Jamie Denton to XPosé

Xposé investigates The Pretender's sinister psychopath Mr. Lyle - aka actor Jamie Denton.
By David Richardson.

He's handsome, charismatic and dresses immaculately in sharply cut suits.  But don't be fooled by the attractive exterior of The Pretender's Mr. Lyle;  beneath that cheerful smile lies one of the darkest and deadliest minds on television.

Known to some of his colleagues as ‘The Bogeyman,' Mr. Lyle is a highly ambitious employee of the mysterious organization known as The Centre.   He's worked hard to ensure a position of power, and when their prize genius Jarod (Michael T. Weiss) escapes his confines and goes on the run, Mr. Lyle proves that he will stop at nothing to track him down.   In fact, Mr. Lyle's unorthodox methods have frequently been known to confound his associates Miss Parker (Andrea Parker) and Sydney (Patrick Bauchau), who consider him psychotic.   But, as Mr. Lyle has been known to retort, "Psychiatric evaluations can be really subjective."

"Mr. Lyle is really interesting," enthuses actor Jamie Denton, who brings life to the scheming, yet charming, individual.  "The main attraction in playing him is that he's not at all what he appears to be.  I know that's not the most novel concept, but it is still a lot of fun to play.

"In the first episode the character was very Jimmy Stewart; a very normal guy, coming to work at the office, all smiles and just wanting everyone to be friends.  By the end of the season, he is kidnaping and killing off his wives!

"I already liked the whole tone of the show before they hired me; the look and the darkness and the edge.   To get to play the kind of character that does that sort of turnaround was a big attraction."

As the series has progressed, so we have learned more about the dysfunctional Mr. Lyle -- or Bobby Bowman, to use his real name.  Adopted as a child by Nebraskan farmers Lyle and Martha Bowman, word has it that young Bobby was a sweet and affectionate kid.  Then, at 15 years of age, he was visited by a ‘counselor' from his adoption agency - who was later revealed to be an operative from The Centre.

After that, Bobby became moody and violent - to a degree that his father would lock him in a padlocked wood shed.  Later, Bobby would fake his own death, framing his father for the murder, while his mother went insane, looking after dogs that do not exist.  Bobby reinvented himself as Mr. Lyle,, gained a position of considerable authority within The Centre, and was awarded temporary control of the Jarod project by the ruling Triumvirate.

"He's sort of a classic sociopath," defines Denton gleefully.

So how does the actor approach playing such an unapologetically evil person?  "I just bring it from home," laughs Denton.  "Ask my wife!"

"You just have to pick a couple of things.  I'm not a big method guy when it comes to acting. 

As long as you know the character and what they're after, it's pretty much simple.  Every scene with this guy, you just find a couple of things that drive him, to keep from over complicating him ... it's all about gaining respect, and power and revenge.

"From there that just drives you through the scene, and you do everything with the same kind of motivation because it's TV and it's so fast.  You don't have a lot of time and the scenes are really short because the show is about Michael.  You just want to be clear when you go in there that this is a guy on a mission, and you can't flesh it out a whole lot like you can in film.  It's gotta be fairly narrow."

Ask any actor what kind of role they prefer to play, and nine times out of ten they will insist they are attracted to portraying the bad guy.  Denton agrees that the role of Mr. Lyle is a gift, enabling him to explore the darker side of the human psyche.

"The things I get to say to people in the scenes are things you'd never get to say in real life," says Denton.  "You get to unload on people, and the double entendres and the things that Lyle has going on ... There was the mail order bride episode (Someone To Trust) where he was bringing the brides over and killing them off.  It's kind of sick and warped, but there is definitely an element of fun to it.  It's the sort of thing you would never, ever dream of doing in real life."

Of course, Mr. Lyle has faced his comeuppance on a number of occasions.  His deals with the Japanese Mafia were thwarted by Jarod, and it was believed that in retaliation, Mr. Lyle has been killed.  However, he later returned in A Stand Up Guy - minus a thumb which may have been severed in punishment.

"Originally we talked about that I would be killed off piece by piece," laughs the actor.  "It would be a hand, then a foot ... it would be like the Monty Python skit with the Black Knight, where it's just the torso and no limbs!"

Of course, now that Mr. Lyle has been maimed, Denton's own fully-functional digit must be concealed.

"The hand's pretty much always in the pocket," he responds.  "It's one of those things we did, and now we're sort of stuck with it.  There was talk about a mechanical thing, but we just decided to downplay it."

For scenes in which Lyle does show his hand, so to speak, the actor must wear a special glove, which has had the thumb removed and sewn up.

"It's really tight, so I use that, and I just can't really turn my hand all the way over.  I never take it out of my pocket unless the scene calls for it ... that way it's not overdone.

"For a couple of scenes they created a prosthetic in which the fingers move - it's very realistic.  They've used that on two different shows, just to remind you that it's there.

"[Lyle shows his hand] to creep out Broots, or to intimidate somebody.

"I'd love to see the Yakuza theme come back around.

I think they talked about the possibility of revisiting that at some point."

Since his run in with the Mafia, Lyle has mixed fortunes.  His attempt to sell a computer chip from The Centre, which contained genetic codes, forced him to stage his own death again, and he began a freelance campaign to trap Jarod.  In Red Rock Jarod, Mr. Lyle lures his prey to a small desert town, captures him - and threatens to sever one of his thumbs.  Jarod is ultimately saved by his brother Kyle and Mr. Lyle takes one step closer to insanity.

However, at the start of season three, Mr. Parker (Harve Presnell) insisted on Lyle's reinstatement at the Centre, and we ultimately discover that they are father and son.  Which is disturbing news for Miss Parker, who must come to terms with the fact that her own twin brother is a psychopathic killer.

Denton reveals that he was delighted when the producers told him of their plans for this surprising turn of events. 

"That was really a big motivating factor in coming back for another season," he beams.  "It was the best news I'd gotten since I was hired.

"Originally Mr. Lyle was sort of ambiguous.  I didn't even know where he came from.  Finding out that he was gonna be Miss Parker's twin brother made all the difference in the world.  I was excited about the possibilities.  There are some elements that are sort of soap opera about it, for better or for worse, but the fact that I was Miss Parker's twin led to so many directions, and it was so much more fun playing the stuff with her."

With The Pretender still doing good business for NBC (in fact the syndication rights have just been sold to TNT), and the cast committed to five year contracts, it seems pretty likely that the show will run for at least another couple of years.  Producers Craig Van Sickle and Stephen Long Mitchell have already decided how the saga will draw to a close and - in a show that centers on the them of justice and vengeance - one might imagine that Mr. Lyle has a very gruesome end in store.

How does Denton see his character developing in forthcoming seasons?

"It's interesting to read on the Internet all the fan fiction and all the speculation from people who are regular viewers of the show," muses the actor.  "Are they really brother and sister?  Did Lyle tamper with the blood sample?  Are they really going to end up being twins?

"It wouldn't surprise me if we find out down the road that they's a lot more to that story, that maybe they're not ... I haven't heard anything, I'm hoping they'll remain twins.

"I think it's just going to be more of Lyle trying to climb that ladder to the Triumvirate," he concludes, "working his way more entrenched into the hierarchy.  This guy is just working his way up - he wants more power!"