The 2014 New York Comic-Con had attendance that far surpassed that of San Diego (according to NYCC, but we’re still skeptical). While the multi-billion dollar movie industry still dominates San Diego, this makes New York Comic-Con the largest pop culture event in the United States in cold numbers. And inside this leviathan of an event housed in one of the busiest cities in the entire world, I managed to have a relaxing little chat.
Constantine, the newest DC/Vertigo show, will soon hit broadcast airwaves in a little under ten days. Show stars Matt Ryan, Angélica Celaya, and executive producer David S. Goyer sat down with me for a few minutes and answered questions after I asked them, because that’s how these things work, you see.
The show is housed on a kind of left-field network: NBC. While the channel has had varying degrees of success with genre shows — from Heroes to Hannibal — it’s still hard to imagine Constantine being in the house that Johnny Carson built. Constantine seems destined to be the next hot item, but what’s standing in its way?
“I mean obviously there are some constraints you have to deal with on network that you don’t have to deal with on pay cable,” says executive producer David S. Goyer. “But having said that, we’re on on the same network on the same time slot that Hannibal also inhabits and … I’m shocked by some of the things they do on Hannibal. So, I don’t think we’ve toned it down that much actually.”
How did NBC become the choice for Constantine anyway?
“We have an executive at NBC, Perlina, whose been a fan of the character even when she used to work at Showtime with Bob Greenblatt, so she’s been wanting to do a Constantine show ever since then. And Bob Greenblatt came over from Showtime and they came from pay cable sensibility, and watching what’s been happening with cable versus network and clearly network has had to change so I think it’s a comfortable fit. Of all the networks, it’s hard to imagine Constantine working on any of the other networks.”
In the last few years pay cable has certainly raised the bar for what audiences perceive television storytelling to be. But what of that story? What are we going to get with Constantine? Constantine isn’t Batman, but he still has a passionate fanbase that knows his stories well. “Any adaptation of something in a different is going to change a little bit but it stays very closely,” says Goyer. “I think by the time people watch the first twelve or thirteen episodes, they will be shocked at how much of that original Hellblazer milieu is embodied in the show … We’ve already adapted some specific issues within the first season.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQauGK0AeS4
Constantine himself has got a ton of signatures: The trench coat. The smoking. The tie. The punk rock music? “We do kind of have a punk soundtrack. We have Buzzcocks on the show, Ramones, and I’m incredibly proud to say, in episode 3 — this may be the first time it’s happened in network television, I could be wrong — I got them to license a Sex Pistols song. So John is listening to the Sex Pistols in that episode, in a scene in which Papa Midnite shows up.”
Judging only by the trailers, it appears Constantine is kind of stuck in a few certain locales. According to Goyer, Constantine will be up and about a lot more than one might think. “The show will ultimately take place all over the world. Even in the first season we’re out of America for some of the show. We’re not in London yet, but … if you think about [it], when John was first introduced, it was in America. “American Gothic” took place in America. But we’ll go back to London at some point. And we’ll be dipping back into what happened in New Castle.”
In 2005 a big-budget film starring Keanu Reeves was released to a lukewarm reception. Personally, I enjoyed it, but it’s hard to deny the somewhat lethargic effect it had on mainstream audiences. How much of the movie influenced the decision to produce the show? Were they worried at all about the less-than-stellar first impression the movie made? “Not at all,” says Goyer. “I think to a certain extent people are used to there being different iterations of things. Lord knows there have been multiple iterations of Batman and Superman and whatnot. The movie was polarizing, I enjoyed it for what it was, but first and foremost we cast a British actor to play a British character.”
Matt Ryan as “Constantine”
Matt Ryan is certainly one of the more exciting factors for Constantine. “And I know people that have seen the show, almost to a man or woman, feel that Matt has completely embodied John Constantine,” says Goyer. And he’s right. Matt Ryan, dressed in all black with a leather jacket and unbuttoned boots, swaggers to my table like he actually just finished fighting off a demon and had a smoke outside the Javits Center like it was no big. The first question someone asked: Did you ever do the Mumbles Mile? “I’m from Swansea. I can’t remember doing the Mumbles Mile, but that’s the whole point. We used to do a beer and a shot in every pub.”
Everyone in the press room had been working (which involves lots of waiting, and waiting) throughout the convention, but Ryan’s presence put everyone at ease. And he’s the one playing demon hunter. But what is it like being Constantine? What dictated his decisions as an actor who John Constantine was? “It’s interesting because there are so many different writers that write him and artists that draw him, but what’s great is that there are so many things you can pick out for different episodes and different storylines,” says Ryan. “It’s like this canvas of stuff,” he motions with his hands, circling them around. “You’re never lost for ideas. You can just dip in and go, ‘Oh, I can use that.’ [But we’re] keeping the core DNA of the character there consistently, and then using the rest of it then as you see fit.”
Ryan says the most fun he has playing Constantine is “when he’s just a real bugger … And he does it with a smile.” And why? “You don’t get to do that in real life. You get slapped and knocked out.”
No matter your thoughts on previous portrayals, for many it was great to finally hear Constantine speak in a British accent. But there was more to it than just that. “What was important to me was kind of trying to get the essence of the character, rather than just playing a Scouse accent and going ‘Okay, this is my John Constantine and he’s a Scouse.’ I was just trying to get the the DNA of him and be true to him. And I also wanted to do something accessible to a broad audience. He’s kind of like a northern, you know he’s from the north, but I’m not going too Scouse with it. I kind of just concentrated on really getting under his skin and getting the essence of it.”
The heaviness of Constantine is taxing for any one man to play. It’s not uncommon to hear about roles leaving their mark on the actors who portray them, so how does Ryan deal with it? “It’s weird, because I don’t know, I just play him. I try to dip into a comic before going to bed, but some days you work fifteen hours a day, and then you decide to read a comic and you just give yourself nightmares. So some nights I listen to nursery music.” The whole table erupts in laughter. “It’s quite taxing, but it’s fun and great.”
