Rigsby Speaks His Mind About ‘The Mentalist’

Perhaps in an attempt to seem a real actor’s actor, Welshman Owain Yeoman revealed recently that he was very struck by the success of the show of which he is an ensemble member: “The Mentalist.” Apparently, when it comes to his feelings towards his own luck, his real life counterpart is no more sure of himself than his character, Rigsby.

“I said to Tim Kang, who plays Special Agent Kimball Cho, ‘We’ll wait for the first episode to air and then I guess I’ll see you next pilot season,” he told the UK Press Association. That was apparently his first summation of how “The Mentalist” was going to go. “Then it aired, did really well and we said, ‘We’ll see how it does next week.’”

While a tacit amount of doubt is reasonable for any undertaking, the old actor trick of being the last one to enjoy your own success seems to have seeped into his whole being. When talking about the potential to get his show cut at any moment, Yeoman said, “I’ve never let go of that fear as an actor.”

In a way his summation should have been correct. “The Mentalist” should barely have ever made it out of production with all the “CSI” “NCIS” and scores of other crime dramas out there; “The Mentalist” should have fallen flat on its face. But leave it to an interesting story angle, great performances by the cast, good writing, and an over-arching story arc (Jane vs. Red John) and you have something for fans to really latch on to.

The Red John story may have been what won it for the series. All of the other crime dramas sort of move from case to case and rarely plunge too deeply into the characters’ personal lives. But with this cast of characters, we care. We want to see Jane get some resolution to his wife’s murder and his heightened clairvoyance, we want to see Van Pelt blossom as a detective, and we want to see Cho pair off with someone and populate the series with unsmiling children.

Still, Yeoman never loses sight of the very fortunate show he has stumbled into.

“To know you can pay the rent and be in front of a camera every day is such a luxury for an actor. I never lose sight of that.”


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