Blair Underwood's character, Simon Elder, was raised in Russia, is now the 3rd richest man in the world, has some similarities with Richard Branson, and is the key business rival for Tripp Darling.

Underwood gave a brief interview to Ausiello at the Emmy after party.

In an unusual move, but with the blessing of both networks, Underwood will also continue as a recurring character on CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine, at least through this season.

He will also appear on HBO's "In Treatment," which begins next year.

And just in case three separate shows don't keep him busy enough, he's also begun writing a series of mystery novels.

Oh--and he's just finished directing his first feature length film, "The Bridge to Nowhere."

See the August 26th profile from the Los Angeles Times.

God, I hope they actually make him speak Russian on the show instead of just mentioning that he grew up there and is "fluent."

God, how much am I looking forward to this?!?!

Even though the last time I saw a Blair character he was burning his ex-wife up on L&O:SVU I still have an unnatural insatiable crush on this man that I do not know.

When I saw the title for this thread, I was like 'That BU?' I've missed on my tv since SiTC. If he speaks Russian, I just might melt.

This show keeps getting better and better.

blair underwood speaking russian...hallelujah!
;)

i'm so excited for his character to come on the show. I feel like the Darling's need a nemesis -- right now they're only working against themselves, ya know?

Not going to lie, I squeaked a bit at the end of the episode. I can't wait until we get to meet him. I hope his entrance is as great as the Darlings' was.

Is there any word yet as to how they're explaining a Russian immigrant being, well, black?

As someone who grew up in Russia I find that highly unlikely. 99% of black people in USSR (and it was an extremely small number) were students from countries like Cuba or poor African satellites of the week, who wouldn't be USSR citizens anyway... Sure, some of those students stayed and had children in Russia, but then Blair would have to be under 30 and they would have to somehow fit his history into an episode.

Blair Underwood is one hell of an actor and it's nice to see a non-WASP on the show but I just don't understand why they couldn't a) find a white actor if they were so hell bent on Russia (or an Asian actor, there are quite a bit Asian Russians) or b) pick a different country for Blair to come from.

There better be one hell of a backstory...

i swear they said something about the Elder family being deported to Russia, not from Russia...???

Blair Underwood has said in interviews that the backstory will be interesting. They know it's very unusual. But the character definitely grew up in Russia. No word so far on whether his parents were originally American or what.

pure hotness

Interestingly, this just came up on one of the TV Potluck threads (not related to DSM, though).

The history of the black diaspora in the former Soviet Union is indeed complex and interesting. There has been a history of people of African descent (meaning indigenous Africans) in Russia and the former Soviet Union for over 300 years; one of the most famous being the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. There are "black" enclaves in the Caucasus mountains settled perhaps as early as the 16th century by African seamen; some that survived the short period of enslaved Africans, African Americans, and West Indians in the 18th and 19th centuries, and who often became servants; and many artists, intellectuals, social activists, and refugees from Jim Crow realities in the US who came and settled following the October (Bolshevik) Revolution. In the 1920's several American blacks and Africans were invited to attend special schools established to train Communist Party leaders for various parts of the world. Several stayed and married and settled with their families. In the late 1950s the Soviet Union began hosting Africans students in Soviet higher educational institutions and many also married and settled. It is estimated that there are a few thousand Russians of African descent from this period.

So, yes, there are several folks who are of African descent who have been in Russia for generations and who consider themselves to be Russian blacks or black Russians: journalist Yelena Khanga (1962-) who is a popular TV host, is but one of many. Her father came to Russia in 1935.

New interview with Blair Underwood about the character on the official site.

According to Underwood, Elder is a self-made billionaire, didn't come from money, but now has more money than "all the Darlings put together." He is a philanthropist because he understands what it's like not to have money, but he has a ruthless side, too. Especially where Tripp Darling is concerned.

Well, Pushkin was actually a decendant of a slave Peter the Great imported from Africa, and now most historians agree that that slave was Arab and not black. In any case, black or not, he married a white woman and Pushkin looked very much a white man, so I highly doubt Simon Elder could be decendant of blacks who immigrated that long ago. (Even with counting the Caucasian enclaves, there would be no more than a few hundred blacks in all of Russian empire, so they would have no choice but marry interracially).

As for black people who emigrated to Soviet Union... I don't know, it just seems like such a far fetched story for someone's family to immigrate to USSR and than immigrate to USA (getting out of USSR was quite difficult especially if you couldn't fake a Hebrew heritage... and that would be a tough feat for an African I would think), but I guess that's what DSM is going for, and we shall see.

It's always complicated to go by "color" as a determinant of identity, particularly when it comes to race, rather than self-identification. And racial self-identification is further complicated by the fact that race and racialization is understood differently in different national contexts. I didn't mean to imply that Simon Elder would be a descendant of Pushkin, just adding some information about people of African descent in Russia/the former Soviet Union.

