Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Hannibal’s coming for seconds
Hannibal’s Caroline Dhavernas dishes the dirt on the serial killer series
The critically lauded Hannibal recently received a 13-episode second season renewal from network NBC. Based on the characters from the novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, Hannibal was developed for TV by Bryan Fuller, who also serves as writer and executive producer.
Hannibal, which airs on Sony Entertainment Television, Tuesdays at 8.55pm, explores the early relationship of Thomas Harris’s famous characters, renowned psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter and gifted FBI criminal profiler Will Graham.
Hugh Dancy stars as Will, a brilliant, empathic FBI profiler who is able to mentally retrace the twisted thoughts and methods of the agency’s most-wanted serial killers.
Will’s boss and handler, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), who harnesses Will’s uncanny ability to see into minds of the evil, recognises his need for psychiatric help after a particularly disturbing case.
As a result, Will finds himself assigned to the care of the highly respected psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). Unbeknown to Will, there is a reason Dr Lecter has particular insight into these horrible crimes and the psychopaths who commit them. What follows is a masterful mind game set against the contrasting worlds of good and evil where lines blur, elegance breeds horror and nothing is what it seems.
Caroline Dhavernas plays Dr Alana Bloom, a psychiatry professor and consultant profiler for the FBI. Here’s what she had to say about this new take on Hannibal, working on the show and what to expect. Tell us about your character. She isn’t with the FBI, but she also profiles. I think she’s the only one who seems to want to take care of Will and not pick his brain to understand where this cursed gift he has comes from. This gift that Will has comes from his fragility and, therefore, he is really going to dark places and could be hurt if he’s pushed too far in that direction. So I think she will represent the heart of this story and I think she’s very fascinated by him in her own way. She knows not to get too close because of what she does for a living: fix people.
What makes unique?
The relationship between Will Graham and Hannibal has never been really seen in any of the movies – and it is the most important thing in our show. From that stems the rest of the story, so I think it will be really interesting for the fans to see the genesis of that relationship.
What scoop can you give us about the relationship between your character and Will? How is it going to evolve in the coming episodes?
She knows that he can be hurt if people keep pushing him to go deeper and deeper into this darkness, but Jack Crawford wants to push him more and more into
this
series preventing more crimes. That’s not where her interest lies.
Hannibal has his own set of interests in getting close to Will. She doesn’t really have any motivation to take advantage of him, so she is the only one who takes care of him.
What’s your character’s relationship like with Hannibal?
He was her mentor. He taught her a while ago. We happen to have great mutual respect for each other. We don’t always share the same opinions and we sometimes disagree. They never become angry with each other because of their different opinions, so there’s a lot of respect in that relationship.
Hannibal is a famous character. How does that change the expectations for this show?
I think it’s wonderful because the biggest challenge when the show comes out is getting people’s interest in the show. We already have part of that job done for us because Hannibal is well known around the world.
You last worked with Bryan Fuller in Wonderfalls. How does it feel to be working with him as Hannibal’s executive producer and writer?
It is amazing. I think over the years we tried several times and it was never quite the right timing or the right project, and 10 years later, here we are working together on a very different show, (with) a very different feel. I have always loved Bryan Fuller’s writing and I think no one writes quite like him. He has a wild imagination and I think that’s why a lot of us signed on with this – it’s not your typical procedural.
Bryan opens doors that other people don’t know how to open. It’s like he doesn’t have the same filters. He gets into the minds of the characters, especially Will Graham and Hannibal. I think the show is many things, but it’s mostly their relationship, and Bryan’s writing is so good.
Will your character’s relationship with Will Graham head in a romantic direction? They seem to have a unique connection.
Well, I think Alana is the only one on the show who takes care of him because everyone is so intrigued by his cursed gift that he has in empathising with serial killers, and everyone wants to kind of pick his brain and see how that works. Everyone has their own interests in knowing what he’s about. Alana is the only one who realises that his gift comes from his fragility and she knows how sensitive he is and how hurt he could become if he goes too far – if he gets too close to how deep and dark this world is, so I think that’s why you feel right away a connection between them.
How has Mads made the role of Hannibal his own?
I think he’s a fabulous actor, and I think he’s doing a great job with Hannibal. It is not an easy part and he’s very subtle. You can see every thought in his eyes when you watch the show, which I always think is the sign of a great actor, when it is not just delivering words convincingly.
Why do audiences seem to love the serial killer genre?
I think it’s because we’re very curious. Like a five-year-old, you say, “Don’t put your hand on the oven”, and then they kind of want to do it just to see what it feels like. We don’t want to experience horror in our daily lives, but we want to know what it feels like. And the only way to do that in a safe environment is through the arts. I think it’s a healthy way of purging whatever dark fantasies we may have. Even before cinema and television, we used to hang around a campfire and tell each other ghost stories… So it’s part of the human mind.
What accounts for Hannibal’s enduring appeal?
I think the human monster will always be a fascination for us. He’s a smart serial killer. He’s a dandy. He likes fine food and art, and he kills the people who don’t see that, who don’t appreciate how refined something is or how moving it is to him.
I think we all at times want to have our own law and get rid of the people who don’t connect with us in the way that we would like. Hannibal owns them, in the weirdest and most creative way, by eating them. That’s a very powerful feeling. Not only do you get rid of that person, but you eat them. You digest that person. It’s crazy, all the implications of every step. – Supplied