Christopher Heyerdahl is known to many Stargate Atlantis fans as Todd the Wraith, but since the cancellation of the show after its fifth season Christopher has moved on to new projects.
His latest appearance in the highly acclaimed ‘New Moon’, the continuation of the Twilight Saga has been earning him and his fellow casting mates world-wide recognition.
Dose in Canada have recently managed to obtain five minutes of the actors time to complete the following interview.
Congratulations on your Gemini nomination for Sanctuary. It seems as though you’ve been involved in a lot of sci-fi shows with very fanatic fan bases.
(Laugh) Passionate is what I call them.
How do you find Twilight fans differ from the typical sci-fi fanatic? What makes them special?
Well, so far — and I say so far because I have a feeling that after New Moon the demographic is going to change dramatically. I think that guys are going to be able to accept it without losing face.
Ah, you’re referring to the action scenes?
Yeah, absolutely. It’s pretty sexy, masculine stuff, I tell ya’, with the Volturi coming in, and the Wolf Pack. But so far it’s basically a female fanbase and I think that women allow themselves to admit to the world — guys have a harder problem, though I think not so deep down we’re just as into it as anybody else — that whole idea of very dangerous, sensual, animalistic, pure, everlasting love. It seems to be young women and their mothers. Twi-moms have invaded the scene! It’s been a lot of fun — and there’s been an interesting amount of crossover. There’ve been a lot of people who’ve come down to talk to me [at sci-fi conventions], you know, sci-fi fans, and they know me from these other things I’ve done and also are extremely passionate about Twilight, so there seems to be some crossover there as well.
What are some of the more memorable fan encounters you’ve seen working on New Moon?
(Laugh) There was a girl in Chicago. I did an appearance in Chicago and there was a young girl there, it was very sweet. Literally every time she saw one of us she couldn’t speak. She’d sit there with this smile on her face and you’d see slowly she’d start to tremble, and then she would start to giggle, and then she would start to jump up and down, and she just giggled and jumped. That’s all she did.
She was about 15. She was a very, very sweet young girl. It was very funny. She could not speak. Cameron Bright [who plays Alec, another member of the Volturi] was there, and she’d just go ‘He’s s-o-o-o c-u-u-ute.’
So she wasn’t totally mute, then.
Well, she could only say something about someone who wasn’t there. If she was in their presence, I’d be like, ‘He’s right there, go talk to him, he’s a nice guy.’ ‘Oh no, he’s so c-u-u-ute.’ So it’s very sweet, very sweet.
I read you took the part because you know someone who’s a big fan, your niece. Is that true?
Yesss. She’s a big fan.
What was her reaction when she learned you’d be playing Marcus?
She was pretty excited, but she basically said, ‘Well, OK, but I don’t like Marcus.’
And I said, ‘Well, why don’t you like Marcus?’
‘He’s evil.’
I say, ‘What do you mean he’s evil? [*Total Twilight series spoiler!*] He saves Bella, he saves Renesmee, what’s the deal? He comes in and he saves the day all the time.’
She pauses, then says, ‘Well, he eats people.’
(Laugh) So there you go, you have to be a vegetarian to get the thumbs up from my niece.