First and most important, don’t forget to watch Haven tonight at 8/7c on Syfy. I know that the new night and new time are sometimes hard to remember, but this is important! Haven is an absolutely terrific show full of mystery and chemistry and small town and Stephen King-iness, and is always happy to welcome new and returning fans.

So, what did you think of the Haven season premiere last week? Wasn’t it so wonderful to have it in our eyes again? But what about that cliffhanger ending? That is not normal Haven season premiere behavior, although we did try to warn you about that in our review. Well, as we also warned you, get used to it.

Shortly before the premiere, SciFi Mafia and other media outlets had the opportunity to talk with Haven stars Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant about the new season (which we had previewed), and that’s when we learned about the new mode of storytelling. At one point in the interview they revealed that the 26-episode season will be split into two 13-episode story arcs, and that most of the shorter, individual Troubles stories would be spread over two episodes instead of just one. I had to find out more.

SciFi Mafia: Hi, it’s so great to talk with both of you again. I’m such a big fan of both of yours and of the show. I watched the season premiere and I’m pretty sure that, Emily, you owe Lucas an apology, but I’m sure that will be coming…

Emily Rose: Oh, I don’t know about that.

Lucas Bryant: I’m still waiting.

SciFi Mafia: I’m intrigued by what you were saying about the double episodes. Is it going to be a 2-episode arc for each Trouble-of-the-week story? Is that the plan for this season?

Emily Rose: Pretty much.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, it kind of worked out that way. I mean sometimes there are multiple Troubles or situations that are spun out over those two weeks. It seems like in order to shoot 26 episodes this season, that was the smartest way to get it done, and I think a happy accident, or not necessarily an accident, but a nice product of having to do it that way has been what we’ve gotten to do (with the) story telling.

There’s a lot more character interaction, and time to really see how these things affect these characters. The part that we enjoy — that I enjoy and I’m sure I can speak for Emily too in these instances — is getting the time to not just have to run from one fire to another but to get the rest of it and see and learn more about where we came from, where we’re going and why.

Emily Rose: Yes, I think the cool thing that it offers also is it’s a big reason for viewers to come back each week and watch what’s going to be happening. It links two episodes together. There was the underlying mythology, but now you add that the trouble is a cliffhanger. It really ups the stakes of being like “I want to make sure that I come and watch it live,” so the ratings are awesome every Thursday night.

Lucas Bryant: It has been a season of cliffhangers, hasn’t it?

Emily Rose: Yes.

Lucas Bryant: Every episode, and I guess not just the double-episode take but even the season in general, more than the others.

So there you have it. Get ready for the upgraded roller coaster that will be Haven Season 5.

If you’re as big a fan as I am of this show, and of these two actors, you’ll want to read the entire interview, which includes questions from a variety of media outlets. Well we at SciFi Mafia aim to please, so here you go – and make sure to keep your eyes peeled for some interesting insights into the second half of the season:

Q: Can you start by talking about the transition of filming this new relationship between Mara and Nathan compared to Audrey and Nathan?

Emily Rose: Oh, I think Lucas should answer that.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, let me just jump in here. First of all Emily Rose, who is sitting next to me…

Emily Rose: Don’t embarrass me, Lucas.

Lucas Bryant: …is incredible this season as always but exceptionally so in the role of Mara. It’s a total treat to watch her and get to play with her, except for the fact that she kicked my ass all over the town. So that’s a new development.

Emily Rose: That’s a new development. I didn’t ever do that as Audrey? I think I did that as Audrey, too.

Lucas Bryant: In less physical ways…

Emily Rose: All right, I kicked your butt mentally.

Lucas Bryant: That’s right.

Emily Rose: Right, right.

Lucas Bryant: My mental bottom.

Emily Rose: Your mental bottom.

Lucas Bryant: But yes, I mean for Nathan this is a nightmare, you know. I can’t really tell you all the things that Mara is capable of but she is a force.

Emily Rose: She is, easily. She was a lot of fun to play. You know, Audrey always had been in a very kind of, well, up to the recent season, in this kind of melancholy, dire life-sucks-for-her state which it did, does all the time. So (Mara is) someone that was and is on top of things, so to speak, and has sheer joy and delight in how she relates to everyone around her. Was a real, real pleasure and really fun to see.

You know, it’s always fun when you take these normal relationships and then you mix them up. It just creates a really, really fun environment on set. So it’s a blast.

Q. Emily first. You know, you are just so bad this season. Are you kind of hoping that you get to extend this as long as possible even though we know Audrey will eventually come back? And Lucas, are you getting tired of being the love sucker?

Emily Rose: The what?

Lucas Bryant: The what? Explain that.

Q: She is still “playing” you.

Emily Rose: What’s the definition of love sucker? Is this a noun, what is this, an adjective?

Lucas Bryant: Like a sucker?

Q: It’s kind of ‘playing’ you, Mara did in the Audrey thing in the first episode. She kind of used that against you to take advantage of you and kind of torture you…

Lucas Bryant: Right.

Q: So you’re kind of getting taking in by her charms and she’s just using that against you.

Lucas Bryant: Got it, got it. Okay.

Emily Rose: You’re going to think on that while I answer…

Mara is a lot of fun, and something I never expected would be the case with Haven, but it has definitely turned out to be true. It’s just the ability to play so many different characters.

