“Being Human” ready to take fans of the supernatural to another level

It should come as no surprise that the show “Being Human” has got me all kinds of excited. When I was invited to attend the SyFy Press Tour in Orlando, the panel I was most excited to be a part of was of course the one featuring a smokin’ hot vampire, a gorgeous ghost, and a werewolf that promises to be appear naked throughout the season!

Yes, the American re-make of the British hit show is ready to take fans of all things supernatural by storm in January 2011. If you are an admirer of the original series, please don’t think you are going to see a carbon copy. The network promises the show is separate and apart yet they hope it will pay homage to the original.

The cast includes “Smallville” and “Dexter” star Sam Witwer in the role of Aidan the vampire, “Veronica Mars” and “Cavemen” star Sam Huntington stars as Josh the werewolf, and Canadian actress Meaghan Rath will play the Molly the ghost.

The show follows three roommates who try to live normal lives while coping with their supernatural powers.

During the panel, SyFy confirmed they have five episodes completed of the thirteen ordered and that the trio are actively shooting in Montreal, Canada.

All three mentioned how they try to keep from watching the original version in order to not mimic the characters, so anything that you find similar is purely coincidental!

Here are some differences between the US and British versions mentioned by the cast:

* Witwer mentioned how they have 13 episodes to tell their story when the UK version only had six. There is more time to do things that their counterparts could not. Sometime they might take an idea from the original and expand the plot lines.
Example: The girl who is accidentally turned by the vampire in the first episode will actually become his love interest.

*Huntington mentioned he will have a sister on the show that will help audiences understand his character Josh and his journey better.

*Rath mentioned you will learn a lot more back story on the characters.

*Witwer talks about spending more time in the vampire world. “Supernatural” actor Mark Pellegrino is going to be playing the role of Aidan’s mentor Bishop.

*Rath mentioned that a whole new sect of vampires will be introduced that were not a part of the British version.

Two very important members of the original version were brought on as consultants of the American version. They include set producer Rob Pursey and Toby Whithouse the creator and executive producer to ensure they would do justice to the original.

So now that we have compared the two different versions, the next logical question is, how will the supernatural characters differ to those we currently watch like “True Blood”, “The Vampire Diaries”, and “The Twilight Saga?”

On Vampires:

Huntington said,”The vampires on our show are very different than any other vampire you’ve ever seen. I think all the characters are kind of more or less — he’s a vampire, but it’s tweaked. You know what I mean?

Because I think the theory is they’ve evolved a little bit. They’ve been around for a really long time.

Witwer adds, “Also, we’re stripping away any kind of glamorous veneer from the vampire thing. It’s very bottom-feeder, uncomfortable, junky stuff.”

On Werewolves:

Huntington says, “I don’t think you’ve ever seen a werewolf like this before. It’s really, really disturbing to watch the transformation. It’s very, very — the wolf itself is very different than anything you’ve ever seen. I don’t want to go into detail because you’ll see.

But it’s a really tremendously awesome thing.

He’s introverted, and he’s just scared he’s going to do something wrong, hurt someone. And so he’s not the type of guy you could picture being a werewolf. I think our show is so vastly different than anything.

On Ghosts:

Rath said, It’s not like she’s not running around haunting people. It’s more about her dealing with her issues with loneliness and trying to find her place in the world and coming to terms with her death. So it’s more about her journey as opposed to, like, the classic scary ghost, like a poltergeist.

She’s also coming to terms with her powers and what she can do and what she’s capable of, which is pretty interesting.

What makes our show different from all the other genre of vampires/werewolf/ghost shows is because, for ours, our characters aren’t necessarily embracing their supernatural powers. And it’s, like, you can take away that element of the show, and the story will still be as compelling because it’s about these people trying to retain their humanity, Rath added.”

Sam Witwer gave us a bit of a background for his sexy vamp character Aiden:

“Aidan, my character, he was a very morally upright person who was corrupted by what he became because of what the Bishop character did to him, turning him into a vampire 200-odd years back, and then lived a life of — sort of in a drug haze, completely becoming kind of, for all intents and purposes, a sociopath and still maintaining a piece of his conscious inside. And then eventually that grew into something that he had to deal with, and then for the past two years, he’s been trying to stay clean, which is very difficult.

And the fun about the character, I think, is he’s rediscovering his humanity. So, you know, he’s 257 years old, so you imagine he’s seen everything, so what would a character like that be?

Well, he’d be very internal, and he wouldn’t be very impressed with anything. And he wouldn’t really have — his emotions, they’d be hard to sort of get them bubbling to the surface. But the fun about it is if — if you were in kind of a drug haze for a long formative period of your life and you came out of it, the world would seem like a very, very scary place, and you would have emotional reactions in the most unexpected circumstances.’

Sam Huntington chatted more in detail about his character Josh:

When he’s turning into a werewolf, he feels so exposed. He feels so — he’s so, so, so scared. And I think that the nakedness really, really hits that home. You know what I mean? It really, you know, makes you feel uncomfortable for him. It makes you feel bad for him. And I think that’s part of it, for me anyway.

The show to watch come January is “Being Human,” and you can only find it on the SyFy channel. Stay tuned right here as we hope to have the short teaser trailer that premiered, even to the cast, for the first time during the SyFy Digital Press Tour.

In the meantime, enjoy some of these fantastic shots I took during the panels.

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