Helix Conference Call with star Kyra Zagorsky and EP/Showrunner Steven Maeda

January 6, 2014

Question: The setting of being up in the Arctic really seems to work well for this kind of

thing. Philosophically speaking, why do you think a setting like this works so

well visually and emotionally for this kind of story?

Steven Maeda: It’s a setting that is great for us because it takes the newest setting under the

sun. It seems familiar enough but I think we’re doing a pretty interesting spin

on it. What works for us really well is that it lends itself to a very

claustrophobic environment because you can go outside but only for brief

periods of time. It’s really dangerous. The weather is horrible as I’m sure

people who are in the Midwest and the East Coast right now can relate to.

What it does is it forces you to be inside most of the time and that’s how we

really saw this. That’s how Cameron, who wrote the pilot script, really

envisioned the thing to begin with, which was a contained environment. It’s

almost like being set on a spaceship where you’re trapped inside with unseen

horrors and then there are all sorts of human problems as well that develop

from that. So it really lends itself to the series as a whole.

Question: Is it entirely shot in a studio? Where are you shooting at?

Steven Maeda: We are shooting in Montreal. We - the writers were all in Los Angeles where

it’s actually kind of balmy right now. But Kyra and the rest of the gang, we’re

up in Montreal. We’re pretty much all studio shot because we started in the

summer. And there wasn’t the opportunity to, you know. I wish we had the

budget to be able to go to the Arctic and really do it. But I thought the group

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up there - the crew and all our production people - did a phenomenal job and

maybe that’s something, Kyra, maybe you can talk more about that because

you were there having to deal with our snow and all that stuff.

Kyra Zagorsky: Yes, it was pretty incredible. We had a room that we called the freezer. If you

were shooting in the freezer that day, that was sort of a joke. But the fake

snow and how they would do it, they’d get the fans going and it looked

incredible. The only thing that was tricky is it was supposed to be freezing; we

had these huge arctic coats on. But there were a couple of times that we did

end up moving the set outside to shoot some of the outside scenes just

because we needed a bit more space and that ended up being a little bit

more helpful and easier to breathe too when you’re dealing with some of the

fake snow stuff. It was a lot of fun and it looks amazing.

Steven Maeda: It’s pretty incredible what they managed to do up in Montreal getting it to look

like a blizzard in the Arctic.

Question: Kyra, you grew up in the mountains of Colorado I’m told. So did you grow up

liking snow and have you changed your mind since seeing the horrors of the

Arctic in this thing?

Kyra Zagorsky: I love the snow. I love it. I think that because I grew up in that environment,

it’s just - it’s almost nostalgic for me. I just get so excited to see it. I prefer

being in the snow than the rain in the winter for sure. So that’s the one thing

about being in Vancouver sometimes in the winter. It’s a bit tricky.

But yes, I absolutely love the snow. I do. I know right now you’re not enjoying

it but - you’re trapped in your house. But there’s just something about the

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snow and how beautiful it is. It just kind of wipes the earth clean for a second.

I love it. It’s beautiful.

Question: I really enjoyed the pilot and I thought it was smart and really suspenseful. I

wonder though, if there’s going to be some misguided critic out there who

says it’s just another zombie show. What would you say to someone like

that? What makes the show so much more than that?

Steven Maeda: There is certainly a human element to the show and a science fiction kind of

trope that we’re sure to get compared to and that’s okay. I don’t mind that but

we’re really trying to not make it a zombie show. I would say the main

difference about our vectors, as we call them, is that they are not mindless

eating machines, and that’s something that you’ll see in later episodes.

They’re very scary, they’re human, and they look horrible. Also, what we’re

going to find out about the vectors is that they’re incredibly smart and they

retain a lot of their intelligence, if not their humanity, which I think makes them

very different from zombies. And you know what? The comparisons will come

and that’s okay, but we’re really trying to do something that feels different

than the typical zombie show.

Kyra Zagorsky: I think also since the show is based in real science, there are real life

epidemic scares out there, since throughout history there are these huge

viruses that have wiped out huge populations. So, we’re dealing with

something that the CDC hasn’t seen before but it comes from a virus.

And so that’s something that’s based in reality. Then you put the science

fiction on that and it’s a really interesting combination. I think that’s another

thing that makes it unique.

