Bradley James talks Buffy, Merlin, and much, much more

And I have to ask about Arthur — first of all, you’ve mentioned before you think he’s pretty misunderstood.
Oh, yeah. [Laughs]

What is it exactly you think people don’t understand about him? Besides that he’s secretly a good guy?
Well I … the thing with Arthur is that his upbringing has kind of stunted his emotional intelligence, shall we say. He’s really a bit pathetic.

So he didn’t get hugged enough as a child?
Oh, he didn’t get hugged at all.

Aw, poor kid.
Yeah, Uther is not a hugging man. He is, at best, a sturdy pat on the back, but no he’s certainly not into hugging. So I’d say that basically, as far as Arthur’s concerned, he, you know, puts on a front that he thinks he has to put on a show and has to perform in a certain way, and, you know, really deep down he’s the guy who sort of guy you’d look to have on your side in times of crisis. So, you know, he’s a good guy, down deep. He makes the right decisions eventually.

Well, do you think he even had friends before Merlin?
Um, I think his friends all consisted of his fellow knights, they all probably were involved in a lot of jocular behavior. And in the case of his position, they sort of had to look up to him, had to respect him. So you could argue his friends were people who were only friends with him because of who he was and what he was.

Well that’s I think what so many people find interesting about Merlin and Arthur is that they’re actually equals, because of Merlin’s power.
Yeah, exactly! There’s that dynamic of, you know, Arthur not knowing about Merlin’s power, but I think you should sort of give him credit for his feelings kind of changing for Merlin despite not knowing that Merlin’s a pretty powerful guy. He’s, you know, seeing him [Merlin] for who he really is, or I think he’s trying. And then when he finds out about Merlin’s magic he’ll hopefully kind of say hey, well, Merlin’s my friend and that’s fine.

Right, but how is going to trust Merlin when he’s kept that secret for so long? I think that’s something a lot of fans wonder.
Yeah, I’ve got no idea how or when that’s going to come about, but I’d like that to be delivered in an intelligent way, and I’d like… I think there’s some interesting ways it could be dealt with. So, you know, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things work out with them.

You and Colin have just … fantastic chemistry. So how much do you guys rehearse before you go and actually do the scene in front of the camera?
Actually … not a great deal. Myself and Colin are kind of in every day and we’re — I mean Colin’s certainly in every scene and, you know, I’m not far behind him. So we’re having to sort of go through the scenes very quickly without time to prepare three scenes ahead, or whatever. So we kind of just try to snatch moments in the car on the way home, or before the cameras the cameras start rolling we’ll try to go through it a couple of times.

When you’re not making video diaries, that is.
[Laughs] When we’re not making video diaries, yes, we are actually doing some work. And it’s been fun! Colin and I sort of… we know each other very well now, and what each other’s rhythms are and each other’s timing, so when you sort of take that dilemma away of having to figure that out, you can kind of, you know, experiment with other things. And I really enjoy working with him. We have a lot of fun.

Well, you guys did go on a road trip, which, to my disappointment, was not to America.
No, to my disappointment, it wasn’t to America either.

But, okay, you guys were late every single time. What was happening there?
[Laughs]

It’s like every scene you show up and go “oh, we’re late, sorry.”
Well, it was a bit of a bizarre road trip, we just found ourselves driving around… I mean, it was a trip funded by the BBC Wales, so there was a bit of propaganda around it. I mean, all the Arthurian points of interest aren’t in Wales.

Right, they’re in Cornwall, or somewhere near there.
Yeah, exactly, they’re kind of in the southwest parts of England. But as I say, it was a bit of Welsh propaganda, so we found ourselves only being able to look at places in Wales. Which made it a little bit frustrating, because we didn’t actually find anything. But I sort of knew we wouldn’t find anything.

You did find that guy who did the ley lines with you! He was my favorite character, I think.
Oh, yes.

He was … fantastic.
We could have made an entire show based just on what he was doing, I think.

Colin looked terrified the entire time.
Oh, God, I’m glad that came across. I’ve never seen him act so worried in my entire life.

I’ve never even seen him act that worried in front of fans. He’s normally … I thought I’d seen the most nervous he could get when he was in front of fans, and that was nothing compared to how scared he seemed in front of the ley line guy.
Well the crazy thing about the ley line guy was, I think it might have been late October, maybe early November, I can’t quite remember, but it wasn’t warm. You can see we’re both all bundled up in jackets and whatnot. And that guy, he turns up in shorts, and they’re very short shorts. Like maybe footballers — that’s soccer players — in those shorts. And he just turned up out of the woods in a pair of shorts and carrying some handles. So we pretty much knew from the off this was going to be a bit of a freaky experience. But it was … you know, it was a pleasurable one. Not one I imagine I’ll experience again any time soon.

Well, Colin mentioned he was very upset he didn’t get to go see the Arthurian library. Do you know if he’s ever made it back there?
He’s not been back there, I think largely due to the ridiculous filming schedule over the course of when we’re filming, so when we’re off it’s nice to, you know, take a bit of a break. But I myself would quite like to get myself down to Tintagel at some point, that’s in Cornwall, which is the epicenter of Arthurian legend. Or Glastonbury. I’d like to get myself out there. Probably around the time they have the Glastonbury music festival.

So if you and Colin could go on another road trip, is that where you guys would go?
Yeah, well if it was based on Arthurian legend I’d go there, because we might actually find something about Arthurian legend. That would probably be helpful, of course.

I’m a fan of the idea of just the Bradley and Colin show, where you just go places and they film you two, because it’s pretty entertaining, just on it’s own.
That American road trip, it’s got to happen sometime.

I’ve been rooting for it for a long time. I think that’s your next opportunity after Merlin, is you and Colin. I think you have your careers made as just traveling places as a comedy duo and just recording what happens.
Right. [Laughs] After Merlin, I think myself and Colin have earned a well-deserved break from each other. I’m sure Colin, at least, would enjoy a five minute break from me.

Aw, I don’t think so!
He’d like some peace and quiet, I think. As opposed to, say, having me around all day. But who knows! It could be something for us to do in later life, when we’re old pensioners.

Well, I would look forward to it, and so would a lot of fans.
Well, if there’s anything in the works along those lines, I’ll let you know.

And if you ever come to Boston, myself and the people who work at our blog would be more than happy to host you.
Wow, thank you so much!

So thank you so much for doing this interview with me, in spite of the technical difficulties, and good luck with season 3 and whatever comes after that.
No, thank you, Julia, and here’s hoping … I’ve got the feeling it will go down well. Cheers!

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Aug 27, 2010 @ 16:14 EST5EDT