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There’s no question whether Ben Daniels has enjoyed his time playing Marcus on Fox’s The Exorcist (running on Syfy in the UK) alongside Alfonso Herrera as Father Tomas. Over the course of a long chat by phone with Paul Simpson now he’s back in the UK, he is constantly enthusiastic about the show, created by Jeremy Slater inspired by the novel by William Peter Blatty…

Spoiler alert: This interview discusses the major twist in the series revealed in episode 5

I was quite surprised you were using your natural voice rather than the English RP we often get in American series. Was that your choice?

It came from [the director of the pilot] Rupert Wyatt. Initially, it was written for a thirty year old American, so I came in completely from a side angle. Rupert Wyatt, Jeremy Slater the creator and Rolin Jones the show runner were like, “he’s the one!” Eventually when I got it, I was having a Skype session with Rupert and he was like, “What’s your accent? I can hear a bit of an accent.” I said I’m from the Midlands. He said, “What’s that like if you push it completely there?” I spoke a few sentences and he said that was perfect. He didn’t want something that sounded southern, he wanted something that sounded a bit older as an accent, that sounded stranger, that had more of a history behind it.

It completely unlocked everything then. I do lots of background and stuff anyway, but it was perfect that I could just set him from Nuneaton, which is where I’m from. He’s very specifically placed.

I had to tone the accent down, though. I was just doing ADR [additional dialogue recording] for ep 9. It was tiny, I had to do three lines. It was a bit of my Midlands accent where they couldn’t understand that “of” meant “off”. There are certain vowel sounds where they go, “I just don’t know what you’re saying”.

That reminds me of Trainspotting needing subtitles when it was first released in the US…

Of course! If you have no kind of ear for it, then it’s crazy.

How did you get caught up with The Exorcist in the first place? It’s an unusual project, to put it mildly…

It is! I was out [in the US] doing pilot season and I’m a massive horror film fan anyway, and like us all, The Exorcist is number 1 on the list. [The script] plopped into my inbox and I thought it’d be terrible. I thought it was a remake of the movie, because of the Rosemary’s Baby [remake by NBC in 2014] – so I didn’t even look at it. I thought, “I can’t even go there, why are they remaking it” and got all uppity about it, like everyone has got as soon as they knew Fox were remaking it.

So I didn’t look at it, and then my agent said, “Have you done that self-tape?” I said I hadn’t, and I didn’t want to do a remake of The Exorcist, and she said, “It’s not a remake, read it.” I started, and halfway through I was on-board. It was great.

At that time, I didn’t know it was a sequel, I just knew it was in the same world and I loved the characters. That first version I read was all set in Ethiopia, and not Mexico, so it changed a huge amount from that original pilot, but I absolutely loved it. I got to the end of it and I was like, “Okay, now I’ve got to convince them that I’m the man for the job.”

What did you think of the character of Marcus?

I just loved him. As soon as he whipped out the gun on Bennett, I thought, “Ok, this is someone to whom violence is just there like a second skin. He’s so abrasive and abrupt as a human being.” I just became fascinated by what had got him to that point.

They hadn’t completely worked out who he was: Jeremy had come up with this amazing character, out of the air, and I’d done the self tape that eventually they watched and responded favourably to, then Jeremy called me up just for a chat before I went in to meet them all. He said, “We have this scene that we’re going to put in at some point of him as a young boy being pushed into a room, where a naked ninety year old possessed woman is.” This is what it was at the time. Of course, that changed. “He’s told he can’t come out of the room until she’s cured, and he cures her.” I had that little bit of information, and who he’s like in the pilot, then once I got the job, I was like, “Ok, how would he get from being this orphan to here?” So I came up with this backstory of him coming from a very violent impoverished background with a really violent dad; his dad kills his mum in front of him, and then he’s put into another abusive environment at a Catholic boys home, and from there he’s taken and trained.

I figured that to go into a room and heal a possessed person with no formal exorcist training a young boy would have to be either incredibly holy and angelic so God could work through him, or he would be filled with such rage and pain that God could harness that energy and turn it into a weapon.

