The first time meeting Christopher Heyerdahl, it’s hard to know what to expect. His characters are sometimes intense and morally questionable, including a demon, a wraith, and a serial killer (to name a few). But as you might expect, Heyerdahl is a gracious and kind man, and he was happy to sit down with the Daily Dragon to answer a few questions.
Daily Dragon (DD): You’ve been on Supernatural, Sanctuary, and Stargate: Atlantis, so you’ve been involved in all of these amazing franchises. Is there any one thing that stands out the most about being on these shows?
Christopher Heyerdahl (CH): It’s really mostly about the people. Any job, any kind of past time that you have, it’s about the people that you’re spending the time with. I’ve been wonderfully welcomed by all of these shows, and that’s the biggest thing. I can walk home with a smile on my face and say what a great day I had at work because everyone was so cool.
DD: On the three shows, you’ve played kind of a heavy character. Why do you get cast as the heavy? Is it just being a big tall guy?
CH: I don’t know what it is. Yeah, maybe it has something to do with being tall. Intimidating height. There you go. So if anyone wants to play an intense character, they should just put on high heels, I guess.
DD: What was the best part about playing Todd the Wraith?
CH: Having a very questionable relationship with Joe [Flanigan].
DD: Can you expand on that?
CH: I think that says it all.
DD: The brief time we saw you on Supernatural as Alastair, it seemed like he was a very physical character. You spent almost an entire episode strapped to an iron pentagram. How long did that take to film, and what were some of the challenges with it?
CH: It was about three days, so trying to keep my arms from falling asleep was probably the biggest challenge. Again, the support team was fantastic, and they were very kind in allowing me to have pee breaks, which is very important when you’re being trussed up to an iron pentagram. But I think [the discomfort] really helped because when I got a chance to break free and express my “feelings”–well, when Alastair expressed his feelings–I think I could use some of my own, [considering] the fact that they had me trussed up for three days.
DD: Where did Alastair’s voice come from?
CH: Absolutely Mark Rolston, the first actor to incarnate the character. So, I definitely wanted to take what he did and bring an element of that into it because he did such a great job. He just had me smiling from ear to ear when I saw [his performance].
DD: He had a fantastic line in one of his episodes, “I forgot, I’m wearing a pediatrician.” Who do you think Alastair was wearing when he was in your body?
CH: [Laughing] I think that he is an executive for a garbage conglomerate.
