SciFiAndTvTalk

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Patrick Flueger (The 4400)

 
Actor Patrick Flueger.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Patrick Flueger talks about his character of alien abductee Shawn Farrell in The 4400.

Tall, good-looking, congenial and talented – with all these attributes working in his favor it’s no surprise that actor Patrick Flueger has been kept gainfully employed over the past few years. TV audiences will recognize him from guest-spots on such popular shows as Judging Amy, CSI: Miami, JAG and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2004, Flueger gave a memorable performance as Shawn Farrell in The USA Network miniseries The 4400. His character was one of over 4,000 human beings who were abducted from Earth and then one day suddenly returned home. It was a role that Flueger knew he was right for and was determined to get.

“As soon as I read the script for The 4400 I fell in love with it,” recalls the actor. “I immediately took to the character of Shawn and cared about his story. I wanted to make sure it was told right and felt I was the person to do it. Oddly enough, at the time I was actually up for roles in two other projects, including the pilot for a TV show called The lsland, which was set in Hawaii. My agents really wanted me to go with the Hawaii show, but I fought tooth and nail for The 4400. It was a great story and something I wanted to be a part of.

“For my very first 4400 audition I met with Maira Suro, one of the show’s executive producers. I was then invited back to read for the rest of the producers as well as series creator/writer [and co-executive producer] Scott Peters. Now, I like to think of myself as a nice, easy-going guy, but for the role of Shawn I had to be serious. During my audition I was really into it, I mean, really into it. I was Shawn, and to top it off I was nervous. Scott later told me that after my first read-through with them, they made the comment, ‘He’s good, but, man, we could have problems with him.’ Apparently, I was pretty intense.”

Flueger’s “intensity” clearly won over the producers and the network executives as well. Not long after being hired to play Shawn, he was on set in Vancouver to start work on the two-hour pilot for The 4400. In it, a comet is headed straight for Earth, but instead of colliding with the planet, it explodes into a ball of light, leaving behind 4,400 men, woman and children. They’ve been missing anywhere from a few days to 50 years and have not aged at all since their disappearance. Among them is Shawn Farrell, who, like many of his fellow 4,400s, finds that his abductors have given him a unique ability. Although the young man is initially happy to be back among friends and family, his homecoming soon turns bittersweet.

“Shawn was taken in 2001 and when he returns three years later he feels like a freak because of what he’s been through,” explains Flueger. “He not comfortable anywhere except maybe at home with his mother. The only other time my character ever feels ‘normal’ and good about himself is when he’s with his next-door neighbour and brother Danny’s [Kaj-Erik Eriksen] girlfriend, Nikki [Brooke Nevin]. Otherwise, Shawn is always walking around and thinking that everyone knows he’s one of the 4400. This experience has completely changed him and he’s become introverted because of it. Prior to his abduction, Shawn had a lot of friends and was a bit of a bad boy. Of course, now he has these healing powers, which creates an added burden. With the physical ability to heal another human being, comes a mental responsibility as well. If you stop and think about it, Shawn has the power over life and death, and it’s changed who he is in his heart and head. That’s a lot for a kid of only 17 to handle.

“All that said, it wasn’t difficult to play Shawn last year on The 4400,” continues the actor. “Don’t get me wrong. There were some wonderful acting challenges. I had to constantly keep in the back of my mind that sense of being uncomfortable around people and then bring it to the surface when the cameras began rolling. However, I think of Shawn as a good friend of mine and I hold him near and dear to my heart. So what he was supposed to be feeling just sort of came out of me, if that makes any sense. Also, the writing and directing is great and acting alongside such a talented and friendly cast makes my job easy.”

As the first six hours of The 4400 unfolds, Shawn becomes fed up with feeling like an outcast. In the episode Becominghe’s befriended by millionaire and fellow 4400 returnee Jordan Collier (Billy Campbell). This self-proclaimed “leader” of the 4400 convinces Shawn to explore his newfound powers, and the young man ends up seeking refuge with Collier, one of the few people he feels truly understands him. Their relationship evolves into a more paternal one in year two of The 4400, which began airing  on the USA Network in June.

“In the second season, Jordan has turned being one of the 4400 into a movement, and that’s all I’ll say about that,” teases Flueger. “Shawn is now his right-hand man, and Jordan is his ‘dad.’ He’s become such a father figure to my character, whose real dad has never been in his life. His biological dad left when Shawn was very young, and Uncle Tommy [Joel Gretsch] became his surrogate dad. However, when my character returned to Earth, the two of them butted heads. That’s no surprise, considering his uncle is a federal agent who has been assigned to investigate the 4400.

“So Shawn lost his uncle, but Jordan has since stepped in and become his best friend, mentor and, essentially, dad. He’s one of the most powerful men in The 4400 universe, and Shawn is right there by his side. My character is like a rock star,” chuckles the actor. “Yes, he still has issues that he’s trying to work though and he remains the same kind of introverted, brooding guy, but Shawn is finally at a point where he feels good about himself.

“He’s also leant how to control his healing abilities, and that was a major hurdle to overcome. In the first season, he felt like a walking time bomb. If you remember, Shawn almost killed his brother in last year’s finale [White Light], and that killed him inside. Imagine not knowing whether or not you can ever love someone again for fear of killing that person if you touch him or her. Sadly, losing Nikki has taken a toll on Shawn. He’s still madly in love with this girl that he had to leave behind, but overall, he’s in a much better place in his life.”

Steve Eramo

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Stuart Damon (The Champions)

 

 
Stuart Damon (right) with his Champions co-stars William Gaunt and Alexandra Bastedo.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, veteran actor Stuart Damon talks about his role as jet-setting hero Craig Stirling in the 60's Sci-Fi adventure series The Champions.

How many people do you know who can honestly say that they have charmed Cinderella, prevented international disasters and served as chief of staff for a big city hospital where romance, intrigue and murder are part of daily life? If the person is actor Stuart Damon then you can believe him.  In his over forty years in the business this tall, dark and handsome leading man has captivated audiences with his performances on the stage and in front of the camera.

For the past twenty-two years Damon has portrayed surgeon and socialite Doctor Alan Quartermaine on the popular ABC Television daytime soap opera General Hospital.  However, before the actor began practicing medicine he was dispensing justice as Craig Stirling, an agent for Nemesis and a third of the superhuman crimefighting force from the 1968 ITC series The Champions. Damon was working at the Piccadilly Theatre in London’s West End when he was approached about a part on the programme.

“The show’s producer [Monty Berman] and the casting people actually saw me onstage in a musical production about Harry Houdini called Houdini - Man of Magic,” recalls the actor. “They were looking for an American actor who looked just like I did, so they called my agent and I had to go in and audition. I was very, very excited because I’d never done a television series before and couldn’t think of any type of show I would rather have done than an action one.

“I did the screen test and it was all extremely physical and action-oriented.  Luckily, being a young man at the time I was very athletic. I was obviously good enough in terms of the physicality and also from an acting point of view that they gave me the job.

“So they came to me,” he adds. “I had absolutely no say whatsoever in the part. Here was someone, though, who was a hero that dressed great, did all these phenomenal, physical things and who always came out being the good guy. How could you miss? Craig Stirling was sterling,” jokes Damon.

The Champions, a.k.a. Craig Stirling, Sharron Macready (Alexandra Bastedo) and Richard Barrett (William Gaunt), were operatives for Nemesis, a small but efficient agency based in Geneva, Switzerland whose goal was preserving the status quo. The team travelled everywhere from the world’s capitals to bug-infested jungles to scorching deserts to do battle against a panoply of international terrorists, dictators, drug dealers and deranged scientists.

Fortunately, their unique physical and mental powers, acquired in the program’s first episode The Beginning, usually gave them the upper hand in this global game of life and death.  However, although the three were superhuman they were not indestructible. This sense of mortality provided Damon and his costars with the chance to create characters that were distinguishable from and much more realistic than most traditional comic book or television superheroes.

“My character grew because I grew as an actor,” explains Damon. “I’ve always taken my work very, very seriously. In all the years I’ve been an actor I’ve never worked one day on anything without being excited to be there and determined to do the best job I could. So I was just always trying to improve and to be creative and as imaginative as possible when playing Craig Stirling. Like anything else, the more time you spend acting the better you get at it.”

Did the show’s creators Dennis Spooner and Monty Berman have a hand in helping Damon develop his character? “I didn’t really have a lot of interaction with them,” he says. “I mean, we were very friendly and we had a very cordial relationship, but in terms of input, there was none. It was not asked for nor was it given. I was handed the scripts and if there was a problem here or there I would ask them about it, but they were the bosses.  We didn’t have any conversations about where the character was going or what my opinion was. I was hired as an actor and that’s what I did.”

In The Beginning the head of Nemesis, Commander Tremayne (Anthony Nichols), sends the trio to Tibet to collect specimens of a lethal bacterium developed by Chinese scientists. They complete their mission, but in trying to escape their plane is damaged by gunfire and crashes in the Himalayas. The three are rescued by an enigmatic old man from an ancient Tibetan civilization long thought dead.

Not only does this stranger heal the agents’ injuries but he also endows them with special powers. These include heightened senses of sight, smell and hearing, enhanced physical strength and increased mental capabilities which include extra sensory perception.  The three also find that they are telepathically linked together and can communicate with each other through mere thought.  Such abilities come in handy when they must defend themselves against a group of Chinese soldiers hunting for them.  Unfortunately, this encounter left Damon with one of his most vivid memories from the series.

“I had to jump off this little hut on to a baby trampoline that was covered in bushes, then shoot up into the air and take down the bad guys,” remembers the actor.  “I did it and I did it very well. The director [Cyril Frankel] was so impressed he asked, ‘Do you think you could travel another five feet in the air?’

“Having that kind of young stud mentality I said, ‘Absolutely.’ The whole thing with trampolines, though, is that you have to hurl yourself up as opposed to out. Well, I did it a second time and our stunt director, Alf Joint, saw that I was headed straight for the concrete floor.  He caught me under the arm and pulled me down on top of him.  However, my feet went smashing into the floor and my back was in such an overly curved position that to this day I still have a very bad back.  I’ve had to go many times to physical therapy and have had lots of cortisone injections in my back, but it’s still weak.

“I also remember getting clipped a couple of times because I insisted on doing my own fights,” continues Damon.  “The funny thing is that looking back on it I never would have done any of that if I had had the hindsight that I have now.  I was just a young kid trying to be as athletic and macho as possible, but the truth of the matter is that there were plenty of stunt men who could have done the job.”

Although his physical prowess helped get him out of several tight corners, Craig Stirling relied just as much on brains as brawn in most situations.  One example of this is the episode The Interrogationin which the agent fights to stay one step ahead of his unnamed captor (the late Colin Blakely) who is determined to break his will.

“That was a wonderful two-character piece in which Craig didn’t know where he was and they were trying to brainwash him to find out if he was a double agent.  It was a pleasure to work with Colin Blakely, who was then a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.  It was more like working onstage as opposed to in front of a camera because we were doing takes that were five to six minutes long.  That’s unheard of when you’re shooting film or television.  So this is unquestionably my favourite story because it was the most challenging for me as an actor.

“Another episode that comes to mind is the one [Shadow of the Panther] in which Donald Sutherland guest-starred.  He played this weird voodoo worshipper in long robes,” chuckles the actor.  “Now, I’m a tall guy [6’3”] so I was always taller than everybody else on the series.  Of course, when Donald came on the set he dwarfed me, so every day I would look up at this tower of robes standing in front of me.  Donald’s a great guy and we had a lot of laughs together.

“I also particularly enjoyed working with Jeremy Brett [Granada Television’s Sherlock Holmes]. God rest his soul; Jeremy passed away at too young an age.  He was a kind person and a true professional.  Jeremy actually appeared in the very last Champions episode we filmed [Desert Journey], although it wasn’t the last one that was shown.”

Despite the legacy of his bad back Damon recalls The Champions with great fondness, especially when it comes to his costars. “I was closer with Bill than I was with Alex because Alex was always a much more solitary person than either Bill or myself.  Bill and I were quite good friends, but I don’t have a bad memory of either one of them,” he says.  “Anthony Nichols was also a fine gentleman.  I had tremendous respect for him.  Anthony was a man of the theatre so his craft of acting was precision cut and he was always right on the money.

