OUAT’s Micheal Raymond James Teases Wormhole Destination

[rumbelledearie]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

@RumbelleDearie wrote:

He said that he’s not sure if we will find out where Neal went in the finale, and the interviewer asked “having at least read the script what do you think of the finale”. So does that mean we won’t see Neal on Sunday? It sounds like he might not be in it 😕

Yeah that confused me because I know we see him. We've seen set pics of Neal with MAP and he's listed in the synopsis for the episode.

That’s what I thought. Probably just trying to throw people off.

[kfchimera]

He said he wasn't sure if it was in the finale, but he obviously knows what he shot. So maybe it means he hasn't seen the finale cut and his part could be saved for next season opening for example.

He seems like such a mellow guy, but it must be tough doing these interviews knowing you don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, yet wanting to explain your vision of how you acted a scene. He often uses “I” when answering questions about Neal as if he’s just so into the character he blends that experience into himself. Actors approach the task all different ways (like Daniel Day Lewis is famous for method acting and never breaking character). Some just turn it off and on and have a clear separation in their mind between themselves and this character they play. So it doesn’t mean better or worse way of doing it, just how he seems to do it is internalizing it a lot, the better to get the emotion into it.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[Demileto]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

@RumbelleDearie wrote:

He said that he’s not sure if we will find out where Neal went in the finale, and the interviewer asked “having at least read the script what do you think of the finale”. So does that mean we won’t see Neal on Sunday? It sounds like he might not be in it 😕

Yeah that confused me because I know we see him. We've seen set pics of Neal with MAP and he's listed in the synopsis for the episode.

Which can always end up becoming deleted scenes. That better not happen, though! 👿

[MysteryKat25]

Great interview. He gets a litttttle into his character when talking about stuff though lol (just something I noticed – it switches from Neal needs to do that to I need to do this).

Interesting quotes for sure but some things to remember (so we never think anybody lied to us – this applies to everyone that is interviewed) is that:

1) Actors only know so much (I think those scenes were filmed for this ep but if there was a scheduling conflict for the others then it could maybe be for start of season and was just filmed when they could get everybody together – I don’t think that’s the case but we’ll have to wait and see)
2) Everybody looks at things from their character’s point of view AND based off of what they know which is very little, especially come finale time
3) The actors are not H&K – usually they know their characters better than anyone…except the writers. They don’t know the future but they know how they were directed to feel in a specific scene at the time. The actors saying anything does not make it canon (nor do what the writers say sometimes though that is at least more likely). Anything that is going to happen and have a lasting effect needs to be seen ON SCREEN (and frankly I think we can at least agree we want that! – Also look at how screwy the timeline is because of interviews that meant well: We have Bobby saying 300, Colin saying “however old he is,” Bae saying he’d be 200 years old if he hadn’t spent time in Neverland but seemingly shows up in a very early 1900s-ish London etc etc etc)
4) CONTEXT* – don’t hate me, I thought the quote was sweet especially since they have set up SwanFire so far and it’s cute to see MRJ so into his character and rooting for him to such a degree but you can’t stop something partway through the paragraph! (He does specifically say he doesn’t know if that will mean anything down the road but to him, especially at the moment of this interview…Emma is the love of Neal’s life). I can see that for sure based off what we know right now. But he doesn’t actually confirm that that’s what he’s been told, what they’re trying to do, etc. etc.

*This applies to EVERYBODY on the show, not any one character, ship, etc. All of the fandom are prone to doing this and most get ripped to shreds for using quotes from the show for their ship that, when taken in context, don’t mean quite what they think it means…just trying to be fair and point this out. I do think his quote in this particular instance gave a lot of people hope and my hope is that it’s not in vain for fans of the ship buying into the actor’s perspective of it rather than what we are eventually shown – especially since he probably doesn’t know a lot about next year. It made sense that they told Emma her ex was Rumple’s son. There’s no way they told anybody who has to end up together outside of the canon Disney couples ie: Snowing, RumBelle, etc. so we need to see it all play out.

That being said it was a cute interview with some intriguing thoughts and good character analysis. MRJ does a great job with really getting inside NealFire’s head.

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[RumplesGirl]

I do agree with you about context, Kat, and I think right now our actors don’t know a whole lot about S3 and are trying to be as vague as possible. I’ve always been on board that CS had to happen in order for SF to be a real thing, but now after SSTR I find I’m a little more hesitant. I did not in any way expect that declaration of love from Neal and Emma. I didn’t see that coming until after CS had their time in the sun. I just don’t know they rationalize Emma being with anyone (Hook..guy who lives across the street from MM and Emma…ANYONE) after that scene, unless they plan on making it seem like Neal really did die (to the CharmingStiltskins) until midway through S3. It was just so intense that I can’t see them throwing Emma into a romantic relationship after loosing the man she loves for the second time. I really want to see how they handle Neal’s “death” in ASOTM, do the CharmingStiltskins find out that he’s not dead? That’s a major question.

