Seamus Dever is no stranger to acting. He’s been around the block, you could say, with just about every crime show on television. Though he’s done some indie film work, he’s never seemed to have been able to land a steady television job – until now. Dever joined the cast of General Hospital this year as Dr. Ian Devlin, a handsome doctor with a dark side. Soon after his arrival in Port Charles, the General Hospital viewers found out that he was connected to not only to Jerry Jacks but to the Zacchara family. On Friday’s episode, he carried out Claudia’s order to kill Sonny but mistakenly, shot his son Michael instead. Today, Seamus Dever talked to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview about the aftermath of the shooting and how it feels to finally have his feet firmly planted in daytime television.
Below, you will find the complete transcript and mp3 of the interview.
Hey everybody, this is Gina from BuddyTV, and today I’m talking to Seamus Dever, who plays Dr. Ian Devlin on General Hospital.
How are you?
I’m good. Thanks so much for doing the interview. I’m so excited to talk to you.
Oh yeah, me too.
Can you tell the BuddyTV readers a little bit about what you did before you joined the cast of General Hospital, and what other shows you’ve been on?
Oh yeah. I’ve done a lot of guest star roles around town, and I’ve done some indie films of course. I’ve done a ton of guest stars. I’ve done the CSIs, I did Close to Home before that got canceled, Cold Case, Without a Trace, and all those ones. A ton of guest star stuff.
Yeah, you do a lot of crime shows.
Yeah, yeah. Usually it’s me in trouble, like I’m the last guy who had sex with the woman who’s now dead. Occasionally I do get to play things like lawyers, and doctors of course, and it’s always fun to kind of play good guys for a change.
Well your character on General Hospital is certainly interesting. How did you end up becoming part of this show?
I had actually tested. I’m kind of one of these actors who has been around a long time, and have made fans out there, a lot of casting people and producers. The story of my life is that I’m generally the second choice for things. I tested for something for General Hospital like five — no, four years ago now. I came very close and everyone loved me, just not for the part, but they loved me. I hear that a lot. “You’re great, but not for this part.” And so they kind of kept me in mind, and this part came up for Ian Devlin. They had written it, and Mark Teschner, the casting director told me that they’re like, “You know who would be great for this? Seamus.” And he’s like, “You better just offer it to him. Don’t even make him audition for it.” So that’s what they did.
Here’s my main question about Ian: I’m wondering how a renowned doctor is also a trained assassin?
I have been wondering that myself. Well, they’re both good with their hands. They have to have good eyesight and patience. There’s a lot of parallels between being a doctor, particularly a surgeon, and an assassin. Both need precision timing. It surprised me, it threw me for a loop when I read that. I was like, “What, wait a minute. I’m gonna kill Sonny? Wait a minute, how did this happen?” I’d like to know a definite answer too.
The character who’s going to take out Sonny must ruffle the feathers of the General Hospital fans. Have you read the fan reactions to Ian online at all?
I confess I do, only because I’ve never been on a show where I get that kind of instantaneous feedback. I do a lot of theater, so you get the feedback from the critics, and with any kind of criticism you have to take the good and you have to take the bad. There’s a bunch of good Ian criticism out there, and there’s a bunch of bad Ian criticism out there. And then the fact that the child’s involved. I think there’s going to be something that kind of comes out with a child being involved, something in Ian’s past where it’s just instant regret. Something involving a child, I think that’s all I can say.
Yeah, I was just going to ask if you can give us any details about the fallout of the shooting that took place on Friday.
Well, it’s gonna be big. Everyone is all of a sudden hunting for whoever did this, and they don’t give up. They hunt. I think that’s all I can say without getting fired, but yeah, there’s going to be some big fallout because all of a sudden I’m the secret bad guy. It seems like a lot of people, I think you’ll probably find out this week, start turning against me. It becomes desperate times for Dr. Ian Devlin.
We’ve definitely seen your softer side at the hospital when you were taking care of Sam. Do you like playing a character that has so many layers and so many sides to him?
Oh of course, because you can always find something to play against. I think it’s a mistake for any actor to always play the villain. Those days of acting are gone. I don’t know when they disappeared, like the 1930s, where bad guys would always wear a mustache and go “Hahahahaha” a lot. It’s always interesting to play different layers, because there’s conflicts within these choices to do bad things, and that shows conscience. That shows that my character has some regret towards doing those things. It’s never completely bad, it’s never completely good, and there are shades in between. I think people are kind of like that. I think playing the hero all the time must be incredibly boring, because it’s just do the right thing, do the right thing, and what’s more interesting is finding the hero that’s conflicted, or finding the bad guy who wants to do good. There’s always so much to play there, and certainly a lot of things from my own past that we can dig up and use for those characters, so yeah, of course.
There’s a lot of death in Port Charles, so can we expect Ian to be hanging around for a while?
I hope so, I like playing him. One of the things that I’ve always been playing from the beginning is that there’s a good side to him no matter what. No matter the weird stuff he’s doing and all those things, there’s always a good side. I like to hang on to that little secret that’s inside. So I hope so. I hope Ian will be around for a while, in whatever incarnation.
I hope so too. I just wanted to thank you for your time. I’m a big fan of the show, and a fan of yours too.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
– Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
