Paste Magazine has published a new interview with Tom on their site:

Draco Malfoy is all grown up.

Tom Felton, who played the devious Malfoy in all eight Harry Potter films, now stars as tech genius Erich Blunt in the new TNT series Murder in the First (which airs Mondays at 10PM).

The series, from legendary executive producer Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue), will follow a homicide investigation for ten episodes. As viewers learned in last week’s premiere, Felton’s Blunt is a prime suspect in two seemingly unrelated murders.Paste caught up with Felton to talk about the new series, whether or not he thinks Blunt is guilty and when he decided to become an actor.

Paste Magazine: How did this part come about for you?
Tom Felton: I’ve been a fan of Steven Bochco’s work for a long time so when I heard he was ramping up with a new pilot that was very exciting. And then I read the character and saw what he was about. It was a world that I wasn’t particularly knowledgable about—thankfully with Steven and [executive producer and co-creator] Eric Lodal, we managed to kind of get to the root of this character. As soon as we had those discussions, it was something I was immediately passionate about. I knew that I wanted to see this character through.

Paste: The series will run for ten episodes. Did you know how it would end when you started filming?
Felton: No, that was the exciting part. I’m very used to knowing where the character ends before we start. And not only did they not tell me, they insisted on not revealing anything, and just going from script to script which was kind of scary at first, because I’ve never done that. It was a real challenge. The characters seem to change so much. Everything you think you know about one person is flipped on its head in the next episode. It was a really exciting journey to try to figure it out episode by episode.

Paste: So you never knew who had committed the murders?
Felton: The entire cast and crew, every day we had new theories and new speculations on who we thought was in the firing line, and that was up to the very last day of shooting. We always said if we’re still guessing and we’re reading the thing then God only knows how gripped audiences will be in not exactly knowing who’s guilty. I’m pleased to say that, even as the character, I didn’t know until the very last minute. They were very keen not to share the information with us and it’s definitely a hell of a roller coaster of a ride.

Paste: So, they never told you whodunit. But while I was watching the first three episodes they made available to critics, I kept going back and forth about whether Erich was guilty or not. Did that happen to you? Or did you just decide, in your own mind, on his innocence or guilt?
Felton: That’s what I thought I would do at first, but Eric and Steven were very keen to get this idea in my head that it’s actually a lot more powerful as a character to do every single scene as this real experience. You essentially never know if you’re lying or not, which was kind of confusing at first but actually was great in the end. It allowed you to sort of completely dive into the scenes. You were focusing without looking ahead and thinking, ‘Oh, wait a minute—later on he does this or he does that.’.

Paste: You mentioned the tech world was not something you knew a lot about. Did you do some research to prepare for the role?
Felton: I did lots of interviews with these young CEOs to sort of see how they interacted. But more important than that, was getting in my head that these people are today in modern day society. Twenty, thirty years ago you had the Rolling Stones. They were the rock stars of their society, and nowadays it’s really these Facebook, Instagram-using, young CEO’s. They are basically the rock stars of today. Twenty years ago if you were a computer geek it wasn’t really the coolest thing to be in the world, and now it’s completely turned on its head. Not only is Erich a free thinker, but because he’s such a tech genius it makes him one of the coolest people on the planet and one of the most powerful. It was a realization to me to see what these people are in today’s society.

Paste: How did you relate to him as you began playing him?
Felton: It’s very immersive especially with the accent change. Someone like Erich, his train of thought isn’t on the same level as the rest of us. His frustration and his anger comes purely from what I think. When you have a mind that isn’t controlled or tainted by the society around it, it makes for a very peculiar thought process. But for him it’s completely normal and completely right.

There’s something very intoxicating about playing a character who is completely sure about everything that they say and do. There is no second-guessing. After a few episode that really stuck with me. Even when he’s not speaking, he’s very aware of what’s going on.

Paste: In last week’s pilot, we learned that Erich was the son of a drug-addict pimp and a prostitute. Will we learn more about his troubled childhood as the series progresses?
Felton: He’s an example of the brightest rose growing from concrete. He had a very rough and unstable childhood, but in an odd way that leads to him being the person he is today. Without shining a light on it too much, his background definitely comes into play later on.

Paste: You’ve been acting since you were a child. When did you realize you wanted to be an actor?
Felton: I’ve always enjoyed it. I never realized it to be honest with you. I don’t think I ever stopped to realize, ‘Oh this is what I want to do.’ People who are lucky enough to do what they want to do in their life never really realize it. They just never stop doing what they love. I get a lot of children asking me for advice on the best thing to do to try to get into this business and I always say, ‘Do it because you love it.’ I was part of a drama group from around six years on. I vividly remember imitating Jim Carrey in front of the mirror for days on end. God knows why.

