TV
Supernatural drama Charmed returns for a brand new third series on Channel 5 this week with a new leading actor. Julian McMahon plays the new District Attorney Cole Turner, whom Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) falls for in a big way. But there’s more to him than meets the eye – Cole has an alternate personality as the demon Balthazor!
"It is difficult to be on a show with three lead girls and bring a male character in that is going to be very strong," Julian says. "I think you have to be careful not to write yourself into a corner, and this is something that Brad Kern [Charmed Executive Producer] and I discussed when we were initially thinking about my playing the role. It’s hard enough to be the guy, so we have really fought for the strength of the character."
Acting wasn’t Julian's first career choice however, he admits. He originally began studying law, but gave it up after a year. "I don’t regret leaving school for one second. To be honest, at the time I was a little bit bored of studying. I think the whole studying thing is weird: you do it for years and years just to go study more! I needed a break from that.”
It was the lure of international modelling that finally tempted him away from his studies. "It was really exciting: I was meeting really great people and making a whole lot of money."
Acting proved even more enticing, though, and he landed his first TV roles in prime-time Aussie drama The Power, The Passion and Home and Away. He then moved to America and starred in daytime dramas Another World and Profiler. His feature-film credits include Women in Control, Magenta, and In Quiet Night, and he has also recently shot Another Day with Charmed co-star Shannen Doherty.
"The amount of time you spend on set in a soap is limited because you’re using three cameras, and there are a lot of characters," he explains. "On Charmed, the storylines are spread between three or four characters, not 20 or 30, and you’re only using one camera. You get to concentrate more on the details. On a daytime soap, you do an episode a day, so it’s a whole different concept."
He loves the attention his Charmed character has received, even if it is because he plays a bad guy. "We don’t know he’s totally a bad guy, do we? It feels really good. His character has been so different and so fun to play – every day I’m almost playing a different character. There are so many different layers."
Cole’s major storyline is his relationship with Phoebe, but, according to Julian, he won’t let this distract him from his quest: "Cole was sent here on a mission, and to achieve it, he’s going to whatever lengths he has to. And his connections to the powers-that-be run really deep.."
Cole has a demonic alter-ego, or ‘shadow’, and this presented Julian with an additional acting challenge: “I wanted to really create a relationship between Cole and his shadow, and I wanted the shadow to have its own personality. Even the ‘shimmering thing’, when I appear somewhere else, adds to the scene! It’s a wonderful thing to play."
The show’s subject matter isn’t exactly conventional prime-time material, so how does Julian feel about Charmed’s high quota of ghosts, ghoulies, and things that go bump in the night? "It scares me! But I’m kind of a believer in anything. The show takes it pretty far, but I love that kind of thing. Some of it I buy into – like spirits and energies, and even witches. The fantasy world is a good place to be!"
Series 3 of Charmed begins this Saturday at 18.55 on Channel 5.
"It is difficult to be on a show with three lead girls and bring a male character in that is going to be very strong," Julian says. "I think you have to be careful not to write yourself into a corner, and this is something that Brad Kern [Charmed Executive Producer] and I discussed when we were initially thinking about my playing the role. It’s hard enough to be the guy, so we have really fought for the strength of the character."
Acting wasn’t Julian's first career choice however, he admits. He originally began studying law, but gave it up after a year. "I don’t regret leaving school for one second. To be honest, at the time I was a little bit bored of studying. I think the whole studying thing is weird: you do it for years and years just to go study more! I needed a break from that.”
It was the lure of international modelling that finally tempted him away from his studies. "It was really exciting: I was meeting really great people and making a whole lot of money."
Acting proved even more enticing, though, and he landed his first TV roles in prime-time Aussie drama The Power, The Passion and Home and Away. He then moved to America and starred in daytime dramas Another World and Profiler. His feature-film credits include Women in Control, Magenta, and In Quiet Night, and he has also recently shot Another Day with Charmed co-star Shannen Doherty.
"The amount of time you spend on set in a soap is limited because you’re using three cameras, and there are a lot of characters," he explains. "On Charmed, the storylines are spread between three or four characters, not 20 or 30, and you’re only using one camera. You get to concentrate more on the details. On a daytime soap, you do an episode a day, so it’s a whole different concept."
He loves the attention his Charmed character has received, even if it is because he plays a bad guy. "We don’t know he’s totally a bad guy, do we? It feels really good. His character has been so different and so fun to play – every day I’m almost playing a different character. There are so many different layers."
Cole’s major storyline is his relationship with Phoebe, but, according to Julian, he won’t let this distract him from his quest: "Cole was sent here on a mission, and to achieve it, he’s going to whatever lengths he has to. And his connections to the powers-that-be run really deep.."
Cole has a demonic alter-ego, or ‘shadow’, and this presented Julian with an additional acting challenge: “I wanted to really create a relationship between Cole and his shadow, and I wanted the shadow to have its own personality. Even the ‘shimmering thing’, when I appear somewhere else, adds to the scene! It’s a wonderful thing to play."
The show’s subject matter isn’t exactly conventional prime-time material, so how does Julian feel about Charmed’s high quota of ghosts, ghoulies, and things that go bump in the night? "It scares me! But I’m kind of a believer in anything. The show takes it pretty far, but I love that kind of thing. Some of it I buy into – like spirits and energies, and even witches. The fantasy world is a good place to be!"
Series 3 of Charmed begins this Saturday at 18.55 on Channel 5.
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