"Hannibal" Season 2 Preview - Comic-Con 2013 - TVLine

Hannibal Panel - Comic-Con 2013

Hannibal eats up the 2012-2013 Golden Europe TV Awards

http://kino-mania.com/the-2012-2013-golden-europe-tv-awards-winners-game-of-thrones-hannibal-and-arrested-development-sweep/

Hannibal won 6 awards in the the 2012-2013 Golden Europe TV Awards:

1. OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR – DRAMA SERIES: Hugh Dancy
2. OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR – DRAMA SERIES (tie): Mads Mikkelsen and Bobby Cannavale (Boardwalk Empire)
3. OUTSTANDING PICTURE EDITING FOR DRAMA SERIES: Stephen Philipson, Ben Wilkinson, and Michael Doherty
4. OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A SERIES – CONTEMPORARY: Matthew Davies 
5. OUTSTANDING SOUND EDITING FOR A SERIES: Janice Ierulli
6. OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING FOR A SERIES: Paul Shubat, Steve Foster, Paul Williamson, and Andre Perreault

Will Graham as a Lecturer

Is Will a good lecturer? I would say definitely that he is, he has many characteristics of an excellent teacher, let’s look at all of the episodes so far (up to “Entree” on Sky Living) and see what he does right.

Episode 1: Apéritif

The episode opens with Will lecturing, but that isn’t obvious straight-away that he is lecturing since he is painting such as vivid picture of how a profiler does their job we are seeing how he explores a crime scene. This is a strength of Will’s teaching; he is a good story teller. Also because he is a practitioner of what he is teaching, he is able to engage in Authentic Instruction,  which means that there is a clear connection between the real world and the material being taught in Will’s classroom, and that he requires his students engage in Higher-Order Thinking,  so he gets them to solve problems or discover new meanings.

Will also uses visual materials to augment his lesson, and in this case these images are often very shocking and graphic. This makes them highly memorable, and helps create anchors around which the students can remember and reflect on the lesson. It also exposes the students to the reality of the profession that they will be undertaking.

Will finishes his lesson by saying “Tell me your design. Tell me who you are.”, this helps personalise the lesson for the students, Will is saying “I do this thing, you can do it too, your ideas and opinions are as valuable as mine and your insights will make a difference in the world”.

Episode 2: Amuse-Bouche

This class starts with the students applauding Will for locating and stopping the “Minnesota Shrike”, Will instructs them to stop clapping, this is very good, he is saying several different things: “We are getting on with the class, business as usual”, “I had to kill someone and that doesn’t deserve applause, because all life is valuable, and we don’t demonise these killers”, and “This is the job, don’t do it for praise, do it because you want to help”. 

As all teachers do, Will is acting as a role-model for his students, the students look at him and get their impression of what a person in their job should act like and how they should react to certain situations, he is a good role model.

Will discusses an ongoing case with the students, another excellent example of Authentic Instruction; the students get to “see under the hood” of how such an investigation works, with all the confusion and uncertainty. This would be in direct contrast to a case study where the answers are already worked out and the students just have to figure out how the result was achieved.

Episode 3: Potage

Will discusses an investigation that he has talked about in class previously again, but expands on certain elements of the case, and highlights different issues, and asks different questions, to show the multiple perspectives that you can come at a case from.

Will also explains his approach to profiling by example again this week, and is free and open enough to ask questions he doesn’t know the answers to, in that way he is asking the students to construct their own understanding (Constructivism) and to engage in a real-world task to help make the world a better place (Service Learning).

Episodes 4 and 6: Ceuf and Entrée

Will isn’t teaching but is using his classroom to do some profiling; this is excellent, the boundaries between the real-world and the teaching dissolve when the teacher practices their profession in the same space that they use to teach, and it makes it easier for the teacher to recall details and examples for particular topics if they have been reviewing those materials in the same space that they are teaching the same ideas.

Bottom line, Will is a very good teacher, in the words of Aristotle "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach."

Hugh Dancy on Craig Ferguson

...and as a bonus, Hugh's dad:

...and two months previously:

SciFiNow Issue 80: Hannibal Interviews

SciFiNow Issue 80

Pages 46-49. Featuing interviews with Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.

DisitalSpy: Hugh Dancy 'Hannibal' Q&A: 'Bryan Fuller has planned out five seasons' by Morgan Jeffery

http://www.digitalspy.ie/ustv/interviews/a477252/hugh-dancy-hannibal-qa-bryan-fuller-has-planned-out-five-seasons.html

How did you feel when you were first approached for Hannibal? Were you aware of the Lecter movies?
"I had actually seen Red Dragon - the Ed Norton version - but quite a long time ago, and because they were filmed out of order, I think I had lost a sense of where everything fell. I've not seen Manhunter.

"Before I read anything or had seen anything, I wondered... why revisit the characters and the world, and why do it as a TV show? I wanted to know, were the motives good?

"I read the first script and it seemed to be ambitious and interesting - it was well-written, with good dialogue, and raised lots of interesting possibilities... but that was as much as I had.

"I met with Bryan Fuller, I said pretty much exactly what I said to you to him, and he laid out the first five seasons of the show as he was carrying them around in his head. That basically answered all my questions!

"He not only made it clear that there would be a lot for me to do, but made it clear as to why one might want to do [this show] on a broader level. People love the books and the movies - and so does Bryan, incidentally - but he explained why we were going back to them and why we were doing it in a long-form way."

What do you think Bryan brings to Hannibal as showrunner?
"Well, he's a f**king great writer! He can have these hallucinogenic insights into character and he can write a type of heightened dialogue which very few people can get away with, because as an actor, there's just enough underpinning there for you to ground it. It's really fun, meaty stuff - that's the first thing.

"Secondly, for such an open, genuine and very sweet man, he has such a dark mind. But he doesn't do it to try to be dark. I never got a script and thought, 'Oh I see, this is the part where they're trying to be gross', - he's coming at it from a genuinely interested, character perspective."

Your character Will Graham is an unusual protagonist - you get the feeling that he could flip to the dark side at any time...
"Yeah, and that was a big part of the appeal. That wasn't particularly how Bryan sold it to me, although I understood the trajectory of the first season, which definitely raises that question. That's the fulcrum, if you like, in Will's mind that Hannibal is leaning on.

"But yeah, as a protagonist, he has this capacity for empathy, which we normally think of as such a kind thing - but for whatever reason, in him, it's particularly directed towards violent criminals. That was an interesting place to start."

Mads Mikkelsen is such an interesting screen presence - what is he like to work with?
"Wonderful. I worked with Mads before, about nine years ago on [2004 film] King Arthur. It was pretty broad - every so often we'd kill an ancient Briton and then we'd carry on chatting and hanging out! We had six months to get to know each other and became friendly, but it was a very different type of job.

"What can I say about Mads? He's detail oriented. Once he's got his teeth into something... that sounds like a bad pun! But once he gets his teeth into something, he won't let go.

"He has amazing technique, but primarily he will interrogate something until it makes sense to him and nobody's going to question it as much as he will. I think when you're taking on a character that's already iconic, that people already think they know, that's absolutely the best type of actor to come at it."

Hannibal has attracted an amazing cast - Laurence Fishburne, Gillian Anderson, Eddie Izzard...
"I don't know if you're Jewish or not, but there's a bit in the Passover ceremony where they say, 'It would've been sufficient' - it felt a bit like that!

"It was like getting a ticket to watch Oprah tape one of her shows... and then getting a free car! It really is an astonishing cast. I've admired Laurence for years - his first work was Apocalypse Now... which is ridiculous!

"And if one has a mental list of people you'd like to work with, Mads is right at the top of it, so for me it was wonderful."

There's been a lot of talk about how Hannibal and shows like The Following are pushing the boundaries for violence on network television - what are your thoughts on that?
"Well, I haven't actually seen The Following, I'm ashamed to say. I think that what's new is the positioning of violence, what's new really is the genre - horror - rather than the violence.

"I can only really speak about our show and I never question the fact that the violence on Hannibal serves as a vital insight into Will's mind, and ultimately into Hannibal's mind.

"But particularly Will, because he's somebody who lives with it - that's what he has to carry around every day. Without that, he's just... grumpy! So you need to understand what his burden is. I've got no problem with violence in entertainment as long as it has purpose and consequences."

A show like Hannibal could easily become procedural, killer-of-the-week stuff, but there's an ongoing arc here...
"Oh, I think it's all about the ongoing arc. When you're tuning into something week after week, with a week in-between, you do need a little something to get you through. You need a weekly pay-off.

"But for me the engine driving the show is the developing relationship and the situation between Will and Hannibal, and the tipping balance in Will's mind. That's what's going to pull us through, that's what's going to hook people."

Since people know on some level what's going to happen to Will and Hannibal, does the show have the feel of a tragedy?
"Well, do people know what's going to happen? I don't know. To some extent, that's true, but we've got a long way to go before we reach Red Dragon - it's not like we finish this first season and, bang, it's Red Dragon..."

I think Bryan Fuller has said that Red Dragon would be your fourth season...
"Exactly, so before we get there, Will is going through the wringer. If you go into it thinking you know where we're heading, you're in for a surprise!"

Pictures from Hannibal Tumblr

http://nbchannibal.tumblr.com/

Exclusive Interview With Hannibal Star Hugh Dancy Sky Living

"Fromage" Promotional Pictures

http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/04/hannibal-episodes-105-107-promotional.html

"Sorbet" Promotional Pictures

http://www.spoilertv.com/2013/04/hannibal-episodes-105-107-promotional.html

Twitter: Cast at Lunch

Bryan Fuller ‏

Director @DAVID_A_SLADE Dines w/ @KaceyKadoodles #MadsMikkelsen #HughDancy #CarolineDhavarnas & Director #PETERMEDAK pic.twitter.com/CEQbrvbjoG

NST.com: Hooked on the dark mind by Subhadra Devan

http://alturl.com/qt5ss

Hugh Dancy talks about his intense, almost telepathic role in new television series Hannibal, writes Subhadra Devan

BEFORE the hit supense-thriller The Silence Of The Lambs, Dr Hannibal Lecter was a brilliant psychiatrist in the employ of the FBI. His task: To help an unusually gifted criminal profiler, Will Graham, who is haunted by his ability to empathise with serial killers.

Unknown to Graham, Lecter also has a particular insight into these horrible crimes and the psychopaths who commit them. For he is the most gifted killer of them all.

Hannibal is the new television thriller from Bryan Fuller, the creative force behind Pushing Daisies, Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me.

The series stars Mads Mikkelsen as Hannibal, Hugh Dancy as Graham and Laurence Fishburne as Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit.

Dancy, a British actor, is seen on screen (Black Hawk Down, 2001 among others), stage (BBC’s Madame Bovary in 2000) and television. He recently starred in Adam, playing the title role of a young man with Asperger’s syndrome struggling to survive in New York City. The movie premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize.

Dancy says his character, Graham, is intense, riddled with nervous ticks, open to “the darker stuff “ and averse to being analysed.

“He walks into a room with anybody who’s like a psychiatrist and they immediately start rubbing their hands together. Oh, great, here comes my next paper, you know. And he feels that coming a mile off. So he shuts down. That I think is why he’s so initially hostile towards Hannibal, because he rightly thinks that Jack has brought in some other expert to profile him.

“It’s a dark role, but fascinating. It’s a rich character with lots to explore. The hardest part of playing Will is that he’s not a social person, quite shut off and rude. That’s also the most interesting thing about him,” he says in a phone interview.

Dancy was hooked after reading the first episode, and went on to read the Thomas Harris novels on Lecter. He thinks Fuller’s vision for the series is fascinating because he has envisioned the story for even up to five seasons.

“I was intrigued with Will after reading the first episode. I asked Fuller about the character and he described to me up to four or five seasons. It’s a very full vision of what he wants to do. Each season takes a different twist and turn, offering me the opportunity to stay interested. So yeah, I would stay on for that long.”

Graham, as imagined first by Harris and then by Fuller, is a very complete character.

“The question that hangs over Will is how much, how intrinsic a part of him is this violence that he can so readily access? Because he can empathise with these killers but at the same time he tries to preserve judgment over them. And he still has a very highly developed sense of right and wrong,” says Dancy.

