Sam Witwer interview, talks ‘Being Human,’ Aiden’s humanity and working on the new show
Sam Witwer is the star of SyFy’s new hit show “Being Human”. In the show he is playing the character of Aiden, a vampire, who’s apartment roommates are a werewolf and a ghost. The show is a US remake of the UK series but it already has taken a life of its own.
During a Mar. 7 interview with Media Mikes the star talked about the new show and how he got involved with the film.
Sam Witwer as Aidan “Being Human”
“Well, my agent made me aware of the audition. I cracked the script and read the first two pages and saw I would be playing a vampire and closed the script. Nothing against them but I thought who needs another vampire show. Then a friend of a mine Laura Terry, who one of the most knowledgeable people I know in terms of what is happening in the business, she got a hold of me and asked me “Are you passing on the “Being Human” audition?” I said “Yeah I think so” and she asked me if I was crazy and filled me in on what this show represented, the UK version and who the producers for the US version were. She told me just to read the script…so I did. I felt extremely foolish and weak minded because I fell in love with it immediately. Then I read episode two script and I loved that as well. I really got into it and recognized this was an irresistible character to play and a wonderful opportunity. Then I watched the first episode of the British series and loved it, but then I turned it off. I said if I am going to do this I need to ignore the British series until later. I auditioned and had some meetings with the producers and the director. We all spoke about what we show becoming and we all seemed to agree with that. Then they hired me!”
Witwer says the key to the role is the character’s humanity and the infusion of humor.
“With any role, your job is to display to the audience as much detail as you can in the given circumstance. Whatever the story is about you want to show them as much humanity as you can. Aiden is always dealing with some really dark stuff. But at the same time the show can get really lighthearted and fun. That is one of the things I love about it. I think the biggest challenge for me is to figure out how to do the humor while not undercutting the drama. I have to say that it helped that the scripts have already taken care of a lot of that for me. I am constantly impressed with how the writers are able to put in humor that fits well in some of these ridiculously dark circumstances. For example when I was hired for “Battlestar Galactica”, I played this character who’s call sign was Crashdown and I was hired essentially to be the comic relief of the show. The audition scene I did was pretty funny. But that was at a time that they didn’t realize that “Battlestar Galactica” was never meant to be funny at all. There was an episode they did when they experimented with some humor but a lot of it got cut. With “Being Human”, we are definitely a serious drama show but there is a lot of humor to be found in it. [Laughing] I guess when you have a vampire, werewolf and a ghost all living in an apartment together, who has regular roommate problems on top of these supernatural problems…there is some humor to be found. I love that aspect of the show.”
Witwer offered nothing but praise for his co-stars Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath.
“Lovely! I really love those guys. When we sat down the first time, it was very apparent that this was meant to me. Meagan and Sammy were natural choices for those roles. We have these ridiculously long hours and they would be torturous if we didn’t love each other so much. The same can be said for Mark Pellegrino, who I have become close with as well. Sarah Allen as well, she is a wonderful actress and we have bonded over the whole shoot. In fact all of us just went to Hawaii together if that can tell you anything. We actually [laughs] by choice spend a vacation together.”
Check out the entire interview here
