Ian Verdun – Siren

By starrymag | March 7, 2019

By: Jessica Wolff

 

 

Q) What can you tease about the rest of Siren’s second season?

 

A) Definitely not too much. What I can promise is that it’s going to be pretty unexpected, I think everyone is really used to the fact that we love to keep people guessing. I think there are some twists and turns that people really won’t see coming. I see a couple of comments to see where people are predicting what is coming and I’m like, “Oh yes, they have no idea. They have no clue.” Prepare to be shocked, pleasantly surprised and definitely learn a lot more about this world we’re creating.

 

Q) This season Xander’s been on a quest to avenge his father’s death. Can you tease if he will succeed or eventually let go of his desire for revenge?

 

A) I think what always seems to skip people’s minds is really a lot of time hasn’t passed from his death in terms of the timeline of the show. It’s only been a couple weeks, a month tops, maybe a month and a half. All of these feelings – guilt, the anger, the resentment – it’s still super fresh for Xander. Sometimes that seems a little lost on everybody, how people feel, how this guy feels. His father was just murdered in front of him like a month ago and bled out in his arms and he had to dump his body over the boat and lie to his mother about how he died and still is grieving. A lot of the grief and a lot of the sadness gets put into his rage. Until something happens that kind of smacks him out of it, it’s a hard journey for him. It’s still so fresh in his mind, something so recent for him. I don’t blame him for having a hard time reconciling it. It just depends on whether or not he believes that vengeance is the thing that’s going to make him feel better. You never know when you’re so blinded by the rage.

 

Q) Will we learn more of Xander’s backstory?

 

A) I think a lot of his backstory is in there. He’s pretty much an open book. He’s from the actual town, he grew up working class and worked with his father. He grew up with Maddie (Fola Evans-Akingbola). Clearly, they have a history from high school. I love that they’re kind of filling that out. We did that in the first episode where you get more of a sense of what his relationship has been like with all these people because Ben (Alex Roe), Maddie, Xander, Calvin (Curtis Lum), Janine (Hannah Levien) – everyone grew up together in a small town. Everyone knows each other’s business and went to high school together. Only recently when they become adults is where their paths start to stray. As far as Xander’s concerned, he’s an open book. He isn’t, until recently, hiding too much. I think his grief has allowed him to be incredibly impulsive. For him, it’s about moving forward. I think he’s been so defined by his past, defined by his father’s job, defined by everything that’s outside of himself. I think, for me exploring him, it’s always interesting to see where he’s going forward as opposed to where he’s trying to go backwards.

 

Q) What is the process of filming scenes on the boat like?

 

A) Cold. [laughs] Very cold and very wet, but it’s a lot of fun. There’s something tactile about it for me. I was that kid that would go out to the woods, go out to the beach in California and just construct the elaborate scenarios and created this world in my mind and just played. For me, it almost feels supernatural, almost a kind of return to that place where you can just play. It’s your job, even though it’s hard, grueling, long hours. Usually when we’re doing the boat scenes, it happens to always be at night. You’re spending the entire night on the boat, ten hours easy on the boat in the middle of the night in the ocean. It’s cold and it’s grueling, but you have a whole group of people. Everybody in the cast and crew is so down and so in love with what we’re doing. You go through the difficulties of actually doing it and you lose yourself in the world that you’re creating. It’s just very fun, but at the end of the day you’re completely wrecked, very tired, cold. It’s just very nice to land into bed and just recover.

 

Q) Is there anything you would love to get the chance to do on Siren that you haven’t already?

 

A) I guess for Xander there’s so much ahead. For me, I feel like Xander has gone through and goes through so much that I’ve gotten so much of an amazing opportunity to play so many facets of him. I’d love more action stuff. I want to run through the woods and chase and, hopefully, shoot a gun without accidentally killing somebody. That would be nice as well if Xander’s shot got a little better. That would be great. I’m really just honestly looking forward to him evolving. What draws me to Xander is he’s so incredibly human. He makes lots of mistakes and is very impulsive. At the end of the day, it’s really nice playing somebody who grows and shifts and goes through stuff. I’m just interested to see how he evolves as the timeline moves forward and you get further and further away from his father’s death, which is such a defining moment in his life. Finding out where he goes and how he rebuilds himself after that pain.