“But he can oddly enough put that to one side entirely in the process of jumping into their heads. The very frightening question is which part of him is more real? And it’s also the fault line in Will that Hannibal spots immediately and sets out not to, I think, manipulate. He wants to push Will closer to what he feels is the truth. He’s dabbling with Will’s brain. Yet, Will is someone he can walk with in life. The question is how much do they have in common.”

Hannibal is a dark TV show with lots of gore and murder. Dancy describes it as “psychologically interesting, even cerebral and the daddy of crime shows” on the telly today.

“Viewers will see something quite unique, a visual darkness and a richness you don’t normally see. The purpose of the violence in the show, I think, is that it casts light on who the characters are. And I think the horror comes from the area in their minds that we’re pushed into as the audience,” he explains in a release.

“Every time we’re approaching one of those sequences, or a sequence over in the morgue, you know, forensic sequence, I try to approach that from the point of view of why is that here in our story? You know, what is this going to teach us about these characters? And, again, what is the cost of it, particularly to Will?”

Meals are very much a part of the show. While Hannibal indulges in “gourmet” fare such as frontal lobes, Dancy says he’s also an adventurous person.

“The weirdest thing I’d eaten was in Sarawak. I was filming at night in the forest and a man pulled me over, picked something off a branch and cooked it with his lighter. It crackled. It was a huge bug. It was quite tasty. Like a nice shrimp.”

What Dancy must have eaten is probably a cicada because I’ve eaten them too in Miri, Sarawak. They are low in fat and high in protein. Dancy was in Sarawak to film The Sleeping Dictionary opposite Jessica Alba (released in 2003).

Early reviews of Hannibal have billed Graham as the most watchable character so far, with his social ineptness and a cunning that allows him to make the dots in a case.

“Well it’s nice to be called that. I think it’s because audiences enter the show through Will with the first few episodes. Further in the season, it’s more of a duet with Hannibal (Lecter). There are two distinct worlds in the show — the world of the FBI and the crimes, and the work of Hannibal and his mind. Will is in both, so I have a lot to do.”

He adds that all 13 episodes have been filmed for the first season. “I suspect people will engage in it with the same enthusiasm as we have.”

Hannibal Clip - Hannibal Analyzes Will

EntertainmentHollywood: NBC's Hannibal: Not just another serial killer show By Adam Bryant,

http://www.mygtn.tv/story/21885706/nbcs-hannibal-not-just-another-serial-killer-show

In a year that's already given us Fox's The Following and A&E's Bates Motel, some might argue that we don't need another serial killer TV show. And they'd probably be right.

But NBC's Hannibal isn't just another serial killer show.

Spring Preview: Gets scoop on all the must-see new shows

Taking characters from the Thomas Harris novels that inspired a film series that includes Manhunter, The Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, executive producer Bryan Fuller (Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies) has created a sophisticated drama that doesn't glorify the violence of mass murder but rather examines the toll that hunting serial killers takes on the minds and souls of those who hunt. In fact, even though the show is named after Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who was immortalized as one of the greatest pop culture villains of all time thanks to Anthony Hopkins' Oscar-winning portrayal, the series — at least initially — isn't entirely focused on the cannibal in the three-piece suit.

Instead, the spotlight is on our hero Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a profiler who assists the FBI in tracking down serial killers because of his unique ability to think and feel like the murderers he's chasing. Although the character is known in Harris' Red Dragon as the damaged man who caught Lecter, the NBC series begins several years before the events of the book. Will and his boss Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) first meet Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen), a Baltimore psychiatrist, when they bring him in to offer his insights on a killer who's mounting his young, female victims on animal antlers.

"The Will Graham character in the books hasn't really been accurately represented in the films because there's not enough real estate to accurately represent how complex he is," Fuller tells TVGuide.com. "There are little hints at his greater neuroses and personality disorders. So, I thought, 'There's an angle into this story that hasn't been taken yet.' There's something so unique in how crazy Hannibal is and something so unique in how crazy Will Graham is, that both of these men who are uniquely insane need each other to understand themselves."

