(upbeat music)
- Welcome to The Hollywood Reporter, it's Closer Look.
I'm Rick Porter, I cover TV for The Hollywood Reporter.
We're discussing TNT Snowpiercer
so today on show are Graeme Manson
and stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs.
Welcome everyone excited to have you
and thank you for your time today.
We're going to start things off with Graeme.
When you came onto the show you did
a pretty thorough reworking of the original pilot.
Can you discuss what you wanted to bring to the show
and what your overall vision for the material was?
- I absolutely love Bong Joon Ho's movie
and it was the movie that then drove me to the graphic novel
so I was familiar with them from the start,
the graphic novels were concerned
with a different Kind of apocalypse.
And it was Director Bong and his writing partner
who brought the idea that climate change
was the impetus for the disaster.
And I thought that was really important
and we felt that that was gonna be the thing
that resonated really strongly when the show was airing.
Little did we know that these themes of incarceration
and immigration would not be buried
but would be taken over by something like COVID
or like the the pressing political action
of the Black Lives Matter movement right now.
They all seem prescient to the film,
they all seem your main to the series.
I just think that's because the series is,
it has these iconic stories of human struggle
and inequality and I think any way you flip it,
there's gonna be things occurring in the real world
that are, are reflected in this kind of sci fi.
Jennifer and Daveed the show's depiction
of class differences and in the sort of
somewhat authoritarian structure of Snowpiercer,
seemed really striking irrelevant given our current moment.
Can you discuss Melanie and Andre's different viewpoints
on the system that's set up on Snowpiercer?
And how are those themes resonating for you too right now.
- The structures mimic our own
and all the structures are in place.
So a lot of the reason that you get
things being criminalized is because there's a need
that isn't being met equally for everybody
and in an even sort of way, right?
One of the things that Snowpiercer
as a society is grappling with is the fact that
people are going to have to give up things
in order to make it more equal and that's tricky.
That is tricky for people to do.
Particularly when you look at a class
of people like those of us who are in the tail
who didn't have tickets onto the train, right?
So there is an argument to be made,
that y'all are not even supposed to be here
so how dare you get included in the participation
of life that happens
or why should I have to give up anything
in order to make things better for you?
- Jennifer, what do you think about that?
- Melanie didn't create the system
but she as a person in charge didn't decide to just,
to take it apart either in the service of her ultimate goal,
which again was to, ensure the survival of the train
and its inhabitants,
she chose to sort of maintain the status quo
and keep the system going.
And at a certain point in the arc of the season,
there's a reckoning and I think
that's when things get really interesting for her.
Snowpiercer show looks very different depending on
which car you're in,
and that applies to the living quarters
that applies to education,
and that applies to justice.
And I think that's a very relevant issue right now.
- Graeme, the story within Snowpiercer is that the people
in the tail are a strain on resources.
Is there truth in that or is it more of a convenient fiction
to keep order on the train?
- I think that the train does have the capacity
to absorb the tail forward into the train,
it has the resources
but the class structure does not allow that
and that's the trap that Melanie is in.
- And the sort of short sightedness of that
comes with the fact that most of the work
and most of the things that the tail is doing
to keep the train moving is happening unseen, right?
And so this is when you get into the interesting parallels
with the immigration debates that we're having.
The greater question that that begs is really
what are you willing to give up
that you didn't even realize that you had?
And those are the discussions you really need
to start having with yourself.
I think it's the discussions that we start
to see being had on the train
as we sort of navigate first class and see the differences
of opinion even within that class, right?
So those are the things that I see playing out,
kind of more in the front of the show now
than I think we we knew they would be when we were,
shooting the show.
- Jennifer, your character is all about maintaining control
and order on Snowpiercer or at least the appearance of that,
when you have to show a poker face a lot of the time
as a result of that.
How do you convey what Melanie is thinking
or what she's feeling at a given moment?
- I think that that order is a byproduct
of her primary concern,
which is the survival of the train and its passengers,
that's really what she's fighting for.
The interesting thing is that methodology is challenged
at a certain point in the show,
and so the facade that you're talking about starts to crack,
when she when she is challenged,
and that's part of what made her really interesting
was her inability to maintain that facade.
I mean, in the early episodes I think that
this train had been running for approximately seven years
and so she was used to playing that part.
And then I think this kind of opposition presents itself
in the form of Layton
and she really takes that on board
and questions the methodology and her own actions
and her own responsibility.
- Daveed a similar question for you,
when Andre is out of the tail he has to keep a lot
of things close to the vest about what he's observing
and what he's picking up on how the train works.
What sort of things, either through physicality
or the way your eyes are moving,
did you try and show that he's taking everything in?
- I hope it comes across.
I was trying...
I was hoping to make Layton much more observant than I am.
(laughs)
And so he is constantly catching things
and picking up my news,
and this script was always pointing to this
little tidbits of information that he was collecting
in order to bring information back to the tail
because it turns out the real currency
on the train is information.
And Layton has always struck me as the kind of person
who's skills were particularly useful to being a cop.
He's always questioning systems.
And so, I think he has both been a cop
and then black long enough to understand the ways
that those things are at odds sometimes.
And I think once transferred to Snowpiercer,
I think he is constantly trying to be pretty democratic
with the way that he does things,
but he's also just good at some things
and so eventually he ends up becoming
like a pretty reluctant leader in a lot of ways.
(giggles)
But I think the the power element of it for him
that the imbalance of power is something
he's always thinking about and trying to figure out
how to distribute that to as many people as possible.
- So Graeme, why is it important for you
that Layton figures out at the end of episode four
that Wilford is not on the train?
What does that help you do in terms
of moving the story forward
and continuing the tension between him and Melanie?
- Well, I think that we always saw
the initial detective story
as a way into Layton's larger revolutionary ambitions.
So our idea always was to meet Layton and establish
that character and set him up against Melanie
in this enforced cooperation.
And to make sure that that Daveed always had
that extra agenda to play with,
while solving the murder he is learning how the train works,
and he's gonna apply that to how to help the tail
and ultimately how to resist
and kick off their Long awaited revolution.
- Jennifer, can you elaborate on the burden
that Melanie feels in carrying the secret
that Wilford is not on the train?
- Running the show is not what she was trained to do.
That's not her education.
That's not her...
That wasn't her calling,
that wasn't what she devoted herself to all of her life.
She's an engineer that's what she was first and foremost.
And she made this decision and once she made this decision,
certain things were set in motion, no plan intended.
And then she's caught up
and then she has to make choices along the way.
I think that she's someone...
She like all of the passengers on the train.
She experienced an extreme trauma getting on the train
and she suffered a great loss and I think that she,
compartmentalize that to such an extent,
and I think that the choices that she is making,
to keep this train moving,
are further compartmentalizing her and calcifying her.
And then she starts to really experience what she's lost
and what she's done and what that means for other people
and the cost of it all.
And I think she's able to feel that...
She feels that burden more and more.
I think, as she confronts,
these choices that she's made and an impact that it's had
on the people of Snowpiercer.
- It sets the sort of big mystery question of the season,
what happened to Wilford,
but it also really helps to drive
Jennifer's character Melanie because it's like,
what did Melanie have to do with it?
And how did she come to be sitting in the engineer's chair?
And unpacking her reasons for doing this is really
unpacking Melanie's character art for the first season.
She's got this terrible conundrum as Jennifer alluded to,
and I think it's probably the most interesting,
dilemma that I've worked on with any character
because the stakes are so high.
It's literally the future of humanity.
And these are the things that Melanie is balancing.
- Graeme, what are the challenges of expanding?
What was a fairly self contained movie into
at least two seasons of TV?
Do you need to go off train more in the future
or can you keep pushing the narrative forward
by remaining mostly within the confines
of Snowpiercer itself?
- No, I really find that, sort of the enforced structure
of this show takes place on a train,
I find that...
I think it's good to have those kind of rules
when you're writing,
it forces you to really address the world of the show
and create something that is unique.
The real positive for the whole Snowpiercer story
in telling it in a serialized TV is that you can dive
so deeply into character.
Early in the process we were talking
about what is the bottom line for Jennifer,
what's the backbone, the back story?
What happened just before she got on the train?
Why did she decide to take this train?
And it all came down to her daughter
and we talked very deeply about that.
And the character of her daughter became very big
in season one,
and really, really drove Melanie's character.
And we went about discovering these things
for each of the characters.
What is it that drives them?
And what do they have in common?
The thing that everybody on the train has
in common is trauma.
They all lost the world and the world that they lost
and all the people that they loved,
that was our world, this world right now.
So I think that makes it,
it gives it something really solid and tangible
and this sense of grief and loss for actors to latch onto.
And I think that that sort of underlies everything
and really pushes the story
in ways that aren't just plot and train related
but it becomes about how we come to terms
with these horrible things that we're faced with
at this time is inequality, privilege, incarceration
immigration, all of these things become important
for the characters in light of where they all come from.
In plight of the world they left behind,
Why not create a better world?
And I think that certainly Daveed's drive.
And I think it's Melanie's drive as well,
but Melanie has got a little bit caught in the realization
that it is actually easier to accept authority too
and to maintain some order
and systems are very hard to change.
And I think that's a pretty good theme for us
to be carrying through through this season in these times.
- Jennifer, what's been your favorite piece
of what's aired so far?
And what are you most looking forward to audiences seeing
in the back half of the season and into season two?
- I feel like the show really becomes even more interesting
in the second half thematically
and just the stakes for all of the characters.
The first half I think,
is really fun setting up first half of the season
that is setting up the sort of sci fi,
so telling this very human story through this sci fi lens
and being introduced to all these different characters,
I find the character of Ruth particularly delicious
in those early episodes.
But I love what happens in the second half of the season,
just thematically in terms of the kind of the conversations
that are being heard, the question that Graeme is asking.
And just stakes for the individual characters,
I know I really, as an actor,
enjoyed those scenes very much.
- Lastly, for Graeme without giving too much away,
what can you say about the remainder of this season
and how it feeds into the second season?
- Well, certainly the,
at this point halfway through the first season,
we have set up Daveed and Melanie
in these opposing positions,
and Melanie has betrayed him in a terrible fashion.
The interesting thing that will unfold here is
how these two characters come to see
they're common...
That what they have in common.
I think that at the end of the day
and at the end of this season,
Daveed and Jennifer will have each gone through something
where Jennifer's humanity has been opened up
or she's been forced to look at it
and that Layton own authoritarian tendencies
and the difficulties of leadership,
he's forced to confront that.
So these two people from opposite ends of the train,
come together and clash,
but when the future of humanity and future generations
and kids is on the line,
how close are they willing to be and work together
and what and who are they willing to sacrifice to survive?
- Thank you everyone for joining us today.
Special thanks to TMT Snowpiercer,
Executive Producer, Graeme Manson
and stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs.
- Thank you, Rick.
- That is.
- Thanks, thank for taking the time.
(upbeat music)