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A Conversation with John Hensley
(Gabriel Bowman)
Q: Describe your character for us.
A: Well the character I play is Gabriel Bowman. And he's an artifact dealer, and he turns out to be probably one of the closest sort of confidants of Sara, and as well, just with the knowledge he has of the Witchblade as an artifact, he's probably one of the more knowledgeable people that you'll ever encounter as far as that's concerned. And at the same time, their relationship is one where their friendship kind of overshadows that.
Q: Why is he such an important ally for Sara?
A: I think he's an important ally ultimately because he cares about her more than he does about the thing that's on her wrist. And that, coupled with the knowledge he has of it, as well as the sort of situation that she's found herself in, I think makes him a pretty decent guy to have around.
Q: What does he see in Sara Pezzini that other people around her don't see?
A: I think he sees in Sara Pezzini an extraordinary but normal woman who's been put in a really intense and essentially frightening situation. And given that, I think he has a sort of, I don't even know if understanding is the word, but almost like a sympathy. Or compassion. Or an attempted understanding at what she's going through.
Q: Do you think there's the potential for them to be more than just best friends?
A: I don't know that there's a connection between them that would become more than friends. However, I do believe that their connections are intimate. I think they really get each other on a certain sort of deeper understanding of things.
Q: So he's not hot for her?
A: No, I' don't believe Gabriel's hot for Sara. I do believe, however, that Sara could potentially become the measuring stick by which he might look at other women.
Q: How is Gabriel connected to the other characters?
A: I think he's connected to them just in the whole scheme of the Witchblade and sort of how it binds all of these characters to one another through different degrees.
Q: How do you see Gabriel's role changing? Who was he last season, who will he be this year?
A: Who Gabriel is this season as opposed to who he was last season, I think he's much more confident, quite frankly. I think he is more assertive, in the fact that he knows what he's talking about. He's more assertive in the fact that he immediately knows that this woman needs a friend. That Sara needs a friend. I believe his involvement in her life as well as the story as a whole takes a little bit more meaning to it.
Q: What's it like working on a show like WITCHBLADE?
A: Working on WITCHBLADE's incredible. I love it. It's a really unique environment in which -- I personally have never had quite the experience where everybody, I mean I can honestly say that the other cast members of this show are friends of mine. Which is really an amazing thing. It's the type of situation where even when we're not working, we're together, and even when one of us is out of town they always stay in touch with the others. It's an incredible experience and it's fortunate I think that we have the opportunity to work on a show that presents a story that, while it obviously at times goes to that borderline of being weird, at the same time it's original. And I think it's something that is easy to get behind. . . as well the environment and the people on all levels who are behind this thing. It's a show that, in my experience working on it, I find that people are here for the most part because they want be here, which does incredible things for the overall mood and atmosphere of the show and at the same time, by no means least of which, it's an incredible amount of fun to get to tell this story.
Q: One of the mysteries for any fan is what happens when the cameras aren't rolling?
A: On the set of WITCHBLADE, when the cameras stop rolling, it's just a lot of fun and high jinks. I mean, it's an incredibly fun working environment. It's not one of those places, soon as the cameras stops everybody goes home. It's exactly the opposite. I mean, we tend to loaf around and hang out and end up keeping people waiting because we're pretty excited about what we just did and we tend to rap about it for quite a while.
Q: Who's the biggest prankster on the set?
A: Oh gosh. The biggest prankster on the set. I don't really know. I can honestly say that I don't know that we have a lot of pranksters. I, myself, have the tendency to get a little hyper at times, but thus far, I am grateful to say I haven't had any extreme pranks pulled on me, which is kinda cool. And I don't really think I've pulled any on anybody else.
Q: What is it like for you when you get a new script?
A: It's exciting when I get a new script, it really is. I mean, I'm always curious to find out where the story is going. And I'm always curious to find out where my character is going as well as the other characters. I truly get just as excited about the other characters' development as well as my own. So there's definitely anticipation, and you always know that you're going to read something or see something that's going to definitely pique you interest.
Q: Another mystery of acting for an average fan is how do you learn all those lines?
A: (LAUGHS) Learning lines is interesting. For myself, you just kinda get in that mode of operation to where you tend to pick up things a little. And there may be something to be said for the pressure, the idea that you have to go to work in three days and you don't want to be the guy that's keeping everybody waiting. So it tends to, you know, you get in that mode, and it just sort of takes care of itself a lot of times.
Q: How often do you improvise on the set?
A: We improvise a little bit but not a lot. Most of the improvisation comes from if we happen to be running ahead of schedule and we just want to try something for fun and if everybody seems to be cool with that, then we might give it a shot and just see what happens. I'll tell you quite frankly, there's really, not as far as being an actor on the show is concerned, I personally don't find a lot of need for it. I don't find myself walking into work with any sort of extremely different idea than what's presented to me in the script, or at least what I get from the script.
Q: So walk me through a typical day. The alarm clock goes off.
