BEING HUMAN: Not a Ghost Not Quite a Girl – Interview with Meagan Rath

To wrap up our four part interview series with the cast of Being Human, we were able to sit in on an interview with the lovely Meagan Rath.

So read below to hear her take on Season Three and if you missed our earlier interviews you can find them here:
Sam Witwer
Sam Witwer & Anna Fricke
Sam Huntington & Kristen Hager

The Challenges of Filming Science Fiction:
Really what’s been the most challenging for me is taking these fantastical situations and making them personal for me. You know, it’s always a challenge to relate to what these characters are going through to our real lives.

You know, for example, last season, it’s like, how do I justify murdering 20 people and still remain likeable in some way? So that’s always been a challenge for me. This season was super difficult as well because, it’s like, okay, well now I’m a reanimated corpse so not only do I have to deal with the fact that I’m dead but now I’m brought back from the dead and what does that mean to me? And it’s all very complicated.

Group Scenes:
We don’t rehearse beforehand. We rehearse scene by scene as we get to it. And, it’s funny because scenes that are with the three of us, or even now with Kristen, it’s a relief and a pleasure to shoot those scenes because I never have to worry about them.

And just because we all trust each other so much and we know each other so well that we can just trust that our chemistry will be there and that we’ll find a way to make the scene work. You know, especially if it’s a difficult scene or a more complex scene. It’s just a fun time to go in there and sort of put your face in somebody else and feel confident that they’re going to guide you in a way that is going to work in the end.

No Longer a Just a Ghost:
I think that throughout the season you’ll start seeing some things with Aidan and Sally where the writers are so smart the way that they did it. It’s like, there’s a girl living in a house with two guys and it was never an option for a romantic chemistry. You know, I know a bunch of you are going to ask is there anything that’s going on with Sally and Aidan. I just know it. I just know you guys are going to ask it.

And I’ll answer it right now. What they did is so smart because it’s, like, we never had that option before because Sally was non-corporeal and it just wasn’t going to happen and they looked at her like a little sister. And all the sudden, here she is human, or as close to human as it’s going to get. And all of the sudden it’s sort of an option.

It’s like oh, we can do this and it sort of reflects a situation in life. It’s, like, you have a roommate that’s guy and you’re best friends and it never occurred to you before but all of the sudden it’s, like, you’re both single and it’s, like, huh, should we do this? I guess we could do this. And, you know, maybe you drank a bit too much that night and all the sudden there’s this weird moment between roommates and I think you’re going to see a couple moments like that with Sally and Aidan this season.

On Screen Chemistry:
I think it’s sort of effortless. It’s not anything that we ever have to think about. And I feel very lucky for that fact because it’s like, you know, you never have to think about, all right, how do I pretend that I like this person in this scene? We’re not really getting along because I hate him in life.

We never had to do that and so it’s like as our friendship develops and grows in life, it does with the characters as well and it’s like, you know, we sort of grow on screen together as well as off. And, it’s really nice. They’re really my best friends.

Social Media:
We’ve never really done this before and I think it’s just really an amazing thing. I really experienced it for the first time last season when we live tweeted throughout the episode and it was, like, I really – it makes me feel close to the fans and it’s like we’re all sort of having, like, a slumber party watching this episode together and I’m sharing funny things that happened and they’re telling me what they think and they’re making their own jokes.

I actually really like it. My only concern is, like, why aren’t you watching? You’re tweeting but you should be watching. Like, why don’t you tweet at commercials? But I get it, you know, these people can multitask clearly.

A Unique Situation:
There aren’t many reanimated corpses walking around Boston for Sally to seek them out and find advice on what she is, but yes, I think Sally definitely does start to understand what exactly the deal is that Josh and Nora have made with the witch.
And I think it really becomes about trial and error for her as she pushes her limits to what she can do as a reanimated corpse, she sort of pieces together what she really is and what that deal entails.

Limbo:
It definitely comes up again. We do discuss a little bit what happens in limbo. And I think what’s interesting about the way that our writers have written limbo is that it’s very personal and it’s different for everybody. So, like you know, we’ve all each figured out what our limbo is. What you’ve seen for Nick and Stevie is Nick’s limbo is he’s drowning, staring at Zoe the entire time over and over.
Stevie’s hanging from a tree staring at his parents. It doesn’t quite make sense because that’s not the way Stevie dies. Stevie dies by taking pills. So limbo is sort of, you know, vaguely your worst nightmare. Sally’s limbo is running through it trying to find the people that she’s wronged, trying to fix the mistakes that she’s made so that’s what her limbo is, that’s what her cycle is on repeat. So it’s really different for everybody and yes, the threat of limbo is still out there.

Ghost vs Corpse:
I definitely love being a reanimated corpse. I can’t believe I just said that. Yes, I think that I was just, in general, a happier person on set. Like, I was smiling a lot more than I usually do just because I was so excited to be just like a real girl, like wearing nice clothes and kissing boys and just running around with my top off. No, that didn’t happen. But no, I was just – I was much happier this way. I just felt so much more free than – and ironically alive than I have been on this show before.

And the wardrobe has really involved me in the process of choosing what it would be. Before we started the season, I had a bunch of meetings with our costume designer, Danny Campbell, where we both, together, decided what Sally’s look would be and what kind of stuff she would wear. It was really important for them to involve me in what that was because, you know, I know Sally the best out of anyone. And so I felt really, really lucky and I really appreciated being brought in on those conversations. And together we decided her outfits and they’re pretty great.

Hiding in Plain Sight:
Well, I think all the sudden she’s brought back into this world where she is real and visible. And the first thing that she would want to do is, you know, get her life back and piece together or bridge together, rather, you know, the place between when she was alive and now that she’s reanimated.

But because there’s that’s little task and she’s not really sure what the consequences are, she stays away but sort of doesn’t understand really how deep it goes until we start getting into the consequences. But I think, yes, I think it’s hard to start fresh. I mean, she’s almost like a fugitive. She’s living in the same city that she was living in when she was alive. And she can’t see anybody so she almost has to disguise herself and find a new identity so she’s really, like you know, sort of becomes this outcast and, you know, it sort of as the season – as the episodes go on – like, early on you start to see that there’s a lot of anxiety that comes with that and it’s almost, like, does she need to be a shut-in again?

Cast Get-togethers:
You know, we hang out all the time off set. We always hang out all weekend. You know, we usually just have dinner together, we go out to restaurants or we go to one of our places and someone will cook dinner and we just watch movies. Usually it’s usually something really low key. I don’t think – none of us are really the going out partying types, so I think we – the three of – I don’t think we’ve ever been to a club together. Well, maybe in Vegas we did.

But yes, it’s – we pretty much take it low key. We’ve been on vacations together. Yes, we just like hanging out and talking and eating and drinking wine.

Character Arc/Direction:
It went in the direction that I always – that I, in my wildest fantasies, I hoped that it would go. But I never believed that we could actually do that. And so all my expectations have been completely blown out of the water because I’m so excited about what they’ve done with my character.

I know that, you know, before we started – long before we started shooting the third season, I had a conversation with Anna Fricke, our show runner, where she told me my character’s arc of the season and I was, like, screaming. I was just screaming outside because I was so excited about what was happening and I just didn’t think that we would ever do it. And so I’m really, really happy.

Being Human airs Monday 9/8c on SyFy