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Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) in part two of the Sleepy Hollow first season finale "Bad Blood." Photo copyright of FOX.
The creative minds of TV always enjoy taking a familiar tale and putting a new spin on it. Some of these retellings are successful, while others not so. In the case of FOX Television’s Sleepy Hollow, its storytellers have reimagined the 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving in a way that has grabbed its audience’s attention and held it.
The series focuses on Lt. Grace Abigail “Abbie” Mills, a member of the Sleepy Hollow, New York police force who is eagerly awaiting her transfer to the FBI. Her plans, however, are indefinitely put on hold when the town she grew up in and calls home suddenly erupts into a hotbed of dangerous supernatural activity. A demon called Moloch is using the forces of darkness to summon forth The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and condemn all but a chosen few to an unending reign of death and destruction.
When Abbie’s friend and mentor, Sheriff August Corbin, is decapitated by the Headless Horseman, the police lieutenant suddenly finds herself teamed up with the legendary – and recently resurrected – Ichabod Crane. The former 18th century soldier was linked by witchcraft to the Headless Horseman, but he is only one of the adversaries that Crane and Abbie must face. Together they battle an all-consuming evil that can take many forms, including some very familiar faces, in order to help save humankind from an eternity of pain and suffering.
Just prior to Sleepy Hollow’s season one two-part finale, The Indispensable Man and Bad Blood, the charming and engaging actress Nicole Beharie, who plays Abbie Mills, spoke with myself as well as other journalists about her work on the show and fighting to save the world. The following is an edited version of our Q & A. Enjoy!
Sleepy Hollow has become such a fan favorite very quickly overnight. What do you think it is about the show that has drawn in so many viewers?
Nicole Beharie: The show has managed to strike a nerve with so many people, and I think the success of the show is about the audience. People are open and ready to take that kind of journey and are looking for the sort of fantastical but mysterious drama. The show has a number of different elements to it and demographics that definitely open it up to a much broader audience.
Again, it’s all about the audience. We’re all over the place and you never know which way the story is going to turn. It’s really the audience’s engagement with us and they’re sort of coming along for the ride that makes the whole thing live.
You have great onscreen chemistry with Lyndie Greenwood, who plays your sister Jenny on the show. Do you enjoy doing the action sequences or the more tender moments with her? Do you think the sisters will ever be able to trust each other again?
NB: That’s another great thing about the show, the fact that there are so many different levels and dynamics. It’s an amazing gift for an actor to have the opportunity to have tender moments in something that would just be considered a procedural. You might think, “Oh, it’s just a procedural,” but the next thing you know, there’s a supernatural element, followed by a conspiracy theory, and then a history lesson.
So it really works every muscle in your creative body as well as your physical body. I don’t really have a preference. I will say that I haven’t had as much experience doing the action stuff, so when I do get the opportunity, I really get a kick out of it. In the season finale there was a massive fall that I had to take. I’d never done anything like that before and it was a lot of fun.
When you started early on in the show, how much of the plotline did you know in advance? Did you know how it the story was going to go throughout the season or were you really surprised as you went along?
NB: I basically asked at the beginning for any information that I needed to know and that Abbie would have known, like, for example, when they’re gradually uncovering things about her past. I wanted to know that. But as far as what was going to happen with each demonic entity or monster or each level of fighting the Apocalypse, I didn’t really know that. I think each writer brought something new to the story and I wanted to discover it as we moved along.
So even when we had an idea of what the next episode was going to be, we had no idea how it would actually come to fruition. We had sort of an outline, but for the most part I could never have imagined what we ended up doing with what we started with. Comparing the pilot to the season finale, it’s quite different. Abbie has grown and changed so much. It’s a drastically changed world that she and the rest of the characters are living in now. I love that everything keeps changing and evolving.
Are we going see more of Abbie/Luke (Abbie’s coworker and ex-boyfriend, played by Nicholas Gonzalez) and learn more about what went on with them?
