French and Saunders will return to British television screens this Christmas. The comedy sketch show, which starred comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, is currently filming its first episode… read more
Technology has led to improvements in all of our lives, but it’s not without a darker side. With new ways to communicate come new ways to commit atrocious crimes… read more
The first line-up for the new series of The Graham Norton Show has been announced. Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie and Reese Witherspoon will all take part in… read more
Most of us wouldn’t go near a wild alligator, let alone choose to hunt them for a living. That’s what makes Swamp People, the series about people who do… read more
The new drama Snatch, starring Harry Potter‘s Rupert Grint, is set to receive its UK premiere on AMC. The ten-episode series will air for the first time on British… read more
Fear The Walking Dead has gone from strength to strength in its third season, and one of the highlights has been the introduction of the charismatic and dangerous Troy… read more
Fear The Walking Dead has gone from strength to strength in its third season, and one of the highlights has been the introduction of the charismatic and dangerous Troy Otto.
We sat down with Daniel Sharman, who portrays Troy, ahead of Monday’s midseason premiere to talk about the complex character and motives of Troy and what it’s like to play him.
How’s your eye?
It’s recovering [Laughs]. His capacity to heal is quite a wonderful thing. I thought I was going to have this prosthetic thing on my eye indefinitely but his ability to heal has been quite remarkable. I thought I was going to have to wear a patch and having a patch taped over your eye, it does some weird perception things that really mess with you. I was like this is going to be a rough seven months, but I got out of eye jail pretty quickly.
The word ‘sociopath’ gets thrown around a bit with regards to Troy. Do you think that’s fair?
No, I don’t. I think ultimately he does feel. I don’t think he’s doing it out of the enjoyment of killing. I wanted to take the ‘sociopath’ element of it really to be taken away. You don’t have to agree with his actions but you at least have to understand that they came from somewhere. I think playing a sociopath is almost easier because it’s without any ramifications and there’s no real identification with the world in that way. I think it was more interesting not to play into that stereotype. That was important to me, that that’s not the only thing you see. You see that he’s doing it for a reason – or at least that he thinks he’s doing it for a reason.
Do you think Troy sees himself as the hero of his own story?
What was important to me was that you understood [that] he’s not in love with the idea of blood. It’s not about bloodlust, it’s not about killing, it’s about understanding something. His ideology is incredibly important to him.
I use the analogy that it’s like the people who eat meat who don’t want to see how an animal’s been killed but want to eat the meat. Troy’s the one that does the killing of the animals, so you can eat the meat. So you can’t morally tell me that it’s wrong that I’m doing this.
That was really important. They’re quite happy to accept the bounty of what he has done and I think that’s the irony and that’s something that I really identify with. There’s hypocrisy there. That’s where a lot of Troy’s anger comes from, his volatility, his sheer hypocrisy of it, you’re quite happy for me to go and kill a load of people and zombies when you need it but suddenly now that we’re all here and we’re all in this place it’s not right. I just think that’s a lot of what his arc is.
How hard is it to leave Troy’s troubled mindset behind at the end of the day?
You get used to parts of the job, but I don’t think you’ll ever be really used to having to put yourself in such an odd place. I do think it affects you. We also shot in the most solitary locations. Sometimes it’s harder to take it off because you’re dealing very introspectively. I’m a bit of an introvert anyway so when you have to access those things and go on that little journey and you don’t have anyone to go ‘knock it off, relax mate’ you’re in trouble.
It was tough, but it’s part of the job. You have to do that and you have to go there and you have to be okay with revealing that stuff. It’s funny because we stopped filming two weeks ago, it’s still hard letting go. I wanna defend him. I wanna defend his actions, and I feel like I’m still there championing this person.
How would you describe Troy and Madison’s relationship?
Troy finally has someone he identifies with. I think what he identifies is the ambition of Madison and the manipulation of human beings. He looks at that and goes ‘wow, this is really a strong person’. She’s probably the first person he’s really respected, and there are all kinds of emotions that are locked up in that, which I love, which was great playing with Kim [Dickens]. I think there’s a fascinating relationship there. There’s a lot of emotions Troy’s experiencing for the first time with her.
