Getting to the Heart of the Wolf – an Interview with Lost Girl’s Kris Holden-Ried

Faenatics have been anxiously awaiting the Season 2 premiere of Lost Girl, and it’s nearly upon us! Need a way to help get through those gruelling hours of anxious anticipation? How about an interview with a certain wolf? Kris Holden-Ried recently chatted with me about all things Dyson and what we’ve got to look forward to in Season 2 – and all I can say, as a major Dyson fan, I’m more than a little excited about what he had to share!

With everything that happened at the end of Season 1, I got a sense that Dyson didn’t realize how strong his feelings were for Bo. Would that be an accurate assessment?

Yeah, absolutely. He didn’t anticipate what the Norn was going to do to him, and then you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it. He didn’t know what was going to happen. That’s what the beginning of Season 2 is a lot about – for Dyson anyway.

Can we expect this to make Dyson’s working relationship with Bo more difficult?

Yes, you could say that.

What I’m really curious to learn is more about Dyson’s backstory, and I get the sense that he wasn’t always on the right side of the law. Will Dyson become less of a mystery this season?

A very good assumption. Yes, definitely in Episode 2-05 we get Dyson’s back story quite in depth, for a certain portion of it anyway. And we’re actually coming up to a part now in the back half of the second season [that] is going to be more exploring of Dyson’s history as well.

What would you like to learn most about your character that you don’t know yet?

That’s interesting, because my character, I sort of make him up as I go along. I guess what is Dyson’s relationship with death, how long do fae live, I’m not sure how long he’s going to live, and what happens when he dies.

In the first episode of Season 2, I noticed that there’s a lot more team work between Dyson, Hale, Bo, Kenzi, Lauren and Trick. Is this going to continue?

Yeah, it becomes more of an ensemble show.

Is there a specific episode that you’ve filmed so far that you’re excited for fans to see?

From my perspective with Dyson for sure Episode 2-05 because that’s where we learn Dyson’s back story. It took a lot of time for me to explore and I think the audience will enjoy it as well.

From what I understand, you had a pretty active lifestyle – including pentathlons – before joining Lost Girl. Did you find that helped you to prepare for the physical demands of playing Dyson?

Absolutely. I don’t really participate in pentathlon any more, I go for alumni events, but I came to acting through athletics. One of my major strengths in acting is that I have this physical awareness and capabilities that a lot of performers don’t have. What Dyson allows me to do is get back into my physicality and develop it further than I have for any other part. He’s a supernatural shifter kind of guy, so I did a lot of body work, trying to figure out the animalistic movements, bringing that into my posture. Before I played Dyson, I didn’t have to keep myself in great shape because I was just naturally athletic enough – I didn’t want to be that kind of “ripped” actor where your career depends on that. But with Dyson, I have the opportunity to get the physical prowess back into my regime and make it work professionally for me.

This year the series got excellent news with the pickup of additional episodes. Were you surprised or shocked by this?

Not shocked. These things are very political – they have to do with where our show is fitting in with budgetary outlines of an entire network, so if they’re paying for us to do nine more episodes, then some other show isn’t doing nine. I’ve always wanted to do 22, I think it’s a nice way to work, because last year at the end of our 13th episode, we were just getting our groove – we were like, “Wow, this feels good, we’re in it, we’ve got it, we know it” – and we’re done. What was great was as soon as we stepped on set again – all of us together for Episode 2-01 – that same feeling was right there, we were back in the saddle. We’ve been clipping along … it feels good, we’ve got a good groove and everyone’s communicating well.

Am I surprised? You know, you’re always surprised when people really like a show you’re working on. That means whatever we’re doing is making people happy, and hopefully we keep doing that.

When you were first cast as Dyson, did you think Lost Girl would end up with the passionate following that it now has?

I think the best way for me to answer this is to tell you how I responded to the material. When I first read that pilot, I was excited to do this, to be involved in this project. It’s a genre and a type of mythology that I’m drawn to that I’ve loved and read my entire life. I’ve romanticized it in my own life many times. I think that same sort of passion is shared by a lot of people, a lot of fantasy fans. So, I really didn’t think about it, but I’m not surprised that people are gravitating toward it because I know I’m a small drop in the bucket of lots of fantasy lovers out there.

Be sure to tune in and see what’s in store for Dyson following the dramatic Season 1 finale – step into the world of Lost Girl on Sunday September 4th at 9pm on Showcase!

Photo Courtesy of Showcase