Brittany Curran – The Magicians

By starrymag | April 13, 2018

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) This season we got to see quite a variety of animals on the series. I can only imagine the menagerie for next season!

A) I know! I’m so excited. I was just reading an article where John [McNamara] and Sera [Gamble] were saying that next season they are going to stick even closer to the cannon of the books, especially book three. So, I’m hoping that means even more fantastical Fillorian things. I’m so excited for it! I know very few things about next season and I’m dying to get the first script!

Q) Fen is the reigning High King of Fillory. So, she is sure to come across a lot of her subjects.

A) I freaked out when I read that in the scripts! I was so excited!

Q) Was that a cape or cloak for your costume?

A) It was a cape that was built into the shirt of the outfit. It was a two-piece outfit – the pants and then the shirt/cape/collar. Our costume designer Magali [Guidasci] is so amazing! Fen’s outfits went from a lot of pastels and just the fit was super loose and kind of young and innocent looking to all of a sudden she’s wearing pants for the first time and it’s more form fitting. There is a lot of influence to her wardrobe as season two goes on there is a lot of 1920’s vibe to it. All of a sudden she’s High King and wearing pants and a cape. I’m loving it!

Q) I loved Margo’s journey as well and how she made Fen acting High King of Fillory while she is away. Margo has always had this innate kindness, compassion and confidence to her, but she sort of hasn’t seen that in herself. Then, when she connects with the animal subjects of Fillory she finally sees for herself the way everyone else sees her.

A) Absolutely, yeah! There is so much more to Margo (Summer Bishil) than what originally meets the eye. She’s so complex and I don’t want to describe Summer’s character for her, but the way I perceive Margo is if you just know her on the surface you see one thing; however, she’s actually this incredibly strong and resilient, kind human being that sometimes has to make some really hard decisions yet ends up coming out on top. I just love her. Summer has done such an incredible job. As an actress, I’m always so incredibly blown away by her work. She’s very talented and has always been amazing, but this year I couldn’t get over how incredible she was this season and I was so happy when she became High King. Then, she let me do it. [laughs]

Q) She passed the scepter on to you.

A) Yeah! And one of the incredible things I just thought of this moment was that Fen and Margo have always had a very complicated relationship. It’s been pretty tumultuous at times. I think deep down they have a very strong respect for one another and I think that they really do connect. Even though they are thrown into these awful circumstances, at the end of the day they really care about each other. I know Margo empowers Fen. Even though Fen had a lot of mixed feelings for Margo in the beginning, for Fen to see this woman come in who is so strong and unapologetic was really good for Fen. So, for the woman to be such an inspiration for Fen and to all of a sudden be handing the scepter to her was extra special for Fen and I really hope they explore that.

Q) We saw Fen be postpartum and we saw her as mom to angsty-teen Frey. Then, there was drunk Fen, Earth Fen, Fen: Freer of Fairies and then there was Acting High King Fen.

A) When you put it like that, there are a lot of new adventures this season that I think she never imagined would happen to her. [laughs] Her character arc this season was so empowering to watch. She started as a young woman in this archaic society that was promised to a High King that she didn’t even know, and although she did have a rebellious streak in her from the beginning, she was very obedient and never put herself first, very much to her detriment. So, to see her fall from that even further after she lost her baby and fell into this state of psychosis and was even further in denial about her family situation – then to come out of that and rise from it even stronger…You know, it still takes time. Even when we first see her sitting on the throne there is a piece of her that is still that obedient wife and kind of afraid to tell the High Council what she wants. Even though she is one of the most fit rulers since she is a native Fillorian and she knows what the Fillorian people want, she just needs to come into her own power more. I love the scene where the Fairy Queen comes in and tells Fen to stop apologizing and come into your power. I loved that! Fen needed to hear that so much! And coming from another powerful woman was good. Fen has some complex female role models on the show. [laughs] Kind of fucked up, but also really strong.

Q) And we see Tick there by her side, but still disdainfully salty.

A) I just love how Rizwan [Manji] and the whole High Council keep insulting her and calling her “Acting High King.” Tick is so salty and it’s so funny. When we did the first take on that scene and it was on Riz and he was so passive aggressive. I just cracked up during the first take because he was so freaking funny!

Q) There was so much gray area this season. We saw Tick become a villain and even Alice (in my opinion) makes these selfish over selfless decisions. But as they say, no villain sees themselves as a villain, they see it as doing it for the greater good. Can you about how we explored that more this season and the themes we see?

A) That’s a great question. There are so many important themes this season. One of the things I love about this show is that we do tackle these really difficult subjects like slavery, rape, losing a child and all these really horrible things. I think one of the themes is resilience and lifting yourself up. Fen is an obvious example of this. Julia is an obvious example. I feel like Julia (Stella Maeve) and Fen are two people who have been victimized quite a bit but would never call themselves victims. I think there is a big difference. Bad things have happened to them, but that is not what defines them even though horrible spirals of whatever it is they are dealing with – which is one of the reasons I think they teamed up this season and became friends. I would say resilience, but that theme also goes with the “villains.” The Fairy Queen (Candis Cayne) is so resilient and in Fen’s opinion it was her being evil and unfair to protect her own people. At the end of the day, that resilience from the Fairy Queen makes her sacrifice herself for the greater good – not just for the people she’s been protecting all this time, but for the greater good. So, I would say that is one of the biggest themes of the season for sure. Forgiveness is also another theme. Forgiving doesn’t mean you forgetting what the person did or that you are saying it is okay, but by forgiveness for yourself more than anything. I think you saw that displayed with Fen and Julia and Margo and Eliot (Hale Appleman). Also, with Tick who has been backstabbing the whole time, but they put him on the High Council. He is honestly so touched and that was such a cute moment. I loved seeing Riz so flattered as Tick. It was so cute! I think speaking of themes, I kind of started seeing it as a theme on prejudice because you might meet one person in your life that is a bad person and they fit into this category and some people may think that all people are like whatever it is. Then you meet other people and realize all of a race or person in a certain job or gender. So, I think a lot of people get stuck in that. So then for Fen to live her whole life as seeing fairies as evil and then them actively making her life terrible and then for her to take herself out of that mindset and realize not all fairies are bad – a lot of fairies are in a worse position than I am and then actually on the road to forgiving the Fairy Queen. I don’t know if she does that or is on the road to actively forgiving her. I thought it was great to have a theme on prejudice and getting past it.

Q) I loved that hard scene in the jail and the stunt work you got to do with Stella. Can you talk a little bit more about these great moments between Fen and Julia this season?

A) I think just off the top of your head it seems very unlikely and that’s how I felt going into it. Once I started getting into it and reading the scripts Stella and I started talking about it. We both realized how much it makes sense and how even though their trajectories in life seem so different, how similar they actually are. I also love that throughout the seasons you see Julia and Fen maybe not having the most healthy female relationships. Even if there is love and support there, not that any relationship is perfect, it ends up being a broken situation. Yes, they do challenge each other and it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. They do come down hard on each other, but it’s all out of love and they do truly support each other. There is nothing nefarious going on or backstabbing going on. They are just two women who have been through so much shit in life and are over it and want to take control and support each other. I just loved working with Stella. On a personal note, she was just so lovely. There are so many ways we work similarly to each other, which we both discovered on set with each other working sixteen hours a day. [laughs] We bonded as Stella and Brittany and Julia and Fen. There were some especially long days and after sixteen hours you start to get tired. I would start to drink three espressos a day and she would start to call me “Zippy” on those days when I’d start to get real caffeine at midnight. [laughs] Then, there was one scene (I feel so bad)…One night the actress Anja Savcic (who plays Skye) and I both had like three espressos and were losing our minds and the camera was on the back of Stella and I’s heads. There was this one line that wasn’t even funny, but we thought it was hysterical so we’re cracking up but trying to hold it in since the cameras were on our heads. It was just the most ridiculous night ever because we could not stop laughing. It was bad! The three of us had a really nice time filming and I hope they bring Anja back next season. She was so good! She was like the first step in the process of Fen actually forgiving fairies and liking fairies since she did such a good job.

Q) This season the writing really leveled up and there were moments that felt like we were watching “Game of Thrones,” Harry Potter, and “Buffy.” Julia becomes a goddess and we think of how Buffy sacrifices herself and becomes the key. Then, we have Margo’s red wedding where her groom gets killed and has to marry his brother.

A) Like Arya and Sansa, the characters on our show rising up against these terrible things and going back to the theme of being the victim – it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you’re like, “I’m a victim. This is my identity,” then you are going to be one. Everyone goes through hard times in their lives. If you can say, “This is unfair and messed up, but I’m going to get past it,” that’s how you get past it. If you believe something enough then you are going to be that thing. I think that’s why Fen and Julia were able to rise up out of their being victimized by so many people because that was never their identities. Again, I don’t mean to talk for Julia or Stella, but I think she would agree with that.

Q) What is it about the show’s writers and creators that they understand and just write such witty, dynamic and diverse multi dimensional characters that maybe other networks haven’t seemed to grasp or recognize.

A) I think the first step with John, Sera, and all the writers is that they love the source materials and the characters. They care about these characters and the world that they live in. That’s definitely the most important first step. And I mean I could sit and talk to any of the writers for hours about anything about the show. They just know the show so well and Sera rereads all the books every season. They are just such intelligent people. I had lunch with Christina String who is one of our writers and we were talking and joking around about Fen being on Earth and her finding emojis. We were talking like Fen was a real person and that is how the writers view them. I think that’s really important.

Q) Fen learns Emojis and we see the crab with the knife. We get these touching yet torturous moments like the silent portion of the six stories episode. It was amazing to see these heart wrenching and gut-wrenching moments and then ones that tug at your heart strings the next moment.

A) I loved that whole sequence in the six short stories episode. I loved the silent sequence and was just so excited the writers decided to go almost completely silent other than some vibrations that a deaf person might actually sense. I loved that they did that and that they committed to that fully. There was no music and nothing buffering it. I think they do a really good job at honoring people in all walks of life.

