First we knew him as Henry Gale – the mysterious “creepy guy” on Lost who, when he wasn’t being tortured by Sayid, stirred up trouble while being held captive in the hatch by Jack and Locke. Then we discovered he was Benjamin Linus, the leader of the Others, who insisted that the Others are really the good guys – even as he shanghaied Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and imprisoned them, possibly on another island altogether. He was fiendishly manipulating our heroes when we learned he had a tumor on his spine, and only Jack can save him!

In real life, he’s Emmy winner Michael Emerson, a stage veteran who has quietly become the focal point of one of TV’s most addictive shows. We caught up with him by phone en route to Oahu (where Lost is filmed) following a weekend of events promoting the show’s return to ABC on Feb. 7.

The Wave: What can you tell us about the winter season premiere without fear of death?
Michael Emerson: Let me think... [When we left off], we were in the middle of what I would call a “surgical hostage situation,” and of course, there’s going to be much more to that. Things are so dicey in the world of the Others, and I think Ben being sort of incapacitated for the moment leaves a dangerous power vacuum. I think we’re going to explore what might happen if there were other dangerous and ambitious people around who wanted more power.

I think it’s also fair to assume that the “Lost-aways,” our intrepid heroes, aren’t going to sit around idly while some of their numbers are being held hostage, so I think they’re going to mobilize, and there may be confrontation in the offing.

TW: We saw a little of that earlier this season, when you messed with Sawyer’s mind.
ME: Yeah, the fourth episode of the season – that was an excellent episode. It was delicious to play, and I get along so well with Josh [Holloway] anyway, and we just had a ball doing it. It had good tension, good ambiguity and mystery, and a nice dramatic payoff. It was a nice tease, and a nice change-up at the end. It was pretty solid. And we’ve got a couple that are every bit that good coming up very soon.

TW: Has being off the air for three months helped or hurt the show?
ME: I’m sure the network executives are wondering about that. I think it was an experiment [and that] they already think it was maybe not the best idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if next season, they try to do a thing where they start the season much later, and run them consecutively.

TW: Like what Fox is doing with 24.
ME: Exactly.

TW: Is Benjamin evil?
ME: I don’t think about that. Even if I was convinced that he was evil – which I’m not – there would be nothing for me to do about that, in terms of the character. In fact, if I was convinced that he was evil, I’d have to redouble my efforts to play against that. That’s the only way it’s fun, and that’s the only way there’s tension. That’s the only way that you put the audience in an ethical dilemma.

TW: When Larry Hagman was doing Dallas, little old ladies used to club him with their umbrellas and say, “Why are you so mean on TV?” That ever happen to you?
ME: [Laughs] I think the viewers are a little more sophisticated now... But there is some blurring that goes on. The reaction I get most is, people are “delighted to be terrified” by me. So they express horror, but they’re smiling while they do it. I think that’s just about right.

TW: You won an Emmy in 2001 for The Practice. How does your experience on that show compare to Lost?
ME: I felt that in both cases, The Practice and Lost, whoever was writing the show, watched me, listened to who I was and how I spoke, and very quickly began to write in my voice, which was flattering and made the work easier and more fun. Very soon, they would incorporate elements of what would be my personal system of wit, or whatever, into the playing of it, and I felt like I was respected from afar in both cases.

TW: So in terms of Benjamin, the more he caught on, the more the writers wrote aspects of you into the character.
ME: Yeah. I really feel like the writers, Damon [Lindelof] and Carlton [Cuse], listen carefully to how I play the role, and they run with that. They take that as a suggestion, or a framework, and then they expand on it, so that each new script I get, if I have a part in it, I marvel at how it seems “custom-written” for me.

TW: If you had to write Benjamin’s flashback episode, what story would you tell?
ME: Oh, gosh... it would have to be huge. I mean, to tell Benjamin’s story is to tell the story of the island. And that’s why such an episode will be a long time coming, because they’ll have to explain who he is, and who he is a linchpin to – and if indeed he was born and raised there, then we’d have to find out why, who were his parents, and why he can’t leave the island.

TW: How long would you survive stranded on a desert island?
ME: My initial reaction is to say that I wouldn’t last a day, because I’m such a city boy. But then, those things are sort of measured out less in your “Boy Scout” skills, than in your will power and your ability to not panic, and to take it as, each day has 24 long hours in it, and you’d be surprised at what you can come up with. So I might do all right.

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