Interview with Colin Ferguson

Tonight, Showcase is premiering season 4 of the hit television series, Haven at 9PM and we had the chance to catch up with actor Colin Ferguson, who will have a recurring role on the show.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR SEASON THREE AHEAD

Season four of Haven picks up six months after the devastating events of the season three cliffhanger in which the town was pummelled by a violent meteor storm. Audrey (Emily Rose) and Duke (Eric Balfour) vanished into thin air leaving an injured Nathan (Lucas Bryant) marooned in Haven. Rounding out the cast are Adam Copeland, Richard Donat, John Dunsworth and Kate Kelton, and recurring guest star Colin Ferguson.

We had the chance to speak to Colin Ferguson on his upcoming role in the show where he plays William, the enigmatic stranger who finds Audrey Parker first after she and Duke are separated by the barn. Revealing a mysterious knowledge of both the inner secrets of Haven and Audrey herself, William pushes her to remember a past she doesn’t believe exists. But with outside threats desperate to keep Audrey from discovering the truth, the pressure on William to trigger her memory comes with a ticking clock and a dangerous price for failure…

Thank you to Colin who took the time out to speak with us, as well as Martha of TV-eh, and Andrew of The GATE who also participated in the interview!

Steph Mernagh (The GCE): What were your first impressions you had of William and how have your perceptions of him since changed?

Colin Ferguson: I guess when it all started was I was in Los Angeles and I’ve been friends with Shawn Piller for many, many years. And for years he’d say, you know, like, we’d love to have you on the show and then, great, I’d love to be on the show, but, you know, you’re never sure if that continues. And – so this year he came to me, he said, you know, we have this character that’s actually, you know, is going to be a real character for a season on the show, are you interested? And I said, yes, I said, so what’s the character about? And he said, I can’t tell you, you’ve got to come to the writers room. So, you know, I’m thinking, like, my God, what is this? So, I go to the writers room and my first impression of William was that he was going to be fun to play.

They said now what we’re going to try to do in the writing is write him so you don’t know if he’s good or bad. And for every time that you think, now you know, now he’s good, you’re going to go, wow or is he really bad? And I have to say they’ve succeeded brilliantly.

I mean even though it hasn’t aired in Canada yet, you guys have access to Twitter and all that stuff to see that that’s still the reaction.

You know, every time an episode airs people go wow, I still don’t trust him, but is he good? You know, and that’s exactly what the writers wanted to do. Why I like that so much was that as an actor it gives you so much to play. You know, in any given scene, you know, being able to, you know, go right or left or good or bad with a line or a look, is it going to be endearing or are you going to think he’s up to something, it gives you so much latitude and it’s such a gift to be able to play over the course of the season, so I knew it was going to be fun and that was probably what attracted me first and was my first impression.

Sorry guys, that was a long answer.

Steph Mernagh (The GCE): William is described as a very enigmatic stranger as it were, throughout the season are we going to see his past unravel?

Colin Ferguson: Yes, absolutely. Over the course of the season we’re going to learn everything about William and yet at the end of the season it doesn’t completely tie-up, there’s still questions, there’s still things you want to know, there’s – so I guess which is to say it’s not small, the stuff you’re learning. This isn’t like, it’s a small season of Haven this year. It’s a big season.

And I think, I mean, I’ve seen every season they’ve done, I think it’s the best one. There’s so much going on with everybody, I love what they’ve done and we did a little bit of this in Eureka in Season 4 where all of a sudden everybody was doing different things, we went back in time and then came back and all of a sudden Fargo is running GD.

And what it does it keeps the qualities, the relationships the same, but everybody’s job turns. So there’s so much more interaction, you know, here in the town and I think that’s what’s happening in Haven this year, which is really, really interesting. It gives a lot of people more to play, it sort of fills the things with a lot more life, and consequently I think the reaction is that it’s a really popular season.

So yes, you find that everything about William over the course of season but more than that, I think you find a lot more about the characters themselves, the regulars.

Martha Marcin (TV-eh): We have a big question for you. There’s a few love interest floating around, particularly around Audrey I noticed in the first couple seasons, what about William, are you going to get in on that action?

