Tensions are running high among the brothers Mikaelson as “The Originals” returns with its Season 3 premiere on Thursday night.
Klaus was instrumental in Hayley being cursed (with the help of Dahlia in Season 2) to stay in her wolf state for all but one night of the month, and while Daniel Gillies’ character, Elijah, remains under the same roof as his brother, their bond is deeply fractured. With his family situation, and Hayley out in the Bayou, Access Hollywood asked Daniel what’s keeping his character going and driving him as the season begins.
“At the moment, the answer’s pretty simple, it’s just the preservation of, and maintaining the safety and security of Hayley at any cost, and by extension, Hope,” Daniel told Access when we spoke to him this week about the new season.
Daniel Gillies in ‘The Originals’ (The CW)
WATCH: Daniel Gillies On Elijah & Klaus’ Relationship In ‘The Originals’ Season 3
Baby Hope is played by twins, the same super-cute babies who were on the show last season.
“They’re adorable. One of them actually shares the name of my daughter, so it’s kind of lovely on set to be able to be reaching for a baby, and saying, ‘Hey Charlie,'” he said.
As viewers will see in the premiere episode, once a month, Daniel’s character Elijah visits with human-form Hayley. His time with her, though, is shared as (nobly) he always brings baby Hope for the young mother to catch up with, and see her daughter’s development. (Hayley’s husband Jackson is in wolf form, presumably somewhere out in the Bayou.)
“He’s working with what he has, and don’t forget, a month to a thousand-year-old vampire is like — it’s nothing. It’s like a heartbeat. It’s like a footstep or a breath,” Daniel said, when Access asked how painful it is for his character to see Hayley so infrequently.
“I think he’s probably relieved in a sense that she’s still around. He’s enraged that she’s having to undergo this curse because of Niklaus’ recklessness, but I think it’s what he has and it’s what he’s going to work with,” Daniel continued. “Look, if Jackson was still around, he’d be at the mercy of watching Jackson and Hayley’s intimacy, but he doesn’t have to endure that. I think Elijah has something of a savior complex to him anyway.”
Elijah, though, has a place where he can release his frustrations in Season 3. Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) has opened a sort of vampire fight club.
WATCH: Charles Michael Davis On ‘The Originals’ Season 3 Vampire Fight Club!
“It takes on a variety of different forms,” Daniel said, when asked about what we’ll see with VFC. “It’s interesting to sort of take that church space and make it into this gym. Look, it’s sort of become a place… where the protagonists can kind of religiously vent, in a way.”
Daniel said the spot has “maintained its element of confession.”
“There’s a lot of interesting discussions that take place in there during the course of… some minor skirmishes between characters,” he explained.
And it’s a place that should be seen regularly in the third season of The CW drama.
“For Elijah, right now, it just represents a place to go and let off some steam,” Daniel continued. “We’ve used it thoroughly, I think, actually. Just about every episode we’ve done something in it, which has been really, really fun.”
Some members of “The Originals'” cast previously hoped they’d get a gym on set, but it’s unclear if their wishes helped inspire the vampire fight club ring.
“It’s not really a gym that we can use,” Daniel said of the set piece. “I don’t know if that had any influence. I know that one of our writers by the name of Declan De Barra, he’s – I actually met Declan before I was even doing ‘The Vampire Diaries.’ I met him at a Muay Thai club in Los Angeles. … It’s total coincidence that he got a job on this show and I happened to be working on it. … I know that he’s a huge mixed martial arts enthusiast. Charles Michael Davis does Muay Thai, I do Muay Thai. We have a history of punching and kicking stuff, so I think that that had an influence.”
“The Originals” returns on a new night – Thursday – at 9/8c, after “The Vampire Diaries,” on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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