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© SyFy / Jill Greenberg

Josh, Sally and Aidan in Being Human USA







Sam Huntington as Josh, Mark Pellegrino as Bishop, Meaghan Rath as Sally, Sam Witwer as Aidan in Being Human USA

© SyFy / Jill Greenberg

Josh, Bishop, Sally and Aiden in Being Human USA

Are you grateful that people compare the two shows less now that you're in your third season?
"Definitely yes. There were quite a few British remakes being made in America happening around the time that we launched… and we're the last one left standing! I think part of it was the fact that we had the assistance of Toby Whithouse [creator of the BBC series] and [UK series producer] Rob Pursey visited the set, so we had them telling us what they thought worked and what they thought didn't in terms of their first series, and what to look out for.

"The cast all stayed away from the British version while we were shooting our first season, but as soon as we were done, I bought everyone the Blu-ray boxset and we just went for it, and really enjoyed it."

So once you knew it wouldn't affect your performance, you delved in?
"That's it, exactly - we had to do our own thing and the characters had to feel different. We had to go in completely with fresh eyes and then after that, it was tremendous fun to dive into that series."

On Being Human, the relationship between yourself, Sam Huntington (Josh) and Meaghan Rath (Sally) is central - how easy was it to develop that?
"Pretty easy, actually. In fact, our producers had to tell us to tone it down - the friendship and chemistry factor. We had it the moment we sat down to audition. That won't necessarily be apparent to you in watching the series…

"It's interesting - when the BBC series starts, you're thrown kind of into the middle of things. The characters know each other and have this fun banter between them. We couldn't do that, because you see our cast meet each other and start to get to know each other.

"So the producers came to us and rightfully so said, 'Listen, if you guys are all bantering and playing off each other and there isn't a little bit of a stilted feeling, it's going to read like a sitcom - it's going to seem like Three's Company' - so in the early days, people were saying, 'They don't have the chemistry of the BBC original,' but we weren't allowed to! They forbid us from it, and they were right!"

A still from Episode 1 of Being Human USA

© SyFy / Philipe Bosse

A still from Episode 1 of Being Human USA

I guess there are worse things than having too much chemistry…
"Well, that's the thing - Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath… I don't know if I've ever worked with actors who enjoy being around each other as much as we do. I mean, the Battlestar Galactica cast, for example, was a very happy cast, but this one… we go on vacation together and we hang out on weekends when we're not shooting. It's really strange!"

Before you joined Being Human, did you get a taste of cult fandom from your roles on Battlestar Galactica and Smallville?
"Yes, absolutely. I've done a lot of different projects and it seems that the ones people are most interested have been these genre projects. The Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game, The Clone Wars [animated series], Smallville, Battlestar Galactica

"But I'm a huge genre fan myself, so I feel in a strange way that I'm playing to an audience of my peers. I'm playing to my people! Because I really like all this stuff - I don't necessarily seek it out, but at this point it seems to seek me out a little bit and that's just fine by me."

With the third season of Being Human drawing to a close tonight in the US, are there rumblings of a fourth season?
"There are many rumblings. I can't really say more than this, but the thing that everybody's working on right now is a little bit cooler than [a fourth season] - but I can't really say much more. It takes a little bit more logistics to set up - which is probably why nothing's been announced just yet - but the plans are slightly more ambitious."


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