CinemaSpy: I visited Stage 3 Media's production facility in Gastown when the first webisode was about to debut. It was an ambitious project being made in a small facility by a small independent team and there was a sense of family about the whole enterprise. Sanctuary was that rarest of animals: a big budget Canadian science fiction fantasy. Even though it has been picked up by the SCI FI Channel, a branch of NBC, does that same dynamic still exist?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Absolutely. Nothing has really changed on set as far as the feel and the vibe of what's going on on the floor. We're all still so passionate about the stories that we're trying to tell and the world that we're trying to create. It's exciting stuff because, as you say, it is the rarest of the rare. This just does not happen in Canada. This level of production has really never been seen in this way. It's financed really by a local Vancouver company, they've come through, The Beedie Group has come through, with huge support to make it happen from the ground up and everyone comes in 100% every day. We're going incredibly long hours and we did one episode towards the end that was all nights, all guerrilla shot in a warehouse. It really puts a stress and a strain and it's a test, and we really find out who we are when we're pushed to our limits. And the crew and the cast and the producers and the directors have been pushed to their limits and are being pushed to their limits. And they're still coming through every day with smiles and playing around and goofing off, and that playful quality is still there. I'm not sure if I've actually seen that anywhere else.

CinemaSpy: How much input do you have into the character of John Druitt?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well, let's say I always have the last word on camera. [laughs] Druitt is Damian Kindler's creation, and he's taken a character from history — he's taken a number of characters from history — in the stories of Sanctuary, and this one he's brought quite a unique voice to. So when I pick up the scripts that Damian has written and Sam Egan has come in and is doing an amazing job of bringing a voice to Druitt, it's all there. The substance is already there. So I get to put the icing on the cake, or perhaps I should say the sauce on top of the meatloaf. The substance is already there. There's just so much there. So I'm able to come in with...If I see something that I want to go a certain direction, something that I see between the lines, I can bring that to it. And they're very, very open. It's not like we're dealing with some writers and a studio that are a four-hour flight away. They're right there, upstairs or on the floor, ready to tweak and play with the situation if they feel that my good instincts are in the same ballpark as where they're wanting to go. So there's a lot of creative co-operation going on, on the fly.

CinemaSpy: Are there any ways you can talk about, without giving too much away, in which your character has changed from what was envisaged for the webisodes?

Christopher Heyerdahl: He's essentially the same character. The difference really is that we have a 13 episode arc to deal with now, so we learn so much more about him. There's much more opportunity to explore. The webisodes were really just setting him up. This is who this guy is in a broad stroke. Now, over the 13 episodes, when we see him come and go, we see a much larger journey and we see plenty more opportunities to flesh him out as a human being as opposed to the bad guy. So nothing really has changed as much as we just get to see more of him.

CinemaSpy: In both Sanctuary and the recurring role you have played as a Wraith in Stargate Atlantis, these are characters who are more than just stereotypical bad guys. How do you approach those roles where you have to get under the skin of a dark character and find something that the audience can empathize with?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well, the beginning is always the script and the writers have to allow the fact that the character is going to be more than paper thin and the classic bad guy. So that's already inherent in the script. Then for me it's a question of bringing in the humanity and the struggle and the conflict. With a character like John Druitt, he has been around for over 150 years. He has great gifts and great curses and has to survive with them. And I think that for anyone with psychotic tendencies who is conscious of those psychotic tendencies, it's a haunted life. And so my job is to bring the truthfulness of somebody with psychotic tendencies, and not just...they're not just perpetually and constantly evil. They do some very bad things, but when they're not doing bad things, when John Druitt is not doing extremely questionable acts, he's struggling to be a human being. And that's what I try to bring to every moment that I'm on the screen with him. I try to bring in all those times when he is struggling to do the right thing. Struggling to love, to learn, to grow, to be a contributing part of humanity but at the same time dealing with his own mental illness.