2013 Interview – Sendhil Ramamurthy speaks to Zap2It

Original Link: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2013/03/beauty-and-the-beast-sendhil-ramamurthy-teases-the-new-character-of-gabe-lowen.html

As if “Beauty and the Beast” weren’t complicated enough, a new character is about to arrive in order to rile things up. Sendhil Ramamurthy (“Heroes,” “Covert Affairs”) plays the new regular character of assistant district attorney Gabe Lowen starting with Thursday’s (March 14) episode of the show.

We talked to Ramamurthy about his new character and what Gabe’s arrival will mean for the show.

What happens when Gabe enters the show?

Sendhil Ramamurthy: He kind of turns up at the precinct and kind of ruffles feathers right off the bat.

He’s there because he doesn’t think the case to hunt down the vigilante is being handled properly. There have been quite a few murders — and obviously the latest one with Joe’s brother being murdered. He really doesn’t get why people aren’t working harder. He feels that people aren’t handling it right.

This guy comes at it with such passion and such zeal that I think he raises eyebrows for people. The guy wants to be good at his job, and it would probably look great for him, career-wise, if he was able to find out who the vigilante was, solve these murders and all of that. But I mean, this guy is going above and beyond.

Is he a nice guy to have around?

Sendhil Ramamurthy: He’s not really bothered with anybody liking him. He’s more concerned with getting what he wants. And if that involves ruffling and upsetting people, well then that’s OK with him. He’s not there to be liked.

So very quickly he starts to raise eyebrows, because it’s just the way that he goes about doing things is very aggressive and very in-your-face. It rubs people the wrong way. And as the episodes go on, you’ll kind of find out why he’s approaching it the way he’s approaching it. His motives for finding out who the vigilante is — they’re different from what, say, Joe’s reasons are.

Very quickly, we actually find out what his motivations are, what his backstory is… Why it is that he’s going after this case so aggressively.

Who will Gabe interact with the most on “Beauty and the Beast”?

Sendhil Ramamurthy: The bulk of it — I’d say like 90 percent of it, maybe even more, more like 95 percent — has been with Catherine.

He definitely has a past with Joe. He has quite an adversarial relationship with most people in the beginning. He has a slightly flirty relationship with Catherine, but in an adversarial way if that makes sense. And he definitely butts heads with Joe. Joe and Gabe naturally butt heads.

Why did you take the par?t

Sendhil Ramamurthy: It was quite procedural in nature… With this kind of love story at the heart of it.

I think the show has slightly changed — in a good way. The heart of the story, the core of the story is always going to be that love story between Vincent and Catherine. It’s so strong, and that relationship and the chemistry between Kristin and Jay is so good, they would be silly to change that.

I think that what’s happened, certainly with bringing in the Gabe character, the tension and danger — for all of the characters — gets amped up, including danger for Gabe. The stakes all get raised.

How will the other characters react to Gabe?

Sendhil Ramamurthy: He literally pisses off everybody that he meets in the first episode or two. But he’s smart. He’s doing that because it reveals information. He gets information out of characters by rubbing them the wrong way.

The whole episode, he kind of just pokes people and rubs people the wrong way. And then at the end of the episode, you kind of get a little reveal as to why he’s doing that. He doesn’t do things for no reason. He’s very calculated in what he does, and everything that he does is always for a specific reason.