WATCH: Matt Ryan, the star of Global’s new supernatural show “Constantine”, sits down with Liem Vu to talk about what the show is all about ahead of its premiere.
TORONTO — Actor Matt Ryan agrees his new series Constantine is not for everyone.
“It’s not a kids show, no,” he said. “There are lighter elements to the character but it isn’t for the faint-hearted.”
Ryan, 33, plays John Constantine, an occult investigator and con man in the Hellblazer comic books.
“The comics are dark. They’re dark,” the Welsh actor told Global News in June. So is the show, which premieres Friday on Global.
“It’s action-packed and it’s scary,” Ryan said of the first episode.
The son of a postman and dance teacher, Ryan appeared as a child in a London production of Les Miserables and studied performing arts before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He appeared in several movies and TV shows and provided the voice of Edward Kenway in the Montreal-made video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Ryan said acting in Constantine has meant working opposite things that aren’t actually in front of him.
“You have to tap into that part of your imagination that you did when you were kid, when you used to run around in the forest and you picked up a twig and it would become a gun and there’d be an alien coming at you,” he explained.
Ryan said reacting to special effects was not the only challenge for he and co-star Harold Perrineau.
“The scene when we first meet was about five o’clock in the morning and it was so cold,” he recalled, “so literally we were standing by a heater and we’d take our warm jackets off and run in and try not to shake.”
Ryan said he’s confident fans of the comic books will love the show.
“The series, like the comics, is more character-driven so you get to delve into the characters rather than there being an explosion or something happening every so often,” he said. “We’ve got such a great team on this and to maintain that quality is essential. I’ve no doubt that we’re going to do it.
“We’re trying to stay as true to the comics as possible and I’m a huge fan of the character now and the comics. We’re all trying to do our best to bring this amazing comic book to the TV screen.”
Is he ready for the attention and — hopefully — adoration of comic book fans?
“I don’t know. I’d like to think I am but until that happens you never know,” he said.
Ryan is just as unsure about the possibility of real-life supernatural forces.
“I don’t know if there demons, per se, but I do think there’s things that we don’t see — energies, entities, forces that we don’t see and things going on among us,” he admitted.
“I mean, what’s to say there’s not energies and spiritual stuff going on?”
Constantine premieres Oct. 24 at 10 p.m. on Global.
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