As promised, we're back with more coverage of The Strain Season 2 from Comic-Con. Yesterday, I joined the cast and creators in The Strain press room, where I learned about increasing the scale of the show for the second season, Eph's alcoholism, and what it takes to turn Natalie Brown into one of the strigoi:
What's been the biggest challenge for you when increasing the scale of the story in Season 2?
Carlton Cuse: That's a really good question. Our production team is incredible. There's a guy named Miles Dale, who's our Producing Director in Toronto, and he does an amazing job of executing these scripts, which keeps getting bigger and bigger. We benefit from having tax incentives and also the decline in the Canadian dollar... practical things that allow us to put more money on screen. We are definitely increasing the scope and the scale of the show. The first season was really about, "Are there really people turning into vampires?" In this season, everybody acknowledges they exist. Now the questions are, "What are we going to do about it, how are we going to stop them, how are we going to fight back?"
Can you talk about the different types of vampires that get introduced in this season and that we got a glimpse of at the end of Season 1?
Carlton Cuse: There were a couple of things that really drew me to this project. One was, the opportunity to collaborate with Guillermo, who's a really visual genius and a very visionary guy, as a film maker. The second thing was, I loved the really rich mythology of these books, which include lots of different forms of antagonists. As opposed to The Walking Dead, where you just have kind of zombie, that does one kind of thing, there's all sorts of different dimensions to the vampires in this show. There's these things called the feelers, which are in the books, that get introduced in season 2, which are super creepy and cool. The ancients, or Quinlan, are these vampires who seem benevolent, but they are dimensional. I think that part of the fun of the show is playing out storylines that make them seem both good and bad.
The Season 2 premiere puts a focus on Eph's alcoholism? Will that be a major part of your character's arc this season? Are we going to see a darker side of Eph?
Corey Stoll: One thing that Carlton and I talked about right at the beginning of the season was trying to not be moralistic about his alcohol use. Within the context of the world's ending, the sort of self-medication that he's doing with the alcohol, it's clearly not the best thing for him to be doing, but he's not Peter Russo from House of Cards. We were very deliberate to make his reasons for using alcohol and what alcohol does to him differ. What was great about it is that it gives Eph a license to sort of have a "fuck it" attitude about what's happening and not be quite so in control all the time.
What can you tell us about Kelly's continued transformation in Season 2?
Natalie Brown: The transformation does continue. It's at the end of the first season when she's chosen by the master for some strange, mysterious mission. We'll find out what that is in season two. I will say he has let her out on a very long leash to do her bidding and, in turn, his own. She has some new assistants along the way.
I was really excited because that was one of my favorite aspects from the books, were the feelers. Knowing that Kelly has this amazing new brood bestowed upon her, and to do her dirty work for her, and also to have a ton of fun working with these amazing new talented little performers, was so much fun this season, also darkly terrifying.
I'm always fascinated by the makeup process. What does it take to turn you into one of the strigoi?
Natalie Brown: It is fascinating. There are three artists that are working for four and a half hours. There's a hair person that takes half an hour just to glue your hair down, slick enough to then put on the prosthetic pieces to change the shape of your face, then three and a half hours of painting, layers and layers of translucent paint to give the illusion of rotting, layered flesh. The more the season progresses, the more flesh rots, the longer it takes to apply. Then, they put on the bald cap. Then, when the teeth come in, and the contacts, that's when I catch a glimpse of myself. I shock myself every time. It's pretty creepy and also awesome.
I feel very blessed that Guillermo [del Toro] entrusted me to bring one of his monsters to life. That's a big responsibility. It's a lot to carry. I hope I can pull it off. One of my goals was to try to keep this monster still relatable. You still want to be able to sympathize with Kelly. I think her story line is tragic. I think to have her loved one ripped away from her and not be able to connect with her dearest person in her life, and the only new way she knows how, is to torture them. I really feel for Kelly. She's not just some monster out there to hurt people. She's hungry at times, yes, but she ultimately just wants to connect.
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