And so her personality is a blast, even though there are definitely moments in this season that she made me really uncomfortable, and I didn’t like playing her at some points. For the most part I do really enjoy being that evil and bad – so I don’t know what that says about me.

But yes, it really was fun and I do hope to get to play her for a long time; and we don’t know if Audrey comes back, do we? We don’t know how and when and if she does come back…

Lucas Bryant: We don’t, no we don’t.

Emily Rose: …so we don’t know.

Lucas Bryant: And am I getting sick of being the…

Emily Rose: Love sucker.

Lucas Bryant: …as you eloquently coined that term, you know, “love sucker”? No, I think I, in fact…

Emily Rose: You enjoy.

Lucas Bryant: …love being the love sucker.

Q: Or how about a sucker for love? How about that?

Lucas Bryant: I will be a love sucker as long as I please. Yes, anyone — Mara, specifically — but anytime that Audrey is used as bait for hope for Nathan, he is a sucker, true. It has been sometimes frustrating. It’s an undying kind of bang-your-head-against-the-wall devotion to her but I think that’s also one of his most…

Emily Rose: Noble attributes?

Lucas Bryant: …noble traits, yes. And hopefully we’ll get to see that suckerness pay off with some light at the end of this dark tunnel.

Q: Coming into this season, of course everything is kind of on Nathan Wuornos because he’s got this new dynamic with a new and improved, or less improved, Audrey, and then everything going on in the rest of the town. So tell me, coming into this season, what were you hoping to see this season do, and what did you take away from the way last season ended, on such a big cliffhanger?

Lucas Bryant: Hmmn.

Emily Rose: It’s a big question.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, I don’t think I had any idea how the season was going to go.

Emily Rose: I was just going to say I had no hope for this season.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: With hope sagging and no clue…

Lucas Bryant: Right, right.

Emily Rose: …because we ended in that cave and…

Lucas Bryant: Yes, not in a no-hope sense like it’s hopeless, but just no ideas of where we were going or what we were going to do. I don’t know – I think that in some ways it kind of developed as it went, too…

Emily Rose: Yes, I was just going there.

Lucas Bryant: …I mean there’s a larger idea for this double season that we’re shooting right now, of course. But I think some specifics were changed along the way because of what was happening in the shooting and what people were reacting to on the screen.

So personally I guess what I knew coming into this season was that we’d be shooting double episodes, blocks, and so that was exciting in that it promised a sort of – instead of having to deal with the ‘Troubles’ so quickly and succinctly every week….

Emily Rose: Yes.

Lucas Bryant: …since we had more time to explore really the effect that those ‘Troubles’ have on our characters.

Q: Is it going to be a 13-episode arc or a 26-episode arc?

Emily Rose: Ah, it’s a 13-and-13-episode arc.

Lucas Bryant: Right, yes. So that gave us more longer-format story telling so that was…

Emily Rose: Yes, it was nice to take a breather and not necessarily have to have everything wrapped up so quickly, you know. But it did get very confusing in the preparation of it because you have two episodes in your head that you’re currently shooting while you’re prepping for the next two coming up. So in that way too, while confusing, it was nice because you did know big chunks of the season, you know.

At any given point you knew what was happening in four episodes so you could really kind of know more fully where you were and where you were going; we haven’t had that advantage as much in past seasons.

But in terms of what I was hoping for, I really had no clue. I knew from the last sentence last year. They gave me that one last sentence that I said in the cave as Mara last year (but) I didn’t know that it was going to be a big-name character of this year. I’m glad, though, it was. That was a really pleasant surprise and really, really enjoyable and a cool challenge.

You know, it’s interesting to come back every year with some of the — Lucas being one of them — but some of the people coming back and playing the same people was kind of like they know these characters backwards and forwards and up and down. Having to come back and not play Audrey Parker, to play a totally different entity, a different person, a different personality, with getting to know someone new all over again, and have those early conversations with the show runners and the writers about what we all felt like she would do and act and all of those things; giving birth to a new character is always a new adventure and very exciting. And it was a real gift and I really appreciate them giving her to me in that way.

Q: Do you feel that there’s an overall theme to this season and if so what would that be?

Lucas Bryant: Mm-Hmm.

Emily Rose: There is definitely. I know that the writers obviously have a sort of a grouping of what these first A and B seasons are. I know but I don’t really want to — I’m sorry, I’m conferring on how much I can say about this right now.

But there definitely are different blocks and theming to them. You know, the first ones are definite fight, from where I’m sitting, a fight to try to get Audrey Parker back. Whether or not that’s the theme for every single person, I don’t think so.

Lucas Bryant: It’s my theme.

Emily Rose: Because he’s a love sucker. And we’re just now embarking on our filming of the second half of the season, and that definitely already feels different, which is exciting. We kind of alter – I don’t know about you but I was a huge Lost fan, and I remember when they discovered that there was this neighborhood that was on the island and that there was this whole other group of people that existed and it just shifted your whole entire perspective of what was going on.

And I really feel like it’s exciting when shows can do that, and I feel like there’s kind of that feeling. It’s not like that at all in terms of the neighborhood thing. But there’s a feeling (like) that in the back half of the season, and I think that will take on its own voice and its own tone. It’s only in looking back at the first half of the season right now that I can kind of get a vibe for what that is, but in it, it doesn’t really feel themey per se, personally.

Lucas Bryant: Right, right. But yes, there is a big – it has been – especially – well, for Nathan it’s always about the same thing. It’s always about getting him some more Audrey talk but, like Emily said, yes, there has recently been a huge shift in our world, and that’s an exciting journey we’re about to go on.

