Erik Knudsen as Continuum's Alec Sadler. Photo copyright of Shaw Media/Showcase.
Short of having a crystal ball or a time machine, there is no way to know what your future holds. What if, however, your future self tipped you off about what lies ahead? Continuum’s Alec Sadler is one young man who is privy to such restricted intel.
A teenage technical whiz living in present day Vancouver, Alec befriended Kiera Cameron, a CPS (City Protective Services) officer from 2077 who, in the show’s first season, traveled back in time with members of a terrorist cell called Liber8. That group’s mission is to alter history and prevent corporations from taking over and running the world. In order to save the future she knows, Kiera has to stop Liber8. It turns out that Alec is destined to head up one of the most powerful corporation that changes how people live in Kiera’s time.
In the season one finale, End Times, Alec receives an important message from his future self, giving him food for thought as well as the actor who plays him, Erik Knudsen, in the second season of Continuum.
“It’s always interesting stepping back into a role that you’ve been playing a little while,” notes Knudsen. “In this case, I had to take another approach to the part. At the beginning of season one, Alec was excited and in shock when he learned that Kiera is a time traveler, but then in season two it’s almost like Alec is a totally different person. At the end of the first season, he discovered why the future Alec [William B. Davis] sent Kiera [Rachel Nichols] back in time and that he’s responsible for it. Now in season two, he’s sort of stepping back and trying to figure things out, including the choices that he has with regard to his life.
“Alec now knows what he’s destined to become and it’s kind of a hard pill to swallow when you have that type of information. You can’t help but think, ‘Do I even have free will? Can I change things?’ So in the second season of Continuum, we find out that the future Alec doesn’t like the world of 2077, and he’s now getting a second chance for his younger self to make a better future. My character has to determine what choices to make that will benefit humanity. Here’s the problem, though – if he does make different choices,, will he end up pushing society in a direction that will be even worse in 2077? So initially Alec is afraid to do anything, but then realizes that he has a chance to make things better and possibly will succeed in doing so.”
In the first season Continuum episode Family Time, Kiera Cameron and her partner Detective Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster), show up at Alec’s home to investigate a potential terrorist act. It turns out that Alec’s stepbrother Julian (Richard Harmon) is involved. During the story’s climax, Alec’s stepfather is killed and Julian is arrested. This unfortunate occurrence forces Alec to make some major life-changing decisions right off the bat in season two.
“Alec movies out at the beginning of season two and distances himself from his mother [Janet Kidder],” says Knudsen. “She’s lost her husband, her stepson Julian is in jail, and my character has left home, so she has no one now. Alec wants to be close to his mother, but he knows that staying home and working from the barn is hurting everyone.
“Last year, Alec was this innocent, naïve kid who happens to be a genius, but as season one went on, horrible things happened and he kind of saw the dark side of what he’s going to do in the future. This season, he is very well aware of the future he created, and that resulted in a wonderful new acting challenge for me because Alec has just been told he’s an evil person who’s done something very bad. As a result, he doesn’t know if he should continue creating new technology because that might be making things worse.
“So as an actor, it was a matter of trying to find the sadness of not knowing who you are, while at same time knowing who you are, if you see what I mean, and trying to decide what you’re going to do with your life. So that was more of a challenge for me because Alec wasn’t as fun and spunky as he was in the first season There’s a great deal of heavy thinking that Alec has to do, and I enjoy that.”
How does Alec’s change of address as well as reevaluating his life’s path affect his relationship with Kiera in season two of Continuum?
“In the first season, Alec and Kiera are a very tight team,” says Knudsen. “This year, however, because he tells her that his future self is responsible for her being here in the present and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his future, Alec sort of goes rogue in the beginning and tries to distance himself from Kiera, She’s like a big sister to him, though. Kiera always wants to help him and is relying on my character to get her back to 2077 to be with her family.
“So Kiera is looking out for Alec, but he does his best to avoid her. Eventually, he comes to the realization that, again, she wants to help him and they both want the same thing. They just want a better future, and he understands that working with Kiera will make that a reality. Alec knows that she has his best interests at heart. The two of them have very much a brotherly/sisterly relationship; she really cares about him and vice versa. As usual, they have one another’s back, just like in season one.