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Question: Yes, good point. Kyra, I’m wondering, you, Billy and Hiroyuki are both so

intense on screen. What’s it like working with them in person? What do they

bring to the table?

Kyra Zagorsky: Well, working with Billy is incredible. I mean, he’s amazing. He’s been doing

this for a long time. He’s a master at what he does. He’s very emotionally

connected and full and always available and powerful. And so it’s kind of an

interesting combination. The other thing about him is that he’s a blast to work

with. He’s so funny. For me, the thing that I love about the show is the

psychological thriller aspect of it.

It’s frightening and it’s scary, and there are all these things that happen. You

have these really dramatic scenes and then you get in a scene with him and I

can’t tell you how many times I would start cracking up. Steven was there for

some of that. But he is just so funny and he’s just a blast to work with. Hiro is

somebody that I’ve always admired since I saw him in The Last Samurai. I

think he’s an incredible person and artist. He is always right there for you and

he’s always supporting the story to its fullest.

He was amazing. I learned so much from just being in the room with him. So I

think, for me, they just kind of raised the bar and it feels like, as an actor,

you’re only as good as your scene partner. I feel like anything that I do well

on this show is probably from being in scenes with those two. So it was a

pretty exceptional experience.

Steven Maeda: I feel like we’ve really got a pretty incredible cast chemistry as well. I mean,

considering that we have some of our actors who have been doing this for

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years and years and years and some that are, you know, like Billy, who are

household names and then others who you may not have seen before.

I think everybody really kind of elevated and brought their A-game to this. I’m

hoping that, in addition to the folks you recognize, there’s going to be some

real breakouts in this as well.

Question: What is it that each of you likes best about the series?

Kyra Zagorsky: I love the psychological thriller piece of it. I think that because we are trapped

in this isolated environment with a deadly virus, what’s really interesting is

that everyone’s darkness comes out because we’ve got life and death stakes

going on. Then there’s these interesting relationships going on but we can’t

quite deal with the relationship right now because we’ve got something better

to do which is survive.

But it takes some of the characters to some very dark places and they start

doing things that they might not do if they were in regular circumstances. So

their true humanity comes out, the good and the bad. I think that’s what’s so

interesting about the show and for me, the unique part of it, the psychological

side of it.

Steven Maeda: Yes, I would absolutely agree with that. On top of that, I would say the main

thing for me, as I stand back now and look back at the season that we’re kind

of finishing up, now for us, is Syfy in particular - both Sony and Syfy - but Syfy

really wanted us to kind of get out of the box of a typical outbreak show.

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From the very beginning, the pilot was a great template and really set the

stage for us, but then Syfy just gave us free reign. Between the studio,

network, Ron Moore, and everybody, we all tried to put our heads together

and say what can we do?

Where can we take this show where it starts in one place and then goes

someplace hopefully really unexpected where we want the audience to play

along and say, “Hey, I know what’s going to happen here… of course, it’s

going to be this,” and then have it be something completely different.

We tried to do that with creative choices we made, with story ideas, with

some casting choices, whether characters live or die, with music choices, and

with how we edited the show. So that was really fun to have the creative

freedom to be able to get outside of the typical show box.

Kyra Zagorsky: And something else that was fun, off of what you said, Steven, is that

because we had the 13 episodes right away, every director would come in so

excited to go with their own creativity. So, sometimes directors get hired into

TV shows and it’s so formulaic and they’re kind of a slave to whatever

everybody wants them to do.

But everyone came in with their own style and it blends together with the

Helix style that was set. But at the same time, they’re bringing their own ideas

and their own input. And so they were so pumped to be there. And it was

really fun working with all of them.

Question: One of the things you mentioned about the different music and that - I was

curious to see who came up with the idea to use the upbeat music that plays

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in different areas because I really thought that that fit really great. It just works

really well.

Steven Maeda: Oh, thank you. It was sort of a group effort in a way but really it was Ron who

came to our first editing session and said, “Hey, you know what? Let’s try to

do some different things here. Let’s cut it up and let’s really have fun with

this.” Then as we were thinking, we had the idea to try to do something

different musically. Initially we weren’t thinking about doing a lot of songs, and

then it just sort of came to us and really we kind of followed his lead. I think it

was one of our producers who actually came up with the old Burt Bacharach

song and the Dionne Warwick version and we’re like, “Yes, that would be

awesome.”And so what we tried to do is take that through the series and - not

all the time - but every once in a while, we’re going to pull out an old chestnut

and have some fun with the musical parts of the show. I’ve got to say that’s

one of my favorite parts of the entire series.

