- Hi I'm Avan Jogia and I'm In Studio
with The Hollywood Reporter.
(upbeat music)
- You're here to talk all things Now Apocalypse.
- Yes, yes.
- Did you bring any aliens here today or we're good?
- No, I'm sans aliens.
I thought, you know, leave those at home.
- Or are you the alien?
- Well that's exactly it, who knows who the alien is?
- Someone in this room is the alien.
- It's like, know that game Werewolf?
- No. - Okay, cool.
(Brian laughing)
- Over it. - Conversation killer.
- So what really stood out to you about the series
especially like Ulysses as a character?
- It's such an insane show and Gregg Araki
and Steven Soderbergh, it's got such a good creative team
and I'd worked with Gregg previously on a short he did,
which is kinda a redoing of his earlier 90s films
and I worked with that, I played Dark,
which is like a character in his world.
He's got a very distinct sort of world and mind,
and so I did that and then we had a great time.
We kept in contact, I emailed him back and forth
and asked him questions about, I was making a short film,
asked him questions about directing
and then he just emailed me and was like,
"Hey so I've been writing the show
"and I do this thing where I sort of write
"with an actor in my head and maybe he does it,
"maybe he doesn't do it but that's how I work."
That's incredibly flattering.
That never happens that someone writes something
with you, like, oh I think they'd be able to do it.
So yeah that was huge, and so I read it and I just loved it
and Uly is such a, you know,
I call him like he's a sexual astronaut, you know?
He's like exploring everything and life.
He's a wanderer, he doesn't really have any passions,
which is interesting for a lead character
to not have any goals.
- That's interesting because when looking back at it,
I was wondering because everyone else kinda has,
especially Ford, I guess.
- Yeah Ford wants to be a screen writer
and even Carly, she's got this short web series
that she's working on, and Roxane's got this--
- Between her other web series?
- Yeah, yeah exactly,
other web series, her private web series.
And then Roxane, I mean, Severine,
has got this whole alien conspiracy thing
that she's working on.
Uly doesn't really have a thing.
He likes to smoke weed and I think
that's really interesting for a lead character
to not have a thing.
I think that's sort of one of the reasons why I liked it
because I played a lot of characters were like,
you're playing Tutankhamen,
you're playing the Pharaoh of Egypt, you kinda know what,
he's trying to protect his legacy
and he's trying to be remembered by time
and there's things to grab onto structurally
as a character you can put a person
and lay that person down in the foundation
of these kinda tenents right,
but with him, he's trying to find love.
- I was gonna say maybe love is the goal?
- I think love is the goal, but that's such a general thing
and so we've been getting specific about that
and it is cool to play with somebody
who doesn't really have a,
oh the goal of this whole plot is
for him to do this one thing.
I guess he's also trying to figure out the--
- It's relatable. - Yeah.
He's trying to figure out the alien conspiracy
but he doesn't know anything.
He's just freaking out, doesn't even know if it's real.
- It is, well, it is right?
- Well, I, watch the show.
You have watched the show.
- Yeah I have, make sure you do too.
There hasn't really been a series like this that I've seen.
Do you agree with that? - I would agree with that.
- What makes it stand out?
- That's the thing, you know,
when I was thinking about doing a television show
I've been really lucky, I've been in a--
- You've been acting for a bit.
- Yeah, been in some cool stuff
and I've been acting for a bit
and I've been sort of explaining, like okay,
so if I'm gonna do a television show,
there's so much TV out there.
So much TV, way too much TV, can't watch it all.
And so I wanted to be in something
that was really gonna stand out, in the marketplace.
Sounds like a very businessy sort of thing
but you know, in the idea of it's so noisy
so a show that's really a lot noisier
than the noise and can stand out,
and is sort of like not quiet.
It's got a point of view and bright and shiny little thing.
So I was excited to be a part of something
that I thought would actually stand out
'cause there's so much shows about some stuff going on
and there's a family and all this stuff's going on.
- And what other shows do you watch?
- Frankly I watch a lot of British comedy stuff.
I watch Flowers, have you seen Flowers on Netflix?
- No.
- It's not only on Netflix, it's on other things as well.
Yeah, it's on Netflix, it's great.
It's Olivia Colman, Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
- About to be Emmy winner too when she comes on The Crown.
Do you watch The Crown?
- I don't watch The Crown, here's the truth--
- See I stumped you on one, you got me--
- Yeah I don't watch The Crown.
Here's the truth, the truth is that,
this is The Hollywood Reporter,
everyone who's watching this is probably like
in the industry in some degree.
