‘iZombie’ Q&A: David Anders On Blaine, Liv & Eating Fake Brains

David Anders as Blaine DeBeers and Rahul Kohli as Dr. Ravi (The CW)

He may be part of the undead, but Blaine DeBeers is living life to the fullest on The CW’s “iZombie.”

“I think he’s fully realizing his potential for awful, maybe,” David Anders told Access Hollywood of his character, who turned the bad thing that happened to him (being turned into a zombie) into an opportunity to become a very powerful (but kind of charming) bad guy.

Since he realized zombie-ism comes with more than just pale skin tones and white hair, David’s character Blaine has used his super strength to corner the market on brain dealing, even growing his own customer base by turning unsuspecting humans to the undead side. But, plucky Liv Moore (Rose McIver) is using her abilities for good, eating morgue brains to get those visions that allow her to solve murders. The two characters are clearly on a crash course, especially after Liv had a meal at boyfriend Lowell’s (Bradley James) house that produced visions of Blaine’s unsavory acts.

PHOTOS: ‘iZombie’: Scenes From Season 1

David spoke with Access Hollywood about whether Blaine is worried about Liv catching on to his evil scheme, playing the charming villain, and what those “iZombie” brain dishes really taste like.

AccessHollywood.com: How bad do you think Blaine actually was before he became a zombie?
David Anders:
I don’t think he was as bad as he is now that he’s a zombie. He was just a rich kid, you know, getting by, dealing drugs. He wasn’t doing any killing or anything like that, so then, he inherited these newfound powers and he reassess his goals in life (laughs) and he just wants to be king zombie of Seattle, and maybe the nation, who knows?

WATCH: Rose McIver On Eating Brains In The CW’s ‘iZombie’

Access: Did you know he was going to take such a turn toward the dark side on the show when you were first filming it?
David:
I had been privy to the direction that we were going from what Rob [Thomas, ‘iZombie’s executive producer] had told me and he said I had to take a leap of faith because I was barely in that pilot episode and he had to write extra scenes for me to audition with during the audition process. I didn’t know how dark we could get. I knew we’d get fairly dark on the show, and what drew me to the part initially was the humor of it, so I’ll go as far dark as you want me to go, but as long as there’s an element of humor. I still think, even though Blaine can be quite nefarious, there’s a bit of charm there.

Access: Definitely. Was there any human out there in life that you wanted to model at least the human part of him after, or his attitude after?
David:
Well, the character breakdown said, ‘He’s like James Spader from ‘Pretty In Pink,” and I kind of thought he was more James Spader from ‘Less Than Zero.’ Hopefully we bring some element of Spader out there. That’s what they wanted.

Access: It’s funny because a lot of people have sort of hoped for a romance between your character and Liv. Why do you think that is? Do you think it’s just the chemistry the two of you have on screen or they’re in this together in many ways?
David:
Well, yeah. I mean, that second episode when Blaine is wearing many different hats and we don’t know who he really is until like the end of the episode, that was a cool dynamic and of course, Rose and I just love working together and I think there is a chemistry there, and from the fan reaction, I think they’re pushing for that Spike and Buffy type love/hate thing. And who knows? Maybe in the future we’ll explore that some. But I can’t promise you anything in the first season.

Access: Right now it feels like they’re starting [to figure out] Blaine’s secret — that he is involved in the murders [of young people] related to Liv’s ex-fiance, Major. Is this bad news for Blaine?
David:
It’s funny because Blaine walks around like he’s not worried about consequence at all (laughs). That’s how it’s written and there’s no other way to really to play it because just walks around like he just can’t be hurt and maybe that’s true.

Access: Are we going to get to see flashbacks [with Blaine]?
David:
I think that would be a fun thing to play with in the future. I can’t promise you that’s going to happen in this season, but [in an upcoming episode,] you learn some about him. He talks in reverie about his past a little bit.

Access: He just killed his, I don’t know what you want to call her –
David:
His cougar concubine.

Access: What is his moral code is at this point in time?
David:
His morality compass is lacking and that’s a fun thing to play with, is watching Rose come to terms with it, the day to day of this newfound zombie-ism and he is kind of relishing in it and having fun with it. … But yeah, as far as his moral code? I don’t know. What’s your ranking system (laughs).

Access: We have to talk about the food. Did you ever get sick off that gelatin substance [they use for the brains]?
David:
Not sick, because it doesn’t taste crazy bad. It’s really the consistency that’s awful, but yeah, there’s the scene where I’m sampling the food and you’re having to eat it over and over again. I grew a bit distended.

Access: That’s not good
David:
Yeah, it’s not good, but we have the spit bucket on standby.

Access: [Blaine’s establishment has gourmet brain dishes, but] did any of those dishes taste like, say, turkey jerky?
David:
They could hide the brains in those dishes. There were some really good tasting dishes, actually that the prop department put together, whereas Rose has to deal with pouring the actual agar-agar [made fake] brains on ramen and hot sauce and having to eat that. I was eating well made dishes.

“iZombie” continues Tuesday at 9/8c after “The Flash” on The CW.

Jolie Lash

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