I think the reason that it comes really naturally to me is because I used to do it as a youngster—I used to imitate what I saw on TV. It’s always been something that I’ve enjoyed subconsciously. Now I just get to be a lucky man and do it as my job.

Paste: Did you ever think about doing anything else?
Felton: There’s lots of thing I enjoy as well—music, writing, behind the camera stuff. The whole medium of TV, film, and music sort of fascinates me. I did several other jobs in the meantime—a paper route, I worked at a fishery for two years. I’ve had other experiences in the working world but as much as I enjoyed them, I always keep coming back to acting.

Paste: Draco Malfoy is such an iconic character. Was it hard to transition to more adult roles and to get casting directors to see you as more than Draco?
Felton: Harry Potter opened as many doors as it’s closed. But, ultimately, it’s been a good thing. I’ve been extremely lucky that the people that I’ve worked with since Potter have all been very helpful, and very happy to spend some time teaching me the ways of different mediums, from low budget films, to TV, to theater. It’s been very helpful.

Paste: Anything else you can tell us about what to expect for the rest of the season of Murder in the First?
Felton: It ends with a bang. I guarantee it.

TNT has uploaded a new video of Murder in the First .

Murder in the First: Do you think Erich Blunt is sleeping with more than one of his employees? #letsgoback

BTW, we have a lot of screenshots from the second episode – thanks to Sabrina for the screenshots – more in our gallery.

Interview Magazine published an interview with Tom earlier this week. Niki Cruz spoke with him about his TV series ‘ Murder in the First ‘.

Tom Felton’s Television Villain

Tonight, the American audience will see Tom Felton through a new lens. Now 26, the British actor is best known for playing the bleached blond supreme school manipulator Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise. In the new TNT miniseries Murder in the First, however, the former child actor trades the wizardry of Hogwarts for the wizardry of San Francisco’s tech world. Felton plays Erich Blunt, a ruthless Mark Zuckerberg-esque computer prodigy and CEO of a fictional RPG game company called Applicon.

When Blunt’s estranged birth father and former staffer are both found dead, he becomes the main suspect in a police investigation led by homicide detectives Terry English  (Taye Diggs) and Hildy Mulligan (Kathleen Robertson).

Created by Eric Lodal and Steven Bochco, the latter of whom was instrumental in creating and shaping the procedural crime genre with shows like L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, Murder in the First is a slow-burning crime drama. Instead of offering up a case an episode, Bochco and Lodal use the popular 10-episode mini series format to follow two related homicide cases.

While the character of Blunt easily could be overwhelmed by melodrama, Felton’s performance is never gratuitous. Behind the venom-filled monologues Blunt expertly spits out to undermine his staff is a layer of anxiety—a boy who has always been a little bit removed from everyone around him.

Last week, Tom Felton spoke to us about moving on from Harry Potter and stepping into the shoes of the 21st century’s answer to a rock god.

NIKI CRUZ: You’ve done a fantastic job at playing these characters that have a bit of a sinister edge to them—all in various degrees. Is that something that feels comfortable to you?

TOM FELTON: I say yes because that seems to be the bulk of what I’ve done. I definitely get a mass enjoyment out of it. There’s something very intoxicating about playing someone so volatile and someone who can lose his temper at any second. Like you said, I think the characters that I have played with this note of cynicism [have] completely different reasons, and Erich more so than any previously. People like to say they’re villains, but I don’t think any of them are demons when I look back at them.

CRUZ: It’s been a few years since the Harry Potter franchise came to an end. At the time, was it difficult moving on from the Harry Potter series?

FELTON: Not really. It was a very sad time when it finished because it had been a home for us for so long; we were all so close to the crew for obvious reasons. But afterwards, it was exciting to see what else was out there. When you’re playing a character for 10 years, it can challenge you less than it did at the beginning, so it was exciting to take on some new shoes. Especially with Erich Blunt, because being a tech wizard wasn’t something I thought I would do after Harry Potter.

CRUZ: Steven Bochco has a unique voice within the investigative procedural genre, which paved the way for shows like The Killing and this year’s True Detective. Were you familiar with his work before signing on to Murder in the First?

FELTON: Less so the genre, though True Detective, I am a big fan of. I’ve certainly been a big fan of Steven’s work for a while. Mostly because my dad was a big fan, so I watched a lot of his work growing up. I think the great thing about this show is that it feels like you’ve known these characters for years, but it’s a completely new backdrop. San Francisco is such a great place aesthetically to shoot, but to include it in this tech world—it definitely feels like something new at the same time.

CRUZ: How is it playing someone that feels really contemporary?

FELTON: It’s really exciting, actually. It was something different for me. I had such a wealth of research material at my fingertips. Eric [Lodal] and I spent a long time sending videos back and forth of different CEOs of different companies and exploring that whole world. He defined it beautifully when he said, “These people are the rock stars of our generation.” The ones who, 20 years ago, would be deemed as the geeks and now they’re the power holders and the ones that are really in control of how we communicate. It was liberating to see how these people really are the cool kids of our generation.

CRUZ: Erich isn’t the most sympathetic character, but it’s apparent he is under a ton of pressure that kind of combats his arrogance. How did the character read to you on paper—was it difficult to humanize Erich?

FELTON: Yeah. that was something that I give a lot of credit to the writers for. It’s very easy to lose your temper quickly with this character, because he’s such a volatile human being and has very little understanding of people who don’t understand his train of thought. His train of thought is definitely above the rest of us, and because of that he doesn’t have much time for people who don’t understand that. In the further episodes we really get to see him as a flawed human.

CRUZ: Was playing into that at all intimidating?

FELTON: It was exciting. I’m far from a whiz when it comes to these things, but I’m a geek when it comes to gadgets. The technology that actually Erich Blunt is selling throughout the series has a massive relevance. It’s something that you may see now and think is still a bit pie in the sky, but give it a few more years and it’ll be something that’s very much on our doorsteps. It’s interesting to discover the ins and outs of what we were talking about technically.

CRUZ: Did you look into the earlier years of these larger-than-life guys like Mark Zuckerberg? Or listen to early Apple keynote speeches from Steve Jobs?

FELTON: Yeah, less so of Steve Jobs but more of the youngsters that are coming up today. Whether it’s Vimeo or Instagram, there was a lot of great material out there for me to look at. Not that we really used that as a staple, but it was educational. People with those fantastic minds weren’t always socially adaptable people, so that in itself was quite interesting.

CRUZ: Some of these brilliant minds are very rigid, and they’re almost vilified and worshipped in equal measure.

FELTON: It’s like in politics: You can have great intentions for the world, but if you’re not a good speaker and if you’re not the sort of person that people can intimately link with, then it makes it very easy to say, “Well, they’re not a nice person.” Erich is a really good example of that.

CRUZ: There’s this parallel where you can compare the fame that the head of a CEO has in the tech world to that of an actor. It struck me when Erich said in a kind of cavalier way that friends think he’s a cash register. Is that specific idea of fame something that you can relate to? [laughs]

FELTON: [laughs] Fortunately, no! I have very good friends. Erich’s the youngest billionaire ever, so he has somewhat more of a disposable income. Honestly I never even thought about that, but now that you say it there’s an unmistakable parallel between those two. Not only is he a youngster, but he’s also one of the most famous. I suppose unconsciously I tapped into that. There’s some beautiful moments with Erich, which I definitely could adapt to easier—it’s being in a room and noticing that he can catch people’s eyes, like people who clock him before they meet him. Looking back at it, that was an interesting parallel in certain situations.

CRUZ: Since the app world is heavily discussed, what are some of your favorites?

FELTON: I go back and forth. I used to be mad on the games, but I had to ban myself. I used to spend three dollars on games, [but] it adds up, so now I’m on the social side of things like Twitter and Instagram. I love my weather apps. I guess because all the Brits are obsessed with weather.

CRUZ: Some of these detective shows have been done so often, it’s kind of like paint by numbers, butMurder in the First unpacked a lot of rich background and twists just in the pilot. What were you most surprised by?

FELTON: Yeah, I wish I can talk more about those twists, but give it a few months and you’ll see the burden of information that I have in what these characters all go through. I was just saying to a friend, even the cast and crew were huddling around every day trying to come up with theories about who did what. We learned episodically. For all of us to be guessing who done what, I can only imagine what audiences are going to go through. I’m excited to hear about people’s theories and thoughts as the episodes go on.

CRUZ: Would you do something like this again?

FELTON: 100 percent. I’ve said to Steven and Eric if they need any of my services I’ll be there. It was so much fun more than anything. I’ve never worked like this where you’re doing nine to 10 pages of dialogue in a day. That was unheard of back when I was growing up, so it was hard work in some instances but the most rewarding in others. I felt very grateful to be a part of it.

credit: Interview Magazine