ABOVE: Watch Lucas Bryant appear on Global’s The Morning Show.
TORONTO — Working on the TV series Haven in Nova Scotia has its perks but, for Lucas Bryant, access to fresh lobster is not at the top of the list.
“You know what, I’m not much of a lobster guy,” the 35-year-old actor told Global News.
“Maybe I’ll get lynched for saying this but it doesn’t really excite me that much. It’s a lot of work for not a lot of payoff.”
His personal distaste for the crustacean doesn’t mean Bryant isn’t doing his part to support the provincial economy.
“I export a lot of lobster from Nova Scotia,” he said. “I have brought so many lobsters out of Nova Scotia.”
Bryant, who plays detective Nathan Wuornos on Haven, explained he buys lobsters at the Halifax airport for his mother, grandmother and in-laws.
“They put them in a box for you and wrap them right up and you take them carry-on, on your plane, where you can hear them still scrambling around up in that thing above your head,” said Bryant.
“It’s super weird. If you want to bring your dog on a trip to Maine for the day you’ve got to jump through all these hoops but you can just go grab 24 lobsters and take them anywhere you want.”
Bryant was born in Elmira, Ont. — a community of fewer than 10,000 people outside Waterloo — but now lives in California when he’s not filming Haven in and around Chester, Nova Scotia (which doubles as the titular Maine town).
“I feel very at home there,” he said of Chester. “I’m used to that little town where everyone knows everyone.”
The series, which kicks off its fifth season on Showcase on Sept. 18, is seen around the world. As a result, Chester is experiencing a tourism boom.
“There are people flocking to the town,” Bryant said, “because they were introduced to it through watching Haven. People have been coming from all over the world.”
Based loosely on Stephen King’s 2005 novel The Colorado Kid, the show follows folks dealing with supernatural afflictions known as “The Troubles.”
Bryant revealed that the cast copes with the show’s intense scenes by keeping things light behind the scenes.
“It’s mostly laughing before and after… and some hugging,” he said. “I don’t know how we manage to keep a straight face most of the time.
“Sometimes the really intense stuff that you need to get yourself psyched up for can take a little while to shake off, but for the most part it is laughs.”
Half of the new season has been shot but Bryant said he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to his character.
“I don’t know what my arc is going to be. I prefer to experience it as Nathan does,” he said. “I’ve had different approaches over the past five years. Some years I’ve decided I want to know and at this point I’ve stopped trying to understand what is going to be because things change along the way.”
Bryant credits the online community for the success of Haven.
“The online support that our show has got is the whole reason that we are still doing this,” he said. “We don’t have tons of money behind us promoting the show so the people who are getting turned on to it are turned on to it because people have told them and so that support and that online chat and love is hugely importantly for us.”
Bryant reluctantly joined Twitter late last year and already has more than 10,000 followers.
“It’s very cool, and potentially dangerous, to interact with people without a filter.”
Does Bryant believe in the supernatural?
“I do. Totally,” he replied. “Do I believe in The Troubles? Not necessarily. For me, the entrance point is I believe there are things beyond my reckoning. I know a lot of stuff. I know so much stuff. But I believe there are things I don’t know. If I believe that then I believe that anything is possible.”
But Haven offers much more than the supernatural. Bryant said viewers are drawn to the series for a variety of reasons.
“There are people who are into the procedural element, there are people who are into the love story part of it, people who love the quirky element of the show, and Stephen King fans,” he said.
“There is absolutely something for everyone and that is the thing I am most proud of our show for. It is a super strangely unique hybrid of things.”
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