NB: I’m not really sure to be totally honest. With the season finale, we had a lot of massive fish to fry, but there may be something more going on with Luke. That’s all I can say, though.
What have been your biggest challenges as an actress with this show?
NB: Man, it just happened so fast. We finished shooting like two weeks ago and now the season finale is out there. We started filming last year in late July/August and just kept going. We didn’t have much time in-between shooting and the air dates of the episodes. So it was a matter of keeping up with it, staying energetic and really committing to some of the bigger, crazier moments. That’s been a lot of fun.
Do you feel like Abbie and Ichabod (Tom Mison) are still on the same side by the end of this season and/or are we going to see maybe a rift between the two of them?
NB: I definitely think there are challenges along the way for every character. In last week’s episode (The Vessel) you saw there was a little bit of questioning and even in the episode (The Midnight Ride) where they captured the Horseman. So they have their issues, but I think for the most part they are on the same side. We’ve seen that throughout and I don’t think that part has changed. I will say, however, that here are a lot of tests coming up, and with that comes the sorts of challenges and definitions of who your character is deep down, what they really stand for, and how much they can actually withstand. I think we see some of that, and that’s challenging. If I might add, Tom Mison is really good at all that emotional stuff, too. He does some beautiful work in the season finale.
Could tell us a little bit about the audition process for your role and what that was like for you?
NB: Well, first off, I liked the script. I thought it was intriguing as well as outlandish, but fun. So, it was like, “Okay, I don’t know about this. We’ll see how this goes.” I had other auditions, though, that I sort of prioritized because for some reason I didn’t think that they would cast me in this. So I thought, “OK, maybe I’ll go and do this, but first let me do these other auditions that seem like more practical.”
I eventually ended up going in for a meeting with the creative team and fell in love with (series co-creators/executive producers) Alex Kurtzman and Len Wiseman and (executive producer) Heather Kadin. They’re really special people and told me everything about their vision for the show. At the time it was basically a pilot, so they explained what they foresaw and how they saw Abbie.
I was like, “Look, I’d like to do this with her, etc.,” and they were like, “We’re with you. Keep it dry, have fun.” They gave me that path to interpret her as I felt. Then I went in for a test read, and I think it was the very next day I found out I got the job. Then had to do a chemistry read with Tom, which was interesting. I had only read the Washington Irving story, and even though I read our pilot script, it didn’t necessarily mean that the actor playing Ichabod was going to be some attractive, tall Englishman. I thought he was going to be gangly and nerdy and all that stuff.
So I had a vision of him, and then Tom walked in. I was like, “What the hell is going on? What’s this?” He kept me on my toes and we kind of played a little bit. I don’t think either of us really knew what was going to happen with our two characters, but it’s history now. So it was great.
John Noble is going to be reprising his role of Henry Parrish (aka Jeremy Crane) in the season finale. I know you both have worked together before on the show, and I just wanted to find out what has that been like for you?
NB: Oh, it’s fantastic. It was like one of my favorite things. John was on Fringe for a while and he’s just like such a breath of fresh air and the voice of reason. We haven’t done a great deal of television, Tom and I, so he’s been giving us pointers about what it means to be on a series and tips on sort of finding your legs. I feel like the timing and him appearing in the world of Sleepy Hollow and just on the set is perfect because we’re really just starting to, in my opinion, find our legs and things are starting to feel really good in these last three episodes.
So what’s better than to be working with someone like John, who’s the kindest and easiest actor to be around? He really brings so much to the table and just keeps the stakes alive and everyone in a really creative place. I think we’re really lucky to have him.
You were saying that when you auditioned, the show’s producers gave you some leeway to play Abbie your own way. How did your version differ from their vision of her?
NB: The cool thing is that they were open. I think that they just wanted to find a character that felt real but could also exist within the supernatural storytelling of the show. They were kind of like, “Look, Abbie is gruff. She wants to get out of town. She’s really not too concerned about what anybody thinks because she had a hard life and she has secrets.” I felt Abbie should have secrets, and does have quite a few. In the first season we sort of chipped away a little bit at some of that, but I think that there’s potential for more.
