Exclusive: Don Mancini Talks Joining Hannibal Season 3 – Part 3
Today we bring you the final installment of our in-depth, three-part interview with “Hannibal” writer/producer Don Mancini, which took place prior to the show’s recent cancellation by NBC. Sadly, “Hannibal” had been on the edge for renewal since its debut, but after it returned for Season 3 to dire ratings, this is indeed “the last supper.”
The network will still air all the remaining episodes of the current season, which is running on Thursdays at 10 p.m., so make sure you tune in and, if you’re so inclined, express your opinion about the show on social media to help #SaveHannibal.
Now, back to Don… in this final portion of our interview (catch up on Parts 1 and 2 here if you missed them), Mancini told us about how sex and death go hand-in-hand for Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) and Will Graham (Hugh Dancy).
Dread Central: What’s going on between Hannibal and Will? There’s a lot of homoerotic subtext.
Don Mancini: Totally. And their relationship is sensual because Hannibal’s world is so sensual. But there are times that they’re physical with one another. Hannibal caresses Will’s hair. And when he touches Will’s face lovingly [in Season 2] before gutting him, it’s just… well, as a gay man I find it pretty fucking titillating. I know there are others, gay and straight, who pick up on that and feel similarly. But I’m sure it goes over other people’s heads!
DC: Which is hard to imagine. I mean, to me it’s pretty obvious.
DM: Well, you know, some people are just not [that sophisticated]. I mean, these characters are not having sex. It’s not that overt. But they love each other. There’s definitely something going on between them. And I think that part of what’s so interesting about the show is that relationship — but also the riddle of Hannibal’s humanity. I know Bryan is very fond of thinking of Hannibal as the devil, literally the devil and this fallen angel. And that is a really interesting perspective through which to view the character. But I also think Hannibal is so complicated. I mean, he does these horrible things, and yet, you care about him. I think that’s why the show — I mean, that’s why I love it. That’s something that Bryan has really amplified with the show. It became there increasingly in the books, and from Silence of the Lambs and then Hannibal – Thomas Harris was sort of making Hannibal an increasingly likable character.
In Red Dragon, he was kind of more simply a sadist, I think. And in Silence of the Lambs, he was so fascinated by Clarice Starling’s innocence and her civility, you know, because Hannibal is so offended by the rude. But that got underlined in the book Hannibal, that ethos to “I prefer to eat the rude.” That was something that Thomas Harris created in the book Hannibal, and Bryan Fuller has run with that.
In the show we’ve seen that Hannibal is lonely. The show has explored Hannibal wants to have a friend. And they’ve done episodes that were specifically about that. I loved in the first season he has that patient Franklyn Froideveux, who is really kind of into Hannibal and wants to be his friend. And Hannibal is like, “Well, that’s not appropriate,” and winds up killing him.
But in that same episode, when he’s with his own therapist, we see this other side of Hannibal; and she asks him, “Do you want a friend?” And that’s because he sees in Will this possibility because Will has this empathic ability. Hannibal knows that Will has this door in him that if he could just nudge it open, Will could embrace this darkness that Hannibal knows Will has in him and that they could just connect in a way that Hannibal’s never been able to with anyone before. And so that’s really fascinating, and disturbing, but it makes you kind of feel bad for Hannibal because he’s lonely, basically. I think that it’s that loneliness and that need for connection that Hannibal has that makes him such an interesting character rather than just being a serial killer who loves to fuck with people. It’s not that simple.
DC: Mads Mikkelsen is so great. And very, very different from how Anthony Hopkins portrayed him.
DM: Another innovation that Bryan Fuller brought to it was he made him sexy and young. Anthony Hopkins and Brian Cox were both amazing as the character, but they were middle-aged men by the time they played him. That was a real innovation just to make him fuckable, frankly. I think that adds this whole other dimension to the show as well.
DC: We know he’s attracted to Will for whatever reason, but what about the inverse of that?
DM: In Seasons 1 and 2, they very deliberately contrasted Will. But to see then the evolution of Will’s costume and hair… Where Hannibal has the impeccable three-piece suits and the ties and the perfectly folded pocket handkerchiefs. And Will is a flannel and t-shirt guy. But late in Season 2, when Will finally got out of jail and he shows up at Hannibal’s office and knocks on the door – I don’t know if you noticed, but he’s wearing a button-down shirt. And his hair is combed in a new way because Hannibal’s influence on him was starting to be felt in these tangible ways.
DC: The show doesn’t really follow the books to the letter, right?
DM: I can’t say too much, but it’s interesting now to see all of these characters in this whole new world, in Europe and Italy, mostly in Florence. Basically, in the mash-up, or what Bryan always has referred to as being a mash-up of DJ’s, we take different pieces of the mythology and mix it all together and come up with new stuff. Which is, as a fan, what I’d always loved about watching it. Bryan always takes into account our knowledge of the mythology and then throws these twists, which I always loved. It’s just something that I find particularly interesting because as a creator of a franchise and someone who’s made a lot of sequels myself, it’s something that I have some experience with. You’re having to serve up something the same, but new. And it’s just an interesting challenge, and I think it’s something that Bryan does really well.
So, his original plan was that Season 3 was just going to be the European manhunt. And the basis of it was going to be the novel Hannibal. But he then decided that he thought it would give everything a much faster narrative thrust if he just did the first half of Season 3 as the Hannibal book and then the latter half as Red Dragon, which is what we’re doing, because we all know that Hannibal is destined to be caught and destined to be behind bars. And of course, Bryan and all the marketing materials have already let this slip. Everyone knows that the Red Dragon is coming later in the season. So, we skip ahead in Episode 3.08 – skip ahead three years. And Hannibal’s been behind bars for three years. And then we get into the Red Dragon stuff, but again, in ways that are new. It’s not merely what you’ve seen. There’s new stuff mixed up with it.
DC: How do the directors factor in? I mean, on a movie set the director is the go-to guy. But not on a TV show, and especially one like this which has so much mythology.
DM: In television the showrunner is really God, in a way that whereas in features the director is God. And it’s certainly very much the case on “Hannibal,” although I know that Bryan hires these guys for specific reason because they’re very talented and Bryan knows that they’re going to bring their own stuff to it. Vincenzo Natali did some very specific stuff with a love scene, for example, in the visuals.
There are directors assigned, like the writers. And I knew that 3.06 [the first episode Mancini wrote] was Vincenzo Natali, and 3.10 [Mancini’s second episode] was Guillermo Navarro. I didn’t have any interaction with Vincenzo, and generally, the writers don’t. I think that’s generally true on TV in general, you know; when you’re a writer in the trenches in the room, you don’t always have interaction with the directors. For 3.10 I was up in Toronto for the prep and was able to attend a couple of the meetings and got to meet Guillermo, who was really nice.
I didn’t have very much interaction [during the shooting] other than being able to attend these meetings for 3.10. For example, 3.06 – and this isn’t giving anything away because Bryan has already talked about it in interviews – has this big sex scene in it, which was really fun to write, and then really interesting to see Bryan rewrite and then to see how Vincenzo Natali shot it because it really is beautiful and amazing. It was one of the things I was really excited about getting to write and just to see the process through which it got refined. First of all, on that one, 3.06, I shared credit with both Steve Lightfoot and Bryan Fuller. So to see it get refined by both of those writers and then to see how Vincenzo visualized it, it’s really amazing. It’s incredible. And so I know that Bryan challenged Vincenzo to surpass himself with this love scene that is in 3.06. And I think he really did. I mean, it’s really cool.
DC: Okay, last question. It’s a silly one! Chucky vs. Hannibal death-match… who’d win?
DM: I think Hannibal would probably make short work of Chucky. Chucky is many things, but I don’t know how smart he is. You know, one of the things that was in 3.06, and through much of Season 3 is the character Mason Verger. We saw him in Season 2, and he comes back. I particularly enjoyed writing him. I mean, I love writing for all the characters, but Mason is one I had particular fun with. And in retrospect I wondered, ‘Is it because he’s kind of like Chucky in a certain way?’ And I even thought, in the movie Hannibal, Gary Oldman looked- to me – and a couple of critics even mentioned this – that he looked sort of like Chucky because of his facial deformity. But he’s like Chucky in the sense that he’s kind of impish and like the spoiled child that we know is going to have what he wants no matter what. He throws tantrums and stuff. So, I wondered if that accounted for my affinity for Mason Verger, just because he was the most Chucky-like character in “Hannibal.”
Well, we certainly have an affinity for “Hannibal” as a whole and can’t wait to see what Don’s cooked up for us in his Episodes 3.06 (“Dolce”) and 3.10 (“…And the Woman Clothed with the Sun”). In the meantime we have Episode 3.05, “Contorno,” on Thursday to tickle our taste buds.
Big thanks to Don for taking the time to chat with us!
“Hannibal” Episode 3.05 – “Contorno” (7/2/15; 10-11 PM)
THE SEARCH FOR HANNIBAL INTENSIFIES — Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne) and Inspector Pazzi (guest star Fortunato Cerlino) search for clues that will lead them closer to Hannibal Lecter’s (Mads Mikkelsen) location in Florence, but the promise of riches offered by Mason Verger (guest star Joe Anderson) threatens to corrupt Pazzi’s quest for redemption.
Meanwhile, Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and Chiyoh (Tao Okamoto) travel to Florence, both on a mission to find Hannibal but at odds over the desired outcome. Elsewhere, as Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas) continues to work with Mason Verger, she grows concerned for the safety of all involved. Gillian Anderson also stars, and Mia Maestro guest stars.
For more info be sure to visit “Hannibal” on NBC.com, “like” “Hannibal” on Facebook, and follow “Hannibal” on Twitter.
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