2018 New York Comic Con
Day 3 (October 6, 2018)
At this year’s New York Comic Con, we got a chance to speak with Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Emmanuelle Chriqui, the stars of the upcoming FOX show, The Passage. The Passage, based on the 2010 sci-fi, dystopian, monster horror novel by Justin Cronin of the same name, premieres on FOX on January 14, 2019.
Mark-Paul (who plays Brad Wolgast) and Emmanuelle (who plays Dr. Lila Kyle) were great and stayed with us for a long time. They spoke on a number of things during our roundtable, including adapting source material for TV and making changes to characters from novels; how The Passage exceeds being a typical genre show; and how ambitious in scope the production of the show has been.
“It took me a while, and because I’m such a huge fan of the books, it took me a while to understand that what we’re doing as a TV show, doesn’t have to be the exact adaptation of the books.” ~ Mark-Paul Gosselaar
“They’re so good, man. This is so much more than a genre show.” ~ Emmanuelle Chriqui
After the jump, check out transcribed excerpts from our interview with Mark-Paul and Emmanuelle, as well as video of the full unedited interview!
On becoming familiar with The Passage novel trilogy …
MPG: “I read Liz’s script first. And loved the character of Brad and Amy. And, I’ve never done a genre in my career but I thought it was, on the page, it didn’t feel like your typical vampire, horror genre. I felt like the core and the heart was that Amy/Brad story which I absolutely loved because I have a daughter roughly about the same age [as Amy]. Knowing it was based on the trilogy of books, I went and read Justin’s book immediately after my meeting with Liz and just fell in love with the book. And then, I don’t know if any of you have read the first book. It was a funny thing cause I read the first book and Brad dies in the first book. In the first quarter of the book. What are they trying to tell me? I’ve read all three books and I’m a huge fan of Justin’s work.
On adapting the books to the television show …
MPG: “It took me a while, and because I’m such a huge fan of the books, it took me a while to understand that what we’re doing as a TV show, doesn’t have to be the exact adaptation of the books. And speaking with Justin, he says that everytime you read the book or you read the book it’s different from than when I read the book. Every time I read the book over and over, it changes as well. It took me a while to say, okay we’re not doing a carbon copy of the book.”
On whether fans of the novels will be upset about changes from the books …
EC: “But probably only for a second because the truth is they’ll be so invested in the story anyway. It’s more than inspired by the books. All the characters that the fans love. But also, Liz’s brilliance. Justin said it on the panel, he wrote the book and Liz wrote the television show. And he’s so excited about the television show that Liz is writing. Which our fans should know.”
On developing the father/daughter-like chemistry between Mark Paul’s “Brad” and Saniyya Sidney’s “Amy Bellafonte” …
MPG: “We probably met at a table read … But we had the luxury of shooting in a linear fashion. And so we shot, the very first scene was my first scene with her in the foster home. So we had that distance and then towards the middle and end of the show, we grow closer. And we were able to progress that relationship in an actual fashion during the shoot. I don’t think they ever planned that, it usually doesn’t work out that way but we had the luxury of doing it that way.”
On working on her first “Comic Con” -type, genre show …
EC: “Reading the scripts week to every couple of weeks. They’re so good, man. This is so much more than a genre show. And it’s not to demean, saying like a genre is whatever but they’re so rich, they’re so character driven. It’s exciting. They’re page turners. In a really cool way that you care about all the characters.”