Christopher Larkin – The 100

By starrymag | October 6, 2015

By: Lisa Steinberg

 

 

Q) Are you really Marie – per your Twitter?

A) Whenever I get asked that, I always come up with a sarcastic answer. I just thought her [Marie Avgeropoulos] handle was so funny. I think I was just in the process of creating my account and she came up on my page. I thought it was hilarious so I used it for my bio.

Q) What has been your favorite part of Monty’s character development?

A) We’ve watched Monty become more in control of his own destiny. Everyone always says how loyal he is and how dependable he is as a person, but I think he is almost loyal to a fault. He’s such a good friend to everyone else that I think he sometimes forgets to look after himself. So, what has been interesting to me is watching him take control of his own agency and motivations. I still think he has a long way to go, but he is getting better and better at it as he grows up. People forget that he was fifteen or sixteen years old when they came to the ground. So, he still is a teenager in heart, body and mind. It’s a big part of him maturing and coming into his own.

Q) They have to grow up quickly, but there is no other adult around. Monty misses his family as well.

A) He has Clarke (Eliza Taylor), Abby (Paige Turco), Miller (Jarod Joseph) and Miller’s dad. That was a new introduction last season. He was at Mount Weather with us. Some people are like, “Who’s Miller? Oh, he was in that resistance group with Monty, Jasper and Harper.” He was like number four in the group and they gave him a father last season, which I think was a nice intro for his character as well.

Q) Will the result of what happened at Mount Weather play into the friendship dynamic with Monty and Jasper because Monty was there when Clarke pulled the lever and Maya died?

A) When you murder your best friend’s girlfriend, I don’t see how that friendship can ever be the same. At the end of the day, hopefully Jasper (Devon Bostwick) will come to understand that Clarke and Monty made an extremely difficult decision during wartime. It was us or them. If we hadn’t pulled the lever, who knows what could have happened? We could have potentially lost Abby, Octavia, Jasper, Kane (Henry Ian Cusick), etc. We would have lost our family and friends. It’s never an easy decision and hopefully Jasper can learn to forgive Monty. If not, then I can’t see that friendship going back to where it used to be. I’m hoping “The 100” keeps asking these questions of the audience – questions they once thought were black and white issues in their mind, but now they are leaving in a gray area they’ll question convictions they once held to be true.

Q) How will Monty be dealing with Clarke’s departure and the break?

A) It’s so funny because that is kind of the running joke on set. We kind of have an inside joke that is, “Where is Clarke?” It is asked constantly during many takes because we were pretty much looking for her throughout all of Season 2 only to find her, have her not even go into Camp Jaha and brave it in the woods. I think he is less concerned this time because it was a personal choice. She was actively trying to redeem herself and stay separate from the camp. The scary thing for me is that with Clarke gone, who is going to take leadership? She has been our natural leader for two seasons so once that disappears, what kind of power struggles will ensue? Who wants to be Chancellor? Who wants to be boss and what kind of bloodshed might that involve? I don’t know yet.

Q) We know Shawn Mendes will be guest starring this season. What can you share about his role and about his turn at acting?

A) I haven’t worked with him directly so I can’t speak to his acting. Word around set is he is incredibly kind and done a great job on the show. Obviously, at sixteen years old, if you look at his track record he is quite driven, talented and passionate. He made his way onto the show. That was all him. It’s really weird because I had never heard his song “Stitches” before. It’s one of the giant radio hits of the year, but I’d never heard it before he came on the show. Now that I know and have seen him around the set, I can’t escape the song. It’s everywhere. I’m amazed that I never clocked it before.

Q) What can you tell us about your music?

A) I’ve been wanting to put an album out via a garage band for a very long time now. I’ve been writing and playing for about thirteen years now. I figured with about a hundred songs under my belt it was time to share some of the songs with the world. So, I’ve spent the last eight months writing and recording and mixing and now marketing my first solo debut. It is a ten song acoustic LP. I didn’t want there to be any attachment with my acting work so the band name is Carry Hatchet and the album is The News Today. It comes out on September 29th.

Q) What is the vibe and sound for your LP?

A) Since the entire thing was made on my MacBook it is lo-fi, but that is what I was going for. A lot of studios create this incredibly bright, clean sounding, highly produced track and then they throw in all these effects, filters and compressions to make it sound lofi. So, I thought I would cut out the middle man and made it extremely lo-fi and produce the sound naturally. It’s laid back. If I could do a plot line for it, it would be, “A ten song concept album about death created entirely by a garage band.” There is a silver lining though in every song despite the dismal concept.

Q) How were you able to piece the song order together?

A) I did it through CDBaby, which distributes the album through all of the distributing partners. The order kept changing because your favorite track changes as well. So, trying to find a track order that does the album justice takes a lot of time. It’s officially done and I think it came out exactly as I hoped it would.

Q) So, what is your favorite track at the moment?

A) I don’t want to say any favorites because I’d rather leave it up to the listener. It changes every day. I think I have it down and then I change it because I over-listen to it.

Q) What is it about attending conventions for “The 100” that has become important to you?

A) I couldn’t really have answered this question until a week ago. Dragon Con was my first convention ever and when you are interacting with people online there is a certain anonymity to it. So, it is hard to make that personal connection. When you are at a con with 80,000 people and you are feeling all that love, support and people are coming up to you and putting names with faces it gives you a whole other appreciation for the fandom. It’s a nice reminder of why we do this that I kind of had forgotten because it is so easy to lose sight of when you are mid-project. Then, you stop for a minute and hear peoples’ stories about how much they enjoy the show…you forget as a storyteller sometimes who you are telling the story to. It’s now extremely personal and I met a lot of incredible people. It’s made me want to do a lot more cons and get involved with fans directly.

Q) The cast seems so deeply bonded. How was such great chemistry developed between you all?

A) I think it is two really simple things: 1) It’s a group of incredibly nice people. Start there. 2) We are working on a project that a lot of us are very passionate about. Whenever you are involved on a project with a lot of like minded people who are creative, kind and extremely talented – when you are all in the trenches together it forms and cements that bond like no other. I felt an incredible amount of support from the cast. Monty is around, but there are definitely long periods of time where he disappears. I think I was always worried in Season 1 people would forget him because he was never really around long enough (at least in my opinion) to sustain anyone’s interest. The cast has been extremely vocal in supporting Monty when maybe his presence wasn’t that active in the beginning.

Q) Who would you like to have more scenes with in the future?

A) I think everyone (minus Jasper because he is my scene partner 98% of the time). We talked about this at Dragon Con how most of us haven’t worked together. I haven’t spoken to Ricky, Murphy, Abby or Kane. The list goes on and on. I think out of everyone I really would like to work with Richard Harmon who plays John Murphy. I think Monty and Murphy would make for such an odd couple and it would be extremely unexpected. I don’t even know how they would handle that very bizarre relationships. It’s very similar to the Jaha/Murphy relationship that no one was really expecting. I love when you stick two unlikely characters together.

Q) Monty still has unresolved issues with Bellamy, too.

A) I wonder after all this time if he has redeemed himself. Probably not. That was pretty heavy! I’ve always been really surprised that they haven’t put the two greatest minds – Monty and Raven – amongst The 100 together. You would think those two would be unstoppable. We’ve only had two scenes together and that was back in season one. You can add Lindsey Morgan to the list.

Q) We have sixteen episodes to come. Can fans expect to be satisfied with such a short timeframe?

A) We were originally allotted thirteen episodes so fans should look at that as a three episode blessing compared to where we started. I actually like the shorter seasons. Any shows that I have really admired tend to have anywhere from ten to thirteen episodes. I think it is an issue of quality control. I think it is really difficult to maintain a season of twenty-two episodes because you just run out of story. So, I think it actually does us a huge service keeping us around thirteen to sixteen episodes. The fans will have less to watch, but hopefully it will be worth it quality wise. Quality over quantity!

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure fans know about what is to come on “The 100?”

A) All I can say is we’re so early into Season 3 that I couldn’t even tell you where we are headed. I can’t say, “Watch because it is going to be an amazing season,” because we haven’t don enough for me to even say that with any truth or conviction. But what we have shot so far I’ve been really impressed. I think there are some characters who haven’t gotten a whole lot of love the last couple years that you will finally get to see cut loose. Of course, all the returning characters that you do love you will be seeing plenty of that as well.

 

 

Purchase The News Today: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-news-today/id1039689560

Free Stream The News Today: https://carryhatchet.bandcamp.com/