TVLine Interview Nathan Fillion

SEPTEBER 18. 2011

Nathan Fillion: ‘I want Castle To Have a Drunken, Romantic Evening with Beckett, and Then…’

“Can I beat a bullet? Can I be faster than a bullet?”

Speaking with TVLine on the set of ABC’s Castle, Nathan Fillion says that is what was racing through his character’s mind at the close of last May’s finale, the instant he realized Beckett was about to be felled by a sniper’s bullet.

The shocking shooting not only spilled blood, it also prompted Castle to spill his feelings for his partner in crime-solving, erasing any last shred of doubt about where the playboy novelist stands.

“There’s a lot between these people that has yet remained unsaid, so it was a very visceral kind of thing,” Fillion says. “He finds himself overcome and confesses his love, knowing that this very well may be his last chance to express himself like that, which he’s never done for her before.”

 

That Kate even landed in the crosshairs of a gunman – let alone took a bullet, sans protective vest – speaks to the enormity of the hornet’s nest the lady detective has been rattling in her endeavor to determine who not only killed her mother, Johanna Beckett, in 1999, but also has been pulling out all the stops to keep the cover-up covered up.

“They’re trying to let viewers understand the kinds of people we’re dealing with when talking about Beckett’s mother’s murder,” says Fillion. “And they are dangerous people, that’s all there is to it.”

Fillion trumpets but one “spoiler” — “Beckett lives!” — so you’ll have to tune in Monday night at 10/9c to witness the ramifications of Beckett’s shooting, including how she has processed the confession Castle made before she lost consciousness.

Instead, we’ll move onto the “other woman” about to make an impression on Castle: Victoria “Iron” Gates, the late Capt. Montgomery’s successor whose first order of business is to hand our favorite author his walking papers. (As Seamus Dever, who plays Ryan, puts it: “Gates is more of the hard-ass, someone who is less forgiving when cops screw up. Our relationship is: I want to get out of the room if she comes into it!”)

To be rebuffed by Beckett’s new boss, as you can imagine, finds Castle in most unfamiliar territory.

“It’s difficult for him, because Castle can often get by on charm, and he’s very, very comfortable around women — that’s his wheelhouse,” says Fillion. “So when he’s constantly failing there, it drives him to try harder. Like, ‘Why won’t you like me? Get to know me!’”

But just how well will Castle let Gates “know” him, in the name of rejoining Beckett’s team? Dever quips in front of Fillion, “I think Castle is going to end up sleeping with Gates” -– an idea his costar is more than game to let run with.

“I want Castle to have a drunken, very romantic evening with Beckett, and then say, ‘I think I’m going to regret something I’m about to do’ — and then cut to him in bed, with an arm over him. And it’s Gates,” Fillion offers. “We then piece together how the evening happened!”

Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Original Interview at TVLine