Sam Witwer Talks Career, ‘Star Wars’, And What’s Next On ‘Being Human’
FanBolt had the opportunity to sit down with Sam Witwer to chat about Being Human, Star Wars, and what’s coming down the road. Check out our full exclusive interview with Sam below!
We’ve seen you in a lot of sci-fi, Battlestar, Star Wars, Being Human… do you prefer sci-fi work or do you prefer general work?
Y’know, it’s funny, ’cause I’ve done some jobs that have nothing to do with sci-fi, […] and the ones that tend to be more successful for me have been the science fiction ones. And that’s just fine with me, considering I’m a fan of this stuff, so I’m like alright, great, perfect, I get it, I enjoy it and I also watch a hell of a lot of it. I mean, would I like to do a bunch of period pieces, this and that, bunch of other stuff, sure. I’m an actor and I want to do as many different things as I possibly can. But I’ll tell you what: the fact that I have a sci-fi following has been very advantageous for me in terms of building a fan base, because there are no more loyal fans than sci-fi fans.
Is there a sci-fi show in particular that you would like to be on?
Oh god, I mean, what haven’t I been on? Where haven’t I been? I’d love to do a role on Game of Thrones, that’d be a lot of fun.
Talking about Star Wars, have you been approached about involvement in the new Star Wars movies?
I have not, but I know that they’re also not casting yet. I’m aware of very little. I know some things. I have a lot of LucasFilm ties and I’m under NDA [non-disclosure agreement] so information does find its way back to me. Really, what I’m hoping for is that I just get an audition because I’ve researched the hell out of this franchise and I feel like I know it pretty well. Not just because I’m a huge fan and I’ve watched it since I was a kid but because I looked into its origins when I started getting these jobs. It wasn’t good enough to be like “Oh, I know Star Wars. I can do that.” It was more like no, I’ve gotta understand where does this come from. I’ve gotta watch Akira Kurosawa movies and old 1940s movies like Casablanca and The Killing and Double Indemnity and I’ve gotta watch Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe, the 1930s Buster Crabbe serials, all these things. To really understand these things, you have to understand where they come from and watching those movies and those elements was hugely informative in terms of how to pitch the performances for both Force Unleashed and all the Clone Wars stuff that I’ve done.
How do you balance doing both Star Wars and Being Human?
Well, both sides want to see everything work, right? Star Wars wants me to continue doing Being Human, Being Human wants me to continue doing Star Wars, so they make time for each other. The unfortunate thing is that when I’m shooting Being Human, I generally can’t fly back to LA to be in the room with everyone to record with them. But what they can do is free up a little time here and there for me to hit a recording studio and do my stuff remotely. So it’s a little tricky when it comes to schedule, but we tend to work it out.
What can you tell me about what’s coming up for the rest of the season on Being Human?
You’re going to see a lightened-up Aidan, which I think is great. I mean I think that the guy has been through a year of extraordinarily dark stuff and it was definitely time to lighten him up. Episode five is one that we just aired where we really start getting to know Kenny, the “bubble boy,” as it were. He is at the beginning of Aidan’s story, really. The other stories kinda needed to start earlier than Aidan’s because of various things. I mean, we needed to introduce the idea that Nora is now one of the main characters and give her some screen time to create that we had to build up Josh and Sally and their unusual circumstances. Aidan’s story has been a slow simmer up until now and then we start turning up the heat as of episode five. And then what’s wonderful is to balance out everyone else, by the end of the show it’s very Aidan-heavy by episode thirteen.
Is there a moment coming up that you can’t wait for the fans to see?
Oh yeah, the entirety of the season from episode six on. I mean, really. We get a lot more warmth from my character, which is great. We also tell a flashback story that is the most ambitious flashback we’ve ever done, and we tell it over four episodes. And I think we just dip our toes in […] in episode six. But we really do tell a story where we discover why the character is the way he is, and what’s at the heart of this tortured man. It’s interesting, ’cause it’s like, season one, we’re really driving this drug addiction analogy very, very hard, and it still exists on the show. The drug addiction thing is still in play and valid, but what we also add to it this season is this aspect of a PTSD soldier coming back from war, trying to reacclimate to civilian life and how difficult that is. I mean, we saw it a little bit […] in episode five. That episode was riddled with threats of violence from Aidan. You see him in these scenes and he’s smiling and friendly and making jokes, but then when you peer into his head, the subtext is pretty violent. He’s afraid he’s going to hurt people. He’s afraid he’s going to break people’s neck or drain someone and this guy does exist in a pretty dark world and he’s trying to fight that, so we’re going to see him fight it. We’re going to see him duke it out and I’m not going to tell you whether he’s going to be successful or not, but it’s definitely going to be an interesting ride.
We’ve seen you at a lot of conventions. Did you attend cons before you broke into the genre?
I think a friend of mine actually took me once to a Star Trek convention, which I thought was really fun. Other than that, though I had no experience with that. I think my first con was shortly after I filmed my death in Battlestar Galactica. I was invited to England to talk with people and it was only then that I really started to understand how wonderfully loyal sci-fi fans are. Some of the people that I met there, I still hear from them even today, so it’s really nice. I mean, what other genre do you get that? As an actor, we need support. We really do. Having an audience, as an actor, is an extraordinarily useful thing in terms of securing jobs. People know that you have an audience they’re much more likely to hire you. Thankfully the people that have been generous enough to follow me have continued to follow me, so that’s really, really nice of them.
Being Human airs Mondays at 9pm on the Syfy Channel. Star Wars: The Clone Wars airs Saturdays at 9:30pm on Cartoon Network.
What a terrific interview! I can’t wait to see where the relationship between Aidan and Bubble Boy go. It is sweet to see the friendship building, and I can’t wait to see if Aidan will give him the gift and he will become a regular. Thanks, Fanbolt!!
Thanks Patti for the love! 🙂 I’m sure you guys know this since you’re Walking Dead experts – but Sam was going to be a part of an awesome prequel for the series which would have tied into his involvement in the pilot. He was pretty vocal about what happened and why the prequel project was dead in past interviews. We’re still bummed about that though. We did double check with him in the interview to see if there was any hope of that ever coming to being with the continued success of the series – and he confirmed no.
Thank you for the cool interview with Sam. I love the work he does and that he seems to be in all my favorite types of shows…horror and toons. He also seems to have an incredible rep as a super sweet and easy going guy…. i see tweets and facebook posts to the fact. So again its nice to have read your interview, it was very informative.
I’ve met him a number of times and I completely can confirm he is just as awesome and personable as you perceive him to be. He’s just an all around great guy and an incredibly talented actor. 🙂