Besides the mega-popular THE VAMPIRE DIARIES series propelling him into the
world of fandom, Gillies is also star of CTV’s homegrown supernatural
medical drama SAVING HOPE. Following the lives of doctors “Alex Reid” and
“Charlie Harris” (played by Canadians Erica Durance and Michael Shanks
respectively) after a tragic car accident, the comatose Charlie finds out he’s capable
of lurking the hospital in spirit form. Gillies plays the role of “Dr. Joel Goran,” a
surgeon and ex-boyfriend to Reid, so there’s the love triangle twist. Blurring the lines
between the living and the dead, SAVING HOPE is a strong yet placid show. The
series reigns as the most-watched Canadian drama of the 2011-12 broadcast year,
with an impressive Season 1 average of 1.7 million viewers each week on CTV.*
“I feel like you need a season in order to find your feet,” Gillies explains. “There’s a
brutality with shows these days, with regards to axing them the moment they set out.
That said, I do think we [SAVING HOPE] were immensely strong out of the gate.”
All is well professionally for Gillies, and his family life is going splendidly too.
Though the couple have been married since 2004, Rachel Leigh Cook is expecting
their first daughter with Gillies. Offhanded observation, Gillies loves to talk shop in
a very precise, professional way. When he talks of Cook and their first child, all that
moody, tall, dark and handsome facade fades into something more saccharine.
“I’m excited. I’m delighted! I just hope that I can be loving and generous, like the
people that have been good to me in my life,” he muses. His joy is palpable and we
couldn’t help but smile along. It’s a far cry from the brooding characters he plays on
television – maybe inside every original vampire is some paternal instinct?
It’s human nature, after all.
Season 2 of SAVING HOPE airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV. Viewers can also catch up on full episodes following its television
broadcast across CTV’s digital platforms, including CTV.ca, the CTV App, the CTV Mobile channel on Bell Mobile TV, and through
video on demand partners such as Bell Fibe TV.
Follow SAVING HOPE and Daniel Gillies on Twitter: @SavingHopeTV and @danieljgillies. For more information, visit CTV.ca.