Sonya Walger Fan

FlashForward Set Visit Interview

Posted on 28. Sep, 2009 by gertiebeth in FlashForward, Interviews

Set Visit Interview: Sonya Walger and Zachary Knighton On the Set of ABC’s FLASH FORWARD

On the ABC television series Flash Forward, Sonya Walger plays trauma surgeon Olivia Benford, wife to FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) and mother to their daughter, Charlie. Olivia is also the the direct superior to surgical intern Bryce Varley (played by Zachary Knighton) who, before the black-out, was standing on the pier, ready to kill himself.

During a set visit to the multiple stages where they are filming the complex show, co-stars Sonya Walger and Zachary Knighton talked about being a part of the most talked about show this season.

Q: This show is not Lost, and anybody who’s seen the pilot knows it. Is it irritating that people keep bringing it up, or is it flattering?

Sonya: To be put in the same breath as Lost is a really flattering, fantastic thing, and I think we’d be blown away and elated if we had half the following that Lost has. It’s a great show, as is this, but they are very different. They really are. They share having an ensemble cast and having a great mystery at the core of it, but after that, they part ways, very radically.

Q: Will this show be as complicated as Lost?

Sonya: It’s certainly complicated, in that it’s sophisticated, but it doesn’t have the dense mythology of Lost. If you join in Episode 8, it will be very clear what’s gone on. Sure, there’ll be tiny details of people’s storylines that you’ve missed, but essentially, it’s clear. The world blacked out, everyone got a glimpse of their future, and everyone’s trying to deal with it. That will keep the story very simple to follow.

Q: When you read this script, were you more attracted to the concept of it, or that it’s such a character-driven show?

Zachary: For me, personally, it was the best pilot that I’d gotten a chance to audition for and read. I’ve been a huge fan of David Goyer’s for a long time. I’ve met with him on other stuff, like a couple of the Blade movies, and I’ve been dying to work with him. When I read the script, I just went, “This is one that I’m not going to get. There’s going to be somebody more famous than me that wants to do this part.”

I love Lost. I love the mythology of that show and I love the idea of big, character-driven dramas, and this show is so character-based. It gets to the depths of people’s characters because of what they’ve seen. Most people in the show have been shaken to the core with what they’ve seen, whether it be positive or negative. So, that was definitely a big attraction for me.

Q: Zachary, how quickly will viewers get to see why your character was going to kill himself?

Zachary: I think it’s a mystery. But, you’re definitely going to find out why he was on the pier, about to blow his brains out.

Q: Will viewers find out what his flash-forward was?

Zachary: Yeah. He’s changed. In the pilot, he’s on the pier, about to make a life-altering decision, and he comes out of it an entirely different man. You’ve got to have some hope. A lot of people are trying to avoid what they saw, but some people want to have what they saw occur.

Q: What’s it like to do the medical scenes? Is it like being in a different show?

Sonya: It’s fun. It’s not a medical show because it’s rare that we’re so intent on curing this particular patient. It’s always the DNA of everyone that had a flash-forward. It’s not going to be Grey’s Anatomy in this corner, CSI in that corner and Days of Our Lives in another corner. It’s always spawning off what the flash-forward was.

If we’re treating a victim, it’s often because they’re a casualty of the flash-forward and they got injured in the chaos that ensued, or perhaps they had a vision that then affects the diagnosis that we might or might not end up making. I’m fascinated by the technical jargon we have to master for that. We spent some time at Cedars-Sinai with a surgeon. It’s always fun to learn new skills and new vocabularies, but it’s always embedded in what these flash-forwards are.

Zachary: There are these different worlds, but all these worlds are going to intersect, at one point or another. So, the idea is that these people are all connected, much like we all are in real life, in some strange way. But, the interesting thing is that the paths cross.

Q: Were you surprised that Joseph Fiennes would do a TV series?

Sonya: No, honestly, I wasn’t, having read the pilot, and having seen just how good the quality of the writing is. As someone who is a veteran of now eight pilot seasons, I can vouch for how rare it is to come across a script that’s this good, or roles that are this developed and interesting. It often takes seasons to get characters that have this many quirks and flaws to them, so I wasn’t that surprised. I thought it was a plum role, for any actor. All of these roles are plum roles for any actor to get.

Zachary: Not to mention, it really feels like a movie, every week. It’s shot like a movie. It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like this on television. And, it doesn’t stop with the pilot. You can’t just do that to an audience. You can’t just drop these massive scenes, and this epic nature. If you took that away in Episode 2, the viewers would be upset. They’d feel cheated.

Sonya: Yeah, that’s true. It’s interesting because, every time a storyline seems to resolve itself, there’s another one sprouting. There’s just no containing it.

Q: Sonya, are you returning to Lost for the last season?

Sonya: I have no idea. I’m never told anything. Lost and I have an extremely flexible, loving relationship. When they call, if I’m around, I go.

Q: Would you like to go back?

Sonya: Sure, I’d love to go back. Honestly, my hands are full. This is a full-time, great job. But, I loved doing Lost and I’ve always loved being a part of it. I’d be sad to not sign Penny out, in some proper way.

Q: How strange was it when you found out Dominic was also on this show?

Sonya: Not that strange, honestly. Dominic and I never worked together on Lost. I only met him here. So, I think it’s much stranger for everybody else than it is for me.

Source: http://iesb.net/