Mixing myth, crime and psychology
SOUTH African viewers are in for a treat as heart-throb Don Gilet revisits our screens in the new six-part murder mystery thriller, Loch Ness. Commissioned by Universal Channel and airing from September 25, the show follows small-town police officer Annie Redford (Laura Fraser) and criminal psychologist Blake Albrighton (Gilet) in their search for a serial killer in a community nourished and sustained by myth. When the body of a local man is found at the foot of the Carn Mohr Mountain and a human heart on the loch shore, the town’s normality is shattered and the nightmare begins.
“My character tries to get into the mind of the serial killer, but his (Blake’s) methods of doing his job are much different to what people would usually expect. That’s why he is the best in his field and is called upon to work on this case with Annie and her team,” said Gilet.
He said that although Blake is not in the opening scene, when he eventually does come in, the scene is gruesome. “My character has worked with gruesome scenes before so he is not really phased. However, he is surprised to get a call from Annie because later in the story it is revealed that Annie and Blake had shared a romantic relationship of some sort. But Annie had no choice in the matter – she may have thought twice about calling Blake, but she desperately needed the best team, and that meant having Blake,” he said.
About the role, Gilet said he had played detective characters before, but that Blake was not a conventional or orthodox role.
“Blake is a very complex character and that is what attracted me to the role. I always feel attracted to roles that I have nothing in common with. I don’t compare one role to the next, because each character is completely different, and in this case Blake really stretched me as an actor. It was a new and fresh role and I loved playing the character simply because we are worlds apart in reality,” said Gilet.
On preparing for the role, Gilet said sometimes experts would come on to the set and instruct the actors to help make a scene look authentic, but for this role he relied completely on his script.
“The script was my bible. I find that if the writing is all there then I don’t have to ask anything. In this case, every question that I had in mind was answered in the script. They did a fabulous job on the script and I didn’t have to go to out of my way to prepare for the role,” he said.
Gilet said that while he had an amazing time filming in the remote parts of Scotland, there were some drawbacks.
“The views were breathtaking, but I was really annoyed with these little flying insects. They became such a nuisance, flying around my face and, if you weren’t careful, they would get into your mouth. So I had to just swat them away with my hands – you will probably see me do that a lot in the series. But I had to make it look normal because these bugs were bloody everywhere,” he said.
On working with Fraser (Breaking Bad and The Missing), Gilet said he had learnt a lot.
“She’s got plenty of experience under her belt and for the longest time she’s been kind of a hero me to, so getting to work with her was daunting but a pleasure. I loved every minute of it,” he said.