Emily Rose: Yes, and I think, I mean, not to speak too much about Audrey specifically, but I mean we haven’t seen Audrey for how long now, like since the end of Season 3, Audrey proper. I mean last Season 4 she was Lexi-Audrey hybrid sort of, so I think that whole ‘hunt for Audrey 1.0,’ so to speak, is for me personally, I really was – I really do and really was missing that original Audrey for some reason — I don’t know why — but I was definitely. So I definitely think that’s a strong pull for viewers of wanting to see that, maybe.

[Ed. note: YES, PLEASE]

Q: Hi guys. I watched the premiere this morning and enjoyed it.

Emily Rose: Oh great, thank you.

Lucas Bryant: Thank you.

Q: I didn’t like the ending but I’m confident that things will improve in the second episode.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: I’m trying to even remember what the end of the first one was, all right.

Lucas: Not good, not good.

Q: Now you said that you’re part-way into filming the second half of the season. Do they tell you what’s going to happen at the end or do you just find out a couple of scripts earlier?

Emily Rose: We don’t know about the end. Currently Lucas knows a bit more than I do because he is getting to begin with his directorial debut this second half of the season. And I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I don’t know why but I keep asking him. I’m like, “So what are you doing in director land today? How was prep? What’s it like? What’s going on? Have you heard anything? Do you have your script yet?” Very exciting.

So in terms of what we’re going to get at the end of the show, the writers are always very reluctant to give us any of that information, but Lucas currently, if you want to get any spoilers, you need to get it out of him, because he knows the most right now.

Lucas Bryant: But it’s only like another inch of information. I don’t have any key to that kingdom. I don’t have a clue where we’re going to end.

Emily Rose: I mean they always say that they know the final frame of the series…

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: I sort of feel like, you know, we may shoot what that is and we may shoot—I don’t know if there’s something because there is always hope that we’re going to come back for another season….

Lucas Bryant: Right.

Emily Rose: It’s not done and done at all. So they know the end of it but they haven’t told us ever what that is.

Q: Have they said whether they think fans will like it or not?

Emily Rose: Oh man, they’re always sure that the fans will like it and I think, yes, I mean, to give them credit, I think they’ve been pretty right. Something has been kind of crazy this year, which has been a very interesting phenomenon, is that we have had lots of people meeting fans and visitors.

And something that has really been a cool observation I think has been the range of age groups of fans. We have fans that are like 7, 8, 9, and then I think I met one of our oldest fans the other day who was like 83, I think. No?

Lucas Bryant: Yes, no, yes, yes.

Emily Rose: Seventy-three or no, you’re shaking your head like it’s amazing.

Lucas Bryant: I’m shaking my head. I can’t believe…

Emily Rose: Yes, I know. So the fact that we have – and then we have mothers and daughters and we have husbands and wives, and we have the teenager crowd and we have the adults-like crowd and things and they’re from – oh, yes, we just have a list here of people — Australia, Germany, UK, Sweden, Monaco, France, Ohio, Florida, Illinois, Arkansas. I mean like all over, they come from all over. And so I think the coolest thing that I’ve realized is I fought all these years for little details here and there, but the network and the writers and everybody have like a really amazing pulse on a story that seems to appeal to a wide group of people.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: And I think, you know, when you say, ‘Is it something that the fans will like?’ I sure hope so but I feel like our fans are pretty awesome and somehow we end up, you know, really – we really get each other, I guess.

Lucas Bryant: Yes. And that list of people those aren’t just the places that we have fans. Those are the people that drove here or took a plane or a boat, you know, traveled across the world to come and see this part of Nova Scotia where we shoot, which is quite an honor.

Q: Okay, great. So we finally got some steamy Audrey-Nathan loving last season. Are we going to get more of that or maybe some Nathan-Mara action?

Emily Rose: Oh, dear.

Lucas Bryant: Oh. Did we have steamy last season? I don’t what movies you’re watching.

Emily Rose: You made some pancakes the last season apparently.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, right, right, right.

Emily Rose: Will there be any pancakes this season?

Lucas Bryant: There is some more steam this season, yes. Specifically, I’m not going to tell you who it’s between but I will tell you there is steam.

Emily Rose: Yes, there is steam.

Lucas Bryant: There is heat. There is a residual steam that comes from that heat exchange…

Emily Rose: There are several steams. There’s a lot of steam and a lot of combination of steams…

Lucas Bryant: …between a number of different characters, if you will.

Emily Rose: …and, you know, as all relationships are growing and ever so interesting there are different forms that steam takes, right?

Lucas Bryant: Right. Does that answer your question?

Emily Rose: Yes, did that answer your question? You’re making us very uncomfortable. I’m not sure they…

Q: Well, would Audrey forgive him if he made pancakes with Mara.

Emily Rose: Well, Nathan tends to make pancakes with Mara apparently…

Lucas Bryant: Wooh no, there is – that never happened.

Emily Rose: That did happen.

Lucas Bryant: The pancakes!

Emily Rose: Well, yes, no, waffles. What did they have in the 50s? Whatever they have.

Lucas Bryant: Pies. I’m just going to shut up.

Emily Rose: Yes, you should. Just got you right now.

Lucas Bryant: If Nathan were to make pancakes with Mara there would be a really good reason for it.

Emily Rose: A really good reason, that’s what they all say.

