Last week we heard from Kristin Hager, who plays Sophie on MTV's newest Tuesday night series, "Valemont." This week, Hollywood Crush caught up with another coed, Eric Balfour, who plays Sophie's older brother (uh, also named Eric) on the supernatural drama. Eric called us from his Texas hotel room, where he's staying while shooting a western, to give us the scoop on his "Valemont" character, dealing with a new model of television, and what to expect in upcoming episodes.
As "Valemont" followers will know, Sophie is using Eric's cell phone, which is full of mysterious videos and text messages, to figure out the circumstances behind his mysterious death. Eric the actor described Eric the character as "a guy who is sort of always been in and out of trouble. When the opportunity arises to go to Valemont University and maybe discover some of the truth behind his own family's legacy and maybe his own family horror, he goes for it. I don't want to say too much!"
Clearly, Crushers, there's some sort of twist to this series, but Eric was careful not to give anything away — something he's had experience with in the past. "I used to do this on '24.' My friends would ask me, 'Dude, I can't believe [this character].' And I was like, 'Dude, he's dead already.' 'What?!' 'Oh right, we're shooting episode 17 and they've only aired episode 10. Sorry!'"
Eric said the shoot was exciting not only because he got to work with writer Christian Taylor, but also because he got to do a lot of hands-on camerawork. "We would go off with these little cameras and guerilla-style shoot whatever we wanted for hours. It was cool, because most of the time when you're on set, you're waiting around for lighting and this and that. It was fun to get down and dirty and take the camera."
Overall, Eric said he thinks this series is a creative new way for people to take in entertainment. "I think it's a very good image of what programming is going to look like in the future. It's very serialized, almost like radio shorts form the 1920s and 1930s where every day you just get a little bit of the story. It's interesting because it's almost like a game of Clue. The idea is that basically every three minutes there's a cliffhanger, so you're constantly trying to figure out the pieces to the puzzle."
The partnership with Verizon could have made things awkward creatively, but Eric said it actually turned out great for both the phone company and the writers. "There was a really important twist and plot point as to how the phone would be integrated on the show. There is a fine line between commerce and creativity and it's not always easy to know what's what, but I think this is actually a pretty cool way of doing it. And if there are more companies like this that can come up with smart ideas from writers, that is beneficial to everyone. It always behooves the creators and the artists to try new things. The product doesn't have to be the enemy."
As for that twist that's coming up, Eric would only say this: "Nothing that you think is true is true. Everything you thought was true up to this point is not what it seems."
Don't forget to tune into new episodes of "Valemont" tonight, during "The Hills" and "The City."
Have you been following "Valemont?" Are you excited for tonight's new episodes?
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