INTERVIEW: Greg Bryk prepares to get ‘Bitten’ on Syfy show

The full moon hangs heavy in the sky, and the eyes of those already bitten begin to change colors. On Monday, Jan. 13, the werewolf pack attacks Syfy, and actor Greg Bryk leads the way.

Bitten, based on Kelley Armstrong’s successful book series, will premiere on Syfy Jan. 13 at 10 p.m. Bryk, an alum of several TV shows and movies, stars as Jeremy Danvers, the alpha male of a reclusive pack of wolves in the woods surrounding Toronto. The pack’s main problem in the first season deals with Elena Michaels (Laura Vandervoort), the last female werewolf who tries to retain her independence from the pack. As she grapples with her identity, a lone wolf, known as a mutt, stalks the area and begins attacking humans. There’s a lot of drama on Jeremy’s watch.

“As an actor, you have concerns about being locked into something that just revolves around the genre, that doesn’t have anything human that you can relate to,” Bryk said recently during a phone interview. “But there’s a really nice balance between the action and sort of the thriller aspect of this series, and the werewolves are executed beautifully. And there’s that element, but there’s also this tremendous story of a family at risk. And for myself as the alpha, the head of the family, what you do to try protect your family and nurture your family and guide your family, so there was a lot of really sort of nice human grace notes sprinkled throughout.”

Bryk was given the job after a long persuading process. The actor had worked with producer Grant Rosenberg before on a show called 13, a graphic novel adaptation that played on Reelz in the United States, but Bryk didn’t fit the image of the Jeremy character.

“I mean there is a character created in the novels that’s half-Asian, and I think they looked in that direction,” Bryk said. “Didn’t find anybody that worked, and I just kept chasing it. I’m at a point in my life, you reach 40 and you start to take stock of what it means to be a father, what it means to be a man, your responsibility in the community and how do you fill into that role where you are a full adult. And what does that mean? And I was sort of doing outreach with some inner-city kids in Toronto in the city, teaching them acting and taking more of a leadership role in the community, and my kids are growing up and getting ready to take that next stage of their life. My oldest is going to university, and it felt creatively the right time for me to be exploring those issues. And this role came along, and I fell in love with the character, and I chased it. Because they were uncertain for a while. I really sort of had to fight and convince them. They thought maybe I was a little bit young for the role, and I fought and chased and chased it.”

Bryk’s convincing paid off, and he was hired two days before shooting began.

The character digs deep into the mythology of male gender identity, exploring issues of masculinity and submission. Bryk takes the role seriously, constantly layering his performance with nuance and introspection. “In the books, he has a very strong influence from the maternal side. There’s a warmth, and there’s an empathy, and there’s a nurturing quality that I think makes him suited to be a modern alpha. But it also brings difficulty because I wasn’t so focused on quashing, killing every mutt that we could come across. That complacency, in a way, or that softness, starts the mutt uprising, and then I’m forced to assume sort of a warrior king mantle. But for me the idea is how we define manhood in the modern world is fascinating. … We need to find masculinity, strong masculinity, but not lose those other elements that make us empathetic people. And I think that for Jeremy is the definition. How do you be a strong man but also be warm and empathetic? And the relationship with Elena really challenges that. My instinct is to force her to come back to the pack, but the wisdom is to allow her to make her own choices and hope that she makes the right choices.”

The ensemble cast of Bitten, featuring many actors baring their teeth and their bodies for the Syfy show, has a lot of chemistry, according to Bryk. “The bonds were so profound,” he added. “I mean obviously the fact that we’re structured as a wolf pack, as a pack, so the family element is built right into the narrative, so as actors you’re very suggestible. And I think people bought into that, but I think beyond that as people we all just really were protective of each other and cared about each other in a meaningful way right off the start. … We all understood we’re doing a werewolf show for the Space network, and it’s sensationalist and fantastical, but I think everybody when they found those moments of humanity between each other cherished them and really protected that in each other. And I think there’s some surprising moments in the series for people.”

Bryk called the TV series a creative departure from Armstrong’s books. The original source material serves as the DNA of each episode, but he pointed out the necessary differences between literature and television. “[The writers] build dramatic tension where it needs to be, so we’re not sure, me personally, I’m not sure where my character goes from here because I know that there will be echoes from the book, but it very much is its own animal.”

Acting in Bitten gives Bryk the chance to sharpen his teeth in a mainstream genre perhaps more in tune with a younger audience. Because of his children, the actor knows the pulse of this fantastical world, even though he prefers dramas and romantic comedies himself.

“The thing that is really appealing about the wolves, about this pack, is that deeply human animal element,” he said. “The passion is really extraordinary. The loyalties are forever. It’s sort of the intimacy of tearing your lover’s clothes off or tearing your enemy’s throat out. That’s the world they play in, and I think that will resonate most with an audience because we feel a little bit detached. We feel alone in the world. We feel slightly cold, and this is a very hot-blooded series.”

Bitten also allows the actor to continue to call Toronto home, a necessary decision in this stage of his career. “My wife and I made a very conscientious decision that I wasn’t going to leave home anymore. My kids were growing up, and we get one shot at being a father. We get one lifetime with them. A marriage is a very fragile institution that needs time and care, and I would be away three months a year. And I said, ‘That’s it. I’m not leaving no matter what. I live or die on this hill.’ … The nice thing about Toronto is it’s a shooting destination. I think a lot of times if you’re an L.A.-based actor, the type of work you have access to is probably more varied and, in a lot of ways, better, but you always have to leave. Not a lot shoots there. Toronto people come to shoot here because we have world-class crews. The tax credit system is very favorable. Economically stable country. You can stand in for a lot of different places, even though Toronto now is a character in itself in a lot of shows and plays for itself. But as an artist, it’s really, I get to have a tremendous quality of life. I wake up next to my wife every morning, and get to have breakfast with my kids, and then travel five minutes to the studio to do a show, which now has an American home, an international home, but is very much a Canadian series. So it’s the best of all worlds for me, to be perfectly honest.”

After Bitten bites into American audiences on Jan. 13, it could turn into a success much like the network’s other series, including Almost Human, Continuum and Lost Girl. For Bryk, the opportunity to further explore this alpha werewolf is a welcome one.

“The things he’s questioning in his life are the things that I am questioning in my life,” he said. “The growth that he has to make as the pack alpha are the real strides I need to make as a man in my family and my life. So it’s that perfect parallel right now where I have so much flesh and blood and soul and imagination and hopes and fears to lend the character, and in the same way, he forces me to confront myself in ways that make me a better person.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Bitten premires on Syfy on Monday, Jan. 13 at 10 p.m. Click here for more information.