Emily Rose: And the conflicts of the – no, just kidding. It’s not but, yes. I don’t know though if Mara is getting – well, I’m going to leave it at that.

Q: Hi guys, it’s great to talk you as always. Missed you guys at Comic-Con, I must say…

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: I know. We’re bummed about that. That’s what happens with the double order this year. It’s like work city up here. No rest for the weary.

Q: And speaking of that, what was it like for you guys as from the production side? We know creatively you get to know the artists and everything a little better. But what was it like? You shot 13, did you get a break and start on the other 13? Or how does it all work for both of you?

Emily Rose: Oh, you mean this year, to shoot 13 and then just shoot the next 13? Is that what you’re saying?

Q: Yes, exactly.

Emily Rose: We didn’t really get a break in between them. We literally are shooting the 26 straight through. We’re about to go on our second hiatus which is just like a week long, but we’re shooting them straight through. It’s easier to get the machine up here up and going and to keep it going for everybody.

I’ll tell you what was weird was coming up on the 13 and being like, oh my gosh, this is… You know, in adding a double order we took a day away from each episode that we’re filming. We used to film in seven, and now we’re filming in six days, so 12 days for the two episodes, which in TV talk, that’s insane.

But it really made the first 13 go by super quick. I remember at the end, we just finished the first 13, and to be like, ‘oh my goodness we would have been done by now.’ We would have been home, you know, and it doesn’t feel like we should be done yet.

But it’s exciting to do this next season. You feel like — something that I always feel every year, but at the end of the 13 I might think, ‘Oh no, I really am in the heat of what we’re doing’ and then you have to go home. And this year I feel like, ‘Oh, yes, okay, we hit our stride and then let’s even hit our stride even more.’ So I’m excited about that.

Q: Cool, great. Any thoughts, Lucas, at all on that?

Lucas Bryant: Yes. Well, just like Emily said, it’s interesting that, I don’t know if it’s a chicken or the egg thing, if the way we’ve been shooting this season has allowed for us to have more energy, or if we have more energy because we’re pacing ourselves for the marathon. But, like Emily said, we would normally be done right about now. And, yes, I feel like there’s a lot of gas in the tank left and thankfully it’s so because we still have a long haul.

Emily Rose: And you have to direct on top of that.

Lucas Bryant: And I get to direct on top of that.

Q: I have to say, Emily, you are absolutely dastardly as Mara. How much fun has it been playing this character?

Emily Rose: Thank you. A lot of fun, a lot of fun. I mean she has got a lot of attitude. You know, it’s funny, I watched the first couple of episodes too, just to kind of see how this new character rolled out because I’m a very visual person, I don’t necessarily like to just let the world go. I stopped to watch it to gauge where I’m at and where I feel like I should be at. And, you know, while Mara is pretty cool in the first episode, I feel like episode 5, 6, 7 she really, really hits true Mara form, which is really exciting.

But no, I think at the end of playing a Mara day I’m very exhausted, because as much energy as it takes to just normally like solve the ‘Troubles’ and, you know, keep the world from blowing up all the time, it takes even more energy to just be sort of mocking everyone and in everyone’s face and keeping a lid on her own stuff that she’s dealing with.

And Mara is just – what was fun about Mara is sometimes, as an actor, when you’re working on an episode, you’ll do something that you think is really awesome and big and the directors will come up to you and be like, ‘Okay, that was a good exercise. Now, let’s take it down a couple of notches.’ And you’re like, ‘What, that was great! That was big, that was dramatic, that was awesome.’

And with Mara I never got smaller with her. Rarely did I get that. I got bigger. Keep going, keep going. And I was like, fine- you know, permission to do that. And that was a blast. And then to have it work, it’s always nice not to go back and go, ‘Wow, I should never have done that. Oh, not at that angle.’

Q: Well, I have to say in this first episode you really – I mean you really pushed it to the limit. I was almost borderline, ‘Do I hate Mara or do I like her?’

Emily Rose: Yes, and that’s honestly the question every day on set. I’d have crew come up to me because I have a great hair and make-up team that are a big part of making that — and wardrobe — and make that character be different, you know, and to be a different person. And everybody kept coming up to me and saying, ‘Guy, love to hate her. I can’t say I like her but I don’t – what is she saying?’

But I guarantee you, if you think that she has pushed the limit in the first episode there are some things that Mara says that I just – I was like I really feel uncomfortable saying it right now. So it’s exciting that the writers get to go there as well in the show and in turn get to go to those depths with me.

Q: Watching the premiere and liking it as much as I did, it made me wonder, in an ideal world where your audience continues to grow, and assuming that the writers can continue doing what they do, delivering great scripts, would you guys want to continue like say, Supernatural on the CW starting its 10th season, and a lot of shows wrap up at seven seasons. Are these characters the kind and did it have the kind of chemistry you might want to go 10 seasons?

Emily Rose: I’m going to give that one to Lucas because he always answers that one.

Lucas Bryant: Ah, when I first – when we were first up here and I was introduced to the Bronco, I got in it and I remember saying, ‘You know, after season 8 I’m buying this thing.’ And everybody sort of laughed and shook their heads like that was a completely ridiculous thought.

And now here we are by the end of this we’ll have, you know, the equivalent of 6 seasons worth of material out there. And, yes, so it’s – I mean statistically we are – it’s outrageous. We’re very lucky and blessed to have been supported this long. And, yes, I would be honored to be able to go for double digits.

Emily Rose: Yes, it’s interesting, you know. I think to be honest and frank with everyone it’s really the fans who determine that for us 100%. We’re a cable show and all of our, you know, contracts or what not have expiration dates on them.

So, you know, as much as we love the characters and, to be honest on one facet of your question, the way you phrased it, you said, ‘Do the characters have the chemistry to continue on?’ I actually think that is something that our show does have, really great chemistry like the friendships and the ability to work together in long, crazy conditions all the time for this long.

I have no doubt that if it relied on chemistry and relationships like, you know, Adam Copeland has been a great addition to our cast, and all the guest stars, I mean Richard and John and everybody, it’s just like we really know how to operate as a family up here, and if it was based on chemistry and everybody getting along, it wouldn’t be an issue.

But because it’s based on numbers and ratings and all of that stuff, you know, it will be interesting to see how the fans turn out for these next couple of seasons and then to see how the networks respond to those numbers and things.

And obviously if we don’t continue on Syfy for whichever reason or what not, I mean I don’t put it past anybody. You know, we live in a day and age where shows get canceled and picked up again all the time. So we all are kind of holding our breath to see, you know, is this the end? We don’t know, or is it the beginning to just a different chapter of it.

But honestly, like every show, it just depends on the audience and on their dedication to showing up for it regularly. And we have great fans. No doubt that would happen but, you know, in days of DVR and everything it’s hard for those numbers to translate.

Q: The show seems to just get better and better and the characters almost to each one it seems like they could support their own show. So having them all together just makes the show so strong. So thank you very much. That’s great news to hear that you guys would want to go.

Group: Thank you.

Q: I know you were talking about fans of all ages. I just want to say my 88-year old grandmother loves the show and watches it with me.

Lucas Bryant: Hey, all right!

Q: I know obviously, at least — I’m not sure how far — but at least the first part of the season is going to be focused on Mara but are we going to be going back to the Colorado Kid anytime soon? I assume at some point they’re probably going to delve back into that.

Emily Rose: We do not abandon it. Let me put it that way. It is definitely a piece of the discussion and, yes, but we don’t – we don’t – I don’t know, what do you think, Lucas?

Lucas Bryant: I think that was a good answer.

Emily Rose: Yes, we don’t abandon it.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: It’s always a fiber to the magical rug that is Haven.

Lucas Bryant: Very nice.

Emily Rose: Thank you.

Q: Hey guys, so I got a question for you all from Twitter from some of the fans, and they wanted to know, last season Eric had a guest star that was kind of dedicated to Duke, and then we had William who was kind of dedicated to Audrey and Lexi, so the question is, who is Laura Mennell going to belong to this year? Or is she going to belong to any one person?

Lucas Bryant: Oh.

Emily Rose: You’ll have to answer this?

Q: Will she be making pancakes? Let me ask a pointed question.

Lucas Bryant: Oh.

Q: Is she part of the heat?

Lucas Bryant: She is.

Emily Rose: Are we allowed to say that? I think…

Lucas Bryant: I don’t know if we are…

Emily Rose: That’s just it.

Lucas Bryant: Yes. She’s not beholden to anyone but she affects all of us in massive ways.

Emily Rose: We’re just trying to see what we’re allowed to say because it’s full of characters.

Emily Rose: Yes, I think I mean I think that, you know – yes, we’re allowed to say that, right?

Lucas Bryant: Yes, sure.

Emily Rose: Yes, okay.

Lucas Bryant: Go ahead.

Emily Rose: Charlotte and Monsieur Dwight have a little work – make work project relationship.

Q: Nice.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: Yes.

Q: Good for Dwight.

Emily Rose: And I don’t know if that’s like pancake and…

Lucas Bryant: Well, we’ll see if it’s…

Lucas Bryant: …Dwight.

Emily Rose: Yes. Yes, we’ll see if it’s good for Dwight.

Lucas Bryant: Right. There’s more to this character than…

Emily Rose: Meets the eye.

Lucas Bryant: That’s right.

Emily Rose: Yes.

Q: So at this point Nathan doesn’t get a dedicated guest star?

Lucas Bryant: Nathan just has his wall that he bangs his head against — dedicated wall.

Q: His dedicated wall. All right, thank you guys.

Q: Hi guys. Well, with this double-length season and all the rumors that’s fueled about it might possibly be the last, are you finding that you really appreciate the time you get to spend together off set more?

Lucas Bryant: Hmmm.

Emily Rose: Lucas just like runs away every day. He’s like, ‘Get me out of here please,’ you know.

Lucas Bryant: Really? I run away and then I sit on your porch and wait for you to come home so I get to hang out with you guys.

Yes, it’s a – I don’t know if we have the benefit of perspective when we’re in doing this thing. It’s just sort of overwhelming doing this thing all the time. But I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy being with you people all the time. It has been like a real sort of family year this year.

Emily Rose: Yes, I think Lucas is blacking out every day I come to set in my bi-polarness and he’s like, ‘So how are you?’ And I’m like, ‘We have got to stop complaining about little things because we may not have this anymore and there’s going to be a time when you are like, where is Emily and why can I not be acting with her?’

Lucas Bryant: That’s true.

Emily Rose: ‘Where is my coffee?’ And he’s like, ‘Whatever, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’ll be acting together until we’re 80.’

Lucas Bryant: Right.

Emily Rose: ‘Because I’m only – you’re in my contract.’

