Jared Padalecki at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Supernatural‘s coming up on its 11th season and once again the show’s stars Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, and Mark Sheppard presented a panel at the San Diego Comic Con. The Supernatural panel is always packed with diehard fans, and this year was no exception. The cast also took time to sit down for interviews at the Con, answering questions about the upcoming season and about one specific episode featuring Dean’s beloved Chevy Impala.
Although Padalecki was told the episode was a secret, the cat was out of the bag by the time he sat down. “I’m stoked about it. Did you see Locke, the movie with Tom Hardy? It all takes place in a car. I loved it. He’s driving across the state or something and it all takes place in his car. And so the episode is called ‘Baby’ and the Impala apparently is going to be in every single shot of the episode. We’re either in the Impala, on the Impala… It’s this cool story that’s told where, we’ve done it before where the stories are told with cameras and so it doesn’t look so produced,” explained Padalecki. “We’re so blessed with a fandom and very inventive writers is that we can do all these crazy, strange things. I’ve played a soulless guy. I’ve played Jared Padalecki on Supernatural. so we’re able to do these fun stories and tell these cool things, and to really embrace our number three on the call sheet – the ’67 Impala. I’m stoked.”
Padalecki also promised this upcoming season would get back to basics and back to focusing on the brothers’ relationship and how much they love each other. “That’s big for me. I am a brother. Jensen is a brother, too. He also feels like my brother in real life. I have two sons that are brothers. For years one of the things that I really meshed with was the idea of these guys – it could be a guy and a girl, a guy and a guy – fighting through all this shit in life with somebody by your side. Whether it’s a band you love, or a TV show, but something to help you get through the day. That something for Sam was Dean and something for Dean was Sam, and then they split apart for so long. So I don’t know what’s going to happen this season… I mean, the darkness is pre-Biblical and we have no one to turn to because no one really knows anything. But I know that Sam and Dean will be side by side. That’s f*cking cool.”
Asked who he’d like to see come back for season 11, Padalecki would love to have his wife, actress Genevieve Padalecki, back. “In all honesty I would like to see Mitch Pileggi come back. I would love to see Chuck Shurley come back. Especially now that we’re dealing with the darkness and it’s pre-Biblical and nobody really knows anything about it, I’d love to see God come back. So those two guys for sure. I’d always love to see Richard Speight come back.”
Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell in ‘True Detective’ season 2 episode 5 (Photo: HBO)
“You and me need to talk,” says Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) to his boss, Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn), standing outside Frank’s new downgraded house after learning Frank deceived him about the rape of his wife in HBO’s dramatic crime series True Detective.
True Detective season two episode five begins two months after the terrible shoot-out that led to the death of Amarilla and his men who were the main suspects in the murder of Caspere, the Vinci City Manager. Ray quit the force and now works for Frank full time as a consultant/security expert and his new assignment, besides collecting rent from the run-down apartments Frank owns, is to tail Semyon’s lieutenant, Blake (Christopher James Baker). Frank wants to know where he goes, what he does, who he sees, etc. This leads Ray to discover a connection between Blake and the psychiatrist Ani (Rachel McAdams) and Ray had interrogated about treating Caspere and prostitutes.
Meanwhile, Frank and his wife, Jordan (Kelly Reilly), spend most of the episode going back and forth arguing about having a baby and about Frank going back into the corrupt life he was almost out of. Finally, both realize what they really need is some quality couple time together.
Ani has taken most of the blame for the shoot-out gone wrong and has been demoted to logging evidence and ordered to attend sexual harassment meetings regarding the complaint against her from one of her co-officers. She decides to reach out to the woman who told her earlier about her daughter going missing. It turns out she went missing the day before Caspere’s death. Ani doesn’t believe it’s just a coincidence.
Paul Woodrugh (Taylor Kitsch) has been transferred to investigating insurance fraud and isn’t happy about it. He yearns to be back in the field. His personnel life isn’t much better when he discovers that the life savings he left in a bag hidden at his mother’s place has been spent by his trailer-trash mother who feels she deserved it for carrying him for nine months.
