Behind the Scenes of ‘Revolution’ with Elizabeth Mitchell

Elizabeth Mitchell Interview
Stephen Collins, Elizabeth Mitchell and Rockne S. O'Bannon at the 2014 WonderCon (Photo © Richard Chavez)

Elizabeth Mitchell (‘Rachel Matheson’), Stephen Collins (‘Dr. Gene Porter’), and writer/executive producer Rockne S. O’Bannon from NBC’s Revolution made the trek to the 2014 WonderCon to tease the final four episodes of the second season of the sci-fi drama. The fate of the series hasn’t yet been announced, however, Mitchell, Collins, and O’Bannon didn’t allow the fact they are unsure of whether the show will be returning for a third season to temper their enthusiasm for discussing the series, which has a passionate, social media-active fan base.

Without giving away major spoilers, the Revolution stars and executive producer touched on what viewers can expect for the remaining season two episodes and even confirmed that they’ve pitched ideas for season three to the network.

In addition to taking part in a panel with fans of the series, the cast and executive producer sat down to chat about the show with members of the media. Relaxed and looking gorgeous, Mitchell had our small group of journalists laughing as she described Charlie and Rachel’s relationship as well as how she was able to get her way when she suggested a change in dialogue.

[Warning: If you aren’t caught up on all the episodes through April 2, 2014, there are spoilers in the following interview so you may want to hold off reading the Q&A until you have watched the “Austin City Limits” episode.]

Elizabeth Mitchell Revolution Interview

Executive producer Rockne S. O’Bannon described Rachel as a lightning rod, so what can you tease about the final episodes of season two and what sparks she’ll be setting off?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “Rachel and her sparks… She’s a catalyst for change, right, so I like that. That’s nice. She’s down a road of people finding their conscience right now, which my dad is very unhappy about because he likes me as a cold-blooded killer. I don’t know what that means except that he’s a huge fan of sci-fi, Sarah Connor – that’s his world and his genre. That’s what I grew up loving because, of course, dad likes it. I was like, ‘Yeah, this is fantastic.’ So, for him, Rachel finding her moral center, he’s like, ‘She’s not going to kill people anymore?’ I was like, ‘Dad!’ But mom my is like, ‘You know, it’s lovely to see a conscience start to be re-introduced to the show.

It’s lovely to see people trying to fight good against evil, rather than everybody being grey.’ So I think Rachel’s trying to lead people down a better road. She’s not really sure how to do it. She’s going to get pretty unpopular before anything good happens from it. But it is interesting.”

At this point how much input are given into what she does?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “Oh, I don’t have any input. No. If you dislike Rachel, it’s not my fault. [Laughing] The same if you love her, it’s not my fault either. It’s one of those wonderful things of I just don’t. Now, if something comes up that I – and I’m really good about this because I think writers they need to be up here [indicating over her head] for us as actors…we need to look at their words and figure out how to make their vision work. It’s their vision.

You know, they come up with all this. They work long, hard hours to figure it out. But if there’s something that in the drafts that they’ve written if I feel like it’s not flowing, I’ll call and be like, ‘Hey, can I say something else here as well as what you said here?’ Five times out of 10 they’ll take what I’ve said and they’ll let me do that. And I don’t ask very often. ‘I think 20 years is plenty of foreplay,’ love it or not love it, that was what happened in the moment with us. I felt like it was kind of fun and Eric [Kripke] said, ‘We’ll keep it.’

I don’t really have any input, but if there are improvisations that happen between scenes with us, then sometimes they keep them which is nice. [Laughing] I think it’s probably because I was taking my shirt off at the same time. Maybe I need to do that for all my favorite lines.”

Charlie and Rachel have had a difficult relationship…

Elizabeth Mitchell: “Yeah, they have because Rachel’s a terrible mother.”

Now that Charlie has killed Jason, does she lean on her mom at all?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “No, I don’t think that she’s going to do any leaning. But there’s a huge cathartic moment for Charlie coming up that is not with Rachel that is absolutely worth watching. You know, Tracy [Spiridakos], she’s been so phenomenal this season. I love watching how she’s evolved with this character and the direction she’s kind of been very determined to push her in. I think Rachel offers her support, but it’s like the dead-beat dad who’s like, ‘Now I want to be in your life.’ ‘Well, I’m 50 so I don’t know what to tell you.’

Maybe. We’ll see. I think she’s there and she tries. Definitely. She provides a net for Charlie to fall and I think that Charlie knows that it’s there. Whether she’ll lean on her or not – who knows? It’s hard to lean on a screwdriver so we’ll see.”

Elizabeth Mitchell Revolution Interview
David Lyons as Sebastian Monroe, Billy Burke as Miles Matheson, Elizabeth Mitchell as Rachel Matheson in 'Revolution' (Photo by Felicia Graham/NBC)

How is Rachel going to be tied to the nano storyline in the final episodes?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “You know, it involves a long walk and knocking on a door. That’s all I can say.”

Have they given you a heads-up at all about a season three?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “You know, they’re so excited to tell us but I think that we’re still waiting to hear and I think that pitch is happening now. So, I don’t know. I hope.”

Do you ask?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “Yeah, I ask all the time and they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s great. It’s great! We have to wait. It’s great.’ And I’m like, ‘What kind of great?’ But yeah, from the final episode it absolutely sets up season three and gives you an idea of what’s happening. I liked it. It’s very, dare I say, very Stephen King in a way.”

Will we see the group all back together again to fight against the Patriots?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “We will see the group all back together again. What they’re fighting against, I don’t know. But Monroe… It’s fun having everyone together. It’s especially fun when Stephen [Collins] kind of came into the fold. He’s just really neat. And David [Lyons] is such a pleasure to work with, so it’s just a nice group of people. We like each other and we enjoy playing with each other because the characters are at such odds, but we’re not as a cast and that makes it even more fun because you can get in there and just kind of go crazy on each other and then afterwards you’re like, ‘Oh, are you okay?’ It’s nice.”

Will we see any additional tension between Rachel and Neville [played by Giancarlo Esposito] now that her daughter killed his son?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “You know, we don’t have as much tension between us as we would like. We like to play together. I mean our big scene that we had together was cut so – this is a while ago – we don’t have as much together as I would like. I like Giancarlo. He’s a lovely little Zen dude. I enjoy him. He’s incredibly talented but he’s also a kind guy. I like him.”

What was the cut scene?

Elizabeth Mitchell: “Oh it was during season one it was this big, ‘Rachel.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah?’ We had fun doing it. He walked forward, I walked back. There was a bomb. It was really fun. We had a good time.”

Watch the interview: