I had the pleasure of talking with actor Ricky Worthy who you may recognize him from one of his many roles including ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’,’Stargate SG-1′, ‘The Magnificent Seven’ (1998 TV series) , ‘The Vampire Diaries’, ‘Heroes’, ‘NCIS’, ‘Fallen’, ‘The Man in the Highcastle ‘, and his role as the “Alpha Vampire”, the first vampire in creation, in ‘Supernatural’.
Worthy now stars as Dean Fogg in the hit Syfy series ‘The Magicians’ which follows a group of students recruited to a secretive academy. The students discover that the magic they read about as children is very real and more dangerous than they have ever imagined.
Today, we talked about his role as Dean of the Brakebills University, a secret school of magic, where the best of the best hone their skills and learn to be more powerful magicians. As season two prepares to premiere, Worthy gives us insight into his character and the new season.
Photo Credit: The Magicians/ Jason Bell
Horror Fuel: “What drew you to the theater, where you got your start?”
RW: “I was drawn to the theater when I was around 20 year old. I thought about coming to Hollywood first, diving into to TV or film. I really wanted to do television, movies as well, but really TV. I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine and she pointed out that some of the best actors out there all come from the theater. Running down the list of people I love like Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, people of that level. I studied theater in collage, also cinema, and a bit of television. That’s really how I started in theater.”
Horror Fuel: “You’ve played so many fantastic roles, did any of them help prepare you for your role as Dean Fogg in Syfy’s The Magicians?”
RW: “I was seriously just thinking about that. I’m in New York. We’ve been doing a lot of promos and interviewing for Magicians. There have been a lot of journalists in town. There is an amazing building in Brooklyn, it has been specially designed for Magicians. You can go in and go into all these different rooms and do all these really cool things like levitate. It’s called “The Hall of Magic”. I was thinking, ‘Man, how did I end up on this amazing show? What other roles have I done that have been similar to Fogg.” I have to say, there is one role that is sort of similar to Dean Fogg, I don’t know if you watch the show Supernatural, I played the Alpha Vampire. He’s the first ever vampire in the history of the whole world. He’s really, really ancient and powerful. He’s been around since the beginning of human life, something like 200,000 thousand years. He also wears pretty cool suits [laughter], similar to Dean Fogg.”
Horror Fuel: “I never miss an episode.”
RW: “Oh, thank you.”
Photo Credit: The CW/Supernatural/Jeff Weddell
Horror Fuel: “Can you tell us a little about Dean Fogg’s background?”
RW: “He’s a pretty interesting guy. He’s a self taught magician. He did not really learn from anyone, he may have had a mentor at some point, but he learned when he was very, very young. I believe he began at the age of four. He taught himself how do magic, probably not super, super advanced magic, some very basic but very powerful spells. He is the epitome of Brakebills University. He’s the boss. He selects who comes there and who doesn’t. I just feel blessed by God to be able to play this character. I really love him a lot.
He was supposed to die in the pilot, but when we finished shooting the pilot, Sera Gamble and John McNamara, the showrunners, asked me if I was interested in sticking around and I said, ‘yeah’. The said, ‘We’ll figure something out. Stay close, we will be in touch.’ They decided to write some episodes for me and they found a way to bring me back. I can see with the aid of the sunglasses I wear, but just a tiny little bit, maybe enough to see the outline of a face. But so far it’s been working.”
Photo Credit: Syfy/The Magicianst
Horror Fuel: “What is it like to work within a world of magic?”
RW: “It’s fun, but it’s not always fun. It takes a lot of work, to cast a spell the right way, the finger tutting. It has to be done precisely the right way, other wise it’s not going to work. I’ll give you a really good example of that. I was addicted with learning magic. Off set I would go and look online for magic tricks that I could do to impress my family and friends. I was able to learn about six or seven tricks, five of them really well. One was magically making a balloon pop at will. If I said ‘pop’ the balloon would pop. It freaked people out [laughter]. It took a lot of work to get it right. Practice, practice, practice and more practice, to get the illusion of magic. It was a lot of routing work over and over again, and the same thing for the TV show. The students just study, study, study, read, read, read, practice the finger tutting all day. Finally, they get it. It’s similar in that regard, I guess. It’s just not easy. It’s like a life lesson, you have to work hard for what you want.”
Horror Fuel: “What can viewers expect from season two?”
RW: “Season two will be a lot of Fillory. The students will be there doing things that are literally out of this world. There are Gods, and monsters, the White Lady, centaurs, stuff of imagination in the highest level. I think that you will see stuff in season two that will really be awesome. What ever happens in Fillory happens at Brakebills. The students will have to grow up really fast. There will be a lot of things happening that they will quickly have to adjust to. I’ve seen eight of the twelve episodes and honestly, they are amazing. Season two, I think, is even better than season one. For the last four episodes I think I’ll wait and be a spectator. I download all the episodes to my phone so that I can watch them when ever I want. Isn’t technology something?”
Horror Fuel: “Will Dean Fogg be able to help the students in Fillory?”
Well, he is still the Dean. He is still the oldest and most powerful magician, but the magic he knows is Brakebillian magic. The students know Brakebillian magic, but they also know about Fillorian magic too. The Dean doesn’t know that world. I think you’ll find him struggling, sort of taking a back seat and maybe learning from them. For the Dean that will be a very humbling experience. He is used to being the alpha dog, the lead in terms of being a professor of magic. It’s an alien world for the Dean, I think he dreams of going there one day, hopefully we will see him there.
In case you missed season one, here is a recap, courtesy of the Syfy Channel.
Season two of ‘The Magicians’ will premiere on Wednesday, January 25th at 9/8c on Syfy. Be sure not to miss it. ‘The Magicians’ is a fantastic, rich series filled with action, drama, and of course, magic. It brings a world of fantasy to life in the most interesting ways. Keep an eye out for Ricky Worthy’s character Dean Fogg, who will try to help the students save magic before it’s too late.
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