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Uncovering the Secrets of 'The Last Templar' with Mira Sorvino and Scott Foley
by Troy Rogers
 The Templar Knights and their history have been shrouded in mystery for generations, with many claiming the Templar Order and the knights are responsible for the secrecy behind the elusive Holy Grail. Spanning two nights on January 25 and 26, NBC is tapping into the mystery of the Templar Knights with the four hour epic mini-series The Last Templar, starring Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, Scott Foley, Victor Garber, and the great Omar Sharif.
In this tale on the Templar history, Sorvino steps into the role of a Manhattan archaeologist who teams up with an FBI agent (Foley) to uncover lost secrets of the legendary medieval Knights Templar for a journey that eventually sees the reluctant pair shipwrecked on a beach and searching for answers. True to mysterious history and lore, The Last Templar features masked horsemen, hidden treasures, stolen devices, a flash back to the year 1921 in the Holy Land, a valuable chest, violent storms of the Mediterranean and a larger than life secret inside the Vatican. It's the stuff of Templar legends.
As NBC gets set to roll out the first part of the four hour The Last Templar mini-series on January 25, we tracked down stars Mira Sorvino and Scott Foley to uncover the secrets of the Templar Knights, what they learned from the history, what it was like to work with Omar Sharif in Morocco, and which Templar storyline the mini-series will follow.
THE DEADBOLT: How much did you know about the Templar Knights before this project?
 MIRA SORVINO: Gosh, I didn’t know that much about them. I had not seen The DaVinci Code, nor read the book, but I had always heard smatterings of interesting rumors here and there about them and, actually, I learned more about them doing the movie than I had known before. On the set, we had lots of books, source material about them as props for my character in her apartment. I started reading them while I was there and one of the ones I sort of snuck home with me was something called "The Templars in the New World," and its premise is that perhaps some bit of The Order came over to Nova Scotia and brought the holy bloodline over to Nova Scotia to a safe place and built a castle there, and that the early Acadians were actually descendants of that Mary bloodline and all of that. So that was kind of a wild and wacky one and kind of interesting, so I still have that here.
SCOTT FOLEY: I actually didn’t know that much either. I had, unlike Mira, read The DaVinci Code and seen the movie. But the only thing I knew about them was sort of the pop culture references that you get in books and films like that ... I mean, growing up there was Indiana Jones and the.... One of the movies there’s a Templar Knight guarding the Holy Grail. But, you know, it was a subject that interested me sort of on the level of, "Oh, hey. There’s a script about The Last Templar, why don’t we look it up a bit?" And it wasn’t necessary for me and my character to know that much about them as I think it was for Mira’s, just because of the characters we play. But I did some research and it’s sort of an interesting thing. I guess it’s more than lore. It’s factual information, but it’s interesting.
THE DEADBOLT: Since you’re playing an F.B.I. agent, how much of Bob Brown did you bring over to Sean Daley?
SCOTT FOLEY: [laughs] You know, I brought quite a bit of Bob Brown. It’s the great thing about doing a show like The Unit, playing a military guy gives you a good base for a lot of other characters in the law enforcement/military sort of fields. And, you know? They’re all very similar. I think if you take away sort of the combat stuff, the way that they get things done, the way that they operate is sort of similar. So I use some of that stuff and there was some gunplay also in The Last Templar. Just because I’ve been carrying guns for the last four seasons on the show, it always helps, it always lends itself. Anytime you have that ability it’s a good thing.
THE DEADBOLT: How did it feel to be making a movie in the deserts of Morocco with Omar Sharif?
MIRA SORVINO: I think it was pretty trippy. You know, it’s one thing to be working with a legend of the silver screen and then it’s another to be in his stomping grounds from Lawrence of Arabia. He certainly regaled us with amazing stories from throughout his filmography and he’s such a very charming man, very colorful, larger than life. When my kids saw him, they were a little nervous at first until he told them he was Santa Claus and then they loved him.
 SCOTT FOLEY: Did he really? That’s awesome. Yeah, he as great. And being there was sort of where they filmed Lawrence of Arabia with him was something. It’s something I won’t soon forget.
THE DEADBOLT: A little surreal?
SCOTT FOLEY: Yeah, extremely surreal. And he’s got, like Mira said, he’s a character full of stories and history and loves sitting down and telling you all about it.
THE DEADBOLT: I know you had a problem with the heat in Morocco, but what were the biggest challenges in Montreal?
MIRA SORVINO: Finding a restaurant that was open when we were wrapped. There are no restaurants open past like 9pm there. There’s nowhere to go. And being originally from New York I was kind of flabbergasted. Like my husband would come to visit, and we’d have the kids bedded down and go out, and literally could find no place with an open kitchen. So that was my challenge in Montreal.
SCOTT FOLEY: My biggest challenge in Montreal was - Actually, I was away from my wife for four weeks, I think we were there for six or eight weeks, and she came up to visit once during that whole time. So it was hard, you know? Anytime you’re away from your family for a long time it’s tough. And it was cold.
THE DEADBOLT: Is the story mainly about the Jesus lineage or is it a different Templar story?
 MIRA SORVINO: No, it’s not about the Jesus lineage. It’s about a secret that the Templars slipped away from a siege where they were getting sacked and, basically, The Order was being decimated. But as Jerusalem burned and they secret something away with them, Scott Foley’s task is to find the murderer in this equation and my task is to find out what it was, in fact, what was the secret that the Templars were guarding so zealously. So, no, it isn’t the bloodline. That’s a completely different hypothesis about them.
But I can’t really tell you what it is but we do require the use of the decoder. The decoder is one of the things that’s stolen. We have to decode ancient texts that were written by the Templars documenting their whereabouts and where they hid various clues. It’s like a big treasure hunt, because they go from one clue to the next, one place to the next, finding pieces of the puzzle to finally find the treasure. But the treasure is not at all what you might think it would be.
THE DEADBOLT: And there could be a possible sequel?
MIRA SORVINO: Yes. I mean, Mr. Halmi has certainly said that was possible. Robert Halmi Sr., our wonderful producer for whom I’ve worked before on Human Trafficking. So that’s a distinct possibility. Everything depends on people tuning in. So let's get serious watching it. It is really fun, it’s definitely worth it. I know Monday night is a toughie because House is moving to Monday and there’s other stuff on Monday, but just Tivo those shows and watch ours.
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