Sam Witwer at the 37th Annual Saturn Awards | ©2011 Sue Schneider

It ain’t easy being a loner vampire, as Aidan (Sam Witwer) found out on the Syfy incarnation of the BBC series of BEING HUMAN. And when your roommates are a ghost named Sally (Meaghan Rath) and a werewolf named Josh (Sam Huntington) – things can get downright bizarre.

As the Syfy series wound down Season 1 earlier this year, Aidan found his loner status threatened when he was suddenly now the leaders of a group of junkie vampires after his mentor and later antagonist Bishop (Mark Pellegrino) was killed.

Recently ASSIGNMENT X spoke to actor Sam Witwer to get the scoop on the forthcoming Season 2 and get some details on what to expect. Here’s what he had to say.

ASSIGNMENT X: So now you’re the leader of the vampires …

SAM WITWER: Whether he likes it or not, Aidan’s in charge of trying to straighten out a bunch of homeless junkies I guess. We start out [Season 2] about a month later in the middle of that kind of crisis and on top of the fact we don’t know what’s going on with Nora [Kristen Hager] and the result of her situation. There are a lot of cool things that we jump right into.

AX: One of the criticisms early on with the show was how closely to stayed to the original BBC series, but as the season went on, it slowly found its own voice and direction.

WITWER: It was always the plan to start very similar and diverge as we went on. The other actors and I didn’t watch the British series, because we didn’t want that to unintentionally affect our performance. After we established all this, I’ve now seen the entire BBC series and I’m a huge, huge fan of what they do. By that same token, our writers have not seen the second season, we couldn’t follow what they did if we tried. Of course there will be overlap. There are inevitable conclusions we arrive that are going to be similar, but they have not seen it and it will be totally different.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA is one of the best sci-fi TV series ever made. Let me take “sci-fi” away – it’s one of the best TV series ever made. Everyone sort of agrees on that. No one really talks about it anymore how everyone hated it when it first came out. “Oh, Starbucks is a girl, how dare they. Boomer is supposed to be this black chick?” So, you know I remember that. I joined the cast of BATTLESTAR the first season and I was very frustrated with how finicky fans were. I prepared our entire cast on BEING HUMAN. “Look, we’re going to get crapped on. Fans of the British series are all sharpening their fangs. They’re ready to go. They’re going to kill us.” And they were. As soon as we started airing though, they backed off. That backlash never happened. I was shocked. I didn’t know what to think about it. “Thank you for giving us a shot and thank you for being so great” – that’s what I would like to say to them. The BBC series is wonderful, I’ve now seen the whole thing and I’m a huge fan of it. They were correct to be concerned, but I’m happy they gave us a chance.

Sam Huntington, Meaghan Rath and Sam Witwer in BEING HUMAN - Season 1 | ©2011 Syfy

AX: How do fans react to the U.S. series vs. the BBC one?

WITWER: It seems to me, whatever you were exposed to first seems to be your favorite, I find a lot of fans are really enjoying both for them and that’s really cool.

We just did the European press tour and of course they’ve seen all the British stuff and they just started seeing ours, and it was really gratifying to hear that they enjoyed it and liked it and why. Someone in this restaurant tapped me on the shoulders [and said], “look I’m sorry to bother, but I’m a big fan of the show. I want to tell you how much I love what you’re doing and love your work” and it was Alice Cooper and I was going “whoa – I can’t summon up the ability to speak. I’m having a real hard time here.” I made sure to ask him “have you seen the British series?” and he said “yes, I’ve seen it all, but I prefer yours.” And I asked “did you see ours first?” and he said, “yes I did.” And he went into a large amount of detail as to why [he liked it]. I think people imprint on what they see first, which says to me, those shows are complimentary entities – that they’re both doing things that are worthwhile.”

We think it strengthens the brand of both shows. When we came on the air, we had a huge boost in ratings and whenever they sell the series overseas, they’re selling both series together. It’s really a wonderful thing.

AX: For most of Season 1, Aidan was a loner, but now he’s become a leader – how is it shifting your character into this more dominant role?

WITWER: It’s interesting because I assumed something was going to happen to these poor people Bishop was recruiting, but I didn’t know if I had any specific ideas where that was going. Now I have a whole bunch of them, as fed by the British series and seeing what they did. What’s the most fun is we’re going to be blazing our own trail. We couldn’t follow what we did if we wanted. Our writers have some heresy knowledge, but they haven’t seen that season and they have every intention of seeing it after we do ours.

Sam Witwer in BEING HUMAN - Season 1 - "I See Your True Colors … and That’s Why I Hate You" | ©2011 Syfy/Phillipe Bosse

AX: Any scoops on Josh and Nora?

WITWER: There’s going to be some crazy stuff with Josh and Nora. We have her [Kristen Hager] for a good amount of time. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything. And if you’re ever doing a flashback with Aidan, Mark Pellegrino can’t be that far away.

The entire cast grew extremely close throughout the shooting of the season. We went to Hawaii together. Myself, Sarah Allen, Sammy and Meaghan and Mark. We all got together and really bonded in a big way. It’s great to see everyone. We got our entire crew back, we got more writers, a slightly better budget and it’s going to be really exciting.”

AX: Are you ready for the long haul of the series?

WITWER: Over my short illustrious career, at times I’ve turned down things that could have gone for a long period of time. [BEING HUMAN] was one of those projects I wouldn’t mind and would prefer if it would go several years. I would like that. I like who I’m working with. I love the scripts and I’m working with some really talented filmmakers. And as fairly dramatic as it is, it’s also hilarious. It’s a hilarious dark series. I haven’t had a lot of chance to do a hell of a lot of comedy.

I remember thinking when I read the first two scripts that these are two of the best scripts I’ve read in my career. However, there are nine different versions of this script that are sitcomy and how do you fit the comedy in with the drama? I think I was really happy where it ended up.

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Click on Link: Review of the BEING HUMAN – Season 1 finale – “A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to Me Killing You”

CLICK HERE for AX’s exclusive interview with BEING HUMAN’s executive producers Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke on Season 1 of the series

CLICK HERE for AX’s exclusive interview with Sam Witwer and Mark Pellegrino

CLICK HERE for review from Season 1 of BEING HUMAN

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Exclusive Interview with BEING HUMAN star Sam Witwer with the scoop on Season 2

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