Are Peter Pan’s days numbered on Once Upon A Time?
Not yet, at least, as in Once Upon A Time Season 3 Episode 9 we saw that Pan had switched bodies with Henry and is on board the ship taking our group back to Storybrooke.
What will happen when everyone realizes Henry isn’t Henry?
Who better to ask than Peter Pan himself, or Robbie Kay, the British actor who has made this new villainous incantation of the iconic character very much his own. While we’ve loved to hate Pan this season, will he continue on the show once we get beyond tonight’s mid-season finale?
Let’s see if we can find out...
TV Fanatic: In general, how did you approach playing Peter Pan, especially with this villainous take on him?
Robbie Kay: Pan is a very iconic character that a lot of people relate to and everyone knows the tale of Peter Pan so to come in and put a different twist was certainly a challenge; it was something I had to think about quite a lot. There are many core values that resonate with the original Peter Pan and that was very difficult to convey although it was a lot of fun for me with this role, especially with the nature of the show is that they do like to put twists on these iconic characters and it was fun to work with the people I’ve seen on screen and really create the role as something quite distinctive.
TVF: Can you talk about that big Pandora’s Box scene between Pan and Rumple? It was a great scene because everything was finally on the table.
RK: We had an awful lot of fun shooting that scene and it took the majority of the day because it was such a pivotal scene. Me and Bobby had a lot of fun doing it. It was quite a meaty scene and there were a lot of great moments in there and lots of emotions to convey. Of course, by that point the secret that [Rumple] was my son was out there so you saw these characters in a different light for the first time. That was one of my favorite scenes that I shot on the series.
TVF: When did you find out that Pan was Rumple’s father?
RK: I knew that not too long after I joined the show so I knew it early on so I could play certain subtleties that wouldn’t occur originally when you watched it.
TVF: Now, where we left off last week, Pan is inside Henry’s body but will we still see you in this next episode?
RK: I can tell you that there will be a body switch again. I will return to my original body. That’s certainly happening in the finale.
TVF: Did you and Jared [Gilmore, who plays Henry] talk about the fact that Pan would be inside Henry and how to play that?
RK: We talked a little bit about that prospect when the script first came out. We thought it would be quite cool that we’d be switching bodies and getting to play each other’s characters and mannerisms a little bit. There was a little bit of preparation trying to get each other’s mannerisms in but we obviously had a very good time. Just playing someone else, for me, especially, since I was playing such an evil character for the first nine episodes, it was nice to play a normal, good person on the show for a little while.
TVF: Do you think there’s any way that Pan can be redeemed for everything he’s done?
RK: Yeah, I think what Once Upon A Time does really well is there are a lot of layers with their characters. Like Rumplestiltskin, there is vulnerability there and there’s that chance for redemption so you could be seeing that with Pan. Again, he’s a very complex character with a lot of layers and you don’t know the full extent of the story so you don’t know what could happen.
TVF: Is there any chance we’ll see Pan after this Sunday’s episode? Any chance he could stick around?
RK: I can’t say anything about Pan’s presence after the midseason finale.
TVF: Outside of Jared and Bobby, who have you had a good time working with? You’ve worked with pretty much everybody throughout this season.
RK: Yeah, obviously Jared and Bobby are both brilliant people to work with but, you’re right, I have worked with a myriad of the cast at this point. It’s just been brilliant to really get to know these people because they’re all just so fantastic and they’re such a brilliant ensemble cast.
But working with Jennifer Morrison (Emma), especially when we started to work on episode 2, that was a lot of fun and Lana (Regina), as well, has been really fun to work with and she’s a wonderful person. They’re all just fantastic.
TVF: Looking at your acting credits, you played Pinocchio a few years back so maybe being on Once Upon A Time wasn’t too much of a leap for you as an actor.
RK: Yeah, I have gone down that fairy tale/fantasy route before, it seems. I did a TV miniseries for a few years ago on Pinnochio. We shot that in Italy about five years ago so I was a lot younger but I had a lot of fun doing that.
TVF: What do you see yourself doing in your acting career in five years? Comedy? Drama? TV? Film?
RK: Honestly, I would just love to continue the path that I’m going on right now. I graduate next May from school and after that I plan on continuing my career as an actor. I would love to see myself doing all sorts, really. I love the difference between TV and film and going between those worlds so whether it’s TV or film or maybe even theater, which I’d like to try out at some point, but the whole idea behind this whole industry is fascinating to me and I’d love to continue.
Once Upon A Time airs Season 3 Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Jim Halterman is the West Coast Editor of TV Fanatic and the owner of JimHalterman.com. Follow him on Twitter.