No one has any time, so the world is so,
it can be really depressing so when it's time
for me to sit down and watch a show
I'm just watching half an hour comedies.
- Like a lighter show.
- Yeah, which is what I liked
about Now Apocalypse, ultimately.
It's like a comedy, it's dark, but it's not like unserious.
It's silly, yeah it's a dramedy.
- There are a lot of comedic moments.
It's like a mirror of L.A., can you talk about that,
and maybe your experiences in L.A. and how--
- Yeah I think Now Apocalypse does a really good job
of explaining everyone's first three years in L.A.
Like you show up, you're like writing in a Starbucks
and then you're all the sudden at a party in the hills,
and you don't even know how you really got there,
you don't know anyone around,
you're like sleeping with people and trying things out
and like that was a weird experience
and I'm not gonna do that again,
or like that was great, I don't know what that means.
So it's a good example of L.A. when people first move here.
- Did you and the other actors bring your experiences
of coming up as actors in L.A. to the show?
What were those conversations like?
- Yeah, I think you bring yourself to sort
of everything you do but I'm not so sure that we like,
I mean our lives aren't in the--
I mean Gregg definitely pulls from his own experiences
and his understanding of Los Angeles.
It's a line that Uly has that Gregg says all the time,
that L.A.'s some sort of freakish cartoon and it's true.
It's like all these crazy characters
and they're all sort of like acting
in bizarre and strange ways,
and they're all in their own, like movies.
Everyone's like their own, it's very interesting.
- [Brian] When they're not acting, they're acting.
You've kinda said that the show celebrates sexuality,
and makes sexuality a positive thing.
Can you talk about that and the ways
that you think it does that the most?
- Yeah, it was cool to be on a show
that treats sexuality as joyful and not dark.
These characters have bad sexual experiences
but they're not bad sexual experiences
that ruin them and make them twisted and dark,
or screw them up.
You see that a lot, I mean sexuality,
a lot as a plot device and there's nothing wrong with that.
Some parts, some shows and movies call for
that sort of thing but this show is cool in a way
that it's not--
- It's a celebration. - Yeah, it's a celebration.
Everyone's having fun, everyone's trying it out.
Everyone has agency, no one is burdened with sexual guilt
or pain or trauma or any of that.
It's just like a lot of people fucking
and trying to figure it out.
Can you say that?
- Yeah, you can, I knew you were gonna ask that, you can.
You can swear for the rest of the interview.
- It's the internet, there's worse things on the internet
than me saying that word.
- This is gonna be the best thing on the internet.
The series really goes there but I was wondering
was there anything that maybe you guys took it too far
that had to get cut or is it all everything goes?
- Here's the thing and this is like a really,
like a big shout out to STARZ.
Everything that was written we shot, and was on screen.
Basically the script that we read,
was the script that we shot, was the script that I saw.
It's crazy, to give no notes,
especially on a show like that.
Like let Gregg sort of do his thing.
'Cause how are you supposed to note that show?
As an executive?
How do you go, well I think the alien penis,
the slime alien penis is a bit too much.
At this point you've already bought the show at this point,
you know what it is so they do the smart thing
which is allow Gregg to do his thing,
do what he does best, and no one can tell Gregg
how to be more Gregg than Gregg.
I think that's super cool and I think it's really cool
when a network inspires an artist
and puts their trust in an artist
and let's them do their thing.
- That's how it should always be.
- Right, well creativity by committee is deaf, right,
but at the same time it's not your money.
So that's important to understand.
I think a smart network knows
how to spend their money on artists
who know what they're doing.
- Speaking of STARZ, the show was originally gonna
be released weekly--
- Can I drink this coffee and not look weird?
- Yeah, plug it, it's THR Coffee, made fresh.
- It's great, he made it actually, which is really nice.
- It was originally gonna be released weekly
and then they kinda released everything--
- Yeah, super weird right.
- Yeah, why-- - I have no idea.
- You don't?
- I think that the audience of a show like this
that's just what they're used to.
That's the delivery system in which they're used to
so I think for STARZ it was about trying something,
starting it off in a kinda more traditional,
chronological week to week sort of delivery system
and then realizing who it's for
and being like these are the people who are really gonna
watch it so rather dump them all on the STARZ app
and it was great and tons of people,
it was amazing the response,
like tons of people saw it and watched it.
- They kinda created an apocalypse by releasing.
There was an appetite for it.
- There was an appetite for it,
and they were able to stir up,
and people are still watching week to week,
but they were able to stir up a bunch
of really interesting buzz about it.