It was that element of the script that hooked both Mikkelsen and Dancy. "I was quite reluctant from the beginning based on the fact that somebody has done [this character] before to perfection," he says. "Why should we go back and do something that somebody else has already done that good? ... But in the script there is kind of a bromance between Will and Hannibal that is quite new. I believe that Hannibal is quite happy to finally be able to make a friend."

Adds Dancy: "Hannibal is really the only other person on the planet who is as smart about the things that Will does. So it's like the two greatest chess players of their generation sitting down together, and I think there's a genuine thrill in that for Will. They speak the same language. And even though Will would resist this idea, they do have a certain amount in common. The things that make [Will] tick are potentially quite dark."

Indeed, the gorgeously shot pilot — directed by David Slade, who helmed the equally striking Awake pilot last season — features a visual flourish that takes viewers inside Will's mind. As he reconstructs crimes, he pictures himself, not the killers, committing the gruesome acts. Naturally, carrying those images around in your head becomes taxing.  "What you see to some degree is deterioration in Will," Dancy says. "I think that Will sees and rationally understands the importance and the value of stopping these people and catching them, but he doesn't get the sense of relief that maybe most other people would. I found it interesting that he's somebody who's really striving to do good, driven partially by the fear that he might be able to do bad."

So, as Hannibal consults on Will's cases — and does some secret killing of his own on the side — he begins to encourage Will to open up to him. "It is a seduction and Will is seduced," Fuller says. "I think [Hannibal's] educating himself on how not to get caught. But also he genuinely likes Will Graham and Jack Crawford. He doesn't consider them rude men or betrayers of art and beauty like his victims. His victims are free-range rude, and if you're a pig of a human being, you're going to be his bacon. For him, looking at Will Graham, who has the ability to understand without judgment how horrible people do the horrible things they do, he feels that for perhaps the first time in his life there is the opportunity to make a friend who can clearly understand what he does and who he is."

But don't worry, the show won't always be so lovey-dovey.  Although Mikkelsen's Lecter is blissfully understated, the Danish actor — best known stateside as the Bond villain Le Chiffre in Casino Royale — promises we'll see shades of the Lecter we know. "We can't detach totally from the films or the books because the character is what he is," he says. "Hannibal does not see himself as a psychopath, of course, and I don't either. He's much more than that. The closest I can come to a definition is that he's the fallen angel; he's Satan."

But Mikkelsen and Fuller agree that Hannibal also humanizes Lecter in a way viewers might not expect. "I was fascinated by the social Hannibal," Fuller says. "What are the types of relationships Hannibal Lecter would have as a free man in society? ... [I wanted] to see Hannibal as not necessarily always the antagonist and for him to have a genuine appreciation of the relationships in his life. ... There are some deeply, deeply moving scenes toward the end of the season where Hannibal allows himself to feel. He goes to such genuine emotional places and raw vulnerability. We're clearly not doing Anthony Hopkins or Brian Cox. I love those performances, but I didn't want to go near them."

Although the show doesn't necessarily go for quick-jolt scares, its murder tableaux can be gruesome. And while, unlike The Following, the show and its characters actively meditate on the cost of constantly witnessing such horror and violence, there's bound to be viewers who don't want this particular brand of drama on network TV. And Fuller says that's OK.

"As somebody who's been reading Fangoria magazine since I was 10 years old, I am a fan of horror," Fuller says. "I love The Walking Dead and the drama and the high stakes of that world and the romance that happens. But I also love it when a zombie's head explodes. ... Hannibal is a horror story, so I felt like we have a responsibility to honor the genre.

"You can't buy a Victorian house and knock out all the walls and put in floor-to-ceiling windows and disrespect what it is by making it something else," Fuller continues. "We're also going to deliver a sophisticated human drama, but make no mistake, Hannibal Lecter is a horror character. We're going to push the envelope until the envelope pushes back. ... It's not about anything political. It's about what kind of house you are living in — and we happen to be living in a horror house."

