| Jonny
Lee Miller Digital Spy interview
Monday, October 6 2008, 11:46 BST
Following in the footsteps of Hugh Laurie, James Purefoy
and Ian McShane, Jonny Lee Miller is the latest British actor
making a splash on US TV. In Eli Stone, the Trainspotting
actor portrays a San Francisco lawyer who discovers that an
inoperable brain aneurysm is causing him to have bizarre hallucinations.
We caught up with Jonny to get the lowdown on the comedy drama
- and find out why his character Eli keeps having surreal
visions of George Michael.
How would you describe the show?
"I play an attorney called Eli Stone who keeps having
strange visions, which often include George Michael. Eli works
at a high-powered law firm and he’s kind of a reluctant
hero. He ends up doing good things, but that’s not what
he sets out to do."
What does Eli Stone make of all these visions?
"He doesn't know. That's the major point of the show
and the major drama for him – and that's the journey
that you have to go on with him. He doesn't know what’s
happening to him. He's completely confused and conflicted
and scared."
How does George Michael come into the show?
"In the pilot episode, Eli sees George Michael in his
apartment singing on his coffee table. And then he sees him
at the office where he works. The relevance of George Michael
is all about the song he's singing, which has a relevance
to Eli's life and it leads him to a certain case. There are
also some later visions, too, which involve some of George's
music as well – although not all of them do. They're
not all musical visions, either. Some of them are dragon-based
or earthquakes. And then, many episodes later, George comes
back as himself."
Why George Michael?
"It's all to do with the song and what the relevance
of the song is to Eli's life. It leads him to another person
from his past."
Was George Michael always the first choice for Eli’s
visions?
"He was. I might be wrong about this, but I believe he
was the first choice and then it was changed because they
thought he wasn't going to be able to work on the show –
but then it happened. "
Can George Michael act?
"He was very good. I mean, he plays George Michael, so
it’s pretty natural to him. It’s territory I believe
he's familiar with and has played before."
Does he set himself up for laughs or is it a straight-laced
performance?
"We kind of set him up a bit because I treat him like
a vision, but he comes back later in the season where he has
to act. He's very natural actually – and he has a valid
point to make. A lot of the shows deal with real issues involving
health or education or other certain issues – and when
it comes to the one that is involved with the show that George
is in, he speaks very eloquently about the subject. So, yeah,
it was good. He was really good."
Read
the full interview here
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