Levi Meaden is a talented actor who is currently starring in Syfy’s “Aftermath”. The series follows a family as they battle for survival when civilization comes to an apocalyptic end. Prior to “Aftermath,” Levi recurred in another Syfy series, “Olympus” as well as guest starred on CW’s iZombie, FOX’s “Almost Human” and in the indie film, “Alice in the Attic” Levi can soon be seen starring in “Pacific Rim 2.”

Recently we got the chance to chat with Levi about acting, “Aftermath,” and what he would do if the world was coming to an end.

Check out our interview!

 

upfrontNY: How did you get involved in acting?

Levi Meaden: I did it when I was a kid locally back home in Calgary and then I stopped for a while when I got into my teens. I went traveling and ended up in the Czech Republic studying writing and directing and I had a teacher there with the name of Simon Howard who got me reinvigorated in the whole process of acting. I graduated and ended up back in Vancouver working for a production company. The owner who was also the director, Roger Larry saw some of the short films I had done there and convinced me it was worth while to pursue it as a career. He helped me find an agent. I got “The Killing” and it’s been moving ahead ever since.

 

upfrontNY: How did life change for you after “The Killing?”

Levi Meaden: After “The Killing,” acting became my sole job, which was nice to have that time to prepare for auditions and go out and find work, or be in the right position to get work.

It also gave me a certain profile, especially back home in Vancouver. It made me somewhat recognizable to people. It made it easier having that under my belt. As far as acting went, I think that was a trial by fire for me and a lot of the young guys in this 4^th season that were with me. It was a high-profile show, so we really had to learn how to come out with the best product possible. I learned a lot about how to create a full character in the shortest amount of time possible and give it heart, draw from made up experiences that hadn’t actually happened and apply to the character. It kind of just happened and was really cool; I discovered the real power of doing your homework.

 

upfrontNY: Can you tell us about your show, Aftermath on Syfy?

Levi Meaden: It’s insane. It’s an end of the world show about every possible end of the world scenario at once. The first episode doesn’t really let you catch your breath for a second, action sequence after action sequence, tragedy non stop for an entire hour. The show continues to build on that every week, there’s new monsters, new challenges.

The family is traveling in an RV as the world falls a part around them. We have a mom played by Anne Heche who is a badass ex military. The dad is the more cerebral one, he’s a university professor who specializes in ancient mythology, and 2 bratty little sisters that keep getting into trouble, and I’m an ex football player that has a bit of an anger streak in him.

 

upfrontNY: You talked before about developing a character. How did you develop your character for Aftermath?

Levi Meaden: I dug in the genre , the apocalyptic genre and did a lot I did a lot of research reading , The Stand, Swan Song, Comic books, trying to get my hand on what exactly it is they end up going through. I found this common thread of characters that push past their brink and snap and do something that is always in the face of life and death or evil. They have to learn how to return from that brink and come back to being a civilized human.  I think that’s really where I started to build the character.

 

upfrontNY: What type of disaster would you be most afraid of if this happened in real life – the storms or supernatural beings?

Levi Meaden: The storm, I feel like you could be prepared for. There are things in place for a storm. The supernatural, all guesses, all emergency procedures kind of go out the window. I don’t think anyone knows what to do and that’s when you get a lot of crazy people coming out and panicking and not knowing what to do. That would be much more terrifying than just a simple storm.

 

upfrontNY: If that happened, would you be the type to take action to save the world, or sit back and lock yourself n the house?

Levi Meaden: I usually have an escape plan, which involves me and a couple close friends getting as far away from the city as possible to a safe place. That’s what my plan would be. My extended family comes from a town of 300 people so me and my cousin have always had a plan to head there if anything goes wrong.

 

upfrontNY: At least you already have a plan ready and set to go if that ever happens!

Levi Meaden: Yeah, that was in Vancouver. I have to come up with a better plan in LA because that would be harder to get out, but I’m working on it.

 

upfrontNY: If this were to ever happen in real life and the world was coming to an end, what 3 things would you want to do?

Levi Meaden: Traveling. Skydiving again. Since it’s the end of the world, let’s do some intense weapon training just in case.

 

upfrontNY: Was the Syfy genre something you were always interested in?

Levi Meaden: I grew up a huge Syfy nerd. I was always obsessed with the star wars films. I read the extended books and watched the movies I don’t know how many times. My favorite Syfy movie is “Blade Runner”. Me and my friends growing up were huge genre fans. It was never the intention, but it seems I’ve gravitated more to it.

 

upfrontNY: You are going to be a part of “Pacific Rim 2.” What can you tell us about it?

Levi Meaden: There is not much I can really say at this point. Things are just getting geared up to go. More information will come out in the next weeks or months. It is all very under wraps. It is going to involve robots and monsters. It has Scott Eastwood, John Boyega, and is directed by Steven S. DeKnight.

 

upfrontNY: What do you like to do for Halloween?

Levi Meaden: I have a month-long scary movie marathon. Me and my buddies back in Vancouver sat down and watched the entire Friday the 13^th series over the month of October. Right now I have a second Amityville Horror playing on the back. I was a huge horror movie junkie when I was a teenager so I have hundreds of them on DVD.

 

upfrontNY: Is there anything you want others to know about you?

Levi Meaden: We foster dogs, me and my roommates. It is fun because we are all actors and we never really have the chance to take care of a dog full-time. If we have a month that is a light workload we can take in a dog for that time until it is picked up by a family. They usually take them from kill shelters.  There are a lot of different charities that are on Facebook. It is totally worthwhile if you’re looking to take care of a dog but not sure you can make the lifetime commitment, but you’d like to do something for a little bit.