As we’ve been telling you, Falling Skies begins its second season this Sunday on TNT. It may be a post-alien-invasion show but the war is not over, and in the new season we’ll be seeing a lot more action from the 2nd Mass, including a lot of leadership from Tom Mason’s son Hal, played by Drew Roy. Drew was kind enough to take some time to talk exclusively with SciFi Mafia recently about the upcoming season.
I started out by asking him how he felt about returning to the set for the new season, and what some of the differences are between Seasons 1 and 2.
We went back in October, we shot from October til January. I didn’t feel uncomfortable or awkward at all, it was really easy to jump back in. But at the same time, we were really blessed with those sets that you guys get to see. If you can’t imagine what you’re doing on those sets, well good luck.
We brought in a whole new group of writers in the second season, to allow the storytelling to go in a direction that really – last season wasn’t predictable in any way but it’s gone in its own little new way. So where they’re taking us this season is so much darker and grittier. With Hal, six months outside of this debacle – we’re no longer three months out – things are looking pretty serious as far as, this isn’t going to be a quick little extermination and they go back on their own merry way. People are dying at a very rapid rate in the three months that are bridging the first and second seasons. We’ve lost a tremendous number of people from the 2nd Massachusetts, over a hundred at the Battle of Fitchburg. This has really made people weary, and there’s a little bit of loss of hope. What is special about the show is those moments when you see two characters bonding or a relationship beginning, or somebody watching out for somebody’s back, it really resonates with you because you think wow even amongst all these horrible things going on, people are still people and they’re still good in them.
I asked him if there was anything specific that he’s looking forward to people seeing in the new season:
My two favorite relationships this season are with Maggie (Sarah Sanguin Carter) and with my brother Ben (Connor Jessup). In the first season, Hal seemed to have every girl left on the planet Earth had the hots for him. That was so tough on me (laughs) so this year it’s been very cool focusing all that energy onto just one person. He goes on these missions with Maggie, they’re spending all night together staking out these different places and they find this friendship that’s really special to both of them, and they care about each other. And it’s not until we almost lose each other a couple of times that we realize that wow, this is more than just a friendship, and they start figuring out how do you tell the other person that. And once you do tell them, is that a very selfish choice that’s gonna end up making us both sidetracked and not as focused and end up getting one or the other of us or someone else killed? Or is it the thing that empowers the characters and help complete them, and they fuel each other and push each other to places of even more of a leadership position and help even more people? That’s a question they have to ask themselves, and watching that unfold should be really exciting. And you know it’s like any other relationship, they get close, they get close, something happens that pulls them away, they get close, oh now Karen’s back in the picture. So I think it’s gonna be pretty fun to watch.
(Also), this year we’re gonna be introduced to new aliens, we’re gonna come up against some impossible scenarios where it looks like no good way out. Truthfully I’m looking forward to people seeing every thing about this show. The first hour is going to explain a lot of what happened when Tom was gone and what that meant, and the second hour hits the ground running and I think the second hour is the best episode we will have had of the series. Then that will be trumped later on in the season. But the second episode is such a fun action-packed, it’ll be everything that the fans wanted. If they felt like the first season could have given them a little more of this or that, the second episode gives it to them. There’s definitely more action in the second season, you’re seeing the aliens more, you’re understanding a little bit more about the aliens. There’s some stuff to understand about the aliens that is just gonna blow your mind, it’s a whole new way of looking at the aliens.
When I asked him if he had to do a lot of his own stunts, he laughed and said “you say that as if it’s a bad thing!”
I love dong the stunts and I try to do as many as possible. I like being able to get the camera right in there and be able to see things. I got to do some really cool stuff on the dirt bike this year. I had to learn how to be ripping down the road, lock up the back brake, slide it in sideways, have somebody jump on the back, rip the throttle again, pop the back around and take off. That’s like a guy’s dream.
I was curious how many seasons he wanted for the show:
The second season is gonna make you want a third, and if you don’t get a third you’re gonna be upset. (But I’d want) as many as they can do and tell a good story. I hate it when a series passes a point and they’re just making things up. Our writers from the very beginning have the whole story mapped out, they already know where it’s going. We actually know where we’re going and it will all be told in a very concise fashion that has an ending. They do have an end story.
And does he know what that is?
I don’t. I kinda don’t want to know. Connor Jessup who plays Ben loves to get the stories from the writers. He loves to run around and tell what’s gonna happen in the next episode, and I have to put him in his place and tell him “Dude, don’t tell me” because as the actor, the only time I get to be the audience member is when I read that script, and I wanna go on that same journey, so that I can see the surprises, so I like to be in the dark.
When I asked if there was anything he’d like to see in the future for Hal, he replied:
They’ve got me lined up for some pretty interesting things if there’s a third season, so I’ll let those guys do their thing. But in getting that question … I’ve thought about it and always wondered what would happen if Pope and Hal were put in a situation where they had to really get to know each other because they’re both very similar kind of alpha males and that’s why they butt heads on so much stuff. Also they come from very different backgrounds. So I’d be very interested to see where that relationship would go.
Some of the other cast members had talked about how tough the shoots were, all night long and very cold and on the move. How did he feel about it?
It is a tough shoot that we do, but I have buddies back home who work tough jobs they’re not getting to do what we do, so I’ve never felt the need to say that what we do is difficult. But yeah we’re out in the elements, it’s cold, I swore next season I’m gonna buy stock in Hot Shots [hand warmers], we go through so many of them it’s bound to go up. I enjoy it, I think it gives that extra layer of uncomfortability that comes across on camera.
He’s right, it shows, and it works. Thanks so much to Drew Roy for taking the time to talk with us about his stepped up role in this season’s Falling Skies.
Falling Skies Season 2, starring Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Will Patton, and Drew Roy premieres with back to back episodes this Sunday at 9/8c on TNT.
