Noah Wyle
A Conversation with Noah Wyle
("Flynn Carsen")

Q: What was your reaction after reading THE LIBRARIAN: QUEST FOR THE SPEAR?
A: This project came to me at the perfect time. I was looking for something that was different from my day job playing a doctor. I had just signed with a new agency, and I was going up for roles like "Agent Steel" in the new "Triple X" movie and "tough guy McClusky" in this other movie. And, for some reason, I was just not getting these action-adventure roles. When this script crossed my desk, I thought I had a real shot. The script is one of those great reads that comes across your desk way too infrequently. I read this and got hooked and spent the rest of the time thinking, "Please don't fall apart; end well." It's so good.

Q: Describe your character, Flynn Carsen.
A: Flynn is a 30-something-year-old who has spent most of his life in the world of academia. He's extremely intelligent but has never tested his knowledge in the real world. He's been a perpetual student, earning 22 masters degrees, four in Egyptology alone. He's very comfortable in this world. It's an environment in which he's the reigning king and the prospect of having to get out in the world and get a job is terrifying. He's not nerdy in the sense of Revenge of the Nerds but, rather, just a guy who's head is so full of knowledge that he lacks a few social graces. He's very sweet and earnest.

Q: Were you there the night Bob Newhart did his very first fight scene?
A: I was there with my own personal camcorder. I wanted to make sure that in rehearsal, which I videotaped, I was the first person to possess the film footage of Bob Newhart whooping ass for the first time in his career.

Q: How was it working with this eclectic cast?
A: It includes some of my all-time favorite people - Bob Newhart, Olympia Dukakis, Jane Curtin, Kyle MacLachlan, Sonya Walger and Kelly Hu. Some terrific people have come and decided to play with us in Mexico for an extended period of time to tell this really fun story.

Q: If you could take anything from the set, what would it be?
A: There are two items I had my eye on. The first is the book my character is given to decipher the clues that take us on this journey. The book is written in the language of the birds, which is a dead language that supposedly was the first language spoken in the Garden of Eden. The other item is the massive 12-foot portrait of my character holding the Spear of Destiny, which is the item my character has to recover for the library.

Q: How do you hope audiences will react to this film?
A: This is a really fun, dramatic, action-adventure original movie that you don't see too frequently on television. I've never seen a made-for-television movie like this before. I think this film speaks to TNT and its taste of the kind of original programming they are producing. This also speaks to Dean Devlin, who does these extremely successful theatrical films but has never done them for television. It's quite an undertaking to do on a television movie budget rather than a theatrical budget. I hope audiences will take away what we've put into it - a lot of fun. Also, it's very nice to, once in a while, show a character who is really smart and enjoys learning and is not the butt of the joke. He's the hero in this film. The things we're talking about and the places we're going will, I hope, excite people to want to learn more about them.