Falling Skies star and fan favorite Colin Cunningham (‘John Pope’) says viewers are in store for a wild ride with the final season of the popular TNT sci-fi series. At the 2015 WonderCon in Anaheim, Cunningham discussed what it was like to actually shoot season five and how it felt on the set on his last day of filming. Cunningham also talked about what he’ll miss about the series and how he has a few permanent scars that will always remind him of working on Falling Skies.
Falling Skies season five debuts on June 28, 2015 at 10pm ET/PT.
Looking back, what was it that drew you to Falling Skies in the first place?
Colin Cunningham: “I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t ask what it was. I never ask what it is because if it’s a little thing, I don’t want to get lazy and if it’s a big, gigantic thing, I don’t want to get freaked out because that will ruin you too. The guy I work with who sends me out on these things, he knows don’t tell me what it is. That way I hit everything 100%.
But I remember the day he says, ‘Yeah, you’re shortlisted for Falling Skies.’ I’m like, ‘Falling Skies? What was that? That was the alien thing?’ He says, ‘Yeah, the alien thing.’ He’s like, ‘It’s DreamWorks.’ ‘DreamWorks – Spielberg DreamWorks?’ He said yeah and I said, ‘You’re kidding?’ He said, ‘No, that’s what you did,’ and I’m like, ‘Thanks for not telling me because I would have screwed it up.’
So, it was just gratitude. If anything, Pope was only supposed to hang out for an episode or two and here I am five years later talking to you guys out here in Anaheim. So, I mean, come on, it’s awesome!”
Can you talk about where Pope is in this last season?
Colin Cunningham: “I felt Pope was better when he wasn’t so much part of the group. Fortunately, the writers felt the same way and so there’s definitely a break-away. Pope…I don’t know what I can say and what I can’t. I think I can say there’s enough conflict, the stakes are higher now between him and Mason than they’ve ever been. It’s not about an airplane anymore, it’s not about a bar anymore, it’s not about a black market I can get this and you can’t kind of thing. The stakes are incredibly high. Finally, Pope’s out for blood and that’s a neat thing.”
What are you going to miss the most about playing Pope after so many years?
Colin Cunningham: “What a great part. I mean, really, what a great part. I’d show up and put on the tattoos and put my wig on, put on the leather jacket and the boots and just become somebody else. The writing was so great for Pope. I just loved being a part of that show. It was just a great part, and that’s when you’re lucky. I remember Jack Palance, one of my favorite quotes he says, ‘There are no great actors, there’s just great parts.’
I got lucky. I got really, really lucky because I could be playing an accountant in the next cop show that comes around and I’ll look like this. And it’s cool – I’ve never been a fan of just me. I look in the mirror and I’m bored out of my mind so I’ll grow this or do that, bleach it or shave it or wig it or whatever. And it’s just fun. I don’t like looking like me.”
What was it like shooting the very last scene?
Colin Cunningham: “It was surprising in that not so much the scene… The scene was again it was a matter of trying not to be nervous. Don’t make it a big deal. Don’t make it a thing. That’s not how you showed up on your first day and it shouldn’t be any different on your last. There’s the lines, there’s your piece of tape, stand on that and then say your lines and that was it. But I was surprised that when I was wrapped I couldn’t speak. I really couldn’t. I wanted to say thank you to everybody and I couldn’t get it out. It was a trip. I got a frog in my throat because it was like, ‘This is it. Five years, man.'”
Pope has always been about survival but he doesn’t cross the line of making any deals with the aliens? Why do you think that is?
Colin Cunningham: “Well, I think from the beginning – and it was nice to see it touch base throughout the seasons – the quote was, ‘There’s only one thing I hate more than you, Mason, and that’s the skitters.’ So I think he’s the ultimate – how can I put this? I’d say he really hates illegal aliens. Those undocumented aliens coming in from outer space, man, we’ve got to stop that sh*t. Not cool!”
You’ve had the chance to do some amazing stunt work. What stands out?
Colin Cunningham: [Indicating two fingers] “These two scars stand out from the seasons. This one I sliced open really, really nice all in the middle of a take. I think that was sliced on a knife. That one right there is Sarah Carter’s M-16 or P-4 or M-4 or whatever, and that was a bad one. It was a trip because you’re in the scene and you’re holding your finger and you can feel an inch of it dangling.
You’ve got to lift it back and hold it and then get through the scene. And then I thought I could do another one but that wasn’t doing it so I had to go to the med thing and wrap it up. It’s one of those where you have to keep your hand up because you can feel your own heartbeat pulsing through it. You’ve got to lift it up. And then the bandage became red and we couldn’t get it to stop bleeding.”
