Actor Brian Krause
In today's Sci-Fi Blast From the Past, actor Brian Krause looks back at his work on the long-running WB supernatural TV series Charmed and playing Leo Wyatt.
It was back in April that filming on the hit supernatural series Charmedcame to its natural conclusion after eight years, but for actor Brian Krause, who played Leo Wyatt, his involvement in the series isn’t quite over yet. He spent this Monday morning in late August in a studio recording commentary for the eighth season Charmed DVD release, in particular his character’s penultimate episode, Vaya Con Leos.
“Me, Brad Kern [executive producer] and Cameron Litvak, the writer of that episode, have provided background commentary for the 45 minutes of that story,” explains Krause. “It’s basically the three of us recapping the show’s eight years on the air as well as talking about Vaya Con Leos, the birth of the episode, what it was about, the emotions that went along with making it, and how it could have been the last time we saw Leo. It was wonderful to see Brad and Cameron again and be able to share our thoughts about the whole experience.”
Charmed made its TV debut in the autumn of 1998 and introduced audiences to the Halliwell sisters, Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano), who also happened to be witches, but the good variety. Their destiny was to vanquish demons and protect innocents, but even the powerful Charmed Ones needed a little help every so often. Enter Leo Wyatt. Initially masquerading as a handyman, he was really a Whitelighter sent by the Elders to watch over the sisters. Leo first knocked on the Halliwell Manor’s front door in the season one episode Thank You For Not Morphing.
“What probably sticks out most in my mind about my first time stepping onto the Charmed set was the nervous energy I had of being around Shannen, Alyssa and Holly in a professional venue,” recalls Krause. “I’d known them for a couple of years, but we had never worked together. So I just remember being very nervous because they knew me as their friend Brian, but had never seen me act in person. There I was now having to kind of step up to the plate and wanting to impress them and yet get the job done and not have to worry so much about what the girls might think.
“I’ll never forget that day, though, and the look in Shannen’s eyes of, ‘Now don’t mess up.’ That’s what I remember most; how professional she was about it all and how good she wanted the series to be. She put the ‘pressure’ on to make it a success because she took a great deal of pride in Charmed and the work. Shannen just had a different way of going about things than Alyssa and Holly. It was a positive one, though, and it stuck with me for the whole run of the series, so I give kudos to Shannen for her professionalism.
“When it came to playing Leo in those early episodes, I guess one of the first things I had to get used to was working in the Sci-Fi realm. I mean, I’d done [the feature film] Sleepwalkers a few years before, but that was the extent of my experience in that genre. Also, I had the challenge of playing a real guy who was not quite a real guy. On top of that there was the great unknown. Was Leo going to stick around, or was he just a fleeting love interest for one of the girls? So the trick was to try to be likable enough for the audience to want me to stay and also be a good enough actor for the show’s leads to want to keep me around.
“The dynamic that I especially liked early on was that my character had this secret that no one really knew about. As the story went on, Leo was magical and then he wasn’t for a while. At one point, I wasn’t even sure if he was good or bad. If you were bad on Charmed you got killed, but if you were good that was a good sign. In the beginning, though, no one really knew what Leo was, so for me the question was do I play him as dark, light or slightly ambivalent? In the end we went for ambivalent, and that seemed to work,” he chuckles.
After three years of Charmed, Shannen Doherty decided to leave the series. Her character of Prue was killed off, and in season four, the Halliwell’s half-sister/half-Whitelighter Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) was welcomed into the Charmed One’s fold. “The show’s dynamic changed quite a bit in year four,” says Krause. “I’ve talked with a lot of fans about it, some of whom stopped watching, while others started watching for the first time.
“Shannen’s character was a straightforward, demon butt-kicker and she and her sisters were hardcore witches in the first three seasons. When Rose joined the show, everything kind of lightened up a bit. The Paige character was very quirky and fun-loving, and I think by virtue of bringing her in to replace Prue, it did change Holly’s and Alyssa’s characters and dialed up their emotional levels on the show. So we went from being this purely demon butt-kicking show to one where it allowed us to show a more personal side of these girls’ lives.
