Aaron Ginsburg – The 100

By starrymag | March 1, 2016

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

Q) Your first episode was “Wanheda Part 2.” In that episode, we got to see a wonderful reunion between Monty and his mom. Why was this an important storyline that you wanted to pursue?

A) Very early on in our discussions for Season Three, we knew we wanted to introduce survivors from another downed station from the Ark. Up to this point, we’ve only seen Alpha Station (what we call Arkadia), Factory Station (only one survivor, Mel, in Ep 204), and Mecha Station (where Abby and Kane were, seen in Ep 113). So, we knew early on that we wanted to bring in some new survivors who have been living on their own for an entire season, experiencing the ground in their own way — one that we just didn’t see. We chose to make them from Farm Station because we already had characters from the Farm Station (Monty being one), and we wanted to explore what would happen when these character re-unite. So much has changed for both sides.

For instance, Monty (Christopher Larkin) last saw his mom up in space where he was a juvenile delinquent, locked in the Sky Box. But since then, he was sent down to Earth with The 100 and so much has happened. He’s not the same person that he was. And, as Monty’s beginning to realize, his mother is not quite the same woman he remembers. That is going to allow us to tell a really interesting familial story between them. In addition to Monty, it will allow us to introduce Charles Pike, as well as a new group of Ark survivors who all have very different beliefs on how to survive in the wild.

Q) Pike seems to have a very limited view of Grounders…

A) It’s been very interesting to see the response to Pike on Twitter and Tumblr. Michael Beach is an amazing actor. He’s so charismatic, strong and so likable. I’m curious to see everyone’s responses going forward. Pike is someone who landed in the Ice Nation and — right off the bat — a third of his people were slaughtered in a horrible, bloody massacre. They landed in one of the most dangerous areas of the world (at least with what we have seen up to this point), and they have been barely surviving. He can come to hate all “Grounders.” Then, on Bellamy’s (Bob Morley) insistence in Ep 303, Pike trusts a Grounder (Echo), only to lose even more of his people in that surprise attack at Mount Weather… His biases were only confirmed. Pike’s beliefs are based on his own experiences on the ground and the terrible losses he has suffered. So, what he does next (how he behaves, what he believes) is going to be founded on all of that.

Q) And on the Ark he was the Earth Skills teacher?

A) That’s right. We were really thrilled when we came up with the idea that Pike was the Earth Skills teacher. He had all of the necessary techniques and needed knowledge to survive on the ground, but up in space, no one really paid attention to that class. They all thought it was going to be the next generation who had a chance to come back to Earth, so it was the class where people just coasted through, sleeping, not paying attention. Now, on the ground, Pike is suddenly the person with the most invaluable knowledge and he quickly becomes an important component of Arkadia.

Q) We saw the demons facing Jasper based on the fallout of Mount Weather. He seems to not be coping as well as others. What is it about these ghosts that make it more profound to him?

A) I think the simplest ways to look at it (or the way we look at it) is this: every character responds to the traumas, challenges and obstacles differently. Raven (Lindsey Morgan) is someone who has suffered her whole life with heartbreaking disappointments here and there. But Raven is such a fighter and has always proven to be incredibly strong, bullheaded and passionate. She fights her way through, never willing to give up. Jasper, on the other hand, is a character who probably wasn’t prepared for the travesties and the setbacks he experienced on the ground. As a result, his ability to deal with those losses is different. He’s not handling it as well, for sure.

Q) There is a great scene with Jasper and Octavia, where she finds him in the midst of these artworks and is here for him in a way others haven’t been.

A) I love that scene. It’s one of my favorite scenes we wrote for that episode. It’s so simple, but it allows these two characters who have changed so much since the pilot to just reconnect. In this world where there is so much darkness, Octavia (Marie Avgeropoulos) puts her arm around her friend and tries to give him some sort of bolstering, some sort of support, even when she knows there’s nothing she can really say to make it better. It was a beautiful tender moment and those two actors were incredible. Devon [Bostick] and Marie just crushed it!

Q) In the beginning of Season Three, we see Clarke on her own path and Murphy in a bunker. They each seem to simultaneously be in a fortress of solitude. Do you see that as a parallel?

A) I’m not sure if it was a parallel in our minds. Clarke left. She decided that she needed to find a place where she didn’t have to face her friends every minute of the day because they reminded her too much of what she had to do in the mountain. To bear the burden, as she mentions, Clarke (Eliza Taylor) needed to be alone. Murphy, on the other hand, did not choose to be locked up in that bunker. He would much rather be free to roam. He was imprisoned. The thing about Murphy (Richard Harmon) we love is that he is a survivor. You can’t get rid of him. In earlier seasons, it used to be for the worst. It used to be that every time he showed up, you’d be like, “Uh! We can’t get rid of this guy!” Now, I think, people have the opposite feeling — they don’t want to get rid of him. That moment in Episode 301, where Murphy puts the gun in his mouth, you’re thinking, “Please don’t! We don’t want to see Murphy go!” He actually doesn’t pull the trigger because he ultimately is a survivor. So, as miserable as it is being locked in a bunker with no food, Murphy would rather do that than take his own life.

Q) We see Roan taking Clarke with him to deliver her, we assume to Queen Nia, but in reality it’s to Lexa. But it all provides this amazing build up and element of pure surprise. How did you get that build up and pressure through the writing and incredible drama that heightens it through the camera work?

A) Mairzee Almas directed the second episode this season, and for that twist to really work, I think you need “Wanheda, Part 1” as well (which Dean White directed). The two episodes go together. “Wanheda, Part 1” is about Clarke hiding from that title, hiding from that name, and “Wanheda, Part 2” is Clarke learning she is going to have to embrace being the Commander of Death. Initially, it was written to be sort of a surprise where you thought Roan (Zach McGowan) was taking Clarke towards the Ice Nation, but then you got clues along the way that muddied that idea. The moment where he is hiding from his own people – you can’t quite figure out what his story is. That allowed us to reveal that Roan had ulterior motives. There was more to his story. Ultimately, we reveal that Roan brought Clarke to Polis because he selfishly wants to have his own banishment lifted.

Q) He seems to be his own driving force. At times, I feel he is a chess piece, but also a chess master – where he was trying to get Clarke to kill Lexa.

A) In episode three, which Kim Shumway wrote, Roan is on his own in Polis. He is looking for any way of escape, and he realizes his best ally is someone else who has been betrayed by Lexa… So, you see him doing his best to negotiate with her. There is a great moment where Clarke bows to Lexa and Roan realizes she did not take his deal. He bows immediately because he realizes he has to play the game now. He realizes that his plan didn’t work so he better fall in line – at least for now.

Q) It was interesting to see the way the people are in the market at Polis rather than the viewpoint from what Pike has mentioned and painted.

A) Yes, absolutely. My favorite moment is this little look that Kane (Henry Ian Cusick) gives as he first sees Polis. The camera pushes in on him and he says, “Incredible…” With this big, sprawling market, you finally see how forward thinking Polis really is. It feels like an establishment and a real city. Then, in the same episode, you see Polis through Pike’s view — crawling through sewers and up the elevator shaft… It’s not a beautiful market place to him, it’s an enemy base.

Q) Back in episode two, we got to see more of ALIE. We found out a little bit more about her motives. It seems like (in my opinion) communication and connection are a reoccurring theme. How might this continue beyond ALIE?

A) We worked really hard on the ALIE storyline, as a character and how she affects all the characters this season. It’s a complicated and incredible journey. And it is one best experienced rather than teased. So, I’m going to side step this question…

Q) What do you say about fans who may feel like the Jaha storyline is stunted or isn’t as propelling as the other half of the stories being told?

A) I think there are a couple of things here. Jaha (Isaiah Washington) and ALIE’s (Erica Cerra) storyline is huge, full of big ideas and cool twists. Right now, their storyline is just in the first act. So, for me, I understand the fans feeling that way, but they just don’t know what’s coming. We have barely introduced it. As the season goes on and Jaha and ALIE’s storyline continues to evolve, fans will change their opinion. As Jaha and ALIE interact with other characters it will feel a lot less remote and a lot less esoteric. It’s going to feel real and dangerous. I think this is just one of those stories. It’s like reading one or two pages of a book and going, “Well, I don’t like it.” We’ve only just begun.

Q) Some of the characters often appear to be part human and part animal (i.e. Clarke and the panther, Octavia as a wild stallion, Raven as obviously a bird, Abby is a wise owl, etc.). What do you think it is about these ladies that give you this feeling that they appear half human and half animals?

A) I haven’t heard that theory before, but you’ve picked some great animals to match with those characters. Our show has incredibly strong, well developed female characters as you know, but we also have incredibly strong and well developed male characters as well. They don’t get as much credit — I think only because in the world of TV there is such a dearth of awesome female characters.

But when we’re in the writer’s room, we don’t really look at characters by their gender. We love all of our characters and we want them all to have these rich, real lives and rich journeys – regardless of their gender, race or sexual orientation. None of that really matters to the story. To us, they’re just people. Or, as you put it, maybe half animal!

