The following is an excerpt from a conference call interview with Dichen Lachman, who is guest starring on the US version of “Being Human” during its second season:
John Keegan: Hello….good speaking to you today!
Dichen Lachman: Hello!
John Keegan: Big fan of “Dollhouse”, and I’m very happy to see you on this second season of “Being Human”.
Dichen Lachman: Oh, thank you!
John Keegan: About your experience on “Being Human”…what would you say was probably your most memorable moment so far on the shoot?
Dichen Lachman: It’s probably – memorable. If it’s just about the shoot, it was probably one of the days I woke up at, like, 4:00 in the morning and the whole city was covered in snow. And no one had like driven on the road yet. So even the roads were white, everything was white and I just was jumping up and down shouting, “It’s snowing, it’s snowing. It’s snowing!” all by myself in my Montreal hotel room.
And then driving to work that day was just spectacular because I’ve never lived in a city where it snowed. And I was just so excited by it. I just – the rest of the day I just kind of spent making footprints in the snow and, like a kid, just kicking it around. It was just the most beautiful thing.
As far as the character, I think definitely the flashbacks, because just the opportunity to go – to be in a period situation, the 1930s and get to wear the clothes and have the hair done like that and take myself back into that time was such a cool experience. And I’ll always be so grateful that the writers wrote that for me and they had the courage to sort of say, “Why can’t you be in the 19, 30s or 20s?”
She’s a vampire. I’ll be very, very grateful for that opportunity. I hope I have it again, to do something like that. But to feel the extras dressed up and the props and the art department did such a beautiful job. And I mean, I didn’t even really have to take myself back into that time. It was built around me and I just had to be the character. And I’d say it was definitely that.
John Keegan: I know you mentioned before the difficulty of wearing the contacts, but in terms of the character itself, what would you say was the biggest challenge in approaching that character along the way?
Dichen Lachman: I think it was just not to make her too sort of bitchy. It’s very easy to just slide into just being plain old mean. When you have a character like this who’s so powerful and who doesn’t really care about anybody, very sort of, princessy. She is, she’s a princess and she behaves like one. And it was just to make her likable, to make you feel for her. That was challenging.
And I really hope that she is likable and I made her likable. I hope you guys feel that when you watch the show because, as an actor you do have to fight against that because it’s very easy to slip into just being plain old mean. But, it was something that I had to always, bring back. Pull myself back. Also, my face is to – if I don’t smile, I look really mean.
I think people always they misinterpret me unless I have like a really big grin on my face; they think I’m in a terrible mood or that I hate them. But I often say, “I’m sorry, it’s just my face. It’s the way it’s constructed.” So I hope she comes across likable. I hope that’s something you got in the second episode.
John Keegan: Thank you…it’s been a pleasure speaking with you today.
Dichen Lachman: Thank you!
