SPOILER Magazine Top Interviews of All Time Part 2

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INSIDE OUR UNIVERSE by Galaxy

Hello readers, both old and new! Welcome to our special Top Interviews of All Time of SPO!LER magazine!

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“Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening” - Galaxy

Inside these pages you’ll find some of the most amazing interviews from the past couple of years. We’ve curated a perfect sample of the best that SPO!LER has to offer.

You’ll notice the massive size of this issue, which was done to t the most content possible. It’s so massive that we had to divide this issue into two parts, so those of you who love our celebrity interviews can navigate the pages with ease All theses amazing interviews were hosted by yours truly, the conductor of our universe

Among the fabulous celebrities interviewed here are The Boys’ Jack Quaid, Stargirl Brec Bassinger, The Walking Dead’s Eleanor Matsuura, the man with the stash Tim Rozon, Cobra Kai’s Martin Kove, and Johnny Lawrence himself William Zabka. Plus many more amazing interviews, over 800 pages!

In addition, you’re going to find a few feature articles sprinkled in, including our very popular comic book reviews and a quick glimpse at some pop culture to get you ready for 2023.

I hope your 2022 was everything you hoped for. And your New Year’s wishes for 2023 comes true. So, remember no matter what, we’ll always be here for you to provide a slight distraction from all the hustle and bustle of your hectic lives.

Look out for our special mini issue spotlighting all of our winners from this year’s SPO!LER TV & Movie Awards. That should be coming out in a few weeks as we’re still tallying the votes.

Thank you, once again, for taking a peek into what we’ve been up to these past few years. We hope you have a great Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

Have fun and stay safe!

Love you all…

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

WHAT DOES “FANDOM” REALLY MEAN?

Is the term simply reserved for fans of the superhero, fantasy, and sci-fi genres? The fervent followers of soap operas would tell you otherwise. Just like comic book readers can spew out the lineage of Superman or Spider-Man, soap fans, who have a history that dates back just as far, if not further, are able to recount the complex character dynamics and story arcs of their favorite daytime shows.

As a SPO!LER first, we talk a little bit about soap operas in our interview with Sean Kanan, who famously portrayed Deacon Sharpe on The Bold and the Beautiful in the early ‘00s. And luckily, the actor has an amazing announcement for any of our soap-fan readers out there!

Of course, we also talk about his Emmy Award-winning show, Studio City, which he created and stars in, as well as The Karate Kid Part III, where he plays Mike Barnes, the foil for Daniel LaRusso.

Also promoting his new book, Way of the Cobra, the actor shares some of the unbelievably motivational lessons that you can find within those pages, taken from the mistakes Sean has made in his own life.

A convention veteran, Sean speaks on how they’ve changed over the past decade and the importance of fans to his own work, all while quoting some Gladiator in the process…

SPOILER: Tell me about your history on The Bold and the Beautiful.

SEAN KANAN: I started in 2001 and was on for about five years playing Deacon Sharpe. And I’ve come back several times. Then I went over to The Young and the Restless and played Deacon Sharpe over there for about a year and a half. And I’ve got some exciting news that I’ve now rejoined the cast and I’m gonna be coming back to The Bold and the Beautiful! It’s very exciting. I’ve got so much history with the show, and it really does feel like home for me when I’m over there working.

SPOILER: Do you think soap operas were more popular back in the day? Or is it about the same now?

SEAN KANAN: That’s an interesting question. There are only four shows left now. And I think there’s been sort of a culling of the herd, where only the strong

survive, so to speak. So there are fewer choices now, but still loyal, amazing, wonderful fans. The Bold and the Beautiful is syndicated in dozens and dozens of countries around the world, so its following is actually international. Its popularity has really maintained a solid presence in a lot of different markets. Back in the ‘80s, during the glory days of soaps, there were five or six shows in New York and there were five, six, seven shows out here in Los Angeles. And now there’s just four. I think with the advent of daytime talk shows and reality television, it created a really strong competition that ultimately forced some of the shows off the air. But the one I’m on is still on the air, so I’m happy!

SPOILER: Is working on a soap opera pretty difficult, having to do a full episode every day?

SEAN KANAN: A lot of times what happens is, if a show is running

long, we take what’s called “cuts.” So we’ve learned a scene one way, and then on the fly, someone comes with a red pencil and says, “We’re gonna lose this, this, this, and this,” and you have to completely mentally recalibrate the structure of the scene. I guess it’s a skill set. But yesterday, one of the other actors and I were talking about it, saying how it’s insane that we’re actually able to do that. Because I can’t seem to apply that anywhere else in my life [laughs]— that kind of structural thinking—but for some reason I can do it for television.

SPOILER: Soap operas have been around for such a long time. I don’t think a lot of people realize that.

SEAN KANAN: I came back to General Hospital for the 50th anniversary in 2013. And it started as a black and white television show, and then ultimately evolved into what it is today. But they’ve been around for a very long time. Some even started as radio shows before making the jump to TV.

SPOILER: You’ve been on so many shows and movies. Is there one that’s your favorite?

SEAN KANAN: Right now, I have a show on Amazon Prime called Studio City. It’s a show that I created. And we just won an Emmy for best show in our category. So for me, that’s a really special project because I struggled for over a decade to get it made. And then to have it get special recognition, that’s special to me.

And of course, Karate Kid III stands out for a number of reasons, as well as some of the smaller films I’ve produced over my career. And

playing Deacon Sharpe has been a tremendous experience for me too. I try to find something special in everything that I do.

SPOILER: Tell us about Studio City

SEAN KANAN: Studio City is a digital series, and the episodes are between 12 and 17 minutes. The show centers around my character, Sam Stevens, who’s an aging soap star. And you think this guy’s got the world by the tail, and in the beginning he’s not the most likeable guy. But then you realize pretty quickly that he not only has a myriad of human flaws, but he’s facing all sorts of challenges that people in life do face, and that makes him relatable. He’s just this guy trying to figure it out. And at the end of the pilot episode, he’s reluctantly doing an autograph signing and this young girl comes up to him and informs him that she’s his daughter. This guy’s whole life is turned upside down.

This show makes you laugh, it makes you cry. There’s a show within a show. He stars on the number 2 soap opera in the world, Hearts on Fire. And there’s different dynamics happening within the show compared to when he’s in the real world.

SPOILER: How did it feel winning the Emmy?

SEAN KANAN: I gotta be honest, it’s incredible. I’ve worked in television for over 30 years and I had never won one. And my wife, who’s also one of the executive producers and writers of the show, also won with me, so that was really special. I think there’s something to be said about the anticipation and the hope of winning something like tthat—building over a long period of time and then winning after all these years. As opposed to some young kid getting on a soap opera and then winning right out of the box, which doesn’t happen very often. But for me, [the wait] helped me appreciate it.

It really goes to the heart of my philosophy: “You can’t wait for your ship to come in, you’ve got to build the damn ship.” That’s something

I talk about extensively in my new book, Way of the Cobra—not trying to make a segue to that [laughs], but I try to practice what I preach.

I’ve been really blessed. It’s been a remarkable year. If you would have told me at the beginning of the year all the blessings and wonderful things that would be in store for me, during a pandemic, I never would have believed it. The year started off with me doing back-to-back films with Bruce Willis. One of them just came out, called Survive the Game. And the other one’s called Fortress, which I’m not sure is going to come out before the end of the year. And that’s how the year started, and honestly it’s only gotten better.

What I realized is, I’ve worked for a really long time, and I’ve worked diligently and smartly, and it doesn’t

always provide visible, tangible results. But all of a sudden, this year, everything came to fruition. And it highlights the philosophy that if you just keep working hard and keep grinding, even though you might not be seeing day-to-day results, there’s going to come a time when it really starts to bear fruit. And for me, it’s happening this year, and it’s really exciting.

SPOILER: Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

SEAN KANAN: I do. I just finished a film for Lifetime, a terrific role. That’ll be coming out later this year. And I’ve got another big project that I’m starting in about 2 weeks. And my wife and I have several projects with our production company that are going into production early next year.

Sean Kanan/Karate Kid III:Columbia

Pictures/Studio City:Amazon/

The Young and the Restless:CBS

It’s funny, you win that statue—a hunk of metal—and somehow it gives you some kind of a credibility that, on some level, they didn’t think you had before, and it does start to make it easier to get other things done. So, I’m really appreciative.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone who wants to make their own projects like you have?

SEAN KANAN: I sort of distill things down to four basic pieces of information that I share with people when they say, “What can I do to be successful?” The first one is really simple, you learn it in kindergarten, it’s the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The second one is to act with compassion. You see an elderly lady and she’s taking a really long time in line at the pharmacy—I think everybody’s natural inclination in our current world is to get frustrated. And you may not realize that that woman is making a decision of whether or not to get her husband’s medicine or to eat for that night. You never know what private war someone is fighting. So just show each other a little bit more compassion. I think that helps in everything we do, whether it’s business or personal relationships. The third thing is to act with integrity. Do what you say, say what you mean, and show up and do your job to the best of your ability.

If you can be a dependable person and held to account with your word, especially in the entertainment business, that’s something that sets you apart from a lot of other people. And the last one is grind. By that I mean, get out of bed early, start your day a couple hours before the chaos of the outside world starts to bombard you. Center yourself with some meditation or visualization, organize your day, start to get some of your work out of the way. It reduces your stress and you’re not playing catch-up all day long. This advice is in my book Way

of the Cobra—it’s why I wrote it. I believe the information in that book is transformative.

So those are just four basic things that I started really putting into effect about three years ago, and it had a really profound effect on my life really quickly. And I started seeing a lot of really positive things. In the course of a year, my second book became an Amazon bestseller and we got Studio City on the air. I was overweight and I lost the weight. I don’t say this as a way to impress people, but to impress upon them what is possible.

SPOILER: Is this kind of motivational speaking something that you want to pursue more?

SEAN KANAN: I’m actually doing a lot of that right now. I do private coaching. Sure, I want to sell books, but I also want to get it into as many hands as possible because I believe that the information can help people lead better lives. It’s something I’m very committed to. I wrote this book because I’ve made every single mistake in it. And if I can save people from some of the pain and frustration that I’ve experienced, that’s something I’d really like to do.

SPOILER: How about any live shows?

SEAN KANAN: With COVID it’s become difficult, but I have several scheduled right now. I like that instant reciprocity that you get from talking to an audience. I do stand-up comedy as well and I think there’s a little bit of a crossover with that, performing in front of a live audience.

SPOILER: The way society is today, with cancel culture and all that, do you think it’s harder to do stand-up comedy?

SEAN KANAN: I definitely think it is. If you’re a comedian who deals with a lot of social stuff, your job is to hold up a mirror to what’s going on in society. And if you’re going to be judged with the threat of, if somebody doesn’t like what you say then they’re going to cancel you and take away your livelihood and damage you and your family, I think it absolutely restricts the ability for comics to be completely honest.

This whole cancel thing is crap! The concept of us having free speech is just that: a concept. Because free speech has taken a real shot in the gut, and I hope that the pendulum is gonna swing back around because ultimately it’s been really damaging.

SPOILER: Do you think social media and the access to celebrities these days is good or bad?

SEAN KANAN: There’s a cross section of entertainers who speak extremely candidly and with a megaphone about their beliefs on social media, and you definitely run a very serious risk of probably offending at least 50% of the population. I don’t believe that thing when people say, “Actors have no business giving their opinion.” Actors have the right to give their opinions, not because they are actors, but because they’re citizens. But you also have to treat it with responsibility and understand that,

in this current climate, there are some serious repercussions that can happen. I try not to talk about issues that are incendiary like that, because you’re not gonna change anyone’s mind. You’re either talking into an echo chamber that agrees with what you say or you’re going to inflame conflicting opinions and all it’s going to do is cause problems. Most people read things like that to reinforce their own opinions.

SPOILER: Do you like going to conventions?

SEAN KANAN: First of all, I love the people watching. And second, I like interacting with the fans, listening to some of their thoughts on the things I’ve done. I think conventions are great. And it’s also great to see people out doing stuff. For so long, people have not been able to do that, so whenever people can go out and interact and socialize, I’m all for it as long as it’s being done safely.

I just did one and I was there for 9 hours, which sounds like a really long time to be standing. But you just get so much energy from the people at the convention. And then you’re like, “Wow, a whole day has gone by and it was fantastic!” I’ve made some really nice friends too—people who were initially fans and interested in the projects I’ve done, and by the time we spend some time together, they’ve become friends. November 12th I’m going to be in England for Liverpool Comic Con.

SPOILER: What was your first convention like?

SEAN KANAN: It’s a weird feeling. You’re like, “Wait, where are they going? Who’s here?” [laughs] And then you realize, “Oh, wow, they’re coming for me!” I’m always flattered, I’m always humbled, especially with Karate Kid. I’m humbled that a character I played over three decades ago still has some relevance and some interest from the public. The whole thing’s a ride. You learn that a career is not generally a 50-yard dash, it’s a marathon. I just keep chuggin’ and can’t wait to see what’s next.

