On SyFyâs re-imagining of the popular British television series Being Human, premiering on January 17th, actor Sam Witwer plays Aidan, a seemingly young man who has worked as a nurse in a hospital in Boston for the past several years, but in reality is an over 200-year-old vampire that is trying to sustain himself by not killing humans. While at work, the normally closed-off Aidan meets Josh (Sam Huntington), whose own future was hijacked the instant he was turned into a werewolf. The friendship the two have formed leads to a new sense of normalcy for them both, and they decide to be roommates in a place that they discover is already inhabited by the ghost of its last resident, Sally (Meaghan Rath).During a recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Sam Witwer, previously known for his work as Doomsday on The CW series Smallville, talked about how proud he is of his work on Being Human, what itâs like to play a vampire thatâs over 200 years old, how quickly he bonded with his co-stars, and his hope that viewers will tune in and give the show a chance, since it is quite different from the original. Check out what he had to say after the jump:Question: How did you originally get involved with this show?SAM WITWER: I auditioned. As I understand it, I think the casting director, Deedee Bradley, contacted my agent and said, âWhy havenât you sent Sam Witwer for this?,â because she cast me in Smallville. I know that she was involved with getting me out there. When I received the script and they were saying, âDo you want to audition for this?,â I donât know what I was doing at the time that made me so lazy, but I originally didnât read the script and just misjudged it. I thought, âOh, itâs just another vampire thing. I donât really want to do that.â And, a friend of mine basically tapped me on the shoulder and said, âThatâs Being Human, though.â And, I was like, âYeah?â She said, âBut, itâs Anna Fricke, Jeremy Carver and Adam Kane involved as producers. Are you an idiot? What did you think of the script?â And, I was like, âWell, I didnât read it.â Frankly, my job is to read scripts. She shamed me into doing my job, and then once I did, I have ever since thanked her profusely because it would have been the biggest mistake of my life to not audition for this project. It was me being an idiot, briefly, and one of my friends pulling me out of it. And then, I auditioned and, shortly after the audition, the process began. After the first time they saw me, we all sat down and had a talk about what the series was, the way I saw it and the way they saw it, and it turned out that we all saw the same type of series. As wonderful as those scripts are, thereâs a bad version of those scripts waiting to be made. You could definitely mess it up. In fact, you could mess it up very easily because youâre dealing with all these different elements, with the comedy and the darkness and the drama, and all of that, and figuring out how to balance it to make it work. It could be too campy or too serious. Thankfully, when I saw some of the episodes that we had done, after having shot them for several months, it was really cool because it was the series that I saw in my head. It was like, âYeah, this is what I thought we were doing.â I really owe a great debt of gratitude to Jeremy Carver, Anna Fricke and Adam Kane for having the talent to be able to execute these lofty goals that we had. They really did a great job.Did you have any hesitation in signing on for a role that you could play for a number of years? WITWER: Big time, yeah. Iâm hesitant anytime someone puts a contract in front of me that has two-year options. When I started seeing the episodes, thatâs when that was really important to me. Youâre shooting it and youâre in the trenches for awhile and you think youâre getting good stuff, but they do own you. You did sign on for as long as it goes. Once I started seeing episodes, I was very, very happy about that decision because the working environment is so pleasant, the crew is so great, and the cast all gets along incredibly well. So, between all that, and the episodes being something that I feel that I can be proud of, I was very happy to have signed on for however long we are fortunate enough to go. The audience has to lock into it, and hopefully they do, but I would be happy to play this character for a few years.Did you decide to watch any of the original series, or did you decide to stay away from it?WITWER: Iâm looking forward to seeing the original. I saw the first episode and, once I recognized how good it was and how good Aidan Turner is in that role, I really wanted to stay away from it while we shot our season. I didnât want to subconsciously mimic anything that he did. With the original series being so popular, do you think it helps the show that it already has a built-in interest, or is it more nerve-wracking because you have something you actually have to live up to?WITWER: People think of the Battlestar Galactica remake as one of the best television series ever made. If you take away the sci-fi, itâs still one of the best series ever made. No one remembers that, when that show came out, there was a tremendous backlash and everyone was saying, âOh, itâs stupid. Starbuck is a girl now. What is all this?