Question: Can you talk about how you’re kind of working with the same people? I mean,

does that make it different from an acting standpoint? You do have a big

ensemble, but you can’t bring in a bunch of guest cast.

Kyra Zagorsky: You know, we actually do have a lot of guest cast. That’s the fun surprise

about the show. Because when you think about it - how many was it, Steven?

There are 103 scientists on the base?

Steven Maeda: There’re 106 scientists - yes, 106 scientists on the base and a bunch of

support staff. Then we have people - there are some other people that we

won’t mention, but just to know that there are other cast members who kind of

come and go.

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Kyra Zagorsky: Yes, and there are a lot of surprise characters that you just would never

expect and that’s what’s kind of fun about it. There’s a huge element of

surprise that starts to happen pretty soon in the series that there are some

pieces where I have a whole episode where I’m not working with any of the

core cast but just other interesting characters. So it’s pretty fun. It kept it

interesting.

Steven Maeda: Yes, that was part of the challenge too with the show. The claustrophobia

plus the cast— how do we open the show up? That was something that we

were very conscious of in sitting down and trying to plot out stories.

You know, what can we do? How can we open up this base and make the

world larger? And part of it was getting outside when we could. The other part

of it was actually going deeper and kind of unpeeling - literally going deeper

and unpeeling the layers of the onion and finding that the surface level of this

base is just the beginning and that there’s much more going on in and around

and underneath.

Question: It seems your experience on “Lie To Me” may be most applicable to Helix,

considering the amount of dishonesty and duplicitousness that plays among

its principle players. Can you talk a bit about the abundant amount of

withholding that goes on?

Steven Maeda: Oh sure. Yes, I mean, that’s kind of a dramatic staple but, yes, we absolutely

came to this with the idea that the series plays out in a pretty tight time

period. We’re doing this idea of having one each episode be a day.

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And so the idea was to not flash back and not to kind of show what people

were doing before the show started. We really wanted to keep it as contained

as possible as far as keeping the timeline tight and the jeopardy up.

And so it really was loading characters up. We had a lot of discussions before

we even started talking about what the second episode was going to be, in

loading characters up with enough back story that would allow things to spill

over and play out over the course of the 13 episodes of the season.

So yes, we really, really wanted to make sure that everybody had enough

going on with them that once the situation started to really - once the tension

increased, once things were going really poorly, which happens really fast,

that we had characters who their personal situations could spill over.

And so everyone’s got an agenda. Everyone’s got secrets, every single

character. Some of them are big things that will impact the plot; some are

smaller but just as important character secrets.

We just really tried to load everybody up as much as possible in a way that

felt credible but also gave them lots to play once things started to go down

the toilet. So we were very conscience of that.

Question: Did Ron Moore personally handpick you for the job of show runner? If not,

can you tell us about how you came to that job?

Steven Maeda: Ron was definitely one of the main draws about the job. I met with Ron and I

met with Cameron who had created and sold the pilot and also with Lynda

Obst who was one of our producers.

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We had a nice meeting of minds and that was that. I’m sure they met with

some other people as well but we had a nice rapport and seems like they’d

be good people to work with and they were. We had a really good experience

and Ron was tremendous. He’s got a lot of stuff going on. He was very busy

but also was very available for us and he had huge input in the show.

Question: Kyra, did you get a show bible initially revealing your character’s outcome or

did you have to discover it episode by episode?

Kyra Zagorsky: I had to discover it. I had to discover everything and that was, and I think that

was part of the fun in being on the show. It was so exciting. You could not

wait to get your next script to see what was going to happen to you.

But there were a couple of things. The only information I got was that I had a

history with Billy, with Alan, and with his brother Peter, who’s played by Neil.

So that was the only information that I was given.

So that was interesting. I think it was basically because I guess you guys

have all seen the first three episodes there, but by the time I got through

working through the third episode, that was the piece when I really felt I’d

gotten myself kind of grounded into the character.

I feel like when I find the character’s darkness, when everything kind of opens

up emotionally, that’s when I started going, “Okay, now I’m starting to really

feel like I’ve got a handle on her.”

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And what was great is, when I first got up to Montreal and I met with

Cameron and Jeffrey Reiner, we had a talk and I just realized this is my role.