SPOILER: How has the convention experience changed from, say, a decade ago?

SEAN KANAN: I think the internet has allowed for more fans to connect. It’s allowed for better promotion of events. They’ve become more interactive. I think they’ve only gotten better and more exciting.

SPOILER: If you had a choice, Marvel or DC?

SEAN KANAN: I tend to lean towards Marvel. DC is a little dark for me. When I say dark, I mean the look of it. I think I prefer the Marvel look. Growing up, I was always a Marvel guy and gravitated towards those superheroes. I loved Thor and Iron Man and Vision and Doctor Strange.

SPOILER: Do you believe in ghosts?

SEAN KANAN: That’s a really interesting question because I’ve been hired to create a paranormal reality show. And so I’m educating myself a lot about it. I think I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything, so I don’t really rule anything out. I’ve never had an experience with it, but you never know.

There’s a lot of university-level theses written on this stuff. It’s more than just a lot of these schlocky shows. We’re trying to figure out a way to do this where it’s reality and it’s not manufacturing events for entertainment. We don’t want to bamboozle the audience like some of those other shows.

SPOILER: Is there anything you want to tell the fans?

SEAN KANAN: I just wanna thank them so much. 99.9% of the fans that I meet have been really wonderful to me and super supportive over the course of my career. Now more than ever, a lot of what I do is for the fans. It’s like in Gladiator, when Proximo says to Maximus that if the crowd claps, that means they love you, and if it happens long enough then you will love them.

It’s true though! There’s this response you get from people who follow what you do, and it creates a sense of responsibility to continue to [work] and do better, and to up the bar and bring people great entertainment.

Sean Kanan/Studio City:Amazon/Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

There may be no other celebrity who understands

fandom culture like Orlando Jones. The chameleon character actor is known for his versatility just as much as his talent. Yet his involvement in the fan community and understanding of its psyche has helped inform his dedication to his craft throughout the years. The actor states, “As a fan, that’s what I’ve always loved watching: people who made me forget it was them, and then suddenly I’m off on this crazy adventure.”

Everyone knows Orlando for something different, and that’s just what the actor loves about the career he’s carved out for himself. It’s fun for him to see which of his array of past projects fans will bring up. Whether it be his role in Evolution or Office Space or Mad TV or The Replacements or his recent turn in American Gods or even in an iconic 7 Up commercial, Orlando has always left an indelible impression on audiences and fans alike, and has become such a mainstay in popular culture for nearly three decades.

The sage actor isn’t afraid to find the humor in the ridiculous realities of life and always tries to maintain a unique perspective. This past year has seen an unfortunate absence of in-person Comic Cons, which is something that Orlando really does lament. However, this Renaissance man, who’s been working with brands determined to find ways to advance the fan experience, also sees this as an opportunity for the Cons to transcend their traditional approach; a blessing in disguise for the future of these events.

Ultimately, the actor’s legacy is the time and effort he puts into each and every one of his characters, whether he’s playing the lead or a scene-stealing supporting role, his dedication to having a total grasp of the characters he portrays has helped him to amass the lengthy and successful career he’s had. And then there’s that charisma too...

Orlando Jones/Playboy/(cover image): Orlando Jones/Brownie Harris

interview interview

SPOILER: How are you and how is everything going in your world?

ORLANDO JONES: 2021 is off to a blazing start as per usual. I don’t think anything really ever slows down. There are some breaks and some things shift, but by and large, the creative process marches on, at least in my world.

SPOILER: Orlando, what got you into acting?

ORLANDO JONES: For me, it really does begin with just being a fan. I think everyone entered the business the same way: They saw something and became a fan of some aspect of what it was, be it acting, directing, whatever. In my case, it was definitely watching movies with my mom because she was very much about that. And then sports with my dad. So I just floated back and forth all the time. But you get lost in the stories and suddenly you find yourself wanting to do that thing, which for me was creating characters. I’ve been blessed to have the type of career where so many people know me for so many very different things, but everyone has their thing, and they think their thing is the only thing [laughs].

SPOILER: You’re known for so many great projects. The other day we saw a Mother Goose truck and we started talking about Double Take [laughs].

ORLANDO JONES: That’s hilarious! See, to me, that’s the fun of it. I haven’t had anyone talk to me about Double Take in forever. For me it’s exciting [laughs] because I never know what it’s gonna be. If it’s a sports person, it’s The Replacements, if it’s a biker person, it’s Biker Boyz, if it’s science fiction, it could be Time Machine, it could be Sleepy Hollow, it could be American Gods, The Good Lord Bird. It’s a very odd thing that I literally don’t know—it could be Mad TV [laughs]. I have no idea. But it’s fun because they’re so different and I get to meet people with very different personalities because my fans are a very diverse group. It’s really a delightful thing at the end of the day.

SPOILER: Do you think your diverse filmography is part of the reason why people have admired you for so many years?

ORLANDO JONES: I don’t know. I don’t think of it like that. You have to understand, I don’t see it the way you see it. I have none of your vision. For me, when we’re talking about acting, I was always a big fan of Peter Sellers, the Alfre Woodards, I was fans of people who were more like changelings; who could really become someone different so that you forgot that you were watching them, which is very, very different than the mainstream movie star thing, because it doesn’t matter what movie it is, you just say that person’s name: “Oh yeah, it’s Tom Cruise!”; “It’s Will Smith!” They generally are just themselves. I didn’t come to it from that school, so for me it was always about your ability to really embody a character fully and to have people not see you—to really feel like they’re meeting a different human being and thinking about how that human being functions in the world. Because in many cases those movies weren’t written for me, they were written for a White man and suddenly they cast a Black guy. So how do you do that when there hasn’t been really any work put towards thinking about your character in any complete way? You’re just sort of this side character over here. So as much as you’re able to fill in dimension and have them feel real, like people you know, that has always been my love of it, and also obviously my biggest challenge and fear that I’m gonna mess this up [laughs]. But as a fan, that’s what I’ve always loved watching: people who made me forget it was them, and then suddenly I’m off on this crazy adventure. It was the best. That still, to me, is the best, which is why I’m still very much a 14-year-old fangirl [laughs]. That’s me [laughs].

Listen, I just got a chance to catch up on The Mandalorian. I’m not gonna lie, I was yelling at the TV. It’s no different than a sports game to me. I’m fully in. I’m that person [laughs]. I’m unapologetic about it. I’m enjoying it, I know it’s not real—that’s not the point! I’m completely that guy. So it doesn’t matter than I’m sitting alone. I’m watching Supernatural, like, “‘Destiel’ just became canon.

Can you believe it?” And that might not mean anything to somebody else. But I understood when Sergio Aragonés first told me what Comic Con was when I was doing Mad TV He had mentioned it to me and I was like, “Woah! People like you will be there? Then I would like to go there!” That was like 1996, and I get introduced to the Comic Con world and I watch it evolve, but was very much in it as a fan, just experiencing it through the eyes of these incredible artists who did very different things, and I always loved art. So I was excited. I was a kid who read Mad Magazine. I was on Mad TV—are

you kidding me?—and I’m talking to Spy vs.Spy? I was losing it [laughs]. I could not believe what was goin’ on. And then to find myself in the midst of all these people who had done all of these other things, it just became a part of a world. But it was also very clear to me that people thought it was weird and there was a judgement that went along with that depending on how into it you were. And I was pretty into it, but no one thought of me in that way. They were talking about the nerds behind their back, and I’m just sitting there going, [laughs] “You’ve got this so wrong! You really have no idea who

Orlando Jones/American Gods/Starz/Lionsgate/ Freemantle/Getty Images/AP

you’re talking to right now when you’re talking about people getting dressed up in cosplay. Boy, did you miss!” Even for Halo 2, I’m in the video game and nobody cared about that stuff back then, but I was losing my mind that I got to do five hours of extra content for that game and work with the team that did Myst. I was at the Video Game Awards the first year, so to watch how these things have evolved has been crazy. But we were the nerdy guys, that’s just what it was. I still unapologetically love that, but I’m not so crazy to think that fanboys didn’t make fun of fangirls. And I was very much in the fangirl category far more than I was in the fanboy category, but I loved the same things the fanboys did. But the treatment of it was, you felt like a disenfranchised person. So there was a real connection with the Con world and everything it represented for me because I was like, “THIS I understand!” It was nice to be in a community of individuals where the fundamental force wasn’t race. The thing that bonded us all was our love of these really nerdy, genre things. And I’ve always loved the fandom community because that’s what it represents and that’s what it’s always been. Yes, there are flame wars, but by and large, the culture of it doesn’t

find itself defined by violence and putting people down for digging something that you don’t dig. And it’s why in Supernatural, Destiel becoming a part of the core of that fandom is huge because that’s just something that people were shipping that other people were mad about [laughs]. It’s not real! It’s fantasy! And it’s not being represented. So here we are, we all made it up and we love it, and we read it and we think it’s cool. No one is trying to tout it for its literary greatness. We’re touting it because there’s something that we see in the characters that we love that we never imagined would get explored by the writers of these characters, but it came from the fans.

So much of my career I feel it’s been that way where fans have gotten to know me as an actor in one way, and then get to know me as a human being in another way, and I’ve always tried to be very open about that. As much as I have a crew of people who think that I hate Republicans [laughs] and all that, it’s like, “Wow, man, that would be me hating people in my own family.” My family dynamic is too diverse for me to think in those myopic terms, so because of that, it’s really about trying to spread as much joy and love in the

world as you can, and if that offends you about me then I’m good with that [laughs].

SPOILER: You think that is why many fans find it easy to connect with you?

ORLANDO JONES: I’ve always wanted to be that way because those are the people who I meet, who I talk to, who are telling me about their lives. And suddenly I see a character through eyes in a way I never saw it before, and it’s all over the map. It’s Black, it’s White, it’s Latino, it’s straight, it’s gay, it’s disabled, it’s military. I can’t even name all the different fans or different worlds that fans come from and how they color it in a way that’s unique and special and powerful. I’m being educated in real time by my fans. And it’s the greatest gift anyone could’ve ever given me. And to not see that as a gift is crazy.

SPOILER: I gotta bring up your Mr. Nancy hairstyle in American Gods, we know you’re not on the show anymore but they kept your hair and repurposed it for another character [laughs].

ORLANDO JONES: [laughs] Yes! The Mr. Nancy hair has been repurposed now. It’s very strange, but hilarious

nonetheless [laughs]. A couple of fans pointed it out, man, and I laughed so hard! The gift of being in fandom is one I’m eternally grateful for because of their clarity. People always talk about what the fans don’t get, and I find that so funny. I’m like, “No, that’s not it, my friend. They get it. They completely understand it. The person who can’t understand it is you because you can only see the terms under which you defined it. You don’t realize the moment it hit the air, it doesn’t belong to you anymore, it belongs to everyone. In your world it doesn’t belong to everyone, but in my world it does, and because of that you miss these little gems along the way.” But the repurposing of the hair is hilarious.

For me as a fan watching the end of Game of Thrones, as I think many have lamented, was disappointing. As a fan I understand what it’s like. It’s why I try to work so hard to make the characters as complete as I can, so what you do get of them, you get a full glimpse of them. And I’m happy that in season 2 of American Gods I was able to explore Nancy more than I was in the two scenes he was in in season 1 [laughs]. Just having the ability to be able to lay him out in season 2 was something I was really glad I got the opportunity to do. Wish I could’ve carried it further.

Look, I think it’s important to identify what the most important thing is in whatever you do. And I think it’s important to try and think of that thing respectfully. There’s nothing more important in the entertainment business than the fans. The fans are literally the business. I think it’s different from my job as an actor, and maybe because I’m a marketer and a brander and a writer and I’ve done these other things, so I can’t just see it through the lens of an actor. But I do understand actors who aren’t comfortable with that. And I understand that in their creative state and the way their creative works, they can’t be open to both. It’s something that’s against the DNA of the way certain actors approach the craft. So I understand that and I don’t want to demonize those people who don’t have that

comfort level. It’s not that they don’t like it—it’s that they have anxiety and it’s not comfortable for them. And the fact that people might think they look perfect or their character’s incredible or whatever, they still have some anxiety that they’ve had to work through in order to bring that character to life, and that’s part of what you’re watching, and being themselves is a more difficult task.

To be fair, there are also people who just don’t wanna mingle with fans and have that attitude. Those individuals who are making a career choice, it’s up to fans to decide if that’s what you want to support. But for me, I came from the theater. I’m a southern boy. I didn’t grow up in a big city. I grew up where you speak to people. You walk past them, you say, “Hello,” whether you knew them or not. I think there’s a part of just the way I grew up. I grew up in the Deep South [laughs], plenty of racism to go around, right? But I still didn’t look at every White person I saw and go, “That’s a racist. That’s a racist. That’s a racist.” That wasn’t my view of the world. I think it’s really important to work to have a view of the world that allows you to develop relationships and understand that a person’s lack of understanding of something is not the same as them having this feeling. I can’t expect White people to understand racism if all you’ve done is read about it. How would you know? I don’t understand privilege simply because of being a certain race. How would I know? I’ve talked about it and heard about it, but I’ve never experienced it. And there’s a nuance there that I don’t get.

