CinemaSpy: The Wraith character must be a fun character to play because of the way it is written and you get to wear that fantastic make-up.

Christopher Heyerdahl: [laughs] It's a lot of fun. It really is a lot of fun. I never thought I would be doing something like that and it's a blast. And it certainly has come out of my desire to want to spend more time in Vancouver, which I've done a lot in the last five years. That character has really been surprising because when I first walked in to do that, certainly that was not what was on the table was a fully fleshed out character. And to have that come to an extreme reality, it's great. I mean, they've really taken hold and wanted to make that wonderful character of what they call Todd into this fully fleshed-out creature. He's not just this evil guy that hisses a lot. He's a force to be reckoned with and that's a lot of fun to play.

CinemaSpy: What other characters apart from John Druitt and Todd stand out for you in your career?

Christopher Heyerdahl: There have been so many. I have been pretty lucky. I would say that H.P. Lovecraft [in Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft] was a big love of mine. Playing Charles Dickens [The Ghosts of Dickens' Past] was a great role. Playing Jim Ebbets in Into the West — a Spielberg mini-series I did — was a really wonderful character to play. I think really also anything I've done with Erik Canuel. He's someone who is an incredible Canadian filmmaker. I've worked with him I think about five times and I have been able to play some amazing roles with him. When I did La Loi du cochon, The Pig's Law, [I played] this bizarre character that basically ran the drug trade in Montreal out of a meat truck. A refrigerated meat truck. So when you get given that world to live in, you're imagination runs wild and you just have an absolute blast. So there's been so many characters that I've had the chance to play. Those ones come to mind.

CinemaSpy: You have a role in an upcoming film called Cadavres that is coming out in Canada at about the time that Sanctuary premieres. Can you tell us a little bit about that film and the character you play?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Well that's actually another Erik Canuel film and it's a wild world to try to describe. Basically it's this twisted—really I want to say f***ed up but I'm not sure if you can write that down. [It's the] world of this brother and sister, and their mother has died or been killed, and the sister has to come back to this tiny little town outside of Montreal and deal with this world that she has done everything she can to stay away from. And she gets drawn into this world of wild crazy characters. The part that I play is one of these extremely delicious characters that live in this little town. And I work with my other character — it's Marie Brassard, who is an amazing Quebecois actress and great creator [who] plays all over the world — and the two of us are these aged punks who are incredibly naive and so full of a childlike vision of the world, which counters the hero and heroine [and] their rather jaded and beaten down vision of the world. So we represent these wonderful, playful, naive, innocent characters in this extremely violent and tragic world. It's called Cadavres because by the end of it...It's like a Jacobean comic tragedy: it's incredibly funny, very bloody and twisted [and] pretty much everyone in the end of it is underground. [laughs] It's quite demented and a hilarious black comedy. It's great.

CinemaSpy: It sounds like you are committed to maintaining your Canadian identity by mixing roles in productions that are ostensibly out of the United States — even though they might be filmed in Canada — like Stargate, with parts in independent Canadian productions like Cadavres and Sanctuary. Would that be a fair comment?

Christopher Heyerdahl: Absolutely. I'm perpetually contributing to the destruction of the environment by getting on the plane so often. I fly back and forth to Montreal as often as I can to be a part of the Quebecois film and television and theatre industry. It's something that I'm extremely passionate about. And anything that I can get involved with here in Vancouver or Toronto. It's important to support our own. Having the United States just to the south of us is a wonderful thing. It's been a great opportunity for everyone since, I would say, the mid-80s, when we started to become Hollywood North. Everyone had the opportunity to be trained to be a great crewmember, to be a great creator, to be filmmakers. As actors we've had a little bit harder of a time to have more than just a day-playing part in any major American pieces that come up here, but slowly over the years the American producers have realized that, "Well why wait until they come down to the States? Why don't we take advantage of this great pool of talent while they're still in Canada. We don't have to hire somebody because they become a huge star down in the States. And oh, they're Canadian as well. Look at this huge amount of Canadian stars we have down here." They realized eventually that there was a huge pool here and now we're able to take advantage of that. And because of that, now we have this amazing pool of crewmembers to draw from that are so talented and so well trained because of all the opportunities we've had internationally. And the same thing with a wonderful group of actors, so that now we have the opportunity — and Sanctuary is a prime example — where we can produce top quality, ground-breaking television and film right here in our own front yard. So it's an amazing thing to be a part of. It is the rarest of the rare. And hopefully — not hopefully, I have no doubt — it is the wave of the future.

CinemaSpy: For my last question, I'd like to go back to John Druitt. There's a lot of election talk in the United States and Canada right now. If Druitt were running for office, what would his main policies be?

Christopher Heyerdahl: [laughs] Oh, it would depend on which day you caught him. As I said, he has his psychotic tendencies. Well I think he would probably...He wouldn't be voting for Obama, I'll tell you that. [laughs] He's a conservative through and through, I have no doubt. I have no doubt. So you can let that be the answer right there.

Sanctuary is produced by the Vancouver-based company Stage 3 Media in association with SCI FI Channel. It debuts in Canada and the United States on Friday, October 3. In Canada the series will be shown on Movie Central at 8pm PT and on The Movie Network at 9pm ET. The series will air on SCI FI Channel in the US, premiering at 9/8C. In the UK, Sanctuary will be broadcast by ITV, starting Monday, October 6.