Some of you long time readers of TV Squad -- in particular those who are Alias fans -- know that I've had a love-hate relationship with the show. I've been an avid viewer since its first season, and although I will say it's had its ups and downs, there's no denying that the show has retained one simple yet important characteristic: it's fun.

Unfortunately for some, the show comes to an end next week, having completed a solid five season run. Though I feel some may not find it so unfortunate, as the show gets to wrap up the way it should, giving it the proper send off it throughly deserves.

Speaking of fortunate, I was just that for having the opportunity to talk to Carl Lumbly last week. Carl's been playing Marcus Dixon on Alias since day one, starting out as Sydney Bristow's partner in what they both thought was the CIA. He's also supplied the voice of Martian Manhunter from the Justice League cartoon series. We talked about his work on Alias, Justice League, his new 'do and a little bit of golf.

Keith McDuffee: Thanks so much for calling.
Carl Lumbly: Absolutely.

KM: Actually, I was going to try to get in touch with you last week, but I guess you were at the [Dennis Quaid Invitational Weekend] golf tournament.
CL: Hey, hey! Yes I was.

KM: So were you partnered up with Kevin Wiesman (Marshall on Alias)?
CL: No I don't know if Kevin made it there this year because his new baby is in, so my guess is he elected to stay home. I didn't see him there, at any rate, but I had a very good time. Two years ago, in that tournament, I played my first round of golf.

KM: Wait, your first round ever?
CL: (laughs) Yeah.

KM: Well, I was about to ask how good you were but, well...
CL: (laughs) Well, two years later now and I'm actually pretty decent. In fact, in the celebrity amateur round my team took second place. I think I contributed pretty greatly and played pretty well. So I love the game. Love it love it love it. I'm real pleased. It was a wonderful weekend. I also got to visit the children's hospital, and they're about to get a brand new facility. All of the funds from what the sponsors pay from the auctions and people coming to see the golf tournament, they have a fashion show, poker night, and all of that money goes directly into the charities.

KM: Oh, that's excellent.
CL: Yes, these four children's charities benefit greatly. The whole community's very into it. You know, two years ago I explained to the group I was playing with that this was my first round of golf ever, and I think the reaction was everywhere from helpful and sympathetic to apprehensive and mildly disgusted. (laughs) Because I sprayed the ball all over the place.

KM: (laughs) Yeah, sounds a little bit like me.
CL: (laughs) This was also a nice celebration for the beginning of my time away from Alias, which is going to be, I imagine, a little difficult at first. It was a wonderful five-year run, and I could not have wanted to work with a greater group of people. From the top to bottom, it's just been a superb experience. I'm very excited about what's coming, but I'm really sorry to see this go.

KM: Yeah, I imagine so. So when did you end up filming?
CL: About a week and a half ago.

KM: Right, because I had just read a couple of weeks ago that you had just filmed your final scenes with Jennifer [Garner]. How did that go?
CL: It was simply wonderful because the scene itself was sort of time apart from the drama of the moment. Because whenever we worked together in scenes ... there was just something very simple that just felt like two people talking to one another. That was true from the first day we worked together and it held through the last scene we did, which was good because it was fairly ... emotional. And a lot of the emotion was joy and pride in not only finishing the work but feeling that we maintained a standard, both creatively and personally in the way people were treated on the set. It was a very, very great place to come and work.

KM: Well it's been a long road for you. I mean, you've been with this show since the very beginning.
CL: Right. Five seasons and a pilot. The pilot was its own season for me because as wonderful as the seasons have been, the pilot still stands out for me as one of those magical moments. The pilot was so good to me, I assumed it would never be picked up.

KM: (laughs) Really?
CL: Yeah I don't have a good record whenever I predict the success of a show, whether I'm on it or not. I did a show called EZ Streets which was done by Paul Haggis, and I would have bet -- and did bet -- that it would run for a long time. I was sure that it was going to go, and then it didn't. So when I experienced what I experienced on the pilot here at Alias, I thought, "Oh, this is terrific! Oh no ... it'll never go."

KM: So I guess the moral of the story is to bet against Lumbly, right?
CL: This is what I would encourage people to do; see where I'm going and head the other way. (laughs)

KM: There was definitely that kind-of familial feeling between Dixon and Sydney, but you didn't feel like a father figure to her, it was more of an uncle relationship.
CL: Yeah because I think Dixon was out there making the same mistakes. We both kind of drew a bizarre learning curve on this whole thing when
you think about the first five seasons.

