TV Tango: Pope is an ex-con who learned to be a chef in prison. What's Pope's signature dish?

Colin Cunningham: [Laughing] It certainly isn't chicken with paprika, I can tell you that. I think Pope would be a big fan of French cuisine. I don't know why, I just feel that way -- maybe because I just came back from France and had a lot of duck. Let's make his signature dish duck...roast canard!

TV Tango: If someone invited you personally to a potluck, what would you bring?

TV Tango: Besides learning how to be a chef, what other useful skills did Pope learn in prison?

Colin Cunningham: Survival, that's for sure. A little bit of politics. I think he got to see the darkest side of people, but I think, strangely enough, the best of people. I think situations like that can bring out the best and the worst -- just a strength inside you in order to survive. I think he learned a lot in prison.

TV Tango: Pope demonstrated skill in metallurgy when he produced armor-piercing bullets by melting Mech metal. Where in the hell did he pick up those skills?

Colin Cunningham: Yeah, I had a little question about that myself! This guy can cook, he can shoot, he can ride bikes and he's a metallurgist. He's an alchemist. What the hell's going on here?

Apparently the backstory on that was that he met a Marine -- whether in prison or even his travels on the motorcyle. I remember asking the writers, "Where did I learn this?" There's even a scene where I'm telling Dale Dye [who plays Porter], "Look, I met a guy, and this guy told me how to do it" when detonating things. That whole episode was kind of neat.

Well, it was also the kid [Matt] who gave me the idea to use it against them. I was like, "Huh, well let's try it. Let's melt this Mech down and see what that metal can do."

TV Tango: I was hoping that Pope might've learned this skill as part of a failed prison escape in his past...

TV Tango: What history, before the Season 1 premiere, does your character share with Maggie?

Colin Cunningham: Ooh, that's weird, because everybody has a different take on that. The writers have a take on it, but they won't necessarily tell us. Sarah [Sanguin Carter who plays Maggie] has her own take on it. I see a real definitive history between Pope and Maggie.

TV Tango: What's Pope's prime motivator? Is it fear or greed?

Colin Cunningham: It's certainly not greed. I wouldn't say entirely hatred, although hatred is a powerful motivator. I think he's fearless; I don't think he has any expectation to live. Every day is Pope's last day. Because of that, I think he has every expectation that he's going to die and that he's free of fear and free of everything. I think, if anything, he just wants to go out on his own terms. I think he's saying, "I will not sit here and wait to be taken, I will kill all of them before I'm finally taken out myself."

TV Tango: Sticking with the topic of motivations. In the two-part "Sanctuary" episode, Pope saves the children. Was he motivated by emotion to simply save children or was it a calculated move to save the children to be used later for his own benefit?

Colin Cunningham: No, definitely not. I think that's one thing that would definitely turn Pope's stomach. It's one thing messing with people, but you start messing with kids and I don't think he can run from that.

I think Pope may have headed down a path -- when he escapes -- like "I'm totally out of here. I'm done with 2nd Mass. I'm away from everything. I'm gone." I think he stopped and said "Damn it!" then turned around and went back because the kids were threatened. I think if Pope hadn't been there at the end, he just would've executed every last one of those guys. He just would've shot them. He wouldn't have let any of them live.

TV Tango: Matt and Pope share many scenes together, including the one you mentioned earlier about melting down Mech metal. How would you describe their relationship?

Colin Cunningham: I thought those were some neat scenes. It's like the lion and the lamb. One of them is the ultimate killer and hates Skitters and all that stuff; the other is this child who still has some innocence left in him. I just thought that was really neat to put the two together.

Of course, Matt ends up siding with his father when Pope does a double twist there on Mason. Matt finds out about it, isn't happy about it, and tells Pope to stuff himself.

TV Tango: In the Season 1 finale, how did Pope feel having to give the Mech-metal RPG [rocket propelled grenade] to Tom?

Colin Cunningham: For Pope at that point, he needed to get Anthony back to get some medical help, but it was sort of his secret smiley, happy pack. If anything, I think he was tickled to see it potentially be used.

TV Tango: Was Pope surprised by the spectacular results?

Colin Cunningham: As far as I can tell, I don't think he ever saw it. He was driving back to get Anthony some medical care, and I don't think he saw it. But I'm sure he was absolutely over the moon at the result, because I'm sure he heard about it.