There is some lightness or comedy with her, but it comes out in a really sort of dry way. Even with her cynicism in the beginning, I think some people were at first a bit like, “Does she like him (Ichabod)? Is she being a b-i-t-c-h?” It’s like. No, she’s behaving like anyone would. When Abbie initially listens to what Ichabod is telling her, she’s like, “You’re crazy. I’m committing you.” To play that straight, I think, could have been a risk, but I feel it also helps ground things and it made it better for it, actually.
We touched on Abbie’s relationship with her sister Jenny and how popular that is with fans. What kind of chemistry do you think you have with Lyndie Greenwood, who plays Jenny?
NB: I think we have great chemistry and I think it’s only getting stronger. We had a ball working on the finale. We actually did a few things together where by the end of it we were a bit like, “Damn! We’ve got to wait a few more months to do this again. It’s starting to get good.” So I’m looking forward to us doing it again. We’re having a great time and Lyndie is lovely to be around.We’re really fortunate that our writers are creating such complex backstories for each of our characters. They’re not just creating complicated emotional themes for the sake of it; they’re actually taking those themes somewhere. So there’s a payoff eventually, and I think that that’s so worth it.
Abbie has seen and gone through a lot of things since the pilot. How is the Abbie in the season finale different or even the same from the person we met thirteen episodes ago?
NB: The only things I think are the same are that she knows that she had a larger purpose. I think in the finale she knew that she had another purpose, but didn’t know what it was. That’s why she wanted to get out of town. I think that’s the only thing that’s the same, basically. She knows she has a purpose and has to sort of serve it.
The rest of it is like her mind is completely blown open. She’s done so many things that she could never have imagined and seen things that are going on in this world sort of underneath our day to day lives. It’s like understanding what you were or what you thought you knew is not actually all that there is. That’s a huge theme in the show.
Abbie has basically given over to that. She is cautious, but is no longer cynical about what they’re doing. She’s in it for the long haul, and I think now it’s just about serving that purpose. So I feel like everything has changed, including the ensemble. I think she started in a cop uniform and then we were in the jeans and now it’s like yoga clothes. She’s getting more and more comfortable in her skin and thinking outside the box. She was just very narrow about the resources that she was willing to use to get answers. Now you see her breaking into homes and breaking the rules and doing all sorts of things.
It’s changed from her being by the book and wanting to go to Quantico and becoming a profiler to being a witness to the Apocalypse and doing anything at her disposal to help stop it. We can do whatever we want when we’re fighting for good.
What do you think of all the revisionist kind of history that is featured on the show? That seems to be kind of an entertaining factor for the audience.
NB: I think it’s nifty. The show’s writers are so imaginative and it makes for a great deal of fun.A lot of people know these stories, and some people don’t. We’re just giving a little twist to things that we already know, like the Washington Irving story, or the history of George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson. We’re offering a different sort of spin on it and having a bit of fun at the same time. There’s a lot of mileage in it, too. For example, in the finale, the things that we discover about Washington are definitely worth it. They may not be true, but then again, it’s fiction. Who knows if it isn’t true?
This has been a huge year for African Americans in television and film, with both your as well as Kerry Washington being featured in prime time TV roles and your former colleague Steve McQueen’s recent award season success. What are your thoughts on these barriers being broken down?
NB: I think it’s a fantastic time. I feel really lucky to be an actress during this time when people are sort of opening up to having more diversity in their home and just being interested in a lot of different stories. The one thing I really love about our show is that even though I think it’s one of the most diverse shows on television, not even ethnically, but gender wise, we don’t even talk about it. We don’t make it an issue. There are little things here and there like in the pilot, but it doesn’t become an issue.
We just hope that instead of colors, that the audience perceives people and histories in their experiences. I think that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do as an artist and an actress. So to be able to have that is the most humbling and fulfilling gift. It truly cannot be seen as a color or a particular demographic. I think that type of opening up is great.
