GDL @ D*C
SPOILERS: Torchwood - Children of Earth
From video of Gareth David-Lloyd at Dracon*Con 09:
MC: When you came in to get the script and you knew you were going to die in Torchwood, how as an actor do you prepare to do a death scene? What's your method? How do you think about it - or do you think about it?
GDL: I wanted it to be as unremarkable as possible. Less is more, I suppose. I wanted it to be quite pointless, wasted, realistic. You know - he never gets to hear Jack tell him he loves him, which was in the original idea, in the original script, which is part of what I didn't like. [inaudible] and he just dies - "In a thousand year's time, you'll forget me - ooh." [mimes abrupt death] [audience laughter] I didn't want it to be a big, sweeping [inaudible] style death - I wanted it to be as unremarkable and as pointless as possible. So I didn't really do much preparation, because the more preparation you do with things like that, the more sort of precious it becomes, the more overstated. The more remarkable you try to make something, usually, the more unremarkable it is. So I didn't really do any prep, I thought, "I'll just go in there, feel the scene, and die."
[bit later]
MC: Have you seen Russell yet to kick his ass yet or anything?
GDL: He's avoiding me. [audience laughter] No, I'm joking - he sent me a lovely message on the Thursday night episode 4 was airing saying "Thank you so much for all your work, and here's to Ianto, and here's to Gareth David-Lloyd", and it, you know, brought tears to my eyes. [audience awwwww] That's what the show needs. It's a show where the realism makes the fantasy more believable, because the realism is so real. So I was happy with the way the story went. I think if that hadn't have happened, it wouldn't have been as great a show as it turned into.
[Lemme see if I can find more of the interview.]
(Nice moment: audience cheers for James Moran. :)
From video of Gareth David-Lloyd at Dracon*Con 09:
MC: When you came in to get the script and you knew you were going to die in Torchwood, how as an actor do you prepare to do a death scene? What's your method? How do you think about it - or do you think about it?
GDL: I wanted it to be as unremarkable as possible. Less is more, I suppose. I wanted it to be quite pointless, wasted, realistic. You know - he never gets to hear Jack tell him he loves him, which was in the original idea, in the original script, which is part of what I didn't like. [inaudible] and he just dies - "In a thousand year's time, you'll forget me - ooh." [mimes abrupt death] [audience laughter] I didn't want it to be a big, sweeping [inaudible] style death - I wanted it to be as unremarkable and as pointless as possible. So I didn't really do much preparation, because the more preparation you do with things like that, the more sort of precious it becomes, the more overstated. The more remarkable you try to make something, usually, the more unremarkable it is. So I didn't really do any prep, I thought, "I'll just go in there, feel the scene, and die."
[bit later]
MC: Have you seen Russell yet to kick his ass yet or anything?
GDL: He's avoiding me. [audience laughter] No, I'm joking - he sent me a lovely message on the Thursday night episode 4 was airing saying "Thank you so much for all your work, and here's to Ianto, and here's to Gareth David-Lloyd", and it, you know, brought tears to my eyes. [audience awwwww] That's what the show needs. It's a show where the realism makes the fantasy more believable, because the realism is so real. So I was happy with the way the story went. I think if that hadn't have happened, it wouldn't have been as great a show as it turned into.
[Lemme see if I can find more of the interview.]
(Nice moment: audience cheers for James Moran. :)