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- Feb 15Jamie's note: English translation of the interview. Scroll down (or hit the SOURCE link) for the original French version.
MARVEL'S RUNAWAYS AND SUPERHEROISM: A MEETING WITH ACTOR JAMES MARSTERS
BY ARNO KIKOO
For those who have watched a lot of television as a kid, the name of James Marsters will inevitably be on the side of Buffy fans against vampires, which he marked with his role as Spike. Years later, the actor regularly flirts with pop-culture, especially the superheroes. He currently plays Victor Stein , one of the bad parents in Runaways adaptation of Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona .
While Season 2 of Runaways started broadcasting in France on Syfy , and the day before its presence at the 27th Paris Manga Sci-fi Show , James Marsters devoted a little of his time, in an interview conducted jointly with the Site Pix-Geeks . To discover below, and good reading!
Disclaimer: some spoilers on season 2 may be present! You are warned.
Hello James. This is not the first time we see you in the super-heroic register. You went through Smallville, and you also did animation with The Super Hero Squad Show or Ultimate Spider-Man. Is there something special between the superheroes and you?
I think there are real heroes in life. Anyone who sacrifices his comfort, safety or goals for the good of someone else is a hero. There is something very beautiful in these artists who come to break the screen with superhero movies, talking to the public. " I see you, I know what you do is precious, when you sacrifice your own comfort for another person, that's good Oh, by the way, here's a cloak, put it on, and we'll fly for 1h30 and celebrate together what you do. "There is something very beautiful about it.
What brought you to the Runaways series?
I did not know the Runaways! I got a call to audition for Victor Stein , who was described as a bad Elon Musk - which I found interesting! I had time to think about it by going to the audition - because you need an hour and a half in Los Angeles - and I wanted to improvise for this audition. I looked at the script and told them to turn, explaining that I was going to play Victor Stein talking to his employees one morning, and I started.
" Wake up everybody, NASA called and they need help, the mission for Mars has a problem, and the problem is feces.The mission is going to take three months, they have to circulate continuously. water and air in the capsule.They have found how to do everything, but they do not find how to get the water from the faeces.The coffee is offered, and I need an interesting idea for tomorrow morning. do not talk about heating the thing is to get the water, any caveman can do it and it costs a lot too much energy .. Find me something else.I do not have an interesting idea tomorrow morning - it does not have to be a solution, but it should interest me - then I'll fire someone, go! "
There was a big silence from the casting director, who then thanked me and I thought I had messed up the audition. Apparently, when they looked at the band, they had found their Victor Stein !
Did your own father experience inspire you to define your relationship with Chase (Gregg Sulkin), which is very complicated?
Yes. I have a very good relationship with my son, who is a little older than Chase. We always got along well, but I made mistakes. There is always a horrible passage in any parent-child relationship, it is when the latter becomes old enough to open his eyes and see things clearly, around 13-14 years old. They see that the world is a big mess, that their parents have lied to them, that people in charge of their country do not have much to do. I started lying to my children with Santa Claus. For a good Christmas, and because everyone does it. But the lies continue. One day they ask you "why are you crying?", And there you do not answer them "I think I have cancer, I was located a task at the bottom of the skull".
I did jobs that had nothing to do with saving people, just food. I have been a producer for subversive theater artists in Chicago and Seattle. In this business, you do not try to make people angry at you, but when they are, you know you have succeeded. You spread to the public the lies we are told all the time: that violence works, that old people are boring, that women are weak. When I became a father, I immediately turned my back on that. And I went to Hollywood, join an industry that spreads these lies, perhaps more than any other industry in the world. And I joined the enemy.
I did it because I wanted to save the world one person at a time. I believe that Robespierre said " if you want to save the nation, you have to change people's hearts ", and that's what I was trying to do. But by becoming a father, I realized that my mission was to give the world a good person. And to do that, I stopped trying to save others. Today, when my son looks at me, I know he does not see the sulphurous drama producer that I always think he is, he sees a television actor. There is a big difference. Playing in Runaways made me think about that.
Can you tell us why we should watch Runaways?
We have just talked about themes that take place in this series. The chasm between parents and children, which can be so painful on both sides. If we did it with a drama series, it could be too serious for anyone to want to watch it. But we do it with a dinosaur (laughs)! And with an alien ship. And humor. So it's possible to talk about these topics, and have fun at the same time. And if you thought that season 1 was crazy, wait until season 2, everything is much more complicated for everyone! And from what I know of season 3, it's going to be a lot worse.
Exactly, in the first season, you disappear quite suddenly after the first half, then we see you later. It was related to a scheduling conflict?
No, actually my character was supposed to die after the seventh episode. Along the way, there was a change made, and the production had to find a way to make it all stick to keep it in the story.
Given the conclusion of season 2, we can see that you will be the next big villain in season 3. Did you know it well in advance?
As if Victor was not bad enough! I discovered it at the time of the filming. There is something beautiful not to know what will happen. It is clearly better for a character not to know what will happen to him the next day. That way, you can live it better now. It was terrifying to hear that I was going to play Jonah , he was very well played by Julian McMahon . I do not want to imitate someone who played it so well. I would not want to play Kylo Ren because Adam Driver did it very well, and I do not know if he would play Spike!
So I was pretty scared, and the smartest thing I did was go to Julian and ask him for help. Julian is not only a good actor, but a great person. Instead of telling me, " I'm not in the show any more, get by " - some would have done it - he helped me. All that Jonah doeshe does it out of love for his family. And he's very patient with all those stupid human beings around him (laughs)! For the first three episodes, I asked him to read my lines, then I went home, and I tried to resume his way of speaking. At one point, I told myself that I had to stop asking for help, that I started. And I did not know if it was going to match the character, it was terrifying. But if anything rings true, I owe it to Julian .
And so you can confirm that there will be a season 3 of Runaways?
I'm pretty sure. All I can say is that I would be very surprised that it does not happen.
Thank you so much !
Acknowledgments: HeavenSee original French interview @ http://bit.ly/JMIntComicsBlogFR....jamie_marsters
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