Fine-tuning the Forever Knight phenom
On the set of the vampire cop show, its stars talk about the new season
By Robert Crew
January 1, 1996
It's much the same as morgues everywhere - huge, ominous sinks and counters of stainless steel, tiles of a sickly color, calendars on the wall, an appointment pad on the desk.
But it's quite a lot warmer than you'd imagine. More crowded, too - and with live bodies.
This is the set of Forever Knight, the vampire cop show that has garnered a fanatical cult following both here and in the U.S. The title of this episode is "Hearts Of Darkness" and this is the scene in which Nick and Natalie finally put all the pieces together.
Nick is Nick Knight, the 13th century vampire turned 20th century cop. Natalie is Dr. Natalie Lambert, a forensic pathologist and the only non-vamp aware of Nick's secret.
But the scene is not going too smoothly. Both Geraint Wyn Davies, who plays Nick, and Catherine Disher (Natalie) have a little trouble with awkwardly written speeches that are a tongue-twisting jumble of names.
But the atmosphere on set seems comfortable. There's some good-natured joshing between the two stars, with crew and director/assistant-director types joining in.
The next take is word-perfect.
-------
Forever Knight is a phenomenom, a Canadian show that was the most popular series in CBS's Crime Time After Prime Time. It was saved by a mass letter-writing campaign and 26 more episodes were filmed last fall. Now it's back again, with solid time slots (BBS and USA Network, Mondays at 10 p.m.), some new characters and 22 new episodes.
Forever Knight happened along just as more and more teenagers were getting bitten by the Gothic craze and its black clothes, white makeup and expensive vampire teeth (plastic is definitely not cool). The show is also big on the Internet.
"We certainly caught the crest of the wave of something," Wyn Davies remarks.
-------
It's a couple of hours later in Nick Knight's spacious, dimly lit den. Disher has her feet curled up on a black leather sofa and Wyn Davies is serving soft drinks. The "red wine" favored by the Forever Knight vampires is not on offer.
Both Wyn Davies and Disher say they have mixed feelings about this season's cast changes. They welcome the new blood in the cast - Lisa Ryder as Nick's new partner, Blu Mankumas as Nick's boss, Ben Bass as a Gen. X vampire - but regret the loss of John Kapelos and Deborah Duchene.
"Politics," says Wyn Davies when asked about the changes. "Certain people's tastes are different from others."
The reason, apparently, is to woo a younger, funkier audience.
"John is a huge loss," Wyn Davies says. "The show was structured around two wonderful triangles that balanced each other. There were myself and the two humans, Catherine and John, and the vampires - myself, Nigel and Deborah.
"Now, two of those points have been taken away . . ."
". . . and they don't quite know what to fill the void with," Disher says. "The new actors are great, but it's all got to do with the planning and the writing of the show."
-------
The call sheet for this episode makes interesting reading.
The extras required for the day's shoot: "Corpses x 3, barmaids x 3, bartender x 1, belles-dames x 4, brazen ladies x 7, roguish gamblers x 5, Southern gentlemen x 4.
For wardrobe: "Possible body stockings for corpses. Negligee. Urs's bodice. Tracy's purse."
And under makeup: "Bite marks, Lemieux dead. Bloody tears, Urs awakens." "Eyes and fangs" have a special section to themselves.
-------
One reason the show works is that both Wyn Davies and Disher are accomplished stage actors. He starred for eight seasons at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals; she has worked at most of Toronto's major theatres, including the Royal Alexandra, Tarragon and Canadian Stage.
The show is not a comedy but "has elements of parody and tongue-in-cheek humor," Wyn Davies says. And stage actors, he argues, know how to play heightened emotions honestly, without an excess of melodrama.
Both also enjoy the trappings that come with a successful TV series.
Wyn Davies, his wife Alana and their two children are moving to southern California; he won't say exactly where.
Yes, he tells Disher, who has immediately invited herself to stay, it has a pool. And a guest house.
"It's like winning the lottery, let's face it," Disher says. "You work at the Tarragon for $300 a week and suddenly there's this."
But it costs more to work as well. Disher, who had a baby between the first series and the second, now has to employ a full-time nanny.
"I need a wife," she jokes. "I want your wife. I want Alana."
Despite the success, both yearn to get back on stage.
"The trap is that you get used to all of this," says Wyn Davies. "And you know that this ( Forever Knight) is not exactly the pinnacle. The trick is to turn it into something else."
"I do get a bit bored with the part," Disher admits, "and I have become adept at memorizing techno-speak and forgetting it seven minutes later.
"Occasionally they give me a bit more. Usually they make me cry - I have a boyfriend who turns out to be a serial killer or something."
On the other hand, Wyn Davies is now directing some of the shows and can bring in friends from the stage.
He directed a swashbuckling episode last season that starred Stratford's Colm Feore and Shaw's Andrew Gillies.
"It was the best time I've had. Really good actors from the theatre, doing something we all like - the campy, panache stuff - on a vampire cop show on which I was the star and which I was directing.
"I thought: It doesn't get much better than this."