Prime Video’s groundbreaking dramedy Undone returns for its long-delayed, much-anticipated second season on Friday, April 29, 2022. The critically acclaimed series, beautifully brought to life via rotoscope animation, tells the story of a young woman, Alma (Rosa Salazar), who discovers she has an altered relationship with time following a horrible car accident. Season one focused on Alma’s quest to uncover more about her father’s death, and season two will delve further into her family’s past and unearth even more secrets.
Angelique Cabral plays Alma’s sister, Becca, an integral player in Alma’s search for the truth in Undone’s second season. Constance Marie reprises her role as Alma and Becca’s mom, Camila, a woman with more than a couple of skeletons locked in her closet.
Undone stars Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, and Constance Marie took part in a panel during the 2022 WonderCon in Anaheim, the first in-person WonderCon since Covid-19 turned the world upside down. The trio also participated in interviews in support of the series’ second season which will arrive two and a half years after season one debuted.
Season one currently sits at 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and Rosa Salazar believes season two more than delivers on expectations.
“Hisko Hulsing, the director of Undone, says this amazing thing. He says when we were making Undone season one it was like we were building the car as we were driving. And we got really good at that. And then season two is like driving a Maserati, you know what I mean? It’s like we are zooming now. We are such a well-oiled machine at this point.
Season one was very much grounded – I guess you can say that even though it was so spiritual and ethereal and mythical. But season two is…I think the word to use for it is expansive. It’s incredibly expansive,” explained Salazar. “I mean, we are traveling the globe. We are traveling through time and space, the universe. We are traveling through generations. We are going into both sides of Alma’s lineage – the Mexican side of her, the Jewish side of her.”
Salazar continued: “The thing about Undone is that every year we get to go exponentially deeper – deeper into the questions, deeper into our existence, into our lives. So, it is an incredibly expansive second season. I mean, the things that we’ve done in season two are next level. It’s just really next level.”
Asked who Alma will be seeking advice from or turning to in season two, Salazar replied, “You know, that’s so interesting that you ask that because the first season was all about her father [played by Bob Odenkirk] being her guru and saying we’ve got to examine these powers and Alma being sort of reluctant about it. You know, like kind of afraid to know what she’s capable of. In the second season, she’s so obsessive about the powers. It’s almost like she’s gotten a taste of that and she’s like, ‘Gimme that time juice!’ you know? She’s like, ‘I need this!’
She’s so incredibly obsessive about it. She’s not really turning to anyone. She’s become the guru who now wants to harangue her sister into it with her and try to get her sister to go on this adventure with her and to accept her powers, only to find she’s so much about fixing…you know, in the first season about her father, the second season about her mother and her lineage and going back and fixing. ‘Well, we have to fix this thing and then we have to fix this thing…’ She’s so obsessive going outward by the end she realizes that ‘oh my god, I have never gone [inward]. I’ve always [gone outward].’
“She doesn’t really ask anybody because she’s afraid of what she might find out if she goes into [herself]. I think if there were to be a third season, I think instead of being so expansive and outward I think what we’d do is go into the universe within. That’s an interesting question and I think we should tackle that in season three,” said Salazar.
It’s not a spoiler to confirm Angelique Cabral’s Becca will also discover she has the ability to travel through time in season two. (Prime Video’s season two trailer and clips previously revealed Becca’s ability.) Cabral said she didn’t anticipate that twist heading into the series’ second season.
“I did not know what was coming. We don’t know until at the table read, really. They don’t give us a heads up, so I was very excited that Becca gets to take this journey also and becomes a very important part of the time-traveling aspect of the show,” explained Cabral. “I was very excited.”
The idea of alternate realities has always fascinated Cabral. “I’ve always thought of that. I don’t know what I believe, exactly, but I do believe that it’s not linear and that there’s a lot out there and a lot to explore and unpack.”
Cabral agrees with Salazar that Undone season two will wow audiences. “It tops [season one] in every way, I honestly believe,” said Cabral. “I know season one was unbelievable and it was incredibly beautiful, but season two is expansive. It’s gorgeous. The rotoscoping is so much better after two years. They’ve really honed it and it’s just an incredible work of art.”
Due to the continuing (seemingly never-ending) pandemic, season two was shot with the series creators and directors on Zoom. “It was just us in a black like basically a soundstage and you have nothing. You have no props; you have no wardrobe, really,” explained Cabral. “We just had one dress that we wear the whole time. And it’s a huge work of imagination. It’s a huge trust exercise, I would say, between the three of us and our own imaginations. Like, ‘Can we get there?’”
Cabral added: “It’s a really good acting lesson. I’ll be honest with you I think it’s some of my favorite work I’ve ever done. It’s so fulfilling. It’s so hard. It’s scary because you don’t have anything. You’re just talking to nothing.”
Constance Marie hadn’t finished watching season two prior to our interview but admits she loves the second season even more than the first.
“My character, Camila, she was a very harsh mom and you didn’t understand why she was so harsh. We explored it a little bit but in season two we really get to explore it. I have so much more compassion for her and it’s so touching to me that my whole paradigm has shifted on what I thought of her. I think that is a wonderful example of what we should all do as humans. If you truly understood the life that shaped each person that you come in contact with, I think we’d all be a lot less judgmental.”
Marie described the banter between Rosa Salazar’s Alma and Angelique Cabral’s Becca in season two as brilliant. “It’s really cute,” said Marie. “That’s the part that’s so crazy. This show deals with historical trauma, familial trauma, personal trauma, evolution, choice-making – and yet there’s funny in it. There’s funny moments.”
Marie continued: “Kate Purdy is brilliant. She handles the emotional complexity with such an integrity and such a respect. And then you have these light moments that are just brilliant. It’s almost like life. You know, when something really traumatic happens you think of something funny, or someone will say something funny just to give us a little bit of a break. And so, season two will definitely not leave you disappointed.”
Constance Marie wasn’t fully aware of her character’s backstory prior to season two and instead learned about it as the series went along.
“I knew a little bit but as an actor, you don’t always get that information so you have to dip into your bag of tools and come up with the character,” explained Marie. “I mean, you always have to justify why your character behaves the way [she does]. You have to have compassion for your character, so I did my work and it was wonderful for season one. But I didn’t know all that I learned in season two. And oh my goodness…poor Camila! It’s fascinating that she survived so much of what happened to her. Yeah, Kate Purdy does not disappoint in the writing.”
Constance Marie says after learning more about Camila’s history the character holds a special place in her heart.
“I mean, as any single mom in America will tell you, it’s a very difficult journey. You always put so much pressure on yourself to be perfect, basically. Nobody really has that much compassion for you. The workload is what the workload is, and if you’re not perfect… And you don’t get extra credit for any of that. And so Camila experiences that but hers even goes deeper than that – her mother and how her mother treated her. You really see the generational dysfunction and trauma that these characters have survived. And so, the judgment just goes right out the window. It’s fascinating,” said Marie.
All eight episodes of the Amazon Original Series will debut on April 29, 2022 on Prime Video.
Undone was created by executive producers Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman). Noel Bright, Steven A. Cohen, Tommy Pallotta, Femke Wolting, Felix Bruno, and director/production designer Hisko Hulsing also executive produce.
