The Crow's Marc Gomes

By Rob Allstetter / The Detroit News

Marc Gomes just wants to go outside.

Taking a break from shooting the syndicated The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, where Gomes plays altruistic Detective Daryl Albrecht, also means a respite from the incessant rains of Vancouver for the warmer, dryer climate of Los Angeles.

"It's cold in Vancouver, too, so it's got that damp that kind of gets into you," Gomes says in a telephone interview with The Continuum. "I've forgotten what it's like to want to go outside. People don't walk anywhere in Los Angeles. I've got my car here, but I've been walking everywhere just to be outside."

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven is currently on hiatus after filming 17 episodes; production on the rest of the first season of the show -- based on James O'Barr's comic books and The Crow feature film -- will begin in January. It's a good time to catch up with Gomes, who reflects on the show's unique premise, his character's role in the world of The Crow and the future of the series.

The Continuum: How did this role come about for you?

Gomes: I got a call from my agent telling me she had submitted something to Bryce Zabel (the series' executive producer); she just wanted to let me know that. She called a couple of days later that there seemed to be some interest. So I went in and chatted for about 45 minutes about various things, about the role, about the first movie. It seemed to go very, very well. I went back in a week later and met with the rest of the producers and put down on tape a couple of scenes I had prepared from the pilot script.

I never want to say things seemed destined to happen; I don't know what that is. But certainly it took a lot of hard work and there were moments I was working on it when I thought it just wasn't going to happen. But Bryce seemed to really think I should be Albrecht.

The Continuum: How would you describe Albrecht?

Gomes: Oh, man. We're having some discussions about that now. It's something that happens when scripts come up. We go, "OK, who is this guy? Because if you put him in these certain situations, this is what he's going to do. He's not going to do what we've got him doing."

How would I describe him? He's a hard-nosed guy. There are things in the scripts, that you want to say that he's by the book, but he doesn't do things by the book because he goes by his intuition. He goes on hunches, obviously in these situations with Eric Draven and The Crow, he's got do that.

How do you rationalize all that, first of all? This is my problem. When Albrecht goes home, he closes the door behind him, and what does he say when he looks in the mirror? "Jesus Christ, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Do you really believe this guy? Do you believe this guy's dead and he's come back?"

For me to make that jump is a big thing. In a certain sense, Albrecht is a skeptic, but he trusts hit intuition. I think the key with him is that -- his intuitiveness.

I would think a good word for him is that he's fair -- as opposed to justice. He's more interested in being fair, that things turn out right.

The Continuum: Were you familiar with The Crow movies or comic books?

Gomes: I was obviously quite familiar with the first movie. I still haven't seen the second, and I want to. People had told me not to see it. Then I heard from some other people that I should see it, so I'm going to watch that. I've been reading a lot of the comics ... James O'Barr ... and I dig them, man.

It's grown, too, sort of developed. You have all these different types of Crows, and the whole world of Crow and I get more and more a sense of that as I read more of the stories and how the Crows talk to people after they come back, letting them know what they're going through, informing them what the process is now that they've come back from the Land of the Dead. What I would like to see is more of those types of stories incorporated into the series.

The Continuum: Sounds like you're into the mythology aspects of The Crow?

Gomes: To me, that's what is interesting. When we get scripts I look at them ... in television, unfortunately as it is, people tend to write in formulas. It's like that old adage, there's only so many stories, there's only four stories, and you keep re-inventing them in different ways.

But my feeling is that, with The Crow, the mythology is so different and we have a world where we can create stories that truly haven't been shown before -- and on an ongoing basis.That's always the key for me. Sometimes Mark (Dacascos, who plays The Crow) and I sit down where we go through these sessions and it's like, "You know, man, this stuff's getting really soft."

And it's funny you used the word mythology. Those kind of elements have to be there for me for the story to be a Crow story. They wanted to write a couple of buddy-like stories between Draven and Albrecht. And when you read it, it's sort of cool, but then I stop myself and go, "You know what? This is not a Crow story now. This is Lethal Weapon or something. But it's not The Crow. It may look kind of cool, it may sound kind of cool, but it's not in that world, it's not in the mythology of The Crow."

I always say -- and it doesn't have anything to do with my character -- "Why does Draven care? Why would he even be bothered?" That's sort of the benchmark or jumping off of a story is The Crow mythology.

The Continuum: Your character has relationships beyond Draven -- like with Sarah -- in the show. Does that help make Albrecht more well-rounded as a character?

