Posted in: NYCC, TV | Tagged: HRL, nbc, reverie, tv

Dennis Haysbert Talks His Incorporated Character Ahead Reverie Debut

At the tail end of the press roundtable for the new NBC series Reverie, I mentioned to Dennis Haysbert the difference between the Head of Security character he plays on the show compared to the head of security he played in his previous series, Incorporated, which only lasted one season.

Incorporated was one of the more interesting science-fiction series produced by NBC-Universal for Syfy last year, produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's company. It was set in a near-future where big corporations had become governments and the divisions between haves and have-nots were worse than ever. Executive competition was more than cutthroat — it was literally life and death as rival corporations waged a cold war against each other, stealing each other's secrets, headhunting defectors, and assassinating each other's key personnel to get the upper hand.

Haysbert's character Julian Morse was a ruthless operator who carried out the dirty work of the head of the company Elizabeth Krauss, played by Julia Ormond, as she engaged in a cold war against rival corporations, which including stealing company secrets, finding leaks, rooting out spies and moles and even commanding teams of armed corporate soldiers to conduct raids on rival corporate sights. Morse was stoic, no-nonsense, and deadly, always ready to sniff out moles and traitors, and feared in the company.

You could say he represented Lawful Evil. Everyone was afraid of Morse. Haysbert was able to convey Morse's sheer authority, menace and air of ruthlessness simply by just standing still. And he was scarier when he spoke and acted. It was an acting masterclass in "less is more".

Haysbert has been fond of the character and the themes of the show, and was as disappointed as everyone else when it was cancelled after only one season since there was still much to come.

"I wish they had gone on at least another three or four episodes," he said. "It would have explained why he did that job. He did it for his wife and child. He wanted to maintain law and order, yes, but he wanted it on both sides so that everyone would be safe. Not just keeping the poor poor, but to keep the ones in the upper offices honest, as well."

Reverie is set to premiere in March 2018 on NBC.

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