The second episode of NBC’s Constantine airs tonight (October 31) at 10PM, and that makes it a perfect time to share our interview conducted earlier this year with Charles Halford, who plays “Chas” on the series.
Chas is a character well known from the John Constantine: Hellblazer comics, and our interview illuminates some of that background if you didn’t know it already.
Our questions to Mr. Halford are posted in bold; his answers are not.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: When you read the pilot script, did you think your character was doomed?
CHARLES HALFORD: When I read the pilot script, I had a lot of questions. When I spoke with David Goyer, I had a lot of reassurances. And now we’re going to see how it all plays out!
What kind of backstory had you read of Chas from the comic books?
At the time I read the pilot, I was only roughly familiar with the comic books. I mean, I had read them growing up, here and there. They were dirty little comics at the time. The only kind you’d hide from your parents, for fear that they might turn to that page, where there’s blood splattered all over the wall and Constantine’s having sex with some random girl. And so, as soon as the show became a reality for me, I immediately went to a comic book store and rediscovered my inner comic book fan, my childhood comic book fan. It was so much fun for me to buy a bunch of Hellblazer titles, kind of knowing that on those pages, is my kind of life. And it was very exciting to me.
I mean, growing up when you read comics – it might have been some of my first introduction to acting, when you have images that go with dialogue, and interaction, where all of the rules are set aside, and the characters are so real to you, and they’re nuanced. How do they speak? It’s how you hear them. And so, when I was flipping through Hellblazer knowing that I was Chas, it was just a surreal experience for me, and I have been an avid reader [since]. I mean, that’s all I do these days. If I’ve got an hour to kill, I’m reading Hellblazer comics. I’ve made my way through about half of them at this point.
There’s a whole lot more where this came from! Navigate below for more of this interview:
