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Telepathic TV Thoughts with Craig Olejnik and Christina Jennings of The Listener
by Troy Rogers
 One
of the hottest shows in the international TV arena
has found its way to the North American market,
as The Listener makes its debut on the NBC airwaves
on June 4 at 10pm. Already a hit overseas, The
Listener follows actor Craig Olejnik in the role
of 25-year-old paramedic Toby Logan, a young man
living an average life with an unknown past and
the secret ability to read people's thoughts via
mental telepathy. Although Logan's kept his gift
a secret, Toby soon finds himself exploring his
telepathic gift to help others while working to
uncover the mysteries of his past with the help
of his mentor, Dr. Ray Mercer (Colm Feore), a
police detective (Lisa Marcos) and his ex-girlfriend
(Mylène Dinh-Robic).
Leading up to the NBC premiere of The Listener, we closed our eyes and focused on the phone lines to see if we could hear the thoughts of actor Craig Olejnik and The Listener executive producer Christina Jennings on the other end of a conference call. As hard as we tried, we soon realized our own telepathic abilities were being blocked by thousands of cell phone signals so instead we picked up the phone and dialed into our scheduled conference call with Craig and Christina Jennings to get their thoughts on the downside of having telepathic abilities, why they feel The Listener has become such a huge hit overseas, and what Craig would do if he was a telepath in real life.
THE DEADBOLT: I can see Toby's ability as an advantage, but what's the downside to being a telepath?
 CRAIG
OLEJNIK: You know, like most people, dealing
with my own thoughts; there's barely enough
room in my head for my own thoughts. So this
guy has got a lot of thoughts, a lot of images,
a lot of everything else that doesn't necessarily
need to be there. It's the mental sanity, I
think, is the down part of it all. If you can't
control what comes in then it could be an unenjoyable
place to be.
CHRISTINA JENNINGS: I think one of the things, again, when you're shaping a series, it's one of the fundamental questions we're asking as the filmmakers. Who am I? How did I get this way? One of the things that Toby [deals with], he doesn't know the answers to those questions at the beginning of this series. In fact, it will take him many seasons to get to know them. But the one thing he does know is that he has no idea who his father was and his mother, probably, was the telepath. She went crazy and she tried to kill him.
So I think that to Craig`s point, there is a real downside for Toby that he lives with on a very real and personal way, which is, 'The voices in my mother's head drove her crazy. This could happen to me.' I think that we see this good looking man and one might ask, 'Why isn't he in a relationship?` Well, because he can read thoughts and he can never also tell anyone who he is. So there is a real part of Toby that is a loner, and so, again, one would say there is a downside there. You can't really ever tell people who you are.
THE DEADBOLT: If you possessed this power in real life, would you use it for personal gain or would you help others?
OLEJNIK: Hmmm?
THE DEADBOLT: It could come in handy, you know.
 OLEJNIK:
Absolutely, it could. I mean, I think I'd try
to balance it out with a little bit for me,
a little bit for them, a little Robin Hood action.
THE DEADBOLT: So maybe in business negotiations,
use it for yourself.
OLEJNIK: Basically, yeah, and I could help people out.
THE DEADBOLT: Or if you're a womanizer, use it for yourself.
OLEJNIK: That's it.
THE DEADBOLT: And then everything else would be for others.
OLEJNIK: Yeah. How about you? Would you do it?
THE DEADBOLT: Man, I don't know. That's kind of a moral question isn't it?
OLEJNIK: Yeah, I'd rather fly. I'd rather fly than be a telepath [Laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: Why do you think international audiences have embraced the show so much, all the way from Japan to the UK?
 JENNINGS:
You know, we've spend a lot of time asking ourselves
and I think it goes in part to that comment
I made earlier, which is, there's something
about [the timing]. We're in tough times, all
of us right now. The world is for all sorts
of reasons not just the economic recession.
You know, global this and environmental that,
and all of it, and I think that the viewers
have enjoyed coming to The Listener. And it's
a week-by-week experience, as I said. I don't
think it takes itself too seriously. I think
it allows some humor and I think the series
has heart. It's got a lot of heart.
We did not set out to make a hard edge, cutting, whatever procedural. So we did try in all of our stories to find something that had heart and it is fascinating when you think it's a hit in Brazil, it's a hit in Japan, it's a hit in Spain and Italy. And so as I say that's the reaction back and looking at the sort of demographic it's pretty much split between male and female. So the question now of course will be, will North American audiences come to it like it has done all around the world?
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