Lucas Bryant: Yes, that is true.

Lucas Bryant: Emily has been reminding me every day to be thankful for her.

Emily Rose: No, but every day I’ve been coming to set nostalgic.

Lucas Bryant: See does – she’s like just – we’re doing her close-up and she’s like, ‘Just take this in, you know, because someday you’re going to be looking across the room and this face may not be there…

Emily Rose: You’re a horrible person.

Lucas Bryant: …and you’re going to think back to all of it…

Emily Rose: Yes, all that you had. No, I’m totally sentimental every day. I mean there’s – like Lucas said, we’re trying to make a good show and care about it a lot and so we get in the ring and in this like, fight for our characters and everything and get in it.

But I’m constantly looking around the room at our crew and getting sad about the fact that, you know, every year you kind of like, ‘Well, maybe we’ll be back on the set but you’re kind of like, ‘Oh, wow, they ordered 26 episodes. This really might be the end of the line.’

You don’t know, and so these are friends up here, our family that we’ve – we’ve been up here for five years. I mean that’s a long – that’s a big section of our lives…

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: …You know, there have been weddings, there have been babies, there have been all kinds of stuff so it’s a tight family.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: And that’s sweet. It’s a sweet question for you to ask.

Q: We’ve seen a few different time periods represented in Haven‘s history. So is there any period in the history that you would like to visit or revisit?

Emily Rose: Yes, I’ve always wanted to do 1800. I’ve always wanted to do like a Western, like petticoats and horses and that. That has been my dream before anything. I’m been trying to weave it in this one.

Lucas Bryant: Emily just wants horses.

Emily Rose: I just want horses.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, I think I don’t have a specific time that I’d like to visit but any of those – I think any time that we’ve done, you know, we did the 1955 episode and then that episode with last year with Haven in an alternate reality. And I think any time that we travel outside of this normal — well, not that it’s normal in any sense — but what we’ve come to know as Haven, those episodes have been my favorites to perform and to watch. So I’m up for any time travel really.

Emily Rose: I’m just up for the 1800s.

Lucas Bryant: Emily is only up for horses.

Q: Lucas, can you tell us about your directing, how it came to be and anything else you want to tell us about it?

Emily Rose: He’s going to be awesome.

Lucas Bryant: Emily said it’s – she feels like it’s going to be like Christmas morning.

Emily Rose: Yes, I do. The last day of school…

Lucas Bryant: …for some reason and…

Emily Rose: …Christmas morning mixed together.

Lucas Bryant: Right. She doesn’t even have a clue what I have in store for her. She is – I am going to get back…

Emily Rose: He’s going to correct everything.

Lucas Bryant: …I am going to take these years of biting my tongue it’s all going to come out.

Emily Rose: Yes.

Lucas Bryant: No, it is going to be like Christmas morning actually. I do have lots of, yes, plans for every day; presents really.

No, how it came about was – it has just been something that I have wanted to do for a long time, and talked to these people here about maybe making that possibility a reality. And thankfully it just finally kind of worked out this season.

So I’ve been shadowing directors as much I could over the past number of years here and seeing that side of production. And, yes, everyone has made it work out for me and it’s coming soon. We’re going to get right into it when we come back from hiatus.

So I don’t have a script yet. I don’t know exactly what the episode I’m doing is going to be like but I have some ideas and so far hugely exciting, totally inspiring, yes, I’m jazzed.

Q: Cool. Well, I’ll look forward to it.

Lucas Bryant: Me too.

Q: Lucas, will you go through the whole process and prep as far as shooting and then post production and pre-production, all that kind of stuff?

Lucas Bryant: Right, every bit of it. Now there’ll be some limitations I guess when we’re doing it because – well, I guess this isn’t a spoiler but Nathan is in the season. I am still alive in some way anyway. Yes, so I’ll have to be working with…

Emily Rose: Your acting schedule.

Lucas Bryant: …my acting schedule exactly during prep so… But a lot of that has been scheduled around the days that I have to shoot and so everyone’s going to make those allowances for me, thankfully.

And then post will be tricky too because, again, we’ll be into the next episode, but every minute that I’m not saving the world and simultaneously getting my bottom handed to me, I will – yes, I’ll be working on the post side of things.

Q: Cool, that sounds great. Emily, it’s going to be interesting taking orders from this guy?

Emily Rose: Ah, I mean I do it every day anyway.

Lucas Bryant: Wow.

Emily Rose: It’s not going to be any different.

Lucas Bryant: When did you ever take up one order?

Emily Rose: Okay, well, let me give an example. I have one right now.

Lucas Bryant: Okay, hang up the phone.

Emily Rose: Actually this isn’t going to be the first time that I’ve worked with an actor-director because Lucas had a lot to live up to as in I’ve worked with Jason Priestley…

Lucas Bryant: Oh, yes, right.

Emily Rose: …as he was acting across from me and directing in episodes. So I know what it’s like to have the director gone for a little bit at the monitors and then jump in on the mark.

But honestly no, it was funny because we shot an episode recently and the – or I think a couple of months back, and the director just said to us, ‘Do whatever you want, do whatever you want for this take.’

