With Griff the Invisible, True Blood fans will be seeing a different side of Ryan Kwanten. The film opens on August 19 in theaters and Ryan has been sitting down for a lot of interviews. Below we have excerpts from two of those interviews that include the sections we think True Blood fans will be most interested to read about. One interesting point that Ryan makes below, not True Blood or Griff related, is that the film he is set to do where he takes on the role of Charles Manson, has been put on the back burner and will not be done this year. Look for him to start that filming that project sometime in 2012.
Did you feel a real connection with Griff?
Ryan Kwanten: ”Yeah, without sort of sounding narcissistic, I definitely got Griff. It is my hope that other people also who have once thought or perhaps still feel like that, like an outsider, like they don’t count in the world or someone who just wants to use his imagination a little bit more than the person next to them.”
This character is so much different than Jason in True Blood and that’s how most American audiences know you. Which is a more difficult character for you to crawl under the skin of?
Ryan Kwanten: “They both have their different levels and they are both tortured souls. Those are the sort of characters that I enjoy to play. In terms of which one I found harder to get into the skin of, it’s a really hard ask because each is like to each his own. I don’t know. There are different elements that were harder in one and elements that were harder in the other. Ultimately, you inhabit that body for the time that you shoot and then you sort of try to let it go and find a new one again.”
I think that it’s interesting that you chose a project where the guy imagines he’s a superhero and that’s his life and his fantasy. In True Blood, Jason is becoming more of a heroic character. Do you see a common theme between the two characters?
Ryan Kwanten: “The common theme is the one I eluded to earlier in the fact that they are tortured souls. I don’t necessarily find superheroes in general, for me, that appealing. I’d much prefer to play, if I was to be cast in a superhero film, I’d prefer to play the villain because there’s a reason, there’s a motive behind their madness. I feel that’s why Griff sort of creates this world and why Jason sort of does the same thing, too. He very much has to go about life in a different way.”
Is that the appeal of doing a character like Charles Manson then?
Ryan Kwanten: “That’s somewhat on the back burner now. It won’t be done on this hiatus, probably the next one. But yeah, in terms of any character in general you have to find something that is a challenge in there. If every character I played was like Jason Stackhouse it would get, not just boring for the audience, but it would be unbelievably boring and uninspiring for me.”
And you have to find something that challenges you.
Ryan Kwanten: “Yeah. And beyond that it’s breaking people’s perceptions of what they think I can and can’t do, and breaking my own perceptions is nice.”
Playing Griff, so much of what’s going on with him must be conveyed purely through your expressions. There’s not a lot of dialog to explain what he’s going through or thinking. Was that a challenge?
Ryan Kwanten: “I like that kind of stuff. One of my favorite actors is Paul Newman. He could tell so much with a single look, whereas some actors would need an entire five page monolog to give off the feeling of what he could say with just a single look. To be given those kinds of opportunities with a character like Griff, it’s a rarity because in this day and age where people feel the need to spoon-feed an audience and to give them so many pages of exposition, this was a real film where people are going to have to think for themselves for a change.”
Did you anticipate the direction they are taking Jason when you signed on to the show?
Ryan Kwanten: “No. But, in order to clarify that I couldn’t have predicted even if I would have tried, you know? They do such a great job in writing for the character and even though I’ve got a vivid imagination, anything I could have come up with pales in comparison to what they have actually done.”
How much do you try to keep up with the plot of ‘True Blood’? Even compared to the first season, it’s on a new level of absurdity this season.
Ryan Kwanten: Yeah, that’s an interesting observation. If you would have started ‘True Blood’ with this season — say this season was the first one — I don’t know if it would have impacted in the same way. I fell like they’re doing what they’re doing with ‘True Blood’ right now because you are absorbed in that world. You know that world and you know the characters. You can go with it, however wacky, wild and madcap those journeys are. You can suspend disbelief. But it’s been a great season. I love seeing Jason broken down almost to the point where he is fighting for his life. I think it’s in those little moments of pressure where you really see who a person is. And I think this was Jason’s chance to really man up and to sort of grow up. He started so low on the evolutionary totem pole that it was time that he did man up.
Is this your favorite Jason Stackhouse storyline?
Ryan Kwanten: I honestly could not pinpoint one. I know that’s a safe answer, but the amount of things that the writers have given me to play with — it’s like looking at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I just wouldn’t be able to know which one to pick.
Click on the links below to read each interview in full:
blog.moviefone.com
movies.about.com
