Double trouble

There’s more than one international man of mystery on Seven’s hit series The Blacklist. Guy Davis speaks with Ryan Eggold, whose nice- guy character may be hiding a deep, dark secret.

When Seven’s new US series The Blacklist premiered, audiences probably imagined there were two main mysteries that would be unravelled over the course of the show.

One was the “blacklist” of the title, a roster of big- league criminals that master crook Raymond “Red” Reddington ( James Spader) was willing to entrap and turn over to the authorities.

The other was the connection between Red and rookie FBI agent Elizabeth Keen ( Megan Boone), the only person Red would co- operate with.

But by the end of its first episode The Blacklist had added another riddle to the mix by revealing something secret about

IEggold: “I can say that if Tom is something more than he claims to be, and I genuinely

don’t know because the writers very intelligently keep me in the dark, then he

is definitely tied into Red’s blacklist.”

indicated something far different … and sinister.

The ever- enigmatic Red is certainly hinting there’s more to Tom than meets the eye. For his part, Tom claims Keen’s husband Tom, played by Ryan Eggold.

Tom seemed to be a nice, easygoing schoolteacher.

But the discovery of a box containing piles of cash, a loaded gun and a bunch of passports with myriad international identities but all bearing Tom’s photograph ignorance and innocence, insisting he’s being set up. Who is Liz to believe?

It definitely adds another layer of intrigue to the series, but it does make interviewing Eggold a little frustrating. After all, there are a lot viewers will want to know about his character but there is probably not much he’s willing or able to disclose.

“Frustrating is the only word for it,” Eggold said with a laugh.

“I’ll do interviews and people will ask me, ‘ Who is Tom?’, and I have to tell them I don’t know. But I do say there’s a lot more to go.

“We’re still very much on the surface of things in these first episodes when it comes to who these characters are, what motivates them and where the story is going. It’s only going to get deeper and more tangled.”

Eggold, whose TV credits include Entourage and the 90210 remake, had no idea just how tangled Tom’s storylines were going to get when he first read for the role.

“I had these pages that set up Tom as this sweet guy, a supportive husband, a fourthgrade teacher, and I thought, ‘ OK, I get it’,” he recalled.

“I didn’t read the full script until our first readthrough and then I was so blown away and pleasantly surprised by the level of depth, colour and potential that was there.”