The photo above was kindly shared by Amy Berg on twitter. New interviews promoting the final season of Da Vinci's Demons have been shared online. The latest is from Comic Book Resources, in which as well as chatting about being happy with how the ending of the show has turned out, also reveals which other superhero characters he has auditioned for / would be most interested in... Read it in full on the website.
Leo discovers the Turks have fully realized his weapon designs. How does that throw him for a loop?
Riley: Well, completely, and not just that they’ve realized them, but that they’ve made them better. Somehow, they have taken his designs, that he thought no one had their hands on, and are using them against him in such a way that he can’t find a way to beat them. Not only that, the reason that the Turks have these weapons is because he put his trust in someone who has betrayed him. Everything has thrown him for a loop. Suddenly, he realizes the people he believed in aren’t necessarily the ones he should have been and the ones he didn’t believe, he should have listened to more.
Leo and Lorenzo [Elliot Cowan] had a bit of a bromance happening. What have you enjoyed about that relationship this year?
Riley: Lorenzo goes through his own spiritual journey and cleansing this year. It puts the relationship — which Leo thought was one of the most important in his life — in real jeopardy. Lorenzo is going to lose trust in him. Everyone is going to lose trust in Leo because of what he brought down on Italy. Their relationships are going to be tested this year.
Leo’s quest over the series has been to retrieve this Book of Leaves. How much are we going to learn about its origin, its purpose and Leo’s intentions for it?
Riley: We’re going to learn a great deal about the book. We’re going to learn about its purpose. We’re going to learn about what it can do and what Leo intends to do with it and what he intends to stop it from doing. Its origins are so shrouded in mystery and a lot of it is still left ambiguous, but we are going to get a far deeper understanding of it. Lots of questions from the first season will be answered.
Leo swings swords and gets into scraps. Can you preview which action sequence proved the most demanding?
Riley: There’s so many. The first two hours are so intense. They are like a two-hour war movie. We have a brand new stunt coordinator this year and he was determined to make the fight sequences a lot more choreographed and a lot more complex as a result. They were incredibly difficult to pick up, but they looked fantastic on screen.
The trailer teases a huge battle with the Turks.
Riley: That was a long few days. We had an incredible set we built outside this time. A lot of the sets have previously been inside in our studio. We were outside in the Welsh weather over four to five days doing this fight. There were so many extras and stunt guys. Some had to be shipped in from London. It’s a huge sequence and just when you think it’s over, it begins again. I would say that was easily the hardest. Not only because it’s dangerous — things were going wrong, explosions were going off and one caught me in the face — but it all pays off. It looks fantastic on screen.
Unfortunately, “Da Vinci’s Demons” has officially been cancelled. How satisfying of a conclusion does the finale offer the fans?
Riley: That’s the one thing we are really proud of. It’s nice to have a show that’s not going to leave people hanging. They are not going to feel like, “Oh God. I got caught in the middle of a gigantic cliffhanger like the last two seasons.” There is a real wrap up and a sense of closure. All of the main characters get a fairly satisfactory conclusion to their arcs. There are still open-ended moments that the audience will want to fill in the blanks. It’s bittersweet that it’s ending, but exciting that we’ve been able to do it in a way that’s not going to deflate the fans.
Goyer and your friend, Nicholas Holt (Beast in the “X-Men: franchise) are associated with superhero properties. Tom, have you ever auditioned for one and is that something that interests you?
Riley: Because there are so many of them, it would be hard pressed to find an actor who hasn’t auditioned for Marvel or DC at some point. I think I went in for “Captain America” one time. I turned down an audition for Superman because I just thought, “That is never going to happen. Look at me.” I went out for “Guardians [of the Galaxy].” There’s so many of them, particularly with the MCU becoming such a gigantic world. I love those movies. I haven’t been successful in auditioning for them in the past, but I have my fingers crossed that will change in the future.
Is there a superhero that would be a good fit for you?
Riley: I’ve been sniffing around Iron Fist. Aside from that, I don’t know. “The Inhumans” are an exciting idea. There’s so many. I’m open. Call me.
The second is from a Finnish interview, last month in Helsinki. Not the fan questions which Emmi / Blake Ritson Love gave to Tom (sadly they never got answered), but from this website. Thanks to Emmi for translating this interview.
Da Vinci's Demons, telling the story of the superior Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, is now launching it's third season. 15th century Florence has been depicted as a colourful place. Conspiracies, action, passions and even adventuring are mixed together with Da Vinci's famous inventions. Three of the show's stars visited Finland in the early fall: Tom Riley, 34, who plays Leonardo, and Eros Vlahos, 20, and Gregg Chillin, 27, who play his friends. Out of the trio only Vlahos had been to Finland before: when he was 15, he traveled to Lapland with his family and saw the Santa Claus.
- I was too already too old for that, but I loved driving a snow scooter and a dog sled. It was October, and the sun never rose, which was really strange to me, Vlahos remembers the hotel Kämp in Helsinki. - I just wanted to go to sleep all the time. I can't understand how you Finns make it!
The trio agrees that the pieces of Da Vinci's Demons won't fully click together before the third season. Irony or not, the season, which starts this weekend will remain the show's last.
- The third season is finally what we meant the show to be like from the beginning. The price of the previous events is being paid: Da Vinci's all previous deeds, inventions and all the unleashed chaos is aimed back to themselves. Everything is more personal, Riley sums up.
Riley, who has bleached up his hair for another role, tells he has completely changed during the show's three years of shooting.
- In the first year everything was really exciting, and we didn't even know how the show would be like. David (Goyer, the show's creator) gave us free hands to have fun with the characters. The show felt fresh and even mental.
The light style managed to surprise Riley as well. He had imagined he'd be making a much more usual biopic during the shooting.
- During the second season I was too aware of what worked, and tried to do everything "correctly". It was too consuming: before going home I went to look at the scenes that had been cut and left notes to others. The show became my whole life.
Only during the third year Riley learnt to relax with his role. - I realized that you have to take care of yourself, so you'd be able to give your best to others. I am really grateful that the show taught me this, though getting to this point included nightmarish moments, the analytical Riley confesses.
Riley didn't start studying acting till he was 23 - ancient, if compared to the backgrounds of Vlahos and Chillin as teenage actors. Chillin tells to have grown to be an actor from the inspiration of his sister's dance and drama lessons. Vlahos instead got on stage so he wouldn't get into trouble at school for being attention-seeking.
- Instead of being the jerk of the class, who tells bad jokes, I did the same on stage, Vlahos compares.
During shooting the trio has learnt to know each other's strengths - and weaknesses. - When we were getting closer to the end of third season, I already struggled with looking these two in their eyes, we would have cracked to laugh, Chillin describes.
