Bates Motel Cast and Writers Talk Season 3

Back in April, Bates Motel got the green light for a third season that is scheduled to air next year. At Comic Con, Daily Dead caught up with the show's writers, Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin, to see what they had in store for Season 3. Stars Vera Farmiga, Nestor Carbonell and Olivia Cooke also gave us their thoughts on their characters in Season 2 and where they're headed.

Are there times when you have a lot of sympathy for Norma and, at the same time, hate her character? How do you feel playing such a dynamic character?

Vera Farmiga: I do, but that’s not important how I feel. I have been appointed as her court-appointed lawyer in her defence, so it doesn’t really matter how I feel. I know she does things wrong; they’re not the choices I would necessarily make as a mother. But I also have to approach her with outright compassion and I go to forums and testimonies online for women who have been abused and are victims of incest. She has this deeply traumatic past.

I tend to focus on what I appreciate about her because if I just always come from a position defending her, she would be terribly flawed. This relationship with Norman is a lifejacket for her; they’re basically two people that have survived the shipwreck that is Norma Bates’ life and just clinging to each other. That was an uphill climb for me in the first season- to persuade the viewers that were coming off the cannon of the original Psycho with this idea that she was a broken, shrewd, harpy mom who didn’t love him enough.

To me that’s what was so fascinating about the role. We are tethered to arguably the most… the best horror film. And so that’s already a massive uphill climb, particularly for me playing Norma Bates who is just a spector in the original; a figment of his imagination. What I see, approaching Season 3, is that we’re going to be as wild as the character. I think she’s going to become more and more robust and skewed, because you’re gonna be needing the Norma that is his psyche’s invention and interpretation.

Have you heard anything about what’s in store for Season 3?

Vera Farmiga: Nothing, I wish! It’s frustrating to me! We start shooting in October. They’re just really tight-fisted about things so we’ll see.

Have you mapped out the series? Is there a game plan in mind?

Carlton Cuse: We wanted to subvert your expectations about who these characters were, that was the fundamental idea that we had when we started working on the show. For us, the endpoint is not going to be a literal re-enactment of the Psycho movie, so I think there is some surprise to see what version of Norman Bates emerges, and what he does when he does emerge. In a general way we know, but that’s kind of the form of a tragedy. I think for Kerry and I, we feel like we are telling a tragedy. We know that Norman is going to take a dark turn, but exactly how that manifests itself, what he does, when that happens, where it leads… those are the questions we hope the audience will stick around to watch.

Kerry Ehrin: That’s the fun of it. I think it was always so intriguing to know the endpoint and to just not know the road there. And to be able to surprise people with what the road was and to subvert expectation.

You had a number of guest stars last season, can you share any new characters?

Carlton Cuse: I think that’s what energises the show each season is meeting new people. The chapter of the drug story needed to end to move on to something else, and the something else is what we’re planning for this season. I mean it’s connected by a thread, but it’s a very different story. So we’ll have a whole batch of new characters this year we’re going to meet. We're going to learn more about the world of White Pine Bay and draw characters into new situations. We’re being very vague, obviously! There’s going to be new forms of menace and new romances…There’s definitely going to be a darker environment in the town. We’re shooting the show in the Winter. Last year we wanted to show the bucolic, happy, successful Bates Motel, but that chapter is over now.

Kerry Ehrin: But then there’s a lot of fun and comedy in it. I think that’s just the way it will be.

Norma and Dylan came together in the last episode, is this going to continue in the next season?

Kerry Ehrin: That relationship is not something that is going to be fixed in one conversation. I feel like that was a bench step forward for them, but it’s so going to be a lot of push and pull, and dysfunction and confusion. You know, people trying to do the right thing and not always doing it right.

Are we going to see any of Dylan’s past and find out how he came to be in White Pine Bay?

Carlton Cuse: We will definitely come to know more about Dylan’s past in one form or another. Notice how carefully I worded that... I mean, Dylan has a really good storyline for this year. I think for Dylan, the question really is, on this axis on good and evil, what is he going to do? Romero sort of offered him the town drug lord job, and I think the question that starts the season for Dylan is, is he or isn’t he going to accept that role?

One of the show’s themes has come to be who can you trust. This perhaps applies to your character the most…

Nestor Carbonell: He’s very manipulative in that way and he likes to rewrite history. He likes to tell you what the story is going to be on his terms and he always comes out on top of his own stories. The one thing I have is that they are going to reveal something of my character’s history, so we’ll find out something that will give us an insight into how he ticks, what makes him so manipulative, what makes him so guarded. He doesn’t give up much, he doesn’t even smile!

What would you like to see from Emma in the next season?

Olivia Cooke: In the last season, she tried so hard to be included, so much more than she did in season one. She thought she was part of the family to begin with. She had the job at the motel and she was on good terms with Norman and Norma. In spite of the heartbreak, they were amicable. As things unfolded and she wasn’t let in on things, she became more of an outsider. Now she’s be given a glimpse into Norma’s, Norman’s and Dylan’s relationship with the incest and Dylan being Norma’s son, but also her nephew… she feels like that’s her ticket into the Bates family.

Nestor Carbonell: And it’s interesting that she still wants to be a part of that.

Olivia Cooke: Yeah because we’re all broken characters, and other broken beings attract people.

With the big upheaval in the drug world, how will this affect your character?

Nestor Carbonell: It definitely shakes my world because the power structure is completely broken. Now it’s… well, I could put it in Dylan’s hands especially to take the reins. But that remains to be seen, how that’s going to play out. There’s a power vacuum and I’ve asked him to fill it. I may be teaming up with him, maybe going against each other- who knows.

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For the Bates Motel panel, there was a surprise appearance from Kenny Johnson who announced his character Caleb, Norma's brother, would be returning as a regular on the show. Season 3 starts shooting in October and will air next year on A&E.