 

Q) Is there anyone in the cast you’d love the opportunity to have more scenes with?

 

A) Oh my god, everybody. Xander almost exists on a bit of an island. He’s out doing his own thing, dealing with his own problems, and tends to come back into the group. He’s usually not super involved in what’s going on with all the mermaid madness. He’s still very apprehensive about it all, very distrustful, still holding a lot of resentment because of his father. I, of course, love working with Eline [Powell] and love working with Fola. I work with Alex a lot. It’s amazing! I love working with him. He’s such a dedicated actor. But I don’t really get a lot of scenes with Eline. The Ryn scene was super fun and I love working with Eline because I never do. I love working with Rena [Owen] as well and I only get maybe one or two scenes every now and then with Rena, who plays Helen. I think those dynamics and those perspectives between those kinds of characters, mer-characters especially, where Xander is coming from such left field dealing with the mermaids. I love the idea of where we go with that and how he reconstructs and rebuilds trust and they build trust with him after so much drama. Definitely all the mer-characters, I would love to spend more time with them.

 

Q) What was your favorite scene or episode to film this season?

 

A) Of the scenes that have aired, it was the fight scene in episode two. That was a super fun, very physical night. They actually used the take that I accidentally fell. He was dragging me from the water and back into the sand and I’m supposed to punch him and lose it. There was just so much energy in the night in the take and we really just went for it. Like I said, Alex is so dedicated and such a good actor to work with, he lends himself so easily to physical stuff as well. We’re just protective of each other and trust each other, to be able to just go off and get the energy out. That scene was a lot of fun, but I did trip and fall because we were in the middle of the sand. It was in the middle of the scene and I just got up and kept on going. Of course, that was the shot that ended up making it to the show.

 

Q) What do you think about the fan reaction to the show between this season and the previous season?

 

A) The fan reaction has been absolutely amazing. Of course, Xander does some stuff that’s a little bit morally grey, so I tend to get a little more kind of like, “Why Xander?’ Recently, I tend to not pay attention to so much of the fan reactions because people are so into the show and feel so attached to these characters and so protective of these characters. A lot of that protection, especially when they feel the characters are being threatened, kind of just goes out. Me, personally, you spend so much time with your character and so much time in their mind and you know what’s going to happen and I tend to be a little more protective like, “Oh no, don’t do that.” They only know so much, so I have to personally not really pay too much attention and work on the character and getting it. Now that we’re almost wrapping everything up, it’ll be really nice to see how everybody gets pushed and pulled, to see what those actual emotional reactions and responses will be. It’s been interesting and nice to watch the roller coaster ride because it’s the only time we’re able to see it. We’re shooting it and the only time we get the surprises is when we read the script, so it’s the only time we get to live vicariously through the audience.

 

Q) Are there any fan theories you particularly enjoy?

 

A) The ones that I find funny are the ones that have fan theories of shipping Xander and Katrina (Aylya Marzolf). Aylya and I have talked about that and we just got a really good laugh. I absolutely love Aylya. Everyone in the show is amazing and Aylya is no exception, absolutely just perfection as a person. It’s so funny considering how antagonistic Katrina is as Aylya in real life is a joy of a person. The fact that they have the two characters who are a little self-interested coming together…That was definitely something when we were shooting we were like, “I wonder if that will be a thing,” and it ended up being a thing. That’s an interesting fan theory that I’ve seen popping up.

 

Q) Are there any other projects you’re currently working on?

 

A) There are a few things that I’m working on. I love to write and produce, and I have done a few of those things. On Instagram we have a pilot that I did called “Life’s A Drag” that I’m actually expanding into a feature. There are some other projects on the back-burner I can’t actually talk about yet. As soon as I’m able to, there’s one particular one I’m very excited about that I’m producing. I think it’s a world that’s pretty awesome and I can’t wait to invite people into it, but I want to keep my lips sealed a little while longer until things are a little more official.