Devil gets his due in new TV series
Welsh actor Tom Ellis gets in touch with Lucifer’s human side in Vancouver-filmed fantasy
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards probably weren’t angling for creative credits when they wrote the 1968 song Sympathy for the Devil. But when it comes to the new tongue-incheek series Lucifer, debuting Monday, they might as well have.
Starring Welsh actor Tom Ellis and based on the DC Comics series of the same name, it paints Hell’s overlord as a bored guy who has quit his job to run a nightclub in Los Angeles.
But when a singer is murdered, he has some all-too-human feelings and is dragged into the investigation, unofficially teaming up with detective Chloe Dancer (Lauren German).
Ellis spoke to Postmedia News about the Vancouver-filmed show, the controversy surrounding it and playing a different sort of devil than viewers might be used to — one who’s slick, well-groomed and quite possibly wears Prada.
Q: Did you have any qualms about playing Lucifer?
A: Not at all. This is about Lucifer coming to terms with the human world and not just the world, the man inside of him, feeling things he’s never felt before and not understanding what they are. This is in no way any biblical or religious comment at all. It’s fun.
I think your Welsh accent really works in this case — did anyone talk to you about keeping it?
It kind of leaped off the page for me in the way the character was written. I was reading it and it totally reminded me of studying Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward and all that kind of high-style aristocracy fun characters in those plays. And I kind of used that as a reference point for sure when I was coming up with how I was going to play him. I always say he’s the love child of Noël Coward and Mick Jagger.
When the show was first announced, there was a petition from One Million Moms that protested it. What’s your take on the controversy?
I would be naive to think that there wouldn’t be some kind of reaction, certainly in the States. But my father in real life is a Baptist pastor and he had absolutely no issue with it whatsoever because he understood what it was. It’s a satire involving known characters. It was in no way some kind of religious comment.
If people watch the show, the possibility of Lucifer actually having salvation and being forgiven fits within that idea. So I urge people to watch it and then make their minds up. I’m never in favour of people just jumping on the bandwagon of something that they have no idea about.
What can you tease about the first few episodes?
It won’t be me solving a case per week, which I’m very happy about, because I think there’s more fun to be had in exploring the relationships. I think essentially what the show is going to become is the devil, Lucifer, becoming human. The humanization of Lucifer.