“It was one of those situations that you just have to be lucky to be involved with in this business.  Bill, Alex and I were working together every day for a solid year and we got on great.  I’d like to be able to dish some dirt, but the honest truth is there isn’t any,” proclaims Damon.

Steve Eramo

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Deborah Watling (Doctor Who)

 
Deborah Watling as Victoria Waterfield in Doctor Who. Photo copyright of The BBC.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Deborah Watling looks back on her time-travelling days onboard the TARDIS as Victoria Waterfield in Doctor Who.

With a twinkle in her eye Deborah Watling says, "I must tell you this story.  One time this older lady and her daughter came up to me and asked, 'It's Miss Watling, isn't it?'  I answered, 'Oh yes, actually it is.'  I thought, perhaps, she was going to say that she remembered me from Doctor Who or one of the movies I had done, or whatever, and she said,  'I remember you from [the 1960's British TV series] The Invisible Man.'  I said, 'You have to be joking -  that was years ago!'  She nodded her head and replied, 'Yes, but you see, you never change, do you?' I thought, 'Oh dear.'

"When I sign autographs at Doctor Who conventions people often say to me, 'You've got to be joking.  You were on Doctor Who in the late sixties.  How do you do it?'  A lot of people expect me to be gray-haired by now, but I like my jeans and leather jacket too much for that.  Keep young Watling, I tell myself, keep going."

Watling made her debut as Victoria Waterfield in the 1967 Doctor Who adventure Evil of the Daleks.  Her character joins the Doctor and his companion Jamie after her father is killed by the Daleks.  "I wasn't too keen on the Daleks I must admit.  It was most peculiar working with them," says Watling.  "Quite honestly, the first day of filming they set me up rotten with the men inside the Daleks.  You know, they have those plungers that they use for arms; well, I won't tell you what they did to me with those on the first day," she laughs.

As with most of the Doctor's female assistants, the character of Victoria was meant to appeal to all the fathers watching the program with the rest of the family during Saturday teatime.  "In The Abominable Snowmanthey had me in this terrible outfit," Watling remembers with a smile.  "I was rushing up and down the hills of Snowdonia in Wales for most of the episode wearing these hobnail boots, huge, thick socks and this big old tweed jacket.  At one point I said to myself, 'I think they've gone wrong here.  No man, let alone any father, would fancy me in this.'

"In those days they really didn't write for the women in Doctor Who as they do today, or should I say when the series was still on.  What I did was scream for a year and get carried off by various monsters every other week.  I tried to make Victoria a bit of a tomboy because she could have been very boring and annoying," continues the actress.  "I told Innes that I wanted her to have a bit of guts, but, at the same time, she was a Victorian miss so I promised not to go over the top with it.  That's what I tried to portray and it really did work in the end."

Victoria helps the Doctor and Jamie defeat one mechanical menace after another when she joins them in investigating The Tomb of the Cybermen.  Once considered missing forever this particular story was discovered intact a few years back and is a favorite of Watling's.  "I remember the scene where the Doctor sits down next to Victoria and asks, 'Are you settling in all right, Victoria?' and I answer, 'Yes, but I miss my parents.'  I thought that scene was beautifully written and feel that, although the episode was done over twenty-seven years ago, Tomb of the Cybermen has stood up extremely well."

On the heels of the Cybermen was The Abominable Snowman, an adventure that turned out to be a family affair for Watling.  "We used to get our scripts six weeks before we began filming a new episode," she recalls.  "I saw this part in The Abominable Snowmanthat I thought Dad would be perfect for.  The next day I asked Innes if he had cast the part and when he said, 'No,' I suggested my father.  He said, 'What a good idea.  Ask him tonight when you get home.'  My father was out of work at the time, so that night I asked him if he'd like to spend six weeks working with me and playing Professor Travers in Doctor Who.  He read the script and said, 'Yes, that would be quite fun.'  The character was such a success that they wrote him into another six-part Yeti adventure, The Web of Fear.

"I remember one of the first scenes in the episode when Frazer and I had to rush across this mountain.  The director Gerry Blake said, 'Action!' and as we dashed across this mountain out popped father from behind a boulder.  He was carrying a gun and wearing great big galoshes, a wet suit sort of thing and a woolly hat with a bauble on the end that kept bouncing about.  'What do you two want?' he said.  I looked at Frazer, he looked at me, I looked at father, who was trying to look gruff, and we all lost it.  It took seven takes to do that scene.  Poor Gerry was pulling his hair out and kept saying, 'Get on with it,'  and I said, 'I can't - it's Daddy!'  We got over the giggles eventually but it was great fun."

Watling's character of Victoria spent a year travelling around the universe with the Doctor who was then played by the late Patrick Troughton.  Although he was known as a very private individual who rarely gave interviews during his tenure on Doctor Who, he was regarded as a kind, generous man and someone the actress recalls with great affection.  "Dear Pat.  We were very close and he became like a second father to me.  I remember he had the most lovely twinkle in his eye.  You could always go to him for advice and he'd never say, 'Do it that way.'  Instead he would answer, 'Have you thought about this way,' and let you work it out on your own.  We were like a family, Pat, Frazer and I.  If we had a weekend off, which you rarely did in those days, it was terrible.  One got withdrawals and you couldn't wait for Monday to come so you'd all be together.

"He was a gentle man and very kind," continues Watling, "but he didn't suffer fools gladly, which is quite right.  That year was a great part of my life and one that I'm grateful for and will always remember.  Of course, most of that was owing to our lovely Pat."

