Interviews

Keep reading for a Q&A with Sam Witwer (Aidan the vampire) from Syfy’s Being Human. Sam reveals more about the show and his love of science fiction and fantasy!

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How do you feel Aidan stacks up against the other current vampires on TV and in film?

Oh, you’re going to be very disappointed in me, sir. I have not seen the other vampires. I don’t know what they’re doing. I haven’t seen any of the shows. I haven’t seen any of the Twilight Series. In fact, someone said, “Hey, so you guys sparkle?” And I’m like, “What?” “Do you sparkle?” I’m like, “What do you mean, do we break into dance numbers and use jazz hands? What do you mean?” And they’re like, “No, like the vampires in Twilight.” And I’m like, “I don’t know what that is.”

So, really if – I don’t if I have an original take in it. I heard from a few people that I kind of do, but I’m just kind of crossing my fingers and doing my own kind of unpolluted take on the vampire thing. Because really the last real exposure I’ve had to it is Béla Lugosi from back in the day, and that movie I’ve seen a lot of.

But, that’s it. So this is my take, and so I guess if I got it wrong it’s entirely my fault.

So how does Aidan walk around in the daylight?

Well, it’s uncomfortable, but it doesn’t necessarily harm him. The way that we play it out is, and I think I actually – I talked to Sally about this in, I think, Episode 3, but I – the vampire is just like every living thing on this planet have evolved that early on they may have been Nosferatu or one of those early on visions of the horrible pharaoh vampire, and as they’ve gone on they’ve adapted.

And so yes, they can actually walk around, but they don’t necessarily like it, which is why you see our vampires wear sunglasses a lot in the daytime. It isn’t that we’re trying to look like we’re in the Matrix, it’s – we actually need them.

Aside from being on a show as a vampire with a werewolf and a ghost, do you have any actual supernatural interests?

I’ve always been fascinated by supernatural mythology, definitely; ghosts and such. But, I mean I don’t know that I necessarily believe in them, but I certainly love reading about it. It’s really, really fun. Then, in terms of my interests in terms of genre stuff, I have a broad variety of interest when it comes to genre television and film. I’m a hardcore Star Wars guy, love Star Trek, love all that stuff.

You’re obviously known for doing The Force Unleashed video games, and then recently the Son on The Clone Wars of Star Wars. Do you prefer SciFi over fantasy?

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Author Jon S. Lewis kindly agreed to an interview with SciFiChick.com to discuss his recent release Invasion: A CHAOS Novel ! Lewis has written several books for children in the Grey Griffins series, co-authored with Derek Benz, as well as a comic series called Free Realms for Wildstorm/DC Comics.

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Can you tell us a bit about the CHAOS series and Invasion in your own words?

The series was inspired by the story of David & Goliath, but David has a jet pack and Goliath is a giant robot. It boils down to a land battle, where a race of aliens has destroyed their world and now they want ours. It’s part Fringe, part X-Files, part Star Wars, and part Rocketeer, all wrapped up in a unique twist.

During Colt’s training, he sees that CHAOS is using Trident technology. Yet they seem to be enemies. Will that connection be explored?

Great eye! Yes, it will. Trident is a lot like GE, where they have their hands in just about everything. So no matter what, you probably have something in your house from GE. Like that, the odds of the government or military not having something built by Trident is pretty slim.

Do you have a certain number of books that you’re contracted for in the series?

This will be a trilogy, but we’ve talked about expanding it. It’s hard to predict that future, because I have a short attention span and there are a lot of stories I want to write. You never can tell. But I love working with Amanda Bostic (my editor), and look forward to a long career together with her.

Thomas Nelson is a Christian imprint, yet the spiritual references in the book are fairly subtle. Is the hope that this series will be more mainstream than others?

Yes. What I like about Thomas Nelson is that they produce amazing books from a Christian worldview instead of books just because Christians wrote them. That is an important distinction. I loved The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe because you can read it as two different stories, and that’s my goal with these books. I want to be true to my beliefs while still writing fun stories that entertain.

What are some of the major differences between writing novels versus comics? Do you prefer one over the other?

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