“One of the neat things about this year compared to last is that I have a lot more face-to-face scenes with Rachel Nichols. In season one, I usually filmed all my scenes in one day inside the barn studio where Alec had all his equipment set up. So it’s been exciting this year to get out of the barn and actually experience acting with Rachel along with several other actors. It’s been much easier, too, having someone else to react to and off of as opposed to staring at a computer screen most of the time.
“I went into season two much like I did season one, as it being a mystery to me when it came to Alec. I purposely asked the writers not to tell me anything about my character because Alec isn’t supposed to know certain things, and if I know ahead of time, then you might see it come out between the lines or in the subtext of my performance. So I try not to know too much, but they’re always working on the scripts anyway and stuff might change. I get the scripts about two weeks before we film the episodes, and that’s when I find out what’s actually going on with Alec. They did tell me that I’d basically be out of the barn in season two, but that’s all I knew. The extent of what that actually meant remained, again, a mystery, which was OK with me.”
Having moved out on his own, Alec suddenly has to pay for living expenses. He ends up getting a job at a computer store, but it is not long before he becomes frustrated with the 9 to 5 grind, especially with regard to dealing with the public. Enter Matthew Kellog (Stephen Lobo), a former member of Liber8. He left the group and is using his knowledge of the future to live an extremely comfortable lifestyle. Kellog approaches Alec with a tempting business proposition, which, in turn, has given Knudsen further opportunities to flesh out his performance.
“Kellog is one of my favorite characters on Continuum,” enthuses the actor. “He and Alec pair up this year, which seems like an odd team because my character knows how selfish Kellog is and that he was once part of Liber8. However, Alec was limited to the technology he had put together in his barn at home, but now Kellog has created a fully-funded lab for him where he can create all these new types of technology.
“So you see a little bit of confrontation between these two in the second season – Kellog is more interested in making money as opposed to science, whereas Alec is looking out for the future when creating his technologies. As far as Stephen Lobo, though, he’s fantastic. He’s the most convincing guy in the world. If he wasn’t an actor, he should have been a car salesman. Alec is not supposed to fall for Kellog’s lines, but I find myself doing it,” says Knudsen with a chuckle. “Stephen is an incredible actor and it’s a privilege to work with him so much this year.”
While Alec’s life has been changed in the business sense thanks to Kellog, the young man’s personal life has also recently gone in a surprising new direction.
“Alec has a love interest and I’ve been doing scenes with Magda Apanowicz, who plays Alec’s new girlfriend. Emily,” says Knudsen. “It’s an interesting journey to be taking him on, and, perhaps that’s what this is all about. The future Alec was kind of, like I said, evil and creating all this technology just because he had no real human relations. His father died when he was younger and for his whole life he’s been stuck behind a computer creating things. Now, Alec is actually falling for a person, so maybe he’ll end up with a bigger heart and therefore, as I’ve been talking about, make a better future for himself and all those around him.”
While a TV show involving the future of humanity is nothing new, the way in which Continuum‘s cast and crew are telling their story has struck a chord with audiences around the world, so much so that the series has been renewed for a third season. Knudsen could not be more grateful for all the support that viewers have shown.
“We have a great social network team, so a lot of the fans are able to talk to the actors through various platforms like Twitter,” he says. “Also, since we can’t cover everything in all the episodes, they’re creating these new Vine videos where fans can watch the back stories of our characters. It’s wonderful that most shows are tapping into the fact that social media sites are terrific for TV, so there are ways for fans to get all the information they want on the web.
“I’ve never had so many people comment on a show just because everyone is on Twitter, and now I get to read how they honestly feel about the series. When I started doing movies and TV shows, there was no Twitter or websites, so it’s fantastic to see the fans’ reaction and it’s very much appreciated by me and everyone on Continuum, too.”
Steve Eramo
Season two of Continuum is currently airing Sundays @ 9:00 p.m. on Canada's Showcase Network and Fridays @ 10:00 p.m. EST/PST on Syfy in the States. As noted above, photo copyright of Shaw Media/Showcase, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
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