Q) One of my other favorite things about this season was the building of pressure of this season. We have this tremendous musical number with “Under Pressure” and then the song in the finale. These songs really seem to summarize the season so well – especially “Under Pressure.” I really wanted to talk about the musical episode and how fitting “Under Pressure” feels as well.

A) I wasn’t a part of the musical episode so I can’t speak to it personally, but the song itself was so perfect. I love that song. I’m just a fan of the song in general – who isnt’? I thought it was a perfect choice. John is so musical. He loves musicals. I love how John, Sera and everybody really make an effort to bring musicality to the show because music can express things that you can’t any other way. So, I’m so happy they bring that to our show every season. The finale song was really incredible. I thought it was so perfect. I don’t know the music they are going to use until after I watch the episodes. Just the visuals of the Muntjac flying to Castle Blackspire and that the magicians are all going on this scary journey to this unknown place and then all of a sudden the music comes in and it is so emotional. I just loved it!

Q) We (the audience) don’t know where season four will take the series, but we left Fen in Fillory as the High King. She is alone sort of, despite having this High Council.

A) On top of that she is extra alone because all of her friends and everybody doesn’t know who they are anymore – except Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley) who is in library jail and Dean Fogg (of course), but he orchestrated it. So, I have a feeling he won’t be very helpful.

Q) All these characters blind sided us at the end. We saw Julia fix Dean Fogg’s eyes and all season long he was drunk and seemingly unable to help then in the finale came the twist and it was like, “Well played!”

A) I did not see that coming and I don’t know why he did it. I’d like to believe there is a bigger plan going on that he knows that no one else knows because I love Fogg (Rick Worthy) and I don’t want him to be a backstabbing jerk. So, I really hope there is something else to it. I’m just wondering how confused Fen is going to be when nobody knows that Fillory or she exist. I hope she and Alice team up and try to save the magicians who have lost their memories and try to get magic back to their lives. That would be pretty cool. Now that we’re the only ones with our memories in tact I hope we can team up together and bring the magicians memories back.

Q) Fen has never really been on her own since coming to Fillory.

A) Now that she has this new life she has basically not been on her own. So, this is a huge step for her and a test of who she is and how ready she is to step up to the plate. I have faith in her. I’m biased, but I have faith. [laughs] I think she will for sure have some bumps along the road, but I believe in our High King Fen.

Q) She’s had a lot of great people behind her before, if she can take something from each one of them like the words they have imparted on her as a lesson learned I think she’s got this.

A) I think she absolutely can emulate their strengths in her own version of it. That’s what you do with your heroes – take little pieces of them and hopefully make it a part of you. I hope that’s what Fen does with Margo and the Fairy Queen.

Q) One of my favorite moments was when Margo got her eye back and Fen was like “What about me?!”

A) I know! I can’t believe the Fairy Queen didn’t give me my toes back! I was so mad! I was like, “I’m still missing something too, thank you very much!”

Q) Now the season has ended, will you be working on anything during the hiatus?

A) I have something right now, but unfortunately I can’t talk about it. It’s going to be announced soon. I do have a really cool thing that I excited about that is coming up. We’ll see. Also, there is a science fiction film called The Man From Earth: Holocene that came out in limited release at the beginning of the year and we just rereleased it on DVD and Blu-Ray this month. So, keep an eye out for that, too.

Q) Are there any additional videos or pics from behind the scenes that we can fill the void with?

A) Oh yeah! There are more behind the scenes videos. Don’t you worry! [laughs] I just saved them up to post during the interim when “The Magicians” fans are dying for a little piece of something. I have a little video giving a little mini tour of the props department, which is obviously amazing because it’s all amazing stuff. That’s one of my favorite ones.

Q) We loved seeing Felicia Day guest star this season. Who was one of your favorite guest stars?

A) I loved Jaime Ray Newman who played Irene McAllister. She’s just such an incredible actress and person. I just loved working with her. And it looks like she’ll be back next year because her storyline would suggest so. I love Jaime so much!

Q) And Dina Meyer was such a treat too, I felt she was very much like Cersei.

A) She’s great! Isn’t she great? I didn’t get to work with her at all this season, but I loved her work.

Q) Then, there is a poor departed Harvey Guillen who played Benedict.

A) Oh! Harvey! Isn’t he great? I loved him as Benedict. I really, really hope they bring him back more because he does such a great job and Benedict is just so pure and kind and wants a friend. He does such a beautiful job! He’s such a nice guy. There is the underworld and it’s all magic so there is a chance for Benedict. I don’t know at all, but I hope so!

Q) What else would you like us to be sure we share with our readers?

A) Donate Life is having this charity Run/Walk in April and I started a team. I have some friends that are running with me. Jade Tailor just signed up to be on the team! I’m also fundraising. I’m trying to raise $5,000 by April and it all goes to Donate Life. I’m getting really heavily involved with that because it’s something I care about. It’s one of those things people can involved in on so many levels, including taking one minute to go online and register as a donor.

 

 

Get Involved With Donate Life:

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