Ani and Ray meet at the bar Velcoro usually meets Frank at to have a drink or two and catch up. She asks him if he really believes Amarilla was the killer of Caspere. Ray reminds her he’s not a cop anymore and that she isn’t a detective. They talk about Paul being reassigned to insurance fraud and Ani says she reached out to him and that he’s not happy. Disgusted with how the departments are treating Ani and Paul, Ray suggests they quit and get out, telling Ani she’s too good for them.
The next day Ray meets with Ani, Paul, and Ani’s boss at the State Attorney’s office. She wants to hire all three of them (off the books) to find out who really murdered Caspere and why. It seems her boss, who only days after declaring the case closed and solved, put his hat in the ring for the Governor’s race. It’s all too neat and tidy and reeks of a cover-up.
At first, Ray wants nothing to do with the secret investigation, but when Ani’s boss tells Ray she can make sure he doesn’t lose his kid – his fight with his ex-wife over custody isn’t going Ray’s way – Ray tells her, “You let me keep my kid, I’m in.” Ray also asks why she wants him involved since she seemed to believe he was the worst of the worst in Vinci. She tells him that since the rumor about him killing the man who raped his wife was wrong, she figured maybe the rest was too. Confused, Ray asks what she’s talking about and she tells him the man who raped his wife years ago was just recently arrested. His DNA matched six unsolved rapes including Ray’s wife.
The following night Ray pays a visit to the psychiatrist who used to treat Caspere and beats the living hell out of him while questioning him about the setup with Blake, the young girls, and Caspere’s involvement. It appears it just might be a big blackmail ring Ray and Ani have come across.
The next day Ani visits her kid sister, the one who went to one of those weird parties and asks her to reach out to some of the girls she knows to try to get an invite to one of the parties so that Ani can go in undercover. At first Ani’s sister doesn’t want to, being out of that life and not being comfortable getting in touch with those girls. She tells Ani they are not trustworthy, but Ani pushes, telling her she’s trying to find a missing girl and this is a lead she has to follow.
The episode ends with Ray going to Frank’s home to confront him about giving him the wrong name years ago.
Slow and fairly uneventful, True Detective season two episode five titled “Other Lives” is by far the least exciting – and boring – episode of the series thus far. All the main characters in this episode seem to be playing catch-up on what is really going down. It’s clear all three know in their guts that Amarilla and his thugs were not Caspere’s killers and that they are the convenient fall guys for something much bigger. Finally, they’re catching up to what the audience already knows.
The performances from the cast are solid, but there’s not much electricity or fire in the air or on the screen. Vince Vaughn and Kelly Reilly have a few nice scenes together as a husband and wife coming to the realization they’re not going to have a family after all but find the time to get close again. Their storyline here feels more like a nighttime soap opera than a crime drama.
Colin Farrell by far gives the standout performance in this episode, especially in the scene when Ray realizes Frank lied and used him years ago by giving him the wrong name of the rapist and the fact that he killed the wrong man, perhaps a completely innocent man. The horror, anger, and self-loathing he expresses without saying a word is mesmerizing. Here’s hoping his performance is remembered come Emmy nominations next year.
With Ray and Frank about to have what looks to be a stand-off in Frank’s kitchen, and Ani going deep undercover as a party girl to try to get close to the conspiracy/blackmail ring, episode six should have much more going on to keep the viewers interested.
Emily Bett Rickards at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Emily Bett Rickards plays fan-favorite Felicity Smoak on The CW’s Arrow, and at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con she talked about what it’s like to take on such a popular character.
“My life has changed a lot because of her. I’ve learned so much from her,” said Rickards. “Also, she’s become a fan favorite – and I’m a fan of her. I’m happy that people are able to relate to her because I find that when you can relate to something when you can escape into your role, you’re learning something about yourself and helping with yourself in your own life. I hope that’s what she’s potentially doing, to a certain aspect. But, yeah, it’s shocking, it’s interesting, it’s rewarding. It really is.”
