A conversation with Chris Bruno
The USA Network’s series “The Dead Zone” has returned for its third year on the air. The show focuses on a man named John Smith, played by Anthony Michael Hall (“The Pirates of Silicon Valley”), who sustains a severe brain injury in a car crash and lies in a coma for six years. When he awakens, he finds he has a power to “see” peoples’ futures by touching them or their possessions. This “gift,” he’s told, is the awakening of his brain’s “dead zone,” an area that may hold a number of special “powers,” but which lies dormant until aroused by an extraordinary incident. Others in the cast include Nicole deBoer (“Star Trek: Deep Space 9”) as Sarah, John’s former fiancee who was pregnant when he was hurt and who married a friend, Walt Bannerman, before her baby’s birth; David Ogden Stiers (“M*A*S*H”), a reverend and community leader who may know more about John than he has revealed; and Chris Bruno (“The Force”) as Sheriff Walt Bannerman, who has raised Sarah and John’s son as his own, and remains uncertain about John’s re-emergence into Sarah’s life.
Chris Bruno says this season will hold a lot of surprises for fans of “The Dead Zone.”
For example, Bruno says, “We’ll learn more about the characters. We’ll also get more insight into the relationship between Johnny and Walt. Even though Johnny has said he wouldn’t interfere in Sarah and Walt’s marriage, Walt can’t be sure about that.”
Some fans have wondered if Walt — as a police officer — stumbled on a way to dispose of Johnny once and for all, would he take it?
“I wouldn’t think so,” Bruno says. “Walt may feel threatened by him on a deeply personal level — he not only worries that Sarah might go back to him, but that Johnny might also take the child Walt loves and considers his son. Still, all that aside, Walt is a decent guy: I don’t think he could commit a deliberate act of murder. But,” Bruno adds, “who knows? I’ve done enough television — including two soaps (he played Michael Delaney on ‘All My Children’ and Dennis Wheeler on ‘Another World’) — to realize that any storyline can be changed whenever the writers decide.”
Asked if he would want to have the same “gift” that John Smith possesses, Bruno says, “Probably not. As we see with Johnny, his life is no longer his own; it belongs to all those other lives he touches.”
What if the “gift” were restricted to his own future, and not the fate of others?
“Maybe I’d be tempted for a moment. But I think it’s better to make your own choices, and if you make a mistake, you deal with it and go on.”
Chris Bruno comes from an acting family. (He recently co-starred in an independent film with his brother, Dylan Bruno, and his father, stage and film veteran Scott Bruno.) However, he says he originally planned a career in sports.
But despite all the pro offers that come to someone with the ability to throw a 90 mph fastball, he says, “doing school productions (at the State University of New York at Stonybrook) helped me realize I’d be happier going into the family business. And I’ve never regretted making that choice.”
In Focus
On Thursday, July 1 (check local listings), nine-time Grammy Award winner Sheryl Crow stars on the second half of the PBS “Soundstage” concert series special (the first half airs June 24 — again, check local listings) to offer up some of her classic blues, rock and country music, including “Steve McQueen” and “Sweet Rosalyn.” She also includes the perennial favorites “Redemption Day” and “Home.”
Asked at a press conference why these songs are almost always part of her performance repertoire, Crow says it’s because “it’s important to stay true to what you believe” (and) these songs reflect her feelings about “being aware” of what is really happening to real people in the real world.
Dial Tones
•Speaking of the real world, how much do we really know about those teenagers who strap explosives around their waists and go out to kill as many people as they can (including themselves) in the name of what they’ve been told is a holy cause? On July 1 (check local listings), the PBS series “Wide Angle” airs “Suicide Bombers,” a chilling film made in an Israeli prison with three young men who tell documentarian Tom Roberts about their commitment to shahid (martyrdom in service to Islam) and why they strapped on the explosives and were prepared to kill and die, but were unable to complete their missions. It’s a gripping look into the often unreported or misreported motives of those who spread so much death and destruction across the world these days.
•”ER” star Noah Wyle spent his first week of spring hiatus at New York’s Harlem Hospital talking to the city’s emergency room directors about the health consequences for patients with no health insurance. Wyle is very much involved in supporting legislation that would make it possible for everyone in the country to have medical insurance.