I’m mindful of the fact that my biggest education to developing a complete opinion comes by listening acutely to varying points of view amongst those people who have had that experience. By listening to a full 360 point of view, you can really get a map on what’s going on by virtue of listening— following, not leading. And that’s hard to do when they tell you that you’re in charge; to realize that you’re going to have to hand over the responsibility of part of these components to someone who understands it and you don’t. And

that’s the failing. It’s the failing of the creative process not to invite those people who really do understand those things intimately to be part of the creative process so that we can see more 360 characters and not dump all of that responsibility on the actor with often very little support to get it done. I feel like if we can achieve that as artists and we can give something truly beautiful to the fans, which is they can truly see themselves and this diversity conversation can move beyond Black and White and start to include individuals who happen to be disabled, who just have a different normal, but that’s their normal. To label them all as somehow broken humans, or give able-bodied actors the microphone consistently and allow them to play roles that a disabled actor could bring an entire understanding and dimension

to it that I’ve never had the opportunity to see—that opens up the world for me in a way that’s powerful, that allows me to see through that artist’s eyes. That’s the magic of what this medium allows. So allowing those artists to be able to be recognized and to have their voices be heard is what diversity is about. But it’s how it affects all of us and uplifts all of us. And that part gets lost in all of the rhetoric and conversation about politics and sides. It’s the idea that when artists get to tell their stories authentically, all boats rise from that experience. And it’s a powerful experience and it’s why I love this job and would die to do it. To look at it any other way, for me, is to betray the artists like James Baldwin and Nina Simone who inspired me and who made me wanna do this.

SPOILER:The day I knew that us nerds of the universe had gone mainstream is when Kirk Hammett from Metallica showed the world that he is an avid collector and a nerd, and on that TV show he said that he hid his passion for years, but now he is able to show it off.

ORLANDO JONES: [laughs] That’s right! I knew that story! I used to do this show on FX when the network first launched, called Sound fX, and it was a one hour consumer guide to music and I interviewed all kinds of bands, just crazy stuff. And I discovered that Kirk was a nerd because I got into a conversation with him, and I [already] knew the story, so it was so funny to hear him say, “I’m finally able to share it!” I remember having the conversation with Chris Cornell—I’m a huge Soundgarden fan. [laughs] I was like, “Dude, you know who’s like a crazy collector nerd? Kirk!” He was like, “What??”

SPOILER: There’s so many people out there who hid being a “nerd” for so long.

ORLANDO JONES: I get it. Because I spent a lot of time in sports fandom, there’s a real machismo to that whole thing, and it’s got a lot of rules—this notion of the guy’s guy who pollutes the earth and waves his penis around for all to see. It’s a particular individual. It’s the same guy who claps at you while he talks to you, like he needs to get your attention.

SPOILER: Don’t you miss our beloved Comic Cons?

ORLANDO JONES: I’m really just missing the whole Comic Con community. I’m hoping that even if we can do it online, that there’s a wave where that group of people can be together. I say this all the time, because honestly I just think it’s funny and I mean it as a joke—I don’t mean to offend anyone—but I think it’s funny that in all the years of Comic Con that the most violent act to ever

have happened is somebody stabbing somebody with a pen because they tripped and fell, so the stabbing was inadvertent. They fell on the pen. With all of the fun and the merriment, and the extracurricular and the alcohol, that’s the violent act at Comic Con. Super Bowl weekend, there are dead bodies and it’s the number-one human trafficking day of the year. I just wanna point out the contrast [laughs]. Comic Con is a beautiful thing, man, and more of that in the world cannot be a bad thing.

I really think there’s an opportunity in tech with the conventions, which is why I was working with the Cos-

munity app, which is now fan grown, helping those companies get off the ground, just for us to be able to collect some data around it and really just understand what’s possible. My hope, as we move forward, there’s some really wonderful things on the tech side to make the experience of the Con way more seamless, and frankly to make it better curated for the individual so that they’re just getting a wildly better experience with less line time and more activity time. For me, that’s what I wanna see happen in that space, and that’s where I’m investing a lot of my time, just to make that a reality. And to also make that experience live online

as opposed to being a thing that you do once a year—to have that community be vibrant both online and offline, I think, is a better way to approach it. I’m really excited about that, and I think it’s really gonna be revolutionary because of how much we can improve the on-the-ground fan experience and allow them to take it back home.

I’ve been to so many Cons all over the world. I’m like, “Come on!” You should be able to walk in with your phone and, “Blink!—straight through” [laughs]. This should be super easy. You should not be going, “Oh my goodness! The WiFi sucks in this building!” No, that’s not how it should be. You should come in and get on the network, like, “Boom! I’m on!” You’re on the network, you’re good. You’re completely plugged in. You can get everywhere. It’ll navigate you everywhere. It’s simple. There’s no way for you to get lost.

SPOILER: A lot of the big conventions, I don’t think they like change.

ORLANDO JONES: They don’t. They’re event promoters, so they’re thinking, “How do you promote an event on the ground locally?” For me, obviously I’m not—I’m a brander and a marketer. And when I put on an event, I want a global audience to have access to that event. And technology makes it so that’s not cost-prohibitive, but even though the event is just going to be for these people in the city to experience in person, there are still so many things that can be experienced by individuals who want to be in that event, but couldn’t make it for some reason. But you have to be thinking about them from the outset. When they started doing Comic Con, none of this existed. This is all new. And they don’t wanna hand over control to the kids. Now the unfortunate part is that it’s the Wild West, so it’s gonna happen either way. We’re in a global pandemic, so now it’s about, “How do we connect this community?” Because the community needs each other. “And how do we give this community as much of an in-person experience and not just an online

experience?” It gets exciting to think about what’s possible, not just as an actor and a storyteller, but as a human more than anything.

SPOILER: Look at the studios making superhero movies. They’re doing so well because they’re thinking about the fans. That’s what you’re doing too.

ORLANDO JONES: That’s how we live. It’s our love of the thing that bonds us together. For me, it’s a fun thing. Fans do crazy stuff and go out of their way for me all the time. So I’m just being a good neighbor in the community. It’s not a oneway street and I’m not the only one doing anything. Even for the people who consider themselves haters, I’m like, “Hey man, you still put a lot of energy into coming and yelling at me, so thank you for that. I’m actually not mad at you, so let’s keep talkin’.” [laughs] Throws them every time. They’re like, “Is he tryna be my friend??” I’m like, “You’re over here yelling, so we might as well talk.”

SPOILER: That’s when you tell them, “Make 7 Up yours.”

ORLANDO JONES: Waaay up yours [laughs].

SPOILER: How did you come up with that? Because when I think of that commercial, I think of New York City, I think of Queens. It just reminds me of that.

ORLANDO JONES: [laughs] I love

Sthat, man. I started my advertising agency when I was 18-years-old, and I was lucky to have a bunch of clients. And for 7 Up, it was just nice to be able to be in a position creatively to say, “I wanna do this; I don’t wanna do that.” It was a fun campaign to be a part of and to do the catchphrase and all that kinda stuff. Yeah man, that one blew up on us. It was a crazy one and one I remember fondly. The funniest part about that is it only ran for one year and I worked for 8 days. And I got in trouble.

I got banned from the Super Bowl. I had people calling me indecent. Kids were getting expelled from school for wearing the t-shirt. Crazy controversy. I remember watching The Today Show and Katie Couric was running the ad saying, “Is this inde-

cent?” [laughs] So it came at a price. People say I push the envelope too much. It was interesting.

SPOILER: What you created with that brand was genius.

ORLANDO JONES: Super fun, man. I had a great time doing it. But it was just funny that suddenly people were mad at me about it. I was like, “Wait, what?? This is hilarious! I mean, it says, ‘Make 7 Up yours.’ Come on, he couldn’t get it all on the whole shirt, that’s the joke. He split it up because he never thought about the ‘up yours.’ He’s an idiot. He’s standing in the middle of the freeway because he doesn’t understand high traffic areas and he has a soda machine in the middle of the freeway.” [laughs] He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t

even get it! He’s an imbecile [laughs]. That’s why I loved him. That was literally the pitch: “I think he’s the CEO of 7 Up’s son. And they’ve given this guy the marketing budget, and he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.” So that was really the character. I thought it would be really funny to just have some guy who just didn’t get it at all, and then it all went to s**t. I just thought it was so funny that he was so oblivious to the negativity.

I’m a huge big Peter Sellers fan, so it was also Inspector Clouseau. I love Inspector Clouseau. No matter what’s going on, Inspector Clouseau is not in on the joke. Do you know the dog joke? So Inspector Clouseau walks into a bank and he’s waiting for his boss, the other inspector, to come down. He sees this lady standing there and she has a dog next to her. And he says, “Excuse me, ma’am, doos yur doog bite?” And she says, “What??” And he says, “Doos yur doog bite?” She says, “No.” And he leans over to pet the dog and the dog goes apes**t. And he jumps back, fearing for his life, and bumps into someone else, then looks at the woman and says, “I thought you said yur doog doos nut bite!” And she says, “It is not my dog,” [laughs] and I laughed hysterically! So for me, I was like, “Man, if I could get away with that madness…” And that for me is usually the fun of the characters.

It was the same with The Replacements. Clifford Franklin, to me, is the guy who, literally one minute he’s chasing down shoplifters at the grocery store—that was his great gift because he was fast—but the truth of the matter is he’s a country boy. He gets off the bus with a box wrapped in twine. He doesn’t even have luggage. That’s how he went to the NFL. They win two games, he’s got on a mesh leather t-shirt, sunglasses, and he’s talking about himself in the third person. [laughs] THAT is Clifford Franklin.

In Double Take, it was about saying, “Here is the journey of this character, this human who walks into this world as an Ivy League banker with a model girlfriend, and suddenly finds himself face to face with someone who’s 5150, not from the

same circumstances, doesn’t have an erudite sound or an erudite look, doesn’t particularly identify in the same way with European culture as he does with his own culture, therefore is looked at and treated a certain way—diminished. And now you two people switch places and deal with the culture clash within each other. Here’s your stupid movie and the comedy about that. But the culture clash about what’s happening between them is one that’s happening

within their culture, but also happening within the outside culture as well.” The only reasonably fun thing about that movie for me was trying to explore those things between me and Eddie Griffin and talking about those aspects, and how those aspects fall over into Latin culture as well, because suddenly you’re on the Mexico border. And suddenly Daryl Chase is trying to code switch to Latino. He’s gone from being the guy who can talk the Wall Street talk to the guy who can talk the street talk, and now he’s trying to talk Latino, but he doesn’t speak Spanish [laughs]. It’s like, “Really, jackass??” So, for me, the arrogance of this guy to attempt all of this and to be okay to really be failing at it, that’s why those characters are sort of interesting, because I can’t help but see them that way. That joke [to the border patrol] is supposed to be funny to Latinos who deal with that stuff everyday. I was looking to get that insight, so I was talking to the border crossing guys, and they were telling me sto-

ries about the bulls**t that they hear, because people just assume that they’re some a**hole at the border and don’t know anything. I was like, “What would annoy you the most? Got it! That’s what my guy’s gonna do” [laughs]. I wanted the biggest eye roll I could get.

SPOILER: Any final words to your fans?

ORLANDO JONES: “Have an incredible 2021. It’s all about perspective. If you can’t change your situation, then change your perspective.”

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

The sky’s the limit for Ashley Reyes.

The Long Island native just landed a starring role as Cordelia on season 3 of the hugely popular Starz series American Gods. While her face is on the promotional materials for the show, it’s yet to be seen what the arc for her character will be, but the actress ensures us that her part gets even bigger.

Growing up studying theater, Ashley moved to England for school and to pursue her craft even further. Now with a major spot on a major show, we’re excited to see what lies ahead for the young actress. She’s also starring in the upcoming film Slayers, a modern day horror-comedy that sounds like a techinspired House on Haunted Hill meets Dracula.

Ashley fills us in on what it’s like to be thrown into the deep end, so to speak, on her first major project, and how she got over her nerves her first day on set. The actress discusses the paranormal, as well as her admiration for The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby. And Galaxy, a fellow New Yorker, also talks with her about the proper way to hold a pizza.

SPOILER: How is it being on American Gods?

ASHLEY REYES: It’s been honestly amazing. I consider everyone to be family there. I had a wonderful time. This is actually my first TV job. I feel so lucky and lately overwhelmed. I’m so honored to be a part of it. I literally went from not getting any TV jobs—I was doing stage work for a few years and auditioning for TV—to suddenly being one of the leads on a huge TV show.

SPOILER: Are you getting recognized a lot now?