Sitting down to discuss the series during roundtable interviews, Rickards reflected on “Olicity,” the fan’s nickname for the relationship between Felicity and Oliver [played by Stephen Amell], and how that relationship stood at the end of season three. “I think that it’s awesome that someone can recognize that they’re happy,” said Rickards in answer to a question about Oliver finally seeing the light. “I don’t find that that’s something people actually say. Like, ‘Oh, I’m happy.’ ‘Are you? Oh, good.’ But I think that acknowledgment for himself, finding out that he is happy and possibly grounded more than he has been in the last 10 years because now he’s safe and more secure with people he loves, I think is really important and a big life hurdle for Oliver.”
Rickard’s Felicity plays a big part in the flash-overs between Arrow and The Flash, bringing the two worlds together seamlessly in her own way. “I find that she has a really important role in connecting the worlds because she’s so easily willing to make friends. I don’t think she makes…she’s not very great with people all the time. But, she’s always willing to help people, and she’s generous, and that bridges the gap between any turmoil or torturing.”
As for the tone of the show in season four, Rickards acknowledges season three was a very heavy one for Felicity, but she’s hopeful there will be a little more humor or light moments in the upcoming season. “Her emotional security is stronger than it was. I think this whole push-pull thing with Oliver and Ray [played by Brandon Routh] on top of the secret life is a little bit too taxing on her sense of self, hence why she was crying a lot,” explained Rickards.
“I believe that she’s a really strong and independent woman. I feel that she’s caring and she’s generous, and I feel that that is her innate ability. But you also need to be able to pump yourself up, and I feel like she was really taxing herself and accepting scenarios that weren’t exactly giving her energy; they were taking a lot of it away, and she wasn’t aware of it, which we are.”
Watch the full interview with Emily Bett Rickards on Arrow‘s fourth season:
Connor Weil, Willa Fitzgerard, Amadeus Serafini, John Karna and Bella Thorne (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
MTV’s Scream is currently airing season one on Tuesdays at 10pm ET/PT, with the death count piling up each episode. Based on the ever-popular Scream films, the new series centers around an attractive group of high school students who are being targeted by a masked killer.
Cast members from Scream made it to San Diego where they answered questions from fans and participated in roundtable interviews in support of the first season. One of the questions most asked of the cast was who they think is the killer. If they follow the lead of the original Scream (released in 1996), then the killer is a member of their circle of friends.
Connor Weil fielded the question during our interview but didn’t give away any spoilers. “There are so many theories – I can’t even tell you. The writers don’t tell us anyway,” said Weil. “We’re on the ride with you guys.”
That said, Weil thinks it would be cool if his character, Will Belmont, turned out to be the guy behind the mask. If that turns out to be the case, he’d like an early heads-up from the writers. “I would, that way I can prep it in the scenes leading up to it. We’ll see. Hopefully, they tell me something if I’m him,” said Weil.
On a lighter note, Weil’s fully aware of Scream fans campaigning for his character to be with Emma. “There’s Team Kieran and there’s Team Will, and it’s gone as far as giving us names,” said Weil, laughing. “I’m going to be honest, most of the online fans are Team Kieran. That’s okay. I understand. We’ll see how that plays out.”
Weil’s co-star John Karna plays Noah, the voice of reason in the series, and the actor says he not only loves his character but also the way the series has expanded the world of the Scream films. As Noah, Karna delivered a monologue in the first episode that pretty much set up the series and how it will approach the genre.
“I think even before I got the part and I was auditioning for the show, reading the script it was that monologue that kind of made me super excited about the project. It became this thing where we really could break new ground in the slasher genre. To not only have a slasher movie where you really genuinely want to know what happens not just whether they’re going to live or die but whether these characters are actually going to connect and how they’re going to create relationships and how roles are going to change and flip, I just think that’s really exciting to see if we can complete that kind of change.”
Watch the full interviews for more from John Karna and Connor Weil on Scream season one:
Katie O’Brien, Cate Freedman, Caitlin Barlow, Katie Thomas, Katy Colloton and Kate Lambert in ‘Teachers’ (Photo by Michael Schwartz / TV Land)
Six women whose names are all derived from Katherine make up The Katydids and together the improv group writes and stars in the upcoming TV Land series Teachers, premiering in January 2016. Katie O’Brien and Katy Colloton, two of the Katies from The Katydids, sat down to discuss the show while at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. Teachers began as a web series about teachers which TV Land saw and suggested become a half-hour comedy show.
“We had to have a written script, but in the writers room we would improvise a little bit,” said Katy Colloton, explaining the process of collaborating on the scripts and filming the episodes. “On set, we had the script and we would make sure we’d get that locked, but then we would play a little bit. Usually the last take or the last few takes they’d say, ‘Have fun,’ and now that we’re editing right now, those are the takes that we’ll use a lot of the times. The dialogue isn’t that different. When you’re just improvising it, it adds a little spark that makes it so much fun.”
The teachers in the show teach elementary school kids, and the kid actors actually come up with some of the best-improvised lines. “We discovered during the web series that kids improvising can come up with things much more funny than what we could ever have written,” said O’Brien. “We have this really fun episode called ‘Seal’s Face’ where Miss Feldman puts up a photo of Seal the singer and says, ‘If anybody can tell me what happened to Seal’s face, you get an A for the rest of the semester.’ We just let the kids improvise and a couple of them were like, ‘Maybe he got scratched by a tiger.’ We kind of discovered that we started to give kids lines but as the season went on, we’re like, ‘We should just let them improvise and capture whatever we can.'”
Watch the full interview with Katy Colloton and Katie O’Brien for more on season one of Teachers:
The Plot: “Teachers revolves around six elementary school teachers who are trying to mold the minds and lives of America’s youth, even though they don’t really seem to have their own lives together at all.”
Ant-Man was expected to ring up $60+ million domestically, but it fell slightly short over its first three days in theatrical release. It also charted as the lowest per screen average in Marvel history, according to Box Office Mojo.
The other wide release for the July 17, 2015 weekend was Trainwreck written and starring Amy Schumer and directed by Judd Apatow. Schumer, who wrote the script without knowing she’d star in it, has been popping up on the talk show circuit to promote the film. Her popularity among women helped drive the film to a $30 million opening weekend, exceeding expectations and earning an A- Cinemascore from audiences.
Writer Matthew Graham, Yael Stone, Director Nick Hurran, Daisy Betts and Julian McMahon (Photo by Evans Vestal Ward / Syfy)
Syfy’s set to bring the classic Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood’s End to the screen for the first time with a six-hour miniseries based on the 1953 science fiction tale. Clarke’s novel was about an alien invasion, however it differed from most of its genre in that the invaders – called Overlords – were peaceful and shared their advanced knowledge to bring about the end of wars and to establish a new utopia on Earth. In the miniseries, Game of Thrones‘ Charles Dance plays the ambassador of the Overlords, Karellen, and Mike Vogel (Bates Motel, Under the Dome) is Karellen’s first contact on Earthy, Ricky Stormgren.
At the 2015 San Diego Comic Con, screenwriter Matthew Graham (Doctor Who) participated in roundtable interviews to discuss the process of adapting Arthur C. Clarke’s novel for the screen. Graham believes the miniseries format was the right fit for this particular story because it would have been much more difficult to squeeze the entire book into a two-hour movie. “The book is not long but it is epic,” explained Graham. “It covers a huge period of time and it would have been difficult to create that sense of so much time on the Earth passing and our characters evolving. So the miniseries was actually a blessing as a format.”
“Originally it was conceived as a two-parter but then Syfy wanted it to be three nights. The challenge was to find what to put in the second night, really. The first night really presented itself as the opening and the world getting to grips with these benevolent alien overlords. And then the third part was very, very clearly the end game of the story. But the second part was sort of space. When I went through the book again, I found a sort of innocuous paragraph that said, ‘And then the Overlords persuaded mankind to dispense with religion.’ And that’s kind of it. That was it. That was Arthur C. Clarke, ‘and then they dispense with religion.’ And I thought that’s a movie in itself – getting a planet to give up its religious beliefs. So, that became the crux of the second part. From that, we created a new character that’s not in the book, played by Yael Stone, who represented religious belief. It’s through her eyes we sort of tell that story.”
Audiences are accustomed to seeing bleak dystopian futures in both films and TV, but with Childhood’s End the future must look like our hopes and dreams for the world coming true. “It was very hard to get right,” says Graham about creating this attractive new world. “It was a big aesthetic conversation with myself, with Nick [Hurran, the director], and with the designer Phil Ivey, and with the whole team and the studio and the network about how we did it. In the end, we felt it was very important to make a visual impression. That’s why we have the Utopians all wearing roughly the same kind of clothes, the same kind of color palette, which is all beige and white. It kind of seems obvious in some ways, but actually you need to do it. When you see it on screen, it hits you as a statement.”
“What we also came up with was a sort of philosophy for why they’re wearing what they’re wearing. So it’s not as though you have to drink the Kool-aid, you have to get up in the morning and suddenly the Overlords have laid out a new wardrobe for you. It’s just that over time under their watchful gaze, we’ve done away with sweatshops. There are no more sweatshops in India. We talk about this in the show. So our clothing, whatever you’re wearing now you continue wearing until it runs out. And then the stuff that’s left is stuff that’s there to be fairly utilitarian and fairly basic. People no longer have social media so there’s no need to dress to impress. You should dress for comfort. It just felt organic to us. It felt organic that people would start to wear simpler clothes, because they were no longer insecure about where who they were.
Full interview with writer Matthew Graham on Childhood’s End:
Ruta Gedmintas and Kevin Durand at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con (Photos by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
FX’s The Strain is back for an action-packed season two in which it’s not just a small group of citizens who are in on the truth. Season two finds New York under attack and Eph, Nora, Setrakian, Fet, and Dutch attempting to find a way to kill the infected before they completely take over. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015 and is airing on Sunday night at 10pm ET/PT, and in support of The Strain‘s new season the cast and executive producers hosted a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.
Durand and Gedmintas also took part in roundtable interviews to discuss what viewers can look forward to this season.
Describing season two, Kevin Durand (“Vasiliy Fet) said, “This season starts to peel the onion a little bit. We start to see a lot of different levels to him, but there is a lot of killing. He enjoys where he’s at in this apocalyptic setting. He’s flourishing. He’s getting stronger. His knowledge is going through the roof. He’s learning a lot from Setrakian. He’s a quick learner. He’s becoming a revolutionary vampire killer. He believes he’s the best at it, and I think he is.”
Durand says Fet will have a lot of new allies helping him kill as many vampires as possible. “People connect that you might not have expected,” teased Durand. “The true group of allies within Fet’s abode, they’re all in his space and he’s a lone wolf and a little uncomfortable about it. He’s pretty meticulous by nature, a little obsessive about where things should go and about how people should behave in his place. But he puts up with it because he actually likes these people – some of them a lot more than others. He’s pragmatic. He knows that they’re all better off and will last longer if they’re together. Everyone has a precious skill or knowledge that when they’re all together, they’re stronger.”
One of Fet’s closest allies is Dutch, played by Ruta Gedmintas. Although fans might be pulling for a Fet/Dutch romantic relationship, Gedmintas wasn’t willing to give away any spoilers in our interview. Instead, she said the relationship is “explored” and that it’s a “fun ride.”
When we catch up with Dutch at the beginning of season two she’ll be feeling a bit sassy, according to Gedmintas. “She’s ready to take on the fight. I think she’s found a group of people who she’s getting quite comfortable with, so maybe a little bit cheeky,” explained Gedmintas.
Watch the full interviews for more on what fans can expect of season two of FX’s The Strain:
Jaimie Alexander as Jane Doe in ‘Blindspot’ (Photo by Virginia Sherwood / NBC)
The show hasn’t even aired yet and there were already people cosplaying Jaimie Alexander’s character, Jane Doe, from Blindspot at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con. The new NBC series will make its debut on September 21st, and executive producers Greg Berlanti and writer/executive producer Martin Gero along with star Jaime Alexander made the trek to San Diego to discuss the fascinating series about a woman found naked, covered with tattoos, in a bag in Times Square. She has no idea who she is or how she got there, or why a specific FBI agent’s name is among the tattoos on her body.
Sitting down to talk about the show during roundtable interviews at Comic-Con, Berlanti described the show as a thrill ride. “As compelling as the opening scene is in the pilot, it just gets more and more dynamic as the episodes go on. The way that the writers have begun to unfurl her mystery, who she is or who she might be, is compelling. The actors are just so incredibly dynamic, particularly when you see them in a movie thriller or a movie action adventure, but the fact that they’re there every week on the screen is, I think, going to be really exciting for the audience,” said Berlanti.
“This first season is going to be intense,” said Alexander. “The great thing about this season is that there are very few things that are repeated in it. You know how procedurals get so boring, but you get obsessed with them? Like Law & Order SVU, it can be the same thing every episode and I don’t care. It’s so good. This show moves fast so you can pick up on certain things. If you miss an episode you can, obviously, understand what’s going to be happening. It’s just the nature of that type of show. But, there’s going to be new things every single episode that catapult the storyline.
It’s so intense. It’s written very much like a film, which I love. That was one of the most appealing aspects for me, and the fact that Mark Pellington directed our pilot and is doing episode two and I think episode four. He’s an executive producer now, I believe, and his tone and how dark it is is just so cinematic. I think TV is really paving the way for strong female characters that are relatable. [Laughing] Screw movies.”
Jaime Alexander in NBC’s ‘Blindspot’
The opening scene with Alexander’s character discovered in a bag was actually shot in Times Square in New York City. “Times Square, that was the first image I had; it’s the first image in the show. It is the genesis for everything and we really needed to do it right. I was so afraid we were going to have to do it with an enormous amount of visual effects because Times Square is pretty busy at night. I don’t know if you’ve been to Times Square but it’s pretty busy – even at two in the morning. So, we hired an amazing amount of PAs. We had 45 amazing PAs – PAs are the lifeblood of the film industry – and some very cooperative cops. We started shooting at 10, kind of the crowd and stuff, thinned it out,” revealed Gero.
He continued: “Usually in film you start with your wide shots and get closer and closer. We started with the zipper and then it was like we could control this much [indicating a small circle], we can control this much [opening the circle up a bit], and then as it got to three or four in the morning, with the help of the cops and our amazing PA team, we shut that place down. There’s not a single visual effect in that entire opening sequence. We emptied Times Square for real. It grounds the show in a real way and creates a sense of scope that is pretty exciting.”
Gero, who agrees it’s fair to describe Jane Doe as a female Jason Bourne, provided a little insight into the plot without giving away any spoilers. “There’s a very complicated backstory. There’s a very complicated reason this is all happening. The tattoos are kind of a treasure map and so with all treasure maps, there needs to be an endpoint. There needs to be somebody that made it. Right now, and in the pilot and as we go on with the first season, trying to figure out who did this and why is the central drive of the season.”
While following the clues tattooed on Jane’s body drives season one, Gero says that there’s plenty of story to cover additional seasons after all of the tattoos have been explored. “If we’re lucky enough to go many, many seasons, the tattoos will take us to a certain point and then there is a planned hand-off to something else that the tattoos are still incorporated in. Every tattoo has sometimes double, triple meanings…even in the second episode you realize, ‘Oh, we have to look a little closer at some of these things,‘“ explained Gero. “I don’t want to say what the end point of the tattoos is because it’s kind of a specific plot thing that will feel like a twist, but there’s a large plan going on that the tattoos are the first two seasons of.”
For her part, Alexander wanted to make sure the tattoos are actually visible in scenes. She didn’t want to cover them all up with clothing. “Tattoos are awesome. One of the reasons I wear them so much in the show and I’m not covered is because I said to them, ‘Don’t skimp out. If we’re going to do this tattoo thing, I want to wear them all the time. I know it’s going to be hard. It’s totally fine.’ The worst thing that happens in television or in film is that they’ll just cover you up because they’re cheap. They’re like, ‘We don’t want to put her through that. Let’s just put a jacket on her.’ I’m like, ‘No, no, no. I’m doing a tank top. Let’s do it,’ because it’s such an important part of the show.”
