Interview With Actor/Filmmaker Louis Lombardi. Part II

JV: And even though times are changing things are still pretty much the same there? LL: Yeah. It's shrinking,but it still remains that way. Arthur Avenue in The Bronx is still Arthur Avenue; the Italian American section.You go and get what you need at the stores out there. You go down there on the Holidays and you're like" This is what The Bronx is." You can get that real ethnic smell and feel of the neighborhood. I plan on going back to New York eventually. I'd like to go back to New York and just live. JV: I used to date a woman who lives in The Bronx and she would say to me," Brooklyn is okey, but the Bronx is better or Queens is okey, but The Bronx is better. I liked that sense of neighborhood pride. (laughter) LL: Exactly, it's like a big fight. Last night I'm hangin' out playing cards and someone was like, " Yeah, you're from Brooklyn and I'm like," I'm not from Brooklyn, I'm from The Bronx." I told this girl, " You get beat up in New York for saying that to someone." She says," What are you talking about? It's New York." I go, " No, it's a big difference." It's like, people in The Bronx will beat you up for saying you're from Brooklyn or New Jersey; they take pride in where they're from, you know? I love that about New York. JV: I would think the difference between The Bronx and Manhattan is a different kind of vibe or attitude. L: Oh, it's not even close. You know what? I don't think I honestly would even want to live in Manhattan. It's too much traffic, too much congestion; everybody's on top of each other. It's just too much for me. I love where I'm from. JV: Seeing as how you've had an extensive career as an actor in both TV and movies, what would be one of your favorite roles? LL: I would say actually I like THE SPIRIT that's coming out and ENTOURAGE; funny characters to do. But I would say one of my best roles work wise would be 24 because it was such a heartfelt role that everyone in the world felt bad for me. Even still till today. Everywhere you go people feel like Edgar is their son. I gotta tell you, it's amazing. I can't even explain it to you and this is three years later. Even now I walk the street and people go crazy saying," Edgar. Edgar. We love you. We miss you." That's pretty impressive. JV: On the IMDb message board there are posts from people who really miss your character from 24. LL: I 'm in Japan, London; everywhere I 've been people really miss Edgar. A lot of people stopped watching the show after that. Look what happened to it. I'll give you an example: the fourth season we were on flew up, right? We were nominated for an Emmy, we didn't win. The fifth season when I got killed was the first season they ever won an Emmy in five years. The majority of the press and the people I talked to were saying it was because of Edgar's character 'cause he was so heartfelt. That was what I was getting from a lot of the people. When I got killed, a lot of the fans turned on the show. They said," We'll never watch this show again", "It's awful", " Why did you kill Edgar?" And you know what? The ratings dropped drastically that episode to when the season finale came in the six season. The middle of the fifth season, we were getting like seventeen million viewers. When they killed me, they dropped like six/seven million viewers. And you know what? They never got them back. It never regained traction again. Alright, let me ask you a question, did you watch the sixth season? JV: No, I'm afraid I've caught only an episode or two. LL: But this is what I'm saying to you, most of the public didn't watch it. No one ever knows the characters and are you ready for this? They weren't even nominated for an Emmy. We won an Emmy the year before and to not even be nominated the next year? You tell me what that is. And then it's taken them another two years to do another season now? They had to shut it down because they were having creative problems.That show 24 as was a premise driven show for three years. When the forth season came, they redid the entire cast, okey? So, for the first time on that shows life, it became a character driven show. So people loved the characters. They killed The President,me,Carlos-they killed like seven main guys. People were like,'" What are you doing? You're killing the people that we like." They really turned on the show after the producers killed me. That was the bottom line.They called it "The jumping of the shark" in all the papers. That's a testament to my character on that show. JV: Do you have any plans to do another independent film after Dough Boys? LL: Of course. Hopefully they're not all independents after awhile. Hopefully they get bigger so they can go into theatres, you know? I'm ready to do another independent movie in the next six months. I'm looking at a few different things I want to do. But still, you gotta go out and raise the money. Every movie is a beginning. JV: One last question, Lou. Where do you see yourself in ten years? LL: Sittin' in New York, hopefully well enough off where I don't have to work anymore. Sittin' around playing with my kids. Sittin' around in New York City and having fun with my family 'cause that's where most of my family's from.