Josh Dallas, Rebecca Mader, and co-creators/executive producers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz represented ABC’s hit fairy tale-inspired drama series Once Upon a Time at the 2014 WonderCon in Anaheim, CA on Saturday, April 19th. Fans of the popular series lucky enough to be in attendance at the Once Upon a Time panel were treated to some juicy tidbits about season three’s remaining episodes including a tease from Kitsis that the April 27, 2014 episode will feature Snow [played by Ginnifer Goodwin], Charming, and new details about the baby.
The Once Upon a Time gang also took part in interviews while at WonderCon where they were careful not to reveal any spoilers while discussing the addictive series.
Josh Dallas Once Upon a Time Interview
Congratulations on the wedding and the baby.
Josh Dallas: “We decided to just knock it all out at once. All these major, major life things, let’s just get it all done.”
How much fun has he been to play this season?
Josh Dallas: “Oh, great fun. That’s the great thing about playing a character on television is that it keeps evolving, it keeps changing. You’re not doing something that has a finite two hours and you play the whole arc of the character in one. The character just keeps slowly changing and evolving over time, so it’s been great.
Particularly facing what he faced in Neverland and now what he faces in this half of the season. And, of course, a couple of episodes ago he had to face his ultimate fear which is failure, failure of being a father again. And [he] literally came face-to-face with his own fear which was his own sense of failure. I think once he could admit that, that freed him up and it gives him a lot of freedom to go forward.
Charming’s got a lot of pride. He’s not willing to admit that he’s scared or that he’s afraid of failure. Failure is not a word in his vocabulary. I think he’s changing in that he was willing to admit to himself that, ‘I am scared. I’m scared of this.’ It’s something that played on him in that episode [where] it opens up with that nightmare when he’s back in the nursery in the Enchanted Forest and he turns around and there is Emma for the first time in a ball gown. She looks like a princess and that’s everything that he ever wanted for her. He wanted her to grow up in the Enchanted Forest, he wanted her to have that life, and there she was going to a ball and needed to be taught how to dance. That was a moment for him to be a father for the first time and then she’s ripped away. That’s, again, his fear. She says to him, ‘Don’t fail the next one like you failed me.’
I think once he was able to admit that, he was able to, like I said, be free of it somehow and be able to then go forward and hopefully protect this baby because this wicked witch is after it. So he’s going to do whatever he can to save this one and not fail another one again.”
The fact that you’re going to be a father in real life, has that changed how you play the role?
Josh Dallas: “Of course, yeah. I mean there’s a lot of things that feed into that. Of course as an actor you always use things from your real life, so it’s definitely the nervousness of it. ‘Am I going to screw it up? Am I going to fail it in some way?’ It’s all those things. I think you think all of those things.
Of course, in real life with the baby coming we’re just so excited. We’re so excited and nervous and all those things and want it to come. We just want to meet it now. I want it to make all its lungs, but I want to meet it now.”
On a show that is about how badly you can screw a kid up…
Josh Dallas: [Laughing] “Yeah, right. That’s another hour in therapy.”
How is that impacting your perception of your impending fatherhood?
Josh Dallas: “It all feeds into each other both ways. It all feeds the other, and you just want to do the best you can. You can only do the best you can. I think that’s what we’re going to try to do in real life and that’s what Snow and David are trying to do on the show. They’re just trying to do the best they can.
All of these characters regardless whether you’re a villain or a hero…even though these characters in Once Upon A Time no character is 100% bad, no character is 100% good. They’re all kind of gray. They’re all just trying to get to their happy ending, whatever that is for each individual. Now, we have this problem of this wicked witch. She’s coming into town and she’s affecting everyone. Like we had in Neverland, everyone is going to have to pull together to defeat this thing because she wants something from everyone. She wants to take it all. We’re going to have to pull together.”
Could you have imagined from the very first script to now how your character’s developed?
Josh Dallas: “No way. Not at all. That’s the great thing about Eddie [Kitsis] and Adam [Horowitz] is that they’re so creative and you just never know where they’re going to go. Sometimes it would help to know where they’re going to go, but you just never do. That makes it interesting and makes it great for us to still go in and tell these stories every season.”
Have you picked their brains about what’s going to happen next?
Josh Dallas: “Yeah, but they don’t tell us. They might tell us like two or three episodes ahead of what we’re filming, but that’s about it.”
What is your dream scenario for next year?
Josh Dallas: “Oh man, I want like we do in Once Upon a Time at the end of every season, I want that kind of reset button. I love that where it completely changes the whole lineage of the show in a way. It takes it someplace else, and I just hope it just takes it someplace else. I will say, and I mean I don’t think this is a spoiler, but wait until the end of the season. Wait until you see who you’re going to meet.”
You recently had a scene where you were teaching Henry to drive.
Josh Dallas: “Yeah.”
Do you like playing the comedy after all the wicked stuff?
Josh Dallas: “I love it. I hope there is more of that. I hope that continues because I think that’s a really great part of the show. Ultimately, when you look at Once Upon A Time, like you were saying, there are big issues that we’re dealing with in terms of human issues, family issues, so it’s great to have those moments of lighter comedy and David getting bent out of shape because he’s having a better time hanging out with Killian than Hook.
I’m not ever going to let Jared [Gilmore] drive my car in real life, ever. But yeah, that was a fun scene. I like those.”
He’s that bad of a driver?
Josh Dallas: “He wasn’t interested. He’s not interested in driving a car. I couldn’t believe it! 13? I would have stolen a car when I was 13 I wanted to drive so bad. But he doesn’t have any interest at all.”
What do you think Snow and Charming each bring to the leadership of the group? Do they have the same gifts?
Josh Dallas: “Not at all, but I think they’re equal in terms of how they go through life as people. I think if one of them is in trouble, the other one comes up and saves them. If the other one is in trouble, the other one comes over and saves them. I think that’s why they have the greatest partnership ever because they are equals in that kind of way. They have different strengths, of course, but I don’t find one…I mean, I’m defending Charming now but I don’t think he’s less competent.”
Not incompetent, but he hasn’t reached Snow’s level.
Josh Dallas: “No, but look at all the women in Once Upon A Time. That’s the awesome and great thing about Once Upon A Time is all the women are very strong, and that’s the way our show is. That’s a great thing to be able to have a show on television where we have women that are so strong, so competent, so brave, where the men – all the men – take a seat back to the women in the show which is a great thing.
But I wouldn’t say that one was weaker than the other. I’d say everybody complements the other, particularly with Snow and Charming.”
Can you talk about how the show is actually all about heart, sometimes even literally?
Josh Dallas: “The heart of the show is family. The heart of the show is hope. Those are the things that matter. I think that’s why the show connects with so many people is because it has that idea of you can get there. You can get there if you have love. You can get there. True love exists.
As we said during the whole first season, true love is the most powerful magic of all and that would take you somewhere. If you have hope, you can get there. I think that’s what it’s all about. Ultimately, it’s about hope. I think Emma’s character, the savior, embodies all of that hope. Everybody puts that hope into her which can be a great burden on her. I think that’s where the heart lies. If the heart lies within the hope.”
Will the finale be a cliffhanger?
Josh Dallas: “Of course, of course. That’s Once Upon a Time, baby.”
Watch the interview:
