From the 60 Minutes archives: Mandy Patinkin on playing Saul Berenson
Back in the fall of 2014, the late Bob Simon visited actor Mandy Patinkin on location in South Africa. Simon had covered conflict and war for most of his professional life, yet he told 60 Minutes Overtime that the world of fictional terrorism, as depicted in the Showtime series "Homeland," still intrigued him.
That season, "Homeland" was set in Pakistan, but was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa. Simon, who had reported from Pakistan in the past, told Overtime he was impressed by the likeness of the location.
"The extent to which those two blocks look like Pakistan for me was mind-blowing," he recalled. "To see how they created a foreign land was something staggering."
Simon said he was also stunned by the authenticity of the "Homeland" props that Mandy Patinkin showed them. "This is a facial recognition thing," Patinkin said. "When you walk up, you see it pops on ... And then it allows the door to open."
"It's been amazing watching the show this year because I see all these gadgets and things that we actually saw in real life, on television," Graham Messick, producer of the Patinkin profile, said at the time. "The things that surprised us was the level of detail, from the papers on the desk to the drone controls, it was really cool."
Messick pointed out that Patinkin's personality was much different from the calm and controlled demeanor of his character, Saul Berenson, on "Homeland," which airs on ViacomCBS' sister network, Showtime.
"Mandy has a problem listening, and just being still and calm," Messick said. "He's genuinely curious. He's like a journalist. He really, really wants to know the answer to things, and if you don't give him a good answer, he'll keep asking."
The videos above were originally published on November 16, 2014.
