Burkely Duffield – Beyond

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What is the premise for “Beyond” and what can you tease about your role?

A) “Beyond” is centered around my character Holden. He falls into a coma when he is thirteen years old for a dozen years and he miraculously wakes up when he is twenty-five. For him, it has just been a blink in time so he very much feels out of place with his family, friends and the town he grew up in. On top of that, while having been away, he has to sort of reconnect with everyone as he finds he has these supernatural abilities that now tend to get him into a bit of trouble. People seem to be after him. So, that’s another thing he has to wrestle with throughout the season.

Q) As the season progresses, how might dynamics flip or switch?

A) With Holden waking up and all the relationships he thought he had with his family and his friends, things have really changed. So, I’d say the dynamics with everyone will be constantly changing and adapting with who Holden can put his faith in and who he can trust. He also finds out maybe some of his friends are enemies and maybe he finds people he perceived as his enemies are his friends. So, there is a lot of changing dynamics and relationship you will see throughout the season as he sort of gains his bearings and puts himself on the right path.

Q) What is the most challenging aspect of portraying this character?

A) I think one of the fun challenges has been is sort of keeping him with that young, adolescent innocence that he has because he really is a man in body, but has the mind of the thirteen year old (as he went into his coma with). So, I think a fun challenge I had along with collaborating with the director, producers and writers was to keep that innocence – that wide eyed wonderment – for him to walk into any situation and not assume he is going to know what to do. So, it was kind of cool working with that and sort of challenge myself to make sure. I had to go back and read the scripts sometimes to be make sure, “Oh, he would know how to react to that,” or, “This will be something new for him!” So, it was a fun challenge to have during shooting.

Q) How was the character originally broken down and did it change or evolve in any way from what we see on screen?

A) Holden was originally in his framework a kid when he is thirteen falls into a coma and when he wakes up he has to experience the world. That was the sort of broad strokes with it. Then, all his struggles come into play. What is cool about him and our characters are it is sort of a brain child that our creator Adam Nussdorf has taken this from his mind. So, he’s given us a lot of time and fluid motion to really get into how we felt would happen in the story. There were real no guidelines or borders so we could do anything we wanted. So, it was a lot of fun to take that sort of vague outline of this character through every situation throughout the situation.

Q) Where do you and your character connect, if at all?

A) He does have a few funny moments where he stumbles through the situations that he has missed in his adolescence because he was in his coma. So, I can definitely relate some of the ways he will awkwardly stumble through situations and finds himself in awkward times. I can definitely relate to my teenage years and learning about the world that way, too.

Q) Is there a particular scene that you are nervous or excited to see how it plays out and fans reactions?

A) There are a lot of scenes that I am nervously excited to see myself as well as to have fans experience. As a cast, we were so excited to get these scripts. So, there are some really cool moments where I cannot wait to see all the effects. We also have a lot of driving relationship and drama that it is a really fun emotional scene other actresses and my costars as well. So, I’m really excited to see how those look on screen as well as how they will actual be to the entire story because we have some really strong characters that will be evolving around these stories together.

Q) What do you think it is about the show that will make people want to tune in?

A) I think it is a multitude of things, at least for me reading the scripts and acting it out was really intriguing for me to see. It really encompasses and is based on really grounded stories. I think you are really going to connect with these characters. Whether it be Holden and his family who are really close together or the people he meets along the way – whether it be girls, boys, nemeses or whoever it is. On top of that, we have these really cool action sequences and very cool visual effects, which we have a very talented team doing right now. I think there is a lot going on. There is a lot I can say! If you are intrigued by one or any of those elements, you are going to keep coming back to see more.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about “Beyond” and your character?

A) I think that there is a lot to him that we have been teasing, but you are going to see him grow up in front of your eyes. I got very attached to the character and it is very fun to see him grow. If you did see any of the trailers or if you are going in with a blind eye, I would say tune in and watch a bit of “Beyond.”