Giving little Marcus the most difficult start in life I could think of seemed to me the strongest motor to generate the required rage.

I also thought it was important that he have that vocabulary of aggression and violence at a very early age so it’s second nature to him.

I came up with this backstory and said, “What about this, guys?” They all responded to it really favourably and they took my bare bones of a backstory and really ran with it. You get a little bit more of that backstory in episode 10, it’s developed a bit further. It’s really great.

Marcus always has this simmering violence and he’s so unpredictable as a character. I love playing him – he’s easily my most favourite character that I’ve ever played.

There seems to be a great energy between the cast – between you and Alfonso and everyone around – despite everything that you all, and particularly Hannah [Kasulka as the possessed Casey], are being put through…

It’s really symbiotic. It’s fantastic – the atmosphere on set is electric. We all have a really great time, there is loads of jollity, but as soon as it’s “Action” the concentration from everyone – the entire crew –is just great.

My kind of thing about acting is you want to be able to be like you are when you sing in the bath, or draw the curtains and dance like a lunatic. If you can actually do that on set, with fifty people watching you, then something really great happens. Everyone just bounces off each other. We have that a lot – especially between me and Alfonso, and me and Hannah, they’re the people I’ve worked with the most. The job satisfaction is great, and for once it translates. It doesn’t always but this time it does; it translates into the end product.

You’d not worked with Alfonso before?

No. The casting process is immense on American shows: I’d done my network test and then they have ten days to say whether the job’s yours or not. After that I had to do two chemistry tests as well, one with one actor which didn’t go well, and then they kept me on and I did one with Alfonso and it was just great. You could feel the entire room went, “We’ve got it, we’ve got the combination.” They wouldn’t have one of us without seeing us in the room together, which is sensible.

Well, the show is called The Exorcist, not “The Possessed” – and the movie was about the two priests…

…and that debate between them. That’s what I love about this: Jeremy and Rolin have just been so clever in taking that core relationship, and making it so active and alive and ongoing. Neither [Tomas nor Marcus] know really even by the end of episode 10 why they’ve been thrust together to do this; it’s just that they work better as a team.

The only answer that either can give presumably, even after everything they’ve been through, is that it’s God’s will.

Absolutely.

It’s good that there’s a genre show that takes religion seriously, and not as some sort of sci-fi thing…

I completely agree with you. That again was testament to Rupert: that original movie and the novel, which I read as well, come from a real world. The feet are firmly planted in a real world. We were encouraged to do that from the outset. It’s never sent up, and as we know, it can so easily be in genre, both in films and TV.

The debates are really modern as well. It’s not “you are a sinner because you do this”, it’s really complex and murky, as any of this type of show should be, I think.

How much research did you do in terms of talking to those who have been involved with exorcisms?

It was really hard. No one would come out of the woodwork and let us talk to them, but I did go and chat to a priest for maybe two and a half hours in Chicago. It completely blew my mind. It was really, really helpful, in terms of it being in the real world.

I have no dealings with the Church at all; I used to go to Sunday School in the Church of England, but I felt like I didn’t really have any contact with the Church throughout my life. So I went to meet this guy who had taken a vow of poverty, and said, “Do you mind, can I talk to you about anything? If it gets too difficult, or you don’t want to talk about it, let me know.” He said, “Just go ahead.” So I asked what he was like as a kid – I went right back to the beginning and talked about his calling and how it happened. It was really profound.

He started to talk, and I kept prompting him with questions. He became very emotional during the session and I thought, “You never really talk about yourself to people. A lot of people talk about themselves to you.” It was absolutely amazing, and his calling was so unusual the way it happened, and when I left, it had changed me as a human being.

I went in, I suppose, thinking “This guy is going to judge me.” I had lots of preconceptions. All of them were blown out the window and I left really appreciative that there are people like that priest in the world. It was absolutely amazing!

And probably quite cathartic for him – a priest is usually a listener not a talker…

Yes. I was put in touch with him because I think Rupert had chatted to him as well – he said there was “this guy who says he hasn’t performed exorcisms but he knows an awful lot about it”. I pushed him on that, and he said he hadn’t [performed exorcisms] but his friend had, and he told me a couple of experiences of his friend. He said, “If anything like that happened to me, I would just run a mile”.