Season three of Fear The Walking Dead has been turbulent for all its characters, but perhaps none more so than Luciana Galvez. Uprooted from her home, her family gone,… read more
Season three of Fear The Walking Dead has been turbulent for all its characters, but perhaps none more so than Luciana Galvez.
Uprooted from her home, her family gone, her decision to leave the ranch and Nick behind has had huge ramifications for the series. Where will Luciana go next? Could she make a comeback? Is this the end for her relationship with Nick?
We sat down with Danay García, who portrays Luciana, ahead of Monday’s midseason premiere to talk all things Fear The Walking Dead, including her character’s journey, relationship with Nick [Frank Dillane] and the powerful women at the core of the series.
The fan response to Fear The Walking Dead has really blown up this season. How has that felt?
Amazing. We’ve been in Mexico since December, we’ve been shooting and no response. It’s been really challenging but all that challenge and all that adrenaline that we’ve put in it definitely shows. We’re not really acting being exhausted. We are really living the sun, the dust, the dirt and I think people respond to that.
Luciana left the ranch in the first half of the season. Why?
She left the ranch because her morals aren’t synchronised with the rules at the ranch and that’s enough for her to leave on her own. She’s leaving the only person she has left because she cannot handle this because of her morals. It comes with a price but it saves her because she has her soul. Even though she almost died, she knows she’d rather die in a battle than live here with these people who killed her family. It comes with a price, but that’s what keeps her sane, and I admire that.
If you were to leave the show, how would you like Luciana to go out?
I would like to leave gloriously. I think she deserves that. I wouldn’t like to just be slammed by a car. If she’s gonna go, I would like her to go in a battle – fighting for whatever she believes in.
What can you tell us about Luciana and Nick’s relationship and where it’s at now?
Working on that split up was very hard for me because we have such a great time. I will miss working with [Frank Dillane, who portrays Nick], but as characters it was difficult to see them go apart. He survived because of her and she survived because of him – they owe that to each other. To separate right now because of the morals and the values is really hard. I am at a place where I’m rooting for them to be together, because they fell in love in times of apocalypse. If you are able to open your heart in that space, it’s because it’s worth pursuing. I’m hoping they will come back together.
Did you meet Frank to work on your chemistry before filming?
Not at all. I’ll tell you a funny story. I was in the minivan driving to the hotel, and in the back there was a guy. [I ask] the guy in the back ‘what do you do?’ [and he says] ‘I’m a stunt’. There are so many zombies, anyone can be a stunt.
So I’m on set, I’m sitting there and I see a guy walking, covered in blood that kind of looks like Frank. I go up to him and say ‘Hi, I’m Danay, I play Luciana’ and he’s like ‘I’m the stunt that you saw in the car’. He was dressed as Frank covered in blood.
So I went back to my chair and then Frank comes in but I think he’s the stunt! I’m like ‘hey what happened?’. He’s like ‘Hi, I don’t know you’ [and] I was like ‘Oh my god, you’re real Frank!’ Covered in blood with the same clothes… That’s how we met. That broke the ice.
How do you feel about Fear the Walking Dead being more female-oriented than The Walking Dead?
It’s just looking at [The Walking Dead] with a different filter. It’s like how a woman will take care of her family in this time of apocalypse and it’s been really fun! We’re smart creatures and [this is] how we use our psychology to overcome obstacles. Let’s make it more unique and dark and scary and twisted. It has everything.
Were you a fan of The Walking Dead when you started on the series?
