Author: Amber Dowling

August 16, 2016 5:00am PT by Amber Dowling

Carlton Cuse, right, and Guillermo del Toro  AP Images/Invision

The prolific producer talks with THR about getting the itch to direct and pushing himself creatively.

One of the most prolific producers in town is about get a little busier.

After more than a quarter century of writing, producing and even briefly starring in projects, Carlton Cuse is finally taking a seat in the director’s chair. The Bates Motel and Colony producer told THR at the recently concluded Television Critics Association summer press tour that he directed the upcoming season three of his FX drama The Strain, adding yet another notch to his already impressive résumé.

“I felt like it was time to finally have that experience, and The Strain was the perfect environment,” Cuse said. “It’s a really challenging episode. I can’t say too much about it, but there’s some stuff that goes on that was so cool that I was just like, ‘I have to direct that.’ ”

The producer revealed he’d never had the itch to direct before, because as a showrunner he’s always been able to make enough creative decisions to fulfill him artistically. But recently, with so many shows under his belt, he began to believe it was an important experience for him to have.

“It was just this impulse that finally struck me and it was a real learning experience, despite having sat at the right hand of directors for more than 400 hours of television,” he said. “I felt like I had a different respect [for directors]; I learned a lot. That will help me going forward in my relationship and prepping other directors, as well as just my general knowledge of being a filmmaker.”

In addition to showrunning duties on FX’s The Strain, Cuse is currently working on a second season of Colony for USA Network and the fifth and final season of Bates Motel over at A&E. Toronto-shot The Strain, which is based on the novels by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, debuts Sunday, Aug. 28 with 10 new episodes. J. Miles Dale (Shadowhunters: The Moral Instruments) directed the first two installments, which means viewers have a while yet until Cuse’s episode premieres.

“[Directing the finale] was a huge deal, but you should always be pushing yourself out to a place where you feel just a little bit nervous about doing something. Out of that comes good work; things that are really meaningful. So that’s what I try to do,” he said. “The process of what I do is always about learning and trying to get better and improving my craft. That was part of the journey for me, was to actually direct.”

In terms of on-set learning, Cuse has certainly surrounded himself with a talented bunch. That includes Strain co-producer del Toro, whom Cuse tells THR was “super supportive,” Banshee’s Greg Yaitanes, and his longtime friend Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad), who warned him to “get used to standing” when he got on set. It all culminated in an experience that Cuse is looking forward to repeating in the near future – perhaps even on Bates Motel or Colony.

“I do have the itch to direct again. It’s not something that I think will overtake my life, I don’t feel like suddenly I just want to be a director,” he said. “But being able to have it in my repertoire is something that I really [wanted]. I definitely plan to do it going forward.”

The Strain season three debuts Sunday, Aug. 28 on FX.

Twitter: @amber_dowling

The Strain

July 22, 2016 6:45pm PT by Amber Dowling

 Courtesy of Bernard Walsh/History

Creator Michael Hirst previews a season “unlike anything we’ve ever done,” plus watch the new trailer.

A new generation of Vikings are about to rise. The History drama used its platform Friday at Comic-Con to unveil the trailer for the second half of its fourth season. And judging from the new footage, the winds are beginning to change.

The trailer (below) showcases Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) returning to Kattegat after a long absence and teases how his various sons deal with his reappearance in their lives. “[He brings] calamity, chaos, tragedy and death … you should curse the day,” The Seer (John Kavanagh) warns Bjorn (Alexander Ludwig) before the clip flashes to scenes of death and destruction.

Of course this is Vikings, so death and destruction are just a typical day for these people. Seeing Ragnar and Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick) lock lips, however, or following Bjorn to the Mediterranean, is not. THR caught up with creator and showrunner Michael Hirst to dissect some of the promo’s juicier bits ahead of the show’s anticipated fall return.

There’s imagery of changing winds in this promo — what does that mean for the season?

This season is monumental and there are two episodes that are unlike anything we’ve ever done. There’s never been anything on TV like them before. Change is in the air. Ragnar has reappeared after disappearing following his humiliating defeat. He’s come back because he has something very specific that he wants to do, but as he says he also wants to see how his sons have turned out. So all that is set in motion. Rumors of Ragnar’s demise were somewhat premature, I have to say; there’s plenty of Ragnar still to come.

The Seer seems less than thrilled that Ragnar is back.

He dreads it — he knows that Ragnar’s reappearance will cause a lot of tragic and earth shattering events. The whole show has moved up another gear. We’re talking about conflict now that changed the nature of life in Scandinavia. We’ve gone from individual raids and small lumps of people to great armies and invasion of other countries. Ragnar’s story is the story of the Vikings. It’s going from small beginnings as a farmer to an earl to a king. From very small beginnings to fighting for kingdoms and the legacy. And for the future. This season just propels us into a more universal kind of drama. What The Seer is talking about really is how huge the impact of Ragnar’s reappearance will be on the world at the time.

Is it safe to say Ragnar’s mission is to make things right in Wessex?

That’s right, he feels there is unfinished business in Wessex. It is also fair to say he has some unfinished business with King Ecbert (Linus Roache). One of the reasons Ragnar comes out of his private space is because he feels as a Viking the need to address what he sees as a great injustice that was done and to avenge it.

Can audiences look forward to a big Ragnar and Ecbert showdown the way they looked forward to a Ragnar and Rollo (Clive Standen) showdown in the first half of the season?

Yeah, that would be fair to say. Those two favorite characters of mine are two kings who on the surface couldn’t be more different. One is a warrior the other is a kind of Machiavellian thinker. They represent different cultures and religions and yet there’s always been some sort of relationship between them. It was very important for me to get these two characters back together. Travis has been just amazing as Ragnar — better than my wildest dreams. And at last he’s kind of met his match in the very intelligent, clever Saxon king.

Ragnar finds himself in a cage in the clip – is his returning to Wessex part of a reckless death wish?

What is reckless to a Viking? You could say that all Vikings had death wishes because they wanted to die well and go to Valhalla. That was one of their big strengths as a warrior because it is counterintuitive. They were very happy to die, as long as they died well in battle. So Ragnar is very motivated by what often motivated Vikings; to avenge something. To justify his life by doing something significant that the gods would applaud. The one thing you can say about Ragnar is that he’s not afraid of any death.

Was reuniting Lagertha and Ragnar at least for a little while something you did for fans?

When it comes to those two, I feel like a fan. There is nothing I would like better than those two to get back together again. But it’s very difficult to imagine how that would be possible. What I can say is that for those people, for those fans who care for them and would like them to at least meet again and talk and remember stuff, they won’t be disappointed.

Lagertha is in bed with another woman in the clip, is that part of a larger LGBTQ storyline this season?

There was another woman, yes. What you have to ask yourself is who can Lagertha trust anymore? Can Lagertha ever trust another guy? She’s been betrayed by every man she’s ever been with, so it kind of makes sense that perhaps she might trust a woman more than a guy. But that’s not to say she would have a particularly profound relationship right now; it may be something she needs at this moment in time because she can’t trust men anymore.

It looks like Rollo is back in the fold after betraying his family, were you missing him with the other characters?

He cannot forget his Viking heritage. I always miss all of my characters, including the ones that I kill off, but Rollo’s reappearance was a specific storyline. As long as these characters remain alive they can reappear. I don’t do Game of Thrones stuff where I kill people and then they come back to life. They may come back as ghosts, but Vikings isn’t a fantasy series. So as long as Rollo is alive, he can come back into the show. He was a major Viking figure in history so it’s always good to have that in my back pocket.

What kind of rise does Ivar the Boneless (Alex Hogh Andersen) have this year?

Ivar the Boneless may be the most famous Viking of all, partly because he’s got such a cool name. But in terms of this show, I knew he was going to be a major character and we got so lucky that we cast a young actor who is absolutely brilliant. He is compulsively watchable just in the same way Travis is. His role is fantastic, he’ll challenge the audience because Ivar is well known as someone who was very extreme and very cool and yet he was a cripple. So there’s always going to be hopefully a lot of sympathy for him, but at the same time he pushes boundaries. He’s very challenging and he’s really going to emerge as one of the big stars of this show.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has signed on to star in season five but will viewers meet him in 4B?

Yes, we introduce him and set the scene for the next season. He’s going to be a major player. Personally it’s exciting because it brings us back together from Tudor times. Jonny’s a great actor and another wonderful presence on screen, so I am thrilled that he’s joined us and I can’t wait to explore his character.

Vikings season 4B returns this fall to History. Thoughts? Sound off in the comments below.

Vikings

April 05, 2016 8:33pm PT by Amber Dowling

 Courtesy of Prashant Gupta/FX

“The verdict had a lot to do in representing the state of race relations in 1994-95 and looking back on that verdict today, we still have similar feelings,” the actor tells THR as he looks back on the FX mini as a whole.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers from The People v. O.J. Simpson finale, “The Verdict.”]

Over the past nine episodes of FX miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, much of the focus has been on the legal teams, the judicial system and the jurors who were tasked with deciding the fate of the Hall of Fame football star. During Tuesday’s finale, that all changed when the focus returned to Simpson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) himself.

“O.J. got what he thought was a victory, but [we wanted to] illustrate that his life was going to be ruined; he could never go back to being the guy he once was,” series co-writer Larry Karaszewski told The Hollywood Reporter. “This was a bit of a tragedy for everyone, even people who thought they were the victors at the time. The only person who could possibly make a claim for any kind of real victory was Johnnie Cochran, who used O.J. as this imperfect vessel to get a bigger message out about police and the African-American community.”

