“Forever” is a fantasy story, and it is pretty fantastical. It’s not the first for its star, Ioan Gruffudd, who played Mr. Fantastic himself, Reed Richards, in the first two Fantastic Four movies.
On “Forever,” Gruffudd plays a man living for centuries as the result of a spell. Whenever he “dies,” he is reborn in the nearest body of water. Since he’s settled in New York, that means he emerges naked from the East River. The producers told the Television Critics Association that he will not have to go swimming every week, but certainly the pilot episode dumps him in the water several times. Later, at ABC’s evening party, we sat down with Gruffudd on the rooftop of the Beverly Hilton overlooking Los Angeles to discuss “Forever.”
CraveOnline: Were you looking to get back into TV after “Ringer?”
Ioann Gruffudd: I was just looking to find something fantastic to do and I read this and absolutely fell in love with it. In television as we know in this day and age is where all the great writing is, the great opportunities are. Because I’ve already had my superhero franchise, I wasn’t going to be able to show up in any of the other reboots of other franchises out there in the movie world.
Your costar, Chris Evans, has done three.
That’s right, Avengers and Captain America.
Did you say “find something fantastic” on purpose?
It’s funny, that’s an adjective I use a lot, trying to be positive about everything. Then of course you’re inevitably repeating yourself.
Did you get in the East River yourself?
I didn’t, thank goodness. There was an idea that they were going to try it, but what was needed of me dunking my head and coming back, I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that more than once because it was March and it was about minus four that day.
Is it a relief to hear that they don’t plan to kill you each week?
Just on the physical level, yes, but I know it’ll be coming up at some point so I have to keep myself in shape for that. I like that element. I think it’s intriguing, it’s original, it lends itself to a bit of comedy.
I think it should be a mystery every week. Is he going to die or will he get through this week?
Yeah, then you’re anticipating it but it doesn’t happen. I think it’s smart not to do it every week because it’ll be hard to repeat that, or it’ll become repetitive. It won’t be original and interesting enough.
Did he get a job in the medical examiner’s office specifically to investigate the deaths he’s a part of?
I think so. I think he was being honest about that that he’s surrounded himself by death in order to try and understand how people die and in order to try and figure out scientifically why he can’t. That’s a conceit that we have to buy into as an audience and go along for the journey.
In the last 200 years, what are the most significant eras in his life?
Surviving the plague maybe, although that was probably before our time. Surviving a version of a big virus like that. I think it’s the people that he’s met along the way, he’s met and loved and lost. I think that’s the significance of going back in time. As much as we can have fun historically, I think it’s just the fact that people have come and gone in his life and after a while that leaves him with scars that when we first meet him in the show, he’s decided to stay back and not partake in life, to live in the shadows somewhat.
Do you think we might see the time in between the baby and when he grew up, to see how their relationship grew over time?
I think that’d be fun to see. I’d love to see the actor who’s cast as the young Judd Hirsch. I think it’d be a huge ask, huge shoes to fill. I hope we do. I think people are intrigued by that already from the pilot it seems. We give them that along the way.
How much do you know about the mythology of this spell or curse?
Honestly, all this just happened so fast. You go with your initial instinct of how to play your character in the pilot and shoot the pilot in two and a half weeks. Then you depart and you’re off to your life and suddenly the show gets picked up and you’re picking it back up again. So I haven’t actually had a chance to ask all those pertinent questions. I know Matt knows the answer and I know the network have asked him for the answer to the big question, so I don’t know anything about what that is or what that could be. I almost don’t want to know. I think I want to discover it at the same time as the audience.
There is a famous Queen song that happens to come from the Highlander soundtrack. It asks, “Who wants to live forever?” Can you relate to that?
“What is forever anyway?” I think he says at the end of the song. I think the question that we’ve posed is: is it a blessing or a curse? It seems to me that it would be a curse because what makes our life so delicious and interesting is the fact that we meet people and fall in love with people, the emotions of being in love. Losing somebody time and time again must be a painful existence.
I agree. I’m glad to know there is an endpoint. I’m in no hurry to get there, but I wouldn’t want to take that away.
No, I wonder if there’s a happy medium to be able to choose at a certain point, I want to continue to live or give that gift to everybody else that you want to as well.
Like, “I’m good now.”
I’m exhausted.
When you hear about the new Fantastic Four cast, does that fill you with nostalgia or other feelings?
Oh, absolutely. I loved playing Mr. Fantastic and I am envious of the fact that Miles [Teller] is going to have a chance to play him, but I’m also excited for him because I know how much that brought to my life and to me as an actor, how much fun it was to play him and everything that goes with being in a big franchise. I’m excited for it. He’s a wonderful actor and he’s going to do an amazing job.
Was “Ringer” a good experience?
“Ringer” I loved. I loved that collaboration with Sarah Michelle on a daily basis. I loved the writing and the cleverness of that, and I was very sad it didn’t continue.
That could’ve only gotten crazier in a second season.
Couldn’t it? I think we set it up beautifully for a second season but such is the nature of television.