“As far as Leo was concerned, he didn’t interact much with Prue, but he did with Paige, especially at the beginning. Being that she was part Whitelighter, my character sort of showed her the ropes. I was pleased about that because it involved me more in the storyline as well as brought out more of Leo’s big brother attitude with the girls.”
Piper and Phoebe both had a bit of a crush on Leo when they first met him, but it was the eldest sister that eventually captured the Whitelighter’s heart. Leo’s romance with Piper was forbidden by the Elders, but the couple eventually earned the right to marry and raise a family.
“Overall I was happy with how the Leo/Piper relationship was written, but I also think it developed somewhat quickly,” says Krause. “They were dating and then all of a sudden they were married and before you knew it they had two kids. In real life I suppose that eight years is long enough for all that to happen, but in the TV world it seemed like there was some stuff we missed. Events happened off-screen and not in front of the audience, and we would have to explain what people missed in the way of dialogue in the episodes.
“As an actor I always wanted to show more of Leo and Piper together with their family, but after all it was a series about the girls. I was just pleased to have the part I had in the program.”
At the end of season five of Charmed, Leo made the difficult choice to sacrifice his life with Piper and their son Wyatt and became an Elder in order to better help humankind. A couple of years later another omnipotent group called the Avatars showed Leo that they had a better way to change the world into the ultimate utopia, so he joined their ranks. Unfortunately, their plan had one major flaw and it took the The Charmed Ones to set things right. For a while, Leo was able to hide his association with the Avatars, but the Elders eventually found out and he was stripped of his magical powers. How did Krause have to alter his performance to keep up with all these changes in his character’s life?
“There were different emotions I had to play based on Leo’s situation,” notes the actor. “As an Elder, he was like, ‘OK, I’m a pure being. Everything is great. I love life and am in control.’ When Leo went to the other side as an Avatar, it was out of the same core belief, which was his desire for wanting the best for his family and the world. Then when he was made mortal, Leo was bitter at first, but then felt he had finally been set free. So the through-line for my character never changed, but how he reacted was based on his been wronged or righted by the Elders, Avatars, demons, witches, etc.”
When the eighth and final year of Charmed finally rolled around, the WB Network cut back on the show’s budget, which meant that Krause’s work on the series would be limited to half the season. “That was a big shock and it changed my attitude a little bit as well as my passion for the series,” he admits. “However, when I began work on season eight I realized that negativity wasn’t good for me, the audience or the show. So I quickly got over that and decided, ‘Hey, I need to do my best work, whether I’m here for one episode or 22.’
“Season eight was a very emotional one for Leo. There was the ongoing adjustment to being mortal, dealing with his new role as Mr. Mom, and not being able to help out Piper and her sisters as much. Leo felt all those things and perhaps I felt them, too, based on my reduced involvement in the making of the show. So it was all right there and easy for me to play. That was all due to Brad Kern, who was very in-tune with me and the rest of the cast and wrote for our personal emotional levels and how they fit into the show.
“Brad always kept a close eye on all of us and was a big brother or father figure. He never asked us to do anything on the show if he didn’t feel we couldn’t emotionally handle it at certain periods in our lives. Brad made the right call each time and I thank him for every opportunity he afforded me in season eight to be as natural and believable as possible when playing Leo.”
Thanks to some clever cost-cutting moves on Brad Kern’s part, he was able to bring the Leo character back for the Charmed finale Forever Charmed. “Eight years of a series is a long time and there was a lot of reflection going on and plenty of emotions, especially on the final day of shooting when the Halliwell Manor was blown up,” says Krause. “I think everyone took a moment to stare at the burnt rubble and just couldn’t believe it. It was hard to swallow. The cast and crew really banded together and supported one another in order to get the work done without totally breaking down.”
Krause has no idea what the future holds for him either personally or professionally, but wherever life takes him next, he’ll be bringing with him a part of Charmed. “There are so many things that I learnt from many different people on that show,” he says. “I grew both as a person and an actor and I’ll always be grateful for that. We’ll see where I’m at eight years from now. Hopefully I’ll take away some positive elements from that span of time, too.”
Steve Eramo
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