â Everyone was really angry, at the time, because of the original series. Weâre going to get something similar, when we air. At least, thatâs my prediction, but I could be wrong. There are going to be a lot of people who just talk shit, and theyâre going to be very angry that this was done in a North American way at all. Iâm more concerned with what people are going to be saying a year from now, or half a year from now, once itâs settled in a bit. My feeling on it is that I donât think people are going to not enjoy the show that weâre making. Itâs up to them to decide whether the British version is better or worse. We owe the BBC version and the cast, crew and creators involved, a tremendous debt of gratitude because we have this goldmine that we can just use to mine from. We have 13 episodes to do what they did in 6, and we have all these wonderful opportunities, and thatâs because of their hard work and talent. What I hope is that, if weâre successful, that helps them. Thatâs going to bring a bigger audience to them than they ever would have had alone, and I donât think thereâs anyone that could dispute that. And, the good news for them is that, if we go out there and fail miserably, theyâre still going to be as popular, if not more popular, than they were before. I think itâs a big win-win for the British series. For us, it would be nice to say that we can count on the British audience coming over to us, but I donât think we can. I just donât think theyâre going to readily accept it that quickly. Youâre going to see people playing, not the same characters, but versions of the characters that they know and love, and theyâre going to have a hard time accepting that, and thatâs fine. Donât tune in, if you really think itâs going to be that terrible. But, the simple fact of the matter is that nothing that weâre doing is going to negate what the British series has done. The British series is already there. Itâs done. If you want to experience a very, very similar story from a different perspective, and you loved the British series, then tune in. The fact of the matter is that the two shows, from what I could tell in the one episode that I saw, are very different and the characterizations are different. You canât just hand a British script to American actors and have that come off. We go in different places with the plots, and we go into more detail on some of the things because we have the luxury of time. We have completely different concepts on these three people, so for that reason alone, itâs worth watching. You get completely different perspectives on the same issues. But, it will be whatever it is. I canât wait to watch and support the British series. They really deserve the lionâs share of the credit for this concept. If weâre successful, we owe them tremendous gratitude and thanks. Did they change the names of the characters to help it feel different from the original series? WITWER: I think they would have done it anyway, but thatâs one of the benefits of doing that. These are not the same characters. Donât think of them as the same characters. There are a lot of similarities, but for example, Bishop is not Herrick (from the original series). Not in the slightest. Heâs not the same guy.Because this version has more than twice the amount of episodes in Season 1 than the British series had, are you using those extra episodes to expand the storylines or are you adding new storylines as well?WITWER: Both. We go into a tremendous amount of detail about certain things that they touched on, and we also do certain storylines that they didnât do at all. Itâs really fun like that. We also take some of the same storylines in different directions. At certain points, where you might expect one thing to happen because you saw the British series, the opposite might happen. We messed with that a little bit, and itâs never arbitrary. We do it for very good, dramatic reasons. Do you see this as more of an homage to the original than a remake?WITWER: There are certainly elements of homage. For example, my characterâs name is Aidan (after Aidan Turner, who plays the vampire in the original series). If you want to do justice to the original, you canât avoid doing a little bit of that. But, at the same time, weâre trying to do something that would be worth watching, if you were a fan of the original. If it was just the same, it wouldnât really be worth watching, nor would it be worth doing. Do you get to collaborate on new ideas for your character at all? WITWER: Jeremy Carver and Anna Fricke are wonderfully collaborative. Weâve all been in open dialogues since the beginning of this whole project. Iâm happy to say that theyâre very open to hearing suggestions. Those two are incredible writers. They pull off stuff that, if someone told me, in concept, some of these things they wanted to do and that theyâre going to pull off humor, Iâd say, âNo, that doesnât belong there. Thereâs no way. You canât pull off humor in that situation without it being campy and not taking the situation seriously.