(Editor’s note: This interview contains spoilers from episode 1×05, “Triage”. Proceed at your own risk.)
A few weeks ago, we had the incredible privilege of sitting down with the one and only Steven Ogg, who plays Blaine Able in SYFY’s original series, Revival. This was, without a doubt, one of my favorite interviews to date! Chatting with Steven and diving into his experience with this stunning adaptation of the graphic novel was an absolute delight.
Without further ado, enjoy the interview! And don’t miss Revival, airing Thursday nights at 10:00 PM EST/9:00 PM CST exclusively on SYFY. Can’t watch live? Catch it the next day on Peacock.
**Below is the audio transcript from the interview:**
Stay 2uned: How did you learn about Revival?
Steven Ogg: “Aaron, wonderful and lovely Aaron Kuntz, had reached out to me with a letter. Now, this was not carried by a pigeon. It was not delivered to the home, old school. Which maybe I should have started telling that story.
Like, it would have been so cool to open up a good old-fashioned. But it was a letter that he wrote basically explaining this passion project that he has, that he’s developing with Luke. And there’s a character that he thought I would be wonderful for. And it’s always been a dream to work with me and all of that kind of wonderful, beautiful things that brought me to tears reading it just because it was such a wonderful, generous letter.
And imbued with such passion for a project that I then spoke with him and we set up a meeting. He went over it and discussed this character of Blaine Abel being like a son of a preacher man in a small town. And this revival, dead people come to life and that he believes this is a holy war because he wants to rid them. And he speaks in verse, and he does all this. I was like, yep, sounds good. I’m in.
And then you work out the details.”
Stay 2uned: Did you read the comic before you joined the show?
Steven Ogg: “I didn’t. I’ve never been a graphic novel reader. I like Snowpiercer, The Walking Dead. I’ve done shows that have all come from based on graphic novels. It’s just I love to read like copious amounts. But graphic novels, I’ve never like even as a kid. I just was never a comic book reader.”
So, it’s just not something that I resonate with. I look at them, flip through them to get a sense of the world or if there’s something specific or if I’m told to check out something.
But certainly, with Blaine, the character was from the get-go going to be different than what appeared in the comic, the graphic novel. So, you know, what I did see of them, and I was like, oh, is this what we’re doing? And they’re like, no, no, no, we’re not doing this. So, there wasn’t for me, aside from getting a sense of the world, everything else comes from the pages and the scripts that were written.”
Stay 2uned: How would you describe Blaine Abel?
Steven Ogg: “Oh, handsome, beautiful hair, flowing, luscious locks. Blaine is a man of conviction, you know. I mean, he gets this when revival day happens, it really puts him, for better and for worse on a very straight path in his life. Grown up with a preacher as a father and rebelled against that.
Then small town, doing all sorts of jobs, you know, he’s junkyard, he’s refurbishing engines, he’s mechanic, he’s doing this, he’s doing that, he’s got a radio show. You know, he’s just kind of existing. The revival day gives him a very clear mission and message for his life. And that is to save people, save the town, save people’s souls by ridding them of these revivers, which he considers to be the devil’s children. So that’s his mission.”
Stay 2uned: What’s been your favorite episode so far this season?
Steven Ogg: “There’s a wonderful, I get to address a congregation with both a hymn. I lead a hymn, which I have never done before. So that was very exciting. And then there’s a great sort of a sermon and a beautiful shot. It’s just this slow, gorgeous push in on Blaine in the church that I think looks stunning.
There’s like candles and it is a beautiful shot. But then I also love what Blaine is, his presence in that, I think, is that’s when he really becomes this sort of, to him, this big deity-likeguy, which was fun. And I’m not sure what number that one is.”
Stay 2uned: What can fans expect this season on Revival?
Steven Ogg: “I mean, I think, you know, as far as Blaine goes, he just I think gets bigger and bigger, sort of his presence. And that means not necessarily screen time presence. That just means I think he grows as his followers grow.
So, there’s obviously a lot more that’s going to be happening with everyone, with all these characters sort of vying for their own way out of this mess that they’re in.
I think it’s, you know, you get more of the characters. You get to find out more about the characters and what drives them and what’s happened and what they’re going to do.”
Stay 2uned : That’s pretty much it. Is there anything that you can tease for this upcoming episode that’s not really a tease for fans? For episode three coming up.
Steven Ogg: “Watch Blaine’s hair.”
Stay 2uned: OK, I’ll have to go back and rewatch that. Now I’m curious.
Steven Ogg: “I always thought I should have a little Beyonce blowing. There’s always it just kind of every so often it just gets a little bounce. And I thought that would be kind of cool if Blaine’s hair just has a wee bit of bounce. There’s always a bit of wind blowing through Blaine’s locks.”
We hope that you enjoyed this interview as much as we have! Once more, we would like to thank Mr. Steven Ogg (Blaine Abel) and the amazing people over at Syfy for arranging this for us.
Watch Revival Thursday night’s at 10:00 PM EST / 9:00 PM CST only on Syfy- next day on Peacock.