Over dinner and between talk of baseball, Tobin Bell discussed returning to the Saw movie franchise as Jigsaw for Saw IV. Although it’s not 100% necessary to have seen the first three Saw movies to understand the upcoming fourth film of the franchise, it definitely would help. It’s also helpful to have watched Saw III before reading this interview any further. There are spoilers from the third movie contained in the following Q&A and it would be impossible to delete them and still have the interview make sense.

You’ve been forewarned…

We're happy to know you're in Saw IV, but how?
“All I can tell you is that you'll find out in the very first scene in the film. It's the absolute first scene in the film that you find out why I'm still in it, how I'm still in it. I'm happy to be still in it and happy to be involved in the Saw story. I like the way it evolves. It has a wonderful way of developing in this bizarre sort of strange, last minute way. Because very often the script that we end up with on set is not the script that we end up shooting on many, many levels. I particularly like working with Darren [Lynn Bousman] because he's flexible and he does what I think all good leaders should do, which is to avail themselves of the resources of those who work for them. If you do, it makes your job a lot easier. That's the reason why you hired them in the first place. Darren does that. He's real smart.”

Will we see a different sort of Jigsaw?
“That question, in my perspective, that guy was a guy in a bed in Saw III who's dealing with Amanda in front of him, the same way as a guy in a bed in my house or your house would be dealing with Amanda, with a girl.

I don't view him as some sort of strange, diabolical, insane person. That's not his view of himself, so why should I approach him that way? The script will inexorably lead me to perform the deeds that are appropriate, but I don't need to play that. What I need to play is something that informs that on some level. I think that creates different rhythms. I think it creates different space, special relations in terms of the story. It gives you a place to rest from the mayhem and the murder that's going on out here. What was the question?”

A different Jigsaw?
“No, the same Jigsaw. Are you ever going to see Jigsaw have a love scene? Well, I felt like I had a couple with Amanda in the last film. They didn't write any Amanda/Jigsaw relationship. So whatever we came up with, we had to come up with in a touch, in a look, in a moment, which was blessed stuff when you're an actor. If you can create any sense of reality, any connection with your partner, it makes it all worthwhile. It feels very right. When that gets captured by the camera and makes it through the shark infested waters of editing onto the screen, then that's [gravy].”

Is there room for improvisation in IV?
“Well, hopefully by the time the camera rolls, you know what you're going to do or what you want to do. You're always improvising but you're improvising within a very small window. Otherwise, one, the camera guy is - they encourage you in acting schools, the thing they encourage you to do is to follow your impulses. That's what you're supposed to do. That's what you're learning to do. If you follow your impulses on a movie set, they would never get all of your impulses. You would never get the scene. You follow your impulses but you follow them within a very small window, because basically you're there to service the technicians. It's surprising how little in film and television, it's surprising how little in film in television is about acting. It's largely technical. A lot of it is very technical. These massive requirements that have to do with lights and camera and sound. They hope that you're going to do something in this little zone right here, but we're all there to service the trade that surrounds us.”

Who do you verbally spar with in IV?
“There's a guy in this film that we've never met before, who is…I can only describe him as being disenfranchised. Jigsaw comes into contact with this guy and they're like total opposites in certain ways. But when you think about it now, I view Jigsaw as someone who is basically living on a frontier in some ways. Imagine those guys on the moon. Many people talk a good game about the things that they care about in this world, but they do nothing about it. He, right or wrong, steps forward, does what he does.

So this guy he runs into in this film, or their paths cross, this guy is one of the lost of the world. And as I think about it now, although Jigsaw is extremely well educated, he's a philosopher, a mechanical engineer. He had everything to live for in his previous career; this other guy had never had anything. There's an interesting dialogue between the two of them. Anyway, you get to meet this guy in the film. I think it's a very interesting juxtaposition.”

Saw III is tragic because he fails his mission. Is there a chance at redemption in IV?
“He's not able to save anyone. That's not what he does. People have to save themselves. He's not able to do that and he's expressed that very clearly. If you are bent on a particular course than the matter of what, he cannot - she says it very clearly. She says, ‘Fix me. Fix me, motherf**ker. If you're so great.’"

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