For having the reputation of being the class comedian at Juillard, Sam Witwer is certainly proving himself in the realms of drama. Witwer established his place in sci-fi with roles in Battlestar Galactica (as Crashdown) and Smallville (as Davis Bloome) and now plays the role of Aidan, the vampire living with a werewolf and a ghost in SyFy’s Being Human and has given voice to the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: The Clone Wars in the character of The Son.
I recently had the opportunity to chat with the hottest new vampire on the block to pick his brain on these two roles. Check out our conversation on the dynamics between Witwer’s character, Aidan, and his vampire mentor Bishop (played by Mark Pellegrino), how the werewolf versus vampire feud in Being Human will change Aidan’s relationship with werewolf roomie, Josh (Sam Huntington), and what it’s like to embody the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
SciFi Mafia: For me, one of the best parts of the SyFy’s Being Human is the dynamic between Aidan and Bishop. We’re seeing the plot lines keeping pretty parallel in spirit to the original series, will this relationship break course and go somewhere different?
Sam Witwer: I don’t know, because I haven’t seen the original series. So…
SFM: Oh, rats!
Sam Witwer: …I have no idea. What I do know is that that relationship is one of my favorite things in our series. And we get to see them in different time periods and learn that they’re perspective and their opinions have been very, very different at times in history.
[Above: Sam Witwer as Aidan and Mark Pellegrino as Bishop]
We – even though there’s so much animosity between these two and things get really ugly, I think you get a sense that these two guys love each other and have been through a lot together. There’s two hundred years of a relationship there and a very intense friendship, and Mark [Pellegrino] and I talked about that a lot. Mark talked about a lot of interesting things. He kind of looked at Aidan as a wayward son. I looked at Mark as my ex-drug buddy who I can’t hang out with anymore.
There was a lot of stuff. He said something very interesting also that Aidan – because Aidan is really disrespectful to Bishop…
SFM: Yes…
Sam Witwer: …and what we will learn as the series goes on is that that’s even more serious than we’re thinking. You – there’s a code of honor with these vampires and Bishop being Aidan’s maker, Aidan is really pushing it, really, really pushing it. And we may not realize that at first, but he’s really just asking for it and Bishop kind of gives him a wide berth; kind of just lets him do it.
And there are other vampires that question Bishop’s wisdom on that. And one of the things that Mark Pellegrino said to me, which I thought was fascinating, he said, “I feel that even though Aidan is weakened, and he’s not drinking live blood so he’s not as fast, not as strong, not on his game, he’s completely off balance, and one would think he’s less of a threat.”
But, I think Bishop looks at him as even more of a threat, and then so why Bishop gives him a wide berth, but at the same time keeps tabs on him constantly because if Aidan ever decided, this is – as Pellegrino says, “If Aidan ever decided to go against Bishop that would be a major liability to him.” That Bishop really feels like what he’s trying to accomplish would work so much better if Bishop – if Aidan was on his side. However, if Aidan does turn on him and actually tries to undo what’s happening that is a major, major threat that Aidan, even at his weakest, is ridiculously dangerous.
And that’s one of the things that I also enjoy about the Aidan character, which we have not quite seen yet, but we will in the season, Aidan was a lunatic. Aidan was out of his mind. He – Aidan was sociopathic, psychopathic, he was beyond what we – you’d consider sane. And we get to see moments of that breakthrough where our nice Aidan does something that you just don’t see coming, and it’s really, really kind of hard to watch.
And that’s one of the things that we really like to play with on the series.
[Above: Sam Huntington as Josh and Sam Witwer as Aidan]
SFM: Well, good. I can’t wait for that! On the werewolf and the vampire feud, that wasn’t really featured prominently in the original series, but is here. How will this polarization of the two sides help the show and how will it affect Aidan’s relationship with Josh (Sam Huntington)?
Sam Witwer: Well, I don’t know how to answer that without spoiling a whole bunch of really cool stuff.
SFM: Oh, no! [laughs]
Sam Witwer: Really, it’s – it underlines how desperate Aidan is, in terms of seeking someone that he can ally with. I mean for one thing, we do play that Vampires have no interest in feeding on werewolves. That’s just something that isn’t done and you can’t do it and it’s not good for you.
So Josh, he is really one of Aidan’s only available friends. He’s not a vampire. He meets a werewolf and he’s like, “Well, I’m in no danger of killing this guy, so this has got to be – okay, this is my friend, I guess. It’s not that I like this guy, it’s that this guy is in no danger of being killed by me; therefore, he can be a friend.”
Same thing with Sally; she’s in no danger. Therefore, he can be around her and be at ease. But everyone else, every other human being on the planet, Aidan is in danger of victimizing and he – and so he can’t ever be truly at ease.
But in terms of that rivalry, what will we see? Well, I guess we’re going to see later on in the season drive a major wedge between Aidan and Josh. And you’re going to think it’s right away and it’s not, it gets worse. Again, the assumption that I’ve had about Aidan is that he’s killed quite a few werewolves in his time. So…
SFM: Gotcha. Well…
Sam Witwer: …you know?
SFM: …I’m from land of werewolf-killing side of the camp, so – but anyway…
Sam Witwer: Awesome.
SFM: Now, stepping away from Being Human, how does it feel to be a part of not only the Smallville legacy, but also Star Wars with your recent voice work as the Son in Clone Wars?
Sam Witwer: Oh, God, it was – now that it’s complete and people are enjoying it and people are sounding off as really enjoying the character, now it feels great. Up until then, I mean, be it The Force Unleashed games or The Clone Wars, you just get really nervous until its release. The Force Unleashed, when we were working on that character and we were establishing him, I mean I couldn’t sleep.
