THE FOLLOWING: James Purefoy Teases Joe’s ‘Quite Simple’ Super-Objective

On television shows, it’s not uncommon at all for actors to learn about their arc as each new script comes in, but that isn’t the case for THE FOLLOWING’s James Purefoy (Joe) — he knows what his character’s ultimate goal is.

“I know what [Joe’s] super-objective is,” he told me. “I know what I want out of the whole thing.”

But just because he was clued in early on about what Joe’s ultimate goal was, that doesn’t mean the rest of his cast was as lucky.

“I have to keep it from everybody,” he laughed. “There’s only three people that know: [THE FOLLOWING executive producer] Marcos [Siega], [creator] Kevin [Williamson,] and I. And the trouble is his super-objective is quite simple. Achieving that, when you’re two weeks away from the electric chair or the syringe, having killed 14 coeds makes it complicated to achieve.”

And while Purefoy didn’t want to tease too much (why ruin the surprise?), he did have one tantalizing tidbit about what’s to come sooner versus later.

“Something very, very big that he’s planned,” he noted. “Let’s just say, I’m not going to sign up for a show for seven years of my life for seven months of every year to wear an orange jumpsuit. I like my clothes too much. I can tease you with that.”

Looking forward, Purefoy shot down the notion of Joe working with another “big bad” as an equal partner…at least with any of the characters that are currently on the canvas.

“You wonder who that might be,” he said. “He’s very, very clever. Put it this way….I’ve yet to see somebody who could be his equal. Nobody has pitched up yet that I feel threatened by.”

Joe’s (potentially correct) feeling of being untouchable could mean trouble for all the other characters surrounding him.

“One of the things when I was doing research for this [role] was I noodled around on the internet for some dark corners,” he admitted. “And there are things I discovered or places I found that made me think a lot of the psyche of people now in 2013 and secrets people have. And people who might be working for law enforcement or the CIA or the government. Even them. Look at General Petraeus. The FBI is not immune from blackmail…[Joe] knows [stuff]. And he’s very technically proficient.”

Hm…

Do you have any theories about what Joe’s ultimate goal will be?

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