BEING HUMAN: An Interview with a Show Runner and a Star – Anna Fricke & Sam Witwer Talk Season 3

NiceGirls has more Being Human Season Three goodness in the form of an interview with Show Runner Anna Fricke and the fantastic Sam Witer.

Season Three Shake-ups:
Anna Fricke: I think part of what we’ve always loved about the concept of the show is that with great pain lies great humor and it’s a very human process that they’re going through. And the whole concept of Being Human is that it’s never going to work out for these people.
So, even if we do something like shake it up as we did in the first season, something is going to go wrong there and it’s never really going to work out. So I guess that’s why I always feel safe and the writers feel safe in playing within those parameters because it’s not going to work out. And if it ever does work out, that’s the end of the show. So, we have some room to play with.

RELATED NEWS: BEING HUMAN An Interview With Sam Witwer

Sally and Aidan:
Sam Witwer: I’ll say that we see a lot of really strange scenes with Sally and Aidan this year
And when I say that they have strange scenes I mean that like these scenes that me and Meaghan Rath have shot are some of the funniest things that I’ve ever been involved in, in terms of just some of the unpredictable elements.
I think those two people as roommates are kind of funny together and it’s just another advantage of having the roommates being together more often; discovering more dynamics of those relationships. Does this huge romance bloom? I wouldn’t take it that far; I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily going to happen. But then, on the other hand, you never know. I suppose the only one that knows is Anna…

Be Careful What You Wish For:
Anna Fricke: I would say that our show is always been a lot about the balance- the balance in nature and what it is to be human and playing with that moral ground. And I think for all the characters, I mean I know for all the characters this year, that’s why we have the theme of ‘Be careful of what you wish for,’ because you may get something that you thought you may have been striving for, but a deeper nature in our character kicks in and I think that’s what we’ll see in Aidan and the other characters.

Basing the Episode Titles after Song Titles:
Anna Fricke: I’ll tell you what, it’s getting a little tricky and we’re starting to get a little stressed out about it, but it’s a group effort. I say it’s a group effort, and it’s not always the writer of the episode—it’s often the writer of the episode, but sometimes we’ll just mull it over for a few days and someone else will pitch one in.
We always try to have something that is poignant but also a little funny which is the tone we try to go for in the show.

Guest Star Amy Aquino:
Anna Fricke: First of all, I think we all agree we are so blessed to have her on the show. Not only does she give a phenomenal performance, she’s also a lovely person, which is always nice when it works out that way. So, yes, she’s playing a witch on the show and, as it always is with our show, it goes a lot deeper than whatever your supernatural title may be.
She’s a very complicated woman with an interesting past and I think what’s the most fun about her character is that she’s very tongue-and-cheek and no-nonsense and we’re trying to turn the whole witch thing on its head and we have a lot of fun with her and she’s very powerful. And she also brings out a lot of power in Sally, so that will be something that is really interesting and hopefully compelling to watch. And she’s named after my mother, which is not supposed to be an insult.

Sam Witwer: The thing with Amy is that, with the type of show that it is, it’s challenging to get it right performance-wise and Amy is just one of those actors who arrived on the set and the moment she spoke she just understood exactly how to deliver that dialogue. She just knew exactly the tone of the show and so we just fell in love with her right away.

Anna Fricke: I would say that what we have in Amy is similar to what we love about Mark Pellegrino, which is sort of what we look for in villains on our show—villains who don’t act like villains, per se, who sort of take this dialogue and deliver in an off-hand manner. And, can say things like, ‘Well, obviously I’m going to kill you now,’ without adding a lot of Strum und Drang to it. She brings that sort of nonchalant mixed with great power and malice that Bishop does.

Sam Witwer: Yes, she humanizes it all – she really brings it – both of her feet are on the ground in the same way that Bishop could make anything that he was saying sound totally reasonable.

Adding Kristen Hager to the Cast as a Regular:
Anna Fricke: I mean Kristen Hager gives a phenomenal performance this season and I think a lot of that – what’s great about opening up the storylines with having her as a regular is – a lot of it is just the reality of your roommate’s girlfriend moving in and being around all the time. I mean a lot of it is just very basic human stories of how a girlfriend changes a dynamic of what it does to the (broom and shift)…and so just so that on a human level, but also Nora as a werewolf is always been a very fast leading character in terms of how she’s different from Josh and what being a werewolf means to her. And so having somebody with that point-of-view on being a werewolf under, you know, under the same roof as these other guys I think is very interesting because she approaches things sort of differently and she has, you know, some very passionate views about things and it’s just an interesting dynamic.
So she’s very strong and, you know, she, you know, she does some things, you know, that throws the house off kilter and she does some things that pull the house together.

Josh’s Journey:
Sam Witwer: There is definitely that tension this year, definitely because he’s not afflicted, but at the same time, you know, in a way that the show starts because Aidan brings Josh, you know, they get a house together and Aidan comes up with this idea and then he protects the house, that’s evolved to where Aidan is – doesn’t really know what his place is there and Josh is the glue that brings everyone together.
I think that’s the more accurate way to look at it because whether Josh is human, werewolf, whatever he is, his instinct will always be to have this family unit with everyone together under one roof – and would you say that’s true Anna?

Anna Fricke: Yes and I think what’s interesting about the dynamic of what happens with Josh this season is that he feels he is more conscious of the change he’s been through than everyone else as opposed to everyone looking at him and say, gosh you’re so lucky you got out.
He’s actually feeling like, you guys I’m still part of this, I’m still one of you, I’m not out of the loop now. So you actually see interesting dynamic of him saying, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, I’m still tortured, I still understand what you’re going through, you know, because he has – because there is, you know, part of what he’s clinging to with his relationships to the roommates and I think it plays out and hopefully a really cool way.

Sam Witwer: Yes, you know, Josh is really interesting in that he’s really come a long way this year that I’ve seen in episodes where something happens and if you had maybe just seen Season 1 and skipped to Season 3 you’d expect a much different reaction out of him, but Josh is really – he really comes into his own as a man this year.
And for him it really seems like a very purely – like very character-heavy season from Sam Huntington the actor which I just thought was great. I remember him saying very early on it’s like, you know, he was discussing his plot and he said, we’re asking because we’re always concerned with our own stuff, what is my plot, what is my plot this year, Sam – what do you think it is?
And, you know, because we’d write a bunch of scripts and I said, you know, it doesn’t matter because your part is just scene after scene after scene of interesting character moments. Why would you care about plot when you have that kind of great stuff to do and he agreed, he’s like, you know what you’re right, this is really great stuff.

Anna Fricke: Yes it’s a great emotional journey for him this year, which is not to say that there’s no plot, but…

Sam Witwer: There’s definitely a big, I mean my god when he steps up it really means something. Boy it’s – I mean there’s some climatic Josh stuff that I just thought was thrilling to see after, you know, again after seeing him come into his own, you know, it’s really, really cool.

Being Human airs Monday 9/8c on SyFy