Fresh from supplying the killer blow to King Arthur in Merlin‘s climatic finale last month, CultBox caught up with Alexander Vlahos to talk about his time playing Mordred ahead of the release of Series 5 on DVD next week.
> Buy the complete Series 5 DVD boxset on Amazon.
How did you feel about the way Merlin ended, particularly from your point of view as Mordred?”
“Yes, when I read the script, my initial reaction was that I thought that Mordred and Morgana’s story ended quite quickly. I felt like their journey was pushed aside for Arthur and Merlin, but then it should be.
“Once we started filming, and once I saw it, it was probably the best ending because you have to deal with what’s important to the show – not that Mordred wasn’t important, or Morgana, but I think you had to tell Merlin and Arthur’s story, so especially Episode 13, I really did enjoy it because it filled in the gaps.”
It was definitely the culmination of the ‘bromance’ wasn’t it?
“Episode 13, when I read it, was like a sort of platonic love story between two men, I genuinely believe that. I think it was what it was always going to be, two men realising how much they meant to each other, and that’s what it turned out to be.
“I think Bradley and Colin did amazingly well, they carried that whole episode together and I thought it was brilliant and really heartfelt. For me, as Mordred, Episode 11 was always going to be my chance to shine so I think when it got the finale two-parter, I knew I’d had my chance with ‘The Drawing of the Dark’.”
Where you happy with ‘The Drawing of the Dark’, with the romance and that wonderful scene down in the cells as the execution takes place?
“I was really happy. They brought in Declan O’Dwyer to direct Episodes 10 and 11 and Declan had never worked for Merlin before. I was told by (producers) Johnny and Julian that Episode 11 was going to be the one for me, the Mordred-centric episode, and I was worried that they needed someone who’d worked on the show before to handle it.
“Once I met Declan I absolutely, well he was just fantastic and we really got on very well and I think what he’s done with Episode 10 and 11 especially was brilliant. Obviously we film everything out of order and the scenes are all higgledy-piggledy, I found Episode 11 a real struggle to get Mordred’s emotional journey, his emotional through-line right.”
Declan’s a pretty experienced director isn’t he?
“Yeah, he did the pilot episode of Being Human, he knows what he’s doing and he’s got a massive amount of experience but there was always that worry that for me, not for Mordred but for Alex, as it all hung on 11. Because we filmed Episodes 12 and 13 first I knew what the script held for the finale, and if I messed up 11 then people wouldn’t believe 12 and 13, wouldn’t believe Mordred siding with Morgana so I think I put a lot of pressure on myself to get it right.
“When I saw it on telly I was happy because I felt like I got people to side with Mordred over Merlin and I think that’s the test when the show is actually called Merlin.”
Mordred was never really painted a villain was he? From his perspective he’s not evil and has his aim of magic being free. We almost felt as though Merlin was not right…
“I don’t think that was ever my intention, but I think my intention was always to make sure the audience sympathised with Mordred as much as they could – with his predicament, not with how he was being treated, with how he was being torn between loyalty and love. I wanted people to see that, not to think it was as easy as black and white and see ‘Oh, Arthur’s killed Kara, I’m off to side with Morgana now!’
“It needed to be a lot more brutal and like his gut was being twisted and I think Julian Jones gave a really well scripted episode. It was a story that lacked a lot of action, but the most word-heavy script they’d had in Merlin. I can remember going in to do some ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) and it was eight minutes over in story time! You can imagine how much got cut!”
Might we look forward to a few deleted scenes on the DVD?
“I’m sure there’s quite a lot. I remember watching and thinking, there’s something missing here, but then I suppose the test is that the episode still hangs up, that it still does its job if you’ve cut four scenes out. That’s the nature of the beast, the nature of the 45 minute slot.”
Do you have a favourite moment from the filming?
“I always remember my first time going to France, to Pierrefonds, and I was doing the fight scene with Bradley for the opening of ‘The Disir’ episode in the training ground. It was my first time in the castle and I’m doing this fight scene and just looking over my shoulder where the cameras were set up there were about a thousand fans lining the castle wall taking photos.”
No pressure then!
“And there was the thing of them seeing me for the first time in the flesh, and then the spoilers of them seeing me in chain mail which they really shouldn’t have known about. Also me fighting Bradley on the training ground, it all became a bit too much, but I enjoyed that baptism of fire.”
“I suppose my favourite moment of all was my very first day I suppose, doing all the snow stuff for ‘Arthur’s Bane’ and enjoying working on such a beast of a machine that was Merlin having just finished doing what was a very small budget period drama in Northern Island. Finishing on a Friday and then on the Monday I’m running around Trefil in fake snow in a quarry thinking ‘Wow, this couldn’t be more different!”
> Read the second part of our exclusive interview.
> Buy the complete Series 5 DVD boxset on Amazon.
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