That being said, Steve McQueen is amazing and I’m so happy that he’s been doing well. Actually, we’re staying in the same hotel right now. I bumped into him, and I think we’re doing The Arsenio Hall Show tonight at the same time. So it’s like the world is getting smaller. It’s just really nice to see other people that you love and that have opened up opportunities for you doing well.
As noted above, photo copyright of FOX, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
In "Archer Vice: A Debt of Honor," Pam makes a deal that puts everyone in danger. Archer dons his slightly darker black suit to save the day. Written by Adam Reed. Pictured: Mr. Moto (voice of George Takei). Photo copyright of the FX Network
Tune in to next week’s episode of Archer to check out legendary actor, writer and producer George Takei as he lends his voice to the animated “Mr. Moto. Archer Vice: A Debt of Honor airs Monday, January 27 at 10:00 PM ET/PT only on FX.
As noted above, photo copyright of the FX Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Jason O"Mara (voice of Batman). Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Primetime television stars Jason O’Mara (Terra Nova, Vegas), Shemar Moore (Criminal Minds) and Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs) will take part in Warner Bros. Home Entertainment’s West Coast Premiere festivities for Justice League: War at The Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles on January 30, 2014.
O’Mara provides the voice of Batman, Moore is Cyborg and Gorham is The Flash – three key super heroes finding each other as one of the central themes of the film. Justice League: War, the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Animated Original PG-13 Movies, will be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on February 4, 2014.
Shemar Moore (voice of Cyborg). Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
Cast members and filmmakers will participate in red carpet media interviews, the screening and a post-screening panel discussion at The Paley Center for Media (465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills). Also confirmed to attend are the voices of lead villains Darkseid and Desaad – Steve Blum and Bruce Thomas, respectively – as well as producer James Tucker, director Jay Oliva, eight-time Emmy Award winning dialogue/casting director Andrea Romano, screenwriter Heath Corson and character designer Phil Bourassa. Additional panelists will be announced as confirmed.
Steve Blum (voice of Darkseid). Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
While the event is completely sold out, there are a few giveaway opportunities on the horizon. Fans should stay tuned to their favorite DC-centric websites – especially DCComics.com – over the coming days for a chance at a special ticket giveaway.
Bruce Thomas (voice of Desaad). Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
About Justice League: War …
The Fab Five - Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Superman. Photo copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
When the powerful Darkseid and his massive, relentless forces invade Earth, a group of previously unaligned super heroes – misunderstood and, in some cases, hunted by the authorities – discover the only way to fend off the attack will be to work together as a cohesive unit. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Shazam and, in his origin story, Cyborg combine their respective talents in an all-out battle to save the planet. Based on the 2012 graphic novel, “Justice League: Origin,” by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee, Justice League: War provides a glance into the world before the Justice League was created, and offers the initial animated incarnation of DC Entertainment’s “The New 52.”
The celebrity laden cast features O’Mara, Moore and Gorham as well as Justin Kirk (Weeds) as Green Lantern, Michelle Monaghan (Mission Impossible III, Gone Baby Gone) as Wonder Woman, Alan Tudyk (Suburgatory, 42, Serenity) as Superman, Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) as Shazam, and Rocky Carroll (NCIS) as Silas Stone.
As noted above, photos copyright of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Sam Underwood as Luke in The Following. Photo copyright of FOX.
In season one of the popular FOX crime drama series The Following, a retired FBI agent, Ryan Hardy, returns to active duty to help recapture a serial killer named Joe Carroll who has escaped from prison. It soon becomes clear that Carroll is being helped by a group of devotees that are avidly following in his remorseless and blood-drenched footsteps. As if Agent Hardy and his fellow operatives did not have enough on their plates, Luke, a previously unseen and just as twisted an adversary joins the mayhem in the show’s second season.