This is it, you know. So I have no idea what’s to come but I have to just trust

that I’m her and whatever I bring to the table and start working with her.

When a new script would come out and I had questions about things, I would

always write to him (Steven) and I’d have a dialogue with him about things,

just figuring out what her character is made of. So it became a really

interesting team collaboration. It was pretty incredible, but it was all a big

surprise for me.

Steven Maeda: That’s pretty typical, too, for a serialized show. Even though you have certain

things figured out, you don’t have all the pieces when you begin. We had a

pretty solid idea of where we were heading for through the 13 but I’ve heard it

described before, which I think is a pretty apt analogy of, you know, okay, we

know that we’re starting off in Los Angeles and we’re heading toward New

York.

But along the way, you may not know, okay, we’re going to stop at Omaha

and then, three episodes in, you’re like, Omaha sounds pretty great. So you

can take that left turn or right turn still heading toward your same place at the

end, but you can discover things along the way.

What’s great about that is you can discover things in the show story-wise, but

then you also discover, as you see your actors, who they are and they bring

things to the character that you may not have seen before.

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And that’s really wonderful, to start watching the dailies and start seeing the

cuts and to see what our actors were bringing. Then we went, “Oh, well hey,

how about this?” And it gives us, you know, more ideas, which is really nice.

Kyra Zagorsky: You guys took me for a great ride in this series. I had the best time and, yes,

Walker goes through some amazing things. It’s pretty incredible. Every

episode was pretty dynamic.

Steven Maeda: It’s a pretty tough 13 days for Walker.

Question: Can you say a little bit more about Dr. Walker and Dr. Farragut’s relationship

and how it maybe developed a little bit? Was anything added when you were

cast, Kyra, or anything like that?

Steven Maeda: I mean, from our point of view, the characters always had a relationship even

in the very early drafts of the pilot script. We deepened that a little bit. We

complicated it up as we were conceptualizing the show very early on.

And that was part of just trying to, again, load up the show with a lot of

potential drama to play out because we knew we were going to be stuck up at

our base for the 13 days and so for us, it was trying to really make that

character sing and have a lot of really interesting things to go through.

And I would say, in a lot of ways, Walker, as the show progresses, becomes

very central, without giving too much away. It’s a pretty important role and it’s

a pretty interesting character.

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Kyra Zagorsky: Yes. I think just coming into the series and, again, as I was mentioning, I

didn’t know where the show was going to go, but just knowing that this

character is my ex-husband and then we’re here to do this job.

And some of the things that would start to come out and just kind of play out

with Billy and a new episode would come and you see some interesting little

dialogue between them or what’s going on.

But they had marital problems, you know. It’s one of those things that you just

kind of bring relationship history and see that there is definitely a personality

thing that happened between these two.

I think Walker’s character is something that I discovered from the information

of just things that would happen in the show, which she’s the type of scientist

that I think that really likes to be in the field. She’s very accomplished.

She’d already, you know, she’s won an award. She’s gotten herself to the top

of the field in her work. I think that what she’s about, you know, at this point in

her life was about trying to really be out there helping people. Like, go to

these countries and get right in the middle of the virus and get hands on and

be there.

I think there is a difference in their personalities and that maybe he was a

little bit more in the lab kind of thing. So you just start to see some of these

interesting personality clashes of where they’re going to start having some

issues with each other.

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And it comes out in some pretty cool ways in some of the episodes. I

particularly had some fun working with him when we had (Jeremiah) to direct

because he’s got such an interesting style. I mean, he directed Christmas

Vacation, and that’s just one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies.

My brother and I would watch it every year without fail. It’s so good. So he’s

got such a great, quirky way about him already that he really pulled out some

of the interesting marital stuff between us that was really - it was fun.

And so that’s what would kind of happen, I would discover it as we would go

and then Billy and I would play with each other and you’re just bringing

human relationships to the table and seeing where it goes.

Steven Maeda: Yes, and part of what we try to do as well, is make them all - all of our CDC

scientists are incredibly accomplished and incredibly good at their jobs but

also very flawed characters who have maybe not handled things so well in

their personal lives. That usually brings some pretty rich drama forward.

Question: If you could describe the series to somebody who has no preconceptions

about what it’s about, how would you describe it?