What probably would've overshadowed that was the fact that Tom steps on this ship and takes off. Great that that thing blew up, but now Tom's gone -- and he actually stepped onto that ship. I think there's a lot going on in that episode.

But I think that Pope would've been absolutely delighted [at the explosive results], but I think he would've loved to have pulled the trigger himself.

TV Tango: What were Pope's thoughts about Tom giving himself to the aliens and stepping on the ship?

Colin Cunningham: I know that once Tom returns, everybody is super happy and celebrating -- everybody except for Pope, because Pope is wondering, "What the hell is going on? Is anybody looking at the elephant in the room here, because I am! This guy walks aboard an alien ship and now he walked out. They let him go? Isn't anybody wondering if this guy is a homing beacon or a plant? What the hell is going on with you people being so happy about his triumphant return?"

TV Tango: In Season 2, Pope leads a group called the Berserkers. How, when and why did the Berserkers form?

Colin Cunningham: In between that last episode of Season 1 and the first episode of Season 2, there was a battle called The Battle of Fitchburg. There's a web comic that kind of explains the time between Seasons 1 and 2. They lost like a hundred fighters and the Berserkers were formed through that battle. The Bersekers essentially won it for the 2nd Mass. Basically, a bunch of crazies -- three, four or five really brutal, fearless fighters that have their own individual personalities -- were willing to do the things the 2nd Mass wasn't willing to do. They're pretty intense that way.

TV Tango: How are they similar to ,or different from, Pope's Gang in early Season 1?

Colin Cunningham: I think Pope's Gang was just some renegades. They were outlaws before; they were just bad guys. These guys are more honed; they're fighters. The Beserkers were honed after the apocalypse. That other gang was just a leftover from the bad part of civilization, where the Beserkers are bad within the new world, as opposed to just being bad within the old world.

And when I say "bad," I mean "badass." They're fighters and they're killers, but they're alien killers.

TV Tango: What's your favorite snarky comment that Pope makes in Season 2?

Colin Cunningham: [Laughing] When I first started getting these lines, I never saw them anything other than lines, you know. It's kind of a surprise. I never thought Pope would be a "Make my day" kind of guy that he is with that dialogue.

I'm trying to think for Season 2. It's hard for me to even answer that question because whenever I see bits of Season 2, I'm just so blown away by the work of Noah Wyle and just the writing and the editing and the direting. All of a sudden, I'm able to see what everyone else was doing, and I've kind of forgotten about the stuff that I was doing.  I'm just so happy to see this ensemble come together and to see these incredible effects. 

I'm afraid I don't really have an answer for that one.

TV Tango: Because of your snarky comments, do people often compare Pope to Sawyer from LOST?

Colin Cunningham: Yeah, I remember in the first season there were some comparisons like that, and I thought, "Hey, great!" It's all good, because LOST was a fantastic show and having one character compared to another character on a fantastic show, it's like "Bring it on!" I could certainly see the similarities.

But I think if you put Sawyer and Pope in one room and only one could walk out, I think Pope would eat Sawyer for breakfast.

TV Tango: In Season 1, Pope told Mason that the last book any of his gang members read "had a dog named Spot in it." What's the last book you, Colin, have read?

Colin Cunningham: The last book that I read was actually "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin." Just personal interest. I'm a big fan of American history. I love American history.

It's kind of interesting the way that they reference a lot of American history in FALLING SKIES. I actually get a lot of the references -- John Pope was a soldier back during the Civil War. A lot of the characters and a lot of the names, I actually recognize, and I'm like, "Hmm, that sounds familiar, I'll bet you that...." and I look it up and "Yes, it is!" I have a lot of fun reading the scripts, just in terms of having a reference that I'm interested in.

Wang Chung

TV Tango: IMDb claims that you're a professional saxophone player, guitarist & songwriter. True?

Colin Cunningham: Yeah, it is. If I can get my mouth on it, I can usually get it to play and make some noise. 

TV Tango: Would we have heard any of your work?

Colin Cunningham: Probably my biggest claim to fame was that i did some sax work for Wang Chung [laughing] way, way back. It was a demo, and I don't even know if it was ever released. A lot of times they'll record 20 or 30 songs, and then they'll pick eight or nine for the album. I was brought in one day to do sax, but I never met Wang Chung. I showed up and was all excited, and it was just me and the engineer. [lauging] That's just how a lot of this stuff works --  you never meet the people that you're playing for.