ASHLEY REYES: [laughs] Not quite yet. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but my part gets bigger on the show, so I think as things go along people will start warming to it. Occasionally I get the DMs like, “Big fan from Brazil!” I’m

like, “Someone knows who I am in Brazil?” It’s just crazy. People haven’t really recognized me. The show just came out a few weeks ago and everybody’s been in their houses. But otherwise, I have a lot of friends who call me when they turn on their TV and go to Amazon and it’s a giant poster with my face on it. I get a lot of texts saying, “Thanks for waking me up this morning!”

SPOILER: How does it feel being on the main poster?

ASHLEY REYES: Surreal. I don’t know if I’ve even digested it yet. It’s also one of those things where, if I see it, I kinda scroll by it really quickly because it’s so overwhelming [laughs]. But it’s amazing.

SPOILER: Do you watch yourself on

the show?

ASHLEY REYES: I do watch myself. At least with American Gods. Maybe the more jobs I do I won’t watch as much. Also, I just wanna see the show. It’s so good, and I love seeing everyone’s performances. But I do sit there when I’m on screen, holding my face, trying to peek through my fingers. It takes a lot for me to not judge myself. But I have to go easy on myself—it’s my first job. But I have to watch it, it’s so cool. Seeing yourself on TV is horrible because it’s like hearing your own voice in a recording, but it’s also the coolest thing in the world!

SPOILER: Were you nervous the first day on set?

ASHLEY REYES: Terrified. I was absolutely terrified. My pickup time was 3:45 a.m., and I didn’t sleep at all the night before. I got to my trailer and I was shaking. And I get out of the van that brought me to set, and it’s all of the producers, and Ian McShane is there, and Ricky Whittle, and I just didn’t know how to speak or move. I was just standing outside of the car not knowing what to do with my body until someone told me, “You know you can move.” But I was pretty nervous on my first day [laughs].

SPOILER: Which of your co-stars made you the most nervous?

ASHLEY REYES: When I first started it was definitely Ian. How could you not be intimidated by him? He’s a legend and he has this presence that you know when he’s in a room. I was very nervous about meeting him and working with him, but over time he became someone who I grew very close to and look up to a lot because he’s just fantastic and really taught me a lot on set. But every single one of the guest stars—you have Peter Stormare and Denis O’Hare—and every time I would see someone I would be a little starstruck.

SPOILER: What was your first scene like on American Gods?

ASHLEY REYES: At first it was scary, but I tapped into my theater training. Actually a co-star, Bruce Langley, said to me before I started shooting, “You are trained for this. It’s the same thing you do on stage. Just do that in front of the camera.” I was really nervous. It was the scene with Ian where I came out of this van and was supposed to be very cool. It was only, like, six lines—not a big deal— but I think I must’ve rehearsed these six lines about a thousand times. I kept trying to hop into the car and hitting my leg on the car because I don’t get into the driver’s seat ever—I don’t drive. But throughout the day I started to warm up and Bruce’s words got into my head. I said, “Just act, Ashley. It’s just a scene. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just gonna be a minute in the entire show. Just get through it.” And from then on I felt way more comfortable on set.

SPOILER: Where did you grow up?

ASHLEY REYES: I grew up on Long Island. It was fine. I moved to England as soon as I could [laughs], for college. I did theater. I thought I would be doing Shakespeare for my entire life. But I couldn’t have asked for a better career. It’s not at all what I thought I would be doing and I love it.

SPOILER: Did studying theater help you a lot?

ASHLEY REYES: Absolutely. My theater education helped me with understanding a character, just feeling confident in my ability to be able to perform a scene and understanding scenework. And also going to drama school, it kicks your ass! They’re really intense and you learn a lot about yourself. And as an actor, it gives you an edge up on actors who haven’t gone through that because it’s a tough business, and now I can handle direction and notes without taking it personally.

SPOILER: Does the competitive nature of the industry stress you out sometimes?

ASHLEY REYES: Yeah, I think for me personally I don’t look at other people and go, “That’s the competition.” I look at myself and judge myself so harshly that I’m my own competition; I’m my own worst enemy. I love being in a business where I’m up against other people, because I’m usually the person in an audition room being like, “Oh my gosh, that person would be so good for this part! Why am I here? They should be doing it!” [laughs] So my biggest issue is myself and my own confidence and my own ego. I find it hard to compete with myself more than anything else.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone who’s starting out?

ASHLEY REYES: “Hold onto what makes you weird.” As soon as I tried to conform to what I thought other people wanted of me, I wasn’t getting jobs. I wasn’t doing anything, really. I was just trying so hard to make other people happy. Whereas when I embraced who I am and what makes me weird and different, that’s when I started working and getting success from it. “Just don’t listen to anyone who tells you you can’t do it, cuz that’s bull.”

SPOILER: Has American Gods taught you a lot about mythology?

ASHLEY REYES: Yes. I knew nothing about the whole god world. Starting to do this show, you learn so much about the Norse gods and things like that. And it does open your eyes. I grew up in a Jewish household and didn’t really explore other things, and this show has really taught me a lot.

SPOILER: Were your parents strict?

ASHLEY REYES: Not really. I went to Hebrew school. We went to temple for all the holidays and things like that. But outside of that, they were very good at being like, “You can make up your own mind once you’re older. This is just what we think and how we want to raise you.” I was pretty young when I started questioning everything—I think a lot of people are. But they were really great about saying, “You can come back to Judaism if you want to.”

SPOILER: Do you think theater is still on your horizon once the world goes back to normal?

ASHLEY REYES: What a good question! I’m someone who loves to learn constantly. I love my job so much—I love acting so much, it doesn’t really matter the capacity, I just wanna do it all the time. I was raised doing theater and I love it so much—that’s my home—but now that I’m doing TV, I’m like, “This is

really great!” And I wanna get better at it, and I wanna learn more, and I wanna do more TV. I can see myself really growing and really forming a career in TV. But I wanna experience the movie world as well. It all depends where the chips fall. I never

Ashley Reyes/American Gods/Starz/IMDb

thought I’d be doing this. I don’t know. I’m excited to see where my career goes next.

Before the [pandemic] I was really feeling like I was starting to gain some traction, and saw a lot of growth in myself and my confidence, which led to a lot of doors being opened. Now since the world’s been closed, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But there are days where I’m like, “This is just the beginning of things.”

SPOILER: If you could choose DC or Marvel, which would you choose?

ASHLEY REYES: Mmm...Marvel! That was hard. That’s my gut instinct. DC is also coming out with some sick stuff, so it’s so hard to pick. But I’ve always loved Marvel movies.

SPOILER: Do you believe in ghosts?

ASHLEY REYES: Yes. Absolutely, hands down. I think I’ve had paranormal experiences. I think a lot of people do. Growing up I always thought my house was haunted. I just always felt like we weren’t alone, and there were some real ghosts there.

SPOILER: Do you watch paranormal shows?

ASHLEY REYES: I don’t watch paranormal shows because I do believe in it. I can’t watch Paranormal Activity or anything like that because I would never go to sleep again. But I love true crime. I’m a big true crime fan. I love all true crime documentaries. I probably watch more documentaries than I do TV shows. When I was in high school I thought that I wanted to go into forensics or something like that.

SPOILER: Did you eat a lot of pizza growing up in Long Island?

ASHLEY REYES: I do love pizza. I’m a Joe’s person. I love Joe’s in Manhattan. I love jalapeño and pepperoni pizza. That’s probably my favorite kind. Do you fold your pizza or eat it flat?

SPOILER: Folding is the east coast thing! You fold, step back a little and let the oil drip everywhere, and then eat it.

Not in Hollywood. They eat it straight.

ASHLEY REYES: Or with a fork and a knife.

SPOILER: And with pineapple. ASHLEY REYES: [laughs]

SPOILER: If you could emulate any actor, who would it be?

ASHLEY REYES: Vanessa Kirby, who plays Margaret on The Crown, I think she’s incredible. She’s another stage and screen actress. I think the way she’s able to transform into other characters is so charming and likable. And also the way she handles herself off screen—she just seems really cool. She’s someone I’d like to hang out with. She’s someone I look up to a lot. She seems like a boss.

SPOILER: Have you ever been to a convention?

ASHLEY REYES: Never. I did the virtual Comic Con this year. Unfortunately it wasn’t live and is not the same thing. Everyone was telling me, “You have to do one [in person]! The energy is amazing! We all have such a good time and we get to meet everyone.” I was so jealous.

SPOILER: How have you been handling the apocalypse so far?

ASHLEY REYES: [laughs] Probably the same as everyone else. I’m trying to stay busy and productive. I’ve been cooking a lot. I’ve been writing.

SPOILER: You just had a cool feature on Ricky Whittle’s “Moon Monday.”

ASHLEY REYES: He’s such a good person to host things because he’s so charming. I really don’t have to do anything. I can just sit there and people will just watch him anyway [laughs].

SPOILER: If you could say anything to the fans out there, what would you say?

ASHLEY REYES: “I love you all. Thank you so much for watching the show!”

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY I INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Jermaine Fowler is just a natural performer;

he was born to do this. So when casting took place for this year’s Amazon Prime original Coming 2 America, the sequel to the 1988 Eddie Murphy film, the comedian was the perfect person for the job. Playing the son of Murphy’s Prince Akeem, his talents are on full display. Commanding the screen and going toe-to-toe with a comedy legend isn’t easy, but Jermaine never falters. He’s totally in his element.

With a passion for movies and for watching movies in theaters, the actor still doesn’t see Coming 2 America’s streaming release as a hindrance at all, but a blessing in disguise. “I believe everything happens for a reason. I’m glad the studio didn’t hold onto this movie until the theaters opened back up, because there were people who needed a good laugh. I definitely needed a good laugh,” he offers. The 1988 original has such a personal connection with so many people, so it’s fitting that those people can

now share that experience with the younger generations in their family from the comfort of their own homes. Theatrical release or not, Coming 2 America has been the marquee film for this first half of 2021. With Jermaine’s help, the movie went on to be the most successful streaming release in a year and the first Amazon original to top the company’s charts.

The actor began his career doing stand-up in his early 20s, inspired by Murphy himself, eventually releasing his own comedy special Give Em Hell Kid. And prior to Coming 2 America, Jermaine had already enjoyed success as an actor, writer, and/or producer on various shows and films such as Superior Donuts, The Eric Andre Show, Friends of the People, and Sorry to Bother You.

You can tell Jermaine loves what he does for a living, always giving 1000% to his projects. However, the actor’s passion for the people in his life is even stronger. He exudes so much love and appreciation for those around him, including his kids, his family, and his friends, all of whom have made him the person he’s become and have helped get him to where he is today.

With us, he shares his plans for the future, including a hopeful spin-off film for Ruby Rhod from The Fifth Element, as well as the unlikely role Peter Jackson’s King Kong played in launching his career in show business.

interview interview

SPOILER: How was your experience on Coming 2 America?

JERMAINE FOWLER: It was wonderful! I had a lovely experience on that movie, dude. I had a great time with all the cast members. The director, Craig [Brewer] was awesome. It was great! I’ll never forget it.

SPOILER: They brought everybody back from the original movie.

JERMAINE FOWLER: It was extremely exciting. I look up to all those folks— especially Eddie [Murphy]. He’s the reason why I got into stand-up and the reason why I wanted to become an actor. So to be in his presence was truly incredible. It was honestly like being inside a dream.

SPOILER: How have things changed since the movie’s release?

JERMAINE FOWLER: There’s been a couple changes. There’s been an overwhelming amount of people online and social media, sending their love and support, saying how much they enjoyed the movie, and my role. I’d like to take the time to thank everyone who’s seen the movie and reached out to tell everyone involved how much they loved it. It’s been crazy. The press has been really nice. Everything sort of shifted now. I’m just blessed I’m able to take my dreams and continue to grow and do what I love to do.

SPOILER: Was it tough being with all those legends?

JERMAINE FOWLER: Not at all! Eddie and the director and producers, they looked at every audition tape, and they saw mine and thought I could bring something to the character and to the movie. And you have to look at that with pride. I definitely felt that I was there for a reason, and there to showcase what I could bring. So I didn’t really feel that chip on my shoulder. I felt like I was ready. I felt empowered by the cast and crew and everyone involved. I didn’t feel that imposter syndrome. That’s easy to fall into when you’re in that situation. I’ve heard horror stories about those moments. Luckily I didn’t feel like that. Everybody was so welcoming: Eddie and Shari [Headley]

and John Amos and Arsenio [Hall]. I didn’t really feel that anxiety when I came to set.

SPOILER: What’s it like working alongside Eddie Murphy?

JERMAINE FOWLER: He’s brilliant. He’s everything I always knew he was. Just being in his presence is so different. Seeing him in his element, seeing him in the zone, seeing him reprise a character from 32 years ago, I’ve never seen that done before so seamlessly. The man is not human. I love that guy. I love Eddie so much. I appreciate him for the opportunity and I thank him for seeing the potential in me and what I do. The guy knows talent. The guy has always paid it back to Black comedians any chance that he can get—young Black comics. I’m so grateful that I’m part of that Eddie Murphy lineage. It’s phenomenal. I get really emotional when I think about it. It means everything to me.

SPOILER: Does performing with all these people in one room make you nervous?

JERMAINE FOWLER: No not at all. I get excited! Doing stand-up, I perform in front of crowds all the time. This is what I do! With standup, the only times I get worried are the nights I don’t have anything to talk about, like, “What the f**k am I gonna say?” Those are the moments I go, “This show might not go too well. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.” That feeling sucks. But that’s the only time I get nervous. Other than that, if I’m bombing, I kinda just bring the audience down with me. It’s like what Patrice O’Neal said, “If I’m having a bad set, we’re all having a bad set.” I like to use those nerves, the positivity, and use them to my own benefit in most cases. I think it was Franklyn Ajaye who said, “If you’re nervous it’s a good thing. Use those nerves to stay on your toes and be more alert. Embrace them.” So I don’t think nervousness is a bad thing.

SPOILER: How funny is Leslie Jones?

JERMAINE FOWLER: Leslie’s amazing! Leslie is just awesome to work with—a true pleasure. I laughed every time we were together. A lot of the laughs on set, they captured them on film. A lot of the stuff we improvised together, the stuff she came up with, they kept a lot of it, and you can see our genuine reactions from them during the bloopers. That’s all we were doing, making each other laugh and having a good time.

SPOILER: So you did a lot of improvising?

JERMAINE FOWLER: All the time! Any chance I can get—any line that I can improvise that makes sense within the context of the film and story, try it out! If it don’t work, do another take! No one knows the characters better than the actors and the writers—we’re the ones bringing the character to life. You have to understand just where you wanna

take the character’s story and what layers you want to bring to them. I definitely wanted to bring certain layers to Lavelle’s character that weren’t on paper. I like to do that; I like to add context to whatever I’m doing, just so I can give it more life and fill it out a little bit more—it’s just fun for me that way.

SPOILER: What was the moment in life when you knew that you had to be a comedian?

JERMAINE FOWLER: It was the moment when I watched Eddie Murphy Raw in twelfth grade. That’s when I knew I wanted to do it. Before that, I was always into stand-up: Def Comedy Jam, Dave Chappelle specials, Martin, all that stuff. However, it wasn’t until I realized I wasn’t gonna go to a traditional college that I decided to pursue it as a career opportunity.

SPOILER: Was your family excited when they saw you in the movie?

JERMAINE FOWLER: They were very excited. Very happy, very proud. Any time my family can look at what I do with a smile on their face, it makes me happy. I love my family. I love them very much. We’ve been through so much and will continue to go through hurdles, but as long as we have each other’s backs, that’s

all that matters. As long as I keep chasing my dreams, I just wanna motivate and inspire other people in my family, or other people in general, to go out and do what makes them happy and do what makes them feel fulfilled. I think that’s the most important thing right now.

SPOILER: Now that the movie’s out, what do you do in your normal day?

JERMAINE FOWLER: I wake up, hang out with my kids, change their diapers, feed them, watch cartoons. Then I go write. I go create, develop projects that I love. I go watch a movie. I make a few calls, run some errands, go do therapy, meditate, stare at my vision board. And then at night, hang out with the kids again and watch a movie with them. And I do the same thing over and over again every day. I love what I do. It’s a beautiful life, man. I’m very blessed.

SPOILER: As a comedian, do you always have to watch what you say with your kids?

JERMAINE FOWLER: It’s interesting because, with kids, you not only have to watch what you say, but you have to watch what you do. Kids watch and learn everything. I know how smart kids are, and how spongy they are. So I try to be mindful of what I say and do. At times it

gets hard. I’m not perfect, I make mistakes. But if you can be better than the person you were yesterday, that’s all that matters. That’s what I try to do. Stand-up has actually made me less needy. Stand-ups, we’re naturally very needy—we need to be told we’re funny, we’re good, we have the best set. That’s why we stick around after shows, because we’re needy, neurotic a**holes [laughs]. And when I had my kids, all that went out the window. I stopped giving a s**t. I don’t care about what people think about me [anymore]. I

Jermaine Fowler/IMDb/Getty/GQ/Coming

only care about what my kids think of me; I only care about how they turn out. I only care about them— that’s all I care about. It’s been an interesting shift. I feel different. I feel more focused and hungrier actually. I feel way different ever since the kids came around.

SPOILER: What would you tell your kids if they told you they wanted to be a comedian?

JERMAINE FOWLER: I’d say, “Where did I go wrong? What did I do?” [laughs] I say that jokingly, but they can be whatever they wanna be. That’s my goal, to have them wake up one day and say that they wanna be whatever, and I’ll respond, “You have my full support, as long as it’s positive, and as long as it’s additive, and as long as it’s a contribution to the world,” something stand-up comedy definitely is, especially right now in this time. I didn’t really have that when I was younger. A lot of people wrote me off. I didn’t really have emotional support in that way when it came to close family members. However, I did have a gang of friends who drove me around everywhere, watched me bomb, and watched me be very frustrated with my career in the early days. And to this day, they’ve been the most beautiful people I’ve ever been around. I love those guys. They’ll always have my love and support no matter what. That’s just how I came up. I know how important support is.

SPOILER: Do you feel like you have to keep grinding?

JERMAINE FOWLER: Every day. Never goes away. The day that I start to feel complacent, it will be a dark day for me [laughs]. I’ll never feel that way. That’s the way I pride myself. I’ve always felt like there’s something I could be doing; there’s a story that I could be telling. I’ve always felt the grind is a 24/7 thing. However, it’s important to just sit back and enjoy what you’ve done. It’s okay to say, “I’m awesome. I did a great job. I’m doing the best I can.” Don’t beat yourself up too much,

because that’s not healthy either. So finding a balance between being hungry and driven and embracing that grind is great. But also, be okay with the win. Be okay with saying, “Today was a good day.” Chill out, relax, and enjoy those days because it’s very seldom you get to appreciate them.

SPOILER: When you heard “Prince Lavelle Junson” on set, how did it feel?

JERMAINE FOWLER: That was crazy, because it was so echoey and powerful. Paul [Bates] is amazing as Oha. And when I heard that, it echoed through me. Now that I’m off set I still hear it. When I walk into the store sometimes and people recognize me and go, “Prince Lavelle!” I’m like, “Oh wow, that’s crazy.” I don’t know what to say

sometimes.

SPOILER: Where do we go from here? What’s the next step for you?

JERMAINE FOWLER: We move forward. I wanna tell stories that people are afraid to tell. I wanna portray characters that people are afraid to portray. I don’t wanna repeat certain things that my predecessors have done. I wanna walk my own path and follow my

own gut. That’s what I wanna do. That means finding shows in the TV space that I’m passionate about, which I’ve been working on, finding film roles that speak to me and I think will speak to other people— stories that mirror what’s been going on these days. These are things that I’m really hungry for. And they’re all happening. I’ve been working really hard to get to this place and I’m not done yet.

SPOILER: Would you ever wanna do sci-fi or superhero projects?

JERMAINE FOWLER: I love The Fifth Element and I’ve always wanted to do a story about Ruby Rhod. I’m trying to figure it out right now. I love sci-fi. When my dad kicked me out of the house, the first thing I did was go see King Kong, and it was a three-hour movie. I love the movie theaters, so I would go to the movie theater

anytime I was having a bad day and just think about life. After King Kong, I just figured it out [laughs]. I gotta say, I appreciate my dad so much. I get my drive from my father. My dad has always been a driven man and a man with principles. Even though he didn’t really understand in the beginning that his son wanted to be a comedian, which in parent-translation is, “Hey, I wanna be a clown.” So as a dad, I’m sort of seeing where my dad was coming from. And I love him. Without him, I wouldn’t be here. If he didn’t kick me out of the house to go see King Kong I probably wouldn’t be here now.

SPOILER: It’s all because of King Kong and your dad.

JERMAINE FOWLER: It’s true though! I saw King Kong and I was like, “Alright, this is my life now. I’m gonna move in with my grandma, I’m gonna write some films, and I’m gonna take things seriously.” When I was 11, I saw the movie The Rock and that’s when I started watching movies all the time. I wrote a sequel to The Rock when I was 11-years-old. It was in a burgundy little binder. And after that I just always wanted to watch movies no matter what. I didn’t wanna be a stand-up comedian until after seeing Eddie Murphy Raw. And then after a couple nights on stage, me and my dad had a really bad argument and

my dad kicked me out. And then I’m in the theater and I’m looking at Peter Jackson’s King Kong with Adrien Brody and Jack Black and Naomi Watts, and I’m like, “Wow, I want people to watch me in a theater with popcorn. That’s my goal.” I wanted a kid to watch a movie with me in it and just be inspired by whatever he’s watching, because that movie definitely inspired me to be like, “This is my goal, to have a gigantic movie in the summer.” Families would go watch it together and just have a good time watching it. I just want people to have a good time, man.

SPOILER: Do you feel like COVID robbed you of that kind of experience with Coming 2 America in theaters?

JERMAINE FOWLER: I believe everything happens for a reason. I’m glad the studio didn’t hold onto this movie until the theaters opened back up, because there were people who needed a good laugh. I definitely needed a good laugh. You can’t take that away from people. Especially with a comedy. Comedy is different. Comedy, during certain times, it’s a little more important. I think people definitely need something to look at and smile and feel good. And I think this movie was that for a lot of folks. I’m glad families got together and got to enjoy it as a sequel. I’m sure there were grandparents talking to their kids about [the first movie from 1988]. And the young folks can share that with their family. And I think that’s why it was the highest streaming movie of the COVID era, because it makes people feel good and really connect with each other. I take a lot of pride in that. It wasn’t in the theater, but I think it was better for not being in the theater. I think we got the best possible result for it not being in the theater.

SPOILER: Let me say, when you do the Ruby Rhod movie, I want the first interview!

JERMAINE FOWLER: You’ll have the exclusive!

Jermaine Fowler/Coming 2 America/Amazon

Prime/Getty Images/Tara Ziemba/Sorry to Bother

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If Cobra Kai wasn’t already a big reunion of the

Karate Kid universe from the get-go, season 3 is the next level up. The reboot series, which has become a paradigm for the retro reboot in how it pays homage to its progenitor while also standing on its own as a well-written piece of entertainment, has ramped up with each sequential season. Season 2 saw the return of iconic villain John Kreese, played by Martin Kove, who’s now become a pillar of the show. And with this year’s season 3, Cobra Kai has once again released their best season yet.

In a very important episode, we time travel back to 1965 to when Kreese was a teenager. He’s working as a busboy in a diner and finds a flyer to join the Army, which had been crumpled up and thrown on the floor by a classmate named David. David would become the tormentor of Kreese and the major catalyst for the journey he would go on, which would eventually lead to the world of The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. In perfect Cobra Kai fashion, David is portrayed by none other than Martin’s son, Jesse Kove.

Jesse takes the time to

Jesse Kove/IMDb/(cover): Jesse Kove/IMDb/Bryan David Hall

speak with us about his career in Hollywood, upcoming projects, his love of fandom life, and his close bond with his father. You can tell when you hear him speak about his dad that his love for him is overflowing, as well as his admiration for his legendary career and just the man that he is personally. It’s pretty inspirational. A big nerd himself, the actor’s dream is to play Captain America someday. We can totally see it. And with all the multiverses being tapped into these days, it’s definitely possible, canon-wise.

Jesse’s time on Cobra Kai is brief, but simply amazing. In one of the highlights of season 3, his character plays a crucial role in developing who John Kreese would become and evoking empathy from the viewer. We all know the drama between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai, but that episode really gives us an idea of why he is who he is. We didn’t want to press the actor too hard, but we have a good feeling about David’s reprisal on the series.

SPOILER: I saw season 3 of Cobra Kai, you’re a very bad bully. I was very upset at you, but it’s only acting, right?

JESSE KOVE: [laughs] What’s wrong with showing a little “no mercy”?

SPOILER: At first I thought you were young John Kreese, was that the whole idea?

JESSE KOVE: It’s funny, the writers and creators, Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald], and Hayden [Schlossberg], they really wanted the audience to think that I was John Kreese at the very top of that episode. We’re in this flashback, 1965, and as soon as I walk in, I’m kinda mean. I bump Kreese’s shoulder and I sit down. I have a conversation with Betsy, my girlfriend, played by Emily Palmer, who’s just lovely, talking about the football game we just had. I go, “The opponent, we don’t show them mercy.” And automatically as an audience, you go, “Oh, that’s Kreese, who else would do that?” And then they diverted to Kreese, who’s the busboy who’s actually

serving our table, and I’m making fun of him, talking about his mom who unfortunately committed suicide. And it’s pretty grueling. It was a very important scene. I think the writers really wanted to show the origins of Kreese. Everybody’s got a past, so to see Kreese get bullied is a really nice touch. Obviously, having gone through what he did and then going to the military, it strengthened him to become the warrior that he is today.