What about Victoria's fellow travelling companion, Scottish piper James Robert McCrimmon, alias Frazer Hines?  "Oh, lovely Frazer.  I do see him sometimes at various conventions.  Frazer was like a brother to me, and don't let him tell you anything different.  He's a great practical joker and would always manage to send me up during the panels at the conventions by saying, 'Oh, well, Debs and I...we were very close, weren't we, Watling?  Wink, wink, nod, nod.'  I'd answer, 'Pardon?  Frazer, you were like my brother,' and he would go on saying to the audience, 'Don't believe a word of it.  What about that time....'  I'd say to him, 'Shut up!' "

A North Sea coastal gas refinery provides the atmospheric setting as the time travellers fight to save the world from a hostile parasitic living weed in Fury from the Deep.  It is Victoria who finally destroys the menace via her electronically amplified screams which prove to be deadly to the lifeform.  "This episode was brilliant," says Watling.  "I thought the monster in it was amazing.  Although you didn't see it for the first four episodes, you always knew it was there because you would hear this heartbeat-like noise when it was close to you."

At the end of this particular story the Victorian orphan decides to bid farewell to her friends aboard the TARDIS and continue her life on Earth with the Harris family.  "It was my choice to go," recalls the actress.  "As I said before, you were rather restricted in those days, so I felt that I couldn't do much more with the character.

"When I told Innes I was going he said, 'But you can't.  We've written you in for all these new storylines.'  I said, 'I really do feel that I have to go,' and he respected my decision.  I remember the last scene when I had to say good-bye to the Doctor and Jamie.  All of us, the whole cast and crew, even Frazer, who can be quite hard at times, were in tears.  If they ever find this episode you will see genuine tears from everybody when you watch that final scene.  Although it was hard to leave the program I felt the time was right for me."

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of The BBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Syfy's Ghost Hunters Launches America's Hometown Ghost Hunt

 
Ghost Hunters' Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Ghost Hunters kicked off its seventh season with a first for the series: the team received a call from the community of Alexandria, LA, who are experiencing paranormal activity all over their city.

 Now, Syfy is asking fans to help find the most haunted town in America with the kickoff of America’s Hometown Ghost Hunt contest! Now through March 30st, 2011, viewers will be able to submit their hometowns for consideration on syfy.com/ghosthunters. In August, Syfy will reveal three finalists; fans will get to vote to ultimately choose the top locale.  The Ghost Hunters crew will investigate the winning town in a future episode.

Full contest rules and submission criteria available at http://syfy.com/ghosthunters

As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Babylon 5's Bruce Boxleitner And Mutant X's John Shea Visit Area 51

 
Sam Whitaker (John Shea), Claire (Vanessa Branch) and Colonel Martin (Bruce Boxleitner) find themselves in a tight spot in Area 51. Photo copyright of Syfy.

DIRECTED by Jason Connery -- Sean Connery’s son -- Area 51 premieres Saturday, February 26th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on The Syfy Channel. In the movie, the Air Force decides to allow a few reporters into the most secretive base on the planet, Area 51, but the visit turns into violent mayhem when one of the captive aliens leads an escape. Area 51 stars Bruce Boxleitner (Tron: Legacy, Babylon 5), John Shea (Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman, Mutant X) and Jason London (Dazed and Confused, MonsterWolf). A production of After Dark Films.

 
Aaron "Shoes" Schmacher (Jason London) has the enemy in his sights. Photo copyright of Syfy.

 
Sam Whitaker (John Shea) clearly is not giving up without a fight. Photo copyright of Syfy.

As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

This Week On Being Human (UK) - 02 - 26 - 11

 
George (Russell Tovey) has his hands full when he helps befriend a teenage vampire in "Adam's Family." Photo copyright of Touchpaper Television and BBC America.

SPOILER ALERT!! - In the hospital George (Russell Tovey) and Nina (Sinead Keenan) are confronted by Adam (Craig Roberts), a teenage vampire, lapping at the vein of one of Nina’s patients. They take him out of harm’s way to the house, but Adam’s obnoxious and lewd behavior soon has everybody climbing the walls. Meanwhile a middle-class vampire, Richard Hargreaves (Mark Lewis Jones), propositions Mitchell (Aidan Turner). He has been sent by the vampire aristocracy to ferry him out of the area, away from the Box Tunnel Twenty police investigation. Mitchell knows that Richard’s offer is one he shouldn’t refuse, but can he really leave George, Nina and Annie (Lenora Crichlow)? Richard looks down on Mitchell’s rash behavior, boasting that he has systems in place to feed his bloodlust without killing. Mitchell thinks Richard might hold the solution to Adam’s increasing bloodlust, but when George and Nina see the extent of Richard’s actual depravity they battle to save Adam’s soul. Adam's Family airs Saturday, February 26th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on BBC America.

As noted above, photo copyright of Touchpaper Television and BBC America, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

This Week On Merlin - 02 - 25 - 11

 
Katie McGrath as Morgana in "The Castle of Fyrien." Photo copyright of the BBC.

Morgana goes further down a dark path, leading Arthur, Merlin and Gwen into the clutches of the villainous Cenred in a thrilling, all-new episode of the hit series Merlin entitled “The Castle of Fyrien. Central to the episode is the introduction of Gwen’s brother Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun), a skilled warrior who is captured by Cenred (Tom Ellis). Gwen (Angel Coulby) finds herself with an impossible dilemma when she is forced to choose between her estranged brother and Arthur. With one of them certain to die at Cenred’s hand, who will Gwen choose? The love of her life or her only sibling?

 

Loyalties are tested to the limit and friendships are thrown to the fore as Arthur (Bradley James), Merlin (Colin Morgan) and Gwen work together to try and find a way out of the situation. But with Morgana (Katie McGrath) and Morgause (Emilia Fox) doing all that they can to foil the threesome’s plan, can good conquer evil or will Gwen lose another of those she loves?

 

 
Elyan (Adetomiwa Edun). Photo copyright of the BBC.

 

“I really enjoyed my scenes with Tom Ellis – he’s such a lovely guy, but he’s really good at playing an evil king,” Coulby said. “There was a scene where he was menacingly circling and tormenting me, baring down with that evil stare, and then he accidentally sort of stepped on me and said so sincerely and out-of-character, ‘Oh, I’m really sorry,’ and we all laughed. It was a fun episode because I’m really desperate to do any action sequences. Gwen is generally indoors in the castle – she hasn’t had the swordplay that everyone else seems to get. But I’m hoping she can get more involved with the action in the future.” The Castle of Fyrien airs Friday, February 25th @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy.