Yelena Khanga is 45 this year, and possibly the same age as Simon Elder--certainly the same generation as Blair Uderwood, who was born in 1964. I mention Yelena because she indeed is a direct descendant of an American-born black man who moved to the Soviet Union with his wife; his daughter, Lily, in turn married a scholar from Zanzibar who was studying at a Soviet University; the daughter of that union, Yelena, came to the US in 1991 (which is also when I met and interviewed her) as a Rockefeller Fellow; the story of that trip and her understanding of herself as a black Russian is chronicled in her memoir Soul to Soul. Because Yelena's mother had already been born when her parents renounced their American citizenship, Yelena has a claim to American citizenship, so if she so chose, she could have dual nationality status, which could make it easier for her to immigrate to the US, while complicating travel in general. The years when I was more closely in touch with her she kept this in mind, but considered herself a Russian and not likely to immigrate or need the clout of a US passport as she already had a high level of mobility. She is both a journalist and has also had an interesting (and strange) career as a television host.

It's definitely an unusual story, but it is still a fascinating story that pushes the boundaries of blackness and American communism from a US perspective; I can't really speak to what it reflects of the issues of blackness within Russia or the Soviet Union. I wonder if one of the writers met Yelena/learned of Yelena's story and that of other less-high profile black Russians--regardless, I can't imagine doing such a storyline without doing some research--and wrote this into the script as an opportunity to incorporate some interesting story lines about class, access to wealth, race, culture, identity, etc. and maybe just to get people talking just the way we are now about a little known bit of history.

I'm also curious as to what they will do with the story line, but in interviews, Blair Underwood seems to be very excited about the richness (no pun intended) of this role.

For a Russian technology genius, I must say Simon Elder speaks colloquial American English with surprisingly perfect grammar, word choice, and accent.

See Hugh Larie.

Hugh Laurie is an actor playing an American and has his perfect colloquial American English provided to him by his writers. I'm not sure why he would be compared to the fictional Simon Elder, who, in show, is meant to be Russian. The perfect American speech bothered me a bit as well. Perfect English in general I'd certainly believe from his character, but the accent and phrasings bothered me.

That said, I thought Blair Underwood did a good job with him. There was enough real warmth to his character that I'd believe total philanthropist, but he acted oddly enough at times that I could believe villain as well.

OK, I'll grant that. I never once got a "Russian" vibe from him, even if he said he wanted to eat at a Russian restaurant, but as a possibly villainous, possibly saintly philanthropist, he was great.

Grew up in Russia doesn't mean his parents didn't speak English. At least one of his parents may indeed have been American, we don't have the full backstory yet.

I am a cranky old man (I am older than DS), and have a number of friends who speak multiple languages. Some of the studies on this indicate that environmental consistency is the best aid. A child who speaks only French at school, only American at home, and only Arabic in the marketplace, for example, can indeed be fully fluent and colloquial in all three. Even a child who speaks one language with one parent and another with the other (this has happened in some homes where American soldiers married, say, Japanese or Vietnamese wives) can also be comfortably fluent in both.

Viggo Mortensen is a good example of a person who is fluent in multiple languages. His Spanish has an Argentine accent, but that's understandable--Argentina is where he learned to speak it. Hector Elizondo is colloquial in both English and Spanish--he spoke Spanish at home with his Puerto Rican parents, and English in school in New York.

So until we know more about Elder's backstory, I don't have any problem with the idea that he may have grown up speaking two languages.

But it's not that he speaks English that's the problem. It's that he speaks perfect American English without the slightest trace of an accent or more Russian way of phrasing things. If both of his parents are American, okay, but that's the only explanation I'd remotely believe.



Yeah, and I'm a graduate student in science who works with a lot of international people. Most of them speak very good English, but even the ones who have been here for 40+ years still have an accent.

I brought up an actor specifically because to me, it was imperative that Simon would learn English to the same degree an actor would. He is a businessman and if you want to get ppl yo give you money, you first make them comfortable, then you convince them you are worthy.

It would only benefit him to take the time to learn all the nuances of American English, to show his familiarity with the culture and nation, which would be a great testiment of his business acumen. I mean he is black, he doesn't need the 'foreigner' label to work against him as well.

I equate a good businessman the same as a good confidence artist. It's all about perception.

Thanks for explaining the history of blacks n Russia. It has been bothering me. But now I can totally deal with the story. Given the ethnocentrism of the Russian being superior to the Georgians, the Jews and the Kazakhs, et al, I can only imagine how much more of an outsider a black person would have been made to feel. Which makes his story of rising to wealth in Russia then coming to America that much more compelling.

For a show that is supposed to be camp, this is one great, well-written, nuanced show.

Yes, I think the story is very compelling. I'm the one who titled this thread before the first episode, and it may have been slightly misleading, so I wanted to clear up one bit of confusion.

Originally we thought perhaps Elder came from a Russian oil family in some way.

Now, at least based on what he's told Nick, we've found out that apparently he didn't make his money until after he left Russia. In his first year after leaving he invented some techno-gadget and made "my first 100 million dollars--and it almost destroyed me." After that he did some more inventing, then started investing, then got into all the things that very very wealthy people do, including real estate.

But he's supposed to be more of a Bill Gates type mega rich person than an family wealth mega rich person. A rags to riches story, based on personal accomplishment.

