“Motherland: Fort Salem” Exclusive: Thomas Nicholson Discusses Playing a Bad Guy & Working With Demetria McKinney
“These people — they’re on another level. The Camarilla, they take care of their own.” – Shane
In the latest episode of Freeform’s Motherland: Fort Salem, Anacostia and Scylla attend a Halloween Gala in search of the higher up of the Camarilla. The two witches, undercover as Amelia and Justine, make the horrifying discovery that the Camarilla will be reinstating the long-held ritual performed by their ancestors on all hallows eve: the offering of a young witch to kill.
Before the terrified Tiffany is stoned to death by the masked onlookers, Anacostia heads to the breaker room to shut off all the electricity in the building, to deactivate scramblers that are preventing her unlikely partner Scylla to use her vocal magic. Just before she gets to chance to pull the lever, however, she runs once again into Jack Orsatti, the strategic and meticulous recruiter for the Camarilla organization.
In an exclusive interview with PopWire, Thomas Nicholson, the Canadian/Danish actor who brings Orsatti to life, discusses his “bad guy” character and the big fight scene with Sergeant Quartermain.
“I enjoy playing characters who do things I don’t do myself off camera,” Nicholson says of playing a villain. “It’s exciting to explore different sides of myself. I have so much respect for the actors I got to work with on Motherland: Fort Salem, and that makes it even more fun to try to create a character the audience can love to hate – because the more you hate Jack Orsatti, the better the heroines that fight him look.”
As part of the Camarilla, its members are aware that the Spree kills normal people and goes after their American institutions (malls, ball fields, restaurants, etc.), but the organization doesn’t just want to destroy the Spree, they want to eliminate all witches.
“What [Jack] does and stands for is terrible – but he doesn’t think he’s a bad guy himself,” Nicholson says. “It’s my job to try to understand why he does what he does and embody that. He believes witches are born evil and therefore should be eradicated. To an extent, ‘good guy’ and ‘bad guy’ is a matter of perspective.
“Scylla is one of the most beloved characters on the show and yet she murdered hundreds of innocent civilians in a mall,” he explains. “She has probably killed many more innocents than Orsatti, but through the perspective of the show, we get some sense of empathy with her.”
The last time Jack Orsatti came face to face with Anacostia (Demetria McKinney), she stunned him with a giant taser up against his car. “Wanna know who we are, Camarilla?” she asks Jack. “[In Mothertongue] We are the enemy.” In the breaker room, the two settle their unfinished business in an epic fight battle.
RELATED | “I love doing physical scenes, fight scenes included,” he says. “It’s such an adrenaline rush. We had already rehearsed it thoroughly [the day before for about two hours] so we knew what we were doing. And then for certain parts, our stunt doubles would step in and do the dangerous stuff that makes us actors look great.
“Stunt coordinator Ernest Jackson and our stunt doubles Brandon Calvert and Chelsea Jackson had built the choreography, which we then learned step by step and in slow motion, kind of as you would a dance,” he continues. “We tweaked a few things here and there so that Demetria and I were better able to make it look real, and then we just kept repeating and gradually speeding things up until we felt good and safe at full speed.”
Working with his sparring partner in this scene, the actor says he had a blast. “Demetria is great!” Thomas Nicholson exclaims. “She’s just as badass as Anacostia but she’s also very funny. I had fun teasing her on set but she’s witty and whip-smart so she got me back plenty. Trust is so important especially in fight scenes where people can get hurt, but I never felt unsafe with Demetria. She’s a pro through and through.”
Motherland: Fort Salem airs Tuesdays at 10pm on Freeform.