I’m really afraid of horror films. Like terrified. It was not for me, but when Walking Dead started, one of my friends [Sarah Wayne Callies, who Danay worked with in Prison Break] was in it. It didn’t scare me because it captured this new world that is not horror. I loved it from the start. I went to the premiere of The Walking Dead. I did the entire thing supporting her and watching the whole thing. The funny thing is that when Sarah got the part I remember I was thinking to myself ‘oh poor thing, she’s gonna be in the middle of nowhere covered in blood’. Five years later, I’m in Mexico, covered in blood…
Nestled in the idyllic landscape of the Canadian Rockies, Little Big Bear is a small, unassuming town. It’s a place where it’s easy to settle down, hide away and… read more
Nestled in the idyllic landscape of the Canadian Rockies, Little Big Bear is a small, unassuming town. It’s a place where it’s easy to settle down, hide away and start a new life. It’s also the setting of Sky Atlantic’s new revenge-thriller, Tin Star, which stars BAFTA Award-winner Tim Roth.
Tin Star tells the story of British cop Jim Worth (Roth), who has recently moved to Little Big Bear with his wife Angela (Genevieve O’Reilly), daughter Anna (Abigail Lawrie) and baby son Petey. When an oil plant, fronted by the charismatic Elizabeth Bradshaw (Christina Hendricks), opens outside of the town, their little picturesque town is overrun with migrant workers. Despite how hard Worth tries to hide, he’s a man with a past – and that past is eager to catch up with him.
We were lucky enough to sit down with stars of the series Tim Roth, Genevieve O’Reilly, Abigail Lawrie and Oliver Coopersmith (who portrays the enigmatic Whitey, a man with a mission in Little Big Bear) in London last month to get scoop on the new series, what it was like to film in the Rockies and the misadventures on set.
Tin Star focuses on the complex character of Jim Worth. Police chief of Little Big Bear and seemingly an ordinary family man, Tin Star quickly peels back the layers to reveal a former alcoholic with a dangerous alter-ego and secret past.
“He’s hiding out,” says Roth, “He’s a drunk so he’s hiding out from that, trying to stay sober. Ostensively, that’s what his deal is.”
O’Reilly adds: “He’s been sober for a number of years now. In the first episode he’s going to an AA meeting, so that’s quite central to the platform the whole beast begins on. You have a family who are dealing with post-addiction.”
Roth describes talking about his character’s condition as a “heavy” process prior to the filming of the series. He admits finding some of what he learned surprising.
“There’s a point where you don’t get drunk,” he tells us, “[Worth] can be drinking all day, and he doesn’t [get drunk]. But he will certainly lead people to believe that he’s not functioning. It becomes useful, I would say. He’s a blackout drunk and he is one person. There’s a Jekyll and Hyde situation that happens as it progresses.”
Tin Star is filled with twists and turns, including one shocker at the end of episode one which sets the ball rolling for the entire series. The series filmed mostly in-sequence – a fact that the cast preferred because it meant they got to experience the shocks as their characters did.
“The show’s so unpredictable,” says Coopersmith, “we used to try and guess what we thought would happen, and we were always outsmarted by the writers.”
“Throughout the series, [our characters] are dragged through so many dark places,” says O’Reilly.
Coopersmith adds: “There’s so many secrets. Every character has secrets – a kind of hidden darkness.”
One of the crucial pieces of the Tin Star puzzle is the isolated and beautiful atmosphere created by a little town in the Rockies. In real life, Little Big Bear is a rural town called High River around 54 kilometres south of Calgary. The stunning shots of the Rockies seen in the show are the work of the show’s visual effects team, who transposed the surroundings from Waterton – a real town in the Rockies too small to allow for the filming infrastructure needed for the series.
The scenery was just as mesmerising in real life as it was in the show, says O’Reilly. “The locations were just truly cinematic really. White skies. Just extraordinary, you can see why people are seduced by that way of life.”
That’s not to say filming in Canada wasn’t challenging. The cast filmed over a period of six months from June to December, meaning they experienced some of the harshest winters in the world (winters definitely unpalatable to us sensitive Brits).
“It was cold!” admits Coopersmith. “Your nostril hairs freeze up!”
Lawrie adds: “In downtown Calgary, they have pavements or sidewalks in the sky. They have tunnels, so people don’t have to go outside.”
Harsh weather conditions were not the only thing the Tin Star cast had to deal with on set.