Colin Ferguson: Hopefully! You know, he doesn’t like a love interest. Now, that’s great. Yes, I mean there’s so much that happens over the course of the season. Yes, I would say that there is affection for William at some point by some of the characters. Maybe all the characters, I can’t speak for them. Maybe secretly they harbour a few affections for William. But yes, no he – there’s definitely something that happens with William and – in that respect over the course of the season. I wish I could – sure – I wish I could tell you more, right? But all of a sudden I would start spoiling things if I did, so I can’t.

Andrew Powell (The GATE): I’m really curious what it was like working with a cast because, you know, it’s a bit of an established cast that you’re coming into and I’m wondering how that works with them.

Colin Ferguson: It was great, short answer. Longer answer, I’ve known Emily for years because of all the sci-fi stuff we’ve done. We’ve done press together, sci-fi events for years.

And the fact there was one, I think at the Orlando event, Josh Dates and I we did everything we could to make her sick on roller coasters. We’re like, let’s have butterbeer before we go on the Harry Potter ride.We were doing everything we could, and we couldn’t get her to be sick. So we’ve obviously had a lot of fun through the years with each other.

I’ve done a movie with Lucas in the past, so I knew him. I knew Shawn obviously from years before. I’ve known Eric for years. I didn’t know Adam, but what a phenomenal guy. He doesn’t get the due he’s due on that show.He toes the line amazingly, he plays his role great and he knows exactly what he’s doing. So you show up in this town, you know, you fly 12 hours door to door from LA to Chester, and even though you’re friends with everybody you’re never really sure how it’s going to go, you know, like you never work with anyone before, working, you know, people’s bugaboos come out when they work.

You know, sometimes people are, you know, this way or that when they work. So I show up on set and it’s the first day of everything.Emily hasn’t worked in a month because she’s just had, or six weeks, she’s just had a baby. They’re shooting a lot of her stuff in the first five days to sort of catch up. You know, I’m a new character that they’re introducing, it was all this crazy pressure and people couldn’t have been nicer.

It was – they were so welcoming. There’s not a ton to do in Chester so at night you end up having dinner with each other, playing cards – no joke – you end up playing cards in someone’s house. So it’s a real family sort of feel and it was – even though four years in you think there’d be some patterns that are set in stone, people seemed, you know, excited to have me there and they were really kind, so – and it’s not always that way.

I mean coming off of Eureka which was my home, for many, many years, I was nervous about going on some new set and you know, how are they going to be, please don’t be mean — the last thing you want is to get on a set where it’s just awful and toxic and you know, no one gets along.

So – especially because I was doing eight episodes with them and I get on and it was just the opposite. It was a really good transition, a wonderful experience for me.

Steph Mernagh (The GCE): As you mentioned before you’re friends with the creator of the show Haven, but what otherwise drew you to watch the show in the beginning?

Colin Ferguson: I didn’t have a choice in the beginning. [laughs] I mean, I’m friends with Lucas and I’m friends with Shawn and when your friend goes like, “my show is premiering”, so I was like, “well I’m there”. So, I mean, yes, no, there was no choice in the beginning. Way back when it started I was at the first premiere party because I had to be. I mean unfortunately I couldn’t watch it for many years because I was shooting in – I couldn’t watch it live I should say, because I was shooting in Canada when it wasn’t airing, and then I was back in the States when it had already aired because of when we were shooting our season.

So I would even catch up with it on Netflix during my rest and recovery from filming – and also because I had to go to the finale party because Shawn would call me and goes, “we’re doing a finale party, you’re coming”. So I would go to that.

So I was going to the – to their celebration parties every for years and years and years. So I sort of followed the show. As I was on Eureka doing my show, sort of like, hey, it’s great, we’re all working, this is going great.

And so to ultimately get to be on their shown was really nice, was really, really nice. So that’s how I came to watch it. Although I have to say I did watch the entirety of Season 3 over a weekend before it went up. That was sort of like, as much as you follow a show, when you’re going to be on a show totally different. You go back, you watch the entirety of the thing.

Natasha Dunkley: Is there anything else that you want to add in general about Season 4, what Canadians can look forward to you being a Canadian filming in Canada…

Colin Ferguson: Just little stuff I’d love to say. The crew in Halifax was phenomenal. It’s a Canadian show, it’s really nice to see the Maritimes portrayed and it’s a beautiful part of the world. From an entertainment perspective, this is the best season that they’ve done and we’re really proud of it and it gets bigger and bigger as the season goes along so I hope people tune in, I hope they enjoy it.