â But somehow, they figure out a way to fit in all those elements â the gravity of the situation, along with humor. They are just tremendous writers, so the good news is that, when we receive a script, itâs already in great shape. It doesnât really need much help. So, when we have our suggestions, sometimes itâs a little detail here or there, or a little bit of a different perspective on something, but theyâre very open to that. As long as you get them the idea early enough, theyâll incorporate it, and thatâs always really fun. Itâs fun to feel like youâre part of a team. They trust us, we trust them and we all do our jobs together. Hopefully, that creates compelling television. I think our showrunners are tremendously talented and Iâm so lucky to be working with them.Are there things that involve your character, or are there specific episodes, that youâre most looking forward to viewers getting to see?WITWER: Thereâs too many to name. There are projects that Iâve done where Iâve looked over the script and looked at the challenges and wondered how I was going to pull something off, or wondered how it was going to go, or wondered how I could bring something that people hadnât quite seen yet. You try to keep reinventing the character to make it interesting, but one of the things youâre not guaranteed, as an actor, is that youâre looking forward to playing this scene or that scene. Thatâs not always a given. Sometimes youâre doing a job where maybe this wouldnât necessarily be your favorite television show, but it is someone elseâs favorite television show, and you still have to really throw your heart and soul into it. The cool thing with Being Human is that there are countless scenes that Iâve read in the script where Iâve gone, âWow, I really canât wait to perform that,â or âIâm looking forward to that scene,â or âThatâs going to be really difficult and challenging, but Iâm really looking forward to it.â Thereâs hardly a moment that I would say is wasted, with my character. I feel like I really had some strong stuff thrown at me, in terms of what I was supposed to perform, so Iâm psyched.How do you see Aidan? What type of guy is he to you?WITWER: Thatâs a very interesting question. He acts like a modern 20-something, 21st century, 2011 guy. Well, he also acted like that in the â70s, and he acted like that in the â50s, and so on and so forth. Heâs had to hide what he is. Heâs had to be invisible and blend in, so heâs learned how to do that. Heâs morphed, over the years, while at the same time, accruing wisdom that heâs learned about life. The wonderful thing and the fun thing about this character is that, if you go with the metaphor, this guy has been in a drug haze for most of his life. Now, he wants to go clean and stop doing that, so you can imagine that a 200-and-some-year-old guy wouldnât be very easy to impress, he might be a little bit stoic, he might be a little bit quiet and observing, and he would be over everything. It would be hard to get a reaction out of him. And, having been in stasis, emotionally, for all those years, and having not really dealt with things in a human way, to come out of that drug haze, after living your life in it, the world would be a tremendously frightening place, and you would have emotional reactions where you would least expect them. Thatâs really one of the fun things about this character. He may be displaying something to people, or to Josh (Sam Huntington) or Sally (Meaghan Rath), that shows them a version of himself that he feels like theyâre prepared for and that heâs comfortable to share. But, if you get Aidan alone and heâs by himself, sometimes you see what heâs really feeling, and heâs freaking out and doesnât know how to deal with these things. His emotions are all fresh, like a very, very young person, because he hasnât been dealing with them and really looking them in the eye. Heâs always used the drug to deal with things. Not to mention that, but if you go with the genre stuff, heâs been a sociopath and a complete maniac, and now heâs really choosing to look these things in the eye. Is that why he is so torn up over what happens with Rebecca in the pilot? WITWER: What happens with Rebecca (Sarah Allen) keeps coming up and giving him tremendous guilt for having hurt this person. Heâs wracked with guilt. He hasnât let it go, and itâs still playing on him. It doesnât go away until Episode 2, when something happens and you realize itâs taken to the next level. I love that. He has some funny moments and heâs dealing with it. He can smile at Josh and he can be whoever he needs to be for whoever, but if you get him alone, all he can think about is what he did to that girl, and thatâs really wonderful. Throughout the season, you get to see more and more of how much heâs lying to his roommates to try to maintain this facade of who he thinks they want him to be, and never really opening up to anyone, except for very few people. He keeps to himself and barely handles it. In fact, in some cases, he doesnât handle it. Do you think that moving in with Josh will gradually help him cope better? WITWER: Later on in the season, he has some major problems and he finds out that, emotionally, he just canât cope. Heâs not equipped to cope. He doesnât have those tools that a person who is sober would develop, so things send him over the edge pretty frequently, but he tries to hold it together. Basically, he asks Josh to be his roommate because he realizes that he canât do this alone. He doesnât say that to Josh because he doesnât want