{"id":166,"date":"2014-08-05T23:41:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T23:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/?p=166"},"modified":"2014-09-16T21:40:19","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T02:40:19","slug":"john-pyper-ferguson-tex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/2014\/08\/05\/john-pyper-ferguson-tex\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Ship — John Pyper-Ferguson is Tex"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JohnFans of John Pyper-Ferguson know him as an actor with a list of credits a mile long. \u00a0Those who can not instantly call his name to mind may take a look at his 140+ acting credits on his\u00a0IMDB page<\/a> and suddenly realize they are in fact familiar with his work — so why didn’t his name pop on a light bulb? \u00a0He has a knack for slipping into a character in the tradition of the proverbial character actor.<\/p>\n

During a brief conversation today Pyper-Ferguson discussed his current television character, Tex, on TNT’s The Last Ship, <\/em>\u00a0confirming what fans and regular viewers of the show already know. \u00a0Simply put, we do not yet know a lot about Tex’s past. \u00a0Time and again the word Mercenary was used to describe his character who is not a member of the United States Navy like the majority of the characters seen week in, week out, on this summer drama. \u00a0He is not a civillian scientist either. \u00a0Rather he was a guard at gitmo. \u00a0A contractor who is now something else altogether. \u00a0The writers have referred to him in a behind the scenes special as a character that represents Freedom and has a “good spirit”.<\/p>\n

The first pages with Tex in them that Pyper-Ferguson saw, the scenes with which he read and auditioned, held the flavor of the character and after his first reading “I got it” Pyper-Ferguson said, “I understood he’s a guy who tries to lighten things up when they are dark.” \u00a0He said his initial reaction to reading the part was, “this role is mine” and anyone who has seen the show will whole-heartedly agree.<\/p>\n

Tex is more than a light-hearted, laid back guy. \u00a0He is\u00a0confident with a gun, trained to have your back and you want him there when the chips are down because you know he will defend it — but that does not quite describe the character either, in part because while we believe this man is on our side and adimires Chandler, as Pyper-Ferguson was quick to point out, “he is a lone wolf,” and as he had said earlier, “we just do not know much about his background.” \u00a0When asked right out about\u00a0Tex’s loyalties, Pyper-Ferguson remarked “he’s a mercenary, he’s a survivalist, this might be the kind of world where he might potentially excel in, and the previous world with a lot more rules and regulations was a place that held him back from his own nature.” \u00a0And perhaps, that last bit is part of the charm of Tex, the fact that we are seeing a character come into his own, and rise up in a positive way, because he is using his skills to help the good guys, and in a good way.<\/p>\n

At San Diego’s Comic-Con International Rhona Mitra remarked that “everyone needs a champion,” in reference to Eric Dane’s Captain Chandler. \u00a0Tex may not be Dr. Scott’s stand out in front of the entire ship of Navy personnel champion, but he serves an equally important and vital role in the character Dr. Scott’s life. \u00a0Pyper-Ferguson joked Tex is “hot for teacher” and the show gets a lot of mileage out of that light hearted approach between the two characters, but more than that, the lone wolf is aware of all she is doing ‘for the pack’ and is helping to keep her spirits up, to ecourage her — to brighten her dark moments, and urge her forward when she is at risk of faltering.<\/p>\n

A good show has unique characters that serve different and necessary roles. \u00a0Characters who each have different responses to a situation, and different perspectives on problems. \u00a0Those are among the reasons I come back to The Last Ship<\/em> week after week… TNT is providing good entertainment, exciting action, and a good show, with characters I look forward to seeing in a second season — even bearing in mind Pyper-Ferguson’s warning “all the characters get in a lot of\u00a0jeopardy, and there are cassualties of war, and there has to be in a show like this.”<\/p>\n

The official description of The Last Ship<\/em> is:<\/p>\n

TNT’s action-packed drama\u00a0<\/span>The Last Ship<\/i><\/b><\/a>, stars\u00a0Eric Dane<\/b>\u00a0(Grey’s Anatomy<\/i>) and is executive-produced by blockbuster filmmaker\u00a0Michael Bay<\/b>\u00a0(Transformers<\/i>).\u00a0The Last Ship<\/i>\u00a0opens with a global catastrophe that nearly decimates the world’s population. Because of its positioning, the Navy destroyer\u00a0U.S.S. Nathan James<\/i>\u00a0avoids falling victim to the devastating tragedy. But now, Captain Tom Chandler (Dane) and his crew must confront the reality of their new existence in a world where they may be among the few remaining survivors.\u00a0Rhona Mitra<\/b>\u00a0(Strike Back<\/i>) plays Rachel Scott, a strong-willed, intelligent and fearless paleomicrobiologist assigned to the ship.\u00a0Adam Baldwin<\/b>\u00a0(Firefly<\/i>,\u00a0Chuck<\/i>) is XO Mike Slattery, a former homicide detective and Chandler’s second-in-command. Also starring in\u00a0The Last Ship<\/i>\u00a0are\u00a0Travis Van Winkle<\/b>\u00a0(Heart of Dixie<\/i>),\u00a0Charles Parnell\u00a0<\/b>(Pariah<\/i>),\u00a0Christina Elmore\u00a0<\/b>(Fruitvale Station<\/i>),\u00a0Sam Spruell\u00a0<\/b>(Snow White and The Huntsman<\/i>) and\u00a0Marissa Neitling<\/b>\u00a0(Leverage<\/i>). Based on William Brinkley’s popular novel,\u00a0The Last Ship\u00a0<\/i>comes to TNT from Bay’s\u00a0Platinum Dunes<\/b>\u00a0and its partners,\u00a0Brad Fuller<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Andrew Form<\/b>, whose credits include the upcoming\u00a0Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/i>. Bay, Fuller and Form have served as executive producers, along with series co-creators\u00a0Hank Steinberg<\/b>\u00a0(Without a Trace, The Nine<\/i>) and\u00a0Steven Kane<\/b>\u00a0(The Closer<\/i>), and director\u00a0Jack Bender<\/b>\u00a0(Lost)<\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Watch episodes on\u00a0The TNT Website<\/a>\u00a0to catch up, and tune in Sunday’s at 9 PM ET\/PT for new episodes on TNT.<\/p>\n

\"Go

Go Navy – circa 1970s<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans of John Pyper-Ferguson know him as an actor with a list of credits a mile long. \u00a0Those who can not instantly call his name to mind may take a look at his 140+ acting credits on his\u00a0IMDB page and suddenly realize they are in fact familiar with his work — so why didn’t his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[113,895,120,991,164,92,119,993,105,994,192,375,166,45,992,103,118,134,193,100,101,102],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-adam-baldwin","tag-brothers-sisters","tag-cci","tag-chandler","tag-charles-parnell","tag-comic-con","tag-comic-con-international","tag-dr-scott","tag-eric-dane","tag-go-navy","tag-john-pyper-ferguson","tag-last-ship","tag-michael-bay","tag-popartsplace","tag-rachel-scott","tag-rhona-mitra","tag-san-diego-comic-con","tag-sdcc","tag-tex","tag-the-last-ship","tag-tnt","tag-william-brinkley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.popartsplace.net\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}