SPOILER: You kinda feel sorry for the guy at that moment.

JESSE KOVE: Right? You totally feel sorry for him. But I think that’s also something they wanted to do as well. Everybody, I think, has been bullied in some way or another. So to have a soft spot for Kreese, you obviously like the character more because they humanize him. He’s just a young man, like every other guy.

SPOILER: I love your dad, he’s one of the coolest dudes ever, but during season 3, I was like, “I hate this guy!” John Kreese can be such a bad person.

JESSE KOVE: Yeah, he jumps right in. He’s so good. Fortunately, we’re able to see seasons before they release. I watched that episode probably four times. That was my favorite episode of the season. Those flashbacks to Kreese’s past, and then the war, and the history with the captain talking about his girlfriend. It’s this whole buildup of where he comes from, and then seeing this weak point in this diner and me tripping him on the floor, which is so humiliating as a young man, and everyone laughing at him. He was like the ugly duckling.

SPOILER: It must’ve been surreal for you to have a role in such an iconic franchise working apposite of your father’s legendary character.

JESSE KOVE: First of all, I wanna thank you for all your compliments on your show. I’m so humbled. It’s a really great experience. With my dad being part of the Karate Kid universe, it was never something I ever knew

I would be a part of. Who would’ve known that I would end up being the bully to my dad’s legendary, iconic character who’s been around for 35 years? It was pretty amazing. When I found out I got that role, I couldn’t believe it. My mouth dropped. When he came on set that day, it was like this really surreal experience, him watching me talk to his younger self, played by Barrett Carnahan, who’s become a really good friend of mine—he and I have been enjoying this whole experience together. Barrett and I really wanted to put our heart and soul into this because of how important it is. I mean, this is Karate Kid we’re talking about here! And now we’re on Cobra Kai And then to see my dad watch me do all this stuff, I wanted to make him proud and honor his character, it was just nice to step into the legacy a little bit. It’s funny, Barrett and I stepped into the OG Karate Kid universe, even though we’re on Cobra Kai, which is really amazing.

SPOILER: I wish your character could have gone a little bit longer, maybe into the next season.

JESSE KOVE: Thank you, man. I appreciate that. It would be an honor

and of course we’d have a great time. I’d love to go back. The writers always have something up their sleeve. A lot of these Easter eggs that come out online about the show not a lot of people know. Did you know the yellow Ford I drove is from the original Karate Kid? That’s Ralph [Macchio]’s car, he owns it. It was given to him by [producer] Jerry Weintraub after Karate Kid. It was just amazing to drive that and the history of that car. It was incredible. And then that whole fight sequence, fighting the younger version of my father, which is hilarious, and then having him watch us while he was filming the whole thing on the side on his iPhone. He was so excited. They kept saying, “Marty! Get out of the shot!” It was

just a memorable day for both of us. We’ll see. If they brought me back in to play, it would be so much fun.

SPOILER: Are you getting a lot of people upset on social media because your character is so mean?

JESSE KOVE: It’s funny, people who are watching it, they’ll message me and go, “You’re an a**hole!” [laughs] I’m like, “Guys, I’m acting.” I really enjoy playing the villain—those are my favorite characters to play. But the fans of this world, they’re amazing. There’s so much love that has come in. So many fans have written to me and they’re so excited about these flashback sequences. People have been asking me for a year if I was gonna be in the show, but I couldn’t say anything. I’d just say, “Yeah that would be so much fun. I’d love to do that.” Meanwhile I’m sitting here going, “I just can’t wait for these people to see what’s gonna come from this!” Barrett and I would talk to each other all the time leading up to it. We had a blast. We literally put our blood, sweat, and tears into that whole sequence. It’s amazing that people who grew up with these movies in the ‘80s can now watch it with their own kids. It’s a beautiful, generational show, which has never been done before. To make a TV show out of a trilogy with the same actors 35 years later, and then bring in a new age of children to come watch it. I see pictures of people on social media of their kids who are 5 doing karate moves. This is a show for everybody. It’s so nice. It’s definitely a blessing. It’s pretty amazing what the writers have done. The writers are nerds of the show, they just know what people want. They’re like, “WE want to see this, so we know that THEY want to see this.”

SPOILER: Do people ever say you resemble Chris Evans?

JESSE KOVE: Yes, I get that all the time. It’s funny, I’m a big nerd myself, I have a big Captain America shield on my wall at home. I also have my Cobra Kai plaque as well. And my Harry Potter wand.

SPOILER: If you could choose Marvel or DC, which would you choose?

JESSE KOVE: Tough choice. If Batman ever came up in my universe, I would literally pass out because I would love to do that in my life. But Marvel has just done such a great job and I do love their characters so much. If the role of Captain America came up again I would definitely love to step into those shoes.

SPOILER: What’s in the works for you now?

JESSE KOVE: I’ve got a bunch of projects coming up. I got another thriller coming out called Bring Me a Dream, about the Sandman who comes and haunts your dreams, that’s a really fun one. I just finished a Christmas movie that was on Lifetime, and another thriller I did on Lifetime as well. There’s this fun romantic comedy that I have coming out too. My girlfriend is really into painting and drawing, and I’d love to get more into that with her. It’s such a beautiful art, to create like that. There are other projects and scripts and movies I’m getting off the ground. My dad and I are always looking to work together. We have a Western that he and I are putting together right now. A lot of stuff is going on, and it’s really exciting.

SPOILER: Do you prefer acting or writing and producing?

JESSE KOVE: I love them both. Wearing both hats is great. I’ve done it before. I’ve produced a couple

movies. Being on set, being creative is so incredible and I love it, and definitely challenging. I definitely want to continue with the acting for now, and later on I’d love to pull a Ben Affleck and get into more directing. You’ve gotta have a lot of patience when you’re doing that [laughs], and I think as you get older you have more and more patience, so that’ll work for me. I love directing. It’s really amazing to direct actors and communicate with them and help them bring characters to life. I would love to direct my dad in something, it would be so incredible, and vice versa. And there are some

things in the works.

SPOILER: I really like the relationship you and your father have.

JESSE KOVE: We love working together. It’s really a blast. We just have each other’s backs. I want him to do well, he wants me to do well. We do our separate projects and then we can come together and do projects together as well. What’s funny is he never wanted me to get into the industry at all when I was younger, because it’s such a crazy industry. And then when I was 18 I started wanting to do it professionally. Having grown up on movie sets,

Jesse Kove/D-Day/Cinedigm Entertainment Group/The Asylum/On Wings of Eagles/Archstone Distribution

movie sets were like another home to me. I’m very comfortable being on set, it’s just part of my life and my blood—to be creative cinematically. I just love it. And then we got to this point where we were able to work together and do projects together. It’s been amazing. It’s still going strong, and being part of Cobra Kai is just the cherry on top.

SPOILER: The success of Cobra Kai is wild. I think it’s perfect timing for this show to be out. The passion is at an all-time high.

JESSE KOVE: It really is. It’s funny, I was literally looking at a billboard yesterday and, a lot of shows and movies you watch nowadays are filled with action and explosions and CGI, but you look at Cobra Kai and there’s never a weapon drawn in the show, there’s practically zero CGI, and it’s one of the most popular shows in the world. It just goes to show you that character and story are the most important things. It’s a generational story. I think it’s inspired a lot of kids to do martial arts and do sports and be competitive that way.

SPOILER: Everyone looks so great on Cobra Kai, so refreshed. The original Karate Kid movies came out in the ‘80s. Your dad looks very fit as well.

JESSE KOVE: Thank you, man. He doesn’t stop. He stays in shape. We do workouts together. This show has kept everyone on point in keeping up with the martial arts and everything. The cool thing too is Billy [Zabka], Ralph, and my dad, they’re all great friends and talk to each other all the time. When season

2 dropped on Netflix, it was literally my dad and Billy and I having dinner together, and it was the night of [the release]. We were having Mexican food together, just laughing about where this has gone, now that it’s on Netflix. There’s a lot of love behind the show, tremendous heart. The friendship between all of them is pretty amazing. This show has run deeper than just what it is on the surface.

SPOILER: What has your experience been like at conventions?

JESSE KOVE: I’ve been to so many with my dad, and of course with Billy as well. We’ve had such a good time. They love seeing their fans and interacting with them and hearing their stories, and what their characters meant to them throughout the years. I think one of the funniest stories I’ve heard is, my dad and Billy were in New York and it was snowing and they had been at the Con all day signing autographs and they just had to get outside. So they started walking to Times Square in the snow, and they happened to walk by these guys dressed like a stormtrooper and Darth Vader, and they recognized my dad and Billy. And the Darth Vader took his helmet off and said, “Oh my God, we’re just the biggest fans of you guys.” And they ended up taking these photos with them, and it was this Star WarsKarate Kid crossover. It was hilarious! I would really love if my dad played some evil character on The

Mandalorian. If he said something like, “We don’t show mercy,” on one of the starships, that would be very funny. If I could play a Jedi or a Sith, that would be amazing too.

SPOILER: All my lovely nerds right now are excited just hearing you say that.

JESSE KOVE: I am one of them. Some people say, “It’s not good to say ‘nerd.’” But when I say “nerd” it means someone who geeks out over all this stuff. I’m literally looking at my Baby Yoda on my mantelpiece. I’ve got all this stuff. To me, “nerd” is not the traditional person in the past with glasses. I’m 6’3” and lift weights, and may not look like your stereotypical nerd, but I am! I geek out over all this stuff the same. I’ve got a replica of the first Captain America comic book on my wall framed. We’re all the same. My dad is the biggest nerd. When we go to Comic Con, he can’t wait to go down to where they have all the memorabilia. He bargains with them and gets all these toys from the ‘50s that he hasn’t seen in years. He turns into a kid.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JESSE KOVE: Oh yeah, 100%. I’ve had so many experiences with the paranormal, dude, it’s crazy. One of my dearest friends in the world is Weston Cage Coppola, his dad is Nicolas Cage. We basically grew up together from high school on. We act together as well, he’s an incredible actor. We did a movie called D-Day: Battle of Omaha Beach together, he and I are leads, it’s an incredible story. And anyway, his dad had this famous haunted house that he owned in New Orleans called LaLaurie Mansion, and we went and stayed there one night. They touched upon this house in American Horror Story. It was owned by Madame LaLaurie and she did terrible things unfortunately to people in this house. And I will just say that there were some crazy things that happened there that are unexplainable. Even before that, I

knew the paranormal stuff existed, but it was all confirmed for me when I stayed at that house. I remember one time Wes and I were like, “If there’s something in this room, let us know.” And all of a sudden this toy started lighting up and spinning around on wheels, and it had been sitting there for hours not doing anything. And there’s so much more. But I definitely believe in the paranormal for sure.

SPOILER: Is there a special message you wanna share with the fans out there?

JESSE KOVE: “Just keep watching Cobra Kai. So much great stuff is in store. Season 4 is a real thing, so there’s so much going on with that, you guys are gonna be so happy. Follow me on Instagram and

Twitter @jessekove. I’m very active on there. We love the fans. Check me out, I’ve got a buncha new projects coming out I can’t wait for you guys to see. Hopefully I’ll be the next Captain America—who knows? Keep your fingers crossed. I promise I’ll do it justice.”

Jesse Kove/IMDb

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If it were up to Tyler Cotton, his series

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina would have gone on forever. Unfortunately part 4 of the Netflix show, based on the Archie Comics character Sabrina Spellman, would be its last. The actor plays Melvin, a warlock high school student who was resurrected by Sabrina. Getting his

start on the show in season 1, part 2, Tyler has become an integral part of the story.

A friend of the show, the actor returns to chat with Galaxy about the final eight episodes of the series, with the conversation venturing into topics about UFOs and aliens. An old soul, Tyler also laments the current status of moviegoing, but is fortunate about the revival of the drive-in theater during the pandemic. With such a magnetic screen presence and a savvy sense of humor, Tyler’s career is just getting started. He fills us in on some projects he has in the works. We can’t wait to see what’s next for him!

interview interview tyler cotton interview interview

SPOILER: What’s been going on with you since we last spoke?

TYLER COTTON: I think I’ve been doing what most people have been doing during this time of isolation. I’ve just been binging a lot of movies and TV shows, and trying to stay as active as I can and creative as I can, reading a lot of books, and taking a lot of trips to my fridge to see what snacks I can eat.

SPOILER: I see your videos online and you’re always doing these cool workout routines and different things to keep busy. Were you still working out even when there were no gyms?

TYLER COTTON: I’m lucky that, right before coronavirus hit, I had gotten a set of free weights and resistance bands. So when everything shut down, I was like, “K, I gotta figure out how to do this.” I was lucky I had some sort of equipment in my apartment. So I just did whatever I could for my workouts and tried to stay active. Because I knew I was gonna be watching a lot of TV and eating junk food [laughs].