These things – whether it is something that manifests itself psychologically or whether it is a spiritual demon overtaking a body – there are thousands that happen per year in different cultures all over the world. I read and watched and listened to everything that I could find. I had maybe four weeks from knowing the job was mine to when we shot the pilot, and I would just get up in the morning and cram myself as full of as much knowledge as I could. Some of it was terrible and laughable and stupid, and then some of it was really unsettling.

It had always lived in a very fictional place for me, being a horror film fan, and probably seeing every possession movie that’s ever been made, and suddenly it lives and breathes in a much realer place for me. I haven’t come done on any side, whether it is spiritual or it is psychological. Maybe they’re the same thing; we don’t know how close they are to being one and the same thing. It’s all fascinating.

What was the biggest challenge for you of playing him?

(long pause) I didn’t find any of it challenging – I loved it! Everything they threw at me. Obviously the exorcism sequences are the ones that go on for the longest when you’re shooting them, and to not lose my voice was my biggest challenge. I think that was as bad as it got.

I loved it from the start to the finish and I will be completely gutted if we don’t get picked up for a second season. There’s so much life in those characters.

When did you find out that Angela was Regan?

I watched the pilot and the bit where everyone was like, “Oh she jumped to that conclusion really quickly when she just heard that noise in the wall”, I watched and I thought, “She’s been possessed before.”

It was round the time of Comic-Con: we’d filmed the pilot but hadn’t started the rest of it. We were doing a lot of publicity. I said to Geena [Davis], “Has your character been possessed before? There’s something in the way you listened to the wall where you’re sort of, kind of, enjoying it.” She said, “That’s very astute.” She knew, but we didn’t. That night, Rolin Jones said, “I’ve got to tell you – she’s Regan.” I was like, “fantastic!” So we all knew from the outset [of filming on the series].

It would kill me every time people would pick on that moment in those early reviews and say it was ridiculous. People were so ready to gun it down – you didn’t. You were one of the few who from the outset was like, “Ok, I’m going to see where this is going.” God bless you for that.

There had to be more to it. Showrunners post-Lost have got to have some idea of where they’re going because fans are so picky nowadays…

What’s been great is that I don’t think anyone can guess where it’s going. And that’s what annoys me: so many people would love this show who aren’t watching it, with that fan love which turns to hate so easily, and stops people watching.

I think the work on this show is so great. It was so clever, that plotting – making these characters that people got involved with and loved, and then throwing that twist in. It was brilliant slow burn television and we’re not used to watching that.

It’s such a shame more people aren’t watching it, because the language is new and it’s ground-breaking. It’s proper horror in a network show. Fox have been pretty good about us really pushing it on an hour of network TV.

Also in episode 2, I virtually have a four minute monologue, and they left it in in its entirety. For a network show it’s really cool that they allowed that.

I wonder if we are starting to get a new language in television allowing that sort of thing…

It’s great when you watch and it’s not just quick cuts. I love watching that on TV.

What’s the feedback been like when you’ve interacted with fans?

They love it. I went to the theatre last night and I was buying a drink at the bar. The barman looked at me and said, “Please tell me it’s been renewed!” There was this fervour in his eyes which was really cool.

It’s the fanbase that’s got behind it. You must have seen all the #RenewtheExorcist going on on Twitter which is really heart-warming. I love that it does inspire that in people.

What would you like to see in a future season?

I would really like to see the pair of them go into other cultures and other religions, work with that. As far as they’re personally concerned, me and Alfonso would sit there and try and work out what is going on in their heads. Marcus is in a really great position now. He’s been institutionalised for so many years and I think part of God’s plan is that Tomas brings out this humanity in Marcus which makes Marcus perform his job more sharply. The evil is growing stronger so he needs to bring that to the fore.

I liked the fact that Marcus has been institutionalised for so many years that he might become this 50 year old teenager – I think he’s going to go through lots of experiences suddenly being free of his collar, that he’s not allowed himself. You get a slight chink of that with the guy at the bar in episode 8.

