by Mary Anne Butler, Reporter/Photographer

Mab got to sit down with the cast and creative crew from the new upcoming exclusive series from Netflix, Hemlock Grove, based on the novel by Brian McGreevy.

First up at my fifty round table interview in the pressroom was Famke Janssen (who in the show plays Olivia Godfrey) and Dougray Scott (who plays Dr. Norman Godfrey).

Famke: There is a scene in the pilot episode, where I (Olivia) asks my son if he wants to go shopping, and I get my way by putting my cigarette out on his jeans and I thought ‘well, that’s an interesting character’. And I wanted to work with Dougray Scott my whole life so that was where I was getting to.

Dougray: There’s the scene with Famke’s character, and I really did want to work with her to be honest with you, working with Famke was a big attraction for me. I read the novel before agreeing to the series, and I found the character of Norman to be fascinating and on the verge of….something interesting, and the euphoria and tumultuous relationship with Oliva, I liked who he was. He is very intelligent. And this Netflix thing, it’s a new way for people to watch drama, to download it all at once. I’m always attracted to dark humor, to humor, to the dark, and when they come together it works.

(I suggested to Dougray the Olivia/Norman relationship was very akin to Oberon and Titania, he smiled and said “Yes, yes, that’s true.)

(It was at this time Executive Producers/Directors Eli Roth and Deran Sarafian joined us)

Eli Roth: I was so excited to get to work with Deran (Sarafian) on this project. I found out early on he worked very closely with Dario Argento, big name in Italian horror, and then he pointed out he was the lead actor in Zombie 3. He had worked shooting 2nd unit with Argento. We talked a lot about how we wanted to do this werewolf transformation. I mean he was really well know for his work on House, but the fact he worked so long with my idols. We wanted the transformation to be violent, like watching an epileptic fit, so painful your body would have no memory of it. I directed the first episode, and we wanted to set it like you couldn’t tell who directed from one episode to the next, much like a 13 hour movie.

Deran Sarafian- I’ve been wanting to work with Eli for so long, and we talked so many times about this werewolf transformation, and how we wanted to make it different. One of the things that’s stayed with me during this process of creating this show was Eli said don’t look at the rock, look underneath it. Anytime a choice we made, or a story idea would turn Hemlock into another show, or be like something else, look under the rock. Brian McGreevy’s book became like a bible for us.

(Next up for our table were Executive Producers/Writers Mark Verheiden, Lee Shipman, and the author of the novel, Brian McGreevy.)

Mark Verheiden– I came to the project because I read the novel and loved it. I wanted this to be something different, I didn’t want it to be Friday the 13th part 20, Freddie vs Jason, although I did write a script for that.

Brian McGreevy- The actors do indeed bring the characters from the book to life in the show. And as far as budget, I mean you could avatar’s budget and James Cameron would still be asking for more money,

Lee Shipman- Beauty of the Netflix thing was writing the entire series from the book was very much like making the 13 hour movie. We have a fairly strange group of individuals and that’s what makes it special.

Brian McGreevy– I’ve heard the rumor of books 2 and 3, and I have no idea where it’s coming from. (Someone else at the table points out we heard it a few minutes earlier from Eli). Eli is the rumor, but its highly dependent on how I feel on April 20th, the day after the show airs. But there are plans for more seasons novels or no novels. I wanted a more visceral approach, which is why Eli as a director was such a serendipitous choice.

(You may have noticed by this point we had a rotating set of folks orbiting the room, stopping at each table of four reporters who were not allowed to record videos, only audio. As we thanked the creative team, we were greeted by Bill Skarsgard who plays Roman Godfrey, Penelope Mitchell who plays Letha Godfrey, Landon Liboiron who plays Peter Rumancek, and Freya Tingley who plays Christina Wendall)

Bill Skarsgard– I read the book before I auditioned, Brian gave me a copy of it before I read the pilot and fell in love with it. Is good to have a book to go to, where the season and the characters were going. A lot of things are the same, but the show goes deeper, exploring the characters more, and also more characters. Roman and Peter when they meet they know something important is happening and they’re supposed to know each tower. All of our characters go through so much.

Penelope Mitchell (Upon seeing my costume comments she really wanted to cosplay as a gundam)- It was interesting because when you’re on a project like this for 6months you have to pace yourself so you have a tradgectory for your character for where you’re going. I think the book is like a blue print, we could all have dialogs with the writers. Is very intense really. Next year, I totally don’t care what I’m working on, I’m doing the Cosplay thing.

Freya Tingley – For me it was my first pilot season from Australia, this project was different from all the age stereotypes, and I think that’s what most actors are drawn to. There are a lot of strings being left at the end of the first book. I landed the role, then the book was released, and I tried to read it as fast as possible, but to be honest I didn’t really understand it, so I read it a second time and I still don’t really understand it but it has this classic gothic feel to it. I also think Hemlock Grove is different because the tv series expands the world and the characters, but in so many book-to films it’s the opposite, and you lose so much.

Landon Liboiron– Brian’s humor and personality shines through his writing, it’s very unique. It was really cool watching Twin Peaks to help get inspired by all the similarities; the small town, the idiosyncrasies, ours is a lot darker and more vicious. The book was brought to me, and I was like oh no, not another werewolf thing. But when you read it, it doesn’t really show that part of it right away, or what this past is and who each of the characters are. Each episode ends with a punch in the face, it’s an investigation into the entire series. (I asked if he had seen the footage of his transformation into a werewolf yet) I was terrified, I didn’t know what something like that was going to be like, and I was very happy with how it came out. As happy as I could be, it’s something so different. What was so brilliant about the choice of brian’s for the gypsy culture was people believing them to be monsters and canibals, and so the actual Gypsies had to build the culture to be beautiful and unique.

(The last two folks to make the rounds were BSG alum Aaron Douglas [who messed with my hair as he walked up to the table] who plays the Sheriff Sworn, and Kandyse McClure who plays Dr. Chassuer, and totally remembered my name from when I interviewed her a few days before the con.)

Aaron Douglas– This is the best thing I’ve done since Battlestar. I loved the book, and having to learn how to read again because Brian has such a weird cadence, was very exciting, and then being part of a show on the ground floor of how tv is going to be built is when it gets really interesting. They figured it out before everyone else, that this is how people want their shows, how they don’t want to be spoon fed with extraneous dialog all the time. So I really feel like we made a 13 hour movie, it’s a show I would watch if I wasn’t on it, and I don’t watch tv. And I mean my characteristic kind of holding onto a thousand kite strings in a hurricane, Andreas to balance that control with being the father of twin teenage girls who have just discovered the meaning of the word slut. I like that my character got bigger (Kandyse and not just in the waist) I like that they followed the books so closely, I mean I loved The Lord of rings movies but where the hell was Tom Bombadill? It’s a little bit fantasy, it’s a true drama, human drama, but there’s the Sci Fi and the horror elements, and I think on,y my mom wouldn’t be allowed to watch this show.

Kandyse McClure– I don’t get to pla y this kind of character, she could be a he, she’s strong. I thought there was room for a quirky interpretation of this character, this doctor of a very strange profession. I like the idea of getting stuck in a story and watching it beginning to end all at once. It has everything, social economical, coming of age- (Aaron girls ripped in half) and murder mystery and their scruples being turned on their heads. Fans of genre tv weather it be horror or Sci Fi will really enjoy this, the new adult youthful energy about it, but we all want the sex and the gore.

The show it’s self will premiere on Netflix in it’s entirety (13 episodes) on April 19th, 2013.

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