andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Season two of “Sanctuary” premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET on Space and andPOP caught up with one of its stars to talk about one of the most high-speed sci-fi series. Why high-speed? Well, the series actually had its beginnings on the web but “Sanctuary” has since grown into a phenomenon of its own and moved into the small screen during its first season.

“We have a blast. I mean, sometimes we think we’re in the wrong genre, we should be doing comedy because from morning to night we’re laughing the entire time, Amanda [Tapping] leading the chart being the constant giggler,” says Canadian-born Robin Dunne who plays Dr. Will Zimmerman on the show. “If she was a superhero she’d be The Giggler…I hate to use an overused cliche but it really is like a family, that’s how it feels.”

But don’t be fooled, “Sanctuary” — which follows the adventures of scientist Dr. Helen Magnus (played by Amanda Tapping) who shelters a population of strange and at times terrifying beings with the help of Dunne’s character — is far from a comedy, although it has its fair share of tongue-in-cheek moments. This time around, things are about to get darker.

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Louis Ferreira and I share more than one thing in common: we both speak Portuguese aside from English and both of us were not Sci-Fi kind of guys before Stargate Universe — the latest entity in the space-themed franchise, which premiers today at 9 p.m. exclusively on Space.

Ferreira’s resume includes an impressive amount of TV and film work. His characters range from The Donald himself in a Trump TV-movie, to lead roles in shows like “Trinity” and “Missing,” guest spots on “24” and “CSI Miami,” among tens of other TV series and films, including a a role in this year’s “Grey Gardens” with Drew Barrymore. Still, Sci-Fi remained unexplored territory for the actor (aside from a very short stint on “Star Trek”).

So how did he wind up on one of the most successful Sci-Fi franchises of all time? It’s actually quite a serendipitous story which Fereira (formerly known as Justin Louis) shared with andPOP.

Side story: when the Portuguese-born, Toronto-raised actor kicked off his career in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s, Vancouver was a booming destination for film productions so he’d go there whenever work would dry up in Toronto. “I remember being in my twenties and being like, ‘If I could have the ultimate lifestyle, it would be the farm in Toronto, the apartment in New York’ and I said, ‘a boat!’ If you could live on a boat like “Miami Vice” you would want to do it in Vancouver,” shared the Gemini winner.

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