By Mike McCarthy
David Anders has been on some of the biggest television shows including Alias, 24, Heroes and Vampire Diaries, and can now been on the hit show iZombie alongside Rose McIver. Being from the northwest, David is a huge fan of the Oregon Ducks and Portland Trailblazers and seeing as they have no football team, he supports the Minnesota Vikings. We both agreed that even though Adrian Peterson missed last year because of off field issues, he still deserved to be picked number 1 in fantasy football this year. David may or may not have an issue with us being die hard New England Patriots fans, but that’s okay. David usually plays the character who people love to hate and he has played them well for over a decade. Make sure to check him out as Blaine on iZombie on the CW, Tuesday nights at 9 PM.
Wingman Magazine: You have been pretty busy over the past few years with stints on some of the most popular shows on TV. Is there any show on TV that you haven’t been on that you would love to be on?
David Anders: I would love to be on Game of Thrones, that would be a dream come true. I want to be part of that Lannister clan, I think I would fit in well there. It’s the best show on TV.
Wingman Magazine: On iZombie you play Blaine another Zombie that survived…when you were pitched the script, what were your first thoughts?
David Anders: I was really drawn to the humor of it. When I opened the script and read the title of it I was like, “oh, good gravy.” And about five pages in it really won me over. It’s so funny and a wonderful take on the zombie genre. I have played bad guys my entire career up to this point, but haven’t played a bad guy in a humorous show. It was great opportunity to be able to flex my muscles a little bit and show I had a lighter side. Although Blaine is still the equal to any prick I have ever played.
Wingman Magazine: Were you a fan of zombies before you were one?
David Anders: Yeah, I mean zombie movies and the genre can be fun. I gave The Walking Dead a whack in the first season but it just seemed like the same thing every week over and over and I gave up on it. I know it’s a juggernaut and everybody loves it. I had done a movie a few years ago called the Revenant that I am really proud of, that I didn’t think I would be proud of at the time while shooting it, but it turned out fantastic. Our show is a zom/rom/com/dram and there is nothing else on TV like it, so we are one of one.
Wingman Magazine: You eat brains in the show…what are they actually made of and what do they taste like…if you can tell us.
David Anders: They are made of a Japanese gelatin, agar agar and they taste bad. The consistency is awful. Blaine had his chef cook up some nice brain dishes for his customers last year, but I wasn’t feeling it. Rose was liking it with the noodles and the hot sauce. But they do have spit buckets right off camera for us; shoot then cut and spit it right out.
Wingman Magazine: I know some actors can be superstitious about watching themselves on screen. What are your thoughts on the subject?
David Anders: Yeah, I do. I went through a period where I didn’t watch anything that I did, but have recently gotten back into it with iZombie. It’s a lot of fun, the lines I get to say are a blast and I love to see what cuts they are gonna use, and how it all comes together and how the zombie looks. I will miss a few episodes here and there and I will have to catch up. I try to watch live when I can so that I can live-tweet with the rest of the cast.
Wingman Magazine: You were on Heroes for a while, now they just rebooted it. Have you seen it yet? And what do you think about movie or TV show reboots?
David Anders: I have watched a little bit of the first episode, but it looked like it was well done, same as it always was but a little different.
I am not a big fan of reboots, and leave well enough alone. The stuff that they remake is in large part classics, so why screw with a classic. Point Break is a classic in it’s own right and they are redoing it 25 years later, I don’t get it. Dr. Strangelove should never be remade.
Wingman Magazine: You were on Alias and 24, who would win in a fight; Sydney or Jack Bauer?
David Anders: Sydney is pretty badass so I’m gonna go with Sydney Bristow.
Wingman Magazine: What got you started in the arts?
David Anders: I was always very good at doing voices and able to cut my buddies up with them. In our advanced english class, we would go around the class and everyone was supposed to read a page. The class voted that I read every page of an entire chapter, in a different voice for every page, which I gladly did. I realized the power of holding people’s attention by changing your voice a little bit and making people laugh. I stopped getting better at basketball in school so I quit and went out for the play, Our Town and got the lead and then actor of the year in our school. So I was pretty glad I quit basketball. I auditioned for a few conservatories around the country and was accepted, but an actor in LA saw a few of my monologues and he was really surprised at how good I was. He told me that, “you can only be this good at 18 once and you can always go to school, I think you should get an agent and move to LA.” So that’s what I did. The rest isn’t history, but that’s how it happened and then J.J. Abrams came a calling. He recut all of the Indiana Jones movies when he was fourteen or fifteen and sent them to Spielberg. Spielberg was like “these are better this way.”
Wingman Magazine: We are about the same age…top 3 celebrity crushes when you were a teenager.
David Anders: Kelly Kapowski (Saved by the Bell), Drew Barrymore (Poison Ivy), Kelly Lebrock (Weird Science)