Steven Maeda: Oh, that’s a good question. I would say the way that we’ve been describing

the series both in press and just in talking about it in breaking stories, it is an

outbreak show, at least at the beginning.

It starts off as a show about this terrible outbreak that happens in this very

remote and dangerous location, and our team has to go up and deal with

that.

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What then happens is hard to describe because it’s - we don’t want to give

too much away but it becomes a mystery and it gets very deeply into science

fiction and it gets very much into kind of thriller and mystery elements.

What you thought the show was going to be about is not what the show is

about any more, which I think is great, and the freedom that Syfy gave us to

kind of go out and say, “Hey, it starts as this, then it becomes that,” go see

what direction that takes you in, that was pretty incredible and allows us to

have the show be - you think it’s one thing and then it turns out well, wait, it’s

also about this. And - but wait a second. It’s also about that, too, and that’s a

lot of fun.

Question: Kyra, how would you describe Dr. Julia Walker and what is it about the

character that really drew you to want to play her?

Kyra Zagorsky: Well, I would describe her as a very intelligent, accomplished woman in her

field. She’s one of the top scientists with the CDC. The thing that I loved

about this character is that she was incredibly ambitious and got herself to

where she is in this line of work but she exists for purposes outside of her

relationships which I think is a really important thing for female characters in

film and TV.

Although I am the ex-wife of Dr. Alan Farragut, that’s not at all what my

purpose is in the series. I’m there because I’m trying to, you know, deal with

this virus. I’m there to do my work as a scientist. I’m passionate about my

work.

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But she’s an independent woman and she does have her flaws in her

relationships. She’s just a very full human character and I think that’s what I

really loved about her. Because sometimes when we’re creating strong

females, we give them a weapon and turn them into something macho or,

often it has to be a superhero character or else she has to be a full on

business person and has to be cruel or something.

There is something about this character that I just thought she’s just a full-

bodied human character. She’s got a lot of purpose outside of her ex-

husband and I think that’s what keeps her active and interesting.

Steven Maeda: Yes, that’s what we were very conscious of when we were trying to talk about

the characters and really round them out. We had many, many discussions

about the female characters and how to really make them feel as real as

possible to have to be credible as scientists, to have them be really smart, to

not have them just be defined by their relationships.

It’s easy to fall into those kinds of tropes. We try very hard not to do that and

to, then, of course, you see what your actor or actress brings and it’s like,

good. We can do that as well. Oh, look, they’re very good at this type of thing

or this type of scene and let’s play into that.

I can tell you that the Dr. Jordan character, who’s played by Jordan Hayes

initially, was a character that we thought was going to be very backstabbing

and was going to be kind of an Eve Harrington character from All About Eve.

And when we actually got our actress and watched Jordan and we’re like,

well, we could kind of play that but that’s not really who she is and not who

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she’s playing so let’s try and steer the boat in that direction and it worked

great. I think she was wonderful.

And with Kyra, I think for me anyway, Kyra really inhabited the role as it was

written and then brought extra depth to it as well and we just kind of ran with

it and she was really wonderful.

Kyra Zagorsky: It’s a kind of a dream role. There’s so much that I have to go through

emotionally, physically, intellectually. It’s the whole package. So yes, I

couldn’t be happier being able to work on this show.

Question: Are you still worried about a little bit of story claustrophobia? You know,

because on the Starship you usually can get off the ship and you go to the

planets and other defined spaces. How do you get around that and not get

claustrophobic when it comes to what you’re doing with the story?

Steven Maeda: Well, it’s a really good question and it’s something we talked about at length

when we were initially developing and talking about the series.

One of the things that was really important to us was to get outside whenever

we could. And, of course, outside means either in our refrigerated room or out

on the green screen exterior, but at least we were outside and didn’t have

four walls around us.

Then the other thing we did was just think of ways that we could open up the

show. One thing we’re doing is, while we’re not doing flashbacks, part of what

the virus does is it makes you hallucinate.

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So hallucinations play a fairly good sized piece of certain episodes. What

they allow you to do is go to places you wouldn’t otherwise be able to go. And

I’ll leave it at that.

Kyra Zagorsky: Yes, and I think the other side of that is embracing the claustrophobia and

that’s kind of what a huge piece of this show is, just watching people go

through having to be stuck in that.

And so I think the audience is going to feel some of that. It might not be

comfortable but it’s really cool to just kind of be experiencing that along with

the characters that you’re watching.

