Mark Deklin recently appeared in Fox’s briefly aired new show “Lone Star”, where he played Trammell Thatcher. Mark also appear in films for the SyFy’s network “Riverworld”, which aired this past Spring. Movie Mikes had a chance to talk with Mark about his new show and his movies.
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Mike Gencarelli: Are you excited about the new show “Lone Star”?
Mark Deklin: Very very excited. It is a cool concept with a great hook. It has a great cast of characters. It has a smart script and a great creative team. From the ground up with the pilot, we had Marc Webb directing. He did “500 Days of Summer” and he is rebooting the “Spider-Man” franchise. Eric Steelberg was the cinematographer, he did “Up in the Air” recently. It was a great team from the beginning and a great tone was set. We have had some really wonderful guest directors come in and guest cast so far, it is really good stuff.
MG: Tell us about your character Trammell Thatcher?
MD: My character Trammell Thatcher is great. Everyone that is not from Texas always goes what kind of name is Trammel, anyone from Texas doesn’t think twice. There is a real like guy, a Texas developer, named Trammell Crow back in the 40’s. He is a Texas legend. He is one of those larger than life, grab it by the balls and build it kind of guys. That is where the name Trammell comes from. The lead in the show James Wolk’s character Bob is a cheater and a con man, but somehow he is our protagonist. I play his brother-in-law. He has two wife’s, one in Midland, Texas and one in Houston. The one in Houston is involved in this rich oil dynasty. Jon Voight is the patriarch in the family. I am the eldest son. I seem to be the only person who is on to Bob’s plans. I am a torn 
in his side. By default, I become the antagonist the way the show is setup. But I am not a bad guy. Even though, I am also not the nicest guy in town. He is very protective of his family and he smells as rat. He is going to get to the bottom of it. Non of the characters are going to be black and white. Everyone is going to be in this moral gray area.
MG: Are you psyched to be in the leading role and play the son of Jon Voight?
MD: Yeah, it was absolutely thrilling. It is cool how it has evolved for me. It is now cool in a different way than it was at first. At first he was the legend Jon Voight but he just happens to be one of the sweetest people I have ever known. He and I hit it off from the very beginning. We have this wonderful friendship now and I am just proud to say that we have become buddies.
MG: Tell us about “Riverworld” that you did for SyFy?
MD: When I first read the script I was in LOVE with it. I was really excited about doing this project. We were a week into production and they slashed our budget from $20 million to $6 million. It was insane. They were doing massive rewrites. Stuart Gillard, the director, did the best he could do with the shit that was thrown at him. Ultimately what we came up with wasn’t as good as the original script but we made 
due. We all loved it and had a great time working on it.
MG: Do you think we will see a follow-up anytime soon?
MD: I wish there would be. I know we all of us including Stuart, Tahmoh (Penikett) and Peter Wingfield would all really want that project to take off. Stuart would send me an email every now and then and say “I still have my hopes up”. That is great but to tell you the truth at this point, I do not think anything more will come of it.
MG: What is your dream project to work on?
MD: John and I get to ride horses in “Lone Star”. I have been riding since I was a kid. Jon said to me the other day, “We should do a Western together”. I have to put that on my list. That would definitely be a dream project to do. A western with Jon Voight?…Hell Yeah!
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