Just days after arriving in Los Angeles, Hollywood gossip sites were buzzing with speculation about the chemistry between Kiwi actor Jay Ryan and his stunning new Beauty and the Beast co-star Kristin Kreuk. The pair featured on blogger Perez Hilton’s website with the caption: “Co-stars getting cozy?? We’re okay with that!” – a story that quickly spread to other entertainment and fan sites. But the Go Girls hunk tells the Weekly their first encounter was anything but charming.
The pair met during a “chemistry read” for the upcoming Prime TV series. “We worked well together and had a good connection, but because of my hair being shaved [for Jane Campion’s mini-series Top of the Lake], they put a really bad wig on me, so Kristin met me and I looked like this westie bogan from hell! Then I was like, ‘Hey Kristin, I just got off the plane, I’m from New Zealand and I hope you like me.’”
“Jay was a lot more conscious of the wig than I was!” adds former Smallville actress Kristin. Despite the awkward introduction, the pair hit it off on camera and Jay (30) quickly landed the lead part of Vincent, the beast.Although the primetime role could make him a household name in the US, Jay had been busy working on Top of the Lake in Queenstown so wasn’t planning to chase any US work this year. But producers had heard about the actor after he tested for the Kate Hudson film Something Borrowed, so they started pursuing the Kiwi.
“They called and said, ‘Put yourself on tape,’ and I’m a fan of the original series so I was intrigued. I was brought over for a test deal, flown back [to New Zealand], got off the plane and was told to get on the next flight back to LA for the chemistry read. I’ve been chipping away at the Hollywood market for seven years, so it was lucky it all worked out.”Chatting to the Weekly in LA, Jay – who made his name as Jack Scully on Neighbours – says he’s settling in well. “It’s pretty cool… it’s going great.”
The series centres on Kristin’s character, Catherine Chandler, a homicide detective haunted by her mother’s murder years ago, after which she witnessed a beast attacking the killer and saving her life. The beast turns out to be Vincent, the victim of a military experiment that left him prone to turning beastly – a transition Jay says required him to sit in the makeup chair for 18 hours during his first week of filming in Toronto.
“They’re still getting the exact look we’re after, but for the pilot it was three hours, six days in a row and I was in that makeup for 12 to 14 hours. In Toronto it was so cold I’d step off the bus and the glue froze to my face!” Soon it’ll be melting off when the show starts filming in Toronto later this month before debuting to US audiences in October, then premiering in New Zealand on Prime TV.
Jay has already made his first official appearance with Kristin (29), at San Diego convention Comic-Con, where fans asked for photos and autographs. “When I saw it was very different, I was even more excited because I wouldn’t want to try and remake the original. The fan base is huge – we’d get our heads chopped off!”
Now preparing for filming to recommence, Jay’s reaching out to his Hollywood friends, including Aussie actress/singer Delta Goodrem, his former Neighbours love interest. “Come say hi when you’re in LA next #JackScully misses you ;)” he tweeted the star, who responded, “Oh my gosh!! Are you here in LA??#NinamissesJack xxx”.
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