Joseph Morgan chatted with Complex Pop Culture about playing the villain and mentions a crazy fan moment!
You brought up not wanting to stay around for too long because the villain just becomes soft and eventually maybe even a hero. That really hasn’t happened with Klaus. He’s pretty much remained a bastard and now on your own show you’re more of an antihero than a lot of current TV shows out. What is it about Klaus that makes him such a fan-favorite?
It’s those little moments of vulnerability that we’re allowed to see of him. The writers are very good at giving me these terrible things to do then these tiny moments where you get a glimpse into his soul that makes you think he’s really not that bad. Everybody forgets the terrible things that he’s done in those moments.When I am Klaus, I keep in mind that my evil comes from the fact that I had a dysfunctional childhood, my father wasn’t my real father, my mother and my siblings rejected me so I’m striving for love and I want affection and I’m lashing out because I’m not getting it. All of these things that build the backstory for the character. When the audience is allowed to glimpse that backstory, to see Klaus as a child or young man, that allows them to sympathize with him. And to a certain extent, to justify some of the things he’s doing in the context of this fictional world.
