The Deadbolt Interview - Retrieving Season 2 DVD Souls with Reaper Star Bret Harrison

Retrieving Season 2 DVD Souls with Reaper Star Bret Harrison
by Troy Rogers

Reaper Bret Harrison After coming back from the brink of TV Hell due to the Writers Guild of America strike during its first season, the popular CW series, Reaper, found its on-air legs along with a loyal audience, which helped to give the series a second season. Starring Bret Harrison in the role of Sam Oliver who works for the Devil to track down escaped souls from Hell, Reaper became a uniquely original series that appealed to both genders in a CW line-up dominated by such wildly popular female teen shows as Gossip Girl and 90210. Amid an rapidly changing television landscape where even some of the most popular shows with loyal fans are falling victim to the ratings axe, the cast of Reaper, which includes Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Ray Wise, Rick Gonzalez, Missy Peregrym, and Andrew Airlie, haven't quite been able to escape TV Hell to see Reaper live on for a third season.

Now out on DVD as of June 9, Reaper: Season 2 may very well be the last run hellish fans will see of Reaper unless another network picks the series up, which looks unlikely. To celebrate the Season 2 DVD release of Reaper, The Deadbolt souls escaped online entertainment Hell long enough to relive Reaper with show star Bret Harrison who filled us in on everything from the status of Reaper, Sam Oliver going to the dark side, how Reaper fit into The CW line-up next to Gossip Girl and 90210, and whether he could really beat the Devil in a game of quarters.

THE DEADBOLT: I really like the DVD cover with you in the Karate pose.

BRET HARRISON: Yeah, I haven't seen that. Friends keep telling me I'm doing a crazy looking Karate pose or something.

THE DEADBOLT: I also loved the "Rocky" episode where you were training in the warehouse. How tough or fun were the physical aspects of the show for you?

HARRISON: Actually, in the second season that was my favorite because it was so physical, especially with the boxing. We brought in a choreographer and we had to figure out that challenge. It sounds like it wasn't just a few shifts to kind of capture my abilities, kind of do our research to get it done, we put a lot into specifically that episode and a lot of time to get the physical aspects down and it was a physically demanding episode.

I mean, during the season I was riding around on Tyler's shoulders, or something, because he had to hold me up, otherwise I was going to die because there was this invisible noose around my neck. You get done and you just feel, "All right, man. I worked my ass off today and that's what it's all about."

THE DEADBOLT: Since the show got a second season, did you find yourself enjoying the job a little too much, kind of like Sam going to a darker side?

HARRISON: You know, it's funny you said that, and I can't wait to watch the whole second season as a series arc, but I was wanting to go even more to the dark side. I felt if there was a season three Sam would be really cool to completely go there. Sam is certainly enjoying working for the Devil. In TV a lot of times you start playing the same character, and you start to find different ways to play different emotions, and I thought Reaper did a really good job at taking us to different places. At least with Sam's character they did a really good job at allowing me to do that.

THE DEADBOLT: So does it feel like you're in Hell with the show up in the air, or does it feel like purgatory? What's going on with it?

HARRISON: No, I think the show is over if that's what you mean. Never say never until June 30th, but I'm pretty positive the show is not coming back. For me it's kind of bittersweet. It's the best cast, best crew I've ever worked with, and the coolest show. I think it's one of the best ideas out there. You know, when you see these loglines for these different TV shows, you hear, "Guy stuck in a house and he's 30 years old and he can't leave home," and you hear the pitch for Reaper and you almost don't get it.

I think that's what's so cool about it, that it took me a bit to understand what the Hell was going on. I thought it was a challenge. At the same time, the hardest part of Reaper was being relocated in a different country and our show potentially could go for six years and my friends and family and my life is in the way. That was my biggest struggle. That being said, truly speaking of the TV show, I world love to see this thing go for like ten years if it could.

THE DEADBOLT: Do you have any thoughts on where you would've liked the show to have gone?

HARRISON: You know, again, I think we were getting there with Sam being able to send his father to Hell to get information. You know, Sam getting a way to go to Hell to go after his dad. What I really wanted to see more of - and I think we would've gotten to in a third season - was to see Hell, to see that world more, because in the first season it was always talked about but we didn't really see any of it. We didn't really go there. Whereas the second season I felt we started to play with that world and we physically got to see the edge of it.

We got to see Nina's character walking in and that was an aspect of the show I really wanted see. I wanted to see what Reaper's version of what Hell was. So I guess I really would've liked to see Sam go more to the dark side and I think it would've been really cool, because they were playing with the idea that Andy was going to be a Reaper and see what that would've been like. I would've been in a lot more scenes with Ray Wise, which, typically, it was always Sam and Ray Wise and Ray getting Sam - You know, a person controlling your soul and what you've got to do in this episode. Basically, if all of the characters were in kind of a Reaper team, I think that would've been really cool.

THE DEADBOLT: How do you think the show fit into the CW lineup next to the female oriented shows that have gotten a lot of attention?

HARRISON: [laughs] Not very well, to answer your question bluntly. But that said, I don't understand how it works because we would get the same numbers, if not better, than 90210. You know, I don't know how it works. I guess our numbers probably fluctuated. Our numbers weren't more, necessarily, to a specific audience. I think these female oriented shows, they obviously know exactly who they're hitting and what audience they're hitting. So I think the advertisers know exactly who to buy for. That's the only thing I can think of. That said, I don't know. I still think there was a time in season one where we were beating Gossip Girl, and I don't know how it works, and I'm just glad there's an audience out there that really digs our show.

THE DEADBOLT: The reason I ask is because I look at Twilight and that has supernatural aspects to it. You guys did, too, but it just didn't translate.

HARRISON: We weren't sexy enough, man. That's what it comes down to. I have no idea, I don't know. They're doing it, actually [The CW]. They're already going down that train. They're going to do Vampire Diaries next year and stuff. The only thing I would say is be careful with it. You don't want to flood the market. You get too big with these shows you can kind of swap back and forth between them and you don't really know which one you're watching. I thought that was so cool about Reaper. I thought it really did stick out and I thought maybe on a different network we would've really kicked ass.

THE DEADBOLT: If you came back from the afterlife, let's say Hell, what's the one thing you'd want to do before somebody like Sam sent you back?

HARRISON: I don't know. I guess - not to get too sappy and 'Our Town-ish' - but I would just want to see my family, my mom, dad, girlfriend, and get to say goodbye one last time.

THE DEADBOLT: Nothing really big?

HARRISON: I guess I'd like to jam out with Jimmy page or something like that.

THE DEADBOLT: How confident are you that you could beat the Devil at a game of quarters?

HARRISON: Well, I think I could easily beat the Devil in quarters, because that particular episode that's pretty much all I did. I went to my trailer on set on the weekends and it was fun. I didn't even know what quarters was until they said, "Oh, by the way, you have to play quarters to get your soul back." I'm like, "What the Hell is quarters?" I ended up falling in love with the game.

-- Troy Rogers