Sure enough, as Simpson attempted to return to his regular life in the final episode, it was clear between the protestors, lack of friends and the fact that his own children weren’t allowed to welcome him home that his life would forever be changed.

To break down those scenes and revisit the entire 10-episode run, THR caught up with Gooding to dissect the finale.

Has your perspective of the trial changed at all through this process?

Every day. With every script, every day of research that I did. There were things that I specifically thought I knew were facts that weren’t; there were certain facts that I thought were rumors that were confirmed. It was one of these journeys that you go down with preconceived notions and as you get into the minutia that was not only the trial but the events of his life and his relationships with certain people and his behavior and the behavior of the lawyers and the things that were admissible as evidence and inadmissible and the relationship the judge had to certain members … it was really everything. It always was something else that I would hear that would truly blow me away.

What kind of feedback have you been getting for the role?

The fact that I lived in the Brentwood area where the crimes took place, I would go to restaurants and certain establishments and people would just tell me their personal encounters with O.J., encounters with Ron Goldman or Nicole Brown. It’s a theme of my life that has continued since the onset of this project, where people now come up to me and they either tell me their opinions of the show or their personal interactions with O.J. back in the day. Certain things that they saw and experienced. One that blew me away was a personal conversation with a director who was driving and saw the police and the commotion out in front of the condo. He was picking his kids up from school and saw what appeared to be a body in a black gown with a leg sticking out and people marking the area off. He asked his kids to look the other way. Little things like that really shocked me to my core as I walked through this journey.

Did any of the facts that you came across particularly shock your or stand out?

A lot of stuff. We shot this thing over six or seven months and there were 10 scripts that came down the pike. I remember shooting the scene where he was writing a suicide note and I was getting into character and pacing the room, and I asked them to just bring me the real note so that I could take a look at it. I said, “No, no this one isn’t it, this one has a happy face on it.” But he did, he drew the happy face. Little things like that kind of suggest the psychosis that he was in during that time and really affected me.

You didn’t reach out to O.J., but have you heard any reactions from him or other players in the original case?

No, not personally. There’s been no direct contact or requests to me personally from them.

A lot of the series has been about people reacting to O.J. and the trial, but there were a lot of weighted scenes in the finale with you. How did you prepare for that?

The way you might have felt given my performance in that 10th episode was the culmination of me; I’m assuming the accumulated effect of the performance through the previous nine episodes. The culmination of that performance might have given you a visceral, emotional response to my performance. That was the mindset I had to be in the entire six months. There was no additional preparation for that episode, it was just another day’s journey going down that dark path. The request of me from [executive producer and director] Ryan Murphy on that particular day shooting those scenes had resulted in what he needed to relay the intent of what my character was feeling and expressing. But there was no additional, “OK, here we go with this emotional moment.” That was just that journey. It’s almost like asking somebody after they finish laughing, “You know that second chuckle, what was that second chuckle motivation?” No. Through 45 seconds of laughing you can’t explain each particular chuckle.

What about in the final scene with the statue. What sense were you hoping to leave viewers with?

It took me a while to finally step out of that darkness. I remember the A.D. walking me across the lawn and up to that statue and Ryan saying, “OK, it’s going to be on a crane and there will be close-ups so we’re going to get you as soon as you exit the house.” I remember exiting that house and thinking back on O.J.’s fate … the tapes and the videos and how his posture was and I focused on that. Him looking around the backyard and seeing the pool and finally as he approached the statue and beyond that to the courts and maybe placed some memories, wondering if he thought of the last time he played tennis there — if it was a happy time and how in contrast it was to what he was feeling now. That’s what acting is, asking questions and then living up to the face; what he must have thought.

Do you think he was expecting the reaction he got when that not guilty verdict was handed down?

I think he was handed the tip that the jurors were going come in with a not guilty. … That’s why when I saw it years ago, I remember thinking it was more of a relief as opposed to a thank you. I wanted to make sure I remembered his reaction as close as I could with my performance.

Looking back, do you think the verdict had any lasting effect on the issues of race the trial presented?

At the time, that verdict polarized many people and people on certain sides of the joy at hearing it and the angst at hearing it. Those feelings were racially motivated and having been 20 years removed now and going through the recent events of police corruption and whatnot, the dissection of that time period — not just the Simpson trial but the Rodney King beating and certain governmental actions back in the day that are still represented in our society today that cause people to want to know more about that time period. Last summer, we had Straight Outta Compton and people were shocked that it made so much money in the box office. But I believe people were touched again at all these issues of race relations in Los Angeles during that time period. The verdict had a lot to do in representing the state of race relations in 1994-95 and looking back on that verdict today, we still have similar feelings. But in addition to those feelings we have a lot more information about society and society’s behavior.

What did you think of the finale? Sound off in the comments below.

Twitter: @amber_dowling