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James Van Der Beek and David James Elliott Talk Up a 'Storm' for New Miniseries
By Troy Rogers
 When you play around with the forces of technology sometimes things can get out of hand quickly, especially when you're dealing with tech experiments and mother nature. In the new two-part NBC miniseries, The Storm, airing July 26 and August 2 at 9pm, actor James Van Der Beek stars with an ensemble cast on both sides of the good and evil of the weather, as a billionaire, played by Treat Williams, has made history with “weather creation” technology though his Atmospheric Research Institute. When a blast of energy is sent through the atmosphere in an effort to alter the weather, the technological advancement unexpectedly unleashes natures fury in the form of an armada of storms that threaten to bring down all of mankind. Also starring Luke Perry, John Larroquette, David James Elliott, Teri Polo, Marisol Nichols , The Storm sees James Van Der Beek steps up as a scientist to fight to destroy the technology, which could also be used as a military weapon.
Leading up to the first part of The Storm, we joined actors James Van Der Beek and David James Elliott for a conference call chat to talk about the perils of the weather, what they loved about The Storm, and the worst weather they've ever endured.
THE DEADBOLT: Aside from the characters, what attracted you to the story?
DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT: What attracted me to the role was the script looked like it would be a lot of fun and was certainly an interesting topic. And the director is a very old and dear friend of mine and we've worked together. He directed maybe 50 episodes of JAG. So any opportunity to work with Bradford May, I know the shoot would not only be fun but it would remain interesting and the film would look fantastic. So that's why I wanted to be part of it.
JAMES VAN DER BEEK: Yes, yes, I think I've spoken a little bit about the kind of the dilemma. I mean, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think that was one of the themes in this story that definitely attracted me to it and made it interesting. And I just kind of thought it would be fun to watch all this bad weather, some guy out in the middle of it. Who can he trust? He's on the run. It just seemed exciting. It seemed like something I would kind of want to maybe curl up and watch on a dark stormy night so.
THE DEADBOLT: The Atmospheric Research Institute reminded me of HAARP. Do you think The Storm was inspired by it?
VAN DER BEEK: I'm not familiar with HAARP.
 THE DEADBOLT: There's an actual facility like this up in Alaska.
VAN DER BEEK: Oh, really?
ELLIOTT: Oh, really?
THE DEADBOLT: For real, yes.
VAN DER BEEK: Oh, boy.
ELLIOTT: Well, hopefully they get it right. Yes. Our guys did not.
Can you tell us a bit about your characters in The Storm and any specific acting challenges you found with these roles?
DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT: I play the Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I’m awfully young for the role, but we decided that my character was a brilliant military mind who rose up through the ranks at lightening speed. And as the miniseries kind of supports, he may have gotten there just a little too soon. As far as challenges, every role is challenging and you have to bring nuances as well as levels to your character and keep it truthful and interesting. General Braxton is a military man and I’ve certainly played one of those before, but there were definite differences. Ultimately, he has to struggle with his morality.
JAMES VAN DER BEEK: I play a scientist who is working for Treat Williams’ character. Kirk Hafner is someone with a huge imagination, very creative, very brilliant, and all of a sudden he has all the tools at his disposal to push the limits of science as far as his mind will allow. My character is then kind of betrayed by the guy he’s working for, and from there on he has no idea who he can trust. He has no idea who’s after him, but is now charged with putting a stop to this thing that he’s helped create. And I’d say the biggest challenge for me was keeping warm at 4 a.m. underneath rain towers. That pretty much trumped any other acting challenge.
James, what was it like working with Luke Perry, and did you have a chance to talk with him about being in the same situation as him, albeit a decade apart, and working on a really popular teen show.
Luke was, I think, a little bit further beyond it, so it wasn’t as present for him, but it’s always interesting to talk with someone who has been through something as unique as that. It’s something you could only really know from the inside, and there’s kind of a mutual understanding that comes from that. Luke is a great guy. He’s got a wonderful perspective on it and I really did enjoy talking with him in-between set-ups.
