Lindsay Farris joins the cast of Ash vs Evil Dead in the new season as Dalton, leader of the modern-day Knights of Sumeria. You'll quickly see Dalton's reverence for Ash when Season 3 premieres on Sunday, and during our recent interview, he talks about his love of the horror and growing up with The Evil Dead:
What was your first experience with the Evil Dead franchise? Did you watch the movies growing up? Have you always been a horror fan?
Lindsay Farris: When I was a kid, Evil Dead was kind of like a rite of passage. I think I was like 13, and my grandma used to show me and my uncle the two horror films on Betamax. One was The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the other was The Evil Dead. It was just kind of like a bonding thing for me and my grandma and my uncle because the rest of my family hated horror.
20 years later, I'm literally walking into the TV set and there's the cabin, and there's Ash Williams, and then I met Bruce Campbell. You could kind of say that I was a bit of a fanboy. Having seen the first two episodes, you can see that Dalton is sort of a fanboy too. In that sense, it's kind of a “no acting required” role. I just got to kind of step into his shoes and I think it was a really nice way to be able to enter the series.
That is incredibly cool and I’m sure your family loves that you’re a part of the series too.
Lindsay Farris: Yeah, one of my favorite reasons in getting the job, was that my grandma and my uncle love Evil Dead. It's still this connective tissue between my family.
What can you tell our readers about Dalton and where he comes from?
Lindsay Farris: While Dalton is a new character to the television franchise, he's the leader of the Knights of Sumeria. Last time, we saw them [in Army of Darkness], they're riding around on horses, they've got plate mail, and they're using spears. Now, they ride motorcycles and use shotguns.
The interesting thing about Dalton is he's kind of like a brain surgeon that's only ever studied the theory. He's got possibly all of the skills and the equipment to be a badass, but he's never actually met a Deadite before. There's this foretold legend about the prophesied one.
Dalton's kind of on the back of a motorcycle, trekking across America looking for this figure, when he meets Kelly, and there's a bit of a trade off. Kelly's got the practical experience, and perhaps Dalton's got a bit more of the theory.
The creative team behind Ash vs Evil Dead have done a great job of introducing new characters that feel real within the world they’ve created. What was it like on set joining the cast of veteran Deadite-killers?
Lindsay Farris: I think the beautiful thing is that Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, and Bruce Campbell. It's not like some sort of spinoff, where you've got all of this new, unrelated legend that's not being determined by the original creators. We're all trying to kind of continue to honor the legacy that they have set up. It's a really welcoming family in that sense.
The dynamic we have behind the scenes is very family oriented, and Bruce was incredibly supportive on set too, as is everybody. They were really encouraging as well, in that I really wanted to keep as much of the mythology from the old film franchise as I could. There are a lot of Easter eggs that I worked with those guys on kind of inserting throughout Season 3. The diehard fans, if you keep an eye out, there's a lot of sort of reference back to those old films.
Speaking of diehard fans, I know you were at NYCC last year? What’s you experience been like being part of the “Evil Dead’ family and interacting with fans?
Lindsay Farris: It was such a gift to literally step into the television set as a fan. What I wanted to make sure is that all of the fans at home could be as close to that experience as possible. That kind of was my benchmark for creating Dalton with these guys. I wanted to really do the fans justice, because fans of this show are unlike any other fans of any other show in the world.
When we were at Comic Con in New York, and they announced Bruce Campbell, and the walls were literally shaking. They're so supportive. You're in these signings, and they're coming up with chainsaw arms. There was this one lady, and she waited in a long line to do this big signing that we had. She had this Band-Aid on her head, and sort of almost like a trickle of blood coming out of the bottom, and her eyes were kind of a little bit like she was concussed. I was like, "Are you okay?" She said, "Oh yeah, I fell off my motorbike on my way to the signing." I was like, "Do you need to go to the hospital?" She's like, "Oh no, the doctor put a Band-Aid on it, it's fine. I'll go after. I really wanted to meet Bruce Campbell." You've got these diehard fans that are willing to go to those lengths, just to meet the people involved. You want to honor them, you know?
Dalton is brand new to the series, so I don’t want to spoil too much, but what tease can you give our readers about where he’s headed this season?
Lindsay Farris: This season combines all of the blood, guts, and gore from Seasons 1 and 2, and steps it up to a completely new level. You’ll meet the biggest, baddest villain that we have ever seen in Ash vs Evil Dead and nothing can prepare you for what happens. I mean we've got tanks this year. That should tell you just how far everything steps up.
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Catch up on our coverage of Ash vs Evil Dead by visiting the following links:
Daily Dead's Official Podcast! Daily Dead's Official Podcast!
