Fan Expo 2014: Haven Star Lucas Bryant
When I learned I would be interviewing Lucas Bryant, star of Showcase’s Haven, I did not know what to expect. For anyone unfamiliar with Haven, it is a supernatural series about a small town in Maine where strange things happen and is based on the Steven King novella The Colorado Kid. As the fifth season is about to kick off (you can read our review of the premiere here!), the main characters are in a precarious position with a lot to lose. Bryant plays Nathan, a soft-spoken, small town, police officer that is troubled in more than one way.
Knowing that Nathan’s social skills make him introverted and a little bit awkward, I wondered how much of that would be drawn from Bryant’s own personality. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a warm smile and hug. Lucas Bryant is the sort of person to put you completely at ease within moments of meeting him; he has an almost perpetual smile and a quick sense of humour which made chatting about working on Haven a pleasure.
Geekpr0n: I want to ask the big question first, can you share any hints about season 5?
Lucas Bryant: There is a lot more heat this season, and I don’t just mean in the fire sense, and it’s not just my story. There is some serious death this season, but I will not tell you who this relates to. There are some huge new characters. There is more death and by the end of this season, Haven will never be the same. I told you a lot without telling you anything.
GP: Now, I have to say that you are very funny and I know that you were involved with something called the Skarsgard Players, but you play such a straight man.
LB: I do, I play such a straight man…..Nathan is a pretty good straight man. I mean, there are parts of me that are parts of me that are also straight man-ish sometimes. But initially it’s very tricky to hold so still and to be so single minded and to be so almost blind in your single mindedness. But I have come to accept that those things are also Nathan’s great strengths.
GP: I have another question about playing Nathan. So much of acting is reaction, but with Nathan’s inability to feel touch, and it being such a physical role there is a challenge there. Can you talk about that?
LB: That’s an interesting question, but I think you’re really onto something there. It came up for me a little while ago and it’s going to come up again…Nathan gets a chance to break out of that shell a little bit. I think a theme for him is stuckness, you know? And there is definitely something in his lack of feeling physically that translates into a bound psyche. He doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t know what to say, he doesn’t know how to say it. I mean, he has confidence in many aspects but he’s still kind of socially awkward. As much as he is comfortable and able to communicate with people in his town when he needs to help them, he doesn’t really know what his voice is and that relates in many ways to his “trouble”. Now whether it’s a chicken or the egg thing is debatable because in many ways troubles are tied to something that a person is dealing with in the first place. So whether he manifested this trouble because of his unwillingness to feel, or whether that created the trouble is an interesting question.
GP: How do you like filming in Nova Scotia?
LB: It is beautiful. It’s become another home at this point; we’ve been there for five years. I know all sorts of people in town, and they know me. The community has fully embraced Haven being there and it’s going to be tough when it’s over. I’m not saying that it’s over! I’m just thinking about the future. Soon we are going to be moving to Halifax to do the rest of our season, not shooting there…we’ll still be shooting on the sets you’ve come to see, but things will change in terms of our living arrangements. And part of me is excited to have some change, but the other part is sad to leave that this little community we’re ingrained in.
GP: Is there something specific you’ll miss?
LB: I think the lack of traffic, and the ability to walk everywhere. My daughter was up for the summer and we would leave our house and walk to the park, and walk to a friend’s, and walk to the pool, and jump in the ocean and stop by five more friends on the way home. All of it would take us about three minutes because we’re super fast about playing to the park and visiting friends and swimming in the ocean…because it’s all just right there. That experience for her is amazing. I spend the rest of the year in Los Angeles so that balance is really important for her.
GP: Final question, if you weren’t acting, what would you be doing?
LB: A statistician! Or an accountant. Well an accountant slash statistician! I am all about the numbers. No, if I weren’t acting, I would probably never make it as a statistician or an accountant, so I wouldn’t be either of those. I would be a crafts person, someone who makes things….actually, if I could still work in the film and TV business, I would like to make sets. It is so cool and being on set, especially the studio sets like our police station and stuff, the detail is amazing and it’s all fake! It’s phenomenal and I am totally in awe of all those men and women.
Catch Lucas Bryant when Haven returns for it’s fifth season on Showcase on September 18th.