A: (LAUGHS) Well, a typical day usually starts for me, the alarm clock goes off with ample time before work. And the snooze button gets hit, many times. And then I'm usually scurrying out the door with just enough time to spare. I have this grand idea of casually relaxing in my living room with a cup of coffee, kinda maybe flipping through the script looking at it, and it never happens. My day starts with me throwing on the jacket as I'm runnin' out the door and into the car with thirty seconds to spare. And then we get to set and it's interesting. It's always a pretty relaxed atmosphere on set and really, from that time, you get dressed and make sure you got everything down. Maybe run the lines a few times and then you just go. You go and see what happens. You never know what's gonna happen. You can prepare as much as you want, but when you show up and two people are talking, anything can happen. And that's a lot of the fun of it.
Q: Season One was enormously popular. What do you think drove that success?
A: I honestly don't know what drove the success of the first season. I can only say when you shoot where we do, in a separated location away from everything, you're not necessarily directly subjected to how a show is doing. I can say though that I know beyond a question that everybody who has worked on this is extremely enthusiastic about it, and I could be totally wrong, but I think that that enthusiasm probably carries through all levels of it. And I think it's amazing that people have enjoyed it and have really gotten into it. It can be heady stuff and it can be pretty weird at times and pretty out there and the fact that people dig it, really, it's a nice thing to see, man, it's really cool. It's really cool.
Q: If you had to address a fan and tell him or her the one reason to watch this season, what would that be?
A: The thing about Season Two that I would stress to anybody, is that I'd be so willing to guarantee that people have no clue what's coming. I've been on set on a daily basis, and I've worked on the show and I can tell you as an actor working on this show, I didn't have a clue where it was going, and it never failed to bring a few wows out of me. People really don't know what's coming and it's really cool what happens, and it's a good show. It's a lot of fun, man, it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to read, it's a lot of fun to play and it's a lot of fun to watch. So I think people are gonna be surprised and be very interested in what happens.
Q: Why do you think New York makes the perfect backdrop for a cop show?
A: Oh God, New York just does make the perfect backdrop for a cop show. I mean New York is an incredible city. It is its own thing. And it's an amazing place to live. New York's the type of place that once you feel comfortable in that environment and once a place like that becomes home, it kinda stays that way, regardless of where you go or where you may choose to live in the future. And as far as having a police drama be set at the center of that, I think what you get is an atmosphere in which you're introduced to a group of characters who've had that experience of this is their town. But the town is so assertive and intense and wonderful that you really get to see them operate at their best. They're kind of called to action on many different levels every single day. It may be from my own limited view of things and experience and travel, but off the top of my head I can't think of a better place to have a drama like that and situated. Although I will say every town has, I'm sure -- the same thing could be said about Nashville, Tennessee, about Kentucky in it's own way. And I just think New York is some place that really promotes the highlighting of its special qualities, because there's so many things going on.
Q: The tagline for TNT is 'We Know Drama'. For you as an actor, what does that mean? What is drama?
A: What is drama? Drama is fortunately something that I get to say I get paid for, you know? A friend of mine said to me once, he said, 'You get paid for drama. Don't do it for free,' you know, in your personal life. And that's a nice thing about it. As far as what drama is specifically, you know, everybody's got a different idea of what that may be. To me personally, it's a lot of fun, especially when it's concealed in a work environment.
Q: What's the most dramatic thing about working on a show like WITCHBLADE?
A: I would say, the most dramatic thing about working on a show like WITCHBLADE is having the opportunity to continuously discover how different characters relate to each other.
Q: We all have drama in our lives. What do you do to get away from drama?
A: Gosh, you know, honestly what I do to get away from drama is I find a lot of times things just seem to run better the more I get out of the way. I think for myself, you know, we all get caught up in life. It's just the way it happens. I can have one day where I can dent my bumper on my car, and I don't think twice about it. And then I can have another day where I lose a button on a shirt and it freaks me out for the rest of the day. But ultimately, regardless of the situation, I find that if I just kinda hang back, stay out of the way, and just be willin' to walk through any whatever, that things usually flow pretty smoothly.
Q: How much of Gabriel is really John Hensley?
A: Gosh I don't know. I really never consciously thought about how much of Gabriel is me. I can say that playing Gabriel has given me the opportunity to, just in my personal life, explore and learn about things that he knows about, that I don't have a clue about. And so therefore, I can say that playing Gabriel has sort of opened up, if nothing else, new lines of information and learning about stuff that previously I wouldn't have even known enough about to have an interest in. It's interesting when you talk about real person versus character, all that stuff. I mean, characters to me, they are real people. I don't know how much of Gabriel is me, or vice versa, simply because I think we all -- I heard a guy say once, he said, 'You know, when a character is written, you don't have to worry too much about how you relate or don't relate to it, because every character basically, fundamentally, comes from a very human place, and we're human beings.' So therefore, perhaps it's possible that we all have pieces of a little bit of all of that in us.
Q: All right, we're done. Thank you!
A: Right on. Thanks.
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