**EDIT**
I’m starting to ponder if CS will be a romantic relationship, I guess. I can see them being BFFs. Emma doesn’t actually have a ton of friends. Her best friend MM turned out to be her mom. And I can see Hook and Emma taken friendly comfort in each other, I guess. I don’t know. H and K and time will tell/show.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[HappyEndings]

I remember at that P Feist (sp) where everyone was on the stage and Rumble almost spilled the beans and Lana told him that they weren’t supposed to say anything that was just for the cast, and Rumble kind of grumbled something so it just shows they can’t say anything only the writers can. 🙂

[Slurpeez]

Another EW interview:

Once Upon a Time’: Michael Raymond-James talks this week’s finale and Baelfire’s fate

First things first: Are we going to see Bae again before the end of the season?
I don’t know how to answer that! Are you asking, do I die?

Yeah, I guess that’s a way of asking that without saying it directly.
We don’t know until there’s a body. If there’s no body, then there’s no crime. That’s what they say in Detroit, where I’m from. But I would say, stay tuned.

Viewers learned partway through the season that your character is Rumpelstiltskin’s son. How much did you know about Neal’s backstory when you were cast?
When they offered [the part] to me, one of the first things they did was point to a picture of Bobby Carlyle dressed up as Rumpelstiltskin and said, “You’re going to go head to head with this dude. He’s your father.” They pitched me the entire arc of the season, where it would start and where it would end up, and how they wanted to start the season with me walking around New York City, and not explain to anybody what the f— that was about. They really wanted people to be like, “What the — are we watching the right show? Where’s Once Upon a Time?”

Do you know why Baelfire started using “Neal Cassady” as his alias?
We didn’t speak entirely about that. But I was stoked because I was a huge fan of Kerouac and the Beats. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that Neal — Baelfire — when he wound up in present day America, came across that book [On the Road] in his travels as a rudderless, wandering hobo that knew nobody and nothing of the culture or customs. And he’d been doing that for years, for hundreds of years.

And how did you react when you found about the show’s twisted version of Neverland?
I think it’s f—ing great. Part of me, when I first heard it, was like, “Oh come on, guys! Peter Pan was my favorite fairy tale as a kid, and now he’s this ****!” But I think it works incredibly well. He’s this child thief. One of the things that I like best about this show is revisiting these fairy tales with fresh eyes. Some of the best ideas are the ones where you say to yourself, “why didn’t I f—in’ think of that?” And this is one of those.

Bae and Emma had a few tender moments before he fall through that portal. Are you rooting for the two of them?
I’m rooting for happy endings.

Do you think the two of them together would be a happy ending?
It’s certainly possible. I don’t want to be too committal about it, because I don’t want to paint myself or anybody else on the show into a corner. But I’m for happy endings, man, and I think Neal at this point is going to move heaven and **** to get back to where he wants to be, which is in a family. That’s something he’s always been searching for, and that’s the single biggest motivating factor for him — his son, more than anything. When he found out he had a son, that was the first time he had purpose in this world. Now he has the opportunity to be the dad he always wanted for himself.

Of all the people we’ve seen as possible matches for Emma — Neal, Graham, August, even Hook — I do think Neal is the best one. They have such similar pasts – they were both lost, and they found their family in each other.
Yeah, that’s true. Neal lost his sense of family as a young man, and he sort of stumbled onto it with the Darlings. He saw what that could be. And then that was taken away as well. He meets Emma, and here’s this kindred spirit, looking for the same sort of things. We fall deeply in love, and I start to scratch that itch again for the first time in a hundred years, at least.

Clearly, Bae has a ton of issues with his father. But do you think there are any ways in which he and Rumpelstiltskin are similar?
I think in any father son relationship, there’s going to be times you say, “Well, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” And I think we’ll probably see more of things like that. But there’s also things where I’m diametrically opposed to positions that my dad has taken. If someone asks me, “Well, since Tamara is trying to eradicate magic and you don’t like magic, would it be possible that you could have been on her side?” I really disagree with that presumption. I think Neal is a bit of an eternal optimist. And while he doesn’t like magic, there’s a big difference between dying for your cause and killing for your cause. Neal would never be able to get to that, to killing for a cause, where Tamara clearly can. But same for Rumpelstiltskin — he’s killed. I don’t think Neal sees the world that way.

