London-bred actor Peter Gadiot heads down the rabbit hole as Alice’s true love Cyrus in the new series “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland,” premiering this Thursday on ABC.
The series follows Alice (Sophie Lowe), who, with the help of the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha) and the White Rabbit (the voice of John Lithgoe), escapes from a Victorian London asylum on a quest to find her true love, the genie Cyrus. But, trouble awaits in Wonderland courtesy of The Red Queen (Emma Rigby) and Jafar (Naveen Andrews).
Peter’s character, Cyrus, is the genie in the bottle, who (outside of his flashback love story with Alice) has to grant three wishes to whomever finds his case — and many people want his bottle.
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Access Hollywood learned more about Cyrus’ history, his love for Alice and his problems with “arch enemy” Jafar (Naveen Andrews), when ABC flew us up to the Vancouver set of the show, where they made us their guest.
Here’s a few things to know about Cyrus…
A Genie Is At The Will Of Different Masters: “Literally, he is controlled by the person who discovers the bottle. So each person, according to the standing law, gets three wishes and until they use those three wishes, they’re his master,” Peter said, when Access asked about who controls Cyrus.
But, don’t expect smooth sailing for Cyrus and his love, Alice, if she were to find his bottle.
“If Alice was to get the bottle and have three wishes then she would essentially [have] control, but it’s not quite as simple as that because…. things always come with a cost,” Peter said, echoing words similar to Rumplestiltskin on “Wonderland’s” sister show, “Once Upon A Time.” “There’s always another side to it. So if you want something to happen and you wish for something, there’s always gonna be like a little nip in the bud.”
Being A Genie Isn’t A Job One Aspires To: “I think it’s kind of understood that being a genie is seen as some sort of punishment. … You get put in there for eternity to serve as a slave… You don’t get to be punished by being a good man,” Peter said when one reporter on the press trip asked if Cyrus has a dark side. “So, although what we see in Cyrus is the result of hundreds of years of a journey… and [looking] into himself and [a journey of] change, how did he get into the bottle? I can’t say for sure, but I can’t see any other way than him being punished for being like a bad person, for being a completely different person, for being very flawed. … That’s my own personal belief. He has to be, otherwise how would he get in the bottle.”
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Cyrus Is In For A Lot Of Trouble In Season 1: “I can say this, Cyrus does not have it easy,” Peter told reporters. “He gets a tough time of it because… obviously, he’s got two adversaries in The Red Queen [Emma Rigby] and Jafar, who have lots of magical powers and lots of abilities to do things and every genie has a flaw and they know the flaws and so they exploit it. So he suffers a lot, but ultimately, I think there is hope and we have to hope and believe that Alice and Cyrus will be united and they’ll live happily ever after. It’s a fairytale after all.”
“Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” premieres Thursday, October 10 at 8/7c on ABC.
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