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bjbj,(,( Michael Riedel: Welcome to "Name Check." I'm Michael Riedel of the New York
Post. I am joined by a beautiful and very, very talented actress, Annie Parisse, is how
you say it, I believe. Annie Parisse: Yeah. Michael: But in the old country, in Italy,
where you're from it would be...? Annie: [Italian accent] Parisse. Michael: Parisse. She is
now appearing as FBI Specialist Debra Parker in "The Following," on the Fox channel with
Kevin Bacon. It airs on Monday. But I know her from "Clybourne Park," which was a terrific
play that won the Tony award last year. She jumps back and forth between the small screen,
the stage, and the big screen. Annie: Yes. Michael: Welcome to "Name Check," my dear.
Annie: Thank you so much. Michael: "The Following," is this one of these murky, strange, unsettling
kinds of things where we never really know what's going on in the plot? Annie: You know
what? Yes and no. On the one hand, it is certainly murky and strange. It is certainly...It's
a horror show. I think what it is, more than anything else, is a gothic romance. It's very...
Michael: Daphne du Maurier type of thing? Annie: Yeah. Edgar Allan Poe is...There's
a lot of...It's very psychological. Michael: Supernatural kind of things? Annie: It's very
supernatural. It's very...It really gets into what are our darker impulses and how do they
take over? Michael: Like hearts thumping under the floorboards and cats on people's heads...
Annie: People buried in the walls. Michael: "The Cask of Amontillado." I love that one.
That's good. Annie: Exactly. Michael: You're an FBI Specialist. What does that mean, exactly?
What do you specialize in? Annie: I specialize in cults on the show and alternative religion
as the FBI actually calls it. [clip from "The Forgotten] Annie: We have a cult. You sure
this man wasn't Geordie? Man 1: I...Wait...Nothing matched. It was someone else. We weren't supposed
to find this place. This is where they met and planned. I think Carroll;... Annie: Carroll's
using Poe's work as a religion. He's speaking to people through Gothic romanticism as a
pathology to today's Internet technobred minds. [clip ends] Annie: Because, as I found out
when I started the job, "cult" is one of the most hotly debated words in the English language.
The definition of it because, obviously, it is dealing with religion and people feel very
strongly on both sides of the fence. It's sort of a thing...I've found in my research
it was like...It's like one man's cult is another man's religion and nobody wants you
to refer to them as a cult. Michael: Interesting, though. The history of cults, though. I guess
the most famous, or infamous, we should say, cult of all time was the Charles Manson family,
Helter Skelter, that Vincent Bugliosi, I think his name was...He was the LA district attorney
who solved the Helter Skelter case. I always thought about cults, and forgive me if you're
religious out there, but it seems to me that a lot of cults involve a significant amount
of drug use. That was certainly going on with the Manson family. All the psychedelic drug
use. That's how, Jim Jones, for example, how you cast a spell on people. Annie: It's interesting.
I did a lot of looking at Charlie Manson because that's certainly, for Kevin Williamson, our
creator, that was a big inspiration. Given that Joe Carroll is a serial killer and he's
enlisting other people to do his dirty work with him. Also, Jim Jones. I tried to also
look at...One of the books that I read was called, "Under the Banner of Heaven." Michael:
Yes, that's John Krakauer's book about the Utah murders. A very good book. Annie: That's
an amazing book. Looking... Michael: About the Mormons. Annie: About the Fundamental
Church of Latter Day Saints, which the regular Mormon church totally disavows them, whereas
the FDLS totally disavows the regular Mormon church. On the one hand, they're super, super
strict in the FDLS about drug use and any of that, but then some of the leaders have,
in fact... Michael: Been big alcoholics and drug users. Annie: Or even psychedelic drugs,
in terms of contacting the higher power. It's so twisted, some of that stuff. I will say,
in the context of working on this show, that some of the scariest stuff that I've read
was the stuff about cults because you look at it and you go, "How does any sane person..."
Michael: Fall for this? Annie: "...fall for this?" Michael: A lot of the people were ex
drug addicts and alcoholics that Jim Jones rounded up in his church. Do you think that
this whole interest in serial killers, do you think it really still stems from "The
Silence of the Lambs?" Do you think that Anthony Hopkins' performance is what really has given
birth to this whole fascination with serial killers? Annie: That was an incredible, a
landmark performance and I think it's certainly one of the draws. To me, the fascination with
serial killers is about the fascination with the Other because a serial killer is a psychopath,
generally. Psychopaths are actually, really, really, really rare in our culture, are people
who don't...Or in society, in the world. They're people who don't feel guilt. They're people
who don't feel fear. I think that most of us feel those things. There's a kind of...They're
almost like superheroes. Not to glorify them, but you know what I mean? They're supervillains.
But they're actual. They really do exist. Michael: That's it. And you think of John
Wayne Gacy who buried all those boys in his basement. In the clown outfit, entertaining
children. Annie: It's amazing. Michael: If you go back and look at John Wayne Gacy, look
at that clown makeup, it's all angular. Most clowns, they do soft lines. He had... If you
can capture this stuff on your show, I'm not going to watch because I'd be too scared.
Lovely chatting with you, Annie Parisse, about serial killers. She plays Debra Parker, an
FBI Specialist in cults and alternative religions in "The Following," with Kevin Bacon, which
airs Mondays on Fox. Thank you, my dear, for being my guest. Annie: Thank you. Michael:
I'll see you next time on "Name Check." [Content_Types].xml #!MB ;c=1 _rels/.rels theme/theme/themeManager.xml
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