STACK #153 Jul 2017

DVD&BD FEATURE

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British actor Ricky Whittle boldly ventures into the weird world of warring deities in the highly anticipated television adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s best-selling novel, American Gods . Words Scott Hocking

F irst published in 2001 and winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards (recognising the best in science fiction and fantasy literature) , American Gods is the story of taciturn ex-con Shadow Moon, who takes a job as bodyguard to enigmatic con artist Mr. Wednesday and is subsequently dragged into a war between the old gods of mythology and the new gods who represent media, celebrity, finance and technology. It’s perhaps the darkest and most confronting of celebrated British writer Neil Gaiman’s novels, sharing more in common tonally with the work of Clive Barker than the author’s more family-friendly fantasies like Stardust , Coraline and The Graveyard Book .

the book, Shadow is very stoic, very quiet, very internal with lots of inner monologue. That’s great in a novel but it doesn’t translate well to the screen. He was really blasé in the book about all the craziness going on around him, but I think you would freak out a bit more if your dead wife turns up! Shadow is going to ask a lot more questions in the show. He still has those silent moments where he’s very much an observer, but he needs to be more interactive in order for viewers to become invested in the character. "He’s one of the only protagonists of a TV show that I know who doesn’t push the storyline – the storyline pushes him. He’s basically a leaf in the stream and things just

This bizarre journey into mystical Americana has now been adapted for television by Bryan Fuller ( Hannibal ) and Michael Green ( Heroes ), with Gaiman serving as an executive producer on the ambitious and outlandish series. “They wanted to make it as perfect as possible because this book comes with quite a reputation – there was a lot of pressure,”says Ricky Whittle, who won the part of Shadow following a five-month audition process he describes as an insane experience – much like the world his character becomes immersed in. Having landed the role, Whittle began reading the novel but was told to stop by the showrunners. “It was influencing the way I wanted to play the role,” he tells STACK . “In

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JULY 2017

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