James, you’re the hero in this story but your character spends a lot of time in front of a keyboard. Is there a new kind of geek hero emerging here?
 Possibly. You know, more and more these days you start relying on people who are good in front of the keyboard. So I mean, that was kind of the idea behind this guy, too. I’ve played characters who were athletic and strong, the kind of typical action hero, but what I liked about Kirk is that he’s not your typical action hero. He’s not particularly suited to being on the run, being shot at or chased, but through his own internal fortitude he somehow scrambles his way though it. That to me is more of an exciting journey as opposed to, for example, watching Rambo.
What did you like most about working with The Storm’s director, Bradford May?
JAMES VAN DER BEEK: His passion and energy. As David can tell you because he worked with him more than I have, Brad comes in every day with a huge zest for life and loves being on film sets. He started [in the business] when he was 14 and has pretty much done every job there is to do on a film set. Brad’s parents were in the industry. He’s one of those guys who really knows everybody’s job on-set, and was incredibly gracious about allowing them to do it, and then, always in a respectful way, kind of educating them on how they could do it a little bit better. Bradford is one of those pros who you get an opportunity to work with in this business and one of those lifers who reminds you that this is really fun stuff that we got to do. It’s a job, it’s a business, but when you’re on-set we’re all telling a story and making a movie, so that’s what I loved about him.
DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT: Because Brad knows everybody’s job, you move quickly and don’t waste time. As James said, he’s incredibly passionate and is a gas to be around. So not only is the work done efficiently and extremely well, but the process is a lot of fun, too. I remember the first time I met Brad. He walked onto a set that I had been working on for six or seven years and nothing fazed him. Talk about a character. The first take, he was like, Cut! Print! We all looked at him and thought, Oh, my God, who is this guy? He’s not going to last. And within two or three days we fell in love with him. Brad is just that type of person, you know? He’s a great filmmaker and probably the most underrated filmmaker in Hollywood.
David James Elliott on whether he feels like getting back into series television:
You know, I’m thinking about it. We’re developing some shows at the moment with various partnerships, so we’ll see what happens. What I miss about series TV is working on the craft every day, you know? Series TV has changed a lot since I left. It’s a different game now and the rules have changed. Reality TV has changed everything. Certainly there is less opportunity for scripted TV, and less money to be made because advertising has changed. TiVo has changed that. The networks may have to change how they do business, and that seems to be happening. So there is less money and less opportunity, but it’s less stifling an environment to be creative in, which is great. Standards and practices don’t have a grip on cable TV like they’ve had on network TV, not that that’s good or bad, but it’s just different. I’m just happy to work, believe me. I’ve been doing a lot of films lately and I just dig working.
Have you thought about how disaster movies are scarier than monster movies because hurricanes and earthquakes real and monsters are not?
Well, I've certainly, you know, stared down the barrel of a few hurricanes, so I know how scary weather can be because I have a house in the Bahamas, and [I] spend a great deal of time there. So I'd have to agree with you, those kind of movies scare me a lot more than the slash-and-gash film. But I've sat through a couple of small earthquakes, and apparently they say the big one is coming soon.
What’s the worst weather that you guys have been through?
 DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT: You know, I remember some horrific snow storms. The most alarming thing, I think, is the change in the weather - I remember as a kid having so many snow days. And, you know, I realize my perspective has changed a little, but you'd walk out the door and the snow was up to your neck. I remember, with a shovel, we were tunneling toward the road to go to school when we got word that the school had been canceled that day. And now there's barely a snowfall these days in the Toronto area.
JAMES VAN DER BEEK: Wow. That's really frightening. I just remember in North Carolina, one year right after I'd bought property [there], we had about three hurricanes in one season. I remember hearing that [a] hurricane-relief concert had been canceled due to another hurricane. And so that was pretty crazy. You just realize how helpless you are, especially as a new property owner. You buy a house and you get it checked out and you feel like you've kind of made your mark here in some way. And then an act of God just comes up the coast and has the potential to just completely wipe it clean. Weather like that is certainly humbling.
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