TV Goodness Chats with Haven’s Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, and Eric Balfour [Part 2] 

NOTE: General season three discussion follows. No specific major plot points are revealed.

Continuing our chat with the three leads of Haven, we turn to a discussion of the show’s many emotional threads. Since it runs the gamut from happy to sad to scary as hell, we asked the trio if they have a favorite one to play. They all agreed they like to mix it up.

Emily Rose says that for her it’s a matter of getting bored with playing one thing for too long. “Anytime I’ve been doing dramatic crying things for too long, I’m over it. And anytime I’m doing too many lighthearted, you know, not lady things, I’m aching for that,” she says. “My favorite scripts are the ones that have a quirkiness to them and that allow for those moments of the romance or…real, hearty emotion because you do feel like you’re really tapping into something very human. But then [I like] that you’re also able to laugh about things and be quirky. [Being] able to do all of it is what I like about our show.”

Bryant agrees with Rose. “I think it’s such a pleasure to have all of [these] elements in our show and I think that’s what makes our show so unique,” he says. “[One] minute, it’s disturbing and weird and creepy and…in those moments sometimes there’s some strange humor and light fun. And I guess some of that is that sort of Stephen King element. You know, the mundane just turned sideways and twisted out of whack. But it’s something I think makes our show totally unique and that I’m really proud of.”

Balfour‘s favorites are the episodes that suspend reality and take you out of your everyday life. “We’ve created [this] sort of strange macabre, like Emily just said, quirky world and it exists in its own reality in a way. [I love] when we really dive into that world and that reality where Haven is a town that although it’s not completely different from the world we know, it is unequivocally not the world that we know,” he says. “And that’s my favorite part—when we live in that reality.”

The closing episodes of the second season opened several threads into our characters’ backstories, and the actors say that they made those discoveries when we did. Nobody had a character bible.

Bryant joked that bibles weren’t allowed. “[Not] like that. Bibles are welcome but show bibles for this show, I don’t think they exist, and if they do, they don’t tell us,” he says. “I know that the writers [have] plans about where they’re going and where we’re going and where we’ve come from and what we’ll learn as we move forward [but we don’t know about them]. Bryant points out that he asked and they said no, even we he said “please.” “And then I realized that I liked that situation because I am, you know, as clueless as my character, just discovering what’s going on as he does. So that’s all I get.”

Rose says her creation of Audrey was new territory for her as an actress. “I’ve never in my life ever played a character where I didn’t know the backstory on her…I [had] very, very basic things and then at the end of season one, I was told all of those things weren’t real,” she says. “It’s mainly just been a discovery of who she is and just living in the unknown and discovering that on a daily basis.”

Balfour kids that he was told me everything he needed to know. “They said Duke lives on a boat and that was all I needed,” he says. “And I’ve been pretty much going off that for three years now and it’s worked out…pretty well in my opinion.”

The trio are delighted by the guest stars coming onboard now. “It’s always neat when you kind of develop this little community of things that you’re used to sort of seeing Haven react [to]. And when new people come in, it kind of mixes it up for a little bit,” says Rose. Balfour is glad as well. “I think you’re seeing [that] the level of kind of excellence on the show has been raised and the bar’s been raised. [We’re] starting to become a show where actors like Iain Glen come on and that whole pedigree that he brings to the show.”

He and Bryant agree it’s a testament to the show. “We are now at a point where people respect the show and there’s a following,” says Balfour. “And now actors of that caliber are saying yes, I want to come do a guest spot on this show and I’ll be a part of this and I’ll put my name on that and that says a lot.”

Rose has found that when guest star arrive, they talk about how fantastic the writing is and how likable the characters are. Nolan North and Claudia Black, Rose’s costars in the video game, Uncharted, are set to guest this season. “I think a lot of fans will actually really love to see that and the fact that our producers made that happen…is really, really cool,” she says. “So, there are some things that [will] draw new people to the show and I think people will really want to see. It’s exciting to live in a world where that’s a possibility.”

Haven shoots in the picturesque Halifax, Nova Scotia, worlds away from Los Angeles or even Vancouver and Toronto, and the cast loves the location. Rose says it’s all about the people they work and live with and the community that they’ve made. “You know, this summer has been the most fun we’ve had in the three years we’ve been here,” says Balfour.

“Part of that was because…we were blessed with amazing weather this year and we all had fun…I can’t think of a weekend this season where we weren’t out either at the beach teaching Emily how to surf… looking for waves on our friend’s boat on some island…or going tidal board rafting or mud sliding [with Lucas] or…” “Going to people’s weddings,” Rose finishes for him. She goes on that they know more people now and feel like part of the Halifax family.

Balfour also fondly recalls a night that Rose and Bryant and one of their camera guys seized an open mic at a local bar. “It’s really going to be hard in some ways to go home this time because it was a really phenomenal summer this time.” Rose says it was their summer camp. “[We] worked really hard… then on the side we have all these fun activities and routines that we create,” she says. “It’s a blessing and… it’s great so we’re thankful.”

Haven wrapped production the day we chatted with them, but the cast is still hard at work promoting the new season. The season premiere airs tonight on Syfy at 10pm/9c and repeats at midnight.