Guys please welcome from the man in the high castle Alexa Davalos Rufus Sewell and Chelah Horsedal
Thank you so much for being here. It's good to talk to you all
lack of sleep and all things considered how we feeling
-Okay -All right -pretty good？-doing all right
Coffee！
Coffee it does the trick. It keeps it together. Look it's been almost two years since we've gotten new episodes of the show
That's a long time fans have been very excited for it. Obviously
You tell me what took so long and what's been the reaction
We're not entirely sure what took so long. I mean, it's been ready. We finished a long time ago
It's been ready for some time and I think once they realized
It was ready to be showed and they waited for the optimum moment
the right exact moment
Friday, on friday
It was as kind of narrate down to friday
Yeah, and all the Friday's in the year this was the best as the one when you meet a fan
What's the most common question you get about the show at this point? When when yeah, what do you say like, we don't wait
Soon
And so it's gotta be a relief not only obviously for the fan base
But for you guys that this is finally out there people get to see all the hard work you've done
Yes, but not only that. We're already shooting season four, right?
It's unusual, you know, it takes the pressure off because normally you wait to see how three does before you find out
But we've already got our job so that takes the pressure off a little bit
We've also been keeping secrets for a long time that as of Friday. We won't have to keep anyone
It seems like maybe it would be even more difficult to keep them because four is now happening. You're in its whole other mindset, right?
Am I forget which season I'm being asked questions about? right, right. that's the thing.
Hopefully I can treat you up and you can give away some spoilers
That's the reason we seem to want those even though it would ruin it
Yeah, so going into season three. Let's talk about this and set up a bit Hitler's dead Rufus John feeling pretty good right now
He stopped the war to end all wars celebrated very heavily at the end of that. It's a big deal
He's not feeling pretty good right now because I'm other stuff has happened. There's some other things but he was celebrated for that
He was celebrated it but it doesn't mean He was feeling good
Okay
As he might have exchanged the life of his son
For example as it turns out for an honour that he didn't particularly want. What does he have?
I guess moving forward. Now as this season launches. What does he have in his sights now? What are the goals what are the...survival
Yeah survival is in his sights
he's not someone who's ambitious for ambitions ambitions sake he's someone who was trying to protect his family and
There are people out to get him and it seems that the only way forward is up
or down
So in season 3 as their personal life starts to kind of
Disintegrate or at least there's frictions between them things are going wrong. They are
Conversely celebrated and
Their position in within the right goes up. So they get more powerful more celebrated more. You know, they've become
Like heroes in the Reich and he gets about nearly as far as you can get whilst at the same time
Everything else is falling apart inside. All right
So look Alexa, Juliana was the reason John was able to do that basically saves the entire world basically at the same time it
Hits rock bottom at the end of season 2 then the biggest surprise ever Trudy is back. Not sure exactly how that was possible
What do we need to know here and and and look we it's it's kind of like we saw her dead spoiler alert
What do we need to know as far as when that will be explained?
It will be absolutely explained rather quickly in season three kind of immediately. Okay, so I
I won't I won't give it all away
Was it a surprise for you when you first I mean, I know it's been a long time now
But you first read the script and then you see that Trudy's back or was that something you knew was coming?
