ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: So what have you gotten yourself into this time?
DAVID JAMES ELLIOTT: Welcome to my nightmare. You should have been here last night. I almost got drowned about five times. Harm's jet goes down in the perfect storm.
ET: Is this a cliffhanger?
DAVID: This is a finale cliffhanger. Does he live? Does he come back? Is he renegotiating? Is that why they wrote this?
ET: What have you done so far?
DAVID: We were under water in a 30-foot tank yesterday. Harm goes down, and his parachute gets tugged underwater. He is caught up in the lines and it is dragging him down. We didn't quite have it worked out, so we've got giant waves going, wind blowing and we are communicating with hand signals. They have milk in the water to make it look milky, and I have got three guys pulling me down. I am supposed to be fighting against it but we didn't signal. They pulled me down right after I exhaled, so I was fighting for my life trying to get up and they are pulling me down thinking this is an award-winning performance. I came so close to dying.
ET: Are you using a stuntman?
DAVID: I do all my own stunts. DIAMOND FARNSWORTH, my stunt man, does all the things the insurance people won't let me do.
ET: Is this the fun stuff?
DAVID: It looks like fun, but after 12 hours you are going, "This is my worst nightmare. How do I get through this?"
ET: Why did your plane go down?
DAVID: We were flying back in a storm and it malfunctioned. We tried to circumvent the storm, but it kept changing course and flopping around. Then we ran into some technical problems and eventually we had to punch out in the Atlantic Ocean.
ET: Is this all done by you, or computer animation?
DAVID: I think they have to be pretty careful where they point the camera. I think we have some green screen and another unit shooting some actual footage of a storm at sea.
ET: How dangerous is this?
DAVID: Yesterday was dangerous. It was interesting that that happened and we had to regroup. You have a time frame and you have to get this stuff done in a certain amount of time. It is not like a feature, so you just have to be careful. We have a great team. We have been working together a long time, so after last night's moment when I went, "Okay guys, we need to figure out a system," because I was doing everything but they couldn't see me going, "I'm dying here." We worked it out and said, "Okay we will hold you down for 10 seconds," then we went 15. You just have to be really precise.
ET: Because it is television, you have to work a little faster?
DAVID: It is always dangerous when you are doing something like this. It is always about how not dangerous can you make it. It is never ever going to be perfect. You could get killed walking down the street.
ET: What's up with the wedding?
DAVID: Mac's character is getting married to Brumby. They are at the rehearsal dinner as I am going down. So that raises some questions and it should be interesting. We already know that Harm and Mac did some serious talking out on the porch, so we now know how he feels -- we wonder how she feels. There are some things going on for somebody who is getting married -- there is some questioning.
ET: You are going to Australia to do a TV movie over the summer, give me the lowdown.
DAVID: I am going to Australia to do a TV movie for CBS. My wife is playing the third lead and I am the star. It is a thriller that takes place on an airplane -- I am always on an airplane -- I don't know what that is. We are shooting it in Brisbane over the summer. I finish shooting here on the 15th, get on a plane, fly there and start shooting that.