Now that Gaius Baltar is gone, there's only one sleazy traitor to humanity on television: Chad Decker, the blow-dried newsman who's Anna's bitch on V. But Chad was originally way more of a whore, actor Scott Wolf tells us.
Back when the V pilot was still in production, we had a chance to read part of the original script, and Wolf's character Chad Decker — described in the script as an Anderson Cooper wannabe — was much, much sleazier than in the aired version. Chad sleeps with an aide to the Vice President to get an interview, and then is even more willing to bend over backwards to ask only softball questions when he gets the interview. Of course, in the final aired version, Chad still bends to Anna's will:
So when we got the chance to talk to Wolf today, we had to ask him how he felt about his character being less sleazy and unscrupulous in the aired version. He seemed happier with a slightly more principled Chad. "I think a lot of people felt like the original take on Chad was a little too contrived," says Wolf. "It's a little too cliché." Having a Chad who's unscrupulous and flawed, but still has a few shreds of principle left, makes for a more interesting story, he adds:
If chad was just a complete sellout — if he was willing to do anything, and use his wares, and just whore himself out for a story, then ultimately there's no real question as to who he is and what he's capable of. Then he'd just give in to the Visitors and say whatever they wanted.
Instead, we get a version of Chad who's still ambitious and still willing to compromise to get the big story, but he still might have "the capacity to save the world," says Wolf. It makes him "a more compelling character, a character you can actually root for, not just despicable through and through. My hope is, we haven't nearly lost all of his flaws, because he really is somebody who is capable of selling out."
The key to Chad, explains Wolf, is that he's "a fascinating mix of blind ambition, with a real desire to be respected and trusted."
But it's going to get even harder for Chad to avoid being Anna's puppet in the upcoming episodes, because the Visitors just revealed that Chad has a rare brain condition that will kill him — unless he gets medical treatment that only the aliens can give. Wolf says Chad will be wrestling with what this means for him, and trying to figure out if the Visitors are telling the truth about his brain condition. "Who can he trust? He's been engaged in this kind of dance and chess match with Anna and the Visitors, and htey've played him exactly by telling him he's going to develop brain injuries and die. But true to Chad Decker, I think he's going to try and find a way out of Checkmate."
Adds Wolf, "Chad proves to be not just a pretty face."
At the same time, we'll see Chad finding more ways to prove his worth to Anna, because if she decides she doesn't need him any more, she may just let him die — or kill him, for that matter. The stakes in his game with Anna get higher and higher, as he faces the possibility of his own imminent demise.
Wolf watched parts of Syfy's Battlestar Galactica reboot, and he admits there are some similarities between his character and Gaius Baltar. For Chad, his opportunity to get ahead comes from associating himself from the Visitors, and he's under a lot of pressure not to ask the pressing questions about whether the Visitors are really here in peace.
But at the same time, Wolf says that as "the seduction of Anna increases," Chad paradoxically feels more of a pull towards the Resistance. "We see a guy who was just kind of tapdancing through the story" suddenly realizing there are bigger things at stake and discovering more of the world he's inhabiting. So it sounds like Chad could actually join up with Erica's gang of alien-fighters.
We had to ask Wolf about the show's change of showrunner, from Angel's Jeff Bell to The 4400's Scott Peters to Scott Rosenbaum (The Shield/Chuck). Wolf says he's definitely noticed a change in the show's storytelling — part of that is because the show's moved from its introductory chapter into its main arc, but part of it is definitely due to the change in control.
"The pace of our story and the intensity and the personal nature of our story [are] flying now," says Wolf. He adds:
With a story this big, the first chapter really just had to set the table, the big pieces. We're seeing everything take a very specific shape. I think ... for the audience watching a show, if you feel like you're not getting enough out of it week by week, it can be frustrating. But with our show, you're going to be mind-boggled as to how we're giving you so much. There'll be the questions of, "How are they giving that much away this episode?" I think the answer is, there's a lot to give, ultimately. It's just a compelling story with a lot of dramatic relationships and twists and turns, so a lot can be revealed in each story without feeling there's no place left to go.