D.B. Woodside Interview – ‘Lucifer,’ Playing an Angel, and the Source Material

DB Woodside Lucifer Interview
DB Woodside as Amenadiel in ‘Lucifer’ (Photo by Smallz and Raskind © 2015 Fox Broadcasting Co)

Lucifer, loosely based on the DC Entertainment’s Vertigo imprint, won’t be debuting on Fox until 2016. However, cast members and executive producers from the series took part in the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con to chat up the show. The series stars Tom Ellis (Merlin) as the fallen angel who decides to take a break from Hell to live among humans in Los Angeles. D.B. Woodside co-stars as Amenadiel, an angel who’s charged with retrieving Lucifer and convincing him to return to Hell.

Sitting down for roundtable interviews at Comic-Con, Woodside talked about what sets his angel apart from ones we’ve previously seen in films or on TV.

“We’re not doing the stereotypical, quiet, and reserved type. I like the fact that he’s a warrior angel. In the pilot, you just get kind of a taste of that, but as the series unfolds, you really get a chance to see this guy being extremely physical. All he knows is fighting; that’s what he does,” said Woodside, adding, “It’s going to be interesting for us as viewers to see him have to deal in this realm of Los Angeles when he’s lived for thousands of years and he’s not really used to communicating with humans. He’s used to walking among them invisible but not really communicating with them.”

Amenadiel’s main goal is to get Lucifer to return to where he belongs, but that task will not be easy. “I think he’s going to start employing different tactics. Lucifer seems to be resistant. So, I think that he’s going to have to start resorting to things that probably make him feel uncomfortable – manipulation maybe, disturbing life on earth. Disrupting that balance more so Lucifer sees what’s really happening. Things that I don’t think Amenadiel ever thought he would have to deal with,” said Woodside. “I think he just thought, ‘I’ll come here, I’ll tell him he has to go back. He’s my little brother and he’ll have a few sarcastic comments, and in the end he’ll come back.'”

However, despite the fact that Lucifer and Amenadiel will be butting heads, Woodside is hopeful that, eventually, they’ll work together.

“I think right now it’s entirely antagonistic simply because they’re on opposite sides. I have a funny feeling that some otherworldly things are going to start to enter into this world of Los Angeles that Lucifer’s not going to be able to close his eyes to. They’re going to have to, I think, work together to solve some pretty big problems. Now how long that lasts, I really have no idea. But I can see them at some point working together. That might be season two, you know? But I can’t see them on opposite sides for that long,” revealed Woodside.

And while it’s based on a comic, it won’t necessarily conform to any one genre. “Lucifer, Amenadiel, Mazikeen, they’re all otherworldly, so I think it kind of lends itself where it can go so many different ways. They tell us we’re very loosely based on the comics, and there’s something about that for me that’s exciting because there’s so many different areas they can go with the story,” explained Woodside. “You’ll be finding out more and more about each character as the show goes on.”

Asked if he read the comics to prepare for the role, Woodside replied, “When I got cast in it I didn’t know it that well, but before we started shooting, I read it only to find everything that you read and studied is not in the show. So, it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, I did all this homework… All right.’ It’s kind of like not there. But, there something just as an actor there’s always that kind of geeky nerdish side of us that loves to do that type of research because it just allows you to think and be creative in so many ways that we’re able to infuse our characters with things that maybe the average viewer might not get, but I think for fans of the comic book they’ll hear certain lines and know there’s a double meaning there. So I think there’s stuff like that that’s really cool.”

Woodside also told us during our interview at Comic-Con that it was Amenadiel’s intensity and focus that he latched onto in approaching the character. “He doesn’t stop to question anything,” explained Woodside. “He’s not a very inquisitive person, it’s just that he follows orders. So I think there’s a passion, there’s a righteousness there that I think is a lot of fun to play because we all know at some point that’s got to come crashing down and then how does he with something that he believed in so strongly, how does he deal with that not being exactly what he thought it was going to be?”

Also of Interest: Tom Ellis Interview / Jonathan Littman Interview / Ildy Modrovich Interview

Watch the full interview with D.B. Woodside on season one of Fox’s Lucifer: