TV Goodness Chats with Haven’s Emily Rose, Eric Balfour, and Adam Copeland 

Haven is back on Syfy tonight! Last month, we had a chance to join a press call with series stars Emily Rose, Eric Balfour, and Adam Copeland about where season three had taken them. We focused a bit on Nathan and Audrey, Duke’s evolution, the flashback-happy “Sarah,” and the remixing of character pairs.

We began our chat with a little bit of air clearing about Audrey and Nathan, and everybody agreed we’re not quite there yet. Balfour thinks it’s an organic development that will happen when it’s supposed to happen (if it will happen at all—he’s coy like that).

“I think one of the beautiful dances of a show like this is that the longer we can figure out interesting and intelligent ways to bring the characters together and then pull them apart and bring them together, [that’s fascinating] because it’s kind of pretty true to human nature in our lives anyways,” he says. “We’re constantly doing that on our own in real life.”

Rose adds that for her, it’s been interesting to see the hardships and complications between the characters, more now than if Audrey and Nathan had gotten together in the first or second season.

Balfour was asked about Duke’s evolution this season vs. the previous seasons and he thinks Duke’s just always been Duke. “I don’t know that Duke is more of a good guy this season. I think he is being more true to his nature [and] it has been a really fun dichotomy to play [and the] writers did a really great job,” he says. “I think Duke always had a very clear code of honor which made him fun because he was compromising. I think he’s always going to struggle with his good nature…and that will continue to make him interesting”

When the conversation tuned to “Sarah,” which was the most highly anticipated episode of the season (until tonight’s finale), Rose was nostalgic. “It was certainly fun. I [recently] went back through my Canadian phone and was looking at all the pictures from that episode. [I love] our cast and crew so much,” she says affectionately. “I feel like [with] that episode in particular, every one of our departments showed what they were capable of and what they could do.”

“It was just exciting to step down on the wharf in Lunenburg and to see all these boats and all these people and hundreds of extras at the Shore Club and everything, just all dressed up and to really create this world that was from another place. Haven‘s sort of timeless anyway. But it was really exciting to… watch how proud each and every department was of what they did. And I think, if anything, it was just a big group effort that everybody really enjoyed doing. That stuck out to me the most.” Rose says she also relished getting to be someone other than Audrey. “Sarah was a really fun character to create and it was a scary challenge because I didn’t know if I’d be happy with the end result.”

Balfour had expected the worst when he read the script and was thrilled to be wrong. “I thought it was just a really kick-ass effort on the part of everyone to pull off recreating 1950s Haven. I read the script and I went, ‘Oh God, this is going to be a tragedy.’ And I was so pleasantly surprised because everybody stepped it up and went way beyond their duties and their pay grade and their budgets. Everyone just made it happen,” he says.

“I was really proud of Emily in that episode. It took a lot of guts and…balls because she really did go for it in creating a character out of Sarah. From the voice that she used and the dialect and the mannerisms, it would have been very easy to just say, ‘Oh, okay, Sarah is Audrey but with a different color hair.’ But she didn’t. She went for it.”

We asked about the character shuffling this season and Rose says she enjoyed seeing Audrey and Duke find another layer in their friendship. “[In the first season, they were like] animals, sort of circling one another. [This season], Audrey gets to express this other side of herself that she doesn’t usually get to express necessarily with Nathan [except for] at the beginning when she was being a little quirky,” she says.

“But just like the scenes in Colorado when we’re sitting or kicking back some beers and [Audrey] gets to let down her hair and feels safe that [Duke is there] for her…they’ve overcome these big things [so now] she really sees and admires and sees this other side of him. It’s a real fun relationship that they have now that they have this friendship. And it’s been really neat because it just brings out the different sides of these characters.”

She added that we’ll see more of that in the finale. “You see all these characters bump off of each other and Audrey having to face each of these characters,” she teases. “It is really neat to be this far along in the season [and have] that opportunity. It’s exciting to not have any of that get cut short.”

Balfour says he was lucky this season. “Whenever you add new people, new dynamics, and new personalities, you never know how that’s going to mix,” he says. “But I’m just really grateful that I didn’t have to work with one apple this season. I liked everybody [and] I had a great time. In reference to what Emily was just saying about the finale, I just want to put it out there: ‘mind-blowing,’ like literally.”

Balfour is also particularly complimentary of new cast member Adam Copeland, who plays Dwight, who we’ve seen more of in the third season. “I’ve been really impressed by the leaps and bounds that Adam has made as an actor. I really am proud of [him]. I’ll say this on the record. I remember when he did his first episode in Season two. And I can be honest about this now, because I think he knows I love him—he was so stiff. I honestly was like, ‘Is this dude going to make it through this? I’m worried about him,’” he says.

“And it was so fun to watch him blossom because he really did. I’m so proud of him that he’s found a comfort level and a groove. You don’t get to where he is gotten to in his life without being talented and charismatic. But nonetheless, it’s like being a great athlete in one arena. That doesn’t mean that it immediately translates to some other sport. But the fact that he is this great, allowed him to. And then he’s just getting better and better and better. And now it’s so much fun to watch what he does now because he actually goes beyond what’s on the page and brings something to it and makes it interesting.”

Copeland says it’s been a completely new experience for him. “The whole process is a challenge for me at this point because I’m really learning. And one of the things that I really wanted to try to do is just come in [to Haven] with my eyes wide open, my ears wide open, and just listen and watch. And that was really all I’ve been trying to do,” he admits. “This year, I’m actually taking steps to try and get better at this because it’s been a lot of fun and kind of cathartic and [a] creative process that I still need. And it’s still that, so that’s really nice. For me, the biggest challenge is just trying to get somewhat passable at the whole acting thing.”

He’s looking forward to everybody seeing the finale because it lets Dwight participate in a different way. “[There’s] one really amazing scene for me as a character in the show and then also, just for me, Adam, sitting there watching this and seeing all of my friends. There’s one moment where you see everyone all on one spot,” he says. “And it’s very, very cool to see that because, [Dwight], who fights, interactive one-on-one or in groups of twos or threes, [is never with everyone all together]. So it was just seeing the scope of…the landscape that they painted, along with the landscape of the scene, the physical attributes of the scene. It’s pretty epic, is the right word.”

We can’t wait to see it! The two-part Haven finale begins tonight on Syfy at 8 pm/ 7 c.