The Point Radio: Freddie Highmore Mastering The Art Of Creepy

We wind up our coverage of the new season BATES MOTEL talking with Freddie Highmore. So is Norman Bates really a bad guy, or just misunderstood and how much of Freddie is really in that character? Plus he may be the real super villain of March Madness. Why does everyone hate Christian Lattener?

In a few days, look for our coverage of GRIMM and where the season will end for that series, plus a look at comics’ newest TV hit, IZOMBIE. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @ThePointRadio.

Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Rabb. Actor Freddie Hymore has gotten high marks all around for his portrayal of Norman Bates on Bates Motel. But Freddie says he's not Norman and he's here to prove it too. Plus, do you hate Christian Ladner?

Well, lots of sports fans do. We'll tell you about it. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio.

Get The Point Radio. Fans and critics both agree that part of the success of Bates Motel is the portrayal of Norman Bates by actor Freddie Hymore. But Freddie was going to tell me that in real life, he and Norman are pretty different. I don't consider myself to be very similar to Norman. I think in the American accent is obviously one thing and I just try and stay in that as much as possible on sort of on set in Vancouver and off it as well.

And then the rest of it is a character, I guess now, that having done two seasons before this one, you're more aware of and you can easily slip into. And this season was more changing him and making him a bit more mature with the self-awareness that he gained at the end of the second season. And so perhaps trickier than giving a look or finding out who Norman was in this third season, it was more about discovering in what ways he would change and grow up. So after playing the character for three seasons, does he still go back to that original movie for inspiration? I guess potentially now there are less comparisons that are made to it because people see the Norman on Bates Motel as being his own entity as opposed to necessarily precursor to Anthony Perkins' version.

But at the same time, I've rewatched Psycho before every season and in some ways tried to implement things that Anthony Perkins brought to the role. Especially as the show continues because I've always seen that the end of Bates Motel isn't necessarily Psycho, but the end of Norman is a lot closer to Anthony Perkins' version than the boy that we saw at the start. But certainly I don't think any of us feel tied constraining to Psycho or to any performance that came before. Bates Motel is shot in Canada on a set that duplicates the original one used back in the 60s. And if Ernie said locale helps set the mood.

Yes, it does. I think the first time I stepped on the set, it kind of had this weight already behind it when you look up and you see a very similar version of the house and the motel to the one that was in the original. And then over time it seems to become imbued with your own memories and events that took place in Bates Motel. Like on the steps, for example, leading up there's still the blood stain or the stain of whatever they used to pretend to be blood from Deputy Kelby's death back in the first season. So they're a little reminders to us all of how far we've come.

Another big piece of this third season is Norman's relationship with Emma, played by Olivia Cook. We've seen in the first episode how Norman wants to try and establish, wants to try and date Emma. And I guess the reasons behind that become clearer as the season goes on. And it isn't entirely, it isn't purely out of this, out of the feelings that he has for her, but a lot of it is also out of feelings for his mother. In the way that he feels like he should be dating Emma, and not only does he on some level want to, he also feels like he's doing the right thing by asking her out.

Co-creator Carrie Erin weighed in on her plans for Emma this season. And Emma in general has been, you know, she's done some growing up, as Norman has. And she, you know, when Norman first met her she was very much in many ways still kind of a little girl, very idealistic, I think lonely. And she, you know, was really grateful to have this friend who was Norman Bates. And I think as she grows older and she has to deal with the reality of her health, which clarifies a lot of things in life when you have a crisis like that, she starts to mature.

And part of her story this year is her starting to understand things about Norman that are concerning. There's been no shortage of likable bad guys on TV lately from Walter White to Jax Teller. So is Freddie really a bad guy? Both Carrie and Freddie weigh in. You know, when you write these things, we love the characters. And in a way, you know, actors have to love the character they portray in a way because they have to do the best version of it from that person's point of view.

And I think the writing is kind of similar. If you're going to take on a bad guy, you have to get inside of them and feel the world through them. And no one, you know, wakes up in the morning and says, hey, I'm a bad guy. I'm going to go out today and do bad things. Everyone wakes up in the morning and lies to themselves.

So Norman is no different. And, you know, he's been through a lot. He's been through a lot. People would have a lot of sympathy for, empathy for, you know, tough, very violent childhood, home life, you know, dysfunctional family, no father, figure present, a mother who loves him to pieces but is very emotionally needy. He's been through a lot of terrifying things and he's very endearing because he always tries to do the best that he can.

And I think that we love him for that. He doesn't want to be a bad guy. And at the same time as not wanting to be a bad guy, he does become, in spite of his best intentions, I think he does become so over the course of the entire show. But moving towards that in the third season. And so I feel like it was especially important to set Norman up in the first two seasons as someone that we supported on whose side we were.

So as now we can start to make a challenge whether we were right to get on his side and to start supporting him in the first place. Bates Motel, catch up on past seasons at A&E and on demand. See more at A&E TV.com and new episodes every Monday on A&E. The flight radio. I'll send you in on the weekend with the very latest in pop culture.

