Adam Copeland (Edge)
Posted: August 12, 2011
_
Lilja: As with some of the other actors of Haven I call Adam during his lunch break and it hits me how generous they have all been to take time of from their lunches to talk to me.So, your guest staring on Haven, what is that like?
Adam Copeland: It's been a lot of fun; it's been a good experience, because the acting thing is still relatively new to me. It's different from what I'm used to so it's a challenge. I'm filming my forth episode of this season right now and it's been a lot of fun. Thankfully, after the first episode they wrote Dwight as a reoccurring character so I hope to be back next season as well.
Lilja: So the plan was for you to just be in one episode at first?
Adam Copeland: I don't know honestly [Laugh] but that's because I'm not part of the writing process so I don't know if it was written for one or multiples but after the first, that felt like it went pretty well, it just snowballed.
Lilja: How did you get the part? Did you audition...
Adam Copeland: No, I just retired from the WWE and about three days later I got a phone call from the WWE asking if I would be interested in doing a part in the show and that they were shooting up in Halifax. I said I'd definitely be interested and flow up here and walked right into the part.
Lilja: So they selected you for the part?
Adam Copeland: Yeah, I guess. When I retired my schedule opened up. Because with the WWE we're on the road 250 days a year but I have a neck injury that forced me to retire so it opened my schedule wide open.
Lilja: Are you done with the WWE now or will you show up in any other capacity?
Adam Copeland: I can't physically wrestle any more, I can no longer get cleared to wrestle so that chapter of my life is closed and as it happened this opened almost right away. And it's been a really fun experience, a new challenge. It’s something I have to get good at. I'm not good at it yet so it's fun trying to challenge myself at something relatively new.
Lilja: Do you think that in the future you'll look back at your injury as something good because it gave you a chance to act which you would otherwise not have had the time for?
Adam Copeland: I don't look at anything as good or bad per se but the amount of pain I'm in because of the injury I can't see it as good. I'm going to need another neck surgery so I can't really look at it as say ”Yeah, it was awesome!” [Laugh].
Lilja: I can understand that [laugh]
Adam Copeland: But it did free me up to do this which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise so in that perspective, yes, it's positive.
Lilja: Is this your debut as an actor?
Adam Copeland: I have done things before throughout the years but again with my schedule it was just small things. I did Mad TV and I’ve done an episode of Sanctuary that airs on Syfy in the US and just random things here and there. I have some experiences and it wasn't the first set I walked onto. Last year I also shoot a movie through WWE while also maintaining my regular schedule. That was my first real full feature (Bending the Rules [Lilja’s comment]). It was a lot of work but I'm glad I have that under my belt moving into this.
Lilja: So, do you see yourself as an actor from now on? Is this something you will continue doing?
Adam Copeland: I think I definitely will continue doing this. I don't see myself as an actor per se but perhaps as I get more experience I can see myself as an actor. Because I don't want to take anything away from the people that are proper actors but I feel more comfortable with each episode so who knows, maybe eventually I'll feel comfortable with calling myself an actor.
Lilja: What did you know about Haven before being offered the part?
Adam Copeland: Well, generally I haven't watched TV for the last 10 years, because I've been on the road, so my TV viewing has kind of been nonexistent. I know it was based on the Stephen King novella The Colorado Kid and I'm a Stephen King fan so anything with Stephen King attached to it intrigued me so I said “This should be interesting, I’d like to do that” and then the first week I got up here I got all the episodes and just sat there and watched them back to back to back… just so I know character wise who I was going to deal the most with, what their character entailed, basically just homework and watching TV is a pretty fun homework [laugh] and I really enjoyed the show which was good. It wasn’t one of those were I watch and think “Oh, what have I gotten myself into”. I found myself wanting to watch the next episode. So I thought that was a good sign. And anything that has a little bit of supernatural, for the lack of a better word, creepy feel to it, kind of a forbidding feel to it. Those are the things I’ve been drawn to as a viewer.
Lilja: Can you tell me about Dwight, what kind of a character is he?
Adam Copeland: He’s the cleanup guy. So if anything happens Dwight is the guy that behind the scenes that takes care of it. Who makes sure that no one else gets wind of it. His kind of always there, ready to act and take care of whatever needs to be taken care of for Nathan and before that for Nathan’s dad, the Chef. So he has kind of always been around Haven making sure everything on the outside looks okay.
