

Actor Kevin Durand.

In today's Sci-Fi Blast From The Past, Kevin Durand talks about playing the canine-human hybrid Joshua opposite Jessica Alba in Dark Angel.

On TV, as in real life, you can never have too many friends, especially if you’re fighting evil. In Dark Angel’s second season opener Designate This, the show’s genetically-enhanced heroine Max makes her escape from Manticore, a government-run research facility where she was “raised.” With the lab engulfed in flames, Max also manages to free dozens of other Manticore creations, each with their own special skills. She is helped by Joshua, a canine-human hybrid whose bark is worse than his bite, at least if he knows you. At first, though, it was unclear to Max whether Joshua was friend or foe.

“You can’t blame Max,” says Kevin Durand, who plays the gentle giant. “When she and Joshua first meet he almost attacks her. He had been living in Manticore’s basement for years along with the unfortunate subjects of numerous other genetic experiments gone awry. Joshua had never seen anyone quite like Max before and suddenly she’s in his territory. However, it doesn’t take her long to realize he would never harm her and vice versa. From that point on the two of them become pals and together they try to find an escape route for themselves.

“It’s been neat playing such a powerful yet tortured creature. He’s a very soulful person and there’s a great deal going on behind his eyes and in his mind. There’s nothing that I can’t do, really, with this character. I come from a comedic background, so occasionally I might try something that’s a little strange and not in the script. Some people may laugh their butts off and then someone might say, ‘I don’t know if he’d do that.’ I’m like, ‘How do we know what a canine man might do in a situation like this?’ Needless to say, Joshua has been liberating for me.”

A native of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, the actor grew up dreaming of becoming a professional hockey player. “Where I’m from it’s almost sacrilegious if you don’t play hockey,” he jokes. There was also a creative side to Durand that wanted to entertain people. He started off rapping at a young age. By the time he was fourteen he was performing stand-up comedy. “Club owners would sneak me into their establishments to do my act. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think anything like this would happen to me.”

According to Durand it was love that finally pushed him into acting. “My girlfriend was going on tour with a play for six months. I didn’t want to be away from her for that long so I auditioned for a part in the production. I got in as a rapper of all things! I learnt so much while on the road and shortly after getting home I made the decision that it [acting] was for me.”

The actor spent the first six years of his career doing mainly theatre. He got his big break when he was cast in the 1997 feature film Mystery, Alaska. “I called my agent and said, ‘I really think I can play this part. Please try to get me an audition.’ Believe it or not, it was my first time reading for a film and I got the part,” enthuses Durand. “There I was working with actors like Russell Crowe and Burt Reynolds. I couldn’t believe it. I had to keep pinching myself to see if it was real. I was so excited. To be honest, I get the same feeling with every job. Even if I’m having a horrible day in my personal life it doesn’t matter. As soon as I get to work it’s like, ‘Yes, I’m here. Let’s do it.’ For whatever reason I’ve been given a special gift and have been lucky enough to be able to use it.”

Durand’s guardian angel must have been close by when Dark Angel producers were looking to cast the role of Joshua. “I’d just finished playing Injun Joe in the Broadway production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” recalls the actor. “When the show closed I went back home to Thunder Bay to figure out my next move. It was then that I found out that the people at Fox wanted me to read for the part of Joshua on Dark Angel. I’d only seen the program a couple of times. Coincidentally, the first season aired in Canada opposite another show I was doing at the time called Beggars and Choosers. So back then I wasn’t as up to date on the story line as I am now.

“Naturally, I got in touch with Fox and they set up a test deal. They flew me from Thunder Bay to Los Angeles. About twenty-five connecting flights later I walked into the audition room,” laughs Durand. “I was introduced to everyone and started things off with a growl – literally. Those poor people looked at me and were probably wondering, ‘Oh, my God, is he going to eat us?’ Fortunately, no one ran out of the place screaming. I showed them my interpretation of the character and, although I think they might have been terrified, they must have been delighted, too, because I ended up being hired.”

Once Joshua had been cast, the next step was to come up with a look for the character. “When I first went in for the make-up tests I panicked,” says the actor. “I began to think, ‘Jeez, I’m going to have to sit through this every working day for I don’t know how long.’ Initially, they wanted to go with a subtle look, and the make-up people came up with these cool designs. However, [series creator and executive producer] James Cameron and the rest of the production team decided, ‘No, he’s got to be more beast-like, more canine.’ That’s when I started to really worry. You know what, though, once they came up with the final design and I saw myself in the mirror I thought, ‘Yes, this works.’

“My concerns about the make-up were nothing compared to those I had the first day of filming,” he continues. “I was excited but also frightened. Here I was stepping into Joshua’s big shoes for the first time knowing, ‘The decisions I make today when playing this character are going to stick with me for as long I’m in the role.’ As if that wasn’t enough to think about, my first scene was with Jessica Alba [Max]. I was rather nervous about meeting her. Well, I found I had nothing to fear. As the day went on and the scene evolved we soon developed a mutual respect for each other as well as a fun on-screen chemistry.

“Jessica is great. She’s like a little sister to me. Right from the start she made sure I was comfortable. She felt bad that I had to work behind all the make-up and I remember her asking me that first day, ‘Are you OK? How do you do it?’ Jessica is wonderfully supportive and always concerned about those around her. She’s a terrific ‘captain’ and sets an excellent example as well as a relaxed tone on the set.”

Once Max breaks out of Manticore with Joshua, she sets him up in his own “hideout.” He looks at the outside world with a child-like wonder and soaks up every new experience like a sponge. Because of his unique features, Max is understandably reluctant to take Joshua out in public. In the episode Proof of Purchase, she and Logan [Michael Weatherly] must save their canine ally from being recaptured by Manticore when he decides to wander the city searching for the mythological Sandman. Then, in Boo, Halloween becomes a nightmare for Joshua and Max when they battle a headless genetic counterpart. Of all the episodes Durand has been in so far, his favourite is one called Two.

“I don’t want to spoil the story for fans that haven’t seen it yet,” he says. “I can tell you, though, it was a very draining episode for me to shoot. In it, Joshua is forced to go somewhere emotionally that he wished he didn’t have to. That was a big challenge for me. Most of the time the character is easy for me to play. Growing up, I was around a foot-and-a-half taller and wider than everyone else,” chuckles the actor, “so I always felt a bit like a beast. As such, I can identify with Joshua, and that comes in handy when I step in front of the cameras.”

Besides his work on Dark Angel, Durand recently shot a guest spot for Steven Spielberg’s ten-part TV miniseries on alien abductions called Taken. He also reprised his role as Goa’uld System Lord Zipacna on Stargate SG-1for the upcoming two-parter Summit and Last Stand. For him, the more characters he gets to play the happier he is. “It’s a big thrill for me to take on another persona, whether it be for one episode or, as with Joshua, the entire season of a show. It’s been a great year and I can’t wait to see what 2002 brings.”

Steve Eramo