Dustin Clare on Playing Gannicus in Spartacus: Gods of the Arena: "The New Guy Gets to Go In Fresh — Gannicus Is Self-Destructive but Extremely Skilled"

Australian actor Dustin Clare plays Gannicus — the champion gladiator of Batiatus's ludus and the central figure of the Starz prequel series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, premiering Friday, January 21 at 10 p.m. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

Australian actor Dustin Clare plays Gannicus — the champion gladiator of Batiatus's ludus and the central figure of the Starz prequel series Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, premiering Friday, January 21 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Clare grew up on the coast of New South Wales, Australia.

On being the new guy: "The new guy's always great because you get to go in fresh with your own choices and you get to bring new life and breathe a new energy into something that's already established. I play Gannicus. Gannicus is a pretty self-destructive gladiator — very confident and cocky fighter, but extremely skilled. He has an extreme amount of skill, but he's very self-destructive and he's always trying to escape his reality. He was an interesting character who we get to really unpick through the six episodes."

On being called a sex symbol: "I don't take any of that stuff seriously to be honest with you. I look at it from a working perspective — I'm passionate about being an actor and I'm definitely not passionate about being a sex symbol."

On whether Gannicus's life resembles his own: "Very different, very different. I come from a small town on the coast of New South Wales and I spend a lot more time in the ocean than Gannicus does."

On the physical demands of the role: "It was the most physically demanding role I've ever been in, yes. The training — I was doing seven hours a day for three weeks: different things, stunts, cross-training, fighting with double swords and then a session in the pool. So that was quite intense. You come away with a lot of cuts and bruises. We're all aware that we hurt each other physically all the time. But we're in it together. We never really mean it and we're all fighting for a great result ultimately. A big testament to that is definitely to the fight choreographers — those guys are world-class stunt choreographers and they're skills that we'll have for the rest of our lives as actors."

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