A
vampire is quite a departure from Mickey Bricks in Hustle,
what attracted you to this role?
I'm a big
fan of graphic novels and the worlds they depict. I very much like the
darker sides of everyday realities that exist in Hellblazer,
Gotham Central and the Marvel Civil War series. I
also really enjoy the work of Neil Gaiman and I felt that Being
Human was in the same vein.
It's a
great script with wonderful characters. It takes real skill to put a
vampire, a werewolf and a ghost in the same drama and not only make
it believable, but also have humour and a real sense of menace. I took
to Herrick immediately as he was so different to anything I had done
before. I will always try something new.
How
does Herrick fit into the story?
Herrick
is a very slippery character. He is someone who believes that vampires,
not humans, should be the dominant species on the planet. He is a self-appointed
leader with many followers and is very eloquent as he puts his ideas
forth. Herrick represents the dark half of the vampire's psyche. Hence
his disapproval of Mitchell and his friendship with a werewolf, a much
lesser species.
Did
you have to do any research to get into character?
I thought
about it. But, everything I came up with involved either drinking blood
or getting arrested. Sometimes, both. So I thought it best to just do
a bit of reading instead!
Did
you spend much time being made up for the role?
Apart from
shaving my head bald, there wasn't much make-up for my character.
Viewers
won't have seen much of you since Hustle. What have you been
up to?
Well I've
certainly been busy since my last series of Hustle; I went
to LA to shoot Beyond, a pilot for FOX, then on to Jamaica
to shoot Empire's Children for Channel 4. I filmed Ballet
Shoes in London which went out on Boxing Day on BBC One. I filmed
in Vancouver for Case 39, a film which will be released Spring
'08 and then went on to South Africa for Doomsday, a film which
will be released Autumn '08.
At the
moment I'm back in the arms of the BBC shooting a series called Bonekickers,
which will be shown on BBC One in the Spring of '08. There is talk of
a fifth series of Hustle, but we'll see...
Being
Human
What is Being Human?
Russell Tovey
interview - George the werewolf
Guy Flanagan
interview - Mitchell the vampire
Andrea Riseborough
- Annie the ghost
Phoo Action
Phoo Action features
