Recently I got to talk with Thomas Dominique. He gave us the rundown on himself and a touch of Blood Drive. So sit back and enjoy before tonight’s episode of Blood Drive airs!
HMF: What is your favorite horror movie?
TD: Errrm… I have so many. If we’re going for straight horror, I would have to say The Exorcist. When I was younger, my friend got his hands on his Dad’s copy and had a screening for about ten of us. We were like nine or ten years old. I remember it was daytime, we walked into his house with so much big talk like “yeah right, this isn’t going to be scary!”… We left his house mortified.
HMF: What was it that pulled you into the crazy world of acting?
TD: Certain films and TV shows really moved me growing up. I guess I always had a desire to tell my own stories. To me it always seemed like something other people did, It wasn’t until later that I actually decided to pursue it. I really wanted to learn how it was done from the bottom up… It’s a world where you’re constantly learning and trying to improve. You can live two lifetimes and still not learn everything there is to know about the craft.
HMF: What was it about Blood Drive that made you want to audition?
TD: The Character was a role I’d never played before, especially in the world that Blood Drive is set in. So I was going for a challenge… and I definitely got one!
HMF: Was Christopher your first choice?
TD: No, my first choice was Grace, but James Roland was just so stubborn about it. Then I said “alright I wanna play Clown dick; I’ve got some great ideas Jimmy, just roll with it!” He said “No, you’re playing Christopher Carpenter!” Then I bowed my head and solemnly agreed… Not really, that didn’t happen. Christopher was definitely my first choice. He has a lot of vulnerable qualities without being too much of one thing. Also a really interesting series arc, I definitely liked the character right away.
HMF: You obviously have great chemistry with Marama Corlett that shows through your scenes together. Do you share the same chemistry off screen between takes?
TD: Ahh I can’t stand her! (Laughter) nah, Marama’s the best! We had so much fun between takes, there was never a dull day when she was on set. She’s really funny. We sometimes would meet some of the other guys and go for dinner or a drink, and talk about all the craziness we had to do that day. All the cast had great chemistry! We would often go round to Christina Ochoa’s apartment for game nights… I’d get intense on those games man, trying to get my team or myself to win. We had a little gang which consisted of myself, Marama Corlett, Darren Kent, Andrew Hall, Colin Cunningham, Natalie Mendoza, Craig Jackson and Jenny Stead, Carel Nel and Keenan Arrison. Some of the cast lived in Johannesburg, but we’d hang out with them too whenever they were in town. Great guys like Adam Pelkowitz, Brandon Auret, and Sean Cameron Michael. Others had friends and family staying with them so they had less time to hang out, but would still come out sometimes.
HMF: How has Blood Drive been different from your other roles?
TD: Well, my character is naked quite a lot, it’s my first time doing that. Also I got to do stunt work and work with a lot of special effects, which was so much fun! There were so many contributing factors that made this role different to the others: Being in South Africa, working on a 13 episode show, being away from London for 6 months. It was a totally new experience for me.
HMF: What has been your favorite and least favorite scenes to film so far and why?
TD: I can’t pick my favorite scene cos there’s so many. But I do remember a particular scene that wasn’t too nice to shoot… It was episode 9 in the Pixie Swallow kitchen scene. It was only unpleasant because it was real Worcestershire sauce in the first few takes, and it went everywhere in my hair and ears, into my costume, down my legs… it smelt so bad! It took at least 4 showers to get the smell off. That was my least favorite part of scene, because of the sauce in my pants.
HMF: What comes next for Christopher?
TD: Christopher has a very interesting little journey coming up, I don’t want to spoil it for your readers and the Bleeders. If you didn’t know, that’s the name of our Blood Drive fans. They’re the best fans ever, I love the Bleeders!
HMF: What are we going to see in the future from Thomas Dominique?
TD: Who knows what the future holds… We’ll have to wait and see, I’m still in meetings and auditions at the moment. For the foreseeable future two friends of mine Samson Kayo and Robert Whitelock have written a play for the Soho theater in London, I’ve been involved from its inception. I’m really excited about it, it’s near completion and the script’s amazing. Other than that I take it one day at a time… Stay focused, work hard and pray I stay blessed.
Thanks again to Thomas for taking time out of his schedule to speak with us. As always you can catch Blood Drive on SyFy Wednesday nights at 10 PM Eastern.