by Jon Partridge
Last year HBO delivered a gut punch of a show in The Leftovers. Created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, based on the latter’s original novel of the same name, it told of a world where 2% of the population suddenly disappeared. Those left behind forced to deal with their loss, their guilt, and unresolved grief in various ways. It was a visceral viewing experience, polarizing in its appeal but undeniably accomplished.
For its second season the show moves its focus away from the town of Mapleton, New York to a Texas suburb, filming around the Austin area. This made Austin a perfect locale for the ATX TV Festival because showrunner Carlton Cuse and director Mimi Leder came to talk about the show and brought some of the cast with them in the form of Christopher Eccleston, Carrie Coon, and Ann Dowd. The panel was incredibly insightful; read on for some of the highlights!
- Lindelof (sporting a “Not Damon, REEK!” tee) revealed himself as a fan of Perrotta, feeling a connection to the tonality, characters, and human pathos of his works. Election is one of his favorite movies.
- His first encounter with The Leftovers novel came about because of Stephen King. He was reading the author’s review of the book in the New York Times and had to stop reading it and immediately go and buy the book in the airport he was at. Bizarrely, HBO called him 3 days later with the news they had optioned it and offered it to him. He had vowed to stay away from TV after LOST but the “stars aligned” and he accepted.
- What drew him to the book was its “mystery element,” a revelation that drew some laughs around the room. The lack of an answer and that people wouldn’t get one was “fundamentally liberating.”
- Mimi Leder was drawn to working with the material because of the themes of loss and grief being explored; she also described it as “dreamy to direct” and likened Lindelof’s writing to “ice cream.”
- Lindelof said the book presented a genre idea in a non-genre presentation. As a LA resident it was reminiscent of the feelings you have immediately after an earthquake — fear, uncertainty, reevaluating life, themes he wanted to explore.
- While the book was a great starting point, Lindelof saw some things that could be developed better in the show, notably the Guilty Remnant and playing up the religious hate crime and persecution aspects of the show. The “stoning” sequence was mentioned and crafted in collaboration with Leder. The decision was that they had to push it as far as they could to reinforce how bad things were for people. They chose to hit her “three times more than she should have been.” HBO’s response was “are you sure?” not “don’t do this,” which reinforces his belief that HBO is a great place to protect and develop ideas.
- Lindelof’s therapist remarked “look, the show’s not just for everybody” after some mixed reviews came with the pilot. “Surround yourself by people who get it.”
- Carrie Coon lamented the poor choice of roles for women in TV these days, tropes such as the girlfriend, the ex, the bitch. The Leftovers offered challenges she hadn’t encountered before.
- Lindelof sought out Eccleston to take the role while visiting the UK doing press for Star Trek: Into Darkness. He took him for coffee which ended up in a 2hr+ chat about religion. Eccleston felt the character Tom was dropped at the center of the argument and barely used; he was seeking the scope to develop him further. He spoke of needing to “double down” on the religion content, which sparked the idea in Lindelof of having a gambling setpiece.
- Ann Dowd looked at her possible role as the mute leader of the Guilty Remnant and at first glance “didn’t get it” and remarked “I won’t be going in for this.” After contemplating the character she arrived at a “place of strength and solidarity” and decided to do it.
- Dowd’s presence on the panel was interesting given how her character ended the season. She asked “…am I in the show?…” while looking at Lindelof with the rest of the cast laughing. His response: “It would be obnoxious to bring you to Austin to just do a panel.”
- The cast were asked about input and changing the material. Dowd typically works on stage so remarked “it’s the kind of writing where you don’t want to change words.” Coon said for the rare issues she has a short email is sufficient. Lindelof said he sometimes finds himself “serving one character yet betraying another to achieve a scene,” the scene being key, so he gratefully listens to input if his bigger picture approach does something to undermine a character that someone has crafted. Eccleston, a classically trained actor, remarked that “the writer is the center,” “process is something you do to your hair,” and that he has seen Hollywood stars taking a pen to scripts, changing them, and he wanted to “fucking kill them.”
- Being such an emotional show, the panel were asked about how taxing it was, if it was hard to shake off the emotion of a scene. Coon said she found acting to be “very expressive” and “a catharsis, a release.” The hard part is “doing it again and again, often feeling numb afterwards.” Leder said she had given up therapy since she had the show as an outlet.
- The moderator asked what TV shows the panel watch. Dowd has three children and that TV was out of bounds at the moment, due to her her 12 year old recently ordering $935 of camping equipment online during the first 30 minutes of being babysat. Damon said he was looking forward to “Camping with the Dowds” but dug Game of Thrones and especially The Americans which he remarked would attain Mad Men/Breaking Bad levels of recognition soon. Carrie Coon was full of praise for Enlightened and Silicon Valley while Leder spoke of Transparent and I am Kate.
- Eccleston’s response was a little more in depth, he told of watching a show called Something Special with his two young children. It is aimed at children with learning disabilities and to educate others about them; he said the main actor, Justin Fletcher, was one of the best he had ever seen and was amazed at the level of acceptance it had taught his children. He followed up by saying how working in the US and coming to Texas had made him delve into ’70s American cinema and he had recently seen The Last Picture Show for the first time in Austin and loved it.
- Lindelof confessed he was depressed during Season 1 of the show due to the material and “living in that space.” He said the first season of a TV show is like the first few months of having a baby and he had “no idea how they let me take this thing home from the hospital.”
- By episode 5, HBO reached out to Lindelof and told him to start thinking about Season 2, such was their level of support. Lindelof however tabled the conversation until the first season was over. He felt the need to “decompress” but had an idea that “delivered them unto Austin.”
Photo credits: Tammy Perez. The Leftovers Season 2 airs Fall 2015 on HBO; a teaser was recently released and is below.