iZombie's David Anders: Blaine is Going to Wreak Havoc and Chew Scenery

With the first trailer out and a premiere date finally set, everybody's talking about The CW's iZombie...and there are few actors on the show you're likely to hear more about than its big bad, David Anders.

Anders, a veteran of Alias and Once Upon a Time, plays Blaine DeBeers, a sentient zombie like our hero Liv but without any of her scruples or aversion to eating the living.

Anders joined ComicBook.com way back during Comic Con International: San Diego to talk about the series, which debuts March 17 at 9 p.m. on The CW.

You are the antagonist here, which is not unfamiliar territory for you. Why do you think it is that everyone thinks you have such a punchable face?

I don't...I can't say. I'm going to blame J.J. Abrams on this one, I'm going to take the high road. He's the one who cast me on Alias so it's all J.J.'s fault. It's all Mr. Sark's fault from Alias. At least I'm playing Americans now!

Well, you trade off the accent for the makeup this time around, though.

It's true. I do have some makeup in this one, yeah. You've got to go through the Mikado works, get all whitened up, become pale-face.

How much time does it take?

It's about an hour. Rose is light-skinned, whereas I'm stained red from golfing.

Have you read the comics?

Yes, I have. They're good. It's a great story, it's great art. We take the template of it and the title and then make our own out of it.

Tonally, what do you do to keep it on pace with that?

For the fans of the comic, I think it's important to maintain that tone and I think we do from what I know of what the writers have planned for us. It's important so as not to alienate those fans, but it's also important to make it our own to get our own fans.

As a bad guy, is it fun to just have a character who can do whatever you want without consequence? I mean, you're already dead!

Oh, yeah. Blaine is going to wreak havoc and Rob says he wants me to chew scenery, so it's going to be a very broad performance from David Anders.