So yes, you’re in that same room again. There they are. They’re stuck right

there and you’re right there with them empathizing for what they’re going

through. And so I think that’s what can help the audience connect to the

humanity and, again, the good and the bad of each character, of what

happens.

Steven Maeda: Yes, and the challenge for us was to figure out how to use those rooms again

and again and again, those locations, and we are a combination of some sets

that we built, of some labs that we actually repurposed for, you know, in a

building, a big, giant laboratory structure in Montreal and then some - a fair

amount of green screen and exterior and interior green screen work.

So the idea was to try to keep it as real as possible, use whatever we could,

try to get different looks at it, put people in different types of situations and

then also to, again, open the show up as much as we could by going to a

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place you wouldn’t expect to go outside, by going to a place you wouldn’t

expect to go inside.

And then, even though you’re still in this very inhospitable place that’s kind of

closed in, it’s a pretty big base and I feel like we got good use out of our sets

and you shouldn’t feel like, oh, we’re back there again. It feels like we use

things the right amount.

Question: Living up to being a series like Battlestar Galactica, does that add to the

pressure?

Steven Maeda: It’s a huge, high bar to hit and so, yes, there is pressure but it’s fantastic. I’ve

got to say. Not just with the fact that Battlestar came before and that Ron has

a lot of that attached to him. But he was great. I mean, just as a partner, as a

producer on the show, as someone to come in and talk about ideas and to

weigh in, he was fantastic. I couldn’t ask for better. Sometimes you work with

someone and the relationship doesn’t go well. Sometimes it does. He was

really tremendous and his producing partner, (Maril Davis), as well. I mean,

they were there for us. They were doing another show at the same time and

still were there for us and were able to give us as much time as we needed

from them.

It was just sort of this whole sense of Ron that kind of pervaded the entire

show from start to finish. So, yes, the pressure is tremendous.

We certainly want to be. What we said in the beginning was hey, let’s look at

Battlestar and say, wow, there are really things that we loved about that

show. Let’s try to rise to that level and get as close as we can.

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Kyra Zagorsky: The cast just has to jump in and do their best right from the beginning

because in some ways it’s great because there’s already attention to the

show because of Ron Moore, because of his legacy. So then we all just have

to come in and do our absolute best and it opens up the freedom for the cast

to bring everything they’ve got.

Question: Kyra, how is this role or this project different from other projects that you’ve

done in the past?

Kyra Zagorsky: How’s it different? Well, most of the time, what I’ve done in the past is come

in and do these really cool guest stars. So, being in a show where you are the

core - one of the core cast members, that’s going to be one thing that’s going

to be a hugely different experience.

You’re kind of creating - when I’ve come in to do guest stars for shows,

there’s a sense of being in somebody else’s playground. And usually it’s a

great experience but you come in, you know, ready to go and prepared and

you have this amazing experience and then that’s it.

Sometimes for certain shows, especially in the SciFi world or Supernatural,

the Stargate, those things that I’ve done, there’s a sense of your character

kind of lives on with certain people and that’s kind of fun about how SciFi

works but with this, you’re creating a playground as far as the cast goes.

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So it’s great because it gives me a lot more ownership of my craft and of

where I go with it and being able to bring my full experience to the part just

because I’m there from the beginning.

Steven Maeda: Yes, I think that’s a really good way to put it and also, I mean, for us, it’s a

great opportunity as opposed to the feature version of this which would be,

you know, 2-1/2 hours long and you’d start - you’d introduce a character and

you’d meet them and spend time with them and then resolve it and you’d be

done.

This is the 13 hour version of it and so it really allows you to spend some time

with these people, really let the relationships play out. Somebody that you

thought was this horrible, horrible person in the beginning ends up not being

quite so horrible or at least you understand where they’re coming from and

you have time.

You can go for episodes thinking one thing about a character or a relationship

and then find out six episodes down the road that wait a second, there’s more

to this than I thought. So that was our challenge, you know, getting that and

making sure that that stuff happened and still felt credible.

Question: Are there any funny or interesting stories that you would like to share about

what happened while filming?

Steven Maeda: Yes, you probably have a few stories. When you’re spending, you know, 12,

13 hours a day, five days a week, sometimes six days a week with (those)

people.

