Jason Issacs Talks About His Concerns with Religious Material in ‘Dig’

USA Network’s newest series, Dig, premiered tonight on USA, and all week long I’ve been sharing highlights from my interviews with the cast during my visit to the set in Albuquerque last December. After watching the series tonight, you may have some of the same questions that I had when I first saw the pilot. Obviously, the topics of religion and fanaticism are not topics that some take lightly.

I asked both executive producer Tim Kring and series star Jason Issacs about any concern they had with the material that the show was addressing. Any worries that some viewers or even non-viewers that hear about the series may be offended or upset by the subject matter? It’s definitely something that was on Issacs’ mind while filming.

“Oh, shit yeah. Are you kidding me? We’re doing a thing set around religious extremists. It’s in Jerusalem. Every day Jerusalem has terrible and tragic things going on there, and I’ve already experienced an awful lot of people contacting me through social medial who are just full of hate or anger or righteous anger or whatever. It means we’re telling stories about something that’s engaging. At least I can justify everything that I’ve done, where we shot, how we shot, what the story is we’re telling, but there are people that don’t want you to be telling stories about some of these things. Of course there are, but that just makes it a bit more exciting.” Issacs answered. “I don’t really want to be killed in my bed or drink tea full of … what was that substance that the gentleman drunk in old London, some irradiated thing.”

Issacs also stated that while he doesn’t want to anger anyone, and he certainly respects everyone’s beliefs, he also recognizes the ones that do take it too far, and he’s comfortable saying it.

“I don’t want to incur the anger of anyone and I respect everybody’s belief system, but there is a point, there is a line where I go, “No, it’s not okay to want the end of the world to come. It’s not okay for you to have a vested interest in terrible, cataclysmic change and death to serve something in your spiritual beliefs.” Issacs explained. “That’s not okay, and I’m comfortable with that.”

We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.

Did you check out Dig tonight? Let us know your thoughts on USA Network’s newest series in the comment section below.

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