Will and his dogs

 

Examiner.com: Exclusive dish from Bryan Fuller & Hugh Dancy of NBC's new series, 'Hannibal' by Anthony G. Bowles

http://www.examiner.com/article/exclusive-dish-from-bryan-fuller-hugh-dancy-of-nbc-s-new-series-hannibal?cid=db_articles

Some highlights here, but check out the whole interview:

http://www.examiner.com/article/exclusive-dish-from-bryan-fuller-hugh-dancy-of-nbc-s-new-series-hannibal?cid=db_articles

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Bryan Fuller: “Well the - one of the reasons that Hugh was so ideal for the role is that Will Graham, who is kind of burdened by his own neuroses and personality disorders could come off as unlikable unless you have an actor who kind of invites you into his vulnerability with those neuroses and with those personality disorders that actually gives you permission to car for them as opposed to being pushed away. And Will Graham is a character who pushes people away and has barriers that he throws up as social defenses. So we need somebody who had a vulnerability that kind of transcend any sort of barriers that he throws up and takes you into the world and allows you to care for him even though he is so buttoned up and damaged. That was the main reason. And Hugh was unanimous. When we all sat down and we talked about who was our Will Graham and Hugh Dancy's name came up and it was very easy for all of us to say like oh yeah, he's the one. Let's meet with him and see if we can hook him.”

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Hugh Dancy: “I was probably fairly average in the sense that I'd seen most of the movies and familiar with Hannibal and so on. I didn't really know about Will Graham until I was prompted. So – and perhaps if I hadn't known, I don't know, I might have been more cautious. But as it was, I read the first script - the script of the first episode that is. I wondered to myself again as I think most people would well why do this. And a lot of fascinating questions seemed to be raised in that script. And I wanted to know where they were going to go and sat down with Bryan and also Martha De Laurentiis, our Producer and he potentially answered all those questions for me and painted a picture of not just this season that we just finished developing but potential future seasons. And I realized that he had an enormous and expansive imagining of this world and his characters. And really from that - from the point of that conversation on with those I was hooked.”

TorontoSun.com: Mikkelsen gets his creep on in 'Hannibal' by Bill Harris

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/03/28/mikkelsen-gets-his-creep-on-in-hannibal

Mads Mikkelsen: "He loves fine art. He is a three-piece-suit man. He loves classical music. He hates everything that's banal. And he loves the beauty of everything that's refined.

"We're starting out in a different situation. He's not captured, nobody knows what he's up to. So he has a different mission, which means I have a different mission. He's trying to make friends with people, so I can't just play that one card of being evil. It has to be hidden."

"Hannibal doesn't have a master plan. He doesn't know what's going to happen tomorrow or next year. But for Hannibal, Will is a fantastic opportunity, a very skilful young man, with some potential in there."

"Hannibal cannot play his cards open. He has to be lying. And in order to be a good liar, you have to believe what you're saying yourself. So we're trying to play it as honestly as possible in every scene, even though it's one big manipulation. Hannibal almost is not even aware himself."

Hugh Dancy: "And I think there's every reason for it to be called Hannibal, not least because of the name recognition, but in the first few episodes at least, it makes sense that a lot of time is spent on understanding who Will is, because the audience is going to be less familiar with him. You don't have to do that with Hannibal Lecter.

"We all know who Hannibal Lecter is. If we had him jumping out, covered in blood, in Episode 1, what's the point in that?"

Cast Interviews (Part 1 of 2)

FearNet.com: Hugh Dancy Talks 'Hannibal' by Bryan Cairns

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interview/hugh-dancy-talks-hannibal

Fearnet.com: Just to start, what was your interest in stepping into a television series? Obviously, Homeland has been a very successful endeavor for your wife, Claire Danes. Did that open a window for you?

Hugh Dancy: I suppose it was there in the background. That wasn’t really part of the process for me, though. I had also worked on a TV show, one season of the Big C, a couple of years before. It wasn’t like a big light bulb went on and I thought, “Oh, I’ve got to find a TV show.” It just came up. I was doing a play in New York last year and the year before and sometimes that serves as…. People can come and see it. They think about casting TV shows and suddenly these offers started to come in, frankly is what happened. Why that would be the case, I don’t know. This particular one (Hannibal), on its own merits, seemed very interesting.

