Hannibal': Richard Armitage’s Francis Dolarhyde is sensual and empathetic
BY TERRI SCHWARTZ AT 04:07 PM ON JUL 23, 2015


“Hannibal” is introducing a new serial killer in Season 3, and one of Thomas Harris’s more iconic characters at that. The series will welcome Richard Armitage as Francis Dolarhyde, whose murderous identity is the Great Red Dragon, in Saturday, July 25’s episode.

Dolarhyde is taken straight from the pages of “Red Dragon,” the first book Harris published about Hannibal Lecter. It’s a sad coincidence that this will begin the last act of “Hannibal,” as NBC opted not to renew the series for a Season 4.

“It is sad news that the show is no longer continuing, but at the same time I have my job to do and that is to bring out a new character and to try and maintain the audience that they already have,” Armitage tells Zap2it. “I feel a responsibility for that. It’s an exciting character that people have had high expectations for. It was the root and the beginnings of the whole ‘Hannibal’ experience. … Maybe it’s a great finale, maybe that was always the intention. I don’t think so, but it was certainly time to play this character.”

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Two previous movies brought Dolarhyde’s story to life: 1986’s “Manhunter,” which starred Tom Noonan, and 2002’s “Red Dragon,” where Ralph Fiennes played the titular killer. While Armitage read Harris’s novel to prep for the role of Dolarhyde, he didn’t watch either of those movies — but not only for the obvious reason.

“If it had been done once then maybe I would have looked at it, but it was done twice. They’re both actors that I admire, but at the same time I wanted to just be free of what they’d done,” he says. “Also I didn’t want to see another interpretation of Reba McClane because I, as the character, was about to meet my Reba McClane. I didn’t want to be informed by other manifestations of that, so I left it alone.”

Reba McClane is a blind co-worker who Dolarhyde falls in love with; in “Hannibal,” she’ll be played by “True Blood” alum Rutina Wesley. Falling in love for the first time conflicts with Dolarhyde’s desire to kill, and finding empathy with that confusion helped Armitage get into character.

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“It mustn’t be mistaken, I didn’t want people to feel sorry for the character because that’s not the point,” Armitage says. “The point is the audience shouldn’t necessarily come away with a definitive feeling about him. They should just really try to empathize and put themselves in his shoes, or imagine that that could be your son … or this man who can fall in love. It’s not that we have to cast judgment on that; we just have to follow them as a fictional character.”

He notes of Dolarhyde, “The speech impediment and the physical disability that he perceives in himself, they were the important things for me to make right, to not play him as somebody that is intellectually restricted — somebody that was actually fairly smart, not in any way slow or retarded. I wanted to play someone that was intensely kind of sensual as well, but trying to understand how that person can commit such appalling crimes, and at the same time be a man that’s experiencing love for the first time; I just think that that was really the key to understanding where this character could go.”

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Armitage finds himself in the unique situation of being introduced on a show that’s already been canceled. Showrunner Bryan Fuller tried to find “Hannibal” a new home at another outlet, but both Amazon and Netflix passed on the opportunity and the cast’s contracts have lapsed.

Still, Armitage is holding out hope that there’s a happy future ahead for the show. [b]“I came in as a guest character and I am a guest character for six episodes, but the way the show’s created and the commitment of the cast and crew and the commitment and the workload and the work ethic that everyone applies themselves to this work is by far the most passionate that I have ever been involved with,” he says. “I had every hope that the show would find a fourth season or a new home — I still live with that hope for them.”[/b]

If “Hannibal” does continue, the series likely won’t have a role for Armitage. He says Francis Dolarhyde’s story “has to be full-circle,” but does note that there could be ways to incorporate the character back into the series should there be a Season 4.

“In the Fuller universe there’s always the opportunity to enter into the world of the psychology of the character,” Armitage says. “Francis Dolarhyde and Hannibal Lecter never really meet until very, very close to the end [of Season 3], but in terms of the series they meet face-to-face because it’s in a fantasy world. There’s always the potential, and I still think there’s the potential for Dolarhyde to appear in a memory of Will Graham’s or in a projection of Will Graham’s mind. But that was not something we ever talked about. It was not a discussion.”

If “Hannibal” does continue, the series likely won’t have a role for Armitage. He says Francis Dolarhyde’s story “has to be full-circle,” but does note that there could be ways to incorporate the character back into the series should there be a Season 4.