Sam Witwer interview: Being Human USA
We catch up with one of the stars of the American remake of Being Human, Mr Sam Witwer...
Last week, we were chatting with American TV star Sam Witwer (Smallville, Battlestar Galactica) about the upcoming LucasArts videogame Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, in which he gives voice and likeness to the protagonist, Darth Vader’s apprentice, Starkiller.
When not gushing about gaming, or talking about the pressure inherent in dabbling with canon, we managed to slip in a question about the upcoming Syfy remake of the BBC’s supernatural comedy-drama Being Human.
It was reported back in June by Entertainment Weekly that Witwer had signed on to play the vampire of the threesome (based on Aiden Turner’s Mitchell in the original series). Although, despite now being “extremely enthusiastic” about the show, Witwer revealed that it wasn’t all so simple from the beginning:
“I nearly made a big mistake, and turned it down without really reading the script. And let’s be honest, the pitch for that series sounds like a joke. ‘A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost walk into a bar…!’ Like, what? What is this? So when I heard that, I really underestimated it, and was in the process of turning it down… I was writing the email to turn it down, when a buddy of mine, she IMs me, and says, ‘Don’t you dare turn that down, have you read the script?’, and I‘m like, ‘Errr, no?’
“So, eventually I sat down with the material. I watched the British series, and I felt extremely foolish, because the metaphoric storytelling is really effective in that show, and the scripts for the American version – as well as the British series – are just so damn good. It would have been a tremendous, tremendous mistake to have turned that down. And thus far, I have turned down stuff here and there, and actors do that, and I’ve been fortunate in that everything I’ve seen that I’ve turned down, I was like ‘Yeah, that was the right call.’ This would have been painful, to see this series, and see what it was doing, and to know that I would have let it go.”
“So, thankfully my friend talked some sense into me. I read the script, and felt very sheepish and stupid, and then met the producers and felt even more foolish, because they’re so on point and intelligent and sharp. So, what this all boils down to is that I’m extremely, extremely enthusiastic to be performing that role.”
Being Human USA is still in the pre-production stages, but casting rumours and news are trickling out, with Meaghan Rath (The Assistants) reportedly taking over Lenora Crichlow’s ghost character, and with rumblings suggesting that Sam Huntington (Jimmy Olsen in Superman Returns) will be assuming the role of the werewolf.
We’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, how do we feel about the Being Human USA remake? Will it be another Office or another Spaced?
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