 

As noted above, photo copyright of the BBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - David Boreanaz (Buffy The Vampire Slayer & Angel)

 
David Boreanaz as Angel. Photo copyright of The WB Network.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, actor David Boreanaz talks about going from a recurring role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer to heading up his own show as Angel.

Over the years, vampires of all shapes, sizes and even genders have appeared in feature films and on TV. These creatures of the night have included Nosferatu, Dracula, Vampira and even a vampire/police homicide detective, Nick Knight. Not long ago, a good-looking and charming bloodsucker with a dry sense of humour sunk his teeth into TV audiences and has never let go. His name is Angelus a.k.a. Angel and he was born very much human in 1727. When he was only 26, Angel had the bad luck to meet Darla, who turned him into a vampire. In 1860, he did the same to Drusilla, but not before killing her family and driving the young woman insane.

In 1868, Angel killed a gypsy and those of her tribe cursed him by restoring his soul. After that, he began to suffer terrible guilt over the acts he committed as a vampire. The angst-ridden Angel found himself in New York City in the 1990’s. He was befriended by a “good” demon, Whistler, who took him to Sunnydale, the home of a certain vampire slayer named Buffy. This was David Boreanaz’s debut as Angel in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiere Welcome to Hellmouth. For the actor, the job couldn’t have come at a more ideal time.

“I was hungry, and by that I mean creatively,” recalls Boreanaz. “As an actor, I wanted to step up to the next level and take on some new challenges. I’d been doing plays at the time and this role of Angel came along. I was intrigued by the character and quite liked him. My manager back then arranged a meeting for me with Buffy casting director Marcia Schulman. I read for her and was asked to come back in to audition for the show’s producers and subsequently the network executives. Not long after I received a phone call telling me I had the job.”

The actor chuckles when asked about his first day of work on the Buffy set. “What sticks out most in my mind is all the waiting around. We didn’t get to my scenes until three or four in the morning, which I guess made sense given I was playing a vampire,” he jokes. “It wouldn’t have been so bad except that I’d been on-set since eight the previous morning. The wait was worth it, though, because when we shot my first scene as Angel it really worked.

“Those early days on Buffy were especially satisfying. I just loved the connection I had with the rest of the cast. It was uncomplicated and professional as well as a hell of a lot of fun. That’s not to say it didn’t get even better as time went on but it just felt extra-special in the beginning. Joss Whedon [executive producer] had created not only a new TV series but one that was also ground-breaking, so I was just enjoying myself.”

It was in the first season Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Angelthat the character explained to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Geller) that he was, in fact, a vampire. Despite this revelation, the two eventually fell in love and he continued to be a valuable ally to her and the rest of the Scooby Gang.

“I liked the simplicity of the Buffy/Angel relationship in the first year,” says Boreanaz. “They shared a camaraderie and it was obvious that they were both at ease around each other and really enjoyed their work. As an actor it was a joy for me to feed that creative process. A number of positive things came out of Buffy’s first season and they served to build a solid foundation on which the series could grow.”

Things between Buffy and Angel became complicated when, on her 17^thbirthday, they made love. Much to their surprise, Angel lost his soul. Apparently, the gypsy curse placed on him was to be lifted if he ever experienced true love. As Angelus, the vampire turned against Buffy and their friends. With Willow’s [Alyson Hannigan] help, he regained his soul but it was too late. In order to save the world, Angel had to be banished to hell. A few months later he was returned to Earth, but he realized his relationship with Buffy was doomed to failure. For her sake, Angel broke up with her and left for Los Angeles in the third season finale Graduation Day. This coincided with Boreanaz being given his own series, Angel.

“Naturally, I was thrilled about Angel,” says the actor. “However, I was so focused on working on Buffy that I didn’t think much about it at the time. I have a general sense of where I’d like to be career-wise, but I think what makes an actor happy is what he or she is doing at the moment. That, in turn, I believe helps dictate your future moves and career choices. I hope that doesn’t sound artsy-fartsy. It’s not meant to be. It’s just my way of looking at the business. So I kept my nose to the grindstone and this spin-off series sort of came to fruition.”

Boreanaz experienced déjà vu when filming Angel’s season one opener City of. “Like that first Buffy story, there was a great deal of waiting around,” he notes. “It took, I think, ten days for us to film City of compared to the eight that it takes today. There was plenty of communication between the cast and crew as well as a strong director in Joss Whedon. He knows exactly what he wants and where to put the camera, which is refreshing. Again, as with Welcome to Hellmouth, this episode of Angel was both an exciting and fearful step into a new venture.”

Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Angel teams up with fellow Buffy alumni Wesley Wyndam-Price (Alexis Denisof) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) to stop the forces of evil from preying upon the city’s weak and innocent. They are helped for a time by an Irish demon named Doyle (Glenn Quinn). At the start of Angel’s second season the street-wise vampire slayer Gunn (J. August Richards) joins the team. In year three, they welcome aboard Fred (Amy Acker), a young woman from another dimension, and lounge lizard Lorne (Andy Hallett). Angel’s third season also sees the return of Darla (Julie Benz), who is pregnant with Angel’s child. Sadly, the vampire’s subsequent relationship with son Connor (Vincent Katheiser) is far from congenial. Considering all he’s been through, it’s no surprise that Angel is not the same person he was back on Buffy.

“It’s difficult to believe that my character started out as a recurring role,” muses Boreanaz. “Angel has grown and developed so much just from his relationships with other people and being involved in so many different situations. When we first met him, he was a somewhat bland and darkly driven person, and since then he’s lightened up a bit and has become a more complex character. As an actor, one of the challenges with Angel is to keep him understated. Sure, it’s fun when I get to play his obnoxious over-the-top alter ego Angelus. However, it’s important to me that he comes across as quiet but very strong. My approach to playing Angel changes with every episode. It’s pretty much determined by the way in which the writers are trying to tell the story and how my character deals with the situation at hand.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of The WB Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Being Human's Sam Witwer - Vamping It Up

 
Sam Witwer as Aidan McCollin in Being Human. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Sometimes it takes a person until he or she is an adult to truly figure out what they want to do for the rest of their life, Not Sam Witwer. He had his mind set on a certain career path from a young age, but nonetheless, he still made a slight detour along the way. “When I was in the fifth grade, my family went on vacation to Los Angeles,” he recalls. “We saw all the movie studios and I was really struck by the magic of film-making.

“One of the studio tours that we took was at Paramount. I’m a big Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, and sitting there in his trailer with the door open was Wil Wheaton. When you’re 11 or 12 years old, which Next Generation character do you relate to the most, but Wesley Crusher. Wil was cool enough to invite me and my brother into his trailer and spent 20 minutes or so talking with the two of us.

“Between all the experiences I had in LA, seeing the sets and the studios, learning, albeit from a child’s perspective, a little bit about the business, and then meeting this actor who played a TV character that I admired, it really made an impression on me. So much so that when we got home I decided, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to become an actor.’ However, as I got older and became more realistic about what I should be doing with my life, I thought, ‘Nah, I’m going to be a rock star,’” says Witwer with a chuckle.

“So I got into music during high school, but I always kept acting in mind. Finally, when it came time for me to seriously decide what I wanted to do after I finished high school, my parents literally made me audition for Juilliard [School of Drama in New York], and somehow I got in. I didn’t want to be an actor at that point, but then I slowly began to reconnect with my 12-year-old self who wanted to be an actor and I thought, ‘Maybe this really is what I’m supposed to be doing.’”

With over 10 years in the business and countless credits to his name, Witwer obviously made the right choice. Currently, the actor is one of the leads in the Syfy TV series Being Human. His character of Aidan McCollin is a  250-year-old vampire who decides to take a stab – no pun intended – at living a “normal” life when he and a hospital coworker, Josh Radcliff (Sam Huntington), who also happens to be a werewolf, become housemates. A remake of the popular British series (currently in its third season), Being Human has proven to be a huge hit on this side of the Atlantic as well and another feather in Witwer’s acting cap. With his good looks, charm and down-to-Earth manner, the actor has easily slid into the role of Aidan and made it his own. It was, however, a job he nearly missed out on.

“When I cracked open the script for the first time and read that I’d be auditioning to play a vampire I thought, ‘There are so many vampire shows out there already. Do we really need another one? I’m not going to do this,’” says Witwer. “That was my first impression after reading two or three pages. Then a friend of mine, Laura Terry, who is one of the most knowledgeable women that I know in this industry, got hold of me and asked, ‘Hold on, Sam, did you just turn down the Being Human audition?’ I said to her, ‘Yes, I didn’t want to do it.’ Laura then said, ‘Didn’t you like the script? Did you even read the script?’ I said, ‘Uh…no.’

“I don’t know what the hell I had going on that day that was so important that I couldn’t do my job, which is basically to read scripts.  Laura said, ‘I want you to read the script and then watch the episode that I’m sending you online, and then get back to me.’ So I read the script and suddenly I started feeling very, very foolish because I loved it. I watched the first episode of the British series and then read the script for episode two. After that I called up my agent and said, ‘I made a mistake. I’ve got to audition for this.’

“It wasn’t anything against vampires in general. It’s just that, again, there are so many of them out there, and how was this show going to be different. However, when I read the scripts I realized how potentially special it really could be, and I was fascinated that we were really having a serious discussion in the scripts about things like drug abuse and trying to go clean after essentially a life of addition.

“So I started auditioning, and afterwards the executive producers as well the director were very gracious enough to sit down with me and discuss how the script was going to be represented visually and how we were going to shoot it,” continues the actor. “Even when you read these brilliant scripts, there are a number of bad versions waiting to be made from those scripts and one really, really good version. I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page in terms of what this show was going to be like and how these subjects were going to be portrayed. I got very particular on them and they got even more particular back, and we all appeared to see eye to eye on things.

“I think they liked that their actor was also kind of auditioning them. They appreciated the fact that I took them to task and I appreciated that they were brilliant. These people seemed like they were really on the ball, and then fast-forward to now when I’ve actually seen the episodes, especially the later ones, and it’s like, ‘Wow, you guys were not only talking a good game, but you actually have the talent and experience to execute what you were saying.’”

The first few minutes of Being Human’s season one opener There Goes the Neighborhood, Part 1 shows Aidan (Witwer) on what appears to be a very ordinary date with one of his hospital coworkers, Rebecca Flynt (Sarah Allen). She invites him up to her apartment where, sadly, the evening takes an unexpected turn. Aidan’s vampire instincts take over and he accidentally murders her. He then makes a mysterious call and asks the person on the other end of the line to clean up his “mess.’ Showing Aidan’s unsavory side right off the bat was something that initially worried Witwer.

“In the British series opener that I watched, it started out with these characters already in the house and having clever, witty banter,” explains the actor, “and as far as the whole issue of my character and the girl’s murder, we didn’t know how far in the past that had happened. So they didn’t have to specifically deal with it. In our show, no one really knows each other and we look this murder straight in the eye. We stand right in front of it and deal with it. From there, we move on with our storyline that has humor almost immediately after the murder.

“When I first read those scenes in the script I thought, ‘OK, I’m not saying that this is impossible, but it has to be handled with some taste. We have to figure out how to portray Aidan in such a way that the audience isn’t going to turn on him immediately, which they should because he’s a murderer.’ One of the things that I discussed with [executive producer] Jeremy Carver and [co-executive producer] Adam Kane is that we really had to give Aidan a fractured psyche. Here’s someone who can compartmentalize his life in such a way as to be almost schizophrenic. My character could be in the depths of despair and just starting to lose it, but then if someone walks in on him, he can snap out of it immediately and be like, ‘Hey, what’s going on? How are you doing?’

“Once we hit on that concept and began practicing it on-set and shooting things that way, it really started falling into place. We discovered that we could actually create a character with some humor, while at the same time not undercutting how serious these issues are. Also, it really underlines the addiction metaphor, which I mentioned earlier and that I feel is firmly in the forefront of the show. Aidan is dealing with addiction issues and is trying to go clean when it comes to attacking people and drinking their blood, but it’s something that he’s deeply ashamed of and is hiding from people, especially those who closest to him.

“So it all seemed to work out in terms of making sense to me and how to play it. What’s great is that this has become one of the cornerstones as far as portraying Aidan throughout the entire first season. We do get to a point later on in the season where it’s extremely difficult to maintain that façade, and occasionally the people closest to him see the cracks, and sometimes things go very badly as a result of that. So it’s this ongoing issue of who Aidan is when he’s around people and who he is when he’s alone and trying to deal with his inner demons.”

When Aidan and Josh agree to move in together, they discover from the owner of the house, Danny (Gianpaolo Venuta), that his fiancé Sally (Meaghan Rath) died from a fall down the stairs. He has no idea, though, that her ghost never left and is still very much a presence in the house. Much to Aidan’s and Josh’s initial chagrin, Sally becomes a third roommate and part of what subsequently develops into a supernatural, and decidedly dysfunctional, family.

“Aidan’s and Josh’s relationship is one that is not quite based on peer friendship,” says Witwer. “It’s actually based on need. I mean, my character walks into the situation and basically says to Josh, ‘Hey, we should have a house. It stinks not to have a house and sleep in your own bed. Let’s have some dignity here.’ However, that’s a direct result of what happened with Rebecca, and hopefully the viewers understand that he’s at the end of his rope and needs someone to watchdog him and keep him straight and narrow. Aidan can’t do that alone because he’ll fail. So their friendship develops from that extreme need as well as both of these people needing support from each other. I don’t think they would have become friends otherwise because personality-wise I don’t think they’re compatible enough.

“With Sally, my character sees another isolated person who in certain ways reflects how alone he also feels,” continues the actor. “Aidan kind of takes her under his wing, and the interesting thing is that Sally is somewhere between a younger sister and a daughter to him.  After all, this guy is 250-odd years old, and with Sally, because she feels, again, sort of isolated and maybe, too, because Aidan just likes her, we see moments where he lets Sally in on little pieces of what’s actually happening to him.  Conversely, he keeps things entirely hidden from Josh. However, as the season goes on, it becomes necessary, and sometimes it’s quite by accident, that all of their issues come crashing into one another. As a result, they must join forces in order to deal with things.

“So you start to see a real friendship develop among the three of them and the chemistry that they share tightens up, which, by the way, I enjoy because I love Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath. From the word go I’ve found them to be awesome people to be around every day as well as work with. One of the things we set out to do very early on to distinguish ourselves from the British series is show how these relationships evolve. We wanted to create that and watch it slowly come together. I recently watched some scenes from episodes eight and nine and the ones I liked the most are those where there’s banter between our three characters. It’s a terrific journey insofar as them getting there and slowly opening up to each other.”

When, in There Goes the Neighborhood, Rebecca is reported missing, the police show up at the hospital where Aidan and Josh work and start asking questions. One of the two investigating officers is James Bishop (Mark Pellegrino), someone Aidan knows very well. Bishop is also a vampire and, more specifically, the one who turned Aidan when the two met in battle during the Revolutionary War. As Witwer points out, their reunion is not one that his character exactly welcomes.

“The Bishop/Aidan relationship is complicated,” he says. “This is someone who my character has been extraordinarily close friends with for over 200 years. There’s a great deal of history there, and the way that Mark Pellegrino describes it, Bishop looks at Aidan almost like a wayward son who he’s been trying to bring home, whereas I look at Bishop and the rest of the vampires as Aidan’s old ‘drug’ buddies that he can’t be around,” jokes the actor. “There’s a tremendous amount of animosity between the two, but I think what still comes through very strongly is that despite everything, these two guys love each other and are broken up by the fact that they can’t have their friendship any more. Sometimes things can get very nasty between Bishop and Aidan, and increasingly so as time goes on.”

Aidan’s long-standing relationship with Bishop becomes further complicated when he discovers that, instead of disposing of Rebecca’s body, Bishop turned her into a vampire. After being revived and transformed into one of the “undead,” Rebecca is, at first, understandably peeved at Aidan, but then she discovers the pleasurable as well as powerful perks of being a vampire and embraces her newfound lifestyle.

“Again, I haven’t seen much of the British Being Human, but from what I understand, the Rebecca character on that show is kind of a nuisance,” says Witwer.  “She’s a whacked out ‘junkie’ and the Mitchell [Aidan Turner] character is like, ‘Get the hell away from me.’ That’s not how we’re doing it, though. For example, when we first see Aidan and Rebecca together, it’s clearly like a first date, but they know each other. They’ve worked together and he’s allowed himself to go out on a date with her. That alone said a lot to me. This was an actual date; they went out and Aidan talked with her and shared something real and personal with her.

“He wasn’t just making small talk with Rebecca, because Aidan has the ability to be superficially charming before cornering someone and killing them. He’s been doing that for 200 years, and is so good at it that it almost happens by habit. There are moments this season where we see Aidan fall back into old patterns where he’s stalking his prey, but then realizes it and thinks, ‘No, no, no, that’s not right. I don’t do that any more.’ However, he’s so used to being an addict that at times he doesn’t know how not to be one. The thing with Rebecca, though, is that he actually shared with her of piece of who he is and said something that was very meaningful to him.

“The way we looked at it is that this is a girl who, for whatever reason, Aidan can’t really control himself around. There was something about Rebecca that made him lose his head. He made the choice to go into her apartment and spend some time with her, which then led to her death, but he made that choice figuring, ‘I’ll be OK. It’s been fine in the past. I’ll be able to do this.’ And we learn that he actually has had some past relationships with women where everything went fine and he didn’t harm them. There’s something about Rebecca, though – she’s bad for my character because she’s good for him. Aidan has a very strong emotional reaction to her. Unfortunately, what happens to her eradicates what could have been a beautiful relationship.

“By the second episode, Rebecca has spent a month in training with the other vampires and Bishop messing with her head. When we eventually catch up with her, she is angry with Aidan as well as confused, and where we take that relationship is very interesting because both their intentions are, in fact, still quite good, but the circumstances make it damn near impossible for them to connect. It doesn’t help, either, that Bishop is behind the scenes, filling her head with some really bad stuff.”

When it comes to his favorite Being Human episode, Witwer is especially looking forward to next week’s episode, I See Your True Colors and That’s Why I Hate You(airing Monday, February 28th on Syfy). “I won’t go into too much detail because I want it to be a surprise, but there’s something that happens to Aidan in this episode, and it allows for a role reversal of sorts between him and Josh,” teases the actor.

“When I was at Julliard I was the class clown. I was constantly trying to see how much I could make people laugh, and for that reason my classmates all assumed that I’d go off and try to join SNL (Saturday Night Live) or something along those lines and that would be what I would do in the industry. However, a few years later when I began working I was cast in dramatic roles and that’s been more or less the case ever since. So I feel like I’ve gotten better at that, but I’ve let the humorous side of me kind of rest a little bit.

“Having said that, something else I like about Being Human is the chance for comedic beats, but a lot of times Aidan is playing the straight-man to Josh’s ‘ridiculous’ stuff.  Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath are so funny that they really carry a lot of the humor on the show, whereas my character is kind of the dramatic anchor. What’s wonderful though, is that in episode seven I get to go to Sam Huntington territory, and I’ve watched it and we were all happy with the scene because it was something that you don’t expect to see from your bad-ass vampires,” notes Witwer with a laugh. “It was fun to play some real off-the-wall-type of comedy for a change.”

If Witwer’s finely chiseled features look familiar, you have likely seen his guest-starring work in such TV series as ER, Angel, JAG, NCIS: Naval Crime Scene Investigation and Bones. The actor has also showcased his vocal talents in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series as well as in a variety of videogames including the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed series of games. He is, perhaps, best know, though, for his work as Alex “Crashdown” Quartararo in Battlestar Galactica and Davis Bloome/Doomsday in Smallville.

“Crashdown was interesting because we were trying to figure out what function he was supposed to serve on the show,” says the actor. “Originally, he was going to be the comic relief on Battlestar, and when I went in to audition there was a lot of comedic stuff in the material. You have to remember, though, that no one really knew what the show was at that point.  I have a leather-bound book containing all the show’s first-draft scripts from season one and most of them look very different from what ended up being shot.

“In these scripts you have scenes where Crashdown is being very funny and this happens or that happens. Unfortunately, or fortunately, for the show, these scenes were cut before they were ever shot, and the reason was that Battlestar wasn’t really meant to be funny. So in a number of cases, while these scenes provided additional character perspective, they didn’t really advance the plot, and the thing is they had 12 other regular characters that they had to get to.

“So the way I ended up playing Crashdown is that I’d look around on-set, see how the other characters were reacting, and then react differently. That’s how I felt I could best serve the show while the producers and writers were trying to figure out what the heck Crashdown was doing there. One day I went to [executive producer] David Eick and the two of us sat down to talk about the character. We decided that we could either use Crashdown more in the second season or give him a really cool death so that the show could get its money’s worth out of him.

“When I read the first three scripts from season two I saw that they were going towards the death scenario, and I loved what they had written because it was that contrary perspective. Audiences were used to seeing Apollo [Jamie Bamber] and Starbuck [Katee Sackhoff] being extraordinarily competent, but what we hadn’t really explored on the show was how hard it is to be competent under those types of conditions. When Crashdown and some of the others crash-land on Kobol, he has to lead those troops, and the Cylons are picking them off one-by-one. My character is making some bad calls, but he’s also going by the book. It’s a very difficult position to be in and I’d be hard-pressed to find a person who could handle that situation and not have people get killed.

“Crashdown’s story ultimately leads to his own death, and when that storyline played out, a lot of people on the Internet, especially those who had served in the military, came to my character’s defense and said, ‘He was making all the right movies. He was just in an incredibly bad situation,’ and I loved that. I didn’t expect that, but they really got it, they really understood what he was going through.

“On Smallville, that character was extremely interesting, too, because right from the beginning he was sold to me as hey, this is an extraordinarily good man, and what would happen if you found out that you were this monster. Davis Bloome was definitely a character who had a rough go of it and things didn’t end well for him. I did my best to portray how nightmarish that situation would be, and if you woke up one day only to discover that while you were sleeping you were killing people as well.

“The show’s producers were really collaborative, and at one point I suggested, ‘If I found out I was doing this, I would try to kill myself Can we do a story about Davis trying to take himself out of the equation,’ and we did. I got to do some wonderful stuff on Smallville and I truly enjoyed myself. I owe my thanks to the producers, too, because I don’t know if I’d be on Being Human had I not done Smallville first. It really helped a great deal in terms of people becoming aware of my work.”

Not one to rest on his laurels, the actor is always looking for a new challenge when it comes to his next job. “The best roles for me at those where I stay up nights worried about how the hell I’m going to pull it off because I don’t think I can,” says Witwer. “I felt that way about, for example, the Neil Perry character in Dexter, Being Human, of course, and the Star Wars projects, especially the Starkiller character for The Force Unleashed. I was sweating bullets with that one. As a Star Wars fan I totally understand how dimensional they want their protagonists. So how do you create a character that feels like he can stand up in the same room next to Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. That was really nerve-wracking.

“Then there are the Clone Wars episodes that are airing now. For those, I had to be aware that this was a character that [Star Wars creator] George Lucas created. Son is the dark side of the force, so if you get it wrong you’re doing a disservice to fans because, guess what, the dark side has been around since 1977.

“So for me the fun of this [acting] is feeling like you’re going to get your head chopped off it you get it wrong, and then maybe just squeaking by and escaping by the skin of your teeth. When you get it right, though, and I mean really right, it feels so good,” enthuses the actor.

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

This Week On Law & Order: UK - 02 - 25 - 11

 
Bradley Walsh as DS Ronnie Brooks in Law & Order: UK. Photo copyright of Kudos, Wolf Films and NBC Universal.

SPOILER ALERT!! - Anonymous tells the story of a cyber-stalker whose victim is desperate to have the police take her case seriously. But when a stalking case becomes a murder investigation, the team are pitched against each other. How far will they go to bring the right man to justice? Season 2 - Episode 7 airs Friday, February 25th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on BBC America.

As noted above, photo copyright of Kudos, Wolf Films and NBC Universal, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!