Uh, I been discussed and certainly with the realms of you know, alternate reality is an alternate selves and whatnot
It was it was certainly possible, but it was a key moment for Julianna
I think because Abid some kind of placed this very tangible
You know visceral proof that that that these other worlds exist
I think it would have been too abstract for her
Otherwise I'll have for anyone really but yeah, so it's sort of a one word to describe
Sort of Julianna in season three and and what what her goals are what she's now moving forward one word
Yeah, we could narrow it down tenacious
Okay, the show the show deals it's got this global scale there's a okay
Scale there's also a lot of minutiae and the peoples of Lutton in the lives of the people the heartbreak that goes on
let's talk about Thomas voluntarily turned himself in turn himself over because the condition
Helen is devastated
I this are her you know
Look, she got to keep up the appearances right the perfect family the perfect Nazi family and all that
But talk to me about her inner turmoil as we go into this season and what she's dealing with
Well as we've talked about before
The reason that Thomas turned himself in is because John and Helen did such a good job of raising room under this belief system. So
the responsibility of that bearing down on her shoulders and his shoulders independent of each other and then trying to
figure out how to navigate life together
with this loss as we've seen in earlier seasons Helen has some addiction issues with pills and possibly alcohol so
You know
how does someone utilize that to deal with the pain and numbing out and we definitely go down that path a bit more and
Her falling apart
John seems to on the surface be able to hold it together a little bit more
effectively than Helen does that for me was one of the difficulties is that
John is one of the difficulties is that she
Falls apart quickest which puts him in the position of being her protector. So his own
Chances to deal with his equal amount of pain and horror are less obvious
so he has to put these feelings inside and and become a
caretaker which for him is all causes a lot of damage to because it hits them both equally hard except he has to hold the
Family together and there are still two daughters that they have to take care of
Under all of this stress and grief and pressure and under being in the public eye. It's it's I mean, yeah, it's
ever, however
stronger to the system
That's that's claiming his children because their only hope of survival is to commit to it ever further never stronger
There's no there's no pulling out. So the more resentment and anger and betrayal the more feelings
He may have that he's made some kind of terrible mistake if he has these feelings has to be subjugated
Because his only chance of protecting what's left of his family is to commit further and to feel justified about what this terrible thing
That's happened right in some ways feeling like it had to be worth it right try it
From the father's perspective. I'm a dad think about the kids and from father actor all of that. Does it help you sort of?
Take on the feeling of the seriousness and the gravity of some of these things because you're a father just in terms of your method
As a anyway into it. Yeah, it's only
Personal people for whatever
Personal reasons they might not even identify. That's what runs people you know, that's what people operate based on. Yes
I mean there's certain ways in which is too painful to think about I just it's taken care of, you know
and you know being a father right these things you just
Hot-wired, you know, I can't watch the news in the same way anymore, but right everything just affects me
It's the same way reading a script that I just automatically have
Very very strong feeling about what would operate upon him. Yeah, you know Chilean Alexa there's this
Obviously these were these women have in their own ways. They are strong characters
They have their moments of dealing with things and having to carry the burden of life in their very circumstances
Talk to me about how you feel like those characters
Are relevant now and how they fit into the overall narrative of what's even happening in culture right the idea of strong women the idea
Of women being victimized different things like that
You know
I think it's interesting this there's been this wave of this notion of strong women and I think women have always been strong and I
Think that women, you know
really are I mean
There's no words for how strong and ultimately in so many ways and strength comes from so many places. I
think for for Giuliana it comes from pain it comes from
loss and it comes from a vision forward and and seeing through seeing through what is to what could be and I think
You know
Strength is multifaceted. I don't think it's it's new, you know
No, and if you look at the female characters in this show since the beginning despite their circumstance
All of them are survivors, all of them are
strong to use the word and have agency so
We haven't really had to change our narrative too much in order to adapt to to certainly what's happening in the zeitgeist
And even though they're living under a more oppressive time
None of them are really particularly particularly
Oppressed like they even Julianne when she's in the Pacific states is still
somewhat actualized in that that world
It's funny. Isn't it that when we read episode 1 in episode 2. It's almost though
It was set up to be this old-fashioned 1950s almost Victorian version of the father knows best
But we as actors instinctively know that even when that's the way they represented an era, that's bullshit
That's not the way it actually is in reality power finds its natural out in couples
and
There's a great
Equality and always has been in the way that we play it and I think that day we met from the day we met it
Was instantly there and that has begun to cross-pollinate back into the script. Yeah, and that's what you have. That's really interesting
Yeah
and to think about sort of like the there's the framework and the
Archetypal narratives of the way things were and then there's the reality of people emerging and being who they are in those contexts the show
Based on this book very relevant in the 60s
obviously a lot of you know, you look at this as a cautionary tale in some ways about the
Humanizing of these people the Nazis and and that normal people ended up doing atrocious things
You then fast-forward to now and the things over the past year or two that have happened in our country around the world be thing
About Charlottesville this white nationalist thing white supremacy
groups that are emerging that continue to be in the news
Do these news stories and the and the the term Nazi that it's thrown around now in our narratives and in our everyday?
