Anthony Head discusses his Season 4 arc on Syfy's Warehouse 13

Anthony Head discusses his Season 4 arc on Syfy's Warehouse 13

Merlin star Anthony Head guest stars in the final three Season 4 episodes Warehouse 13, airing Monday nights at 10 PM ET on Syfy. The actor was joined by executive producer Jack Kenny on a conference call to discuss these final episodes and more.

When asked about who Anthony Head portrays, Jack Kenny revealed the character is an alchemist from the 16th Century.

"Anthony plays Paracelsus, a very, very hip 16th Century alchemist. Actually, based on the real Paracelsus who was a very hip 16th Century alchemist who kind of bucked the trend."

Anthony Head elaborated by revealing that Paracelsus is a medical innovator as well.

"He dabbles in necromancy and astrology and all sorts of things. He was a forerunner of modern medicine. But there's nothing to say he lived to - that if he was drunk with his own power that he might not go a little bit crazy. And this is where we join him in Warehouse 13.

The actor also spoke about the kind of research he delved into for this role.

"I did a fair amount of research about him. He's a fascinating character. He's actually worth looking at. He's a Renaissance alchemist. And as I said, he actually did an enormous amount of good in his life. But, unfortunately he just kept following this rebellious pattern. I mean Bombastus is in his name and I don't know if that's where, you know, bombastic comes from him. His full name was Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim."

Jack Kenny also revealed one of his favorite moments with Anthony Head on the set.

I think our first exchange on the set was when you you come out of the bronzer and I talked about, 'Can you give me a big laugh here, enjoying the amazement of this moment and lean back into that light?' You just like got it. You knew exactly the image I was going for, exactly the look. It was a little bit of that madness, but well controlled and well-modulated. But you go, 'Oh I got it, I've got this, I know.' It was just great to just give a simple thing like that and have an actor go, 'I know exactly what you're looking for. I know the image you want.' I was such a joy. And I think in terms of creating him, what I love about this show, what I love to do on this show is peak back into history, take a historical figure, either put the character on screen like we did with H.G. Wells or Paracelsus. Or even just talk about a character this way, and just twist it a little bit; say some things - do some things with that character or say something about the character that could actually be true, may not be absolutely true, may not be completely provable one way or another, but then add that - add - also add being in bronze for 500 years and just let that character explode a little bit in our imagination and take a character like Paracelsus, who was indeed everything Tony described. And that's one of the things that was so - we found so appealing about this character was he was an envelope pusher. He fought society. He was an outlaw."

Warehouse 13 airs Monday nights at 10 PM ET on Syfy.