"The Originals" is just two days away! There's been so
much anticipation for this show. Are you nervous, at all, for the fans
to finally see the pilot?
I'm really excited for
people to see it. I'm interested, because I've seen the pilot which was
presented to the network and the studio, but that's a different version
than what's going to air. The episode that's going to air has slightly
more "Vampire Diaries" in it, as opposed to just "The Originals."
They've got extra scenes. I know the network and the studio really like
it, but it's going to depend on people's reactions. I really hope that
people respond to the new characters that we introduce and to the
storyline. Right now I'm just ready for it to be out there. I'm tired of
the world not knowing what's happening, what the storylines are. I
think it's time for people to see. There's been so much support and
anticipation, I'm looking forward to the fans being rewarded for that.
Klaus's
relationship with Elijah and Rebekah is as bad as it's ever been. At
this point, it's hard to imagine them deciding to move to New Orleans as
one big happy family. Will their relationship improve over the course
of this episode?
Things are definitely getting more complicated,
but I don't know if that's an improvement or not. At the beginning of
the episode, it feels like there's a line. Klaus is on one end of it,
Rebekah's on the other, and Elijah is sort of in the middle, the great
mediator -- but also still kind of siding with Rebekah. He's trying to
bring things together in the family, but I think the most interesting
thing about "The Originals" is that their dynamics are complicated.
There's certainly some hate for one another, there are things you think
they'll never forgive each other for, but there's love as well. As an
actor, I make a conscious decision that there's love. When he says these
terrible things to Rebekah -- "You're not my family, you're not my
sister, you're nothing to me" -- I think that I have to make him go to a
place where he shuts off his emotion. He puts up a wall around how he
feels for her, as opposed to not ever feeling for her. Those are the
things which make it really interesting. I don't know if the
relationship is going to improve or not, but I know it's going to have
more layers.
Tell us about some of the new characters we'll
meet. Camille [Leah Pipes], who has been set up as a love interest for
Klaus, is the human figure in the show. From what I've heard, she's not
an Elena Gilbert-esque ingenue.
"The Originals" has been pitched
as a darker, more adult show, and Camille personifies that. She's the
only human regular character that's in the show, but she comes at it
very damaged. The characters in "Vampire Diaries," at the beginning, had
experienced tragedy, but they came at it from a very innocent place.
She's coming in much more jaded, with an understanding of darkness. I
have one proper scene with her -- a few run-ins with her, but one proper
scene -- and I think that's some of the best work I've done. Even
though I don't say much in the scene, it was a challenge for me. I
really like working with Leah. She makes interesting choices with Julie.
She's a beautiful girl, but to me, she doesn't look like the majority
of the fans out there who watch the show, for example. They might have a
slightly harder time relating to her, which is what makes her so
intriguing. She's a fantastic character.
We'll
be meeting Marcel [Charles Michael Davis], who has been holding down
the fort in New Orleans. From the trailer, it seems that Klaus is poised
to overthrow him.
There's a history there, there's a friendship
there, but absolutely Klaus is envious of what Marcel has managed to
achieve in his absence. Klaus is by far the more powerful being -- he's
an Original vampire, and he's a hybrid, all these things. Marcel is just
a vampire, sired by Klaus. But what Marcel has that Klaus doesn't is
this army. He runs the town, he runs the vampires, he has the witches in
the palm of his hand. They can't do magic without his say-so. What he
lacks in personal power, he makes up for in influence. Should things
come to a head between the two of them, that's where the challenge will
be. Klaus is a one-man army, but Marcel actually has an army.
It sounds as if Marcel has managed to create the family that Klaus wanted, but couldn't create with the hybrids.
That's very astute of you, yeah, because that's absolutely where the envy and the jealousy comes from. Also, people just
like
Marcel. The characters respond to him; he's charismatic. Klaus doesn't
have that, and he can't understand it. He mistrusts people, people
betray him, and he betrays them. He doesn't have the leadership
qualities Marcel has. He's envious of the charisma this guy has.
Will
there be much talk of Caroline in this episode? If Klaus is gearing up
to relocate to New Orleans, I imagine she'd be the biggest motivation to
stay in Mystic Falls.
It's made reference to in the episode.
Klaus makes reference to it and it's acknowledged in the writing toward
the end. It's not like he's in this new place and he's like "Well,
forget her!" I think the ideal thing for Klaus would be for her to come
to New Orleans, and he's still enamored with her. They're not going to
introduce a new love interest and immediately go, "Hey, he's with this
girl now!" They respect the fans enough to keep acknowledging Caroline
and potentially work in some crossovers.
Could there be a last minute twist, with Candice Accola joining "The Originals"?
I
think "Vampire Diaries" would suffer greatly losing Caroline Forbes. I
really feel that wouldn't be good for that show, for her to come over to
"The Originals," and we've got to keep the balance now that the world's
got bigger. There's two shows to maintain, potentially, so they might
be in a bit of a long-distance relationship, if anything, for a while.
What about Hayley [Phoebe Tonkin]? Is she a viable love interest for Klaus, or was their hookup a one-time thing?
I
think that's kind of a one-time thing. I think there's going to be some
resolve, some of the aftermath of their liason in the episode. We'll
see how they feel about it and how it's affected them both. He's not
looking to rekindle that, and I think neither is she. I really loved
that that happened between them, because it just goes to show the flawed
nature of Klaus' character. I think it was a very bold choice of Julie
and the writers, because they absolutely knew the repercussions that it
would have, the backlash from all the fans. The Klaus and Caroline fans
hate that she'd done that, but he's always been a flawed character. He's
in no way perfect. He's made more mistakes in his lifetime than
hundreds of people combined, so to show him make a mistake in that way
-- I mean, he's a guy, to show him respond to his nature, his instinct
-- I think that's a bold and right choice. I supported that.
Now
that Klaus is the central figure of the show, should we expect to see
him as the hero of this story, or is he still maintaining his villain
status?
I think I'd go as far as to say anti-hero. He's
definitely not a hero. He does awful things in the pilot; he makes one
of the most disgusting emotional choices we've ever seen him make. He's
not the villain of this piece. We're rooting for him -- I hope we're
rooting for him, or the show's not going to work. That's what attracted
me to the show. I would've never thought that the guy who came in and
slaughtered Aunt Jenna could have his own show and people would actually
be hoping he'd succeed. I think as long as we keep showing the cracks,
the glimpses of vulnerability, we'll root for him. He's an anti-hero. I
think, if I stand for anything, it's that if this goes to series, the
eventual tale could be the tale of Klaus's salvation.
Klaus, on the other hand, was never supposed to survive season 3: “He
was the big bad. You don’t let the big bad live. The big bad’s gotta
go, otherwise your heroes start to look foolish for being unable to
destroy him,” Plec says. One full season of Klaus was all Morgan wanted
too, at first. “I thought that’s sort of enough, because where can it go
from there? I don’t want him to turn good and hanging out at the Mystic
Grill,” he recalls. But then came Klaus’ teary-eyed, fatal standoff
with Mikael in season 3′s ninth episode. “It was one of the first
chances I had to really show another side to Klaus entirely with someone
who had persecuted him all of his life and where some of that hatred
and evil comes from,” Morgan says. “That was when I started to think
there’s something in this. He’s not just there as a device to serve the
hero’s story line.” (Luckily, he mentioned that to the show’s line
producer. “And he said, ‘You know, you should tell Julie because
everybody’s under the impression that you want to be done after this
season,’” Morgan says.)