Gomes: Oh, absolutely. He's so grounded in the real world. The whole year that Draven's been dead, he's been looking after -- or keeping an eye on -- this young girl. They've gotten a different relationship, sort of a strange relationship. She puts up with me, and I do my best to keep her from falling off the tracks.

We've gotten back where Darla, her mother, cleans herself up and is making a concerted effort. I give Darla a job at the precinct, which helps Sarah have a better home life.

And then I've got a girlfriend, Cordelia, who's assistant D.A. There's that whole world we're exploring bit by bit. Vincennes and I have this sort of strange relationship. I have a new partner, this young girl named Capshaw, and that's interesting and is going to go some interesting places.

That's the challenge of this series, to open up the world of The Crow and to bring in elements. And from my standpoint, my character, a lot of it comes from my angle because Albrecht is so rooted in this world, where Draven is torn with his search for Shelly and all the phenomenons he keeps bumping into on this plan. Albrecht's world is this world.

The Continuum: Do you like playing a cop, an authority figure?

Gomes: When you put it like that, no. There is nothing elemental about playing a cop that I dig. There's nothing bad about it, either. What's far more interesting is the kind of cop he is, the kind of person he is, and the dichotomy of the situation he's thrown into, having to a certain agree accept Draven's story as much as he can swallow it, and having to, on the other hand, in the precinct fend off Vincennes and the higher-ups, who keep encroaching because he's solving crimes in an increasingly bizarre matter.

That's far more interesting -- the juggling act that Albrecht goes through to keep these worlds apart. In fact, you're going to see that start to close in on him. As we all know, you can't keep that going for very long, keep separate worlds going. It eventually closes in on you and you have to make some decisions. We've got some episodes dealing with that coming up to bring that to a head.

That's more interesting than the mere aspect of being a cop. A lot of that gets written on TV and in films. There are a lot of cop stories and detective stories.

The Continuum: What's your relationship with Mark Dacascos?

Gomes: I have a nickname for him you have to mention. It's Mark "Professor" Dacascos. We have a great relationship. (laughs) He's The Professor. He's a wonderful man to work with. No matter what you might think about anything else, you have to respect the workload. Week in and week out, day in and day out, through the first 10 episodes, he's always there. I know what that's like, and there's a lot of respect there.

He's a great guy. Our personalities mesh and we have a lot of fun together, which always helps.

He and I look at this and we laugh all the time. We see these scenes and it's kind of like a man-woman relationship. It's kind of weird, man. That chemistry translates -- and if you put a different twist on it, the relationship could become something else. We stay away from that.

But we'll go to the emotional limit. On paper, Draven's this rock 'n roll tough guy, and, as The Crow, he seeks revenge. Albrecht is this cop who busts everyone and yet we get into these situations where we take it to the emotional limit and suddenly all that is stripped away and you've got two guys with very soft centers. So that's a lot of fun.

The Continuum: This is not your first role in a series?

Gomes: I did a short-lived series called Lightning Force about six or seven years ago, for Viacom, a syndicated series. It was in '91 right after Desert Storm and it was a military espionage group, probably the first of what seems like to have been many of those types of shows.

I did a series up in Canada called E.N.G., which surprisingly Bryce Zabel created. I did that for 10 or 12 episodes.

The Continuum: Do you find series TV demanding?

Gomes: Extremely so. Keeping the scripts straight in your mind from episode to episode ... they just become a big blur. One day Bryce was on the set and he was talking about something two episodes ago, and he was saying, "You know, that moment when you and Draven were in the alley." And I said, "Oh yeah, I remember that." And I had to stop myself. And I said, "You know what? I have no idea what you're talking about." People will bring up things, and Mark and I look at each other and say, "I have no idea, man." If you give us the name of the script and the exact thing that happened, then maybe we'll remember it.

But part of it, too, is that you've just got to float with it, go with it. That is the nature of the beast. Doing a series is like going to war. You grab all your supplies. You get all your equipment. You fly over to this new place. You get a new place. You hunker down. You get your scripts, and you go to work. They get you up early in the morning. It's dark. You work all day. You eat out, at the set. You do your work and you're away from the world. People call me from L.A. or Toronto, and I'm unaware what's going on in the world.

I've gone to war, that's my mindset. And you're totally involved in that world.

The Continuum: You're hoping for more seasons?

Gomes: Oh, yeah. It's great to do 22 episodes. With network shows, you don't know if you're going to get past six or past 13. But the real payoff is the next season. It's the indication that things are going well, that people are watching the show. That's what you work for. The payoff is the second and third seasons, and perhaps, if you're fortunate, the fourth and fifth seasons. Really, if you're fortunate, the second season, because TV is so competitive.

Mark Dacascos: the new Crow