If Sarah Bennett would seem an unlikely suspect, her husband Dylan would make for the perfect killer. With all of the secrets around Waterbury, it’s more likely to suspect someone from there than outside the town. And, let’s be honest, dead folks can make a man’s newspaper career, something the industrious Dylan is certainly looking to do.
In our second instalment of interview with the cast of Slasher, the Vancouver native talks Dylan, his friendship with showrunner Aaron Martin and Harper’s Island.
Congratulations on Slasher. Before we talk about that, though, you were fantastic on Harper’s Island.
Brandon Jay McLaren: Thanks. I feel like Harper’s Island was a little ahead of its time. Now that show would kill. It’s the perfect binge-watch. We were just a little premature. That was on CBS back when live ratings numbers meant something. I think our premiere was 10 million, and then we got 7 million for the second episode and they moved us to Saturday nights.
Talk to me about Dylan and his relationship with Sarah.
We met under a very strange circumstance, and she wants to come back to her hometown where her parents were murdered and she was pulled out of her mom’s womb. It’s very gruesome. She’s grown up with this about where she’s from and her past and we decide to move back to her hometown and move back to her parent’s house and fight her fears. Let’s move back and move on, because it’s been a debilitating thing in her life. We move back and the murders start happening again in a very similar fashion.
I play a journalist from the city and I move to this small town and take over the paper. These murders are terrible, but they’re good for me because I have this huge international story on my hands, so I’m pushed and pulled. Dylan’s career is skyrocketing, we have a Nancy Grace-type character come up and I’m put on TV. That’s why I took the role, because it’s different from what I’ve done on Graceland.
What are Aaron Martin’s scripts like?
They’re different. I worked with Aaron on The Best Years and a couple of seasons of Being Erica, just in and out, and this is a complete departure from anything I’ve ever read of his. I didn’t know that he was this sick in his head and I told him that. [Laughs.] He’s very good with relationships and you have that, but it’s gruesome and terrible. It makes for some really good reading.
Because you’ve known him for so long, are you more apt to read something Aaron has written?
Oh sure. He’ll contact me. He’ll be like, ‘Hey man, I’m doing this thing up here. When are you wrapped on Graceland? I’d love for you to take a look at this.’ Anytime he calls I’m fair game if I’m available. He always lets me play something that I haven’t played before, so this was another opportunity.
Slasher airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Super Channel.