For months now Marvel has been talking about a clean sweep when it comes to ending a bunch of different titles, all as part of the Secret Wars series that hits in just a couple of months. And now it looks like that list includes some 33 Marvel books, some of which are some mainstay titles. On there are things like Avengers, Amazing X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and of course Fantastic Four. And some newer books too as well like All New Captain America, Angela Esgard's Assassin and Iron Fist the Living Weapon. Marvel has said that some of these titles may return later on in a new form but pretty much Secret Wars is planned to wipe the slate clean for Marvel.

Not unlike what happened with DC's New 52 a few years back. Look for announcements on new titles coming up. In the meantime look for last days storylines to continue in a few major Marvel titles as they begin to wrap those up with issues on the shelves in April. Amazon has given a second season nod to their original series Bosch which premiered on the network back in February. It was one of the ones of course chosen by Amazon viewers and they certainly will follow up on that because it is the most watched show on the network as well.

The second season of the show which stars Titus Williver will more than likely debut sometime early in 2016. The phenomenon known as Empire continues to amaze people in pop culture. The Fox hit show now has a soundtrack which was released a few days back and has debuted at the number one spot on the Billboard 200 even beating out the new Madonna CD as well. It marks the first TV soundtrack to come in as number one since Glee. Despite our rocking battle with the ratings this season Fox has announced that Sleepy Hollow will be back for a third run at the network.

They do have a new showrunner though Clifton Campbell who's from the Glades will take over a showrunner when season three begins in the fall. Looks like another comic book centered success for the CW the IZombie series it debuted a few days ago pulled a pretty good rating picking up a point nine in the coveted category of adults 18 to 49 and a total of 2.3 million viewers on the network. A slightly forgotten Marvel comic from the mid 80s has now been optioned hit the big screen. Christ Ryan produced by creator Ron Harris back in 1984 who also then later on took that character to a miniseries at Dark Horse has been optioned with writer David Cowper doing the final script based on an outline that Ron Harris created that he says pretty much describes the character as a steampunk inspired fusion of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. IDW is announcing they're releasing a line of tabletop games based on the Godfather franchise.

It first begins with a card game that will be due out in stores in August meanwhile IDW Games says they plan more Godfather products to be announced by the end of the year and early in 2016. The point, the point. Right in the middle of March Madness he may be the most hated guy in basketball or in sports overall. But exactly who is Christian Laidner filmmaker Rory Karff explains Christian Laidner is arguably one of the greatest college basketball players of all time and many he's the most hated college player of all time. One of the most hated athletes of all time.

So why does everybody hate Christian? You know what we break it down to the five points of late and hate there were numerous reasons they all kind of came together in a perfect storm. One is privilege. The idea that he has something that you don't go into Duke University that he's better than you. The fact that a lot of people saw him as a bully he was compared to Johnny and the karate kid, the Cobra Kai.

The fact that he was a great player. His look was another reason. Good looking guy. A lot of DNA envy and the fact that he was white at a time when being white in college basketball was definitely not cool. And sports isn't winning just enough.

Do we really have to like our sports celebrities? I'm with you. I mean winning is the goal right. I think you know hey there's envy in the winning and I think it's almost human nature that we want to build people up and then we want to we want to break them down. So we like to see the rise but then we want to see the fall.

Rory's put together this documentary which ESPN is airing all this month and I ask him what we'd see in there. Well first of all I think we tried to inject some humor in the film. Rob Lowe narrates it and is executive producer. And so there's some humor, there's some pop culture in the film. Also there's some controversial topics.

Race, homophobia, bullying. So we delve into all that and hopefully it's a film that appeals to haters and non-haters. And the title I hate Christian Laidner. Hopefully if you have no idea who this guy is you just tune in you'll be entertained and enlightened. Catch Rory's documentary We Hate Christian Laidner running all this month on ESPN or check it out on ESPN on demand.

The point, the point. While comics themselves had a great month for sales in comic stores in February for graphic novels they were flat when compared to where they were back in 2014 during the same period. DC of course still having a good showing and image the dominant publisher. When you look at the top 10 graphic novels the best sellers started number 10 with kick ass number three. Saga volume one still on the list of number nine.

Ms. Marvel volume one at number eight. Walking Dead volume 11 comes in at number seven. Number six best seller was the first volume of Trees at number five. It was the ninth volume of Chew at number four. Brian K. Von Saga again this time at volume four.

At number three for the month to fade out volume one number two Sex Criminals volume two. And the best selling graphic novel in stores during the month of February. Superman Earth One volume three from DC. The point. I think we're right now but when we're back we'll look first at a veteran series.

We'll find out what's happening with grim for the rest of the season. And what about the new hit I zombie. How does it relate to the comic book origins. We'll find out all that and more out right here and you'll follow it on websites like ComicMix dot com. Michael Davis World dot com.

Get the point radio dot com and in the iTunes podcast directory. We're so easy to find on Instagram Twitter and Facebook under the point radio and we'll be right back here in a few days. Get the point radio. Dot com. Get the point radio dot com.