Eric Balfour as Haven's Duke Crocker. Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
Are you eager to acquire a rare, one-of-a-kind antique? Perhaps you are more interested in a case of vintage wine, or maybe a dozen boxes of hand-rolled Cuban cigars? Whatever your heart’s desire, if you happen to live in the small coastal town of Haven, Maine, then Duke Crocker is your man.
A jack-of-all-trades, he can get his hands on pretty much anything a person might want. The price is typically high, but always fair. Some might describe Duke as shifty, while others see him as someone who is just trying to earn an honest (and sometimes a dishonest) buck or two. Actor Eric Balfour, who plays Duke on the popular Syfy Channel series Haven, likens his character to more of an old-fashioned “entrepreneur.”
“Duke is a pirate, he really is,” says Balfour, "and it’s interesting because the writers and I, [executive producers] Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, will have conversations about my character being a dichotomy. On one hand, Duke is completely narcissistic, selfish and self-involved, but on the other hand he also has a code of honor. In some ways he’s a throwback to a completely different era and I hope we get to explore that more in upcoming seasons.
“Yes, Duke will lie, cheat and steal to get what he wants, but he will not break his code of honor – whatever that may be in his mind – in order to do that. It’s a fine line, too, because he’ll screw over one guy, but he won’t do it to the next guy, and that’s just the code. It reminds me of those great scenes in [the feature film] Pirates of the Caribbean involving the word ‘parlay.’ It’s like, wait a minute, you’ll drown someone, you’ll cut off their head, whatever, but if they say ‘parlay’ then you have to take them back to the captain. That’s kind of how I see Duke. Again, he’s a throwback to that old world kind of sensibility.”
He may be out to make a buck, but Duke (Balfour) is always careful not to ignore his "code of honor." Photo by Eric Ogden and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
Loosely based on the Stephen King short story The Colorado Kid, Haven is home to “The Troubles,” a plague of supernatural afflictions that wrecked havoc in the small town at least once before and have recently resurfaced. The local community is populated by a host of colorful characters including Duke Crocker, who, like many of his fellow townsfolk, is more than he appears to be. Balfour had already been offered a role in a TV pilot when he heard about Haven from his longtime friend, Shawn Piller, who serves as an executive producer on the series.
“I called Shawn one day to talk about another project when out of the blue he said to me, ‘Why aren’t you playing Duke?’” recalls the actor. “I said to him, ‘Who?’ and Shawn said to me, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before. We just sold a show to the Syfy Channel and there’s a role in it that I’d like you to play.’
“I explained to Shawn that I had already been offered a pilot the day before, but asked him to send me the script [for Haven] and at least let me read it. So he e-mailed me the script, I read it and really enjoyed it. It was unique and not like every other cop and lawyer show on TV. I thought, ‘This could be awesome.’ I loved the idea of working on a show that could help push the network into a new arena. Haven is not completely unlike other Sci-Fi shows, but I feel like it’s starting to bridge the gap between more sophisticated cable series and some of the more, you know, fun, spirited shows that they’ve done in the past.
“So I was excited about the potential of such a show. Fortunately, all those involved were able to work things out insofar as the other pilot I’d been offered, which then allowed me to come on to Haven, and I have to tell you, I love playing Duke,” enthuses Balfour. “He’s not wholly dissimilar to me when it comes to his voice or physicality, but whenever I’m playing a scene as Duke, I sometimes have to stop and think, ‘Wait a minute, I, Eric, may get angry in this scene. I may react in this way, but is it how my character would react?’
Duke (Balfour) in the season one episode "Harmony." Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“Duke is quite specific. He doesn’t lose his cool or blow up. Duke has this ability to pull it back and charm his way out of a situation. That’s fun to play as well as challenging. There are times when I’ve been on-set and said, ‘Hey, guys, I need another take. I just did that last one the way I would react, but not necessarily how Duke would react.’ I literally have to say to myself, ‘Be Duke, be Duke,’” chuckles the actor, ‘and I enjoy having to really focus and work at being the character.”
In Haven’s season one opener, Welcome to Haven, FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) arrives in town to investigate the death of an escaped prisoner. She discovers that his demise is somehow connected to Haven’s supernatural troubles, which include an individual whose moods can affect the weather. Duke comes to Audrey’s rescue when the FBI agent is rendered unconscious from an explosion during a sudden hail storm. It was a memorable first meeting for the two characters, not to mention an unforgettable scene for Balfour to film.
“On my first day of work on Haven I was lucky enough to shoot the scene in the pilot episode where Duke and Audrey are on his boat and she wakes up half-naked in his bed and not knowing what the hell is going on,” he says. “Filming that scene immediately connected me to my character because I love that boat. It’s not a set, it’s a real boat that we use where we film in Nova Scotia and I just love it. It makes me feel right at home.