News stories right? Does it make you think differently about
These characters about this story and maybe the angles of it and how relevant it is. Now. It just confirms why it
Hit me the way it did
because the
Way I reacted to it when I read the script. Is it it?
Resonated with me about how people you say that it it it humanizes
it doesn't know it what happens is it normalizes it and what's
This is what happens to us onset is that we get used to our environment
What's what's common now is that we are now used to in public discourse
Language that we weren't used to even six months ago. Even three weeks ago that incrementally we get used to things
So now what what surrounds us is extraordinary I mean, you know, but it was all the seeds of it
We're already there when we were
Yeah, have you noticed that he shift in terms of reception of the show fan reaction anything like that over the past year year and
a half
In terms of feedback. Well, no because we haven't been on the air almost two years
So demands crazy
We really don't understand exactly
Who the man in the high castle is how the films exist that are at the center of this whole thing?
Alright, so let's talk about to go meas meditation, right?
We see this whole other world the San Francisco and and and sort of this
Revelation of the other family or other version of the family with the baby and all of that. Do you understand? What's happening?
Yes fully. Yes, you've seen Beyond and you know where this fits? Yes
Well, we have to build I mean especially with science-fiction one happening. You have to have a mythology
We're yeah, of course, right? All right, otherwise the rules get you know, so yes
Yes, we do and and and and you will too. Okay, I like what you said there
You have to know kind of the whole mythology of it so that the rules can stay in place
That's what I guess as viewers. We need to and we're slowly learning those rules. So you have now given me assurance
The rules are firmly in place and they you can see belief in us
right
So you don't need to know what the rules are but you will recognize if we don't know the rules you'll see it
You'll see you're you know, we will be untethered
So the rules are basically so that once you know, the rules everything we have done will make sense in retrospect
Makes a lot of sense. How about for you in all of this?
Mythology
What's happening with these these meditations and all in the way? I guess what's your reaction is you as usual? Yeah
Um, I Jayla understand what's happening. Helen of course is not exposed to any of this and you'll see in season three
She has some questions about feelings that are happening that I think
Are related to the existence of these other worlds, but she's up until the end at the beginning of season 3
She's completely unaware that they exist by the way
It feels like it would be an actor's dream
To be a part of a project that has so many layers like this. You've got the period piece
You've got the face see the sci-fi. Is that a dream come true for you in some ways to have that allow ourselves to think
It's find a baseline and complete
The whinges of the day are done. I think well the potential to play multiple versions of the same person, right?
How often does that happen same performance obviously, but lots of difference
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, it's it's yeah, that's an interesting thing certainly because we're the same but not the same. Yeah, it's very exciting
I see that part. I've been really looking forward to eventually possibly playing at all alternate first on myself, you know
I'm gonna wear a mustache if I have a different character don't even tell me apart
Okay, good. Good good so we know which world were in
This office Rufus vulture wrote this about you quote Oh
Rufus here an actor who can be menacing with just a glare I would imagine that a knight is seeing
99.9 percent of what? I'm actually low
Menacing with just the glare though. That's it
Do you do you practice the Menace and the glare do you practice it is it case anyone was wondering what I do?
When I'm not working if I am to see my peers in the mirror
You want to see my one dimensional bad guy guy just look at my career
Reference do I have a chance of gonna lose it? Oh, you're coming up with a kind of 80s power at the moment, but it's
My career
But I had a side angle okay, yeah
Thank you all for being here. Thank you
Check out the season three of the man in the high castle when it drops on Amazon Prime video, October 5th