My theory on Hollywood is that everyone who plays bad guys are actually the nicest people in real life, and it’s “America’s Sweethearts” that you have to watch out for.
Tony Curran continued to prove my theory when I met him during the Television Critics Association Press Tour. On Syfy’s “Defiance,” Curran plays Datak Tarr, the leader of the Castithan race who wields considerable influence within the town while controlling its criminal underworld as well.
Unlike Datak Tarr, Curran was completely personable as he spoke with me at length about his detailed inspirations for the character.
CraveOnline: You’re one of the few actors who gets to be in both the game and the show. Does that mean Datak goes to San Francisco in the game?
Tony Curran: At the moment I don’t think I’m in the game right now, but I think I will be joining the game this year, so yeah. I look forward. I’ve done motion capture before. I did Tintin recently with Spielberg and so on, but it’ll be fun to play the same character in a game as well as being in a show. It’s going to be quite compelling, going from both worlds I would imagine.
That makes sense that you haven’t done the game yet because they couldn’t have you do both at the same time. So now you’ve shot the show and you can be available for the game.
Julie [Benz] has been doing a bit more. Grant [Bowler] and Stephanie [Leonidas] have obviously been doing quite a lot of it, but it does take up a lot of time. So I think they’ll just start with the more main characters first and then they’re going to start integrating everybody else in. The televisual aspect obviously takes some time, but not as long as the video game does and the world, putting that together. We’re all looking forward to being part of both.
Do you think shtako is going to become the new frak?
Most definitely, yeah. I think it’s going to be quite a popular term at Comic-Con this year, definitely. I say it all the time. It’s much better than saying other things as well, other vernaculars I guess. Shtako. There’s a few other good swear words as well in Castithan.
Based on the first few episodes, do you think that Datak and his wife are different in private than they are in public?
In the sense that they’re more intimate. You can see an intimacy outside, but they’re definitely more intimate in private and obviously that’s when the business talking gets done. There is a facade there when they’re walking around in public, but when they’re behind closed doors, he’s a bit of an animal. Stahma is from a higher caste, so she’s got more class. Datak has been ripped from the pages of a Dickens novel. He’s a bit of an alien gangster if you will because he rules this underworld in Defiance called The Hollows. That’s his world of racketeering.
There’s a bit of Nucky Thompson in Datak Thar. He’s trying to have this facade where he’s “Hey, how you doing?” and then he’ll stab you in the back. I’ve always been inspired by gangsters, or actors like Jimmy Cagney for instance, White Heat. He’s not a two dimensional bad guy. He’s a bad guy, but also he’s a victim. It’s almost like society has created this monster.
At the same time, Angels with Dirty Faces, he comes down to the end, the priest says, “If you don’t squeal, if you don’t squeal, they’ll end up having a life like yours.” For me, that was a real moment when I watched that. Jimmy Cagney’s been dragged to the electric chair and in the last minute he starts squealing and crying, losing it. The only reason he does it is because he realizes that the kid are going to end up like him, a wiseass, a wiseguy, bad guy. He changes at that last moment.
I think Datak’s a bit like that. He’s a victim, but he’s also quite an aggressive character who gets what he wants. But he’s also very vulnerable as well, which I find interesting. I’ve talked to the writers and we’ve put it all together. He’s a powerful, suave, alien character, but he’s a vulnerable person as well. He’s got a very painful past which a lot of people, many people have. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Unfortunately for him, it comes out in a very violent way sometimes. But he doesn’t hurt kids or animals.
But even between each other, they’re different in private than they are in public.
I think Datak can learn a lot from his wife in how he’s a bit of a blunt instrument. And he has to definitely, if he wants to climb the social ladder as it were, he has to start behaving himself a little bit more. I think with Jaime Murray who plays Stahma, she’s a very wise, cunning woman and I think between the two of them, she calms him down.
In public, sometimes he’s a bit of a hothead you might say. He can lose himself and become quite violent, so sometimes that violence, moments have to be chosen as it were and Stahma finds that with me, normally when we’re in the tub together which is what a lot of the Castithans do.
