Actor Billy Drago.
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, feature film and TV actor Billy Drago talks about playing Barbas, the harbinger of death, in Charmed.
Fear is an emotion that we mere mortals – as well as witches - can’t live with nor, ironically, live without. That’s one thing that Barbas, the Demon of Fear knows all too well. More than once he has tried to use The Charmed Ones’ fears as a tool to destroy them. So far, the demon has failed, and the Halliwell sisters remain ever vigilant in anticipation of his next unprovoked attack. This has led not only to Billy Drago, who plays Barbas, becoming a familiar face on Charmed, but also allowed the actor to indulge in a bit of self-discovery.
“I look at my role on Charmed as being one long process of playing this character over a period of time,” muses Drago. “In a sense, I think of Barbas as the harbinger of death. Everyone has his or her own fears and I believe each of our fears can be traced back to the great unknown, death, and what happens when a person’s life is finally over. We all have to face that in the end. I’ve always felt there is a universal pool of this fear of the unknown, and I keep that in mind when playing Barbas. Through this character, I’ve also been able to explore my fears. I mean, Barbas can’t use other peoples’ fears against them unless he’s conquered what scares him. As such, I’ve seen this role as an opportunity to put some of my own ‘demons’ to rest and this, I feel, has translated to my performance.
“Fear is ever-present. It’s a necessary thing in our world because it helps protect us. So in the world of Charmed, the aura of my character is a constant on Earth, and every once in a while Barbas appears in order to experience first-hand peoples’ reactions to fear. He’s both a challenge and a treat to bring to life.”
Back in 1993, Drago was cast as the diabolical John Bly on the TV series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. One of his biggest fans was the show’s producer Brad Kern, who went on to serve as executive producer/head writer on Charmed. It was Kern who originally extended the actor an invitation to appear on the series, and Drago wasted no time in accepting. “Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been a huge Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror fan,” he enthuses, “so to play a demon on a program such as Charmed was a dream come true for me.”
In the first season Charmed episode From Fear to Eternity, the Halliwell sisters’ mother (Finola Hughes) warns them about Barbas, a demon who appears every 1300 years on Friday the 13th to literally scare witches to death and feed on their fears. If he can kill 13 unmarried witches before midnight he will be released from the underworld and free to wreak havoc on Earth. Among those Barbas has his sights set on are Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) and Piper (Holly Marie Combs), whose anxieties about their professional and personal lives make them perfect targets. Drago recalls his debut on the series as being an artistically satisfying one.
“As a guest-star on a show you’re limited in what you can do creatively. There are established parameters that you have to work within, especially on a series like Charmed, which has rules for all its demons. However, when I began filming this episode I quickly found that within those parameters I had complete freedom insofar as my exploration of fear. I was able to walk onto the set and be as flamboyant and ‘crazy’ as I wanted and no one was going to wave their finger at me and say, “Now, now, that’s not how we do things around here.’ There’s a big difference between creating and re-creating and the producers on Charmed are interested in creating something new with each and every take.
“Because I had such a positive experience I thought, ‘If there’s another story opportunity to use fear like this again then I’d love to come back.’ Well, the following year I received a phone call from the producers asking me if I was free and would I be interested in reprising my role of Barbas in the episode Ms. Hellfire. I, of course, said, ‘Yes,’ and was thrilled that I did. Then a couple of seasons went by and I was either busy on other projects or the show’s writers hadn’t come up with a plausible enough reason to bring my character back. So I told myself, ‘That might be it, which is fine because what I did on the show I quite enjoyed.”
Barbas was, in fact, resurrected a third time for the fifth season story Sympathy for a Demon. In it, he tricks Paige (Rose McGowan) into giving him Cole’s (Julian McMahon) powers and plots his revenge against the Halliwells by forcing them to face their innermost fears. Having not played the role for two years, did Drago find it difficult to pick up where he left off?
“Funnily enough I wondered, ‘How is this going to work?’ because I’d never been away from a character for so long and then come back to it,” says the actor. “Lucky for me, the cast and crew of Charmed are a little like a sports team. There had been some changes in the players since my last time there but for the most part I still knew everyone. When I walked back onto the set they were incredibly supportive and that helped me slip easily back into Barbas mode.”
The actor is especially eager to talk about his most recent appearance on Charmed. In the season six episode Crime and Witch-Demeanors, the Cleaners frame Detective Morris (Dorian Gregory) for murder. When the sisters try to prove his innocence they end up on trial in a supernatural courtroom. For this story, Drago drew on his college studies when playing Barbas.
“When I was in college I had a double major that included theatre studies and law,” he notes. “Without giving away the whole plot, I finally get to put my law studies to use because in this story Barbas acts as legal council. My mother, rest her soul and bless her heart, always used to ask me, ‘Are you sure you made the right choice when you decided to become an actor instead of a lawyer?’ I’d tell her, ‘Yes, Mom, don’t worry, it’s going to be OK.’
“So this was a chance to complete the circle and play a lawyer. I had a ball, especially the scenes where Barbas is addressing the jury. From a selfish [acting] point of view I didn’t have to be concerned about hogging the spotlight because in a situation such as this the lawyer isthe spotlight,” jokes Drago. “To top it off, my character got to manipulate in a very real and honest way the fear and energy around him. The story gave me a wonderful platform in which to be creative. I can’t wait to see how it turned out.”
Out of all his feature film and other TV roles, Drago will not soon forget playing an urban witchdoctor called Mr. Peattie in The X-Files episode Theef. “That story still scares me when I watch it,” he says. “My character used real dolls, or poppets, from the Appalachians and the Ozarks. I had relatives from there and I know how they worked with the dolls. People living in those hills and mountains didn’t have access to medical treatment so they had ‘witchdoctors’ who practiced healing techniques using these dolls. So the ones in the episode aren’t props, we got the real thing. Also, the chants and songs my character sings are those that I heard as a little kid when we visited my great aunt up in the hills.
“I remember we filmed a scene in which Peattie fixes a magic poultice for his landlady’s back. As soon as the director said, ‘Cut,’ my back went out. I was in a great deal of discomfort for the rest of the shoot and on the day we wrapped the pain suddenly disappeared. Weird, huh? Perhaps we shouldn’t have used the real incantations or those poppets. I actually kept one of them and it’s sitting on the mantel of my fireplace as a reminder of that episode.”
As a child, Drago was an avid moviegoer and longed to be an actor. He made his debut onstage in Denver and eventually moved to New York City and then Los Angeles to continue to pursue his dream. “Everyone has their place in this world of ours and actors, or storytellers, have been around ever since there first were humans,” says Drago. “I’m honoured to be part of a centuries old profession and grateful to all those who think enough of me and my skills to keep employing me as an actor.”
Steve Eramo
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