MEDIA BLVD. MAGAZINE: Sam Witwer At the Top of His Game in 'Being Human'
Monday, 21 February 2011
By Kenn Gold
Sam Witwer has a long history of playing characters very relevant to MediaBlvd’s core audience, ranging from Crashdown on Battlestar Galactica to Doomsday on Smallville with a lot of great parts in between. Now he has a lead role in the Syfy version of the popular BBC series, Being Human, as 200 year old vampire, Aidan. The series takes on a lot of the same elements as the UK version so far, but it’s fair to say that the US cast and crew is making it their own. With such a strong ensemble among the lead three cast members, it is honestly hard to pick a favorite. But Witwer is finally where he well deserves to be- in the top of the cast of the best show that Syfy has done since BSG, and the first retelling of a British hit on US TV that has so clearly surpassed the original in a very long time..
Sam recently answered some burning questions from an assembled panel of the online media about how he takes on the character, about his cast mates, and about the show in general. Being Human airs on Monday nights on Syfy...
... Question> Addiction seems to be a big part of the story line, and Aidan is experiencing things for the first time because he is clean. Is he just going to be a failed character? Is his going to be a failed redemption story?
Sam Witwer> That is a very, very interesting question. First of all, you’re hitting the nail on the head when it comes to how new things are to him, because I’m trying to play him and you’ll see a lot more of this as the season goes on, I’m trying to play him like this is all ridiculously new to him. That this is going clean with something that has occurred to him in the past and he’s tried on a few occasions, but this is the first time that he’s really made a go of it and had any real success. And because he’s been a drug case for 200 years he doesn’t have the tools that you and I have to deal with humanity on humanities own terms. So, he’s been relying on the substance abuse to get him through. So now we have what is in very strange ways - I mean on one hand he’s a very wise old character who’s accrued a lot of wisdom, and on the other hand he’s a kid who has not developed - he’s not developed normally. And his emotional state is extremely volatile and he tries - and which is why he tries to keep cool so much. He tries to maintain this very low key veneer to try to contain all the stuff that’s going on inside, and you’ll get to see more and more of that as the season goes on, in terms of backsliding and is he destined to fail? In terms of ultimately is he destined to fail? That is a question that we will answer by the end of the entire series. But in terms of the season, yes, we do see some failures and we do see some moments where, yes, he starts backsliding and it’s some pretty ugly stuff. In fact, there’s one scene in particular, and I wish I could tell you about it because I’m very excited about it...
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