To celebrate the show’s return, CultBox caught up with Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller for a chat about what’s coming up in Season 3…
There’s been such a fantastic response to the show in particular towards Hugh and Mads. What do you think it is about their performances that fans love?
“I think their friendship comes through their performance and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to cast Mads after we had cast Hugh was that I knew they were friends and I knew Hugh was very invested in working with Mads again and their camaraderie and their brotherhood offscreen so interestingly informs their chemistry onscreen.
“That was exactly what I wanted to capture that these two men genuinely like each other onscreen and off and the complexities of the characters roles that only serve to further deepen that relationship, so I think what fans respond to is that friendship.”
You can see how well they react to each other onscreen.
“They’re both pros. They’re absolute professionals and enjoy their craft and enjoy each other and it’s wonderful to see and I think that that translates.”
You’ve spoken before of the ongoing rights issue with MGM. If you managed to come to an agreement who would be your ideal Clarice and what backup plans are in place for when the show reaches Silence of the Lambs territory?
“Well, you know I love Ellen Page, I think she’s a brilliant actor and I think she would be so engaging to step into that role, but I’m also excited about the idea of casting someone non-white as Clarice Starling particularly as her background in the South as being from a small town we have a different level.
“If she were black or if she were Latino or Asian and it would inform the role in a different way and I think one of the things that is great about colourblind casting is that there are so many amazing non-white actors out there but the flaw in colourblind casting is occasionally is ignoring an actor’s race, because I think that can inform the character in such a different way because a young black woman’s experience is going to be different than a young white woman’s experience is going to be different than a young Latino woman’s experience and a young Asian woman’s experience.
“Ethnicity and race do change experiences and perspectives and that’s something to be celebrated and taken advantage of as opposed to ignored.”
Finally, how would you convince new viewers to watch the show?
“I think that the appeal of the show is it’s psychological thriller and I think that audiences may have varying degrees of baggage with the Hannibal franchise and I would recommend that they chuck their baggage and enjoy the show for what it is because as we step into the third season it becomes something wholly different than what we’ve been doing in the first two years and departs from any of the films.
“Yet it’s familiar with the films because we do engage in some of the same storylines, but we’re approaching them from different perspectives and changing characters around so that something that may have happened in the books or the previous movies to one character is happening to a different character with an entirely new perspective.”
Bryan, thank you very much and good luck with the new season!
“Thank you so much and thank you for supporting the show.”
> Buy the complete Season 1-2 boxset on Amazon.
Watch the Season 3 trailer…
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