“He’s an addition to the story,” explains Sam Underwood, who plays Luke. “Luke wasn’t part of the original Havenport/Joe Carroll followers. My character is a brand new mischief maker and comes in off his own steam.
“Luke has a very strong sense of power and is confident in his own identity. There’s definitely a sense of narcissism about him, too, and that was a bit of an acting challenge for me because your initial thought is, ‘OK, how do I make him likable?’ In fact, what I think is so very freeing about this role as well as the show itself is that with each of these characters, particularly Luke, there’s no apology or anything like that needed within a scene as related to Luke. So the trick was to kind of let go of feeling any responsibility to add charm to Luke or any of the twisted things that were written into the script for him to do. I simply needed to embrace that, and once I did, it was a lot of fun to just get on with things and play the character.”
(L-R): The Following's Agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore), Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), Lily (Connie Nelson), Emma (Valorie Curry), Luke (Sam Underwood) and Joe Carroll (James Purefoy). Photo copyright of FOX.
No stranger to doing twisted things in front of a camera. Underwood is perhaps best known for portraying Zach Hamilton, the protégé to yet another serial killer in the long-running Showtime network cable drama series Dexter. He also played the recurring roles of Martin Krupp in Zero Hour as well as Leo Carras in Homeland. The actor was working on the latter when the breakdown for the character of Luke in The Following first began making the casting rounds.
“I booked an audition through my agent, but I wasn’t able to get to Los Angeles to read for the role because I was busy doing Homeland,” he says. “So I put an audition tape together and sent it off to the show’s producers. The whole thing sort of spiraled off from there. I hadn’t worked with the Fox Network or [series creator/executive producer] Kevin Williamson before, so I was very, very new to the entire team.
“My first day of work on The Following set was quite memorable for me. The place we were shooting in was very unique, so that added a great deal to the filming of the scene itself. I was very aware that I was going into a project with an A-list group of actors, writers and producing team, and there was, not an intimidation, but rather an absolute joy of being able to ‘play’ with such a talented group of individuals.
Luke (Sam Underwood) is up to no good in The Following's season two opener "For Joe." Photo copyright of FOX.
“So I was very much looking forward to that. As far as shooting my first episode, when I finally received the script for the entire episode and saw what the story arc of my character was going to be throughout the entire season, it made me tremendously excited to find out where things were headed. As I’m sure fans already know, The Following is extremely unpredictable as a show. I watched season one and you never knew exactly where it was headed. There are surprising twists and turns everywhere, which not only keeps those watching engaged, but also me as an actor, in this case, to get each new script and find out where Luke is headed next.”
In The Final Chapter, the first season finale of The Following, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) is apparently killed. When season two opens, a year has passed since his death, and although Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) is officially off the case, he remains obsessed with the serial killer, especially after a series of murders are committed on the anniversary of Carroll’s death. Underwood’s character is very much a part of this new and terrifying puzzle that Hardy and the rest of the show’s protagonists are working to piece together and resolve.
“When you first meet Luke, it’s very revealing about the type of guy that he is,” says the actor. “Over the course of the season you see him go through a lot of emotional challenges, some of which for a ‘psychopath’ don’t affect him, while others actually do affect him in very interesting ways. There’s one scene, in particular, that I got to work with another actress on and that for me was so totally unexpected to think that Luke would come up against something like this. It allowed me to bring out some qualities in him that I hadn’t thought existed within this very surface type of character.
Sam Underwood and The Following castmate Valorie Curry at a December 2013 screening of the series in New York. Photo copyright of FOX.
“A lot of Luke is very surface. He’s very much into his image and likes to make sure that he looks good. As I mentioned earlier, he has a narcissistic quality and I would say that Luke’s number one is him. I mean, he puts himself first and is always looking out for number one, so I spent a lot of time with myself in playing Luke,” jokes Underwood. “So to find out in the scene that I just spoke about, that maybe he isn’t all those things all the time and has, perhaps, a more caring side to him than neither he nor the audience initially thought, was thrilling for me to play. I can’t give you exact specifics, but that’s certainly one of the scenes that I’m looking forward to seeing how it turned out.