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Kyra Zagorsky: Well, there is something that was really hilarious and it was during the pilot

and it was one of my favorite moments because it was such a pressure day, it

was such an intense day and the working conditions were kind of crazy

because we were in those suits that you see and sometimes they’re a bit

tricky to work in because you can’t really hear everyone outside.

And so they had to figure out ways to rig the mics into the helmets so that you

could at least hear the person in the scene with you and sometimes that was

tricky.

Or if you move a certain way, your air gets shut off - so there were certain

things that we had to work around with the suits. There was just this one day

that was just so intense all day long. Then we get into doing some of the

dialogue in the scenes and Billy has to talk to Neil’s character and Billy’s

character’s name is Alan and his brother’s name is Peter.

But, I guess he just didn’t have the name registered in there yet. He’s trying

to start the scene and I’m completely connected emotionally and I’m right

there and then he starts looking at Neil’s face and starts going, “Alan, Alan,”

calling him his character’s name.

And it - he didn’t register. I thought the more he says it then it’s going to wake

him up and he’s going to stop and he’s going to realize what he’s done. And

he just didn’t. He just kept going deeper.

And I lost it. It was just so funny because the tension was so high and then,

we’re in these really dramatic close ups and he just had no idea that he was

even doing it. So there were things like that that would happen that were just

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so funny that if the audience knew what was going on with some of these

really intense scenes, they’d be amazed.

And then there was one really interesting day. It’s a very cool scene. I can’t

wait for you all to see it. I think it’s in Episode 6. Jordan’s sitting there and at

one point, Hiro, kind of, is Hiro. He just is. He’s just magic.

Like, he kind of happens to be in the right place at the right time. He’s kind of

the secret little ninja. I won’t tell you how it happened but somehow Jordan’s

hair started to catch on fire. Hiro grabbed it, gets it out, and it was just a split

second and it was just - no words were spoken. He just handled it and

everybody else was starting to freak out.

I thought this guy really is a ninja. Like, what is going on here? Yes, I mean,

we had so much fun. There’s so much that happened. It’s like a big mess of

crazy experiences but yes, that first thing was always calling Neil his

character, it was just was so funny, because the thing is, he did it two days in

a row.

Question: I watch a lot of science fiction but I do not watch, “The Walking Dead,”

because everybody I know loves it but they gross me out and they creep me

out. So how gross will these guys be? Will I be grossed out?

Steven Maeda: Well, we’re a little gross. I have to be honest. We definitely wanted to have

our infected people, our vectors, as we call them, play that something was

wrong with them so that they didn’t just look like everybody else. It can be a

very horrific transformation.

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And so, yes, there are horror elements in there that we did not shy away

from. That being said, it’s not a gore fest at all. While there is gross stuff that

happens, we were not trying to come up with the coolest way to do something

really vile. I mean, there are gross things. It’s not a gore fest. That’s the best

way I can put it. I like to watch gross zombies but we really were very

conscious about trying to steer away from that as much as possible. So our

guys are gross but they’re gross in a different way.

Kyra Zagorsky: I love how you say I can watch that stuff because I know it’s fake.

Steven Maeda: Yes, there definitely are some horror moments in the episodes. There are

scares and there is gross stuff that happens. I think that was not where we

tried to lean into. It’s not our strength.

We don’t have the budget or the time to be able to out-gross or out-action a

lot of the shows that are out there. So with us, it was much more about, okay,

what’s the understandable character element that’s going on that we can

relate to with the emotion in a scene that we can try to find?

What’s the really cool reveal that we can come up with where you’re going to,

like, oh, no way, I didn’t see that coming? And so that’s where I hope our

strength is.

Kyra Zagorsky: If anything it was more scary or disturbing than it is gross.

Steven Maeda: Disturbing, yes. I would say sometimes uneasy, unsettling, yes.

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Kyra Zagorsky: Especially when you were at lunch and you had to sit across from the vector

makeup. That was one of the things where we thought, okay, this - I don’t

want to sit - just sit next to me at lunch next time when you’re in that makeup

instead of across from me.

Question: Kyra, so this is your first big role. What would you say was the most

challenging or difficult thing about doing this role?

Kyra Zagorsky: The most difficult or challenging. I would say there’s a certain piece in the

middle of the series that there’s a huge mystery that happens to my character

that’s just - it’s just kind of incredible and we were shooting quite fast.

And I would say that was the most challenging piece because emotionally I

was connected. All day over and over again and it was just every day there

was so much going that kept just getting worse and worse and more insane

for her.

