Neil Napier & Steven Maeda – Helix

By starrymag | January 14, 2015

Q) So good guy versus bad guy, which is it?  Can you just talk a little bit about that, and about your character and where we’re going in season two?

Neil: I would say conflicted guy, rather than good guy, or bad guy.  I always think of Peter as a guy who’s trying to do the best he can and live up to certain expectations he has for himself based on his relationship with his family of origin, the relationship with his brother Alan that we see – we get to see a little bit in season one.  And in season two, we’re going to explore more of the relationship between Peter and Alan.  And I think you’ve noticed some pretty interesting places, and will really help to inform why Peter is conflicted and seems to be playing for a couple of sides at once. But yes, I think we’re going to get a lot of that from season two.

Q) So is he going to have a more prominent role now?  He had a big role in season one, but he was kind of hidden away as a Vector for most of the season.  And now, he’s more upfront.  Is that going to be something throughout the season?  I know he was in the premiere.

Neil: Right, yes.  Well Peter – yes, as you said, Peter starts off on his feet (first off) which is a nice thing.  But again, yes, he goes to some pretty interesting places, and we’re going to see quite a lot of Peter.  And it’s really interesting.  I think you guys are going to love the way this story unfolds for season two.  So I don’t want to tell you too much because then it would be (stealing) from you.

Q) I’m fascinated by the dueling timelines.  Can you tell us a little bit about that thought process behind that?

Steven: Yes.  Part of that was – the main part of it was that we wanted to be able to actually see immortality, which is a very difficult thing to see when you stay in the present.  And so that kind of spun the whole idea of this Walker doing timeline.  And this season we decided to play with structure as well and we’re going to see Walker in the future, we’re going to see Walker in the present, we may even be doing some flashbacks.  So we really wanted to play with time and play with immortality in a visual way.

Q) Neil, can you talk about sort of the process preparing for the character in season one versus season two?  I mean, to the casual observer, it may seem kind of odd that the crazy infected guy from season one is now leading the team in season two.

Neil: Yes, well season one and season two – I kind of went through pretty different preparation.  Season one was – there’s really like, a pretty serious application of my imagination because I have no kind of frame of reference what it is to be a Vector and to be sick with NARVIK.  So there was a lot of – a lot of play in imagination in that.  And what was important to me was to keep my thumb on the man underneath the monster if you will, to really make sure that Peter retained his humanity throughout what was going on. And as we came out of the end of season one, we see Peter’s cured.  I don’t know how much residual effect from his ordeal in season one is carried through the season two – I mean, I know, but I’m not telling you. But spiritually and emotionally, mentally, there’s a lot of baggage that carries over from season one into season two, and I used a lot in season two, the preparation looking back to the journey that Peter had been on up to this point and informs where we’re going.

Steven: And I don’t how many people know this, but this is the story I told a lot during season one.  Initially, the character of Peter was dead in the original pilot.  He had died succumb to the disease that became NARVIK.  And then we made the decision before we casted Neil – oh no, let’s keep him around for a couple episodes then we’ll kill him.  And we casted Neil and he did a wonderful job.  And then we thought you know what, maybe there’s something – yes, we’ll keep him around for a couple more.  And it wasn’t until we then did a flashback – or sorry, not flashback, hallucination sequence where we had a scene Neil out of the makeup and we went oh, what have we here – and look at him now.

Neil: I’m not dead yet.

Q) Could you talk a little bit about when and where the new season kicks off in relation to last season’s finale?

Steve: Yes.  Well what we want to do with the show is really do a little bit of reinvention with it, every season.  And so that was always our plan from the get go.  And so we did a little – a jump ahead in the end of last season going from the destruction of Arctic BioSystems from Paris.  And so we’re jumping ahead in time again to this very remote area in the Pacific Ocean kind of off 20 yards away from Seattle.  And it felt to us like a very different place to have the show, but also a place where we could still play trapped, play claustrophobic.And so we’re jumping ahead – we’re probably about a year and a half ahead of the destruction of Arctic BioSystems from last season.  And as a result, what it does for us which is really nice is it allows us to start the characters in some very different places than where we left off, even jumping ahead a little bit at the end of last season.  And then we get to kind of backfill and tell you the story of how they got there.

Q) How does that change of scenery affect the tone and mood of the show?

