I think that there’s different ways, and different reasons for eating people. Eating the rude is one thing. Eating your loved ones is a different thing."
Do you remember the moment that it seemed clear that Hannibal was evolving in that way?
To be frank I think we had it from the very beginning, because I do remember vividly a few of the critics were like, “Where’s the evil Hannibal? Where’s the madman?” You know, the first couple of episodes. That was quite deliberate. We did not want him to be the madman from the very beginning, simply because he was surrounded by cops, and good cops, really good cops, and if Hannibal was winking to the audience from the start I’m sure that the cops would spot that as well, right? So we needed him to be normal right from the very beginning and then slowly be comfortable enough to show us, especially in his private moments, who he also is.
I’ve talked to actors from this show who have gained a lot of insight from Thomas Harris’s novels. Were you working from those as well, or were you trying to create your own entity?
Well, I read them obviously, and I’ve read them a couple of times. His novels are super good and very interesting and very inspiring, but they’re also jumping around back and forth in time so they’re a little tricky to figure out exactly. Some of it is work that he has been asked to do, and not necessarily something that he wanted to do from the very beginning. So it does hold that picture as well.
But there are definitely inspiring things in there, and things we could use. I know that Bryan has been very inspired by it but I, in general, my focus is on the script. What Bryan delivers, that is what we do. We do our show, called Hannibal, based on Harris’s books, but it’s also a free interpretation that goes on in Bryan’s head.
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