KM: Right. You both basically went through the same treachery, I guess you could call it.
CL: Yeah, and we lost loved ones ... and prized vehicles. You know, my Explorer was blown up...

KM: (laughs)
CL: ... at the same time as my wife. I know it seems material (laughs), but you know, when you've got a good car, you've got a good car. It was a loss. I think the other thing I liked about our show was that sometimes we just had to tip our hat to the fact that yes, this is really out there. I mean, the number of times people have died on our show and ... didn't quite die. (laughs) I just thought it was great. The entire thing to me was about what's possible.

KM: It's funny that you said you felt that the series wouldn't go very far based on the pilot, because I thought  the first season was some of the best stuff you had.
CL: Oh yeah.

KM: Was the pilot you were talking about the one that we all saw, too? Or was this an unaired pilot?
CL: No, no. It was the same pilot. I think the pilot was subversive. It was very pretty and it was such a movie, but I thought it carried the characters into our lives and into our hearts in a way that was surprising. I thought of it more as a respective family drama with all of this action sort of added on, but when people responded to it they responded to all of the action, and I didn't think the family would grow on them.

KM: Dixon's character, probably more than anyone else on the show, is the one I felt the most sorry for, what he'd gone through.
CL: Oh definitely, I agree.

KM: And what strikes me as so bizarre on this show is how easily your character seems to forgive people like Sloane for what he's done. Just in one of the past episodes, it just kind of struck me how Dixon walked into Jack's office as Sloane is walking out of the office, and Dixon seems to say, "excuse me" as he steps aside and talks to Jack, as if nothing is going on at all. Like one of our other writers said to me, it must be really awkward in the breakroom there.
CL: (laughs) Well, you know, one of the things that I loved about playing Dixon was that once that initial betrayal happened, I don't believe this man ever showed his cards again. Ever. And I don't say that proudly, because it was my intention to allow him to be damaged. I think that people in that business, from everything I've seen, you parse language, you tell outright lies, you probe people. It's a very manipulative kind of situation, and you get manipulated. I think Dixon has had to put himself at work in a psychological place, where he has to play that game better than he has before, because he still has two kids. In my backstory, the kids live with his wife's sister, because they've been in too much danger, and he's not in a position to be a good father.

KM: I guess that's true, yeah. Could you say the same thing for Sydney, though? She has a child now. And now she doesn't even have a sister around to help.
CL: Right. Well, I think she's going to have to take a look at what her life's about, and there may be a way to style what she does and still help the world and still preserve herself and her family. But certainly not under the situation that we presently have. Without tipping to much [about what happens in future episodes], that's kind of what the question that I feel is answered in the final episode.

KM: Were you personally satisfied with how things wrap up?
CL: Well, I always put it on a scale, and I feel like if it's really good, I'm about 85 percent satisfied. And I'd put this at around 80.

KM: Has there been any talk about the possibility of something coming from the show in the form of a movie or a spin-off?
CL: I haven't been aware of any of that.

KM: Anything's possible, right?
CL: Yeah. Well I think that many of the people -- I'm talking about the writers and producers -- are onto other projects, so I think that the core team is pretty much spread out. But as for our storylines and characters, I wouldn't put anything past Alias.

KM: Yeah, that's putting it lightly. (laughs) I mean, the storylines ... they seem to take some creative liberties sometimes. But it's always entertaining.
CL: (laughs) Well I think that's what our fan base has appreciated.

KM: I really liked the whole Rambaldi storyline. Do you think that fans of that aspect of the show are going to be satisfied as to how things get wrapped up this season?
CL: Yes. I do. I would give an unequivocal yes to that.

KM: One thing that I had read somewhere is that at one point this season, your character was going to wind up being sort of evil in some respect. Do you know anything about that, or is that something that was outright wrong or changed?
CL: No, I don't know anything about that. I stayed clear, in many ways, of the writing staff because I felt pretty confident in what they were doing. And also for myself, because it was easier to do the character when I got to be as surprised as he was at the stuff he had to do. So I would pretty much just get the scripts as they came and try to play what was in them. As to what was coming? I don't know; I hadn't really heard that. There was probably a lot that was tossed around that never made it out. I know Jennifer used to sneak into the writers' room and look on their bulletin board, but I never had that kind of nerve.