Steven: I mean, just being able to go outside and shoot (trees) is a nice thing.  I’m sure Neil would agree with this because he was the one who’s having to do it every day. But yes, I think we’re going to maintain our (tunnel), we’re going to maintain the horror elements.  We’re going to keep the things that made Helix Helix from last year.  But definitely, it’s going to – the show will have a different look to it.

Q) Obviously you’ve jumped ahead as you’ve just said and we’re kind of in these two different times.  Is it going to be soon though that we’re going to kind of deal with the fallout of everything and have more people back together?  Because right now, obviously Julia is completely separated from everybody. Can you talk kind of about that, maybe the interactions we’ll see coming up?

Steven: So (probably) to say that everybody will be meeting up at some point.  It will definitely happen before the end of the season, and the challenge for us was trying to keep the storyline both moving ahead in a way that was hopefully satisfying and is kind of an interesting thing to watch even though we’re watching both storylines from the same episodes going kind of different direction. But yes, we are definitely planning on bringing everything all together and having – I think that the reunions be they happy or sad, are going to be very rewarding when they finally start happening.

Q) Can you go about how the new characters, Steven Weber and Matt Long, how they’re going to kind of affect the team balance and everything.

Steven: It’s a rebalance in a sense because some people are still doing the same job they were doing last season.  And it’s just having Peter on the team, I think, adds something different.  And Matt brought a completely different flavor to it and not having Alan on the team at the start not having Walker on the team – those are things where you’re just forced to deal with a whole new set of relationships by virtue of people being absent. But then I think when we find out where they are and what they’re doing, I think it’s going to be very interesting and hopefully will be surprising and fun and take the show in some new direction.

Neil: Yes, I think it really brings a lot to bring in the new characters and to have characters that we know from last year in sort of different roles and in different relationship dynamics. I think it was also a real fun challenge and gift for the actors themselves to explore these new relationships with characters that we know, but have not interacted with the other characters in this way yet.  And it was a real gift to get Matt and Steven on board this year.  They were like, fantastic on and off screen.  So we’re really blessed for that.

Q) It looks like the Steven Weber’s group is almost like in the (cold range) and then they’re doing (investigate).  How does this group kind of affect the team when they investigate a little bit?  No spoiler, but just kind of a little teasing as to what they are.

Steven: Yes, the Steven Weber group, it really is a cult of sort.  They espouse a very kind of different worldview, and they have been living in isolation on this island for generations.  And really bring a new set of obstacles to our people in identifying and trying to find the (passages).  And then of course there will be certain characters who have much more going on with that, than letting on initially. But I think it’s an interesting challenge, too kind of parachute down into a group as we did season one and suddenly have to deal with an existing power structure as if in political situation and establish relationships and be kind of the new people there who are upset the upper card and push things around and start poking around in all the dark corners.

Neil: Yes, it really keeps all the CDC characters who are coming and starting to interact with these people, really off-balance, which is I think keeps it really exciting, because we don’t know what’s going to happen at any given moment.

Q) And is the whole immortal storyline still going to play a part in this season at all?

Steven: Very much so.  One of the things that we wanted to do is go to a different place and location-wise and to show – let the show have a different look to it and be dealing primarily with a new pathogen, but at the same time bring along our characters and bring along the vast story from season one.  So it’s not a complete reinvention.  We’re not American Horror Story where we completely reinvent the wheel every season.  But we do reinvent something and bring other pieces along.  So yes, absolutely, we will be learning much more about the immortals this season.

Q) In terms of the main characters that survives the end of season one, are there any that we aren’t going to see back this season?

Steven: You will be seeing a lot of the main characters from season one in various incarnations.  And one of the great things about Helix is does dead really mean dead.  So let’s just say you’ll be seeing – you will be seeing lots of familiar faces from season one.

Q) And as far as the time jumps are concerned, we have two time jumps in the first episode in that we go forward a year and a half and then we kind of have the next jump.  How many more jumps are we going to have?

Steven: I think there will be some interesting jumps.  But primarily, there will be some interesting one-off storytelling where we jump back a couple of months.  So where we jump back maybe a couple of hundred years.  But primarily the show is going to be dealing in two time periods.  We’re going to be in the present day on (inaudible) with our CDC team, and we’re going to be with Walker as she does the investigation and the future on the island, which is not to say – sorry, motorcycle passing coming up – which is not to say that we’re not going to see here in the present as well, but those are the two time periods we’ll spend most of our time.

Q) The music in season one was amazing.  It was like another character in itself.  Will we see continuation of the creepy, spooky, creative use of music in season two?