“That first episode was interesting, and I’ll be perfectly frank, difficult in some ways as well because when I read the original pilot script it had a lot more of Duke in it. There were some really fun and amazing scenes with him, but as is often the case, due to time and budget as well as a general sense of not wanting to reveal too much and to save things for upcoming episodes, a number of those [Duke] scenes got cut out of the pilot episode.
FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose) and Duke (Balfour) have a rather unorthodox first meeting in "Welcome to Haven." Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“So there was a moment where I wondered, “Wow, what happened to all the stuff that I loved so much?” continues the actor. “I remember being frustrated about that for a minute, but then one of our executive producers, who’s also our show runner, Scott Sheppard, had a conversation with me that I genuinely appreciated. He said to me, ‘You know, sometimes one or two truly perfect scenes can have a great deal more impact, and it’s always better to leave people wanting more. Yes, we were sad to see some of those [Duke] scenes go, but the truth is, the reason we felt good about it is that we really believe that your character is going to have a real impact on our story. So the less we sometimes focus on him, the more audiences are going to want to see of him.’
“After Scott explained that to me, I thought about what he’d said and it turns out that it’s worked out perfectly this [first] season. We’ve just given viewers a taste of Duke and it’s been amazing to see the fan reaction to the character and the way that people have taken to Duke. So I want to thank Scott for making me feel safe with that idea.”
Despite having saved her life, Audrey remains somewhat guarded towards Duke, although she does begin to warm to him as Haven‘s first season unfolds. On the other hand, her new partner, local police officer Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant), harbors animosity towards Duke. The two men have known each other for quite a while and there is clearly a rift in their relationship. Even when Duke begins to help Nathan and Audrey with their investigations of the strange goings-on in town, Nathan is reluctant to depend too much on Duke.
“There’s still more to be revealed where Nathan and Duke are concerned,” notes Balfour. “It’s been a real balancing act that Lucas Bryant and I have struggled with at times. We’ve seen a little bit more of that ice thaw between the two characters, but we don’t want it to thaw too much or too quickly, if ever, because it’s a neat dynamic to keep going. It’s been a blast to see how Nathan and Duke are being forced to work with one another more and more and how we’ve had to balance their history involving each other with that. Not a lot has been revealed, and even over the last few episodes of the seasons we don’t reveal too much. Just as in life, sometimes it’s more interesting not to know everything.
Duke (Balfour), Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant) and Audrey Parker (Emily Rose). Photo by Eric Ogden and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“So I think we’ve done a really good job with Nathan and Duke this year of not over-explaining everything with them. Again, we are starting to see them bond in some ways because they have no choice, mainly as a result of how Audrey has come into their lives. She’s become a bridge of sorts between the two men. If not for her, they never would have had anything to do with one another.
“We’re also seeing how Duke and Audrey have been playing this ‘dance,’ and I’m curious to see how it plays out. At first, I think my character saw Audrey as a mystery and he was intrigued by her, both platonically and sexually. I mean, he was somewhat fascinated by her, and as this season has gone on, he’s come to regard her in some ways as an intellectual equal, which is perhaps different and more unique from other relationships he’s had with women. That’s somewhat turned their relationship away from just being flirty, because I think that’s what Duke naturally falls back on, that sort of sexual tension. However, he really has come to care about Audrey and is developing a relationship with her that, again, is different from those he’s had in the past.
“Duke has [emotionally] protected himself by always keeping people at a very safe distance. The phrase ‘good roads, fair weather’ means a lot to him. He rests on the idea that if he just sticks to a good roads, fair weather tactic with others, then, A, there’s never any reason for conflict because he’s not very close to them and, B, there’s no reason for conflict because he doesn’t create conflict. Now, however, Duke is actually being forced to have a real adult relationship with someone that isn’t based purely on sexuality but rather actual intelligence as well as affinity, and I think that’s great.”
In the season one Haven episode Consumed, Duke is handed the keys to a local restaurant and bar when its chef discovers that his anger causes food to decompose. Just when it looks like Duke is on the road to becoming an honest businessman, he almost ages to death in the following story, Ball and Chain. Balfour took great pleasure in shooting the latter episode.
Nathan (Lucas Bryant), Duke (Balfour) and Audrey (Emily Rose) share a meal together in "Consumed." Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“My favorite actors are those who have this chameleon ability,” he says. “I’ve seen it in actors like Gary Oldman, Cate Blanchett, Daniel Day-Lewis and especially Meryl Streep. I’m fascinated by her ability with accents and voices, whether it’s in conjunction with heavy prosthetics or just subtle mannerisms, and I’d always wanted to explore that kind of thing. So Ball and Chain was a really fun opportunity for me to put on the prosthetics and become this other version of Duke.
