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Legend of the Seeker’s main stars Bridget Regan and Craig Horner took some time out of their shooting schedules down under and chatted up the rest of the season and season 2 with some members of the press recently.

Craig chatted with Starpulse – here’s an excerpt:

Mike: In the first episode, one scene that did make me laugh — and only because I pictured producers sitting around a table saying, “How do we bring in the female demographic? I know, when we introduce Craig’s character we’ll have him chopping wood … shirtless.”

Craig: (Laughs) I know, right? Well, I think it had to be something that was a bit Richard Cypherish. It had to establish he was basically just a simple kind of woods guy that built bridges with his bare hands. And I don’t know, sure, if I’m working out I’ll take my shirt off when it gets hot (laughs).

Mike: Your character, Richard, grows up a lot in this first season.

Craig: That’s something I’ve personally been trying to do anyway. They do it here and there with the scripts … they can start seeing I’m trying to grow this guy up. And that’s what’s great about a series when you’re an actor. You have 22 episodes to start from zero to hero; you can really take a nice big long arc. In a film it’s tough to do that, you only have 90 minutes. And it’s a ten month shoot; I grew up in that time, as well.

Mike: Yeah, because in the first episode Zeddicus saves Richard’s life twice in the span of five minutes and Richard just keeps yelling at him to leave him alone. It seems a bit ungrateful.

Craig: I think he’s just freaked out that he thinks these guys are responsible for this magic; he’s never seen these horrible beasts before. I think that’s what my character doesn’t like about magic. It’s deceptive and dishonest. But, he learns to embrace it and learns he has a bit of magic inside him, too.

Mike: Do you have a favorite episode so far?

Craig: Yeah, “Denna.” Big time. Oh yeah. And I liked that because they really drew heavily from the book, they rang true to the book and it was really good for an actor, that one. So good. It was a performance piece. It was just a couple of sets and a couple of actors and some good lines.

Read the rest HERE.

Speaking of Craig The Sci-Fi channel is airing his 2006 Horror movie “SEE NO EVIL” this Saturday as their featured “Most Dangerous Night of Television” movie of the week. It airs at 9PM/8PMC. No CGI creatures in this – just giant scary wrestler Kane on a warpath as the story’s villain.

Film Description: A group of delinquents are sent to clean the Blackwell Hotel. Little do they know reclusive psychopath Jacob Goodnight (Jacobs) has holed away in the rotting hotel. When one of the teens is captured, those who remain — a group that includes the cop who put a bullet in Goodnight’s head four years ago — band together to survive against the brutal killer.

Bridget talked to Sci-Fi Wire:

What do you want to see for Kahlan next season? What have you tasted that you want more of? What’s not clicking that you’d like to see improved?

Regan: I love the relationships that have developed, like with Kahlan and Zedd [Bruce Spence]. They have such mutual respect for each other, and I love working with Bruce. He’s literally one of the nicest, coolest, funniest men you could ever know, and I hope that we get to explore that relationship more, because in the mythology of the books the Confessor and the Wizard have a long-standing relationship. When I get to do scenes with Bruce, it’s such a treat. So I hope that we explore that more.

At the end of Wizard’s First Rule, Kahlan and Richard get together and ride off on a dragon. I keep asking, “Are we going to get a dragon? Is there going to be a dragon in the last episode? I really want a dragon.” I don’t know if that’s going to happen. I don’t know if we’re going to get together or not. If we don’t, I don’t know how long we could hold out on getting them together. I think there are 12 or 13 books in the series, so there’s no shortage of material. And I’d like to maybe get Kahlan into a shorter dress, because it’s hot in the middle of the summer. But that’s about it. That’s the only change I’d make.

This first season is far from over. Which has been the best episode so far, and why?

Regan: I felt that “Denna,” our eighth episode, was the one where we all really felt we’d found our footing. That was when we had Jessica Marais come in to play [the Mord'Sith] Denna. That episode, as far as the writing, was the most faithful to the book. I felt that, in the beginning, the writers wanted to be really creative and come up with their own stories and have these episodes that had a beginning, middle and end. That’s a hard thing, because the book is such a long-term journey, but they want each episode to have its own story, which has been the hardest part of it, because I love the book. But when they do follow it, which they did in “Denna,” it had the grit and the violence and pain that Terry Goodkind paints so well in his books. The stakes are so high, and that episode really hit the nail on the head.

Click HERE to read more.

And recently she chatted w/ Cynthia at SF Universe at the end of Season 1’s wrap in NZ.

Talk to me about filming in New Zealand.

Bridget: The thing about New Zealand is they have a real respect for nature. We film on Maori land and everybody really respects it and keeps it with a lot of reverence, which is so cool. On our first day of shooting, we had a blessing from a local Maori elder – it was just amazing. I don’t think the show would work anywhere else. It’s the Midlands. It can’t look like Los Angeles. It has to look like uncharted territory and we have to make the audience believe in this world, otherwise they really won’t come along the journey with us. The art department is incredible and every prop, every piece of the set, the beautiful greenery and the backdrops that we work up against, they’re all just gorgeous.

The series is based on the books of Terry Goodkind. Were you familiar with them before you started filming?

Bridget: No, no, not at all. I actually wasn’t really a huge fantasy fan but now I love it all. I think the characters are exquisite and beautiful and complex and I have fallen head over heels in love with Kahlan and that’s what makes the job so good, it’s such a great role.

Does the fact that it comes from a set of books that people really love make it harder to play the role?

Bridget: The fans of the books feel that they know these characters and they want to protect them, so at first, I was a bit intimidated and scared. Don’t do this, do what they want, give them what they want to see and then, you know, after a while, I said, I know this woman. I know her and I’m going to stop wasting energy and not worry about whether it’s going to be right or not. It’s going to be okay, you are here today, go for it.

I heard that you guys got a pickup for a second season? Is that up for sure?

Bridget: Yes, yes, that’s how things work right now. I mean, sometimes I’m a bit of a skeptic and we’re like, ‘what if something doesn’t happen,’ but yes, looks like it. I’ve been really happy and positive and excited and grateful. . . all good things.

Read the rest HERE!

Be sure to check your local listings – an all new episode of LEGEND OF THE SEEKER HARTLAND airs this weekend!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Legend of the Seeker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.