SPOILER: How’s the new season of Sabrina?

TYLER COTTON: It wasn’t long after we wrapped part 4 that everything locked down, so we were really lucky there. Sabrina season 4 is really amazing.

SPOILER: I feel like this show could have gone another four or five seasons at least.

TYLER COTTON: It definitely could have. There’s so much with this world. I had such a blast filming it. I love the cast and crew, and we all had so much fun on set. We all loved being there. It could go on forever and I would’ve been stoked. Throw me in that bowtie any day.

SPOILER: Why do you think the new season got released on New Year’s Eve?

TYLER COTTON: I’m not sure. I’m not a part of all of that. I have no idea. Maybe just to start off 2021 on a high note: “Here’s the new season of Sabrina!”

SPOILER: Do you think with all these cool new platforms, there will be more jobs once things open up more?

TYLER COTTON: Yeah I think so. We’re

kinda in a world of television and streaming now. I think with that, everyone is trying to make so many new original series. It’s really exciting to have so many new shows to: a) hopefully work on, and b) just as a fan of television and film, I’m really excited to be able to watch all of them.

SPOILER: Have things changed for you with the industry changing?

TYLER COTTON: A little bit. I’ve always really been into a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. I’ve always watched a lot of actor’s interviews. I can kinda turn off my brain for some shows—you’re just in awe of it. But I’m really just thinking about the behind the scenes. I always think, “What does that script look like?” I’m really curious and really want to know their process behind everything. Abigail Cowen, who plays Dorcas on Sabrina, she has a new Netflix series coming out, and I’m so excited to watch that series. There’s that aspect as well, where there’s people you know and love, and you can’t wait to watch their shows as well.

SPOILER: Have you kissed anyone else on screen since your last big kiss?

TYLER COTTON: [laughs] I don’t wanna spoil anything for the new season of Sabrina, but I will say that there might be a potential love interest thing for Melvin. I’m not gonna say who or when, but there might be. Just keep an eye out. Oh, Melvin…

SPOILER: Last time you told us a couple paranormal stories that you had. Since then, has anything new happened in your life?

TYLER COTTON: Well I live in Vancouver, and there’s this mansion downtown, on the West End or something, and every time I walk

past it I’m always afraid to look inside, because apparently it’s super haunted. I just know that if I look into one of the windows one day, I’m gonna see someone staring back and it’s gonna freak me out. I’m not superstitious, but I’m a little bit stitious. Nothing major to report though.

SPOILER: There’s a psychiatric hospital in Canada that’s used for dozens of shows and movies, and everyone who works on them says that the hospital is haunted. Have you ever experienced something like that?

TYLER COTTON: I haven’t. I had friends who did work in that hospital though. They were telling me about how creepy and eerie the whole thing was. They were like, “We couldn’t wait to get off of that set.” I wouldn’t sleep. I’m such a scaredy cat. That would not be good.

SPOILER: What else is in the works for you?

TYLER COTTON: I gotta list, for sure. I’ve been writing a lot more, so just some more short films and series ideas that I’m really excited about. I’ve got a few friends together and we’re all gonna start working on

Tyler Cotton/The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina/Netflix

these. And hopefully this year we’ll be able to start filming them and getting them off the ground.

SPOILER: Do you think the pandemic has changed the way people are willing to help others and support others?

TYLER COTTON: I think so. It’s such a difficult time for so many people, and it is really heartwarming to see so many people supporting each other. It’s been a really amazing thing to see.

SPOILER: I know you and your two friends are always doing some goofy stuff I see on Instagram. Anything new happening with them?

TYLER COTTON: Those are my best friends. When we were allowed to have a bubble, we were the only people that we saw. It was just the three of us who would hang out. We would hang out basically every 14 days. We would hang out, wait 14 days, and hang out again. We’ve been playing a lot of video games [lately]. We played Among Us for quite some time, which is a very fun game that’s become so popular during the pandemic. It’s just a lot of playing video games, watching movies, and eating food.

SPOILER: What’s the first thing you’re gonna do when the pandemic is over?

TYLER COTTON: I’m gonna go see a movie in the theaters. I miss going to see movies in theaters. I love the theater. In Vancouver there’s a drivein theater that plays a movie every weekend. When it was open, and we were allowed to go, I would always check to see if there was a movie I was interested in. I never got the opportunity to go, which I’m really bummed about, but I’m happy that that existed. Every year in Vancouver they used to have outdoor theaters in a park, but they canceled those during the pandemic. I would like to see more drive-in theaters, even after the pandemic. I’ve only gone to one in my life and it was super fun.

SPOILER: I feel like you have an old soul. Do people ever tell you that? TYLER COTTON: My mother says

that to me a lot actually [laughs]. My brother is kinda the same. I’ve definitely heard it a few other times for sure.

SPOILER: Besides Sabrina, is there another show or movie that you would like to be on?

TYLER COTTON: That’s so tricky. I would love to be part of the Star Wars universe. They just announced like ten new series. I’ve been such a fan for so long. My first acting paycheck that I got, I spent buying one of those heavy-duty lightsabers. I’m a big comic book fan. I’d love to play Robin as well. Anything in the DC universe, or the Marvel universe even.

SPOILER: If you had to choose DC or Marvel, which one would it be?

TYLER COTTON: I’m a really big DC fan, so I’d have to lean towards that. It also depends on the character. I would love to play any of the Robins. Nightwing would be super cool. On the other hand, I’m also a big fan of Spider-Man and X-Men. It would be cool to be an X-Men. But if I would have to choose, it would have to be DC. They’ve got a lot of cool projects that they’ve announced. I watch it all. I love all the comic book stuff. I’m a big fan of the Titans TV show. Stargirl is another amazing show.

SPOILER: What do you think about Robert Pattinson as the new Batman?

TYLER COTTON: It was rumored for a while before it was officially

announced, and I was like, “I’m actually kinda excited for that.” I think it’s gonna be really good. When they released the teaser trailer, I lost my mind. I think it’s gonna be amazing, and he’s gonna do a really good job. With any casting, there’s gonna be people who are negative about it. But from what I saw in that teaser and everything I’ve read, I think he’s gonna be amazing.

SPOILER: Has Sabrina opened a lot of doors for you?

TYLER COTTON: It’s hard to gauge just because of the pandemic. So many auditions weren’t coming in and the industry shut down for some time. Slowly we’re getting auditions again now, but I think with Sabrina, going up for some bigger projects that I’m really excited about, I’ll get a script and go, “I have to be a part of this project!” Whether it pans out or not, the size of the roles have been going up for me I think.

Such a big part of this industry is you have to be persistent and stay passionate. What’s so great in this day and age is you have the ability to create your own content. I know so many talented actors who are struggling in this industry. But that one audition can change your life. I find that very comforting—it’s very scary, but it’s also super comforting. There’s so many stories out there and I’m really excited to see them all.

An important thing in this industry is your community and who you surround yourself with. If you’ve got people around you, I think that helps so much.

SPOILER: You seem to have a great circle around you.

TYLER COTTON: We’ve got a TV series idea that we’re all really excited about and this year we’re trying to get it off its feet a bit more. We all love acting and being on set, and we love to make things, so we’re like, “Why aren’t we doing that? We’ve all got ideas. Let’s get together and create something we’re really excited about.”

SPOILER: Has being on Sabrina given you a better edge in knowing what to do on creating your own projects?

TYLER COTTON: It definitely has. Sabrina gave me so much experience that I hadn’t had before. Reading scripts helped me a lot with being able to come up with a complete story and characters. It’s been so helpful.

SPOILER: Would you ever do voiceover work?

TYLER COTTON: I’m totally down to do voiceover work. Just the other day, I just listened to your interview with Ashley Eckstein, that was great. I’m a big fan of her character Ahsoka Tano. I think everything she’s done with that character and building a whole career around it, I think that’s so amazing. She’s done such an amazing job. But voice acting would be a lot of fun.

SPOILER: Do you get recognized a lot?

TYLER COTTON: Not with COVID. But before the pandemic there have been times. I did a panel at the Fan Expo in Vancouver. I was walking around the floor and had a bunch of people come up to me. And I

get a lot of messages on Instagram being like, “I saw you walking down the street.” I’m like, “Please, come up and say hi to me! It’s a lot less creepy than getting the message on Instagram. We’ll take a photo, we’ll talk. I’m totally down.” I respond to DMs every once in a while, but come say hi to me. I mean, right now, we’ll have to stand 6 feet apart.

SPOILER: Man, I can’t wait until the world is back to normal.

TYLER COTTON: It’s nice that right now there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. We’ve got the vaccines, which is really exciting and comforting. I think we will get a sense of normality again and people will be going to movies

and conventions. I love going to conventions. I had gone every year since 2010.

SPOILER: It’s weird that they could come out with a vaccine for coronavirus in less than a year. It makes you wonder if they really tried, they could come out with a cure for cancer or even just the common cold. Maybe I’m just being a conspiracy theorist.

TYLER COTTON: It could depend on the disease and virus. But I wanna know things. I wanna know all the secrets. They released these clips and videos of UFOs and these things about aliens during the pandemic. I’m like, “Why aren’t we talking about this more?” Like, it wasn’t huge news. My curiosity is going wild.

SPOILER: And they’re coming from real news outlets too. It makes you wonder.

TYLER COTTON: I’m always really excited when they announce stuff like that. I’m like, “How is this going

to change things? What are we going to learn from this?” It’s super exciting. I wanna know what’s being hidden. Maybe that’s just because I watch a lot of TV and read a lot of comic books [laughs].

SPOILER: We can’t be alone in this universe.

TYLER COTTON: There’s gotta be something else, right? There’s no way. Again, technically it’s been confirmed. But I just wanna know. I just wanna hop in an X-wing and fly to another planet. Technology is advancing so greatly now and it’s so exciting. There’s this YouTube channel where they created the first retractable lightsaber that actually cuts through steel. I mean, it’s still connected to a tank on the back, but we’re almost there! I just think about ten years from now and wonder where we’re gonna be.

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna share with the fans before you go?

TYLER COTTON: I always gotta thank the fans. As a fan [myself], I understand the passion behind it all. I love it and I appreciate it.

I see everything that I’m tagged in. It’s super exciting to see fan art. I just love all the support of the show, and I’m really excited for the fans to see the last eight episodes. I think they’re some of our best. And somehow this show managed to raise the stakes even more and it’s amazing. I wish I could tell you all what happened, but I would get in so much trouble [laughs].

Tyler Cotton/The Portrait Sessions/IMDb

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Netflix’s latest drama series Zero Chill isn’t

the first to showcase ice skating, but it’s one of the only ones to encompass both figure skating and ice hockey into one package. Starring actors who actually know how to skate, the series taps into an authenticity with its performances that you won’t find in most other shows or films that use CGI to portray the highly-difficult skill.

Jade Ma stars as Sky Tyler, a former skater who’s forced to give up her passion due to her battle with leukemia. The actress is fairly new to the fit on one line! try, but a total natural. And she’s already landed a supporting role in Marvel’s Black Widow. Not bad for only her third project ever.

Jade sits down to chat with Galaxy about how she got started in acting and the importance that ice skating had during her childhood, now leading to her first big role. We’re excited to see what the future holds for the star as she embarks on this next level of her young career. The sky is truly the limit.

SPOILER: How is it working on a show that’s so focused on ice skating?

JADE MA: Honestly it’s absolutely incredible! I had the best time. I actually grew up figure skating but I quit when I was 11 or 12. Having the opportunity to go back to it while also being able to act alongside it was pretty special.

SPOILER: During auditions, did they ask how well you could ice skate?

JADE MA: We were asked whether we could skate. For the UK audition I had to send in video proof of me skating because they were really focused on having a cast that was as much figure skaters or hockey players as we were actors. I know the Canadian auditions, for the people who play Kayla and Mac, Grace [Beedie] and Dakota [Taylor], they had to actually do a skating audition in person as well. But I had to send in video footage. I went

in to do reads in person as well, but they also wanted me to send in proof. So I had to run down to my local rink in the UK and be like, “Guys, I really need to use it for literally like, 10 minutes, please!” [laughs] They were in the middle of doing an adult ice dance class, so there were these really sweet older couples skating around the perimeter of the rink and I was in the middle trying to figure out how to ice skate again.

SPOILER: Was it something that you had missed?

JADE MA: Definitely. I absolutely loved it growing up. But I got to the point where I was getting injured quite a lot because I was training pretty competitively twice a week. I was young and my body was going, “You’re doing a lot right now!” So I started losing my love for it a bit. But there was always this voice in the back of my head going, “What if you never gave it up?” So having

the opportunity to pick it up again and marry that love of skating with acting was really, really special.

SPOILER: Is it easier to learn as a kid? Because I tried learning a little while ago and I kept falling on my butt.

