Emily Thorne has been wreaking a path of carefully planned destruction on The Hamptons social scene in the hit soapy drama Revenge but most of her schemes wouldn’t have been possible without the help of socially challenged internet billionaire Nolan Ross, played by former model turned actor Gabriel Mann.

Nolan became a supporter of Emily’s cause after visiting her late father, David Clarke, in prison and she has been leaning heavily on his computer-hacking and surveillance skills in her quest to punish queen bee Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) and all those who helped frame her father.

“What has been so interesting about it is I really had no idea what people’s perception of this guy was going to be before we started,” Mann revealed at an official ABC party held during the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles.

“And I really was having some moments where I thought ‘People may well despise this guy’.

“In a way, he is almost like the Jar Jar Binks of Revenge. So I thought ‘This will go well or this could go horribly wrong’, but I was pretty determined to bring this idea I had of this guy to life and to give it a shot.”

Mann said he was grateful to series creator Mike Kelley and his co-executive producer, Phillip Noyce, for having the faith to let him play with his idea of the character.

“There wasn’t much on the page as to how he should be played or how he would be represented . . . I wanted to keep it open since they never tell us where we’re going, to leave it open to interpretation so it is not beyond the realm if I were to go off-the-cliff evil or if it turns out I have a heart as big as Texas.

“I think we have found a middle ground.”

Mann said Australia’s Noyce, who directed the pilot, was a visionary who wanted to give Revenge a cinematic quality and he set the template for where the show should go.

What few saw coming was last week’s hook-up between Nolan and Tyler Barrol. It was Tyler, the devious Harvard roommate of Victoria Grayson’s son Daniel, whom Nolan had just exposed for being a hustler. “He’s so equal opportunity, there’s a wealth of opportunity there and I am game for anything the writers want to bring at this point, it is like red meat, dig in,” Mann joked. “It was great because I think neither of us knew that is where the story was going to go and he (Ashton Holmes as Tyler) is just a tremendous actor. I think when you put two snakes in a pit, something is going to happen and it was so much fun playing those scenes with him because he is really good.

“It sort of took a game of chequers and turned it into chess all of a sudden. The delicacies and complexities of where that was going became really, really fun and I am glad people enjoyed watching it.”

With Emily (Emily VanCamp) instructing Nolan to do a solo takedown of meddlesome Tyler, it remains to be seen how long this strange pairing might last, or how it might end.

“He is not a guy who sits idly by and let’s things happen per se,” Mann said. “On Revenge, anything is possible. I don’t know that that is the end of anything; nothing is necessarily the end of anything on this show.”

Despite his wealth, Nolan has largely been shunned by the Graysons and their wealthy pals. Barely tolerated after buying cash-strapped Jack Porter’s beloved boat the Amanda, Nolan has become friends with Jack since giving the boat back and is a regular at the Shipwreck bar.

“The Graysons-Nolan thing is figuring itself out, obviously we are aware of each other,” Mann explained. “I’d like to think I have more money than them at this point, so they tolerate me. As to what the intricacies of that relationship are, I’m curious.”

Although Nolan can hack phones, computers’ security systems and is an all-round IT whiz, it’s mostly an act on the part of Mann.

“I can work social media but past that, no. It is funny; it is always the people who are least qualified to do these things that get the jobs. It is pretty hilarious.”

As for his feelings on the concept of revenge?

“It is an awful idea. I don’t think it ever turns out well in the end.”

Revenge airs today at 8.30pm on Seven/GWN7.

Article source: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/entertainment/a/-/television/13322654/revenge-of-the-hacker/

View full post on National Cyber Security » Computer Hacking