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James Spader Bids Farewell to an Intriguing Criminal Mastermind as ‘the Blacklist’ Finale Approaches

This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
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James Spader Bids Farewell to an Intriguing Criminal Mastermind as ‘the Blacklist’ Finale Approaches

This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)
This image released by NBC shows James Spader as Raymond Reddington in a scene from "The Blacklist." The 2-hour series finale airs July 13. (NBC/ Sony Pictures Television via AP)

Raymond "Red" Reddington is finally hanging up his famous black fedora and — fitting for a manipulative genius — he's doing it on his own terms.

"The Blacklist" ends its 10-year NBC run Thursday with a two-hour send-off, and star James Spader says the cast and crew relished the chance to take their time saying goodbye.

"I was very, very glad we were able to end it exactly the way we wanted to end it. It was deliberate and we weren’t taken by surprise in terms of when the ending was going to come," he tells The Associated Press. "You’ll see that the ending has conviction and we commit to it."

The end of "The Blacklist" is a swan song for Reddington, one of the most intriguing and delicious characters on television. A master of brokering shadowy deals for criminals, he offered his help to the FBI tracking down the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Spader reveals that the show — filmed mostly in New York City with an embrace of international characters — went overseas for the finale. "The Blacklist" ends in Spain.

"I really felt like this was complete and I loved how it really completed a circle, in a way," he says. "It wasn’t just an unbroken line from point A to point Z, but it was a circle of sorts."

The show attracted Spader all those years ago because he was looking for something that would sustain both his interest and the viewer's for more than 20 episodes a season, or in his words, create a "limitless landscape."

The pilot introduced Reddington as a fugitive criminal whose enterprises were worldwide, checking one box for the actor. Spader was also looking for a show that was fluid in tone, which the pilot also delivered.

"I would not be as curious about a show that was either just a drama or a show that was just a comedy," he says. "I felt that it was sort of nice that this show was very, very intense and brutal at times and then, at other times, very irreverent and sometimes very emotional."

Reddington, infused with Spader's elliptical charm, was a stylish addition to network TV, a character who could make an amazing frittata with just a toaster oven and who collected sabers from the Crimean War. He was not good, certainly, but not bad, either. "He’s a scary monster and people like him," Spader says.

Reddington is deeply cultured, a man able to converse about Cary Grant, the Piazza del Campo in Siena or Kai Tak Airport. Nicknamed "The Concierge of Crime," he said deeply profound things like, "Not every answer is worth knowing" and "I can only lead you to the truth. I can’t make you believe it."

"He inhabits the whole world, he really does. He lives in it and he really loves it. And he loves life," says Spader, a three-time Emmy winner. "I guess one would understand the value of life if one has to take it every so often."

Even when laying low, Reddington shone. In the fifth season, he was reduced to living in a motor lodge, hanging poolside wearing a baseball cap, but rose again. Reddington was fearless.

"He’s someone who would show reason and caution but he was never fearful of anything. That sort of combination, I think, is compelling for people when faced with so much in one’s life and the world around you," Spader says.

"I think there’s something compelling, I guess, in losing yourself in a story, going on a ride along with someone, not fearful of whatever might be around the next corner or what might be across that threshold that you’re just about to cross."

Another thing that sustained "The Blacklist" was its marriage between a weekly procedural needing an end and an overarching, serialized story that started with the pilot and never paused until the finale.

"People could enter the show or sort of access it at any time, and there would be a certain amount of satisfaction in that," says Spader. "And yet for those people who wanted to stay with it, then it was satisfying as a long and circuitous journey."

Ten years ago, Spader's Reddington promised the FBI access to his lengthy roster of politicians, mobsters, hackers, spies — "the criminals who matter," he taunted agents in the pilot, "the ones you can’t find because you don’t even know they exist."

A decade later it was Spader during the Hollywood writers' strike who helped get the finale onto screens. He turned out to be the only executive producer able to help get the last two episodes out.

Spader said Reddington is a welcome addition to his off-kilter gallery of TV characters, which includes Alan Shore on "Boston Legal" and Robert California from "The Office."

"He sits very comfortably with all the others. He’s got his own place at the table," the actor says. "It feels complete and sometimes you’re not done with someone that you’ve played. I don’t harbor any regret."

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Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
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Think You Know 'Jaws'? Test Your Knowledge with this Trivia Ahead of the Movie's 50th Anniversary

This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Peacock shows Roy Scheider in a scene from "Jaws." (Peacock/Universal Pictures via AP)

Friday marks the 50th anniversary of “Jaws.” It remains one of the most beloved and rewatched movies of all time. But how good is your knowledge of the some of lore surrounding Steven Spielberg's 1975 masterpiece?