to display that, but whatâs really going on with him is that he realizes that he needs to be watched, he needs help and he needs someone whoâs going to keep him straight. If he lives with this guy, maybe they can help each other that way. Are there favorite qualities and characteristics in Aidan that you really enjoy playing?WITWER: One of the things that I really enjoy â and you see it more around Episode 7 â are the comedic beats. I actually get to be the funnyman in an episode later while, at the same time, still maintaining the tense situation or the sadness. I get some funny moments to play, and I really, really love that. When I was in drama school, everyone always thought that I was going to go off and try to be on Saturday Night Live or do comedy, and Iâve gotten nothing but drama. So, Being Human came along and I really am mostly the straight man, but as time goes on, I do get to throw out some jokes and be light-hearted, at times. Itâs not so much in the first two episodes, but you see it later on, and thatâs been tremendous fun for me. At the same time, this character gets extraordinarily dark, and sometimes really mean, and sometimes at the edge of despair. You couldnât ask for a better character to play because I get to go to all those extremes. And then, if thereâs a flashback where you meet the character in a different era, like the â50s or the â70s, I get to play a completely different version of the character, whoâs in a completely different place with different attitudes and opinions. Itâs really a dream job, when it comes to that. Itâs never stale. This character could be dealing with life-and-death situations, and pain and suffering beyond belief, but then there are all these other dimensions where he can actually be funny or ironic, on top of extraordinarily serious situations. When you think about it, thatâs very realistic. Iâve been in situations where, in the midst of really hardcore events in my life, I made some ridiculous off-color joke that was in horrible taste, but made people laugh. Seeing the humor in the midst of the most grim circumstances is one of the elements of the show that I enjoy the most, and makes it a lot more fun to watch. What has it been like to work with Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath, and share this experience alongside the two of them?WITWER: When me and Sammy and Meaghan sat in a room together, it was immediately apparent that this was the group that was going to get cast. There was just something about everyoneâs energy, where we understood exactly where our performances need to sit, opposed to each other. Sammy knew when to come in and say something off of my timing, which I knew because Meaghan gave me an opening to say something else. It was just this weird voodoo where we immediately not only knew how to work with each other, but liked each other a lot, just from the get-go, and really enjoyed each otherâs performances immediately. Especially in the earlier episodes, we were taken aside by producers and directors and told, âListen, you have to tone down the chemistry. You guys donât know each other well enough yet. The chemistry youâre bringing now will be great toward the end of the season, but not now. The rhythms canât be this established. There needs to be little stilted moments. It canât be this smooth yet.â Itâs funny because you usually get the opposite note. The director usually comes up and says, âOkay, remember, you really like each other.â But, they told us, âYou guys like each other too much. You need to be more wary. You donât know each other that well.â We had to work on that. But, after they live with each other for awhile, we had permission to finally bring more of Sam Witwer, Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath to those characters, so Aidan gets progressively funnier and Josh is hilarious. The cool thing about the funny stuff that I have to do is that the show isnât reliant on it. Sam Huntington is really the comedic genius of us three, and so is Meaghan Rath. Those two crack me up so much. Iâm the dramatic anchor of the trio. Those guys really impress me with the things that they can do that I canât. Itâs really just so much fun, and we like each other so much. Itâs like having an adopted brother and sister, and it happened immediately. It takes me awhile to get to know someone and get comfortable with them, so to be comfortable with them so fast was a real treat. I should also say that Sarah Allen and Mark Pellegrino are absolutely part of that group as well. There was an instant connection between all of the actors that was bizarre. It doesnât happen on sets often. Weâre all going on vacation together. I immediately really liked Mark and we got along really well. Same deal with Sarah. Weâre ridiculously close, all of us. Is it challenging then to remember that none of you can touch Sally, since sheâs a ghost?WITWER: That has been a problem, yeah. Weâve nearly blown brilliant takes with that whole rule. There was a scene recently where Meaghan touches a real person for the first time, and she was so excited. Itâs really funny. Was it difficult to get used to talking with fangs?WITWER: No, the fangs were very easy, and so were the eyes. Iâve had contacts put in on various jobs, so this wasnât a