O’Reilly recalls: “We had this house at the edge of the river, and that was our family house and we were in there a lot. The first day we were there, they called a bear meeting.”
“It was a bit like a Little Britain sketch. People standing around, in the open, talking about how there are bears around. One of us went ‘what do we do if we see a bear?’ There were lots of different ideas.”
Exactly what to do if a bear does appear, nobody’s entirely sure. Roth says: “They had sprays. There was sound. There was ‘be still’. There was ‘run’. Depending on the bear.”
Sky Atlantic’s epic new revenge-thriller Tin Star premieres on September 7, 2017 at 9pm. Tin Star revolves around a British police chief living in the Rockies, Jim Worth, whose… read more
Sky Atlantic’s epic new revenge-thriller Tin Star premieres on September 7, 2017 at 9pm.
Tin Star revolves around a British police chief living in the Rockies, Jim Worth, whose dangerous past begins to catch up with him. After an oil plant opens up in Worth’s once-tranquil new home, crime floods the town and disaster strikes for the Worth family.
The series stars BAFTA Award-winner and Emmy-nominee Tim Roth as Jim Worth, a man desperate to leave his shady past behind him.
He’s accompanied by Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, who portrays Elizabeth Bradshaw, the sugar-wouldn’t-melt Vice President of Stakeholder Relations at North Stream Oil.
Portraying Worth’s family are Genevieve O’Reilly as Jim’s wife Angela, the bored housewife, and daughter Anna, a student and keen environmentalist. They’re also joined Oliver Coopersmith, who portrays the enigmatic Whitey Brown.
Speaking to TVGuide.co.uk earlier this year, Coopersmith said: “The show’s so unpredictable. We used to try and guess what we thought would happen, and we were always outsmarted by the writers.”
“There’s so many secrets. Every character has secrets – a kind of hidden darkness.”
For our full interview with the cast of Tin Star, click here.
The moment we have been waiting months for is finally here: The Game of Thrones season finale, of course. After last week’s blockbuster effort, Game of Thrones was always… read more
The moment we have been waiting months for is finally here: The Game of Thrones season finale, of course.
After last week’s blockbuster effort, Game of Thrones was always likely to put its foot on the brakes to reassess where each character stands. ‘The Wolf and the Dragon’ followed the series’ pattern of slower season finales but contained enough noteworthy events to make up for the lack of action.
A key theme of the episode was family. Jaime and Cersei’s bond seems to have finally snapped, while Arya and Sansa’s cement one another’s trust. Theon finds a sense of himself and Bran discovers who Jon Snow really is. In addition, Jon and Daenerys get it on – just as it’s officially confirmed the two characters are aunt and nephew.
The show handles these themes with varying degrees of success. Tyrion’s exchange with Cersei was one of the highlights of the episode. Theon’s moment of inner strength resonated through the television screen.
Arya and Sansa, on the other hand, join forces to trick Littlefinger into his execution – off-screen. Although the moment where Sansa turns on Littlefinger is brilliantly savage, choosing this twist does cheat the audience out of character development for the Stark sisters. How long have they trusted one another? How much of their disagreement in the last few episodes was genuine? Have they been playing a game all along? Game of Thrones doesn’t deem it necessary to tell us.
‘The Wolf and the Dragon’ handles some of the biggest developments in the series so far with shockingly little finesse. The presentation of a wight in King’s Landing is anticlimactic, and Cersei’s caricature villain response is only to lie that she will send forces. The fact that proof of a wight is hardly proof of an army goes unquestioned. Likewise, the consummation of Jon and Daenerys’s relationship is sandwiched between the reveal of Jon’s true parentage, singling out the ickiness of the situation with some bizarre transitions. It all felt very uninspired.
The season ended with the chilling shot of the wall falling down, as The Night King controls undead-Viserion. It’s a visually epic sequence, even if it begs a thousand questions. It just about sums up Game of Thrones this season: full of spectacle at the expense of all we originally loved the show for. We need more depth, fewer dragons.
