Burkely Duffield (House of Anubis) stars as Holden Matthews in the new Freeform television series Beyond which premieres this Monday, January 2 on the network. In the series, Duffield plays a young man who wakes after 12 years in a coma and finds himself with extraordinary abilities — and a group of people coming after him for reasons that he does not know. The show is exciting with action, mystery, and very interesting character development coming from a family that has lost their son for many years, and the son who is dealing with a world that has changed during his time away.
We were recently able to interview Duffield about this new addition to the Freeform lineup, and you can watch video of the interview above. If text is more your thing, we have that too, right below. Enjoy!
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: How is Holden different from any character that you’ve played before?
BURKELY DUFFIELD: One of the things that I like about him, which is sort of a driving notion of our show, is the way that he grows up in front of the audience and during the season. I mean, he was in coma for twelve years, so I feel like that sense of discovery and that innocence of the character, and bringing that sort of adolescent behavior and mindset into the role is something that I hadn’t done before, but it was a lot of fun.
Even when Holden was younger, we see that he had an interest in space. Can you talk about that?
Even before when he was 13 as you see in the pilot, Holden always just thought the world and life had something to offer. It was something different; he wasn’t this typical sort of pre-teen, thinking about the pre-teen things that they usually do. He had a sense of “what’s my purpose? What do I do? And how is the world connected?” So he was always interested in space, and time, and his purpose in life. That may or may not influence what happens to him.
Is it difficult to play a character who, for all intents and purposes, still may have the mentality of his younger self?
It’s interesting — it was a fun part of the show, as I referenced going in, and anything that he wouldn’t have experienced before, you had to go in with a blind eye. It was fun going in, because a lot of these experiences that you’ll see him experience, a lot of us did growing up. There’s a lot of adolescent behaviors or events, and just the things that we do, that it was cool once again re-enacting and doing on screen as Holden.
How jarring was it for him to get back to this world where now his brother is suddenly more mature than he is?
It’s a very cool position that Jon [Whitesell] plays as Luke, my brother, and it’s a very fun — I don’t know if I’d say rivalry, but position that they’re in. He’s more elder in mind now, but younger in body, and still sees his brother as his “older brother” but really, now, I’m the younger brother in my mind, let alone that I’m still older in body. So it’s cool. We both teach each other things, I’d say, in the series. It’s a fun older/younger brother pass-off.
That’s not all for this interview! Navigate for more:
