When in your schedule did it fall in relation to “Hannibal?”
We shot Goodbye World last July. It was so lovely, the location. We were in wine country, Mendocino. We were just surrounded, the hotels or houses that they had rented for us were all in the middle of the vineyards and it was really beautiful. So we shot that in July and then a month later, even three weeks later, I went to Toronto to start shooting “Hannibal.”
Has a lot been happening for you in just the last few months since “Hannibal” came on?
Well, we shot “Hannibal” until mid-March and I did a lot of promotion after that, but no, there hasn’t been as many auditions. I’ve had great meetings this week and last week, so things are kind of picking up again, but things were a little slower for a minute. I didn’t know if the series was coming back so I couldn’t exactly make plans but now we know we’re renewed for a second season so I’m going to go back to Toronto probably at the end of August or September.
What do you hear about where the second season is going to go?
They just heard about three weeks ago. Now they have to start writing it so we have no idea what’s going to happen. I don’t know where they’re going to take all of us in the next season so I’m really eager actually to know. I can’t wait to know.
It certainly ends on an interesting twist on what we all thought we knew about Hannibal.
Absolutely. It’ll be fun to see what happens with Will incarcerated, what he knows, what we all still ignore. He knows we’re seeing the lion every day and he knows, but he’s the one who’s caged so it’ll be really interesting.
We’ll see how long they make that last.
Yeah, exactly.
How was your experience on the first season of “Hannibal?”
It was wonderful. The scripts are so good and the visuals are amazing. It looks so slick and I think we’re kind of making a cable show for network, which is kind of interesting.
It’s been a while since I read the book or even saw the last Red Dragon movie, so how different was your character in the series?
She is very briefly in the books and she’s a man. Her name is Alan Bloom. Same with Freddie Lounds. So Bryan I guess knew that he didn’t have many ladies in his story so he needed a bit more femininity I suppose. I don’t know. So he made Alana into a woman, but she in the book has a very small [role]. Someone names her at some point. I remember in Manhunter, Alan Bloom has one scene as well. The role that he plays in Will’s life is the same that Alana plays in the series. He’s the only one who asks about him personally, who says, “Are you all right. Be careful with what you do.” That’s what Alana’s purpose was, at least at the beginning of the show and then it carried on, was to say he’s a human being, you’re sending him into very dark waters, be careful. He could lose himself. She’s been ringing that alarm bell since the beginning and she was right all along because look where he ends up.
Were you happy with the way they dealt with the romantic tension, and do you think that might come back later next year?
Absolutely. I think we have to pay attention to it again because it was so beautifully sad in the last episode. I think for sure there will be more tension. You can’t end a series like that and not pay some of it again. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I like that it was always underneath and I really hope we get to play a bit more of that for sure.
What were the TV shows or movies you grew up watching that might have made you think, “Oh yeah, I could be an actor?”
Well, both my parents are actors so that’s how I started. When I was eight years old I started dubbing American movies into French. A lot of the television that I watched as a kid was all French-Canadian so you probably wouldn’t know the shows. I started watching American television when I was a teenager, “Full House” and “Growing Pains” and all those shows that were on after school. But since I started being an actor so young, I never thought, “Hmm, one day I’ll be an actor.” I was already doing it. I don’t really remember a moment where I thought, “Oh, one day I’ll do this” because it was already happening. I remember the moment when I was 11 when I did my first film where I thought, “Oh my God, this is amazing. This is what I want to do.” I felt the power of it but I was already shooting.
What film was that?
It’s a French-Canadian film called Comme un Voleur.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
