Written by | Ray Cornelius
Tonight is the premiere of NBC’s “Taken” and boy are you all in for 60-minutes of high energy and fast paced drama! It follows “Viking” actor Clive Standen as Brian Mills and is the origin story of his character that was played so famously by veteran actor Liam Neeson. Much like the film franchise of the same name, Mills is forced into a career as a deadly CIA operative that awakens his very particular and very dangerous, set of skills. Joining Standen for this TV adaptation is stage and screen actor Gaius Charles and singer and actress Brooklyn Sudano.
I had a chance to chat with Charles and Sudano during a recent press tour in Atlanta and discussed their excitement about the series and their characters. Charles will portray John, a natural born leader who does not need to prove his mettle to anyone and is very charismatic in his stillness. Sudano plays Asha Flynn, an attractive and driven young lawyer who reconnects with Bryan Mills at a pivotal time in both their lives.
For 33-year-old Charles, fans of the original story should be very please with this modern-day version. “I actually saw the first movie while it was in the movies and remember being like, ‘WOW!’ It was a story that you normally didn’t see. A story with an older type of hero, who’s a dad and husband and who’s also this super agent. The way that Luc Besson [the film’s creator] did it just really drew you in. So, when I saw the script and saw that they were doing a show, I was like, ‘let’s see what this is about.’ I think that when you watch the first episode you see that it stays true to a lot of the themes and the story telling that people have come to know and love in the trilogy.”
Sudano, who is the daughter of the late “Queen of Disco,” Donna Summer, says that she could relate very well to her character because of her own personal tragedies that she’s endured over the last few years.
“When I read the material I didn’t actually see the full script for a while. I basically just got the sides for my character and I was immediately connected to it because here is this young women who is dealing with grief. In the last few years, I have experienced that and I’ve had to go through some personal left turns with some of my loved ones that I wasn’t expecting. So I immediately connected to it and I knew what she was going through in a very real way,” said the former “My Wife and Kids” star.
Watch the trailer for “Taken” below and don’t forget to check it out when it airs TONIGHT at 10 p.m. following NBC’s “The Voice!”
Photo Credits: Paras Griffin for NBC