“God is he funny,” Goyer says about star Matt Ryan. “I’m excited for you guys to see subsequent episodes because what you hope for a show is they get better and better with each subsequent episode, and episodes three, and four, and five, six, seven, it just ramps up and ramps up. And he is just mainlining John Constantine. We saw over 500 people and it’s really hard because we had this sort of impression in our minds who John should be. Matt did a self-tape, he was on stage in London with a giant beard. He looked like Sasquatch. And I said, That’s the guy.’ Showed it to the studio and they said that’s not the guy. I said, ‘That’s the guy!’ I said to our casting lady, don’t let him out of his option. We kept on seeing people and I did my best to sabotage all those auditions. Eventually, Matt finished his run, shaved the beard, and I said, that’s the guy. And eventually we cast him.”
Did Matt Ryan live up to the original vision of what Constantine was? “I wanted someone to look like he leapt off the page, from the Delano comic books. Or Tim Bradstreet covers. And Matt looks like John Constantine! And acts like John Constantine! And so for all these years, decades, I’ve had this kind of idea in my head, and to actually cast someone who brings that to life is amazing.”
Constantine isn’t the kind of character you’d expect to headline a network show. He’s compelling, sure, but there was a reason why he was created in late-80’s comic books and not immediately for mainstream television. Goyer and his team knew that. “He had to be a bastard,” he says. “Sometimes a real asshole. That’s just who he is. Snarky and he lies. He’s terrible to the men and women he sleeps with. He’s not your first choice when you think of somebody to save the world, unfortunately he’s the guy we’ve got. And that’s what makes him so fun. And we said those things to NBC. We said in the beginning, if you can get behind this guy — he’s not a shiny, matinee idol guy — then we’re good. And they’ve embraced that.” There was something akin to a grocery list of who Constantine had to be. “He had to be British. He had to have the trenchcoat, skinny tie, and even though he’s on network he had to be a smoker. There was some negotiations to that, because that’s just part and parcel to his character. We all know he gets cancer later on and that’s something we wanted to give a nod to.”
The show is called Constantine but he’s not the only one playing in this weird-ass universe. Enter Zed, portrayed by the excellent Angelica Celaya. “She comes from the Hellblazer world,” says Celaya. “She’s sensitive, she gets visions, she’s always within the arts. She’s spray painting or drawing, and that’s how she translates her visions. And she’s running away from situations in her life. And within the show we see her running with walls, not really trusting, scared, but through being scared she becomes tough. That’s what Zed is. It is based on Zed from Hellblazer. It is 100%. And we’re not shying away from her at all.”
Angelica Celaya as “Zed”
Zed’s presence has come as a surprise. The pilot introduced us to Liv Aberdine, who was portrayed by actress Lucy Griffiths. After the pilot, the producers sought a different direction and took another character from the Hellblazer universe, Zed. How did she prepare on such short notice? “They gave me a stack of books, and they were like, here you go. And that’s where I got she was extremely sarcastic, so funny, refreshingly sarcastic. And then I realized, I get to be her!”
But who is Zed? What is she in this universe for? “She really really wishes that her family could be a real family,” muses Celaya. “She really wishes love was love, and protection was protection. That’s why she runs to Constantine in this badass world, because in a way that’s protection.”
So if Constantine is protection, is Zed a damsel in distress? Hell no. “Oh my God! I am blessed!” screams Celaya from excitement. “I don’t know how to play the damsel in distress! I’m a big Mexican! My mother taught me, if there’s trouble fix it. You cry? No honey. You dry you tears and you fix the problem. There’s no crying in baseball.”
I was thrilled to learn that Zed wouldn’t be a damsel in the show adaptation. But how will she still measure against the con man himself? “She can be physical, but toe-to-toe with Constantine? You know besides a master of the dark arts, he’s also the master of saying all this stuff and manipulation, and running around ten times without you even noticing. That’s what he does. And Zed is like, no. Cut it down. Okay, you said all that? You mean this. So that’s going toe-to-toe, and Constantine trying to push Zed away, and Zed is going, ‘What? Excuse me? No.'”
Diversity in genre media has been a hot button topic in the last several years. Sleepy Hollow, among other shows, have gained a solid reputation for proving (gasp!) diversity and compelling characters mix well. Super well. Marvel, meanwhile, has been celebrated for introducing superheroes of color and bending genders in their comic books. But while the mediums at large still remain largely colorless, Constantine is amongst the few genre programs leading the way. “They casted it so that she happens to be Latina … and I give John Constantine a little run for his money when I talk Spanish,” says Celaya. “You know, give it a little sass there.” She snaps her fingers. “[And] I love it. I love the fact that she’s Latina, and that she happens to be Latina! Not that she’s, you know, showing her butt or her breast. It’s like, no, no stereotypes here. She just so happens to be Latina as all Latinas are. They didn’t choose to be! And it’s a big step forward. I’m so blessed and honored to be given that. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Her influence in portraying Zed is equally exciting and intriguing. “I based her and what I did with girls I grew up around seeing who were running away from family and who were running away from home and who wished they had a solid ground to be embraced, and the consequence of that is they become a little rough, they become a little protective.”
The DC Universe may not have the cinematic presence that its competitors do, but it has surely taken over television in a big way. Does Constantine fit into the larger DC television multiverse? Yes, and no. “We’re safe in the occult corner of the DC Universe,” says Goyer. “We have access to those characters, those characters are kind of reserved for us. The longer we’re on, the more we’ll be introducing.”
Constantine premieres October 24, 2014 on NBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fYYWMtj1Ag