In a new interview Mark Pellegrino talks about his two most iconic roles: Jacon on Lost and Lucifer on Supernatural. He also discusses his work on Being Human.

Pellegrino says of his roles:

With any role I play, I find out what the human problem is first. Each of my roles affects different dimensions of my life. Everyone has monsters and demons within themselves, they’re metaphors for the human condition.

Although he enjoyed playing both Jacon and Lucifer, he says he prefers his role as Lucifer on Supernatural:

Without the villain, there’s no action. The bad guy is the one with the balls. Without the villain, the hero sits at home on his couch. […] Lucifer is my favorite. He’s dynamic, interesting, and has a lot to say. He’s very counter-culture.

Still, he also enjoyed being a part Lost and playing Jacob:

Jacob was a relief from playing Lucifer. Jacob was the altruist. His main trait was his loyalty. He wanted what he wanted and he wanted to pick apart the universe. […] He was Jesus the Carpenter. How he could see into your soul and love you anyway was so inspiring to me.

He also says that to him, it was actually a good thing that the actors were kept in the dark about future plot lines:

The good thing is that you don’t have a preconceived idea. You try to act what’s in front of you. What’s thought to be an actor’s curse turns out to be an actor’s blessing. I would be doing a scene and they would say ‘that’s Jesus the Carpenter, great!’ and I wouldn’t have realized I was doing that.

On Being Human, Pellegrino says:

The most interesting part of [my] character to me was Bishop’s ambition. His ambition that came from love. He wants to reform his family, that comes from love. His vision is noble. He wants to free an oppressed minority group. Of course the minority group is the vampires. I like the vampires. Especially the new mode who can go out in daylight. They have superhuman strength and speed.

[Being Human is] good drama mixed with comedic action. It’s a genre show without being a genre show. It approaches the genre of vampires in a different perspective. It’s a more gritty point of view.

Do you prefer Jacob or Lucifer? To me, it was always interesting how similar, yet opposite the two characters were. I think I preferred Jacob though, just because he was such an original character, one that viewers had no way of figuring out.

Source: Masslive.com