Lilja: Have you had any reaction from your fans? I guess up till now most of your fans have been wrestling fans. Have you gotten any reaction from them about your acting career?
Adam Copeland: Well, my debut episode hasn’t aired yet (this interview was done a week prior to episode #4 where Adam makes his debut aired [Lilja’s comment]) so a lot of my fans know I have done it and are doing it and they are waiting to see how it all plays out. I know that it’s been reported on all the wrestling websites that I’m doing this so hopefully that can bring in part of a demographic that the series hasn’t had at this point. Even if they just tune in to see if I’m a bad actor [laugh] hopefully they get hocked on the show and go from there.
Lilja: Is it correct that it’s in episode four you are first seen?
Adam Copeland: Yes, that is where Dwight is first introduced.
Lilja: And that’s next week, next Friday?
Adam Copeland: Yes, as a matter of fact I’ll be back home just in time to watch it.
Lilja: Do you have much contact with your fans? Are you active on twitter or facebook?
Adam Copeland: No, I’m not. I don’t have twitter or facebook or any of that. I have kept everything generally pretty caveman in my world. I rarely email, that’s how not computer savvy I am. I like to be outdoors not inside on a computer so I’m usually out hiking with my dogs or kayaking or doing things like that when I’m not working.
Lilja: Do you think this will change now? I know a lot of the cast on Haven are active on twitter and forums like that.
Adam Copeland: On my old job there are so many of the guys that do it. Some of them are up to a million followers on twitter but I never started so I don’t think I will now. But you never know. Never say never but as of right now I’m kind of happy with how I got things set up.
Lilja: How was it to walk into a group of people who had already been working together for a season and know each other really well?
Adam Copeland: It been really good in that respect that everyone has been really supportive. Everyone has made me feel at home, which is good. I didn’t feel like the new kid coming to school and it really helped put me at ease and helped me feel comfortable in something that I’m not necessary comfortable in doing yet. It also helped that Lucas and I as we talked realized that we grow up 20 minutes from each other and we have really similar sense of humor. I thing that will actually translate onto the screen really well, how well we get along. Which is good since our characters are essentially partners.
Lilja: When I talked to Emily she said, when I asked about you, that they had told her a wrestler was coming to the set and she didn’t really know what to expect. Do you feel this happens often? That people drawing conclusions about you being a wrestler?
Adam Copeland: I think there are still misconceptions in the regular world that we’re all Neanderthals who can’t string together a sentence but within seconds of talking to me I think I dispelled all those myths. Initially when people here wrestler they go “Ah…”, but they haven’t watched it in 20 years and they don’t know what it is now. It’s transformed and it’s this world wide mega beast that’s a marketing machine and you have to be very intelligent and you have to be able to speak very well to pull it of. But if people haven’t watched it they don’t know that. So I think that initially it can be like “What’s the deal with this guy?” but there are a lot of surprises when people talk to you and they get past the wrestling part of it.
Lilja: Yeah and I think that in some cases wrestlers are staring in movies just because they are wrestlers and not because they can act. Maybe people are skeptic to wrestlers acting because of that?`
Adam Copeland: Yeah, the movie I stared in last year was because I was a wrestler and that’s where I got the experience. So, it’s one of those things that can open doors and it’s just to make sure you take advantage of that open door.
Lilja: Yeah. Are you still going by the name Edge or are you dropping that now with the wrestling part of your life and becoming Adam?
Adam Copeland: Well, I’m still on contract with the WWE and I think for Haven’s purpose that they still like to be able to use Edge just because that will make sure to draw in the WWE’s audience. Honestly I don’t know if it will be Edge or Adam Copeland or…I really don’t know. But I do know that in the trailers they have advertised me as WWE Superstar Edge and the show airs right after SmackDown in the US so I think that’s why they’ll make sure to use as much of that wrestling promotional machine as they can because one thing WWE does is advertise very well.
Lilja: And are you okay with that or would you rather be Adam?
Adam Copeland: I kind of realize it’s a necessary part of it right now so I really don’t have a preference one way or the other. It would be nice to not have the preconceived notion as a wrestler but I also understand I’m known around the world as Edge. If I go to Nicaragua they know Edge. If I go to Fiji they know Edge and if that can help with grow an audience for this show it’s going to be part of it.
Lilja: OK, thanks for taking the time to speak to me.
Adam Copeland: Thank you, nice talking to you.
