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Matt Ryan talks about acting in NBC's 'Constantine'

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This Friday, NBC will premiere its new series "Constantine", a supernatural drama based on Hellblazer, a long-lived but relatively niche DC Comics title about a Liverpudlian punk-rocker-turned-sorcerer with suspect decision-making skills. Actor Matt Ryan plays the lead role of a demon hunter.

Matt Ryan talks about acting in NBC's 'Constantine'



He's not a superhero. He's not even police. Based on the DC Comic Hellblazer, "Constantine" is a new, dark series on NBC.

Actor Matt Ryan, who plays Constantine, says his character uses other qualities to battle dark forces in the world.

"John Constantine is an irreverent conman an occult detective who's a master of the dark arts and he's also someone with a ruthless cunning and an ironic sense of humor," Ryan said.

"What's great about him if he's someone - if he can't con you he'll kick you in the balls and if he can't kick you in the balls, if nothing happens then he'll run away. He's the kind of character that will sacrifice his best friend for the greater good."

And dark forces, for some reason, are rising up at a particularly alarming rate, says Ryan, adding that his character is focused on finding out why.

"The barrier between hell and Earth is getting thinner and the bad things are able to get through a lot easier," Ryan said. "So he then sets about kind of trying to figure out what's going on and part of that is because he wants to redeem himself so he doesn't go to hell you know. So, throughout the season we're kind of trying to figure out what that is by tackling these individual cases."

Fans of the Hellblazer comics, which were later released under the name "Constantine," will recognize certain characters like the angel Manny and Chas Chandler, Constantine's oldest friend and who's knack for staying alive seems to be more than natural. Ryan says the TV series doesn't always stay true to the comics.

"John's relationship with Chas is slightly different from what it is in the comics," Ryan said. "I think in the comics Chas is someone that John tries to protect from this world and what we're doing is Chas is someone who can come on John's journeys with him."

Because of this thing that is happening to him and I'm not going to reveal what it is or how he can't die but we will get into that at some point in the show but it's great because Chas provides this kind of logic for John and is like a steady rock and also John's a bit of a street fighter and he's dirty and he's wily and he's cunning and ruthless but John, he's a big guy. If you need someone by your side to knock someone out, there's Chas."

Expect to see other familiar characters from DC's occult universe including Jim Corrigan who fans know becomes The Spectre.

 

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