Only two episodes in, it's hard to get a handle on Major Beck, a central figure in the second season of Jericho. Played by Esai Morales, Beck is seemingly a toadie for Valente, a military man who obeys orders. But he also doesn't seem like an inherently bad guy, occasionally showing glimpses of respect for Jake Green and the job he does..

BuddyTV spoke to Esai Morales about the new season of Jericho to get a handle on what may be up Major Beck's sleeve, if anything. Morales spoke about how he got the role, what it's like working on a cult hit show like Jericho, and his interpretation of his character. Continue reading for the full transcript of the interview, or listen to it.

Hi, this is John from BuddyTV, and I'm talking to Esai Morales, who is joining the cast of Jericho for the second season. Hi Esai.

Hi John, how are you?


I'm doing good. Now let's start at the beginning. How did you get involved with Jericho?

I was reading for another character, Chavez. Before I could even give them an answer they said, "Forget about that, why don't you take a look at Major Edward Beck?" I read this character and I thought wow, what a wonderful role, what a great opportunity. I'd heard a lot of good things about the show, so I was honored and I said yeah. Accepted the role and went right in.


So you'd heard a lot of good things. Did you catch up on Jericho's first season after you got the role then?

Yes, they sent me the pilot episode and the very last episode. I figured out as much. I thought there but for the grace of God go we. It's a cautionary tale that deals with issues that are a lot closer to our society than we may be comfortable thinking about.


You watched those, but did you fill in the middle ones or did you glean what happened by hearing other people talk about it?

Yeah, in general, I've know Skeet Ulrich for some time. He has kids that play with my other friend's kids, so on holidays we go over to his home and he has a great family and a lot of support. I've known him, but I never had caught up with the show. I don't think I'd have time to see all my friends' work, because I have so many friends in the business that I don't think I'd leave the house if I was busy following everyone's stuff. But when I heard about the show I said yeah, well I know Skeet, he's a great guy, let me take a look at this thing finally. When I did I realized wow, this is quite a production.


Was it at all a concern that the show has such a devoted fanbase? What were your feelings about going into a show that had such a fierce, devoted loyalty to it?

Yeah, I got your question. It's a little daunting, because you realize that you're just walking off the street in a sense, and if they don't like you they'll let it be known. So there's that intimidating aspect of it, but the bottom line is that they like good drama. I like good drama. They want good characters they can root for or sneer at, and this is what we're giving them. I felt confident that most of the folks would be happy with whatever we put out for them. Again, this is a 22 episode arc that is being told in seven, so you're not getting a lot of the usual filler or fluff that sometimes accompanies some of these shows because they have to fill so many episodes.

You're getting a lot of fast paced action and drama, even comedy with the romantic couple, the IRS agent and the guy on the farm. The show is well loved and people really have grown very fond of a lot of characters, including one that I have a lot of interaction with, which is Heather Lisinski, played by Sprague Grayden. I just checked a few of these message boards, and my God, it's a rabid fanbase. They have strong opinions, and I'm sure some of them will be very positive and who knows if they'll be negative. But you take the good with the bad and you do your best.


I take it having that existing friendship with Skeet made meshing in with the cast easier. A lot of your early scenes so far have been with him, and then a couple with Sprague. Does that make it easier to get into the rhythms of a new show that's already been around?

It does and it doesn't in a weird way. Skeet's got this whole show on his shoulders, so he's got a lot of big responsibility. It's not like sitting there going okay, what do I do here, what do I do there, and how do I not piss these people off? You just let him be, you let him do his work, and we both kind of retreat into our characters and overlap when we watch some of the stuff played back. It's so weird, I can't watch myself. I snuck into the cast thing, and of course I loved everybody else's performance but mine. It takes a little adjustment, but the fact that a lot of people have been kind enough to say positive things without me prompting them makes me feel a little better.

But it's very difficult for an actor who is constantly looking how to get better to accept the first time that they see themselves in these characters. You see it in your head one way and you're inside the character. It's like a novel that you've read, then you see the movie and it's different than what you imagined in your head. It's gonna take me another viewing or two before I'm more comfortable with my character. I'm as tough as he is on my character, but as an actor I'm not just happy with what went right. That's the job, the job is for things to go right. I'm more concerned at fixing where the gaps are in what I intended to do and what I ended up seeing on TV.


With this character, Major Beck, so far he seems to be in the middle right now. He's with the Cheyenne government, but he's not a party guy, he's not just going along with that. He sees this town and he makes sort of a connection to Jake. Down the road in these seven episodes, is that going to continue with Beck stuck in the middle? Definitely Jericho and the Cheyenne government are going to be at odds.

Well, the thing is that his job isn't to take sides, his job is to be impartial. Major Beck has a peacekeeping mission as well as a terrorist apprehension mission, a bomb defusal mission. So he can't commit too much, but he will see through the actions of the characters what they're made of, who is telling him the truth and who's not. I think what will happen is that Jake's character will be given, like he was in the last episode, the responsibility of being sheriff to take his mind off of the victimization of his own father and family. Along that, if he betrays that my character has to take a whole other stance with him. I think Jake gets some opportunities, and let's see how he lives up or down to them. That'll determine how I proceed.

-Interview conducted by John Kubicek
(Image courtesy of CBS)