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Philanthropic Adrenaline with James Purefoy and Tom Fontana of The Philanthropist
by Troy Rogers
 After
writing and producing some of the most memorable
television shows of the last thirty years, including
St Elsewhere, Homicide: Life on the Street, and
Oz, Emmy Award winning TV creative, Tom Fontana,
is back with the new NBC series, The Philanthropist,
starring former HBO Rome actor James Purefoy in
the role of billionaire playboy-turned-vigilante/philanthropist,
Teddy Rist.
A unique concept inspired by real life billionaire philanthropist, Bobby Sager, The Philanthropist follows the heroic adventures of Rist, a successful mogul, who undergoes a life-changing transformation when he rescues a young boy during a hurricane in Nigeria. Battling his own inner demons after the death of his young son, Rist turns his wealth into philanthropic power as he channels his passion and money into a crusade to helping those in need.
With The Philanthropist making its network premiere on NBC, Wednesday, June 24 at 10pm, we recently channeled our own philanthropic passion into a conference call chat with creator Tom Fontana and actor James Purefoy to learn more about the origins of The Philanthropist, the international dangers Purefoy's Teddy Rist faces in his efforts to help those in need, and how Rist deals with life's unsavory characters to get the job done.
THE DEADBOLT: Tom, how did this project come about? Did Bobby [Sager] come to you guys, or did you go to him?
 TOM
FONTANA: Bobby is friends with Charlie Corwin,
who is one of the other executive producers,
and Jim Juvonen, who is also one of the other
co-creators with Jim and I, and they had an
idea that this might work as a series. And Charlie,
who’s an old friend of mine, came to see me
and he knew I had written this pilot for NBC
many years ago about a charitable organization,
loosely based on the American Red Cross, and
he said , "I know you’ve always wanted to do
something about charity and giving." And he
said, "Let me tell you this idea." And I don’t
know, he may have gotten five words out of his
mouth where I went, "Holy sh*t! What a great
idea. I was completely wrong with my other idea,
this is the idea to do." And from that moment
on I was totally committed to doing the show.
THE DEADBOLT: Teddy Rist is described as a sort of adrenaline junkie who puts his money skills to good use, bargaining with drug barons and whatnot. Throughout the season, what types of situations will we see him in? He’s not just dealing with drug barons all of the time is he?
JAMES PUREFOY: No, he’s not dealing with drug barons all of the time. One of the most extraordinary things that happened while we were shooting is: There is an episode set in Myanmar, Burma, call it what you will, depending which side you’re on ...
THE DEADBOLT: Burma!
 PUREFOY:
[laughs] Okay, Burma. He is excepting, as you
do, a "Man of the Year" award and he thinks
he’s getting a bunch of softball questions from
the floor and a rather excited journalist that
he picks on, because he’s shallow like that,
this girl asks a last question and she accuses
him of doing business in Burma and the British
Human Rights charity is going to put him on
the dirty list. And he goes into the office
the following day completely nonplussed by this
and finds out in fact, yes, his company, through
a Chinese subsidiary company, has been doing
business in Burma.
Olivia, played by Neve Campbell, who is kind of the moral conscience of the company, says, "It’s disgusting that we’re doing that." And I say, "Okay, hang on. What about if I was to go to Myanmar, go to Yangon? And if I was to break into the leader of the democratic movement’s house," who is in reality, as we know, Aung San Suu Kyi, but in our show is Mai Lin Wai, "what if I was to go, break into her house and ask her whether or not we should be doing business, American companies, should be doing business in Burma?"
So that happens, we do the episode, he nearly gets caught, [and] he gets chased away by soldiers. Two weeks later, two weeks after we wrapped that episode, that gentleman - John Yettaw I think his name is - did break into Aung San Suu Kyi’s house and now he’s standing trial with her for that crime.
FONTANA: This is the first time in the history of television where we were - The story is ripped from tomorrow’s headlines. It’s going to look like we stole the plot. But the truth of it is, we’re thinking of suing the guy for plagiarism for going off and doing our idea [laughs].
 PUREFOY:
[laughs] Yeah, we’re convinced he’s actually
an agent for the Burmese government. You know,
he goes into those kinds of situations. He tries
to deal with the moral dilemma often and, yes,
he uses drug dealers. I mean, if a drug dealer
can get him and some vaccine to a village, he
has no qualms at all about using that person,
because of the greater good that that person’s
helicopter can give him.
FONTANA: Also, in his experience he can also meet with the leader of the country who is just as corrupt as the drug dealer. So he doesn’t make any moral judgments about the people he comes into contact with, he just sees them as an opportunity. If he can use them to do so then he’s going to interact with them. And if they get in his way then he figures out a way to get over, up, or around them.
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