Gale Harold first became known to legions of fans for his role as Brian Kinney in the Showtime series Queer As Folk. His loyal fan base followed him along to numerous other projects, including recurring roles on Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.
This Fall, Harold will be playing Charles Meade in one of The CW’s most promising new series, The Secret Circle. Charles is the father of Diana (Shelley Hennig), one of the members of the younger generation’s “circle,” and he is part of the older generation that preceded them. Those who have seen some of the trailers (which you can find here at KSiteTV if you poke around a bit) know already that Charles Meade is really creepy and someone to be afraid of.
Mr. Harold and other cast and crew members from the show spoke with the press earlier this week at the TCA Summer 2011 Press Tour in Beverly Hills, California. One of the first questions explicitly pointed at Gale is if he could explain his character’s motivations, and whether or not he’s good or evil.
“The easiest explanation is that there’s not a clear explanation, he said. “And I’m not sure if he is even sure of what he’s up to. I think he’s very, very drawn to bringing back something that he thought he had his hands on when he was younger. But the way that it’s structured, he needs this new generation to come and bind. And through that I think that my character Charles and Natasha’s character Dawn will utilize that. But I think in terms of the genre, what’s interesting about him is that he has ‑‑ he kind of has to make sure that everyone around him who may or may not know what’s going on assumes that he’s just an upstanding, nice man and a good father while playing the double all the time, which is what’s very interesting about the part, because it’s not just a bad guy. It’s a very bad guy who seems to be a very good person and uses that any way he can.”
Charles Meade will have to put on a front and seem like a nice guy to most of the people in Chance Harbor, as it is a small town. “I think, for Charles, for my character, it’s going to be pivotal to maintain that veil, right?” he asked. “I think he’s always going to be looking over his shoulder and looking through people’s windows and trying to look into their eyes and see what they understand about what he’s saying to them. A small town is good because there’s gossip ‑‑ right? ‑‑ and there’s history, and everybody has their own story of what everything means, and they can develop their own versions. So it’s very, very ‑‑ it’s very, very treacherous to even walk around the corner ‑‑ right? ‑‑ besides my life at home. I have a daughter who is in high school. So I’ve got to be really, really, really careful. I think that that’s hopefully going to be part of the tension is it’s got to be obvious, right? Somebody has got to know, and we are going to find out who they are and what they know and maybe what I have to do to shut them up….”
Gale Harold was then interrupted and told “But you can’t kill everybody in the show.”
“You don’t know that!” he teased.
The Secret Circle premieres September 15 on The CW. Come by our Secret Circle forum!
1 Comment
I remember Gale Harold from Queer as Folk. I thought he was amazing back then and I continue to think that today. I saw the pilot trailer for The Secret Circle and he pulls off evil really well. I can;t wait to see what he’s really up to in The Secret Circle. I hope they don’t take too long getting to mysteries.