Actor Adrian Paul talks to Dreamwatch Total Sci Fi about new sequel Highlander: The Source, his life as an immortal and the challenges of working with a Scottish accent… Words: Calum Waddell

It’s been a long wait for Highlander fans, but a fifth instalment in the series is finally here – albeit without franchise regular Christopher Lambert (who has played the part of Connor MacLeod since 1986’s original classic).

Instead the latest outing, entitled Highlander: The Source, focuses entirely on Adrian Paul’s character Duncan MacLeod – who headlined the long running Highlander television series before being belatedly introduced into the cinematic legacy with 2000’s Highlander: Endgame.

However, if Paul is under any pressure as a sudden leading man then he certainly doesn’t show it. Instead, the actor displays a remarkably blasé attitude towards the absence of his former co-star. When asked if he feels any pressure from Highlander fans in both producing and headlining a movie that is without the series’ most famous face, Paul shrugs and says “Nah – not really.” You have to admire such self confidence!

“Well, you know, Chris is great,” continues the actor. “Don’t get me wrong - I love him and I think he did a great job of putting Highlander on the map. But this is about the world of Highlander rather than just one person and we are bringing back a couple of faces from the television show, who were very popular. With this movie we are looking to bring Highlander to a new and younger audience. We have a fairly young cast, so that is where we are going with it… we are trying to revamp Highlander.”

Rip it up and start again

Indeed, Paul insists that Highlander: The Source – which is directed by The Lawnmower Man’s Brett Leonard - represents an all new start for the series, which has been plagued by continuity and logistical errors ever since 1991’s disastrous Highlander II: The Quickening.

“This is the first part of a new trilogy,” reveals the actor. “I don’t know about the next two parts. But I think that we are going to introduce a new Highlander in the coming films. I don’t know if I am going to continue onscreen, I will probably stay onboard as a producer – but whether I am in them will depend on a number of different factors.”

Highlander: The Source takes place in the near future during a time of chaos. With the world at war, MacLeod teams up with a new group of immortals to track down the “source” of their eternal life. “It is really a mirror of what is going on in the world today,” says Paul. “The movie is set a few years in the future and, as you can see right now, there are bombings, riots, floods… and this is where the new Highlander world starts. It is because of this unrest that the ‘source’ appears – which we reveal has happened before during pivotal times in history. The source has to put right what man has put asunder, if you like.”

When he spoke to us on the set in Lithuania, the actor maintained that spirits were high on this fifth instalment. He also insisted that everyone was well aware of the need to effectively re-launch the series after the lack of commercial and critical success that greeted Highlander: Endgame (which had a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ North American theatrical run).

“We spent a lot of time at the beginning of this film to really work on two things – the script and the characters,” confirms the actor. “I don’t think they really did that so much on the other Highlander movies – so I would say that there is much more character development in this one. I heard a lot of people say, ‘I didn’t understand that, there’s too many flashbacks!’ when it came to the last one - and I kind of agree with them. It is because of this that we worked two or three months just doing character and script development. Since we started shooting Brett has been doing a really wonderful job as the director and this is a very different looking Highlander. I’m very excited about it.”

You can take his land but you’ll never take his accent!

For his Highlander work, Paul has always sported a forced Scottish accent in his role as Duncan MacLeod. However, history should indicate that this is something that many actors have made a total and utter dog’s dinner out of (see Donald Pleasance in Dario Argento’s Phenomena or Mel Gibson in Braveheart) – and Paul has at least shown some signs of improvement as the franchise has evolved. Surprisingly, however, the actor states that he had to fight for the right to keep his character’s native accent onscreen.

“Originally the producers on the television show kept saying, ‘You have to make it less.’ I was asking them, ‘Well, how do you want me to make it less?’” laughs Paul. “At one point they said to me, ‘You shouldn’t have an accent at all.’ To which I replied, ‘Well he’s called the Highlander! What accent do you want him to have? He’s Scottish for crying out loud!’ So I had a big fight with them at first and especially during our first season, but then they got feedback from the fans and they said they loved the Scottish accent.”

Budgeted at $8 million, Paul mentions that the new Highlander opus is awash with impressive effects and will create an entirely new fantasy landscape for its inevitable scenes of sword fighting and time travel. “There's a lot of CGI in this one,” he says. “Brett Leonard comes from the visual effects arena and he knows it very well. You have to remember that we are creating another world within this movie - and when you have to show things like Paris burning or whatever then you have got to see that and believe it.”

Finally, then, after two movies and a television series that ran for six years, does the actor ever wake up in the morning and sigh at the idea of having to play the immortal Scotsman again?

“Well the funny thing is that if you do a character for a long time then you get to know him - and there are always things that you’ve not worked on before,” answers Paul. “As an actor you can always find another way of playing someone – just as long as you can find some other element of that character’s life that you might not have looked at before. I like being able to find a role, work on it and then walk away and do something else. I’ve done Duncan MacLeod for years now but this instalment is definitely darker than the previous films and we are trying to explore all kinds of new avenues…”