Shadowhunters' Luke Baines claims 'normal, mundane relationships' separate 'A Dark Place's Alex from Jonathan
'Shadowhunters' fans aka the Shadow-fam might not be ready to get over season 3B's big bad guy - Jonathan Morgenstern - any time soon and for that we have Luke Baines' very compelling performance as the evil reincarnate to thank.
But for all your Shadow withdrawals that might have kicked in ever since the Freeform show culminated this summer, Baines has a new surprise in store, which is just as dark, twisted, and mysterious as his turn as Jonathan. His character in the upcoming thriller 'A Dark Place', Alex, might superficially seem similar to the infamous Jonathan who terrorized the shadow realm, but here's the catch: despite all similarities, Jonathan and Alex couldn't be more apart, the main difference lying in the humanity in their characters, Baines has revealed.
"I just loved that it was so invested in human relationships," the actor recently revealed in an exclusive interview with MEA Worldwide. Discussing his upcoming role in 'A Dark Place', and noting how it is once again a not-so-squeaky clean character like the ones he has played in the past, Baines revealed it is the 'mundane' nature of relationships that the film explores through Alex, which drew him to it.
"A lot of the work that I've done (prior) was in horror and I didn't really get a chance to actually focus on just those normal mundane relationships," the 29-year-old Australian actor remarked, quickly adding that: "Obviously, it does have a quite dark element to it. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be in it." But all quips aside, "It had something that I could really work (with) and use my real-life stuff for and that was really nice," admits Baines.
Having worked in the horror genre mostly, Baines' role in 'Shadowhunters' was somehow the most, pure evil character he has portrayed. As the son of Lilith the Queen of Hell, there's no doubt that he comes with the powers of all things destructive, and while Jonathan - childhood trauma and abandonment issues aside - was sinister to the core, Baines' Alex is somehow similar to the character.
"What's really interesting, as a parallel between (Alex and) Jonathan is the fact that they both have this situation that they can't get out of, in a way. Alex is really on the back foot the moment that you meet him in the film... he can't get a job. He's trying to repair his relationship. He's trying to maintain his friendships and it feels like there's nothing really that he can do to advance and get forward. I felt the same way playing Jonathan; has this scorpion situation where he can't help but sting people because of his nature and so there is definitely a tie into that."
The only and biggest thing separating the two characters was their perspective as a human, in case of Alex, and as a demon, as was Jonathan's situation.
"I think with 'A Dark Place' it was much more about the choices that you know, a human would make as opposed to half-demon." And these choices are in terms of all things that spiral a downfall in life, especially drugs. As Alex's life starts revolving more and more around drugs, Baines would, however, note that his prime mission was to do a good job at playing out the harrowing adversities Alex was afflicted by.
"The drugs were scary if I'm honest because it's so scary to put that on film and try and do it well. I wanted to be able to explore that as an actor, but also at the same time I was so scared to do that and not do it."