I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Mr. Daniel Gillies while
he flexed his culinary muscles on his TV brother’s recipe for stuffed
red peppers. We talked about underrepresented vampires, gender equality,
racial diversity, the UFC, our mutual crush on Mads Mikkelsen, and even
managed to squeeze in some stuff about his awesome show The Originals and its upcoming third season.
Our website’s mission is to promote women’s contributions to sci-fi and fantasy, and I have to say that The Originals
has done a pretty great job of showcasing a lot of powerful yet very
different women from many racial backgrounds. Do you know if this has
been a conscious goal of the series?
Well, that’s Julie Plec. I think the same could be said of any of her
shows. There are always frequent and complex female characters. And
what’s lovely about The Originals is that we’re most
triumphantly racially diverse. It should be. It’s set in New Orleans
where it’s absolutely as diverse as it gets, and we should be seeing
many cultures represented. What’s cool, in terms of your question on
whether it’s a conscious choice, is that, absolutely, I think it’s a
choice. Ostensibly, we’re a show aimed at women in a lot of ways, even
though, as the show has grown and diversified, I’ve noticed a growing
male audience that is really enjoying the show. However, particularly in
our origin when we split from the mothership of The Vampire Diaries,
a show with an enormous demographic of women followers, it’s been in
our best interest to have strong, intelligent, sassy, cool,
intellectually dexterous women at the center of these dramas. It has not
only behooved us to have women wielding great intellects, but we’re
also sensitive to a multiplicity of female wisdom, strength, humor and
contemporary fun set amid this world of magic realism. And I think
they’ve done it masterfully. Look at the number of writers we have, too.
I just finished working with the writer of the last episode who’s a
woman, Diane Ademu-John. Michelle Paradise wrote the episode before
that. Julie wrote the one before that. It’s written by women. Are we
designing this show with lots of women in mind deliberately? The short
answer is absolutely.
That’s fantastic. Not to put down the male characters ’cause
you guys are great, too, but I really enjoy that there’s a sense of
equality in the show regardless of what gender you are as a character.
Basically, anyone can kick anyone’s ass.
Do you know who’s not represented? This bothers me. Overweight
vampires. I would watch the shit out of a show that had a heavy vampire.
Have you seen What We Do In The Shadows?
Yes, of course. I think Jemaine Clement is one of the most special
and unique artists out there right now. I’m so in awe of him. I love
what he and Taika and those guys are doing. It makes me proud to be a
New Zealander. And now we’ve gone way off topic!
What really drives The Originals as a show is its
focus on family and the issues that tear them apart and bring them
together. What can we expect from the Mikaelsons in Season 3?
There’s something very dark about this season, already. I really feel
like we’re finding our own voice. When you spin off from another
series, inevitably, you always have the tone, sound, and resonance of
the show that you emerged from (in this case The Vampire Diaries.)
And I think it’s taken us a good season to jettison our former
similarities. Right now we’re really hitting our stride and starting to
sound like ourselves. The first four episodes of Season 3, which we’ve
just done, have been the best episodes of the show we’ve ever done.
Ooooh.
What can you expect? The best version of the show that I’ve ever
seen, first of all. Second, you can expect an all out war. It’s just
mayhem. It’s probably getting a lot worse before it gets better, and
this family’s gonna need heaven and hell to unify it once again. I’m
just guessing here, but I think you’re gonna see a war between the
brothers. With great difficulty they’ll find a resolution or they won’t.
Which kinda breaks my heart, but also excites me at the prospect of
acting that out.
Should we expect to see more of the “Red Door” part of Elijah’s personality?
Yes. 100%. I’ve just spent the last several days doing nothing but
“Red Door” stuff. We’re visiting that past so much this season. We’re
really digging into it. Look, it’s the reason people are tuning in, and
Julie and Michael Narducci are super hip to this. The show works best
when these writers focus on who these people are. It’s a beautiful thing
to unveil all these nuances that contributed to the creatures we know
they are, and have come to love or not love. It’s not easy doing the
history stuff, though. It’s tricky to schedule and organize. We have a
marvelous costume department, but it’s elaborate, expensive, and
difficult. They really believe that the best version of this show is an
entire and thorough investigation of what it was that created The
Original family.
Speaking of Michael Narducci. He said that, as a writer, he
can’t think of his characters in terms of “ships” because it diminishes
their individual stories. I love that, and think it makes for better
writing. However, Hayley and Elijah’s relationship is very interesting.
Why do you think that is? Is there still new ground for them to explore?
Do you think they’re being setup for a very Shakespearean-like fate?
Let me ask you a question. What do you like about it? I’m curious.
I don’t gravitate towards most love stories, especially the
teenage “I just met you and I’m madly in love with you” romances.
Realistically, you have to overcome obstacles in order to be in a
successful relationship. The challenges that you deal with everyday as a
couple. Obviously, these two have massive challenges. But still,
there’s this pull or attraction, and I think it’s based on deep respect
for each other. To me that’s the most important thing in a relationship.
It’s funny you say that. My wife once said to me — it almost broke my
heart, and my knee jerk reaction was to think that it was a weird thing
to say — but she thought respect is more important than love in a
relationship.
She’s right.
And she’s so right. Love has ebbs and flows, but when respect is
broken, love inevitably diminishes. You get stuck when you have no
respect, and I love your take on it. But I think this love being
forbidden is an enormous reason why it’s popular. My knee jerk reaction
when I found out about it in the spinoff pilot was, “What the fuck are
you doing? This is a disaster!” Nobody’s halfway about that relationship. Nobody’s bored by it. When
Hayley and I, forgive my French, fucked by the fireplace, there was this
outrage online, “This is disgusting. They made it like a porn. What a
cheap shot.” We got all this hate. But no one was saying, “What a bore.
There’s no chemistry.” I think we’re decent enough actors that we’re
doing our job. It’s not about propriety or doing what you want to see —
by the way, I’m so proudly administering this turkey mince into these
half shell peppers right now. I feel like Michelangelo staring at the
ceiling of the Sistine. I think I’ve created masterpieces. I’m just so
proud of my red pepper children here.
You should be proud. I microwave stuff.
Fuck. Where was I before my ego got the best of me? I think people
don’t know what they want. “Give us Damon and Elena!” Then, the moment
they get together. “Hmm, I don’t know.” People want what they can’t
have, and, often, they don’t want to be given what you’re giving them.
You can never appease everyone. If I was Julie and Michael, I wouldn’t
even look at Twitter.
I couldn’t agree more. I think there’s this trend of studios
catering to their fan base with the same bullshit, which diminishes
originality. But a lot of us don’t want predictable crap. We want to be
moved, which is why we’re drawn to shows like yours. Have you seen Hannibal?
Hannibal is awesome. I have the most enormous crush on Mads Mikkelsen.
I’ll fight you for him.
I think he’s one of the best actors in the world. He’s just gold. He’s unbelievable. His brother, too.
The cast in The Originals is incredible, too. And
you’ve had some interesting challenges like having multiple actors
playing the same character (for example, Rebekah, Finn, Esther, etc).
What was it like portraying these same relationships with different
actors?
It’s wonderful. I pretty much love everyone. It’s difficult when you
don’t know whether or not our actors are gonna be able to commit. They
couldn’t secure a deal with Maisie, so we lost her. I do wish we could
have held on to her. I loved her interpretation of Rebekah. I thought
she was gonna take it to some new, different, and wonderful places.
Daniel Sharman, rather than trying to imitate Nate Buzolic (who, by the
way, gave me this recipe), came in and brought this entirely new
dimension to Kol. The CW is a bit of a revolving door. It’s difficult
for people to want to sign on for a long period of time because the
shows are so demanding. We’ve got a great new cast this season, though.
Andrew Lees, Rebecca Breeds, Oliver Ackland.
Getting back to Hayley and Elijah, there’s a love triangle
between your character, Hayley and Jackson, where you play the powerful,
exciting love interest and Jackson plays the wholesome, good guy. Going
back a few years to Spider-Man 2, you’ve played the good guy part. Is it more fun playing Elijah, who could probably kick Spider-Man’s ass?
I just feel lucky whenever I’m working. I do prefer to play more
complex characters. I’m a better actor than I was then. You mention
fighting. I don’t really watch Professional Sports of any kind, but I
religiously watch the UFC and MMA.
You’ve obviously heard Fedor is coming back.
He’s my hero. He’s the Marlon Brando of the sport. He came in and
defined it. He made it exciting. Champions now are so dull. He fought to
win, to entertain. He fought for the glory of the sport. He could lose
the next 10 fights miserably, and he’d still be the greatest of all
time. On top of everything else, he’s kind. If there’s one thing I could
wish for my son, it’s the quality of Kindness. Not enough men are good
at it. People certainly don’t value it. Fedor does.