In the first part of our exclusive interview with Merlin star Alexander Vlahos, we discuss Merlin fan conventions, Dorian Gray, his Kickstarter projects… and his own obsession, Doctor Who.
They say that the fame game corrupts, that the spotlight lures you in and raises you up, and turns you into something you’re not.
But speaking to Alexander Vlahos proves that this doesn’t have to be the case at all.
24-year-old Vlahos was born and raised in Wales, where he attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. With projects like the acclaimed radio production The Confessions of Dorian Gray and the TV series The Indian Doctor, he was already well on his way to success when he in 2012 landed the role of Mordred on BBC’s Merlin – and then his career properly took off.
And while Merlin might have ended, the series has left Vlahos with a very devoted and supportive fan base who it seems will follow him on any venture – whether it be a self-produced play about a gardening shed or a tongue-in-cheek campaign to become Doctor Who’s next Doctor.
A self-confessed Doctor Who “fanboy,” Vlahos seems to know just how to connect with his own fans, to whom he attributes most of his success.
He doesn’t shy away from the fame his Merlin gig has brought him and actively seeks to “give back” to the people who support him, and maybe that is the key to remaining as down to earth as anyone as he chats to us about his career while walking down a busy London street.
In this interview, Hypable speaks to Vlahos about his post-Merlin projects, the lingering popularity of the show, and what his future plans are (hint: #Vlafor12!).
‘There’s more ‘Dorian Gray’ to come’
One of Vlahos’ most cherished projects is David Llewellyn’s The Confessions of Dorian Gray, a Big Finish radio production inspired by Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Recently it was announced that not only will there be a sequel series, but Llewellyn has also adapted the original novel as a standalone production.
(Note: Vlahos is very open about what happens in the story, so beware of spoilers.)
Hypable.com: Could you explain to the readers what the two new ‘Dorian Gray’ projects you’ve been working on are?
Alexander Vlahos: Yes! We’ve recorded [The Picture of Dorian Gray], which is amazing… it’s a hobby of mine, it’s a joy. Although it’s weird to do Dorian as a standalone rather than as part of the canon series.
People are messaging me all the time saying, “Oh, are you gonna change the ending of the book so that he lives?” And, well, no, we’re gonna serve the book. So Dorian does die at the end. We’re going to treat the Oscar Wilde book as its own entity, so it’s not particularly a canon thing… and then obviously we then did another five-episode series, and we also did an hour-long Halloween special.
I love how people are hoping for a happy ending. It’s like ‘Merlin’ all over again.
Yeah, exactly [laughs]. But I think people are thinking, well, then it would make sense going into the Confessions with that in mind. And if they’re gonna use me, who plays him in the Confessions series, maybe they’ll just alter it so then we all go “Oh, well that makes perfect sense.” But no, we’re gonna serve the book as it is, cause it should be so. I think we’ve bastardized Oscar Wilde’s version of Dorian Gray enough as it is [laughs]. Let’s not bastardize the book again.
Do you enjoy doing the voice work for ‘Dorian Gray’? It’s sort of a change of pace from your other work…
Yeah, it’s a joy to do the role. It’s weird, that first series was a massive risk on Big Finish’s part… their leads are usually past Doctors, actually. You’ve got Peter Davidson, Colin Baker and Tom Baker, all doing a series because they have the weight of the Doctor Who fandom behind them.
To risk banking a whole series on me was a risk, it was a massive risk and a massive challenge. But then since the feedback and the reviews from the fist series have been so positive, you just run with it because you know that you’ve got confidence behind you, you know? And you can have a scoop here: there’s more to come, as well.
Embracing fan funding: Kickstarter projects
Tell me about the different Kickstarter projects you’re doing – I’m trying to get around to everything you have going on…
Oh god, I know, I sort of overdid myself! I didn’t expect them both to be launched so soon after each other, it was like one launch and then the other one launched the next day. And I was like uh-oh, this might be a bit of an overkill, we might get no money.
Well that was not a concern you needed to have!
[Laughs] Right, yeah! So the first one is Gardening: For the Unfulfilled and Alienated, that’s for my own theatre company Undeb Theatre… I’m always tentative about going up to [the Edinburgh Fringe Festival] because I think you generally lose money, it’s a risk without a payoff at Edinburgh sometimes. But then as the company progressed and we had a good play, this one man show, so the Kickstarter thing became an obvious thing.
And then along with that came with my idea of wanting to do a music video for “Button Eyes,” my friend [Chris Hyson]’s music (check it out on Soundcloud and buy the album on Bandcamp), which is beautiful. And like I said, they both sort of launched within a day of each other, and they both did really well.
I was sort of encouraged by what Eoin [Macken, fellow Merlin star] did with Cold, he gave me the confidence to think that fan funding could work. And it has, he was right! What he did with Cold was amazing. You’re not selling yourself, but you’re doing that thing of giving something to the fans that they wouldn’t normally get, and also helping your own project. It’s a brilliant idea, and he smashed his record with the IndieGoGo campaign for Cold. And the Kickstarter thing seemed like an obvious thing to do to help my own company.
And we’ve completely smashed the target for the Undeb campaign, which is great, it just shows how much the fans care about you after the show. And it’s been overwhelming and humbling to find out every day if someone’s pledged money. I’m so grateful.
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