TORONTO - Followers of "The Following" know not to get too attached to any of the characters on the dark CTV/Fox series.
At any time, even regulars could be slaughtered by members of the show's serial killing cult, who most recently unleashed a brutal beating on FBI agent Mike Weston, played by Shawn Ashmore.
Luckily, Weston was spared the deadliest blows when former agent Ryan Hardy, played by Kevin Bacon, arrived just in time to scatter his attackers.
Ashmore says his character returns to action in this Monday's episode, although the assault leaves Mike heavily scarred, inside and out.
The Canuck actor was in Toronto recently to talk to The Canadian Press about plot twists, working with Bacon and returning to the big screen as Iceman.
CP: So what's in store for Mike?
Ashmore: Mike has been trying to get Ryan Hardy, Kevin Bacon's character, to befriend him, trust him and I think that Mike was kind of like the shiny penny — he was just kind of this goofy kid that was annoying the Ryan Hardy character and I think after the sacrifice that Mike makes Ryan starts to trust Mike to a certain extent and let him in a little bit. And so episode 12 starts to create that bond a little more between Mike and Ryan.
CP: How is Mike feeling emotionally?
Ashmore: Mike is changed. Mike has a paranoia, a fear, and I think it's real now. The violence was around him and it was affecting people he had worked with — I mean, Agent Riley was killed in the third episode so it's been very close — but this was to the next level and so I think there's a certain level of paranoia with Mike. And that sort of fear and paranoia, he becomes more aggressive and less defensive. ... He's overcompensating and takes another turn. I don't want to give too much away because it plays out nicely, but you definitely see a new side of Agent Weston.
CP: Mike's obsession with Ryan seemed to border on the unhealthy.
Ashmore: It is a fine line to walk because you don't want to go too much and be almost completely geeky. I don't think that there was ever that idea that Mike should be a total fanboy. He's an FBI agent, he's a professional, he has to be talented, smart.
CP: And did you play it down because you knew that eventually Mike would have this life-altering encounter with the followers?
Ashmore: I didn't know anything about (that). We find out episode-to-episode what's going to happen. ... We got the warning in the first episode: This is the kind of show where we will kill lead characters so if it happens down the line don't take it personally. ...' Which is why I think the show is so effective. When someone has a knife to their throat ... or is being beaten, on a normal show you'd be like, 'Oh, well, that's one of the leads, they're not going to kill the lead.' On our show, that just might happen.
CP: I'm surprised by how dark the show is allowed to go.
Ashmore: There's a scene in the pilot where we stumble upon this garage that's full of butchered animals which was a super-tense scene. That was probably the most disturbing scene, to be honest, that we've shot. And they had to scale back on some of the goriness of that. But other than that everything else made it and when I realized that that was the show that we were going for I was kind of shocked and amazed but also like, 'Good.' ... When you're going for it you just have to go for it. Middle ground on television I think was the standard back in the day and I think because of all the cable outlets — HBO, Showtime, AMC — that it's forcing network television to compete on a level of storytelling and, yes, violence.
CP: We're hearing tidbits about the fourth "X-Men" film and its cast (Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Halle Berry). You're returning as Bobby Drake, a.k.a. Iceman. What can you tell us?
Ashmore: There's a script, but we don't know as actors quite what we're getting ourselves into yet. The good thing about this film is this is the fourth "X-Men" film — we've played the characters a number of times; I think we're all very comfortable with the world that we're creating. And so in a couple weeks we'll go up to Montreal, we'll start rehearsing, we'll get into it and then we'll start shooting and I'm really, really looking forward to it. Bryan Singer's back, who directed the first two films, and a ton of the cast is back, so we get to get together and play again, which is fun.
This interview has been edited and condensed. "The Following" airs Mondays on Fox and CTV.