It was so much fun and I really had to rise to the occasion but it was

incredibly challenging because we were moving so fast and it was day in and

day out for a few days in a row there.

So that was a big challenging piece but it was the piece in the series where I

had to kind of bring everything about myself to the table at all times. So it was

definitely fun but it’s, like, if you’re an athlete, leave it all on the field. That was

just where I was at for a while with this role.

Steven Maeda: It’s a challenge for the actors because not only are they having to come every

day and bring it for six months but also you’re shooting out of sequence and

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one of the things that we did this year was we shot in blocks, so we do two

episodes at the same time.

So sometimes they were going between episodes, like, okay, now you

remember that thing that you just shot that happened, well, that hasn’t

happened yet, so get your mind wrapped around that it was incredibly

challenging.

Question: Was there ever a time during filming where it just freaked you out, the virus

itself, what it does?

Kyra Zagorsky: Yes. As Steven mentioned before there’re a lot of twists and turns that

happen where the series starts as one thing and it starts to become

something much bigger and much darker and more interesting.

But in the beginning when you’re looking at this and you’re thinking about it,

you go - the CDC gets brought up to this place to deal with this virus and it’s

something that they’ve never seen and that, in itself, is quite frightening in a

story because this is something that happens all the time, a real life epidemic

scare, you know.

I think there were just a couple reported cases this last week in Vancouver of

some deaths of people passed away with H1N1. You know, it’s something

that’s really out there for people. People are trying to make decisions about

whether they should vaccinate their children or not. It is still a big debate.

It’s something that is a true fear for people. So when we we’re getting into the

story in these first few episodes and you’re seeing these people who are at

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the top of the CDC, they should have every answer. It’s almost like a God

complex.

And they don’t know what to do. I think that’s pretty terrifying and when we

didn’t know what was going to be happening next as an actor, with where the

story was going to go, that’s an interesting thing because you just think I have

no idea where this - what I can do. Any issues - how much worse can it get…I

have no handle on it. That’s pretty frightening because that’s total annihilation

of the whole planet. So what do you do there? It’s not a nice way to go.

Steven Maeda: Right. It’s one of the things we really played with, this notion that we have to

keep this thing contained and we have to solve it or figure it out or at least,

keep it here in this place because if it gets out, it’s going to be a calamity.

So that’s the thing that our folks, our CDC scientists and the other scientists,

are not only scared for their own lives but scared of what might happen if this

thing gets out.

We really play with that and kept that very much alive throughout the course

of the series. It’s scary. It’s an invisible villain who you can’t see. You can’t,

you know, touch it. You can’t taste it but its there.

These types of stories I really like and I had done research on them before

just because I was interested in them. But the kind of outbreak and epidemic

stories… it’s something that people can really relate to but also it tends to

either bring out the best or the worst in people and sometimes both because

people get so terrified. They’re so scared of what’s going to happen that they

don’t know how to deal with the situation.

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That’s something that we really, really tried to play a great deal. Does this

bring out the best in you or is this going to bring out the selfish kind of side

that is, you know, more just concerned with self-preservation? And that’s -

that is just automatic drama which was great.

Kyra Zagorsky: And then also is after - you’re getting this information that you want to study

and you want to sound educated when you’re in the scene and know what it

is that you’re talking about, what it is that we’re working from, that we’re

doing.

So for those of us that were working on that stuff in the show, we’re doing a

lot of research so it’s kind of fun. It’s kind of like going back to science class. I

spent a lot of time with You Tube trying to discover, okay, how does this thing

work when you’re dealing with this type of microscope and blah, blah, blah.

But then suddenly you start seeing all these interesting articles and you’re

researching, oh, okay, so Spanish Flu. Let me get back to this, you know. I

haven’t studied about the Spanish Flu since I was in school, you know what I

mean?

But then you start really reading up on things and I think there was some

article that had come out around when I was working on Episode 9 and I think

it actually came from the CDC but it was something about how antibiotics are

becoming obsolete?

That’s kind of frightening, you know, when you’re thinking about, wow, in this

day and age, so what does that mean, then? People just have to deal with

whatever happens? So there are a lot of real life things that were coming up

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while you’re just researching the Sci-Fi stuff along with things based in facts

that start to make you a little bit more aware of how dangerous things can be.

END

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