Continuum’s Victor Webster On the Show’s Unique Dynamic & Curveball Season Finale

For someone who stumbled into acting by chance, Victor Webster has carved quite a career over the last ten years, appearing in such hit shows as Mutant X, Castle, CSI, Bones, Drop Dead Diva, Melrose Place and Lincoln Heights among others. Right now, Victor is starring in Showcase’s Continuum, as Carlos Fonnegra, a smart and tough Police Detective partnered with a woman desperate to keep her true identity, and secret agenda, hidden.

“I was a stock broker for about two years,” he admits. “Actually, I kind of bounced around in a few different professions, not really sure what I wanted to do with my life. I did a lot of traveling. I modeled for a little bit. I remember coming back from an eight month trip to Italy, and I started taking some acting classes to help me out with commercials, and I was thinking ‘Wow, I forgot how much I loved this.’ I had taken theater classes in school and I’d been in a couple of plays, but I just hadn’t done it in a long time. So I found myself doing that again and it was really exciting and fun. I remember thinking that this was a job where I could get to play someone different all the time, and have an interesting career and travel, so I started pursuing it and it just slowly started unfolding and happening for me.”

Continuum has been described as a scifi show for scifi purists, with a dystopian future, time travel (and all its associated paradoxes) and future-tech featuring prominently in the show each week. It’s a world Victor admits he is attracted to. “I love the scifi genre,” he says. “I love living in this world of fantasy and having the ability to create absolutely anything you want from nothing. In the world of scifi anything is possible, and that’s always appealed to me. It appeals to the kid inside of me with the big imagination.”

Partnered with the intriguing but secretive Kiera (Rachel Nichols) Carlos is currently unaware that she has come from the future in order to put a stop to the dangerous and wily terrorist group Liber8, who themselves have traveled back in time to alter key events and secure their future success. I ask Victor just how close Carlos will come this season to figuring out the truth about his partner.

“Well, this is the thing,” he explains. “He knows there’s something fishy going on. There’s no way he would assume she’s from the future, or that she’s traveled back in time. It’s just not a possibility as far as Carlos is concerned, but he knows something is going on and he keeps his eyes open. He’s been told that he has to work with Kiera. There’s no ifs, ands or buts. He actually likes this person, and she’s had his back, and vice versa, on more than one occasion. So he does trust her as a person.”

“As far as is he going to discover what’s going on? Maybe in … season five?” he laughs. “I don’t know what the writers have planned,  but I think the show is that much more interesting when we don’t know. When he does find out, I think the writers will find a very cool way to make that happen. I have complete faith in Simon [Barry] and the rest of the writing staff. Whatever they do, it’s going to be awesome.”

Rachel Nichols and Victor Webster in Continuum. Image courtesy and © Shaw Media

There is no doubt that Carlos and Kiera have a unique relationship, and many fans of the show are speculating as to whether their professional dynamic will lead to something more. Victor weighs in on that possibility with his own take on the characters. “It’s like a tightrope. How do you walk that?” he says with a shrug. “There’s a husband and a son that she’s so desperately trying to get back to, but she’s stuck here with no hope of getting home. Do you want to have her keep her integrity as a mother and a wife? But then you may want to see two people that are there for each other in a desperate situation. I don’t know if Carlos and Kiera will ever happen … or maybe I do and I won’t tell you,” he adds with a roguish chuckle. “But let me just put it this way, the writers are really good at keeping people on their toes. That’s the thing about the writing on this show. It’s so  smart. It keeps you involved because it gives you a little taste and leaves you wanting more. They don’t overdo anything.”

With the season finale airing this Sunday on Showcase, I ask Victor what fans can hope to expect. “Curve balls!” he replies definitively. “There will be a lot of curve balls thrown at you. Some things are going to come from out of left field. Some things are going to happen now that will pay off in the future – literally and figuratively. So much happens in that final episode that is so pivotal for the outcome of the characters of the show … Oh I can’t really give anything away. Curve balls! Curve balls is a very good way to describe the season finale.”

“If you believe in the ripple effect of time travel, then everything that happens in our show conceivably has to have some effect on future events. The question is, has this all happened before? Is this the first time that Kiera has come back? It’s like being in a fun house of mirrors. Everywhere you look there’s something strange, and you don’t know what’s real or not. The producers and writers are great about leaving our heads spinning!”

So where does Victor see Carlos in season two? “Well I love action,” he admits. “So I would love to get into it with Liber8. I’d love to see Carlos track them down and get into a hand to hand fight with Roger Cross’ character, Travis. Maybe chasing him from rooftop to rooftop. That would be great. Generally, I’d like for him to go a little deeper into the wormhole, start to figure things out. Why does she keep talking to herself all the time? Who is she on the phone with? Eventually, I think Carlos is going to do  a little more investigating.”

Terry Chen as Curtis. Victor Webster as Carlos. Image courtesy and © Shaw Media.

For such an action-rich show, both Victor and Rachel are keen to do as much of their own stunt work as possible.  “The stunt people are always there,” he tells me. “But Rachel is very athletic and really quick to pick things up. She doesn’t come from a Martial Arts background but she’s done a lot of action-orientated acting with Alias and Criminal Minds and GI Joe so she’s used to it. For me, I come from a background of Martial Arts. I’ve been training since I was nine years old. The stunt people are always there – but they’re usually bored!” he laughs. “We do everything. Our fight and stunt co-ordinator is more than happy, and actually encourages us, to do everything, unless it’s extremely dangerous and we may not walk away from it. There was a scene where we fought together in a kitchen and I actually get tackled through a wall and they didn’t want us to do it because it was really dangerous. But we proposed the idea to the producers and they eventually said yes. When you get to see the actor’s face in any kind of an action movie it’s such a payoff for the audience. So any time that we can, we do our own stunt scenes.”

“Have you ever injured yourself?” I ask.

“Of course! All the time! I’ve been in movies and television shows where I was cut in the face where a stunt sword had broken. I’ve almost poked my eye out. I’ve broken my elbow. I’ve sprained both ankles. I’ve torn my rotator cuff. In all of the television shows and movies that I’ve done, I’ve done my own stunts. You always end up getting hurt. And I like to push the limits. I like to take it a little further than I’m supposed to, which is probably an issue I need to deal with,” he confesses with a laugh.

Catch the season finale of Continuum Sunday 9 pm ET/PT on Showcase.