And everyone I was interacting with online
had watched the whole show
and we were having different conversations,
and it was cool, it was a cool way to do it.
- For Uly, where we kinda see Uly last off in season one,
you kinda see him and Gabriel look at each other.
What's gonna happen in season two?
- Everyone's sort of in the worst place
at the end of the season.
It's almost like cosmically, it's a cosmic car crash
at the end of the season.
Everyone's lost all their--
- Well the beginning of the final episode
is when they're all breaking up--
- Right, everyone's breaking up at time same time.
It's sort of weird, it's sort of like why's that happening?
I think that's sorta interesting,
and Jimmy Duval, who's in it,
like famously from Gregg's movies,
plays the homeless fellow who's guiding me
through my fever dream.
This is a weird show, this is just a really weird show.
He starts to say, "I used to have my life together,
"I was an actor, I did a couple commercials,
"and then they came for me."
And I think it's interesting.
They're sort of coming for us as well, so who knows.
- What were some of your favorite memories
on set with the rest of the cast?
- Oh man, this show is so funny.
It's funny 'cause--
- [Brian] Were the scenes awkward?
- You know it's like sex scenes are sort of funny.
It's like could you raise your ass just a little bit
to get into that light,
could you just try to get up a little?
That's the kinda thing, it's lots of fun.
- Who did you give that note to?
- Yeah, no I didn't give anything,
get your ass outta my light, no, Gregg telling me.
That sort of thing is sort of how those scenes go down.
It's incredibly sterile and clinical process
to shoot those sort of thing.
It's sort of like shooting an action sequence.
It's like okay now you run to the car,
now you open the door and they're coming at you,
watch out the birds.
I don't know why I'm doing Hitchcock, it's Hitchcock.
I'm describing Hitchcock's birds.
- All right, you have a few other projects coming up.
You have Shaft,
what was it like working with Samuel L. Jackson?
- Shaft was great, Samuel's great,
shot that in Atlanta, had a really good time.
Alex Shipp, Jessie Usher, great, great cast
and Tim Story, great director who's super cool.
Yeah, it's great and for me it's really cool
to be part of such a legacy.
I mean Shaft was such a cool movie for me
growing up and exploring cinema
and I thought it was like to come back to this
with Samuel, with Richard Roundtree, it's very cool.
- You posted the photo, I think it was yesterday,
wearing red, it was very similar to--
- Yeah, I had the little red coats, yeah, Richard Roundtree.
- And then this weekend you're going back
to filming The Exchange.
What can you tell us about that?
- The Exchange is--
- You also directing something too?
- Directing movie, I have a book coming out,
records coming out, yeah I got a lot of stuff on.
The Exchange is a movie, Dan Mazer is directing it
and Tim Long wrote it and it's Tim Long,
Simpson's writer of many years.
It's super funny, it's about this French exchange student
that I play that comes to a small town in Canada
in the middle of nowhere, so like a Fargo sort of town.
You know, he's loud, and brash, and drinks vodka,
and has this earring and these carve outs.
That's why I have this whole face, top of my face thing.
I don't usually go for the Vanilla Ice lines.
- It's a cool haircut, I'm getting my haircut today.
- Yeah you getting the Vanilla Ice lines?
- I'm gonna tell them to do that, yeah.
- Just be like do me up like that,
like that guy off the, Vanilla Ice.
Yeah it's good and it's about this kid
who's named Tim who sort of wants this fancy French
artist guy so he can watch cool movies with
to arrive and he gets a rowdy, French--
- The opposite? - Yeah, the opposite.
So it's sorta fun, I just don't wanna be bored.
I just don't wanna be mumbling and looking,
and doing this in some relationship show.
You know what I mean, you know what I'm saying?
To me that's not what I got into acting to do.
I got into acting to play characters
and to hold a sword and slice things,
jump off a chariot, play a weird French immigrant,
you know, and play some, I wanna play weird--
- You wanna act. - Yeah.
It's so funny, and I think a lot of the industry
has become, hiring people who,
the idea is to write characters
who don't do anything excellent, know what I mean?
There's no excellence, everyone's like I'm just a guy.
I got a t-shirt on, look at this, the Henley.
Can see the three buttons.
You can tell I'm a regular guy.
You can tell I'm regular because I've
a three button Henley on.
- Thank you so much for stopping by.
Make sure to watch Now Apocalypse streaming now on STARZ.
- The STARZ app, yeah.
- [Brian] See ya.