And so Lucas and I looked at each other and I said, ‘Okay, let’s have a little practice here. If you were directing me in this moment what would you say I need to do?’ You know, ‘give me some direction’ because good actors, I feel like, for the most part and I try to be one and he has always been this way for me, but mainly try to stay of each other’s hair, and you’re kind of like, ‘I mean whatever you need to do, whatever you feel, whatever your instinct.’ You know, you just kind of don’t direct the other person until that trust has really been established. So I said, ‘Well, what do you think?’ And so he gave me a bit of direction and I said, ‘Oh, okay. All right, I like that. Well, we’ll see how that goes.’ And we did it and it was great.

I thought so and we’re both like, I think it was kind of a fun moment because we both kind of stepped away and we were like, ‘Oh, that was interesting. That was cool.’ And I was like, ‘I didn’t think about it from that way.’ And he was like, ‘Yes, that worked out really well.’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, this might have worked out pretty good.’

Yes, as much as I want to slam him, he’s going to do great and I’m super-jealous of it. I think the thing that I’m the most jealous of is, in terms of a directorial debut, our crew here is incredible, and to be able to learn from this (DP Eric Halo) that we work with, and to be in the grateful hands and loving arms of a great crew that loves us and everybody wants Lucas’s episode to be so fantastic, that I think it’s just going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

I think the only time it will get tense ever potentially is if we really are under the gun in any way, but that’s when Lucas’s shining and winning personality will come out his way and save us all.

Lucas Bryant: Wow, I could not have said any of that even close to better.

Emily Rose: That’s right, you couldn’t have.

Lucas Bryant: Incredible.

Emily Rose: It was, it was. And that’s why we make such a damn good team.

Lucas Bryant: Damn good team.

Q: Well, it’s a damn good show and I love it watching it every year. It completely kicks my butt every single season it’s on.

Emily Rose: Oh, good. Thank you.

Lucas Bryant: Thank you.

Emily Rose: I’m so glad it kicks your butt. That’s too awesome.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, that makes two of us.

Q: One of my favorite aspects about Haven are the ‘Troubles’ and the way that there are so many creative different ‘Troubles’ that the writers come up with. Can you tease us for this season any new ‘Troubles’ that you particularly liked?

Lucas Bryant: Oh, they’re running out of ideas. This new season we have weird bottom-of-the-barrel ‘Troubles’ like that guy whose eyes cross when he gets upset and I’m about that. No, that’s not true. Yes, somehow, somehow they keep coming up with totally off-the-wall great stuff.

Emily Rose: Actually this season has a few of my favorite ones I think we’ve ever had. I think one of them affects our dear friend, Eric Balfour who plays Duke Crocker…

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: …and that was really, really – it’s earlier on and it’s funny, in my opinion. And then another one affects everyone in the town and I can’t really be specific about that but it’s pretty, pretty funny.

So it’s as dramatic and freaky as a season is. What I do like about the ‘Troubles’ is they don’t always take themselves too seriously and provide a lot of levity for the show…

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: …and so, yes, there’s a couple of those that I really like. I can’t obviously state what those are, right.

Lucas Bryant: I think we can say that one that’s probably – well, it’s one of – it’s my favorite…

Emily Rose: We can say that one?

Lucas Bryant: …to play definitely from this year but I won’t tell you specifically what happens but there is a sort of a kind of freaky Friday-style ‘Trouble.’

Emily Rose: Oh.

Lucas Bryant: And if you know anything about freaky Friday that’s a reference…

Emily Rose: Google it.

Lucas Bryant: …to a movie where some people got trapped in each other’s bodies.

Emily Rose: That’s really, really well-done and really funny.

Q: So, Emily, you mentioned the 26-episode order you took as perhaps a harbinger of doom but an alternate theory that inspired previous…

Emily Rose: I worded it exactly like that.

Lucas Bryant: ‘Hai, the harbinger of doom,’ she said it.

Q: Well, an alternate theory that inspired my previous question about how long the show might run is that I remember last season was your first season as a fall show, not being a summer show. And then all of a sudden now they’re ordering 26 episodes which is the standard order that normal fall-type shows get.

So it’s almost like — I was thinking — this could be the second half, you know, like a new incarnation of the show as a bona-fide fall contender, you know, because the quality is certainly up.

But my question particularly is, if either of you without spoiling anything could talk about your favorite moment shooting so far this season, whether it be the circumstance of a scene or on-set mishap or prank or something but can you just throw out what your favorite most memorable moment in so far as shooting this season?

Lucas Bryant: That’s a good question.

Emily Rose: Are you still thinking on it?

Lucas Bryant: Yes. You got it?

Emily Rose: I think so.

Lucas Bryant: All right, go for it.

Emily Rose: I have a couple as always — I always have two — one I just shot the other day that will come at the very end of the season. And it’s not – it was just a cool moment I think just in my career in general just to be able to do. So that will play out at the end of the first season.

And then the other one isn’t necessarily a specific moment but it’s kind of like what the 26 episodes and shooting a double block has kind of allowed for us — it has been a love-hate relationship for me — is that in creating these double blocks we’re in this location all day, you know, to make it easier on production in terms of not having moves or anything.

So inevitably what happens is we end up block-shooting a lot of the day which means, you know, we’re in one direction filming all the scenes for the day and then we turn around and do them all again on the other side. And a lot of what they did to alleviate the pressure on production was initially was to do a lot of the two-person scenes. So with Mara being a character obviously new to the forefront I had a lot of scenes with just Nathan or just Duke or just (Dwight) or what not, this is just kind of like one-on-one scenes.

