In Part Two of our exclusive interview, SPARTACUS: GODS OF THE ARENA creator/showrunner Steven S. DeKnight talks about casting, nudity, sword fights, working around the illness of leading man Andy Whitfield and what we can expect next year. The limited series airs Friday nights on Starz.
ASSIGNMENT X: When you first conceived of doing SPARTACUS, were any of the characters written with any specific performers in mind?
DeKNIGHT: No, we figured out the characters and then the actors came in [to audition]. Often we’d have a preconceived idea of who that character is physically, and an actor would come in with a look that we hadn’t considered, but he just really nailed the character.
