The inaugural season of the popular Starz show brought the introduction of a couple new characters in to Ash’s typically solitary life. One of which was the lovable, naïve Pablo, portrayed by actor Ray Santiago, who proved that Ash Williams didn’t have to remain a lone wolf.  Pablo quickly became an integral member of the Ghostbeaters team, and it’s now too difficult to envision the Ash vs Evil Dead universe without him.

Ahead of the second season premiere, this Sunday, October 2, we sat down with the equally loveable Ray to get the scoop on the upcoming season.  We chat about the aftermath of season one and where this leaves Pablo, especially with his potential budding relationship with Kelly, and if he’ll manage to find his signature weapon this season. For this and more, read on:

Where we left off with Pablo in the last season..
He had birthed demons out of his mouth, and he was..yeah, he was birthing demons out of his mouth. I like to call them Pablites. But let’s not get it twisted, they are not my children. They are Ruby’s demon spawn; I am simply the portal that they are birthed from.
I imagine that does a lot to one’s psyche, Pablo’s probably going to be experiencing some post traumatic stress from that, right?
Absolutely! Season 2 picks up with Pablo sort of still suffering from the trauma of birthing the demons out of his mouth, and he is in a darker place than we have ever seen him. He has visions that are tormenting him, that perhaps will lead him to a better place. But we’re not sure. And he’s not just the nice, naïve sidekick anymore. He is on his own, personal Evil Dead journey. One of which resembles Bruce Campbell’s journey in the films, and I think at the end of this season and throughout the season you’ll see that he is forever changed. In a way similar to how Bruce lost his hand in the films, we will get to go on this journey to sort of perhaps becoming the hero that he may or may not think he can be.
How does that change the dynamic of the core group? Because one of the things we really love about Pablo is that he’s the heart of the group.
Yeah, you know I think that the core components of the group, Pablo, and each character still exists. And what I try to do without it becoming too dark, I try to find humor in the moments of him constantly struggling to be more than a sidekick. We all sort of tried this season to give ourselves good one liners, and I would say Pablo’s this season is “I got this!” Which, ultimately, he never does. He’s always struggling to be the hero but he never really quite gets there and we get to sort of laugh at him in those situations that he’s in. You know, our show never really takes itself too seriously; we want to make something that keeps people on the edge of their seat because of how scary it is, but pushes them off of their seats because of how funny it is. And I think that, like I said, there is darkness to Pablo this season, but I definitely try to find the humor in the situations that I could inject it into.
You mentioned working on finding your one liners, does that mean you guys do a lot of ad libbing or improve in your roles?
Yeah! I think that because Sam Raimi chose each of us and knows what we bring to the table, the writers, and the showrunner, and the executive producers have allowed us to sort of go free and trust us. We don’t wake up and say, “Hey, we’re going to improvise today,” but if something doesn’t come out right or if you’re in that scenario, we have created these characters; we’ve brought them to life, so we have a little bit of liberty to say what we feel. I think having done that the first season and seeing what they’ve used from what we improvised made us sort of feel like we can do this, because it worked and they used it. I think that’s the beauty of what Starz and the team that’s behind the franchise, and the show, has. They allow us to do what we do. The show is not rated, and we make the bloodiest, funniest content out there. And while not taking ourselves too seriously. It’s cult classic comedic horror at its finest. We have Sam Raimi to thank for that and I will do my best to keep him and the fans happy.
Was it intimidating initially getting cast into the series and how have you gotten more comfortable in your role?
Well I’m super thankful that the fans have embraced the new components of the TV installment of the franchise, basically me and Dana. It wasn’t intimidating, because I have been, well. I don’t mean to sound cocky when I say that, I just always say that it wasn’t intimidating and the reason for that is because Sam Raimi chose us. And so if you have the guy that created the thing choose you, then you kind of have to believe that you have what it takes. I also feel like Bruce Campbell doesn’t second guess himself, Ash doesn’t second guess himself. So I, as an actor, didn’t want to go in there second guessing myself. I’ve been dying to play a role like Pablo all of my life, you know, which is a positive portrayal of a Latino on a television show. I’m the first Latino sidekick in the horror genre, and the world gets to see a young, smart immigrant in a light that we haven’t seen, he’s just trying to save the world, and I think it’s important for the world to see that. So I knew I just had to be strong and confident, and it worked. And I do my damned best to get covered in as much blood and tortured as much as possible to make sure that I earn my stripes.
And how is that, getting covered in blood and goop?
You know; I would say that it’s like Halloween every day. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and after this season I might need to take a break from Halloween and make something to do with Christmas because I need something merry in my life. Because we are just covered in blood and viscera, and tortured as much as possible. In one season I have checked off so many things from the bucket list of an actor. You can see from photos and some of the stuff that we’ve put out that I’m hog tied for a couple weeks, or a couple episodes this season, but it comes with the territory. I enjoy being covered in blood, I enjoy that stuff, you know as a kid I used to enjoy pretending to get chased by the monster, and save the chick from the monster. Now I get to go to work every day and do that for a living. So it’s pretty cool.
That is pretty cool. Circling back to the Latino aspect of your character, will we get to delve more into Pablo’s Brujo heritage in the second season?
Pablo struggled to find his weapon last season, and I think his biggest weapon lies within himself. There’s an undeniable connection to the Necronomicon that we’ve established, and I think that his roots sort of dictate that he has a deeper and stronger place in the world but he struggles to find that. In season 2, he is on that path of just sort of no longer being the sidekick and becoming the hero. I think that season 2 Pablo wants to stay alive in this Evil Dead world, he wants to get the girl, and he wants to be a hero. And I can tease that perhaps one of those will happen.
Interesting! In season 1, Kelly and Pablo’s relationship was starting to go places, before the Necronomicon interrupted with the birth of Pablites. Does that take a back seat while Pablo is finding himself out?
Well, you know season 2 takes place over the course of a week, and as we were shooting it I didn’t really realize how quick that it was moving, and that it wasn’t spread out over an enormous amount of time. So there are definitely still hints and scenes being planted and I think that Pablo and Kelly are the Ross and Rachel of horror television. You know I think of the show, and its motley crew, as this weird family. Bruce is like my idiot dad, who’s always drunk, Lee is like my racist grandpa, Lucy is like the stepmom who tortures you when dad isn’t looking, and Kelly is like the hot step sister that you want to bang. On and off camera she is just a hot ball of fire. I really hope we get a season 3 because I feel like we’ve really hit our stride. Yeah, I want a really great love scene with Kelly where perhaps the Evil Dead force possesses my penis and we have to figure out a way to make it work.
Awesome! I don’t think there’s any question that there will be another season, the fans are too rabid to let it go.
Absolutely! I think we’re safe to say there will be a season 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I mean, we will be wheeling Ash Williams out in a wheelchair, and connecting the chainsaw to his hand as long as fans are willing to watch.
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