problem at all. The vampire transformation is really easy. The guy that has it rough is Sam Huntington because heâll be in make-up for four hours and he canât sit down. He has to stand up and hold his arms out to the side because they have to apply stuff to his chest and torso. Early in the season, he did a 19-hour day, and then he had four hours to sleep, and had to do another 20-hour day after that. That guy, with those prosthetics, definitely had it the worst. Out of the hat, he picked the worst monster to be. Meaghan and me are pretty low-maintenance monsters.Did the work you did as Doomsday on Smallville, and the exposure you had to sci-fi and genre fans through that show, help to prepare you for the attention that youâll get for Being Human?WITWER: Smallville was a really awesome opportunity. I can say, probably with certainty, that this job wouldnât have happened, if it werenât for the opportunities I had on Smallville. That character was going through something very similar. He was dealing with being a monster and not wanting to be one. On this show, because Iâm #1 on the cast list, we get a lot more opportunities to explore all the different facets of that type of problem. But on Smallville, Davis Bloom didnât really have a sense of humor. He didnât have time, but Aidan does. In terms of the fans, I really hope that genre fans dig this because Iâm one of them. The Force Unleashed gigs were nerve-wracking because I didnât want to let down any of my fellow Star Wars fans. With Smallville, I didnât want to let down any of my fellow Superman fans. I actually donât have much of a connection with the vampire genre. I never really had a particular love for vampires. But, the fact is that we all draw from the same pool of fans. I really would like to do service to these extraordinary situations. With anything sci-fi, if you do it okay or not very well, itâs the worst thing in the world. Itâs just cheesy and awful. However, if you do it really, really well, itâs the coolest thing in the world. If you do an extraordinary job of giving gravity to those extraordinary situations, than science fiction and those types of genres are way cooler than what you can do in a lot of traditional genres. You just get more opportunities to tell more daring stories, in terms of the metaphors. There are things that Aidan goes through, later on in the season, in terms of him having some form of relapse. The type of stuff that we do, they had to censor quite a bit of because we really went far with it, but they would have had to censor it even more, if it was me just going for it with heroin. It would have been something that the censors would have been very uncomfortable with. But, if you take it out of that and say, âNo, heâs a vampire and itâs a blood thing,â then you can literally do the heroin freak out, very literally on the screen, without having the censors cut it out.Are you hoping to balance this with film work between seasons, if the show goes on for awhile?WITWER: Yeah. Iâm very much a fan of doing a gig and moving on. Being Human would be an exception to that because itâs such an exceptional show. Iâve actually been in situations where Iâve turned down a lot of money to continue on, in certain shows, or to do something that would have lasted years when I didnât even like it. I didnât want to be in any one spot for years, unless I really believed in it, and I really believe in Being Human. But, the wonderful thing is that I still will have the opportunity to do stints on various gigs and move on. That is absolutely the plan. I want to just play around in the six months between the seasons. Right now, Iâm just trying to balance it out with getting sleep back. By the end of it, we were exhausted. Weâre all burnt. Right now, I canât even think about work. My agent and manager are coming to me with these wonderful gigs and they want me to audition, and I havenât had the heart to audition for anything recently because Iâm just too burnt right now. But, Iâll be ready to get back into the swing of things soon.Do you have any dream roles youâd love to do?WITWER: I recently got to do a period piece with David Strathairn, called No God, No Master, that was fun. I would love to do more period pieces. That would be a lot of fun. Do you have any films coming out that your fans should keep an eye out for? WITWER: Thereâs a film that I did about a Star Wars/Star Trek geek, who loses everything in the recession and decides to join the mafia, so he has to go move in with his mom in her basement, back in Chicago. We shot that in Chicago. Thatâs called The Return of Joe Rich, and it should be interesting. Iâm the title character, Armand Assante plays my mafia uncle that I try to get in with and Talia Shire is my mother. Itâs a fun indie. Weâll see how it comes together. I havenât seen it yet, but Iâve seen pieces of it. It was definitely fun to shoot. Other than that, thereâs some other projects that I canât talk about just yet, but thereâs stuff coming.For more interviews with the cast of Being Human, here's Meaghan Rath, Sam Huntington and Mark Pellegrino
Sam Witwer Exclusive Interview BEING HUMAN
Sam Witwer Interview BEING HUMAN. SyFy’s remake of the popular British television series BEING HUMAN also stars Meaghan Rath and Sam Huntington