That was such a different scene.

I loved Marcus having a laugh. I love those moments when it all falls away and you see his broken insides, or his relief, and I loved that scene. We really enjoyed playing that.

There’s that slight flirty thing but I think his sexuality is unformed at the moment and it could go either way. I don’t think there are any really strong bisexual male characters on TV and I would love him to go into that area. At that moment, people say he’s gay, and I say, “It’s The Exorcist – could be. Or the rug might get pulled and he might not be.”

I got the impression he’s the sort of person who will fall in love with a person…

That’s exactly what I said – those are the words that I have said to Jeremy and Rolin all the time. “Because he hasn’t had sex,” I said, “it’s all about people’s minds.” Tomas is completely off his radar – Tomas is like an irritant, he doesn’t find him attractive at all…

But Marcus loves Tomas in a different way – that exorcism in episode 8 wouldn’t work unless they can pull back when they realise what the demon is doing to them…

Also in that episode 8 scene, I watched it here and there were no subtitles when Marcus speaks Spanish towards the end of that scene when Tomas leaves. I don’t know if they subtitled it in America but I say, “See you next time, brother”, and I call him “brother”. I really fished around for that word – the script said, “see you next time, my friend [in Spanish]” but I pushed Alfonso and said, “I want a word that means closer [than friend].” It was Alfonso’s wife that came up with it; she said, “You should say, hermano, which means brother but it also has religious connotations as well.” Marcus has no family at all – well, God is his family – and now Tomas is the nearest to a brother that he has.

But back on the finding minds attractive: I would always say to Rolin and Jeremy, “I read all those Interview with the Vampire books all those years ago, and it’s that ongoing thing with the vampires that can’t have sex. It’s about people’s minds; they’re the people they want to spend their time with, their x many hundred of years with.” I feel Marcus is like that.

Is genre something you’ve always loved?

All my life. The first horror movie I watched was The Birds when I was eight or nine. With fairy stories, it’d be Grimm – I’d pick those darker, weirder stories. I loved being scared.

I suffered from sleep paralysis from a really young age till I was in my early forties. It’s like your brain wakes up before your body so you’re paralysed. Every time it happens you feel you’re going to die. I had it from a really young age. What’s bizarre is everyone has the same hallucination when it happens: something comes in the room, it crouches by the bed, it breathes, it climbs on top of you and sits on your chest. It’s absolutely terrifying and thank God I don’t get it any more.

Horror was always a comfort for me, weirdly; it was like fear that had a narrative and was resolved by the end – whether in a good way or a bad way, it was resolved. I always found it quite comforting, which is bizarre: I loved being scared in a controlled environment because sometimes when I went to sleep I wouldn’t be. It would be terrifying, and helped put that into more of a perspective.

I then grew up watching all the old Hammer movies – Appointment with Fear on [TV on] a Friday night. My horror heroes were Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, playing that horror with complete sincerity, and never sending it up. I’ve always carried that with me, and I love the fact that the characters are always in extremis at all times as they are in The Exorcist. I love that kind of high octane stuff.

If I’m ever at a loose end, I’ll watch any horror movie. It can be trashy but I’ll really enjoy it. And there have been some great ones recently – The Witch, Babadook, It Follows, 10 Cloverfield Lane. I’ve seen some great ones this year that I’ve really enjoyed.

So what’s next?

I’m probably going to Chicago to film a big science fiction movie in February/March time, so at the moment I’m just relaxing, which is great. Then hopefully back to Chicago for season 2…

And what can we expect coming up now?

Episode 10 is just horror heaven; Jeremy’s written an incredible piece of horror television. It takes no prisoners as well. It’s action-packed – it’s fantastic. I can’t wait until it’s unleashed, it’s a really great episode of horror TV and a fantastic Exorcist episode and truly ensemble in every way. Really great – and really surprising as well.

Thanks to Erin Moody, Gary Mantoosh and Caroline Johnson for their help in arranging this interview

The Exorcist continues on Fridays at 9 on FOX in the US, and on Syfy UK on Wednesdays at 10.