First of all, it’s important to know that The Antichrist is a big Batman fan. Huge Batman fan. Well, Bradley James is a huge Batman fan and he plays The Antichrist so that’s good enough. Here at WonderCon James and many others from the A&E show Damien are here promoting it and it appears that things are about to go belly up.
In the first couple of episodes of the series, James has shown us a Damien Thorn who is troubled about the darkness around him and his fate is unknown to him. Chatting with the actor, I mentioned how he’s the most likable Antichrist we’ve seen portrayed thus far. His response was simple:
“I guess you haven’t seen the next episode yet.”
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What that foretells is that things are about to go south for the young man and those around him. The actor is mum on what is about to unfold on the series from The Walking Dead and The Shield alum Glen Mazzara, but he’s not going to be so likable for long. James and co-star Barbara Hershey were quick to discuss the show’s place in this new “golden age of television” and that the dark and complex material really finds a foothold in today’s market. Hershey, who is as close to Hollywood royalty as there is, and a horror icon in her own right after The Entity and Insidious, thinks it’s actually a “golden age of darkness,” referring both to audiences having a sophisticated enough palate for material like this but also what is happening in the real world. In many ways to her, the show is truly a mirror held to society.
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It certainly makes the scares that much scarier.
James credits his agents with forcing him to read the script for the show, one which could be a controversial and career-threatening one for a hot young actor coming off of Merlin. Whereas American agents may have steered the sinister material away from a client, his UK-based representatives pushed the meaty and complex role on the actor with leading man good looks.
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He’s sold us on the unassuming, good-natured man with a dark past. Now it’s about to get crazy.
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