Read on and see how much you know about “Jaws.”

What was the nickname given to the shark? Spielberg named his mechanical shark “Bruce,” after his attorney, Bruce Ramer.

Where did the title come from? When author Peter Benchley’s 1974 book was going to print, he needed to choose a title. He has juggled various titles — “Leviathan Rising,” “Silent Fall” — before, at the last minute, choosing “Jaws.”

What did it mean? Benchley, himself, wasn’t sure, he told his editor, but it was short.

What's the origin of the iconic movie poster? The image of the rising shark came from the cover of the novel’s paperback edition, illustrated by Roger Kastel. For his painting, Kastel went to the American Museum of Natural History to photograph a great white shark from a diorama that was laying on an easel.

What was the inspiration for Amity? Though Spielberg shot “Jaws” on Martha’s Vineyard, off Cape Cod, it was the neighboring island, Nantucket, that inspired Benchley’s novel. He has spent time fishing there with his father. In the book, the fictional Amity is on the south shore of Long Island.

Who was first attached to direct “Jaws”? Dick Richards was initially in line to direct the film, but producer Richard D. Zanuck said he lost the job after, in a meeting, repeatedly referring to the shark as a whale.

How old was Spielberg when he began the project? 26.

Who sought but was turned down the role of Brody? Charlton Heston wanted to play the Amity Island police chief, but Spielberg instead cast Roy Scheider.
What’s the name of Quint’s boat? The Orca. Not coincidentally, two years after the massive success of “Jaws,” a 1977 ripoff about a killer whale was released titled “Orca.”

What led to the shark often malfunctioning? Salt water. The shark, built by special effects artist Bob Mattey, would get corroded by the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean, leaving it unusable for times – particularly early in the filmmaking. Spielberg pivoted and instead doesn’t show the shark until well into the film, an approach that ultimately led to a far more suspenseful film.

Spielberg once estimated that Bruce’s mechanical delays added $175 million to the movie’s box office.

How long into “Jaws” does the shark fully appear on screen? It’s not until one hour and 21 minutes into the movie that we really see the shark.

Was the movie’s most iconic line scripted? No, Schieder adlibbed “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, though, has said the line had been percolating on set. The size of the barge carrying equipment and craft services was often slighted by the crew who felt producers weren’t spending enough. Gottlieb told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016: “It became a catchphrase for any time anything went wrong – if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat.’”

What disaster was Quint a survivor of? The sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the US Navy cruiser torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

Quint’s lengthy and memorably speech in the film wasn’t in the novel but was, according to Spielberg, penned by the uncredited screenwriter John Milius.

Spielberg wanted a backstory to why Quint hated sharks so much. Though debate has continued over the years over who wrote the monologue, everyone has agreed Shaw synthesized it, and deserves most of the credit for the scene’s power.

Does Spielberg appear in “Jaws?” The director isn’t seen in the film but his voice is heard. During the finale of the film when Quint is readying the harpoon, it’s Spielberg’s voice on the radio. He says: “This is Amity point light-station to Orca. Orca, come in.” Spielberg shows up in a couple other ways, too. A clarinetist in high school, he plays briefly on Williams’ score. And Brody’s dogs were Spielberg’s cocker spaniels, Elmer and Zalman. (For his part, Benchley makes a cameo as a TV reporter during the July 4th beach scene.)

How far over schedule did “Jaws” run? The production was scheduled for 55 days but took 159 days to complete. The budget also nearly tripled, to $9 million, plus $3 million more in post-production. Though “Jaws” become the prototype summer movie, it was originally expected to open around Christmastime the year before.

What was “Jaws” rated? Though it caused some controversy, the Motion Picture Association of America gave “Jaws” a “PG” rating. At the time, there was no PG-13 rating. (That only began in 1984, with “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” after a handful of other Spielberg productions, including “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Gremlins” led to the new category.) Jack Valenti, then-president of the MPAA, defended the rating by arguing that “‘Jaws’ involved nature’s violence, rather than man’s violence against man,” Valenti said. “This is the same kind of violence as in ‘Hansel and Gretel.’ Children might imitate other kinds of violence, but not the kind seen in ‘Jaws.’”

The movie’s poster carried the warning: “MAY BE TOO INTENSE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN.”

What did “Jaws” lose best picture to at the Academy Awards? “Jaws” was nominated for four Oscars and won three: best sound, best editing and best score for John Williams. The competition for best picture, though, was fierce.

The nominees, alongside “Jaws,” where “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Barry Lyndon,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Nashville.” The winner was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”