by Lilith Colbert
Neil Napier (Dr. Peter Farragut) has been a busy man lately – from appearances in X-Men: Days Of Future Past to voicing Captain Xavier in Assassin’s Creed: Unity – so we greatly appreciated him taking the time to discuss Helix and his approach to characters both in the physical and digital realm.
You can follow him on Twitter @NeilNapier and of course see him on Season Two of Helix which airs January 16, 2015 on SyFy.
Spektral Helix: What drew you to audition for the role of Dr. Peter Farragut?
Neil Napier: What drew me to the role of Peter was the complexity of his relationships with his brother and Julia, and the extreme journey which he undergoes. I felt it would present some interesting opportunities to play with character through physicality.
SH: Did you do any research into the science of the role and if so, how did it aid in understanding the character?
NN: I didn’t do much research into the science of the role, as Peter had very little of it to do. I did however research some of what the psychology is of folks who choose to spend long periods of time working in relative isolation. Werner Herzog’s film, Encounters At The End Of The World was quite helpful…
SH: You’ve said in other interviews that your character was supposed to die in the first episode – were you given a heads up as to the new direction of Peter’s role once the decision was made to keep him, or was everything hush-hush?
NN: Well, by the time I was cast, they had already decided to keep him alive until around episode 4, but after that, I never knew with each subsequent episode if it was going to be my last… Things worked out alright in the end. *smiles*
SH: What do you draw on to get into the”head” of a character and do you find yourself thinking as that character even “off the clock?”
NN: I think it is important to keep my character as close to myself as possible. We are all very complex beings and we show a certain configuration of our qualities to the world. However, I believe that we all have at least a little bit of almost everything within us. An actor’s job as I see it is to access the parts of him/herself most relevant to the character at hand, and let them live.
SH: In season one, Peter went through some drastic changes: from pretty much an invalid, to Julia’s hallucination, to Vector King, to traitor. How did you react to these changes when reading the script for the first time, knowing that you were for the most part kept in the dark as far as story lines?
NN: It is a joy to react to changing conditions for my character. Each new script presents a new set of challenges. It keeps my on my toes!
SH: When in your”Vector mode,” how many hours did you have to spend in makeup and how difficult was it to remove?
NN: In ‘King Vector’ mode, I was in makeup for about 3 hours at the beginning of each shooting day, and then it took 2 or 3 artists about an hour to remove all that intricate work.
SH: We’ve heard that Billy Campbell (Dr. Alan Farragut) was quite the prankster on set. Are there any shenanigans you can tell us about that happened on the set of season two?
NN: All I can say about Billy is that he has been very well behaved on set this season. I guess fatherhood has had a calming effect on him… 😉
SH: We know you do voiceovers for video games like Assassin’s Creed – do you find it as challenging being in front of the camera and if so why?
NN: I actually do very little straight voice work for video games – what I do is a fair amount of is ‘performance capture’, which is embodying the character physically as well as vocally. So I spend a good amount of time in velcro tights and a helmet face-cam… But I do spend some time in the sound booth nonetheless and I find the challenges different – there are no physical references or other actor to play with; a vocal performance is all self-generated. It is an exercise in imagination and technique.
SH: Are there any projects outside of Helix you’re working on that you can tell us about?
NN: I am working on two projects that I can’t really talk about right now. Nothing big, but I have signed NDAs…
SH: In closing, what do you perceive the dynamic will be between Peter, Julia, Alan, and Sarah in season two, given the emotional complexities of their relationships?
NN: In season 2 of Helix, I think that we will learn a little more about the relationships between Peter, Alan, Julia and Sarah. We will also see how they progress, and discover some new and unexpected alliances. Enjoy!
SH: We will indeed enjoy, Neil, and January cannot some soon enough! Again, thank you for speaking with us!
Spektral Helix 