ABC/Bob D’Amico
Living forever has its drawbacks. You lose your loved ones, but you get to experience so much life. If you’re an actor who lived forever, just think of all the shows you could be on! We tasked Forever star Ioan Gruffudd with that question and he was more than ready with his picks.
“The A-Team, because I grew up on The A-Team,” he said with a laugh. “The original Battlestar Galactica, I’d love to be on. Goodness me, what else? Cagney and Lacey I’d love to guest star on. You can tell what era I grew up in, right? [Laughs.] Magnum, P.I. I’d love to guest star on. Airwolf was another favorite of mine growing up, and Street Hawk are ones I’d love to guest star on.”
Gruffudd stars as Dr. Henry Morgan, an immortal medical examiner toiling away in New York City. He’s paired with a detective (Law & Order‘s Alana de la Garza) who’s a little weary of the good doctor and at home he has Abe (Judd Hirsch) his adopted son who now appears much older than him. Gruffudd opened up about what’s next, the big Forever mystery and flashbacks he doesn’t want to see!
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What’s your favorite thing about Forever?
My favorite thing about the show? Oh, it has to be all of the other characters, really. We have such an amazing time bouncing off one another. I think that’s sort of the highlight of the show for me. That, and traveling back in time with all those delightful period costumes that I get to wear.
When you signed up for this, did you feel a lot of pressure? Because whenever you die, you show up naked again.
[Laughs.] When I read it, I had a little bit of the shock to the system. But if your thing is pasty, white British men, then you’re going to love our show.
What are you looking forward to viewers seeing?
What’s lovely about this show, as much as we have an episode which is a standalone episode, we have a cop and a tale, a case of the week, we have this delightful serialization that runs throughout the show. I think true fans of the show already—even though we’ve only been on the air for three episodes—will absolutely love that serialization element. Every week we have a little hint as to who the anonymous caller is and Henry’s past life, especially his love for Abigail.
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ABC/Giovanni Rufino
How much of the mythology do you know at this point? Do you know how the mystery unfolds?
Personally? No, no. I’m not even sure if they do either, but I’m sure Matt Miller, our creator, has a specific idea in mind, but he hasn’t informed me. I’m kind of enjoying that. I’m kind of going along for the journey hand-in-hand with the rest of audience as well. It’s going to be a pleasant surprise either Christmastime, or even at the end of the first season or goodness knows when we’ll reveal the mythology behind Henry’s curse.
I know there are hints of a possible love connection between your character and Alana de la Garza’s Detective Jo Martinez. Are you a little nervous it may be a little Moonlighting or are you looking forward to exploring it?
I’m not nervous it’d be Moonlighting because that was exceptionally successful, but I think—I can’t imagine that we would touch upon that for at least a few years, should we get the chance to run for a few years. I think it’s wonderful that we have this sort of distance as well as being close with the friendship. They’re both characters that are in pain, that are hurting because of their lost love, so I can’t imagine them coming together for a long time.
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What’s coming up?
This week we will delve again back into Henry’s past, in fact in this episode there’s somebody Henry actually crossed paths with about 40 or 50 years ago who has arrived in the morgue with him. That jolts him a little bit and takes him back to a period in his life that will unravel in the episode.
Is there a period in time you do NOT want to flashback to?
[Laughs.] Goodness, I think as an actor you want to have a go at everything, so I’d be delighted to go to whatever period. I’m not sure if I would don a pair of bell bottoms very well, so I can’t imagine going to the ‘60s.
I was thinking you’d be afraid of acid-wash jeans, perhaps.
Yes, the acid-wash jeans and the tie-dyed shirts and the bandanas and the long hair, but who knows.
Forever airs Tuesdays, 10 p.m. on ABC.
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