By Christina Radish

Christopher Egan at the NBC Press Tour All-Star Party held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. on July 20, 2008.

King Silas Benjamin (Ian McShane) is the well-entrenched king of Gilboa, whose flag bears a divine butterfly symbol. Gilboa has its capital in Shiloh, a clean new city that is unspoiled by time or litter. Silas must deal with the tensions rising between Gilboa and neighboring nation Gath. When several prisoners of war are taken, a young soldier, David Shepard (Christopher Egan), defies orders and crosses enemy lines to save them. Unknown to David, the soldier he saves is Jack Benjamin (Sebastian Stan), the son of the king. From that day forth, David’s life will never be the same.

Aussie actor Christopher Egan, known to audiences as the star of Eragon, spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about this new David and Goliath story.

MediaBlvd Magazine> What attracted you to this character?

Christopher Egan> Growing up, I was always interested in the story of David. I heard the story in church and I was always very inspired by the story. It was always a dream to play David, but I imagined it as a period piece, like a swords and sandals piece. But then, when I heard that Michael Green had translated it into a modern day world, I was very interested to see how that would read. I was very inspired by the character, and to see a story like this come to life, so I was happy to go for it.

MediaBlvd> These characters are future kings?

Chris> They’re potential kings. My character, David, is a potential king, and Sebastian’s character is a potential king.

MediaBlvd> Are you two revivals?

Chris> No, we’re not rivals. We’re both from completely different worlds, but he does eventually take me under his wing.

MediaBlvd> You’re a soldier working for Ian McShane’s army, and they’re captured by a different country?

Chris> Yeah. If you imagine American and Canada, and we were at war with Canada, that’s what it’s like. It is the border, and we are at constant war with them. I’m right on the edge of the border and I’m not allowed to cross. I go out and bring them back.

MediaBlvd> Your character has a romance with the daughter of the king (played by Allison Miller). Is that something he approves of, or not?

Chris> He kind of approves of it. I save his son, so he says to me, “Whatever you want, you tell me and I’ll give it to you.” But, of course, there’s going to be complications with that. She’s from the royal family. He’s from a small farm town and he’s never seen royalty before. This whole world is brand new to him. It’s got all the great ingredients for a romance because she’s from another world than he is and it’s the middle of a battle, and he has a pretty serious loss in the pilot. All of those ingredients bring them closer together, so it’s an instant connection and one that will stay throughout the series.

MediaBlvd> What is David’s relationship with the king? And, how is Ian McShane to work with?

Chris> He’s fantastic! He really is a legend. David sees the king as this great, great man. If anything, he’s very vulnerable and doesn’t see any of the hidden or nasty things that he might be doing, planning or using. He uses David, and David doesn’t see that at all. In the series, David is going to see him as a father figure because David lost his father. Since then, he’s been searching for a father figure, and Ian becomes that. That’s why he gives him the benefit of the doubt, in the series, when he sees something going on that’s not right.

MediaBlvd> How did playing opposite Ian McShane help you with the role of David?

Chris> He is an incredible guy and very talented. I had some pretty frightening stuff to do, and I was a fan of his before, from watching Deadwood, so I was a little nervous to meet him, and just interested to see how it would all work out. Our characters have such an interesting journey together, that is this love-hate, back-and-forth relationship, so him being such a great guy and just so generous, helped me out a lot. He really gave me a lot of great advice. It was a blast working with him.

MediaBlvd> What sort of frightening stuff did you have to do?

Chris> I wanted to develop the character of David, step by step, from the beginning, where he goes from this simple farm boy in the pilot to the drama that is surrounding his life, with the King and the Princess, and all that dysfunction. He starts to become a man. With Silas, as the series progresses, their relationship is constantly changing. Ian had to beat the crap out of me a few times, and there was a lot of blood on the face. But, he just became a great mentor and a great friend, and I could not ask for anybody better to work with. He has been a real champion.

MediaBlvd> In some of the scenes that do get a little bit rough, was Ian feeling bad afterwards, or was he apologetic for having to beat you up a little bit?

Chris> No. We were just laughing, more than anything. We had a lot of fun.

MediaBlvd> Did you do a lot of stunt work for this?

Chris> I did. I was rolling around in the mud, with holes everywhere, while it was pissing down with rain. We fired rocket launchers and jumped in ditches. It was absolutely crazy!

MediaBlvd> Did you have to do any training for that?

Chris> Yeah. We worked with the Marines, and we learned to fire rifles and understand trench warfare. These guys have been in the trenches, for weeks on end, and haven’t been home, so we did a lot of just hanging out in the trenches.         

MediaBlvd> What do you think of filming in New York?

Chris> Coming from Australia, it took me awhile to get used to L.A. I’ve lived in L.A. for five years, and I’m only now feeling like it’s home. I don’t know how long it’s going to take in New York, but I’m excited.         

