We chat to Bryan Fuller about Hannibal, emulsifying human eyeballs, Lucifer, and elegant vs. exploitation horror…
I have a confession to make.
Its a symbolic meeting of his past and present work.
More importantly, its something to chat about in that awkward taking-off-your-coat-and-choosing-a-chair bit of any interview.
We need more time, he says.
Its his fault, he had to take a phone call.
I mouth Thank you, Fuller wrinkles his nose sweetly, mouths Thats fine, and keeps talking.
Bryan Fuller everybody: Gentleman.
You were talking about negotiating with MGM about the use of some Thomas Harris characters forHannibal?
Exactly, Jame Gumb.
We went to MGM and asked Can we use this character?
And you dont have Clarice Starling?
Fortunately for us, Clarice wasnt the only foil for Hannibal Lecter.
He had Will Graham first.
For whom you have Hugh Dancy
The wonderful Hugh Dancy.
Have you seen it yet?
I watched the first episode this morning.
Thatll put you off your breakfast.
[Laughs] Oh yes!
I thought it was terrific, Im so looking forward to watching the rest.
How did it come about that NBC skipped the pilot-stage and went straight to a thirteen-episode order?
And they said Because well let you tell the story that you want to tell.
As you say, its elegant horror
Yes.
Inelegant, rape, pathology slab…
Where its just raw.
We wont tell a rape story onHannibal.
If its too real its no fun for me.
If its too real, then its not as much fun.
The visuals youve created are remarkable.
It was about finding directors who I knew had that visual style.
David Slade of course, who directed the pilot and set the paradigm for the show is very important.
That aesthetic is quite different from the visual style of much of your past work.
Yeah, the whole show is a departure, in some ways.
Well, its a different genre.
Which I thought would be really fun to do.
There are other connections too, and not just the recasting of Fullerverse characters.
Your leads seem disconnected from the rest of the world, they often have a strong affinity with animals.
Theres an interesting parallel here isnt there, between carnivorism in general and cannibalism.
Which is one of the reasons I loved working with Jose Andres, the chef whos our culinary consultant.
I was like, What could you eat on a human being?
He was like, You could eat everything.
[Laughs] Right!
and he was like Oh sure, it comes up.
Changing the subject to something slightly less gruesome, can we talk about Twitter?
You live tweeted the first episode ofHannibalas it went out in the US?
I mean, its hard to deny that Twitter exists.
Do you use the block button?
[a motto of Lecters is Eat the rude]
Ha!
I want that on a t-shirt.
The psychological profile, I read that.
How did that come about?
Well, originally the role was written for a much older woman.
Thats a mash-up and a half!
How much has she figured out?
How much is she in danger?
Another role thats traditionally taken by a much older actress.
Yeah, he had that choice.
He gets to be more than the villain inHannibal, he gets to be a really dimensionalised character.
He wanted to play Hannibal as Lucifer and I loved that.
So I thought that was a really great angle into the show that I hadnt seen before.
Yeah, but we dont have to play any of it, we just suggest it with the storyline.
[Shows me the image]
Oh wow.
Its a little bit of Korean legend.
We have a very distinct visual style.
Thats a David Slade image.
[I cant tell you what Im looking at, but its strong, beautiful, otherworldly.
Fuller is obviously proud to bits of Hannibal, and with very good reason.]
[Whispers conspiratorially] Thats actually from the finale.
So, good stuff coming up!
Bryan Fuller, thank you very much!