And finally, what do you think is the most exciting thing about the finale?
I think there’s a lot that’s exciting. A lot of questions that people have will finally get answers, or at least the beginnings of an answer. But a lot of those answers lead to more questions. So stay tuned — buy the ticket, take the ride.

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

[MysteryKat25]

Thanks slurpeez for posting that! This might be my favorite MRJ interview yet – I think he’s finally learning how much people read into every line anybody says about the show. I think if you really study all the interviews, each actor words things differently and some get into their characters heads and have a more filtered view because that’s what they have to do on a daily basis (MRJ is guilty of this at times as well) but I don’t think any of them are really “lying” but they just don’t know and they tell us honestly what they’re rooting for etc but sometimes it comes across as “this is definitely happening” when it’s clearly not something they’d have knowledge of at the time. (I pay attention to all of the interviews like that & take everything with a grain of salt – I’m paranoid about getting my hopes up).

I’m super excited that he was so vague this time and it puts the rest of what he’s said into perspective. His comment about not wanting to paint anybody into a corner was brilliant and should go for absolutely everything ever said by an actor.

I do agree though that SwanFire is certainly still possible (as long as done realistically so that the rest of us can understand why Emma is going back etc etc – not starting a fight here, I’m ok with it happening if done well was the point), and I like the idea that he is ultimately rooting for “happy endings” when he could easily jump on the SwanFire bandwagon vocally because that’s his character and who plays a character in a triangle and doesn’t say they want their character to get the girl? It was a refreshing take on it rather than just saying yes, I’m rooting for them to be together and getting peoples hopes up for the longrun when he’s not in charge.

To be fair, it really has nothing to do with shipping preferences and I did the same thing with Colin’s interview. Personally I see BOTH sides’ fans getting jerked around a lot and getting their hopes up one day and dashed the next with various interviews. I would hate for either side to be seemingly given promises that they can’t live up to because they don’t have S3 scripts yet to go off of etc.

I absolutely LOVE what he said about family. That Bae’s ultimate goal is to be a part of a family again. I have been 100% whether SwanFire happens or not that Bae needs to get back with Rumple (and therefore Belle, and most especially Henry and that he needs to have some kind of civil, working relationship with Emma whether they are together or not. They are all family now, along with Snowing & Regina too, so they all need to function cohesively for Henry’s sake.

I’m excited for Neal & Henry to get more time together down the line and for Bae to step up and be the dad he always wanted to have. That’s an awesome way to look at things and I can totally see that. For being new at everything he’s good with Henry (though could use a little work on noticing the little escape artist in training….he should know better, the kid is part him and part Emma!)

My happy ending for Bae is being a part of the family and feeling like he has a stable environment where he’s not going to be abandoned and betrayed again, whomever that leaves him with. Glad to hear that side of things come from MRJ as well, as I think at least at this point, that’s the main focus for Bae. (I do think regardless of whether they end up together, Emma & Neal will always have that bond and always love each other whether they are in love or not – a lot can change over a decade and they’ve got a lot of baggage that can’t be wiped away with a near-death scene. When Neal gets back they have some work to do to figure out if the people who loved each other 10 years ago are still there today. Emma’s an entirely different person because of everything she’s gone through and I want it to be realistic, otherwise I don’t see how SwanFire makes any sense for the strong character we’ve seen Emma become to go back to that so easily. I am however looking very much forward to those conversations – preferably more than in 30 second increments every once in a blue moon. If they want me to fight for this couple to happen, they need to start talking more.)

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[Slurpeez]

@LisaS wrote:

Hey RG I think now that it is confirmed that Neal & Emma are each other’s loves of their lives I think we need a SWANFIRE Thread

I made a SwanFire thread for people who want to talk about Emma and Neal being the loves of each other’s lives. It’s not meant to be a debate thread. Just a place where people who want Emma and Neal together to express such feelings. 🙂

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

[kfchimera]

@slurpeez108 wrote:

@LisaS wrote:

Hey RG I think now that it is confirmed that Neal & Emma are each other’s loves of their lives I think we need a SWANFIRE Thread

I made a SwanFire thread for people who want to talk about Emma and Neal being the loves of each other’s lives. It’s not meant to be a debate thread. Just a place where people who want Emma and Neal together to express such feelings. 🙂

Since it’s in the episode section, might be a good idea to move it up to general (Sorry, not to make more work for Rumplesgirl!)) and have the first post say what you said just here (cause the conversation in that thread verges into normal speculation territory).

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[Author]

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