KM: So, my questions about Alias wouldn't be complete without me asking you about your new hairstyle. (laughs) I know that's one of the things that hit a few people.
CL: (laughs) I don't know what to say. I'm kind of shocked, actually. It was the kind of thing where I -- and this will probably sound disingenuous -- but I really did not expect people to notice. I thought, well, he's always playing all of these aliases and things, and he could be working his own undercover angles where he would have to return to the same locale and he would want to have the same hair. It's very adaptable hair; you could make it look a little less that or a little more that. It really only came about because I was in Africa this past summer on the hiatus, working on a project, and while I was there my mother passed. And coming through that and going back to finish the film, and then coming back to do Alias, I was feeling a little bit lost, I guess. There is something about my hair for me and having it fairly long that has always been a little bit comforting. So when I got back I thought, well, I'm not going to cut it right away. And then I just kept not cutting it. (laughs)

KM: Is it something that you need to go to the producers or the directors of the show and say, "hey, I want to do this with my hair?"
CL: Well, you know, if I had set out to do it I think yes, that's what I would have done. If I had made a decision to do it. But the way it happened it sort of just continued to come about. There was definitely a point where the head of hair would have to get clearance, and I wanted to keep it the way it was, so we worked on how best to prepare it before I went on. But it also became much more versatile, because I had a thing [on Alias] where I was supposed to be in Tunisia and it was real easy because I could use my own hair. And maybe -- and this is deeply psychological ... but I'll go here (laughs) --  this whole five season period where my gig has been willing to play on Alias, I just needed to be as authentic as I could be. So ... this is it! This is me! (laughs)

KM: I had wondered if it may had anything to do with your role as Sam Nujoma [in Nujoma: Where Others Wavered].
CL: No. In fact, the nature of that role is such that I play a pretty broad age range, so actually I have a couple of wigs in that one. I think that possibly being in Africa last summer and seeing all sorts of great hair (laughs) maybe that had something to do with it. I'm being slightly facetious. But I was also in a situation where I really didn't get out much. Doing the film took every drop of time I had, and we didn't have as much time as we could have used. It was quite an amazing experience, and under the circumstances it was probably exactly what I needed. Because when I returned from my mother's funeral, it was all out, because I then had to be finished with it to come back and do Alias. I got back about a week before we started up again. It was a tremendous experience. A tremendous one.

KM: Kind of going away from Alias now, I noticed you were actually one of the voices of the Justice League -- Martian Manhunter, right?
CL: Yes, that's right.

KM: I've heard of a lot of people who do voice work in these shows and they seem to really love it.
CL: Oh, yeah.

KM: It's funny because when I saw that you do a voice for a cartoon, and I'm picturing your voice doing a cartoon, I thought your voice fits so perfect.
CL: Well it's a wonderful, wonderful thing. Because we get so used to all of the aids that you have when you work in front of a camera in terms of somebody to do your hair and your makeup and wardrobe and lighting, and  it all helps you greatly in terms of your acting and playing a character, but when you're doing a voice, it's very often that you do it without seeing what the cartoon character is doing at the time. So it's a performance that I think is in many ways harder to do and harder to nuance, which makes it just wonderfully creatively challenging and very, very satisfying. I love that job. And also, the director for the Justice League -- a tremendous, wonderful directer whose name is Andrea Romano -- she has the same sort of standards that I'm used to working with in Alias with J.J. [Abrams], and she is very affable and good-hearted, but ruthless about getting it right. So it makes it a lot of fun. It's very adventurous doing the shows because she will ask you to do very, very specific things, and it's just a different way of sharpening your skills, and I really love it. Plus, you go in with what you wear during the day, so you're ultra-comfortable and you're in there with other people and our cast. We just had just great, great people coming through. It was a lot of fun, even though very often I ended up being in the booth by myself because the Alias schedule would run concurrently, and I would only be able to get out when I could get out. It's always just very enjoyable for me to just do the work. I just like doing the work. I wish in many ways that it didn't have to be filmed, because the more comfortable I am, the better I think my work is. I wish decency laws were such that you could do every play in the nude. (laughs)

KM: (laughs) Well that might be good for some people, and no offense, but I'm glad we don't need to see you that way.
CL: (laughs) None taken, Keith. Poor mom -- she'd be rolling if she heard this.