And having, you know, been in a show that operates exterior mainly and is dealing with the end of the world, to have it all pared down and to be able to do some scene work like back in theater school was a huge challenge but really rewarding at the end of the day and allowed for, you know, the water to my actor’s soul to actually do scene work, which was really a pleasant surprise, and I really enjoyed being able to do with Mara.

Lucas Bryant: Yes, I would say personally like I mentioned that ‘Trouble’ before, a freaky Friday one… all aspects of that were a joy to shoot and you’ll understand why when you see it. But then also I guess what I’ve really enjoyed this season is working with Emily Rose honestly, getting to see her play this totally outrageous character and getting to watch that character develop over the season and then having to react to that character who is giving me something that is totally, you know, as far I can imagine from what I’m used to getting from someone that looks exactly like Emily Rose, has really been a real pleasure.

And, you know, I’ve really gotten to watch literally on her face, her, you know, discoverer, I think just like she said, the lengths that she can go to in this character and the freedom and abandon with which she has attacked it has been really easy to react to and be with. And so that has been a real pleasure.

Q: Emily Rose, do you want direct? Do you have any aspirations to direct as well?

Emily Rose: Very much so. I was different from Lucas in that I think the minute he started Haven he had it in his mind that he would want to direct it. I think it has been an aspiration for him for a long time. For me I started Haven with no desire to direct at all, I think maybe just because I didn’t quite fully understand all that it was.

And then as the show has progressed, I found out very quickly I really want to direct because I’m bossy in nature — not that directors are bossy — but I have a very specific take on, when I read a script, how I feel like it should be executed or what I feel like it should look like and I just soon discovered that that’s a director’s brain.

I’ve always really enjoyed photography and I’ve always, you know, story-telling through acting and stuff and so I definitely, definitely want to direct and was really, you know, doing my best this hard when you’re in all the time as Lucas knows, to his shadow and be a part of, you know, prep and all of that stuff.

But I try to do as much as I could. I have a few things working against me in that I’m not Canadian so I can’t just direct if I want to necessarily because we have to have Canadian directors. And then also it’s not working me but it does make it a bit harder for me is just having my son this last year. I can’t – every spare minute that I’m not working whereas I would like to maybe go and be a part of a meeting or go shadow something, I have to be at home with my baby.

So I don’t know when I’ll get to do that in the future and I’m working on it. I wish it could be with Haven but I don’t know if that will realistically happen. But I think the thing that Haven has given me is the opportunity to work and be around and stand next to some really great, great directors that they have here in Canada and to learn a lot from them and to be around the camera crews and just soak it all in.

So I’m really hoping that whenever that opportunity presents itself it will be with a family as lovely as this one and I hope that’s sooner rather than later.

Q: Do you have a message for the fans who have just really stuck with you guys and really pushed to keep Haven on the air?

Emily Rose: Totally. Yes, here’s the deal. When I go back and I re-watch all of the episodes, I start to buy into it around Season 2, where I’m like really hooked into it. So for everybody that’s stuck in through like Season 1 —

Lucas Bryant: Through that who knew what we were doing…

Emily Rose: We were just a baby back then. I love it. I hope that it’s paying off and that the stories are exciting and enjoyable.

And we’re just really thankful and humbled by your dedication to our show and the fact that we know we wouldn’t be coming back if you guys weren’t watching and tweeting and, you know, getting online and — what was it — on Get Glue, making our show one of the top 10 watched shows, and, you know, just talking – like ‘get all on Netflix’ and everything.

All of that stuff is a result of our fans and so we’re really, really thankful for it, not only just here in North America with Canada and the States watching, but our global audiences. It’s so impressive.

I mean I was staying in a bed in (Rockfest) and there was an Italian family there and they were like, ‘Oh my god,’ you know, ‘you’re on Haven. We love that show.’ And I was like, ‘In Italy, really?’ Like it just – it boggled my mind. It’s so impressive.

So thank you so much. And then also know that I mean we, personally, I think as the characters are always fighting for the little things that made Haven original in the very beginning and trying to keep it true to some of its original forms. So we not only do that for ourselves but we’re always like, ‘We think the fans will really like it.’ You guys are always in our minds in that way.

Lucas Bryant: Yes.

Emily Rose: Again I’ve steamrolled Lucas.

Lucas Bryant: You nailed it. No, I mean it’s absolutely true like we said earlier. Especially that year I think more than any year we’ve been up here there have been people showing up in town from all over the world because they were inspired to come here not just necessarily to try and track us down but because they wanted to see, you know, we’re introduced to Nova Scotia through seeing it on their TVs and it’s not a place that is normally shown on television.

There was a family here this year who had been saving to travel from France who decided two years ago, you know, that they were going to make the trip and they started saving so that they can do it. And they came and they spent a week here.

And that sort of dedication, like Emily said, it is totally humbling and we are honored that people love the show as much as we do. And really I know that it is reason number 1 that we’re still here and still able to do this every day is the fans.

So thank you for all of that.

Emily Rose: And tell your friends and tell them that they can catch up and binge-watch and watch it on Netflix to get caught up for the next two seasons which are going to be really incredible. Because the more the merrier and possibly the longer.

Thanks so much to Emily Rose and Lucas Bryant for being so generous with their time in talking with us, and for all of the stellar work they do on their absolutely excellent show.

Haven, starring Emily Rose, Lucas Bryant, Eric Balfour, Richard Donat, John Dunsworth,and Adam Copeland, airs Thursdays, at 8/7c on Syfy.