“So Luke faces a variety of challenges this season on The Following, and that makes him even more of a complex and interesting psychopath as well as a character for me to play.”
Steve Eramo
As noted above, photos copyright of the FOX Network, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
Following the great success of HBO’s first of its kind Game of Thrones international exhibition that traveled to five cities in 2013, HBO is extending its global reach by visiting Mexico City, Mexico; Austin, Texas at South by Southwest® (SXSW®); Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Oslo, Norway; Toronto, Canada; Belfast, Northern Ireland and Vancouver, Canada in 2014. The exhibition will also be featured as a part of Time Warner Cable Studios in New York City. Specifically created to bring the enchanted world of Westeros and its characters directly to fans, the traveling exhibit is presented by HBO and international partners.
The 2014 exhibition will feature all-new installations and offer a fresh perspective on the show, focusing on key places and characters/relationships from the series.
Free of charge, the fully immersive exhibition will transport fans into the medieval world of the show via a collection of nearly 100 original artifacts from pivotal scenes in seasons 1, 2 and 3, plus select pieces from the fourth season premiering in 2014.
Among the artifacts that will be showcased are costumes, props, armor and weaponscreated by artisans whose extraordinary craftsmanship has lent authenticity to the show since its inception including: a magnificent costume display featuring cloaks, dresses and armor; iconic artifacts such as model dragons and eggs; weaponry comprising of crossbows, daggers, spears, hatchets and swords; crowns and headdresses; jewelry; books, letters and maps; House banners; storyboards and much more.
The exhibition will also offer fans an all-new, immersive interactive experience that will place them within the world of Westeros, and a photo opportunity on the coveted Iron Throne. In addition, the exhibit will display an assortment of official Game of Thrones licensed collectable merchandise from the HBO Shop®.
Game of Thrones is an epic series whose storylines of treachery and nobility, family and honor, ambition and love, and death and survival, has captured the imagination of fans globally and made it one of the most popular shows on television.
The tour dates for the Game of Thrones• The Exhibition• are as follows:
New York City, New York (in partnership with Time Warner Cable, located at Time Warner Cable Studios) *Open exclusively to Time Warner Cable customers
January 27–February 1
Time Warner Cable Studios - 440 W 14th Street - New York, NY 10014
Visit www.twcstudios.com for more information
Mexico City, Mexico (in partnership with HBO Latin America)
February 15–19
Venue and ticket information will be available starting February at www.hbomax.TV/gotexhibitmex
Austin, Texas at SXSW®
March 7–11
Austin Music Hall - 208 Nueces Street - Austin, Texas 78701
Visit www.GOTExhibit.com for more information
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (in partnership with HBO Latin America)
April 5–9
Venue to be announced
Visit www.facebook.com/GameofThronesBR for more information
Oslo, Norway (in partnership with HBO Nordic)
April 26–30
Venue to be announced
Visit www.hbonordic.com for more information
Toronto, Canada (in partnership with Bell Media/HBO Canada)
May 14–18
Tiff Bell Lightbox - 350 King Street West - Toronto, ON M5V 3X5
Visit www.themovienetwork.ca/GOTexhibit for more information
Belfast, Northern Ireland (in partnership with Northern Ireland Screen and Northern Ireland Tourist Board)
Dates and venue to be announced
Visit www.GOTexhibitionbelfast.com for more information
Vancouver, Canada (presented as a free attraction at the 2014 Fair at the Pacific National Exhibition/PNE)
*There is a fair admission fee to enter the PNE
August 16–September1 (closed August 18 and 25)
PNE Fairgrounds - 2901 East Hastings Street -Vancouver, BC
Visit www.pne.ca for more information
For continued updates and details on the exhibition, visit www.GOTExhibit.com. The official hashtag is #GOTExhibit.
Above photos by Ashley Sears and copyright of HBO, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!
