Chris Wood may have been written off The Vampire Diaries, but Julie Plec is bringing him back on her new show, Containment. And this time he’s playing a good guy.
“Surprise, surprise,” Chris said at the press round tables at New York Comic Con.
“It was so good. My favorite thing in the world in getting to play make believe is getting to try on different hats and the further they are apart kind of back to back, the more exciting it is. So getting to go from [Kai] to someone who’s so polarizingly different is delicious,” he added.
When you meet Chris it’s almost hard to believe that he could play such an evil villain as Kai. He’s as sweet as can be and he has the most gorgeous eyes. It’s hard to concentrate on what he’s saying, when he’s looking straight into your eyes.
Fans of TVD can enjoy Chris in a different light this time around. They won’t have to be rooting against him, they can root for him.
Chris will be playing Jake Riley. He’s a “bit hardened and closed off.” At the beginning of the series the characters are a mystery, but as the show goes on, we’ll learn more about them.
One thing Chris could tell us, is that he use to date his friend’s girlfriend, briefly. Shortly after Jana and him broke-up is when she started to date Lex. There’s no weirdness, but there is something to it.
We will learn more about the characters, but we won’t learn everything.
“We don’t dwell on that. We don’t try to explain why everyone has these neuroses. We see it and we know that’s how someone is. You get little pieces about their life,” Chris said.
Jake has a good heart, but he’s not a hero. He’s thrown into this situation against his will, but he rises to the occasion.
While Chris will be playing a good guy, this guy has a lot of layers to him. His first instinct is to protect himself and he’s very angry at his friend, Lex, for getting him into this situation, even though it really isn’t Lex’s fault.
Containment is based on a Belgium series called Cordon. The role Chris plays was originally played by an older character. He just fell in love with Jake and had to have the part.
He saw the Belgium series and read the pilot and became obsessed with the role.
“I really connected to Jake. I’m not sure what it was about him. I kind of understood the way that he ticked and I really wanted to embody that,” Chris said.
“[He’s] such a phenomenal character and he’s truly a good person, but he’s got all of this crap that he’s dealing with. Complicated people are so much more interesting than playing someone who’s just nice or purposely a sociopath,” he continued.
“Having someone you know who’s so different than you are, that’s so electric to play,” he added.
Chris called his people and said he wanted to make this happen. He read for executive producers, David Nutter and Julie Plec, Warner Bros. and The CW.
The character in the original series was 40, so Chris had to show them his take on the role.
“I guess whatever I was tapping into and got me excited about the role, they saw it,” Chris said.
He’s so happy that it all worked out.
Fans of Kai and Chris will also be happy it all worked out because they’ll get to continue to watch him on screen.
Containment will premiere mid-season on The CW.
