eleventh hour and he represents the last line of defense.


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: IO9, Orlando Sentinel, CBS
(Image Courtesy of CBS)