Kevin Durand Talks Playing Vasiliy Fet on ‘The Strain’

The finale of the first season of The Strain is upon us and series star Kevin Durand, who plays rat-exterminator turned vampire-exterminator Vasiliy Fet, took a little time to chat about his role in the series.

You may have noticed some burgeoning chemistry between he and female computer hacker Dutch Velders (Ruta Gedmintas), and since it’s been made clear that Fet is somewhat of a ladies man, you may wonder why Dutch caught his attention and, of all times, why during the vampire apocalypse? “We haven’t really explored it a whole lot,” Durand stated, “I think that he sees a spectrum of things in her. Obviously, she’s not hard on the eyes, but she’s hyper intelligent, she’s rebellious like him, she’s tough like him, she doesn’t take any crap like him, and he really gets a kick out of it. I think he sees she’s kind of reflecting to him kind of like a mirror in some ways in the short time that they have known each other, so he’s just intrigued. Actually, as you probably know if you’ve read the books, I mean she doesn’t exist in the book. So her fate and what she ends up doing within the show are completely a mystery to me. It’s one of those things that I’m so excited about with this show is that we really don’t know what’s going to happen. So if I make it through episode 13, then I’ll get to shoot a second season, and then maybe we can find out.”

One thing about The Strain that’s resonated with viewers is that it takes vampires back to their bloodsucking roots and away from the broody hunks we’ve been over-saturated with as of late. When asked about whether or not he feels a great sense of pride in bringing real vampires back through the mythology of the show Kevin replied, “Absolutely. I mean, obviously, I can’t take credit for that at all. It lays in the wonderful, crazy, beautiful, dark mind of Guillermo del Toro. Because he’s been having dreams about these vampires and making sketches and taking notes since he was a child, and that’s how these vampires came to fruition. They’ve been a part of his nightmares for decades. So what’s really satisfying is to see Guillermo, who is such a lovely, charismatic visionary, actually get those nightmares out of his head and onto the screen. And I’m so grateful to be a part of it and help him tell the story. ”

We couldn’t imagine Kevin as any other character on the show, but when asked who else he’d play, if given the opportunity, and he said, “It’s so funny, because someone asked me that last night and I was so paralyzed by it, like I am now, because when I read the first book I didn’t even know that they wanted me for “Fet,” and “Fet” doesn’t start in the first book until about page 240. But even in the last, I guess it was the second half of the book, just off of that second half of the book I was like, “God, I hope I get to play that guy. I hope that’s who they want me for.”

In watching the show I guess maybe “Eichhorst” would have been fun, because I usually, up to this point, people usually see me destroying the world as opposed to helping to save it. So I can’t really think of who else I could have played, but “Eichhorst” would have been fun.”

Seeing Kevin’s take on the stoic, heartless Eichorst definitely would be something I’d watch, but we’re pretty happy with him playing the world’s greatest exterminator, Vasily Fet.

The Strain season one finale airs this Sunday night, October 5th, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on FX!

Photo Credit: FX Networks