Steven: Yes, absolutely.  We are in the process right now on doing a lot of post-work and sound work on the show.  And yes, we are absolutely planning on bringing along the musical styling of the first season into the second season.

Neil: Oh good, because I loved that.

Q) The former Vector King, Peter, is he going to have some major transformations this year?  I know he’s like the man with the most baggage.  But what else happens?  Can you give us any clues?

Neil: Well, as Steve alluded to, there’s some really – Peter has some really interesting journey in season two.  So yes, there is quite of – it is quite transformative for him, let me put it that way. Yes, it’s a transcendent and transformative experience in season two for Peter. Yes, there are a lot of twists and turns.  There’s a lot of – for everyone in this season.  And again, nothing is really ever what it seems.  And we’re learning a lot – all the characters are learning a lot about themselves and about the reality they inhabit.  So I think it’s a pretty wild ride.  You guys are going to love it.

Q) I know that in season one, the music from that song was inserted throughout the season, but we actually have the song “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” in the premiere, and actually the title of the episode is San Jose. Can you just talk a little bit, is there a real significance behind that song?  I’ve looked up what that song is about.  It was before my time, but I looked it up and it’s actually got some dark stuff in the song.  It’s about failure and going back to your hometown.  Is anything related to the premiere as far as that song is concerned?

Steven: There is absolutely, and certainly thematically.  I think it plays some interesting questions about going home again and about success in the perils of.  But yes, the song is not just randomly chosen.  I mean, we definitely wanted to (reprise) it, but at the same time, we wanted this to pay off in a story way, and it will pay off by the end of the season, I promise.

Q) Whatever happened to the White Room and will we be seeing something like the Green Room in the island in season two?

Neil: I love that idea, the Green Room.

Steven: Fantastic.  The White Room is great.  I love the White Room as sort as a kind of a little clue and a misstep.  And yes, we are going to be going all over the (silo).  That’s one of those nice things being able to actually shoot a location, not have to manufacture the Arctic every episode.  We’re actually going to be out there at this location for the entire – most of the run as the 13 episodes.  So we’re really looking forward to showing all the different parts of that location.

Q) Last season, we did one of these calls with Billy Campbell and he discussed how disgusting your makeup was and how big – you’re sitting in the cafeteria and literally lose your appetite watching you. What was it like being one of the show’s monsters and do you miss it this season

Neil: Well, I’m not sure that Peter is not one of the show’s monsters this season, but definitely in episode one, aesthetically he’s not at least. I kind of miss being the most interesting person on set.  (We did not pick up) – people are always like, wow you’re so amazing.  I’m like, well actually that’s the makeup guy, but thank you. But I don’t miss three hours in the makeup chair every day.  I didn’t miss that.  But last year frankly it was an honor to wear that art every day on set.  I felt it was really elegant makeup and I wore it with pride. This year, I think what is a monster is left a little more to the interpretation of the audience you know what I mean?  I think there’s a little more grey zone in that realm of what constitutes a monster.

Q) Actually, keeping with that theme of horror and creepiness that we had in season one, how are you going to maintain that horror going into season two and do you feel like you’ve actually up the ante?

Steven: Oh yes.  We spent a copious amount of time trying to come up with what are the most horrible things that we can actually show on television.  But we also want to make them interesting.  We want them to feel organic to the story.  And, yes, we love to come up with new ways to have the – these are the pathogen or other situation of itself, and that’s part of what the show.  It’s definitely a horror show, and it’s very dark.  But at the same time hopefully, darkly funny.

Neil: My wrapped present in the writer’s room was therapy.

Q) For the Coastguard, we know that they are coming back to the island in two weeks.  So will the events of this season all occur within that time period on the island, except (Rob, you say our flash words)?

Steven: Yes, the idea was to do a similar storytelling device what we did last season, which is to use the one day episode structure.  And yes, we are flashing to some different places in time.  But of the most part, we’re doing that same one day at a time structure.  So yes, the plan is that the Coastguard comes back by the end, but they may – perhaps they will be making earlier here.

Q) Neil, what can we expect to see as far as the relationship between the Farragut brothers this season?

Neil: We get to see a little more in-depth kind of what makes these two men who they are, and what the nature of the rivalry between them, where their love stands, where their jealousy stem from.  Yes, and we really get – we get to see – yes, really what makes Alan Alan, and what makes Peter Peter from a family of origin perspective, yes, we get really into it.  I love the stuff that I’ve got to do with Billy this year.

 

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*