I take this stuff very seriously and I know how vocal Star Wars fans are because I’m one of them, so I didn’t want to let the fans down and by creating a character that was just lame. I mean, for God’s sakes, if it’s Darth Vader’s secret apprentice it’s going to be a great character. It has to be. You can’t really afford to have this guy be just kind of lame in some way.
When it comes to the Son, the pressure was on all over again because, I get called up, out of the blue by my agent and they go, “Hey, they want to you do The Clone Wars.” I’m like, “Oh, fun, great. I love The Clone Wars. Let’s do this.” And they said, “You know, they say it’s a great character,” and I’m like, “Yes, I already said yes. Let’s do it.” “Fine.”
And I’m just sitting and I’m thinking they’re going to have me do a few lines and it’s kind of like a Force Unleashed reference, and that that’s, right? And then, I get called by Lucas Film, “Oh, you’re going to do The Clone Wars for us. This is great. And it’s a really cool character.” “Well, what is the character?” “Oh, we can’t tell you, but it’s really cool.” And I’m thinking, “Well, I already said yes, so you don’t have to sell it.”
And then, I get another call a little bit later explaining a few other things like logistics that I need to know about and how they record it and, “Oh, it’s a really cool character. We’re really excited. It’s three episodes and it’s really cool.” And I’m like, “Okay, they’re saying it’s really cool. This is the third time I’ve heard this, maybe they actually mean this. They’re not trying to get me excited, they actually are excited about this. Okay, cool.”
And three episodes, I thought it was just going to be like one and a few lines, but at the same time no one’s telling me what I’m playing. So, the day before, they give you the script the day before, it’s watermarked, it has your name all over it, so if you leak it they know who to go after…
SFM: Cool…
Sam Witwer: Yes. And – no, of course there’s like all this – all these non-disclosure agreements you have to sign every time you do a job for Lucas Film, which I was no stranger to since The Force Unleashed, which by the way, Force Unleashed I had to keep that secret for like a year before anyone even…
SFM: Wow!
Sam Witwer: …announced that I was involved in it, so that wasn’t fun. But, so I get this script the day before and I look at it and it – I read it and I realize just to my horror that I’m going to be playing the dark side of the Force. It’s not just some character or some cool bounty hunter, no, no, I’m playing the dark side of the Force.
The personification – the characters go off to this planet where the entire planet you don’t really know where it is in time, and it’s sort of like the vision quest that Luke goes on in Dagobah and he sees Darth Vader and he sees himself in the helmet. It’s like that scene only three episodes long where all kinds of weird stuff is happening. And there’s a character there who is the dark side of the Force.
And so I’m like, “How that – what – I – no. How am I supposed to play the dark – if I get this wrong, the dark side of the Force was introduced to audiences in 1977, it’s kind of an important part of the Star Wars Universe, so if I get this wrong, people are going to be very upset with me.” I…
[Above: The Son tempting Anakin]
SFM: That’s certainly a lot of pressure!
Sam Witwer: Yes, I’m like, “This is not going to go well.” And so, I go in and we’re recording and I’m trying to find the voice for the character and I say to Dave Filoni as I’m feeling very insecure, I said, “Hey, are you concerned that I’m – that I might sound a little bit too much like The Force Unleashed character, the Starkiller character that I played? That this guy might sound a little bit too much like him?”
And Dave Filoni goes, “Well, you know, even if he does it’s fine, because you’re playing the dark side of the Force and Starkiller had a connection to the dark side of the Force. So, that works. It’s kind of part of the reason you’re here.” And as soon as he said that I was like, “Wait a second, so he’s saying since I’m the dark side I can sound like Starkiller, well then shouldn’t he sound like everyone? He should sound like Starkiller, he should sound like Darth Maul, he should sound like Darth Vader at times, and he should sound like the Emperor.”
And so, the next time we came in to record, the first episode he was in it just a little bit, and then the next episode and the next episode after that, the next two he’s all over the episodes. And then I just kind of went nuts.
If there was a line where he said, “Join me and together we can do something,” it was “Join me and together,” you know? And then, just dip into the Vader voice or for example if it was a moment where the line is, “So, I see that you’ve brought a friend,” I’m sorry, “You are trapped here, both you and your friend,” or something like that it would be, “You are trapped here, both you and your friends,” you know, just a little bit of the Emperor.
And so, I’d just dip into these different Star Wars characters throughout the entirety of these episodes, and the wonderful thing is people seem to be picking up on it. People seem to recognize that that’s what’s going on. There’s a kind of understanding that this character is all of those villains, and so you just hear little touches of all these different characters in that one guy, which is fun.
SFM: Wonderful. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that your Dark side voice is awfully sexy.
Sam Witwer: [laughs] Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Sam, people (not just casting directors) really seem drawn to your “dark side.” I hope you don’t mind that! Wherever you pull that from, it certainly works for your roles and your fans.
Watch Sam Witwer vamp it up in Being Human on SyFy, Mondays at 9/8C. Here’s a taste of tonight’s brand new episode and a recap of last week’s episode that featured a confrontation between Aidan and Bishop as well as turning-point revelations for Josh and Sally:
Being Human: Sneak Peek at “It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Wrong”
Being Human: Recap of “The End of the World As We Knew It”
Just how alluring does the Dark side sound? Check out Witwer’s The Son in this clip from Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
You can watch the three-episode arc featuring Witwer’s The Son in Star Wars: The Clone Wars here. His arc covers these episodes: Overlords (3.15), Altar of Mortis (3.16), and Ghosts of Mortis (3.17).