The tattoo process takes seven hours, according to Alexander. “I can’t sit down so it gets a little rough towards the end. But we have a great crew, it’s the guys from Tinsley Studio and they do everything that’s badass. It’s so great, and they’re such nice guys. They come and we blast The Beatles on Pandora and watch Daniel Boone reruns because that’s the only thing on at 3:30 in the morning. We just get through it. And then once I’m in them and I start moving my arms around, it kind of cracks them a little bit, and then I’m able to move around really easily. It doesn’t bother me. Some people get claustrophobic in them. The poor stunt girl who’s been with me for way too long, she’s like, ‘I can’t believe you’re making me do this.’ I’m like, ‘You had to wear a double corset on Thor. Relax, it’s not that bad.’”
In addition to Alexander, the cast includes Sullivan Stapleton as FBI Agent Kurt Weller who’s tasked with working with Jane to find out who placed her in the bag and why her memory is gone. Johnny Whitworth (The 100) plays a mysterious man who is somehow involved with Jane’s situation. Although Gero didn’t want to give too much away about the story or about Whitworth’s character, he did say Whitworth’s part of a larger organization. “There is not just one person behind the tattoos, and Johnny is part of that.”
Berlanti says Kurt Weller and Jane Doe’s relationship is going to be unique due in large part to the fact there’s so much they don’t know about Jane’s background. “They’re drawn to each other by circumstance and also by emotions, in terms of what they’re both going through. We’ll learn what that is as we go along. It’s a unique dynamic that you haven’t been portrayed in quite this way. I think the fact that she is this really vulnerable amnesiac but also this really strong dynamic character who is determined to figure it out and he really is the counterpoint to that is also really exciting.”
Jane seems to rely on Kurt almost instinctively from the beginning, and Alexander says that’s because the one thing Jane does have is her gut intuition. “For some reason with this guy, his name is tattooed on her back so consciously she’s saying, ‘I need to stay close to this guy because he’ll have some answers for me. Also, there’s these moments where they have this connection and it’s like, ‘I get you and you get me. I can help you and you can help me so we need to know each other.’ We’re going to explore all kinds of things with them. It’s not going to be what you think – it’s not a love interest right away, if ever. I do know we have great chemistry; I’ve been told that. He’s my buddy. He’s cool. What’s really going to be happening is he’s going to aid her in finding out who she is. She’s going to aid him in opening up a little bit because he’s got a lot of dark secrets. He’s got a lot of things going on. Each character is so multi-dimensional, but it’s not overloaded,” said Alexander.
Asked to sum up Blindspot, Berlanti replied, “I would say it’s in that vein of grounded thrillers that still have action and adventure – and heightened – but that the people and what they’re going through make it believable.”
Tyler Posey and Bella Thorne at the 2015 MTV Fandom Awards (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)
Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey is the latest celebrity to join the list of Knock Knock Live co-hosts. Posey will be part of the new Fox reality series hosted by Ryan Seacrest, with Kellie Pickler, Adrienne Bailon, Ross Mathews, Chuey Martinez, and Jordan “Shorty” Johnson already on board as co-hosts.
In addition to the co-hosts, the star-studded list of celebrities who will be putting in appearances on the summer show will include David Beckham, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Florida Georgia Line, Common, Rob Gronkowski, Robin Thicke, Meghan Trainor, Rita Ora, Martha Stewart, Luke Bryan, Lea Michele, Mike Holmes, and Bubba Watson.
The Knock Knock Live Synopsis:
Knock Knock Live features Seacrest in a Los Angeles-based studio, while the Knock Knock Live team travels across the country, to any city at any time, surprising unsuspecting people at their front doors with a chance to win big cash prizes, meet their favorite celebrities and turn their wildest dreams into reality. What if someone knocked on your door and offered you thousands of dollars for naming nine kids who live on your block? Could you do it?
A knock at someone else’s door and it could be their favorite professional basketball player who challenges them to a game of H-O-R-S-E, with a chance to win courtside seats. KNOCK KNOCK! Who’s there? It could be the biggest pop star in the world performing a concert on your front lawn! This series will take an ordinary day and make it unforgettable.