Fearnet.com: Will has an uncanny ability when it comes to piecing together crime scenes. Is he psychic at all?

Hugh Dancy: I don’t think he’s psychic. He’s a detective, but a lot of it is instinctive. In the same way there’s a spectrum that we’re on, and some people further down can’t receive information from other people, there are others who are just more open to all sorts of information that is flying around that most don’t pick up on.

Fearnet.com: Can you talk about the gory elements? Do you ever get nauseous from them?

Hugh Dancy: No, I don’t. The justification for the scenes is that they get us inside Will’s mind. Bryan Fuller is quite artful at using the different instances as the season progresses, other crimes and criminals, to further our understanding of Will’s state of mind, to further the relationship between Will and Hannibal, and Will and Jack and so on. I never felt that I’m just here because, “Oh, now I’m coming to stab someone so we can talk about fingerprints.” That doesn’t really hold any interest for me and I think I would have a problem with that.

With that said, there are obviously days when we are filming horrific crimes. Those are usually very technical days and that’s kind of fun. It’s a bit like filming a love scene. Any passion goes out the window because you are thinking about camera angles and props and prosthetics and special effects.

Fearnet.com: That signature device of Will re-creating some of the crimes in his mind is quite unusual. What is the main purpose of that? Is that for your justification or to show the audience how gruesome the act was, but in a calmer light?

Hugh Dancy: Yes, I think all of those things. In the same way that Will is part empathic and part detective, he’s very good at his job. He’s smart in a rational way, as well as being able to pluck things out of the air. They have the same purpose, that they instruct the audience what happened and are specific to the development of the plot. But I also hope they give a sense of what Will has to carry around, what his burden is. I always felt Will would be a very difficult character to portray on screen, if you didn’t have those sequences and also if you don’t see him at home with his dogs. The two give a full balance of who he is, that he has something he holds very dear to him, which is really quite loveable and heart breaking. Will is so lonely and protects himself with his fishing rods and his dogs and his whiskey and his little house. Then he goes to work and has to deal with these absolutely horrific situations.

Fearnet.com: How would you describe Will’s relationship with his boss, Agent Jack Crawford (CSI’s Laurence Fishburne)?

Hugh Dancy: Jack is a sledgehammer. He will do anything to catch these criminals and do his job. It’s very personal for him. It’s personal for all of us. The dynamic between them as it develops is a feeling from Will that he’s in danger of being broken. There’s a genuine risk to Will in what he does. He’s already taken himself out of it (consulting) to teach. Jack asks him to come back in and the next thing you know, Will is killing a man in his kitchen. And it gets worse from there. One thing that happens is Hannibal starts to lean on Will’s sense that Jack is not protecting him.

Fearnet.com: How do you and Mads Mikkelsen approach a scene and work together?

Hugh Dancy: Obviously, Mads has to do his dance. He has a special dance he does before every scene. That’s not true. There are big differences in the characters we are playing. Mads has to think very carefully about what he gives away as Hannibal. He can’t be too, obviously, rubbing his hands together, because I’d see it. It’s very internal and incredibly subtle, which is one of the things Mads is so good at. Will is going through a fairly tumultuous experience, including when he is in here with Hannibal. We just figure out how to make the scene work together. Bryan’s writing is so rich and complicated and you can’t just expect to come in and (say), “I’ll do my thing and you do yours.”

Fearnet.com: Who is your favorite serial killer that appears during the series?

Hugh Dancy: There’s some quite extreme ones. I enjoy it when I feel they are tied into the rest of the show, which I think they are, by and large very well, either thematically or because Hannibal gets involved and it gets tied into the bigger stories.

Fearnet.com: Can you be more specific?

Hugh Dancy: There’s an episode later on where Will is starting to have hallucinations. I’m hearing things. There’s somebody, who as we learn later, has a connection to Hannibal via one of his patients, who has killed, in a very specific way, a member of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra and used his vocal chords to create music. That obviously ties into what Will is starting to experience, this disintegration of his own mind. It ties into the plot with Hannibal and we begin to see a bit more of what Hannibal is capable of. It’s also rather disturbing and brilliant.