KM: I've seen other people, prominent actors and such who seem like they could get a job anywhere they want, yet they say their dream job would be to do voice work. And you have to sometimes wonder why they can't, and you can see that they have to have that certain kind of chemistry for voice work where you can just go into a booth and have nothing to play off of except a script and the scene that's explained to you. Am I right?
CL: Well yes, but for me a director is very, very important. I think my voice has whatever it has, but you really need someone who has a sense of how well you're actually filling your voice. Part of what I really lie of it is, if I come into a session and it's in the morning, and I'm a little bit tired and worked very late the night before, it's really important that I have somebody listening to those first passes, because it's not unusual for me to be at a lower energy level that I normally am. Not a volume level, but an energy level that I'm actually giving to what I'm doing. So you also forget where you are. You know, Martian Manhunter is alone and everyone else is out in space, and he hears a klaxon. So what he says next is dependent on all of that. You can read it, and in a session you can forget all of that. So having a director there saying, "now remember...," and almost knowing when she needs to remind you of where you are. That's a big thing for me. And the reason why I think that some people might have difficulty with it is that you need to abandon, to a degree, your self-consciousness about how you sound, and how best you sound, and really give yourself away to this character that you're playing. So you have to be, I think, directable. And those are two very big things to ask of someone, especially somebody who has a tremendous amount of prominence. It can make your ego feel a little funny if you're not really just open to the process of it and trusting that the result we be something you'll be proud of, because you're working with people who won't let it be any other way. And that's what I had at Justice League.

KM: So, did you do any kind of research, like reading the comic books for that character to kind of get some insight into what kind of character he is?
CL: Well in this case, no, I really didn't have to because in the sort of background of the character, and then in doing the initial shows, they gave us all sorts of information, even to the degree that I would not have known that the character didn't ever show up. Because I think he was drawn but he had never been portrayed as animated before. So those kinds of things are interesting to you and it makes you feel even better about it. And I think the better you feel, the more willing you are to just jump in there and be a part of that process. It's great fun; it really is. It's the kind of thing that I am really, really glad that I had the opportunity to do. And to be doing it at the same time as Alias I felt double blessed.

KM: How has your [17 year-old] son felt about you doing the voice of Martian Manhunter?
CL: Oh he loved it.

KM: Right, he must brag to his friends about that somewhat.
CL: (laughs) Oh, you know he's actually on the cool side of all of that, so I think that he might mention it to his special friends, but he stays pretty low about the whole thing. I think that in the way we raised him, I told him that if I was a plumber and a film crew came with me on my jobs and watched me put an elbow-joint underneath a sink, I would have kind of like the same notoriety that I do right now. Because part of it is that it's just the physical fact that you appear in peoples' homes inside this little box.

KM: That's a good way of looking at it.
CL: And when they see you outside, it's this big deal. So if I was the plumber guy, they would still say, "hey, you're the plumber guy!" and they would run up. That's the basis of the recognition and it's for you to know what you really do and take pride in what you're trying to accomplish, and that has nothing to do with being recognized. Now, it might control whether people come up and compliment you (laughs), but I've been very fortunate to have people say very nice things to me when they come up. And they're pretty respectful, too. You know they might give a wave or a nod, and they sort of mouth "love your work," and then let me move on with my life, because ... I'm a plumber. (laughs)

KM: Well, you know the Ghost Hunters are plumbers. I don't know if you know about that show.
CL: (laughs) Ghost Hunters?

KM: Yeah, it's on the Sci Fi Network. They're actually really plumbers who are followed around, and then they actually go out and hunt ghosts. So it's funny you use that analogy.
CL: (laughs) I'll have to check that out. That's great.

KM: So, is there another season coming of Justice League?
CL: No, no. We finished ours as well. Yes, it's all coming to an end here, Keith.

KM: Then besides the movie you've got coming up ... have you finished filming that?
CL: Yes.

KM: Anything else coming up, then?
CL: Just time with my wife and son. I live in Northern California, so it's a commute and it means I'm away a lot. So I'm going to get a moment here to reacquaint myself with them. I have a couple of dogs, and they've missed me greatly, so it's quality time all the way around the house, especially for me.

KM: And then you can get better at your golf game at the same time, right?
CL: Yes! In fact, after we speak I'm off to the range!