‘Under the Dome’ and into a juicier storyline

LOS ANGELES—“It will be juicier,” promised Dean Norris, Walter White’s brother-in-law and DEA agent Hank Schrader in “Breaking Bad,” about Season Three of his new hit series, “Under the Dome.” Dean, who plays James “Big Jim” Rennie in the show based on Stephen King’s best-selling novel, is joined in the new season by Marg Helgenberger, best known as Catherine Willows in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

Dean and Marg, paired together in our chat at The London Hotel in West Hollywood, showed easy camaraderie even though they just started working together this year. However, in the series about a small town, Chester’s Mill, that’s suddenly shut off from the rest of the world by a giant transparent dome, Big Jim’s leadership is challenged by Marg’s Christine Price, a new resident who’s an anthropologist.

Marg (pronounced with a hard “G”), who was George Clooney’s love interest on “ER,” is set to reunite with William Petersen when they both return to “CSI” with a two-hour movie to mark the end of the series’ 15-season run on Sept. 27. “I am very excited. I adored working with Billy,” the red-haired Emmy-winning actress told us.

Dean, often described as one of the busiest character actors around, has quite a diverse list of TV and film credits, including “Little Miss Sunshine.” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Lethal Weapon,” “24,” “NYPD Blue” and “The X-Files.” The Indiana native, who was the first member of his family to attend college when he got accepted into Harvard, went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

“Under the Dome” also stars Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre and Alexander Koch. The series is aired by RTL CBS Entertainment on Sky Cable Ch. 53 (SD) and Ch. 196 (HD), Destiny Cable Ch. 53, Cable Link Ch.37 (SD) and Ch.313 (HD) and Dream Satellite Ch.17.

The following are excerpts from our interview (warning: spoilers ahead) with Dean and Marg:

What can we expect from Season Three? At the end of Season Two, some people made it out of the dome. So is the population less now? Does the show concentrate more on the handful of people who are left in the dome?

Marg (M): I guess the population is shrinking because…

Dean (D): I am killing them.

M: Yeah, that’s one way they are going. No, they are running low on food sources and they are getting diseases. There aren’t medical supplies so naturally, the community is being thinned out.

D: But there is a plot line that has to deal with some people who may think that they are outside the dome. Maybe they are not. We will get into it in the first episodes. You will see what we are talking about.

There’s a parallel universe that goes on and that’s the essence, a big part of what Season Three is about—what the people experienced, was it real, was it not real and where are we right now. I can tell you definitely that Big Jim is still under the dome. (Laughs) And so is Christine Price.

M: Yeah, I am a newly discovered resident in Chester’s Mill (laughs), which is explained as the episodes progress. I can tell you some things, of course. I am an anthropologist. I was hired by this company that was introduced last season. I am there to discover this egg and research on it, to find out whatever I can, document it in some way. What happens when I discover the egg is how I end up under the dome.

Dean, since Tim Schlattmann (“Dexter”) came in as producer-writer, will the show be juicier than ever?

D: It will be juicier. He adds a great voice, coming from “Dexter” where they had that black comedy. What you will see this year and what I am so excited about is that we’ll see black comedy with Big Jim. I didn’t want him to turn too much into a psycho killer because how far can you go with that? He went pretty far last year (laughs).

IN THE sci-fi series, Dean is the town’s leader, while Marg is an anthropologist who challenges him.

There are funny one-liners from Big Jim, multiple in every episode so far. What’s interesting is that Big Jim may not be the guy that you want as your neighbor but when it comes to battling the dome, maybe he is the guy you want to be with.

Big Jim sees through the BS that the town buys so you see him as a sarcastic guy. He’s the kind of guy you want to follow to try and save yourself from the dome. He does it in a way that’s smart a**. It’s a lot more fun this year with Big Jim. And it’s a lot more fun to play him.

Did you meet before this series? Do you have a lot of scenes together?

D: We haven’t met before. And we just did some great scenes.

M: We did.

D: As soon as I found out that Marg was in the show, I was on the phone saying, “Listen guys, you better get me in some great scenes with her.” They finally delivered. We had a lot of fun this past week.

M: Yeah, but it isn’t until episode six.

D: Yeah, it had been building up. Finally, we got to it.

M: It was a unique situation because we are both captive inside a large birdcage.

How do you imagine aliens?

D: It depends on how many drinks I’ve had (laughs). I see them as very kind people.

M: Like ET?

D: They take the shape of humans, like the body snatcher thing where they take over the bodies of humans. Big Jim is the first guy who gets an initial jolt upon seeing what they may look like when they are not inside bodies. It’s kind of funky—that’s all I can tell you. And you, Marg, you don’t really see them.

M: No, because I sense them.

When you meet fans of the show, do they ask you to tell them more about what’s going to happen in the show?

D: They do want to know and I am glad we are giving them answers this year. Otherwise, we are going to get torn apart (laughs).

What kind of conversations do you have with the fans of the various shows you’ve been in?

D: They say, “We love your show… Thank you for giving us entertainment… You made me cry. I cried when you died (in ‘Breaking Bad’).” Any job you do where you get recognition, where people really appreciate what you do, is fantastic to me. I have yet to experience anything that would be crazy or bad. I am a guy and maybe it’s less of an issue. Maybe there is more of a dark side.

M: There was something that I would rather not talk about. But for the most part, I’ve had really positive experiences. There was a funny incident with a fan who sent me numerous fan letters. He had a radio show in some place like Indiana or Ohio, like “The Cowboy Hour” or something. He sent me this letter with a hand-drawn image of a woman that’s supposed to be me in a coquettish pose (laughs). He wrote, “Please send me your photo and please be barefoot.”

D: Whoa! Hello!

M: He wrote, “I know this sounds like an odd request. But this is for a lot of my listeners who are country/western fans.” That was his excuse. To me, it was clear that the dude has a foot fetish. I never sent him a picture.

D: Why not?

M: Come on!

D: Poor country Bob! (Laughs)

M: Yeah, exactly! (Laughs)

D: No one is after my foot, by the way. Not yet.

(E-mail the columnist at [email protected].

Follow him at https://

twitter.com/nepalesruben.)