Charles Michael Davis Interview On The Originals

 

What was your initial reaction to The Originals making it onto the CW’s Fall 2013 line-up?
I was pretty confident from the beginning that The Originals was going to be picked up because I watch The Vampire Diaries and think it’s just such an amazing show — but of course you can’t celebrate until you receive confirmation. But we were picked up to series the day right after the [backdoor] pilot aired so I was feeling great. To film a pilot and have it air and then you get a response so soon? I was overjoyed. I really was.

Did you do anything special to celebrate? We saw you and Leah Pipes tweeted about making a smoothie run.
Yes! That did happen actually. We got a chocolate peanut butter smoothie. Non-dairy. It was delicious. All my dreams came true. And here I am right now! (Laughs)

Will we get glimpses into Marcel’s past at all?
You’ll definitely learn more about how he got to this point in his life. He was a street rat, kind of came from nothing, and he’s crafty. And so I think we’re going to discover firsthand what that experience was like for Marcel — of growing up on the streets of New Orleans and making that turn; of becoming confident and transitioning from an Aladdin life into a leadership role.

What’s your secret confidence trick when slipping into character as Marcel?
I watch a lot of Ray Lewis videos. That swagger that he comes out with is so intense and incredible and me being a former athlete — I can relate to that. And it gets me going. I pound my chest. I jump and down. I scream. (Laughs)

What is at the top of your Originals wish list?
I hope that Kol comes back and lives. He’s a really interesting character and I think there are a lots of stories to explore there.

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Spoiler From TV Guide - 22nd May 2013

Will we see a lot of Elena and Katherine facing off on The Vampire Diaries next season?

Maybe not facing off, but perhaps switching off? "One thing we're looking forward to so much next season is Elena on her own as a vampire and living her new life in college," executive producer Julie Plec explains. "And to see a vulnerable Katherine, who is able to be hurt and able to be killed and in need of the protection much like the first Elena we met four years ago." Oh, and get this — she says it'll be fun.

4x23 'Graduation' Rehash

Spoiler From TV Line - 21st May 2013

What’s in store for Jeremy next season on The Vampire Diaries, now that he’s back among the living?

As EP Julie Plec notes, “Nobody knows the truth” about his resurrection — specifically, that Bonnie essentially sacrificed her life for his. As a result, “There’s going to be some explaining to do and it’s not necessarily going to make his return to his old life very easy.”

Will Claire Holt (Rebekah) appear in any Vampire Diaries episodes next fall? Or is she going straight to The Originals?

“We do have the ability to use Rebekah on either show in the beginning,” says Plec. ” We will see when we start writing how much of her we’ll see before she heads off to New Orleans.” One scenario has the new season of TVD picking up at the tail end of Rebekah and Matt’s European vacation. “When we get back, we might see [them] still on their trip,” shares Plec, adding, “When Matt gets back to Mystic Falls, his whole world will have changed. I can’t wait to see what comes out of that adventure and how he re-adapts to life at Mystic Grill.” 

The Orginals - Cast Teasers

1. Witches’ Revenge:
“Klaus needs Sophie. She’s going to start practicing magic, which she hasn’t been able to do for the the longest time and I think I can protect myself. Witches aren’t nearly as powerful as vampires, but they are essential.” – Daniella Pineda

2. Power struggles:
“Klaus and Marcel are going to be butt heads, definitely. There’s that friction there. I just really want to see Marcel evolve. I want to see different sides of him open up. That’s definitely going to happen I think with how competitive and ambitious they both are.” – Charles Michael Davis

3. New friendships:
“I hope that Klaus gets Cami as a friend. Because Cami believes that everyone is truly good and I hope that Klaus has someone in his life that believes he’s a good person.” – Leah Pipes

4. Sibling rivalry:
“It’s just going to be that ultimate dynamic of Elijah in pursuit of making certain that the family is reinstated as they once were, which is sort of this pursuit of a fantasy, almost. And Klaus is a lot more malevolently in pursuit of power. It’s no less of a fantasy. And it’s sort of watching those two dynamics intersect.” – Daniel Gillies

“We ended the backdoor pilot in a good place, moving forward together, a tentative partnership between us. But as things complicate, as the series pans out, there’s room for throwing that up in the air. As far as the baby is concerned, I can’t imagine that we both have identical plans of how this child should be raised. So I imagine we’re going to have a conflict of interest.” – Joseph Morgan

5. More Surprises:
“I don’t think they know how it’s exactly going to play out either yet, so I think that’s what is going to keep it really fresh. But there are a lot of other surprises beside the baby. I think that’s really the cliffhanger, but it’s all going to be really exciting.” – Danielle Campbell

“I didn’t for the life of me see [the baby surprise] coming and I’m so happy with the potential it gives us for exploring these characters. The Originals have always revolved around this idea of family and I think the baby storyline really gives us a chance for that to escalate, way beyond what it would have done just keeping it the three of us.” – Joseph Morgan

Julie Plec On Season 4 Finale And Season 5 - Part 2

Holy s--t, Stefan is a doppelgänger, Silas' doppelgänger to be exact! When did you make the decision to bring in another doppelgänger and why Stefan?

Last year after we wrapped season three, some of the writers and I stayed on for an extra five weeks talking about story for season four. We knew that we wanted to give Stefan and give Paul Wesley specifically an opportunity to sort of spread his wings a bit more. He did such a good job playing Ripper Stefan, so we wanted to play a long-foiled plan into motion that we weren't sure if we'd get to it before the end of the season or not; we always had it in our back pocket to reveal it right around the time it felt right. The way it played out we chose not to reveal it until the last beat of the last episode basically teeing up what season five would be.

We can only imagine how excited Paul Wesley was when he found out about this twist.

Yes, Paul loves to play the bad buy and unfortunately for him, Stefan, more often than not, is a true-blue hero. Obviously, he had this wonderful arc as the Ripper and he's plagued by his own demons, but when all's said and done he's still very much the straight man. Getting the opportunity to dig into this and really stretch and exercise his muscles as an actor I think just made him really happy; it's exciting for him as an actor to play with a new character.

So will we learn more about the Salvatore family history in season five, maybe about the brothers' mother?

We've just gotten started talking about season five, but one of the things we're talking about is definitely learning more about the history of the Salvatore family. I would say that at this point the things we don't know yet are fair game.

Can you tease what Silas will be up to when he's posing as Stefan in season five?

Silas is going to come roaring into season five with an agenda. His mission has been singular from the beginning, which is he wants to take the cure and die and get rid of the other side so he can pass on and be reunited with his one true love. However, the cure's off the table, the other side's off the table, so he's going to have a pretty enormous plan B for how to deal with that.

As for the other brother, he didn't get to be a doppelgänger, but he did get the girl! So what's next for Damon and Elena?

Next for them as a couple is a long-distance relationship as Elena heads off to her new life at college and Damon sticks behind In Mystic Falls to hold down the fort. We get to see them happy, believe it or not, for a little while before of course circumstances and other supernatural influence comes in to drive an obstacle in their path. There's something that we rarely get to do on TVD, is see a couple enjoy being a couple and we're definitely going to have our fun with Elena and Damon, who have taken so much time to find their way to each other really and truly. So we're going to be able to enjoy that for a while.

Katherine being the one to take the cure was also a huge shocker and we heard you originally planned on giving it to another character. Can you say who it was and why the switch?

Interestingly enough, when Kevin Williamson and I, back in season zero, when we first launched the series and started talking about knowing that one day we'd make Elena a vampire and with that move would come the realization that there was a cure; I think in the back of our heads we always intended to heal Elena. But the instant that we actually made the decision to move forward with Elena the first thing we realized was she would of course be the one person we couldn't cure because it was just too easy.

Instantly, we decided that the person that needed to be cured, that made the most sense from a story point of view, that would be a great surprise, would be Damon. We believed that because of all people he's the one that said he missed being human, but he's also the one who relished the most being a vampire. Well, about five minutes into the season, right after the cure was revealed to be in existence, I think I read instantly someone was like, ‘Oh, they're going to cure Damon.' I thought, ‘Oh shit!' [Laughs.]

Ultimately, the person that we cured we wanted to get really great story out of it and I think part of Damon's delightful charm as a vampire is that he is a vampire and I'm not so sure outside of the novelty of turning him human that we'd be able to get as much as we would have wanted to dramatically. We played around with a lot of other ideas for a little while before realizing the answer was so clear and so obvious and so right in front of us.

We're excited to see a human Katherine in season five; how will that play out? 

Katherine is the one person on the planet who would hate to be human more than anything, who's always been a survivor and so fierce and such a fighter and now she is having to be vulnerable and killable, yet all of her evil deeds of the past coming home to roost. It's going to be great opportunity for story. Not only is she on the verge of getting her ass kicked every single episode, she's going to need protection and who better to seek out for protection than the brother Salvatore who have been so good at caring on and off for her over the centuries?

And finally, what will The Vampire Diaries' college years be like? With Bonnie's death seemingly permanent, is Kat returning a series regular? 

Kat will still be a regular, business as usual. She just now has the mother of all obstacles preventing her and Jeremy from being able to have the physical relationship that we've danced around for so long.

The best part about it is that we've got a town that we've very firmly established and the university that we've established with Whitmore College, which is not in Mystic Falls, but certainly close enough than you can roll home on a Saturday and do a load of laundry. What's exciting is to create a whole new world and new characters and new friends and new foes for those who go to college and also be able to integrate what's going on at college back into what's going on home, so we never feel like we've left behind the Mystic Falls universe we know and love so much.

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