American Primeval, Interview with Actor Kevin Scott Allen

We meet Kevin Scott Allen, one of the main characters in the 1990s series Homefront - The War at Home. You recently joined the cast of the highly anticipated television series American Primeval, can you describe your role?

I play a hideous man, a French Canadian who is the leader of group of travelers that has been lost in the wilds for a long time. We set a trap for the leads of the series and kidnap them. I taunt and torture them mercilessly. The episode byline calls me “pure evil.” 

American Primeval tells a new adventure in the West, set in a still pioneering and wild environment. What does it represent for the Western genre?

It really delves into the utter lawlessness and danger of the time and place. There is no sheriff, no law whatsoever, except for a military unit that is hopelessly overwhelmed. Life is almost meaningless, and death and destruction are but a step away from everyone. 

You were one of the main characters in the acclaimed 1990s TV series Homefront - The War at Home, what do you remember about that experience? Do you have any anecdotes to share?

I adored working on Homefront. I played another despicable character, a racist and bully. An interesting anecdote is when we first began the series, I had a talk with the creator, Bernie Lechowick. We discussed that my character was created to represent the widespread racism of most of America at the time. World War 2 had just ended, and most people thought America was this wonderful country where everyone was equal. The opposite was true; racism was running rampant in America at that time. A funny story, all of the men in the series worked in a factory, but nobody knew what we made there! It was never discussed. We used the actual construction shop at the studio, and we’d all play around with the machines during scenes, but no one had the slightest idea what we were supposed to make. 

How much do you think the Western genre has given to cinema and how much has cinema represented the Western genre in its essence? What do you think is the best Western and how would you describe American Primeval in comparison?

The Western genre has always been alluring in that it represents the very best of what we’re taught America and its history is all about. People marching off into the unkown to make a better world. The early Westerns had an almost mythical quality to them, bad men were always punished, nobody ever got dirty, horses were always there, well-fed and eager to save their riders. Early Westerns emphasized the idea that when life is simple, good will always triumph. The genre has since evolved into a somewhat more accurate telling. People were not always good, very, very often good did not win, life was hard and death was around every corner. American Primeval takes that even further, telling a story that reverses the traditional roles. The people who are traditionally the enemy, the Indians, are the noblest of everyone. The people normally depicted as good, the religious Mormans, are the purest of evil. It is far more accurate and it turns the genre upside down. 

Can you tell us about Kevin Scott Allen's future projects?

The interesting thing about the life of an actor is that you never quite know what is coming yet. I have several projects in the offing, a main one being producing a book I wrote, Murder Can  Be Fatal, into either a film or miniseries, but in an hour an offer could come in to move forward with another project, often times a project everybody thought was long gone. There is an new television series this season, Matlock, with the incredible Kathy Bates. They offered me a role but I had to turn it down because the shooting schedule conflicted with another project. I’m hoping they have me in should the show film season 2.