‘Damien’ – Bradley James and Barbara Hershey Interview

Barbara Hershey Bradley James Damien
Barbara Hershey and Bradley James star in A&E’s ‘Damien’ (Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg
Copyright 2016)

Damien‘s currently in the middle of season one on A&E but if you’re not already hooked, you still have time to catch on. Airing on Mondays at 10pm ET/PT, the series is a sequel to the 1976 horror hit The Omen and stars Bradley James (Merlin, iZombie) as Damien Thorn, the son of the Devil. Barbara Hershey co-stars as Ann Rutledge, a mentor/protector of sorts to the Antichrist. James and Hershey were part of A&E’s Damien panel at the 2016 WonderCon and also took part in interviews to discuss the horror series which finds Damien learning the truth about his background over the course of the season.

Bradley James and Barbara Hershey Interview:

Barbara Hershey: “The thing I keep hearing sometimes from people is how did the little boy who smiled with knowledge at the camera at the end of the original film The Omen, how did he get to this point? How come he didn’t [know]? How is this related to that? And what I just wanted to say is that he is half-human, like Christ was half-human, the human part of him couldn’t handle the facts and blanked it out like people do when horrendous things happen in their childhood. And he was always attracted to pain and became a war photographer – and what’s more painful than war? I’m sure whenever these ideas came in, little feelings, you’d push them out. That brought him to the present. That’s what I always thought was the answer to that.”

Is that what you thought, too?

Bradley James: [Laughing] “Yes.”

Is Damien sort of in denial right now as it becomes more and more clear to everyone around him that he’s connected to these terrible things?


Bradley James: “That’s probably a good way of putting it. I would say that anyone being informed that they’re the Anti-Christ would try and hold off for as long as possible before agreeing to that. Yeah, I don’t think that’s something that you hear and then go, ‘Okay.'”

How much of Ann’s ultimate plan do you know at this point?

Barbara Hershey: “Ultimate plan…I kind of am clear on it, yeah. How she gets there, I’m not so clear on. What her plan is, yeah. What her desire is, yeah.”

What has been the most taxing scene for you to play?

Bradley James: “I’m not sure if there is a specific scene largely because you find yourself mapping out… I mean, the difficult scenes are ones that are technically difficult. The difficulty of it is just finding the truth, being truthful, and that tends to be something that happens over the course of an episode so it’s difficult to sort of narrow that down into one scene. I think as long as you’ve done your homework. […]I enjoy this role so much that I’ve never had difficulty working, which makes it sound like I find it really easy which isn’t the case. It’s a challenge – a wonderful challenge.”

Barbara Hershey: “It’s not just one scene, it’s trying to come to something truthful, something real. And that can be in a simple scene as well, the challenge is hard.”

Bradley James: “There’s a challenge to it and that’s what’s brilliant about acting is when you get those challenges right and you take them head on. It’s what I get excited about it.”

You said you’ve enjoyed the role. What is it about playing Damien that you’ve enjoyed?

Bradley James: “I’ve enjoyed – cast aside, I’ll wax lyrical about the cast – I had a fantastic time coming onto set and bouncing off these people. And also just an opportunity to explore parts of myself, parts of humanity that are not ones I as readily sort of delve into. You sort of have to tap into your own I use the word darkness and it’s not really the right word, but you just have to tap into those aspects of yourself which may be perceived as a bit negative or to use a crass word, evil. I think we all sort of have that within us and it can be somewhat cathartic to sort of explore that within yourself and just get a better understanding of it.”

What do you hope audiences will take away from this show?

Bradley James: “I hope they ask a lot of questions of themselves. I hope they have a better understanding of the fact that we’re not all one thing, it’s not black and white.”

You played King Arthur in Merlin and now you’re playing the Devil reborn. Do you prefer the evil character?

Bradley James: “I prefer the variety. You know, acting always drew me as a kid. I got to be lots of people and have fun with it, and that’s what I’ve been very fortunate with with Damien because I did King Arthur obviously and then I was looking for something that was going to be completely different and fortunately enough Damien came along.”

Did you do all of the stunts in the train scene?

Bradley James: “Yes. The only thing that was missing was the train car. They were rushing above our heads, actually, and it sounded like whenever one came through it was like, ‘I’m pretty sure one of those cars is going to just fall through the floor.’ No, it was in terms of [that], one of the more enjoyable scenes was the whole subway stuff largely just because I got to run around and jump over stuff. It was fun. You can take your mind off of it a little bit more and just throw yourself at it physically. I love all that stuff. I love the physical aspects to the character. Like, ‘Get the stunt man out of here. I’ll do this.'”

How is it to see the finished episodes with all the effects added in?

Bradley James: “I’m quite happy. I’ve seen the whole lot. I’ve seen the ebb and flow of it and how it sort of finds its feet and starts to get stuck in. It has a great running towards the end and I’m very happy with the story that’s been told.”

How do you think Damien, with a journalism background, deals with the supernatural that he discovers is around him?

Bradley James: “That is the discovery that we’re about to make.”

Did you get to do a lot of cool stunts over season one?

Bradley James: “I wouldn’t say…obviously it’s not as stunt-heavy as some of the stuff that I’ve done. I’m trying to think if there’s one in particular that matches up to it. I think the set pieces are more of a mental play than a sort of action. There’s action in it; there’s certain moments like the train scene in episode three, but obviously I’ve had in previous jobs an intense level of stunt work to do that it’s sort of water off a duck’s back at this stage.”

In the original movie there were unexplained things that happened during filming. Did anything unexplained happen to either of you?

Barbara Hershey: “No, for me, but there was a lot of stuff with birds that was happening. Glen [Mazzara] was having coffee with his wife and we were shooting a segment the next day with this bird that was in episode two and this bird inside his house crashed into the window. He picked it up and it died in his hands. It’s strange because they couldn’t figure out where it came in. He went out and came back and there was another one there in the same spot. And then a lot of bird things happened to people during filming. One guy was attacked by ravens when he was working out, out running. There were a lot of those types of things going on, but nothing to me.”

Bradley James: “I think I get a hall pass for that, being Damien.”

Barbara Hershey: “I didn’t think about that. We’re on the right side! There are perks to the darkside.”

Is this the darkest character you’ve ever played?

Barbara Hershey: “I don’t look at the character that way. To me, she has a belief system and it’s the same as a Catholic person or someone who’s very steeped in their powerful belief system. Hers just happens to be the other side. From her point of view she’s not dark or evil. That has to do really with who’s talking. I mean, throughout history a lot of people from religions have killed a lot of people. Are those people evil? So I kind of think of it that way. She’s protecting him. Is that evil?”

So she believes she’s doing the right thing?

Barbara Hershey: “Absolutely. And she might be…”

Watch the full interview with Bradley James and Barbara Hershey: