Is Felix Losing His Funny? Orphan Black’s Jordan Gavaris Dishes on a Darker Season 3

Why is the show's funniest character feeling so low this season?

By Sydney Bucksbaum Apr 17, 2015 10:01 PMTags
Orphan Black, Season 3 PremiereBBC

Orphan Black's resident comedic relief won't be nearly as funny this season.

For the past two seasons, Felix (Jordan Gavaris) has been the character to lighten the mood whenever things threatened to get too dark with our clones, but in the upcoming third season, Felix is going to be just as dark as everyone around him...and he's going to be giving it as good as he's getting it.

"Comedy is a tricky thing, and it's something I found within the character because it made sense at the time in his early conception," Gavaris tells E! News. "It made him likeable, and he's a funny guy. But there was always something much deeper going on with him, more complex and truthful, because the loudest, funniest person in the room might be the most uncomfortable. So if I peel this away, what's his next layer down?"

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And underneath his sarcasm and comedy is something you wouldn't expect. Gavaris reveals that will come to light through his relationships with one of the Leda clones.

"I'm excited to see him push back a bit on Sarah and develop more of a relationship with the other sisters," Gavaris says. "The Allison dynamic is a no-brainer and obviously Sarah and he have a lot of history but they've paired him a lot with Cosima this year, which is fun because Cosima is one of those characters who, no matter who she's talking to, there's never any inequity. So when she talks to him, she talks to him like an equal and a real person, not like an accessory or a crisis counselor or a sidekick."

It's through his relationship with Cosima that the Clone Club will finally learn what's going on with Felix underneath the surface.

"They talk about life and love and loneliness, which is something we haven't really explored with him yet," Gavaris explains. "His life is not easy. He just gets dumped on a lot. It's fun to play with the heaviness of the last two seasons of the show this year. The drama of all that has happened is going to start to wear on him and bring him down. The exhaustion and fatigue is going to be really palpable."

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And that will finally motivate Felix to become more independent from his foster sister.

"He gets more independent in so many different ways, and I think it's time!" Gavaris says. "Sarah is still our touchstone and we're following Leda and Castor, which is informing a lot of the season, but Felix has a bit of an agenda in which I think there's a bit of nobility in it. Let's call it a vendetta actually. It's fun to watch him insert himself and assert his superiority for once."

Will Felix finally get a stable love interest this season? Don't hold your breath.

"As of now, I can't say," Gavaris says with a laugh. "That would be great, but the season is not over yet so I don't know if that will happen. But as of now, I think we're having more fun staying in the zone of him being unable to have a relationship like that because of what's happening in his life, because of Sarah. That's wearing on him."

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And though Gavaris warns this season will get darker in more ways than one, he's excited for the fans to see it for one reason.

"The world is bigger than it was last season, but season two had a lot of story, a lot of plot, a lot of questions thrown at you, and this season, we'll get lots of answers," Gavaris says. "We wrap a couple of loose ends up which I think was necessary since we spiderwebbed into about 5 million different directions last season. This season, we give a lot more answers to questions posed in season two and we ask a lot fewer questions."

He continues, "The world may be expanding but we're getting back on track to answer the big questions of ‘Why?' Why Leda, why Castor, why did they do this? The light at the end of the tunnel is just starting to make an appearance."

If you want to catch up on Orphan Black before season three premieres, IFC is airing a 21-hour marathon of the BBC America show beginning at midnight on Friday, April 17. You can also find out where to watch it here.

Orphan Black season three premieres Saturday at 9 p.m. on BBC America.