MediaBlvd> If you’re David, everybody knows that you’ll have to kill Goliath. How do you get around that?

Chris> In the story of David and Goliath, I always found it fascinating that this one young man would go out and face this giant. When there was this army that was so afraid of this giant, he went out there with five smooth stones and took this guy out with a slingshot. I came to the U.S. when I was 19 years old, and that was a pretty scary transition, to come on my own and try to break into Hollywood, so that felt very much like I was fighting a Goliath.

MediaBlvd> Nineteen years old is real early to jump continents like that. What was it that got you to think, “Okay, this is the time to do this”?

Chris> I had been working on a TV show in Australia for about four years and it just felt like the natural progression. TV people in America just naturally progress into doing more TV, or getting into the films, so after doing four years of this TV show, II was really ready to just do something crazy, take the risk and see what happened. Since I was young, I always knew that I was going to go to Hollywood. That was just always in my heart.                                                                                                                     

MediaBlvd> Eragon was also an alternate world. Is there something that you find appealing about that?

Chris> I don’t know. You just take every job for what it is. I’m very lucky to be working. I would love the world of Eragon to keep going. I loved my character and I wish I could have done more with it. I guess I do like these alternate worlds, but it’s also the jobs that have come my way. I felt that this story was really unique. Pilot season is crazy, every year. You get a lot of scripts and there’s not a lot of great TV out there. Maybe it’s just my point of view, but I don’t think there’s a lot of TV with great messages for young people. And, I think that this has a lot of good parallels. It’s just good quality stuff.

MediaBlvd> Australia has a disproportionate amount of talented people compared to the size of its population. What is it about Australia that nurtured you and helped you get interested in acting?

Chris> I think it’s something in the Australian water or the kangaroo meat. No. I grew up with a love for acting. My mom always taught me, with the creative arts, to focus on everything like dancing, singing and acting. We grew up in an agency doing commercials, but the rest of my family fell out of it while I just kept going with it. It was just what I always loved doing, and I always had a passion for it. There was really nothing else that I loved so much. There are also some great role models that have come out of Australia, like Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman, and I just wanted to follow in their example.

MediaBlvd> Australia is the best of both worlds. You went to a high school for the arts, dancing and singing, but you also have access to fairly physical stuff. Did you get a chance to surf and get out in the country or go to the outback, or anything like that?

Chris> Yes. Australia is really just a very large island and most people grow up on the beach. The sun and the weather is incredible, and you definitely want to get out and see it all.       

MediaBlvd> Since you’re so good at it, had you already developed your American accent by the time you came here?

Chris> Before coming to L.A., I spent about six months with a coach in Australia. But, it doesn’t really matter how much coaching you have. You really have to just be living in America. Over the years, just living here and being around Americans and listening to people has really helped. But, you always have to keep working at it because it does slip. You can become lazy and just forget sometimes, so you have to keep on it and keep reminding yourself you are American.

MediaBlvd> What is one example of culture shock that you experienced, when you first got here, that just felt a lot different from home?

Chris> Probably the coffee. The coffee isn’t that good. No. Coming to L.A., the biggest thing was seeing how many talented people there are and how few jobs there actually really are. It was a big thing for me to come to L.A. and see how many people were here, really going for it.

MediaBlvd> What do you do in your downtime?

Chris> I’d love to be spending time with my family, but they’re in Sydney, Australia.

MediaBlvd> What do you miss most about home?

Chris> Family. That would be it. If my brothers could be my entourage, they would. When I can afford it, I’ll have them around me, all the time.

MediaBlvd> Do you prefer American women or Australian women?

Chris> That’s hard to say. My girlfriend is French, but she lives in L.A. And, I’m from Australia, so we met half-way.

MediaBlvd> What do you do for fitness?

Chris> Yoga. My girlfriend got me into that. I’ve done a bit of surfing. I grew up on the beach, so I was surfing a lot. With the acting stuff that’s been going on, I haven’t had as much time to get out there and keep it up.

MediaBlvd> What made you come back to TV, after the failure of Vanished?

Chris> Vanished was great. The role wasn’t that big. It was another great learning experience. This role, for me, feels like the greatest role I could have gotten and I feel very lucky.

MediaBlvd> Do you have any upcoming projects?

Chris> Pretty/Handsome was a Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck) pilot that I did. It didn’t go, but it was fantastic to work on. It had a great cast, with Joseph Fiennes and Carrie-Anne Moss. It was another job that I just learned stuff from and worked with great people. Virgin Territory has come out in Paris. I’ve heard it’s been out in Russia. I just don’t know when that’s coming out in the States. They haven’t really told us much. I play Hayden Christensen’s best friend. That was the most comedy I’ve done, and it was a lot of fun.