Stephen Amell spices up the fun in Hung

MANILA, Philippines - More fun in Hung: That’s what Stephen Amell is bringing into the HBO adult comedy series as he stars as the newest “happiness consultant.”

Parlaying his boyish charm and hunky good looks into this latest acting gig, Amell plays the younger, eager and ambitious chief competition of Thomas Jane’s lead character, Ray Drecker.

From his base in Los Angeles, the 30-year-old Canadian actor, whose previous projects include Vampire Diaries and 90210, gave a phone interview to select journalists from Asia about his breakout role in the third season of Hung, which premieres on HBO Asia today after the 10 p.m. movie.

Since the role of Jason — a busboy-turned-gigolo who will be stepping on Ray’s toes — calls for some baring and daring, how did his family react to it?

Amell said, “Some of the characters I’ve played in the past two years — one was a sadistic werewolf (in Vampire Diaries) and one was a murderer and rapist (in the film Justice for Natalee Holloway). In comparison, playing a busboy-turned-gigolo was actually pretty tame. (More than anything) my family was happy that I was doing an HBO show. It has always been a goal of mine, as I’ve loved so many of HBO’s shows through the years. The gigolo part of it was secondary.”

Amell snagged the role immediately after he read for the part before its creators on what already was the last day of the auditions. Because there wasn’t enough time to prepare for the role, he simply “experienced things as I was experiencing it.”

Jason may be the show’s new antagonist, but the character also spells the fun in the cast dynamics, according to Amell. “There are a lot of things Jason does that Ray doesn’t do. For Jason, he’s doing things more for fun,” he said. “There’s a lighter ray to Jason in contrast to Ray (a high school coach who resorts to the gigolo business after finding himself financially-strapped and struggling to make ends meet), and this adds fun to the dynamics of the show.”

The role had Amell tackling his first sexy scene on TV, and it helped that “a lot of the crew members of Hung were there from the very beginning. Sexy is something that they’re very used to. The crew was very professional and they knew how to handle an actor who’s doing it for the very first time. It’s not making it any less awkward, but it makes it pretty bearable.”

Stephen’s role as Jason (left) makes a worthy rival to Thomas Jane’s lead character, Ray Drecker (center), throwing a wench into the plans of Ray and his ‘business partner’ Tanya Skagle, played by Jane Adams

Despite the show’s theme, Stephen maintained that “it’s not really about sex.” Asked if viewers can take a pointer or two on handling women from Hung, he said the series gets to show that “with women, it’s not just about physicality, it’s how can you relate to them emotionally.”

As he got to work under different directors in Hung, one lesson learned from doing the show is to arrive on the set with an open mind. “I think that if you go into a scene and you’re locked into the way you’re going to do it, sometimes you’re a little unflexible when the director comes up to you and wants you to try a couple of different things. The idea of being flexible is a really helpful exercise as an actor. Just put yourself into the hands of the director. Trust that he or she is going to craft out the best performance from you.”

And his performance is apparently stealing attention. As the third season of Hung is coming to a close this week in the US, he’s now feeling the love of the viewers. He shared, “The first couple of weeks, people didn’t really recognize me. I don’t know what the tipping point was, but two weeks ago, I started getting recognized all the time from the show. Just mainly people telling me that they like the character, and the dynamics it brings to the show. I got a lot of nice compliments about the comedic part and that’s a real treat for me because I really love comedy.”

Amell hopes to expand his “antagonist” portfolio by getting villain parts in superhero films — a big dream of his being a comic book fan. “I want to make (the villain character) so fascinating that viewers will actually be rooting for him.”  

Meantime, he’s scoring projects outside Hung. “I’m doing work for Private Practice right now, I’m also doing a movie in the new year. Booking (the roles) is directly a reflection of people enjoying my work in Hung. I notice a lot of connectivity, and that’s exciting.”

That’s no easy feat for the Canada native. Amell admitted that he gets frustrated that Canadian actors get recognized only after breaking into Hollywood. “Still, that being said, I think the more important thing is that I feel good about it, even if Hollywood is where you have to go to make an impact on people. It’s gratifying.”

 “As an actor, my main goal going into 2012 is that I want to work as much as possible. I want to spend more time on set as much possible,” Amell added. “I think back to last year around this time, I just started work for Vampire Diaries and I just came out from another long casting process, and since that time, I almost had a hundred days on the set working. The difference between this year this time and last year this time is like night and day. From that standpoint, I’m very happy at where my career is.”