X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Sam Witwer Loves Being Human

For a guy playing a broody Boston bloodsucker, Sam Witwer couldn't be happier. Now in his third season on Syfy's Being Human, the Smallville vet's ancient vampire Aidan Waite is up to his incisors in a devastating plague that is wiping out his undead brethren and giving his character all sorts of juicy stuff to sink his teeth into. In Monday's episode things get even wilder (and maybe more lethal) for Aidan and his roomies — former werewolf Josh and recovering ghost Sally — so we decided to pump Witwer for some scoop on what's coming up on the bloody cool supernatural drama.

Damian Holbrook

For a guy playing a broody Boston bloodsucker, Sam Witwer couldn't be happier. Now in his third season on Syfy's Being Human, the Smallville vet's ancient vampire Aidan Waite is up to his incisors in a devastating plague that is wiping out his undead brethren and giving his character all sorts of juicy stuff to sink his teeth into. In Monday's episode things get even wilder (and maybe more lethal) for Aidan and his roomies — former werewolf Josh and recovering ghost Sally — so we decided to pump Witwer for some scoop on what's coming up on the bloody cool supernatural drama.

TV Guide Magazine: Even though Aidan is back above ground, he's still not exactly back in a happy place, right?
Sam Witwer:
The world he has come back into is very different from the one he left. There's this epidemic and finding clean blood is not easy. Surviving? Not easy.

TV Guide Magazine: Which has surely changed his attitude toward his fellow bloodsuckers.
Witwer:
You know, he says he hates vampires...but it's like an addict's old drug buddies. When they're all dying, maybe you don't hate them anymore.

TV Guide Magazine: Guess you could say he's becoming more human?
Witwer:
[Laughs] Exactly. The thing I am most proud of this year is that it's, by far, our most grounded season. It's our best season. The stories are very "everyday problems," and at the same time, the consequences of the first two seasons are hanging over our heads in a big way.

TV Guide Magazine: Sounds like big things are coming.
Witwer:
Episode one was a big game changer. We have changed the dynamics of the show, things are different for Aidan. They've changed things for Sally in a huge way. Things with Josh are totally changed.

TV Guide Magazine: Were these changes the result of any off-camera tweaks?
Witwer:
Anna Fricke is now our sole showrunner. The first two seasons, it was her and her husband Jeremy Carver, so she is really staking her claim and is doing a version of the show that, frankly, I have been waiting to do since I read the pilot. Jeremy helped write the first five or six scripts, then went over to Supernatural [where he is showrunner].

TV Guide Magazine: Even though there is this flu killing vampires, it still seems lighter than Aidan's brutal storyline last year.
Witwer:
It was really dark. My character was dealing exclusively with the vampires and was kind of removed from the roommate situation. This season, if Aidan isn't dealing with the roommates, he's with some other very interesting human beings. And I emphasize that they are humans, because that is when my character is at his best. He's scarier because we know who he is and how he can hurt people, he's sadder because he wants to be like them, and he's more interesting because he's living this double life. You get to see all of that this season. He's introduced into the general population but how can he just turn off the killer part in him? He's a blood addict and a trained killer!

TV Guide Magazine: This guy is like 260 years old. He's has quite the resume.
Witwer:
In the first season, we saw that he was an ex-mafia hit man. And this year, he's a war vet and you'll that played out. We do a flashback story that plays over four episodes — it's our most ambitious flashback we've ever tried. It tells a crucial part of this guy's history and we go back further than we have ever gone.

TV Guide Magazine: But at the same time, Josh (Sam Huntington) and Sally (Meaghan Rath) have a modern storyline going on, as well?
Witwer:
Yeah. And I gotta thank Anna Fricke because she wrote a present-day story that is reflected thematically in the flashbacks. It is so well done.

TV Guide Magazine: Anything else you can tell us?
Witwer:
There are some different living situations now. In the time Aidan was missing, Nora [Kristen Hager] moved in, and Aidan is no longer sleeping in his old bedroom, he's in the basement. We never explain why that is, but observant viewers will get it: There was a horrific murder that took place in his room last year. He killed two innocent girls.

TV Guide Magazine: Not to mention that he just spent a year and a half living under ground. A basement probably feels familiar.
Witwer:
Yup. You got it. It's all those reasons.

TV Guide Magazine: Is this guy ready for love now?
Witwer:
Whether he's ready for it or not, he's going to have to answer that question. I will just say that Aidan's girlfriends don't have the greatest life expectancy. I was talking to one of our executive producers and he said that we have earned the suspense of this year because of all the dark stuff we saw in Season 2. And this year is much more balanced. We have darkness and humor.

TV Guide Magazine: It's gotta help to have the roomies back together.
Witwer:
That's it! It's one thing for a showrunner to say, 'we need more humor,' and then force it. The thing that I love about the humor this season is that it's natural. We have some very tense situations that are also very funny to watch. And personally, I love working with my old friends Sam and Meaghan again! I didn't see a lot of them last season.

TV Guide Magazine: Does it feel like the writers understand you three better and how you wear these characters now?
Witwer:
Absolutely. And they trust us enough now to accept our ideas when they work. We have had an unprecedented access to the writers' room this year and they have written beautiful arcs for the characters. They deserve so much credit because writing this stuff is difficult. They are killing it this year!

TV Guide Magazine: You are so excited about this. How far along are you into filming this season?
Witwer:
We're done. I have seen most of the 13 episodes and I am very, very happy with how it all turns out. Very happy.

Being Human airs Mondays at 9/8c on Syfy.

Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!