Q) As a writer, I would love to hear about the collaborations. Is there an idea that is formed and then someone says they have something to add to it or do people get paired together as things flesh out?

A) I think every show is different, but the way we do it is this: we all sit in the writers’ room together and we come up with the whole season-long story. Then we start to break each episode, one by one (“break” is just writer slang for “figure out the story”). Then a writer is assigned to each episode and they take “the break” and turn it into a script. Then the script goes through production, and our amazing department heads (costumes, makeup, production design) add incredible details. Then the directors take it and add their brilliance…then, it finally gets to the actors and they bring life into it. TV is such an amazing collaborative medium. It starts with a bunch of us sitting around on couches and ends with 150 extras outside of Polis in a bustling marketplace. It takes hundreds of people all bringing their A-game to get this done every week. And it’s why I love TV.

Q) How big did the “Death Wall” end up this year?

A) We did, actually, run out of space on the death wall at some point. We had to move it onto another wall. It wrapped around…

Q) What I also love about the show is that at times, like Murphy, you are rooting for people and then they flip and you root for someone else because you see things differently. What do you think it is about all of these unique perspectives that gives us the opportunity to see things from all aspects?

A) There are a lot of TV shows that are black and white in terms of who is the bad guy and who is the good guy. That just happens to not be the story we are telling. With all of our characters, we want to make sure that their behavior and their actions come from a real place – a place that they believe to be right. Believe me, there are times in the writers’ room where we argue and debate to get to the place where a character’s motivation feels genuine. When you do, then it becomes hard to dismiss someone as the bad guy (even if you don’t want to admit it) because there is some part of their decision that you can justify and understand. That’s what makes “The 100” incredible to write and awesome to think about. I think that’s why a lot of people connect to it. Because the characters are not easily dismissed as either a good guy or a bad guy. You can take sides. Everyone is both good and Everyone has a little bit of everything all mixed up in the soup.

Q) Are there are going to be more LGBT characters this year? You mentioned characters are characters, regardless of sexuality, labels, etc.

A) With the Farm Station survivors, we realized we had the opportunity to tell more of Miller’s story. Jarod Joseph is a great actor and a wonderful addition to our adventure squad team. And we wanted to explore more with him — and that’s where Bryan, his boyfriend, comes in. We talk a lot about how we don’t really think of characters in “The 100” as gay or straight. In our world of the show, we are sort of past that. You love who you love. But we had only really seen one onscreen relationship that was bisexual with Clarke and Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey). We wanted to explore something else with Miller and Bryan. Their sexual identity will never be “the story” as we move forward, but their relationship as a couple will certainly play an important role.

Q) As Lexa swore her fealty to Clarke, what pizza do you swear your fealty to?

A) Right now I’m swearing my fealty to a new pizza recipe I created last year. I love it, love it. It’s kind of crazy. It has a homemade sauce that is made out of tomatillos and I top it with roasted golden beets. I can’t tell you all of the ingredients because I don’t want to give away the secrets, but everyone who tries it is floored by how delicious it is!

Q) With all of these wonderful CrazyDog “The 100” t-shirts coming out, will we also be getting a “The 100” cookbook?

A) For the last year, I have been working with a friend of mine to make a pizza book. Actress Jenny Wade and I cook together all the time. We have been talking and really working towards getting a pizza book published. Hopefully, this is the year we will finally have enough free time to do it. 2016 – the year of the pizza book!

Q) “The 100” gets a lot of well deserved media attention, but we don’t see it often enough at award shows or events like Paley Fest. How can fans get more involved and be more vocal about getting the cast into these events?

A) Our fans are amazing and we are constantly surprised, amazed, humbled and honored by all the online activity that the fans contribute. People’s reactions online, discussion and debates, tweeting and Tumblr posts, all helps in some way. I’m hoping that because we’re getting more press, it will lead to more award recognition (or at least being included in some of these festivals). Our fans are amazing and everything they are doing is both recognized by us and certainly helping put “The 100” in the forefronts of peoples’

Q) What do you hope fans take away from watching this season?

A) We have some cool themes in this season. It’s a show about survival and as the season continues, we’re going to ask bigger questions about what it means to survive and what it means to be human. Those are the questions I think people are going to find themselves drawn to. I can promise you this: it’s going to be one wild, wild ride.

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Aaron Ginsburg is the Supervising Producer of The 100. Follow him on Twitter (@DrLawyercop) and Tumblr (http://aaronginsburg.tumblr.com/) for behind-the-scenes photos from The 100 and the occasional pizza recipe.