Tonight's episode was the first in which I've found Simon Elder interesting.

The scene in which he was speaking Russian to the faux-dealer from "The Game" was the first scene that sparked something for me. I think it's because it was the first time he was being real, instead of putting up a front, working an angle, etc. with Nick, Tripp, Patrick and others.

On the other had, I found his scene with Patrick kind of off-putting. Elder was a little too supportive, feeding into Patrick's need for validation. I'm still not sure what Elder's game is (aside from maybe taking Tripp down) but he seems very good at feeding people what they need to hear be in a position to influence them. Kind of like a recruiter for a cult.

One thing I loved about that scene was his look when Patrick immediately went for his "you should come clean" line. It was almost like "wow, it's that easy to manipulate this guy?"

I felt the same way which is why Patrick is becoming the most stupid of Darling kids in my eyes. But I think Elder did feel he layed it on a bit thick which may be apart of the doubt he expressed to his henchman.

Does the rags-to-riches aspect explain his eye-smarting taste? I get that he's the maverick who's rich enough not to care what anyone in the world thinks, and maybe it would have been a cliché to write and cast Elder as a geeky tech/recovering nerd, but they're dressing Blair Underwood like Elder made his first million on late night infomercials for How To Be A Ho.

Why not put him in high-end, beautifully cut suits? This way, he just looks sleazy as well as transparent. Not an appropriate foil for the silver-haired bundle of crazy awesome that is Tripp Darling.

And I still don't think it sounded like he was speaking Russian with his dealer/underling/majordomo. I'm probably quite wrong, but there it is.

Sandman, it actually was Russian - just very badly PRONOUNCED Russian. As a native speaker, I was slightly taken aback by just how bad it was, but hey - at least they tried, I guess.

His English, though, I have to say, is appallingly perfect. Honestly, let the man have a single flaw or dent in his armor. There is no way that he could speak English so perfectly after immigrating as an adult, even if he learned English in Russia first. Give him an accent, or at least a dialect of some kind. Make it believable!

What no one has considered...is maybe the reason he speaks such good English is that his parents are American - not Russian. No one has ever said yet that they're foreign. You grow up speaking what you hear. AND if he's lived all over the world -- you're going to speak English well...you don't change with every dialect.

Also, to all the people that have been saying he needs to be better dressed to be a billionaire...have you ever seen Bill Gates? I think the point is that he's "new money..." young, self-made, a bit of a maverick...doing things his own way. Like, I've got the money, but I'm not flaunting it -- I'm my own man. I don't have to follow any rules.

I think BU is kicking ass -- because I for one still don't know if he's good or evil. And that's a sign of a good actor. Keeping us guessing.

I haven't seen BU in much else, but something is missing as Simon Elder. I don't know if it is him, or the part. Simon, obviously, isn't what he seems. He just seems like he has no logical reasoning. Does he just need a life and a family of his own? Is he good, bad, other.....I just really don't care about him at all. The fact that he is now intermingling with all of the Darling clan just seems so out of place just to have him on the show. I really can't pinpoint the problem with the character.

First off, why does "the world's richest man" mess around with the Darlings so much anyways? Doesn't he have proles to exploit?

So, this episode at least gave us motive as to why he would mess around with the Darlings.

However IMHO, it still didn't give us energy, drive or passion in the character, or enough information to make me sympathize with him in his dealings with the Darlings. I did thing blowing up Darling plaza was a pretty ballsy move, I just didn't think the Elder character we've seen so far would actually do that. This guy must really be playing things close to the vest.

The only way I will care about Simon is if Tripp's mom had a baby as a product of the affair that was shipped off to Russia and Simon is a Darling.

Well, speaking as someone who loves Blair Underwood and consequently very happy that he is part of the DSM cast, I am excited to see how his character's storyline develops. Looking back on this week's episode though, Simon alluded to the fact that Tripp could possibly be responsible for the death of his brother. Maybe, Tripp would kill a brother that wasn't really a Darling......maybe that's why he seems to have such contempt for Brian also. Maybe it's history repeating itself.

Simon is very crafty. I see his seduction of Karen to be just another way to get at Tripp. He's stealing away everything that Tripp holds dear, one thing at a time.

Ten bucks says he offers to send Jeremy to space next....

LMAO. And then Jeremy can practice his Russian. I'm sure Seth's is better then Blair's.

But Karen is so playing Simon. Poor guy won't know what hit him.

The funniest/craziest thing is that buying Jeremy's way onto a space shuttle (possibly a Russian one...) is a freakin plausible storyline!

Thanks to those who offered their expertise on African/African-Americans in Russia. I just wanted to add to the mix the higher profile name, Paul Robeson. He was a super famous opera singer who was very critical of American racism and visited Communist Russia as a means to promote Communism as an alternative to conditions in the US for poor blacks. I think he eventually changed his mind about Russia, but it wouldn't surprise me that a few blacks of means might have been influenced by Robeson and immigrated to try communism out. Crazier shit has happened.

So, this seemed kind of timely:

Blair Underwood: The first actor to play Barack Obama

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