At the San Diego Comic-Con roundtables, the cast of Constantine talked about why they are so excited to be attached to this project.
More than anything it’s obvious that the cast of Constantine is already heavily invested in the show and their roles on it. Bar none, everyone was so excited to talk about their connection with the Hellblazer adaptation and the directions in which the show could move. Here are the highlights.
1. David S. Goyer and Daniel Cerone
The executive producers of Constantine were adamant about the fact that people who are not already fans of the comics can still enjoy the show. “We’re starting at ground zero,” Cerone says, explaining that it’s a way to start everyone off on the same page from the very beginning.
“By the end of the first season, you’ll have met every one of the original members of the Newcastle crew,” the producers say, emphasizing that they’ll be taking a lot of cues from the comic series, including introducing Zed and Papa Midnite.
Oh, and in case you’re worried about previous news that Constantine won’t be smoking much on the show, you have nothing to fret over. He’ll still be smoking even if they have to be clever with how they show it, but they also want to have fun with it, too.
Angélica Celaya
Celaya will be playing Zed, who has replaced Lucy Griffiths’ character Liv as the main female lead. When asked how Zed and Constantine will get on, Celaya says, “It’s a tug and push. They don’t want to admit they need each other. They don’t want to admit that one is fragile, that they need help.”
While Celaya couldn’t comment on Zed’s family and the role they’ll have on the show, she did say, “There will definitely be a feeling that Zed is running away. She’s not stable. She’s not normal. You can tell she’s running away from something, but we just don’t know quite yet what it is.”
Speaking of Zed from the comic books, Celaya made sure to say that she’s not worried about living up to the expectations of the characters from the source material because she knows she would fail. Instead, she wants to put her own spin on it and present viewers with her interpretation.
Charles Halford
Halford talked about Chas’ “brotherly friendship” with Constantine and how difficult it is to be friends with someone like the famed exorcist. He was, we should point out, not the first one of the day to call the main character a bastard.
When we asked if there would be any flashbacks to the origins of Constantine and Chas’ friendship, Halford wasn’t certain there would be, but made sure to say, “I do think we’ll get into the back story and the origin stories of where they came out through various means.”
Matt Ryan
After Ryan talked about the attraction of playing Constantine, he said, “The challenge in [playing Constantine] is how many times can you get beat down and get back up again?” After joking that the line was from Rocky, Ryan elaborated, “He’s always compelled to [get back up]. No matter how much society kicks him in the teeth, he still has to go out and save them.”
We asked Ryan if there was a particular arc from the Hellblazer comics he’d like to see interpreted on screen, and although it was a difficult decision, he eventually landed on “Dangerous Habits,” which is currently his favorite.
Harold Perrineau
Perrineau’s character is not from the comics, but is instead an original creation for the show. In the pilot, we saw that Manny was quite a mysterious character. After being asked what his motivations were, Perrineau said, “His motivations are for what he believes is good. How he gets there… you know.”
Elaborating, he said, “It’s like anything, we all have our point of view about how you get to where you need to get to. But at the end of the day I think his motivations are good. I think he’s actually a loyal angel to his boss, but things haven’t been going the way he wants, so he’s got to figure out how to get it back on track, and Constantine’s going to help him. And he’s going to help Constantine. And it’s not going to be easy.”