Hi everyone, Baruch here in New York at the W Union Square, and get ready to sink your teeth into this one, because we're talking vampires and werewolves with Joseph Morgan. So Joseph, welcome to the party.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here in the VIP section. There's a, a huge party going on downstairs, but we are, uh, exclusively allowed up here, no one else is allowed up here.

Now how has life changed since you got the starring role in the spin-off The Originals?

Uh, I have a lot less free time is the first thing. Um, no, you know, it's been great. Um, uh, it's been a lot more work, but it's also been a lot more rewarding, you know, I really, really thoroughly enjoyed my time on The Vampire Diaries. The main difference being on The Originals is just that there's more chance to explore this character and the, the stories of his life, you know, all the flashbacks and the family drama that's going on, that, we're really kind of, um, delving into that, because, you know, as you know the show is based around The Originals. So yeah, it's, it's changed a lot in that respect and then just, you know, reaching a wider audience.

What's the camaraderie like on The Originals set?

You know, uh, it's a we, we're good friends on The Originals set, particularly myself and Daniel Gillies who plays Elijah, my on-screen brother. Um, we had a series of pranks running for a while. It started with, you know, we have these assigned parking spots and it started with him parking his jeep diagonally across my spot and his spot. So I kind of had to drive and find a new place to park and then, so then I decided, you know, uh, the next day he did that, he was already, you know, going through the works, getting ready so I went into his dressing room, got his keys and moved his jeep and parked it around the back and, and so this went on for a while and we did things like locked each other out of each other's rooms and I, I made this little, uh, thing, I poster thing, that I put up in his room, which was a picture of me carrying a picture of him and said, you know, carrying Daniel Gillies since 2011, which is, uh, but it ended when he, uh, and this is when pranks go too far. When he crashed into my car trying to put his car as close as he could to mine so that I wouldn't be able to open the door. Uh, I was sitting in the, you know, hair and makeup trailer getting ready and he came in looking all kind of shameful, or ashamed and, uh, had to sort of admit to me that he'd, he'd tried to park too close and he'd ended up scraping the entire side of my car.

Now you know, of course, The Vampire Diaries set you up for The Originals. And it also set you up for a life of love and happiness.

It did, yes.

When did you realize that you were taking your relationship from co-star to something a little bit more?

Oh, straight away. I mean, yeah, well, I, I mean we never really shared the screen together, Persia and I. I think we did one scene where when my character arrived her character left. So, like, didn't really even exchange a look on camera, but you know, um, we hit it off straight away when we met and I think from the point we met we spent most of our time together.

It sounds like you had a gorgeous, gorgeous intimate wedding.

We did, yes.

What was your favorite part?

Um, I mean, you know, my absolute favorite part was, was, you know, you do this thing as the groom where you're turned away from the bride and the whole time while the, the, uh, flower girls are coming down and the maid of honor and all those people. And then as the bride walks down the aisle you turn around and then you're finally allowed to see her and I haven't seen the dress or anything, of course, before that. So that was my favorite part, turning around and seeing her.

You've been called America's favorite villain.

Yes.

By TV Guide.

By TV Guide, yeah.

What's it like to let that side of yourself be shown on camera?

Oh, it's a lot of fun. It's, it's an immense amount of fun, you know, uh, I do think, here's another bumper sticker for you, villains have more fun.

Villains have more fun?

Villains have more fun, because like, take, uh, any, any kind of film, um, you know, like a James Bond movie for example. You have your kind of stoic anchor character who's the hero, you know, and he, he pursues the goal, the girl or whatever, to the end, but you have this villain who's just messing things up for him along the way. He's like a hurricane in there just kind of plowing through and churning stuff up and getting crazy. You know, they're often maniacal or have some kind of delusion or something that's incredibly fun to play like Klaus, for example, is very impulsive. So he, uh, changes on a dime, that's the American expression, right? He switch, switch on a dime, or whatever. So he, he changes really quick from one emotion to the next in the space of one scene, which is really fun to play, especially, you know, you get to kind of surprise other actors in that they, they never quite know which way you're going to go with a line and I love to do that because it keeps things interesting.

So you identify with that aspect of Klaus?

Oh yeah, I revel in it, you know, I, I, I mean, I'm not sure that I'm so changeable as he is, but I certainly enjoy the experience of being that way, yeah.

Now a lot of your fans are watching right now. Give us a little sneak peek into what we can expect for the rest of the season.

Well, you know, in the next episode there's going to, uh, we're going to see we've, we've just met Klaus's real father and we're going to see him, uh, have a lot of interaction with his real father and have some difficult choices to make, because he's, uh, always been the black sheep of the family and he's felt, um, oppressed and ignored and, uh, neglected and now he's got a chance to have a real relationship with a parent and having just become a father himself as well, he's going to have to really think about what he wants to do there. But his main priority is, has always been since her birth, to protect his daughter. So we're going to see a lot of that kind of exploration of family dynamics. We're also going to see some new never-seen-before family members coming into the fold as well as the, you know, now we have, um, the great Daniel Sharman and Yusuf Gatewood playing my two brothers. They body jump into those terrific actors, which is a treat, you know, and and, um, and Keisha, who played Kima on The Wire is now playing, uh, my mother on the show. So it's a treat for me, you know, it's like an act-off.

Amazing. Yeah, incredible. Incredible. Joseph, thank you so much.

Thank you. And remember, villains have more fun.

Villains have more fun.