Ruta Gedmintas & Richard Sammel Talk THE STRAIN Season 2

The previous episode of FX's The Strain, "Dead End," featured intense scenes in which the undead Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammel) tormented his prisoner, Dutch Velders (Ruta Gedmintas). Ahead of next Sunday's episode, Daily Dead took part in a conference call with both actors, who discussed filming those dark moments in "Dead End" and more.

Ruta and Richard talk about their scenes together in the latest episode:

Ruta Gedmintas: It was torturous, but it was really fun. It was really nice to work with Richard—he’s a brilliant actor. It was a crazy experience to film these intense, dark scenes, but be good friends, too.

Richard Sammel: I was actually really apprehending those scenes. Professionally, you’re longing for difficult stuff, but once it’s written and in front of you in the pages, you’re apprehending, “how am I going to do this?” The torture scenes, the action scenes, the very emotional scenes—this is really creepy stuff, so I was apprehending how I was going to work this out. You stick to your professionalism and you talk yourself into it.

The really good thing for me was that something special happened between me and Ruta. I’m not talking about the creature side, I’m talking about the friendship. I’m very convinced now that doing those scenes, you are able to do them in a professional way when you bond. You need to bond, you have a friendship that sustains [when] you go to those dark places together. That is the kind of confidence that was building up little by little and it was mixed with a lot of fun to get rid of the dark side.

I remember after work drinking beer, or cocktails, or ice cream, or whatever. I remember for myself, sometimes I needed an hour of a hot shower to bring me back to a human place.

Ruta Gedmintas: There were a couple of moments where we would be filming these very intense scenes, and I would be in tears and Richard would be very creepy and dark, and then we’d just burst out laughing. It was a good, safe environment for us. It meant that we could push our emotions further because we knew that we were safe in each other’s hands.

Richard on the growing tension between Eichhorst and Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde):

Richard Sammel: There is definitely a tension growing from the very beginning. From Eichhorst's point of view, Palmer is accepted as a necessary evil. It’s a business relation. But the reason they’re so emotional with each other is because they want to go the same path. Eichhorst wanted to be turned in order to get eternal life, and Palmer goes the same way. The trouble with Palmer is he’s a self-made man, he never accepts anybody above him. Whereas Eichhorst is a man who’s trained to be a leader and he’s trained to submit. And that gives him an advantage over Palmer.

Ruta on the trauma Dutch will endure after being imprisoned by Eichhorst and placed on his menu:

Ruta Gedmintas: It’s definitely a huge trauma for her—it would be for anyone. Slowly as this season continues and into the next, she will have to deal with that experience. It touched her on many levels—the very dark, emotional scrutiny that Eichhorst did of her. Her whole being was completely under scrutiny and it’s made her question herself and who she is in this life. Before she even gets to answer those questions, she has to get over the initial terror that has just happened—that at any moment you can be snatched and tortured. That’s the world these characters live in now.

Ruta on being pulled up a set of stairs and chained to a wall in the previous episode:

Ruta Gedmintas: I had to have a stunt mold made of my back so that Richard could drag me up the stairs safely. There’s a scene where he’s pulling me along the floor and dragging me up the stairs—that would have hurt a lot if the amazing stunt team hadn’t stepped in. When we tested the prosthetics, I had to come out on set and walk around and get in [the mold], and I’d have to be curved. So I’m walking like a hunchback the whole time. They put me on the floor and they dragged me up the stairs and I was just hysterically laughing and screaming how fun this was.

It was quite strenuous to use a chain around my neck—just pulling the chain constantly to try and make it not choke me gave me huge blisters on my hands. We had to develop these see-through gloves that I could wear. There are so many tricks that we were using to try and stop me from bruising my neck and hurting myself. 16 hours chained up to a wall was quite difficult, but we did it.