“We got the script for this episode about a week before filming began, so I had several days to think about the various mannerisms and voices that would go along with the different ages. Duke ages to around 50, then 65, followed by 85, and then to around 105 before the end of the episode. So I started watching a lot of videos of older people. Ray Liotta did a movie called Blow where he played Johnny Depp’s father. The film spans 10 to 20 years, and there are scenes showing Ray Liotta as a man in his 70s. He did something with his hands where he kept them very close to his chest. As you get older, you don’t hang as ‘loose’ as you did when you were younger and you tend to protect yourself more. I remember seeing Ray Liotta’s hands and thinking, ‘I love the way he does that,’ and I wanted to use that same mannerism as Duke begins to age.
“There was also the idea of gravity and I kept thinking how gravity would pull you over. As human beings get older they become less nimble and gravity causes them to start hunching over. So once we began putting on the prosthetics – which took four-and-a-half hours every day – it totally affected the physicality of my character. All of a sudden, what seemed a little over the top when I was just myself, suddenly came to life and felt very real with the make-up and prosthetics. The weirdest part of it all was that once I finished shooting a scene and was walking back to my trailer, people would see me and do double-takes because they saw an elderly man walking upright and in a very casual way.”
In a later season one episode, The Hand You’re Dealt, the actor had the chance to explore yet another side of his character. “I’ve really enjoyed watching Duke become more and more three dimensional and see how although he may want to keep his cool, what actually makes him lose his cool,” says Balfour. “In this episode, a woman who in some ways Duke didn’t know very well [his former babysitter, Vanessa, played by Cynthia Preston], dies at the end of the episode. In the scene where she’s dying, you actually see raw emotion from Duke, which is something the writers and I kept talking about. We were like, ‘Do we want to show this? Do we want Duke to be emotional?’
Duke (Balfour) begins to age beyond his years in "Ball and Chain." Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
“We ended up deciding, yes, in that visceral moment, he could be emotional. But once that moment was over, and in the final scene of the episode where they’re all sitting around the table in Duke’s restaurant, he went back to being guarded. Duke always has to be Duke, and it was cool to see how he pushed himself and then pulled back.”
In The Hand You’re Dealt, Balfour’s character also discovers how he is eventually going to die. “I love the idea of ticking time bombs,” he says. “It’s like a scene with two lovers in a restaurant. You’re watching them and they’re having this sweet moment, and then the camera pans under the table and you see the dynamite and a clock going tick, tick, tick, tick. All of a sudden, everything that happens from then on has this heightened sense of reality to it. So it’s going to be fun to see how this knowledge of his impending death affects Duke, because he now has this sort of target on his back.”
For those who may have not yet watched all of Haven’s first season, especially fans overseas, Balfour is understandably vague when speaking about the final few episodes. “Things start to happen in the last three stories, especially the season finale [Spiral], that are going to set Duke on a course for next season and have a great impact on what happens to him and who he is,” explains the actor.
“We could witness my character going to some very, very dark places, and I’m fascinated by that. I’d love to see Duke really embrace his darkness and his selfishness. As the first season winds down, we see things happen that are going to send Duke on a journey, especially in season two.”
Could Duke (Balfour) one day surrender to his dark side? We will have to wait and see. Photo by Chris Reardon and copyright of The Syfy Channel.
No stranger to TV or movie audiences, the actor has appeared in several made-for-TV movies as well as guest-starred on such shows including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nash Bridges, NYPD Blue and Monk. He has also had regular roles on Six Feet Under, 24, Conviction and Veritas: The Quest. On the big screen, his credits include Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Face of Terror, Lie with Me and Hell Ride along with the upcoming releases Skyline, Do Not Disturb and The Legend of Hell’s Gate: An American Conspiracy.
“My first significant acting role was on a children’s TV show for the Disney Channel called Kids Incorporated,” says Balfour. “However, the moment that really changed my career as well as life was getting to be a part of Six Feet Under and working with those fantastic actors and in an environment that was totally committed to the artistic integrity of the process. There was no compromise. Nothing else mattered except the quality of the work, and that’s when I think I truly realized that this [acting] was something I loved. When you’re given that opportunity, it becomes, I believe, a bit like a drug, and you forever search it out after that.
“I always knew I wanted to be an artist. I admired the artists in our society so much for their ability to lift the spirits of humanity and bring joy, beauty and emotionality to the people of the world. When I was younger I thought I was going to do that through music, and while I still love making music, I’ve been overwhelmed by in some ways being blessed to create characters and work on projects that have affected people.
“One of the neatest things about Haven and Duke is seeing how the fans really love the chance to escape their own problems and lose themselves in this sort of alternative reality. While the show is not classically Sci-Fi in that it doesn’t deal with space, aliens or the future, it does have a wonderful sense of escapism, and I love being a part of that.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, all photos by Chris Reardon or Eric Ogden and copyright of The Syfy Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
I turely have to say that I just LOVE LOVE LOVE Haven.
The cast is great, but I think "Dukes" is great. I have watched Eric Balfour for a long time,since before Chain Saw. This young man will go very far, very natural, very real,
"much great fortune in the future".
Thank you,
Hebe Navarro
Posted by: Hebe Navarro | 10/26/2010 at 11:31 PM