JADE MA: I think it’s definitely easier to learn as a child. Because when you learn to figure skate, there’s literally a switch in your brain that happens. Your brain rewires itself to figure out how to be aware of your body while you’re on this incredibly slippery surface with essentially what are footknives. So as you’re growing up and learning things as you go, it makes it easier than taking an alreadyformed brain and trying to rewire that. Not to say adults can’t learn to skate. There are plenty of adult skaters learning and doing great.

SPOILER: Zero Chill is one of the only ice skating shows I can think of. There aren’t many.

JADE MA: There [have been a few], but I think ours is kind of the first that combines figure skating and hockey. There are a few that focus on one or the other.

SPOILER: Do you think the show is more drama or comedy?

JADE MA: I feel like the story has so many different aspects to it. The thing that I love so much about it is it’s got the drama and all the intense story going on, but still finds moments to be light and funny and relatable and very familyfriendly, and I think it’s really sweet.

SPOILER: What is your character Sky Tyler all about?

JADE MA: Sky is a figure skater, a kindred spirit for Kayla and has this very cute, puppy-love relationship with her twin brother Mac. She’s super quirky, sassy at times, and incredibly strong-willed. And she cares incredibly deeply about the people around her. In the show,

she’s kinda stuck between the twins and she’s in this place where she has to learn how to balance her relationship with each of them without compromising the other one.

SPOILER: How would you describe the relationship between Sky and Mac?

JADE MA: So Sky ends up dating Mac on the show. They have a very cute little first meeting where she’s just met and befriended Kayla and they both have mustaches drawn on their faces [laughs], and Mac shows up and is talking to Kayla and sees Sky, and they have this instant flirtatious banter and connection that’s very sweet from the get-go. You see their relationship develop over the course of the season, and it comes to fruition in the second half. They’re able to be very vulnerable with each other. They have a very loving, kind, healthy relationship.

SPOILER: How thrilled were you

when Zero Chill started trending on Netflix?

JADE MA: It was so exciting! We have a cast group chat, and that was going off like crazy. It was just amazing to see how it was trending, not just in North America or the UK, but globally. We were getting fans from the show sending us images in Brazil and Argentina and Germany. It was amazing to see that our show has such a global impact.

SPOILER: Is acting on ice difficult to do?

JADE MA: Part of the reason that I love this show so much is the fact that it’s both a physical and mental challenge. Obviously with acting you’re very mentally engaged, but a lot of the time you’re either walking or standing or sitting. But with this show specifically, I was on the ice doing a whole figure skating routine

and having to act simultaneously. And that was just a really fun, engaging experience.

SPOILER: Did you get nervous your first time on set?

JADE MA: There were definitely moments. Meeting everyone for the first time is always a little nervewracking. Before we even started training, we had a little dinner with one of the producers and the directors of the first five episodes, Angelo [Abela]. We all met up in London. It was me, Grace, Dakota, and Jeremias [Amoore]. We had dinner together and got to meet for the first time. And that was definitely nerve-wracking, as it always is when you’re first meeting the people you’re going to be spending the next few months with. But everyone got along really well. It’s a really great cast. We really got the time to bond.

We then spent the next nine weeks training together.

The other times [I got nervous] were obviously when we were about to shoot the skating routines. There’s always a little bit of nerves because we have to get through them and do them right and do them well so they can use the footage. If we were to mess up or fall over, we’d have to reset and start again. But we had some incredible coaches and incredible doubles, so they were all there to support us.

SPOILER: So is the MacBentley family the royal ice skating family of that town?

JADE MA: [laughs] So the MacBentleys are a Canadian family who have moved to the UK for Mac’s hockey scholarship. They moved their whole lives over to follow that dream. And Kayla’s a little bit miffed because she’s like, “What about my dreams? You’re literally giving up my entire life and what I love in Canada for my

brother.” The show really revolves around that dynamic. I kinda come in to be her support, and then I meet her brother and it all goes from there.

We were out there [in England] for a long time. We started shooting in 2019, and we were meant to finish in the middle of March 2020 when coronavirus happened and delayed everything. So we closed production and came back in August for a couple more weeks. But there were definitely a lot of takes, not because people messed up, but because they were trying to get as many angles and shots that they could. Production wanted the audience to really feel like they were on the ice with the skaters and hockey players.

SPOILER: Before this you were in another winter project, Surviving Christmas. How was that?

JADE MA: That was my first job in film in general. It was a fun first experience. I played a small role named Soon, an exchange student

from China who was staying with an American family when they visited their British sister for Christmas and I was tagging along. It’s a very sweet family comedy film for Christmas.

SPOILER: Do you think Zero Chill will get a season 2?

JADE MA: I hope so. I think the whole cast has their fingers crossed. We’d love to come back to it and revisit these characters and these

relationships and explore them more, and obviously get back on the ice and do more skating.

SPOILER: How was filming in the UK?

JADE MA: It was filmed in Sheffield. And actually all the jobs I’ve done so far have been in the UK, so I can’t really speak to how the experience differs. I lived in the UK for 5 years before I moved out here, so most of my professional experience has been there.

SPOILER: What made you want to get into acting?

JADE MA: I started out as a dancer. For a period of time I gave up dance for figure skating, and then when I gave up figure skating I went back to dancing. My dance teacher and mentor, a lady named Giselle Liu, she’s wonderful, we were doing a lot of projects together. And she started working with the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation, run by Lindsey McAlister, and they do a flagship musical every year. When I was 15 they were putting on a production of A Chorus Line, and it was kinda the perfect opportunity for me with a dance background to get into the musical theater and acting side of things. Between Lindsey and Giselle, they convinced me to audition for it, and I ended up getting cast as Val, which was definitely interesting at 15-years-old [laughs]. So I fell in love with the acting side of performing and just went from there, applying to drama school at 17.

SPOILER: What’s in the works for you in the future?

JADE MA: Currently I’ve been auditioning again and seeing what comes up. I have a few possible things in the pipeline that I can’t really speak about yet. And also I have a small part in Black Widow, which I’m really excited for.

SPOILER: Were you nervous working for a Marvel franchise?

JADE MA: Definitely. It was very surreal to be part of something so big. It’s such a big franchise and such a large scale production that it was something where I was like, “People dream of

being here, and I get to live it. This is insane.” I’m forever so grateful and so lucky to be part of a production like that.

SPOILER: You’re killing it right now! Is there a plan in your mind for the future?

JADE MA: [laughs] Not at all! I’ve always kinda wanted to approach my career as, “Let’s just see where it takes me and see how I fit into this industry.” With an industry like this, it’s not really something you can plan. Because it’s not up to you 90% of the time. So I want to keep an open mind and see where my career takes me and I’ve just been incredibly fortunate so far.

SPOILER: Do you have a preference between working in TV or film?

JADE MA: Honestly at this point in my career, I’m not super picky. I’m very open to both. I’d actually love to be able to do both in the span of my career.

SPOILER: Do you feel that the superhero genre is dominating these days?

JADE MA: I think there’s room for everything at this point. Everything’s gonna have a slightly different fanbase. So of course superhero shows and films have such a large fanbase, and they should because they’re so great. But there’s also a lot of shows that are on Netflix like The Queen’s Gambit or Bridgerton that have a very different fanbase. So I think there’s really something for everybody out there.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JADE MA: Possibly. I’m open to the idea of it. I wouldn’t say a hard “yes” or “no” at this point. But I’m open to the idea of there being things out there that we don’t know about yet. But I’ve never experienced things personally—that I know of.

BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If you’ve watched a good variety of TV over the past

decade there’s a chance you’ll recognize Tarun Keram. With guest spots on shows such as The Magicians, Supergirl, Helstrom, Supernatural, and most recently Nancy Drew and The Stand, the actor is continuing to make a name for himself.

Tarun has a great way about him and always allows his authentic and earnest demeanor to shine through in every part he plays. His latest role of the doctor, Steve, on the CBS series The Stand is his most prominent yet. Much like the 1994 miniseries of the same name, the 2020 adaptation of the Stephen King novel is star-studded. Tarun talks with us about what it’s like being surrounded by a wall of stars and what he does to stand out.

Tarun has some great advice for aspiring actors. He, himself, is a working actor who has found a successful career by simply being himself and letting the right roles come to fruition. Galaxy chats with the Canadianborn star about how he got started acting, his dreams of landing a role in the Star Wars universe, and how he always keeps a positive attitude in this ever-changing industry.

INTERVIEW

Christopher Heyerdahl/Van Helsing/Nomadic Pictures/Dan Power/Syfy/Rob Daly

SPOILER: How was it working on The Stand?

TARUN KERAM: It was awesome! It’s weird to see myself alongside this cast. It’s something you dream of. I had just finished watching Westworld and I saw James Marsden, and he’s a really nice guy. He loves acting. It’s awesome being around him. I didn’t work with Whoopi Goldberg, but she was there [on set]. Josh Boone, who directed it, is a big Stephen King fan. And just being part of this Stephen King universe itself is huge.

SPOILER: Were you nervous?

TARUN KERAM: I was super nervous, and we had filmed one of the later episodes first. And I didn’t get all the scripts, so I had no idea what had happened beforehand. I had to quickly piece things together and talk

to James. I talked to Odessa [Young] about some stuff too. Olivia Cheng, she was great too. I’ve never been with this caliber of cast before.

SPOILER: Who was your favorite actor on set?

TARUN KERAM: Olivia Cheng, 100%. She’s from [Canada]. I spent most of my time with her and Odessa. And it’s just great to see representation in TV and film these days. So to have her there was great. I was a huge fan of Marco Polo too.

SPOILER: We love Olivia here!. She’s great on Warrior as well.

TARUN KERAM: Oh, Warrior is amazing! She’s so good!

SPOILER: How did you get into acting originally?

TARUN KERAM: When I was in high school we took this class where we just sort of messed around with cameras and made short films. I did the news for the school. I think I was like 14 at the time. And then my senior year I took theater and I absolutely hated the class. I said, “How come I like being on film more than theater?” I had some doubts about going to film school, so I went to college anyway. I dropped out my first term of university and I just pursued acting. I went to school. I did this intense year and four months. I graduated, found an agent, and started auditioning.

SPOILER: Are you the first in your family to act?

TARUN KERAM: Yeah. My brother’s in film now, but he’s behind the camera as an assistant director.

SPOILER: You’ve been doing such a good job in these roles that you’ve landed. This industry’s not easy.

TARUN KERAM: There’s a saying that actor Stephen Lobo told me: “If you want to get a commercial or book a role, book a vacation, because they’ll call you when you’re in Mexico.” [laughs]

SPOILER: Do you have a timeline for yourself?

TARUN KERAM: I think I’m in this for life. [laughs] I’m in too deep now.

SPOILER: Have your peers started to take note of your talent?

TARUN KERAM: Yeah, I think before the pandemic especially, people kept saying, “You’re on fire!” And then the pandemic hit and there’s been nothing. But now everything’s opened up, so that’s good. Vancouver is interesting because you could be working all year round. It’s kind of a service industry. All the leads come from LA and New York, and we just sort of fill in the guest stars and everything around the leads. It’s a little bit different than just one lucky break that takes you elsewhere.

SPOILER: Some of the best projects and actors are coming from Canada these days.

TARUN KERAM: Oh yeah, we filmed Godzilla here, Star Trek, which I was in, Man of Steel. There’s a lot of heavy hitters here.

SPOILER: Do you think the pandemic has changed anything?

TARUN KERAM: In terms of film, for sure. Before there was catering, where you could just walk up to and grab a snack. But now you’re not allowed anywhere near there. Someone has to hand you all the food. But the biggest thing is you have to get a COVID test a couple days before being on set. I was on Nancy Drew for a day, but I had to have three COVID tests just for one day.

SPOILER: For all the aspiring actors out there, how do you stand out among the sea of actors?

TARUN KERAM: There are a lot of shows that I’ve auditioned for—a lot of networks. I don’t really sort of fit in that realm, and that’s okay. I’m going to give the best performance I can that stays true to myself, to everything I do. If you don’t see me being in your show or I don’t fit somewhere, that’s fine. There’s so many other shows. The best advice is be yourself, which is so corny, but it’s true. A lot of actors question whether or not they want tattoos because it affects your time on set. But if you want tattoos, there’s gonna be a role where they want someone with tattoos. There’s something for everybody.

SPOILER: Would you choose DC or Marvel?

TARUN KERAM: I think DC. I’ve been on more DC shows, so DC.

SPOILER: Star Trek or Star Wars?

TARUN KERAM: That’s tough, but Star Wars.

SPOILER: What projects do you have coming up?

TARUN KERAM: My episode for Debris came out not too long ago for NBC. As soon as the pandemic break was over, I’ve been on set a lot. In the future, I will be going to LA. That’s the goal.

SPOILER: How was it working on Helstrom?

TARUN KERAM: That was cool! That was right before everything shut down. It was super top secret. I usually get the full script ahead of time whenever I’m on a project, but for this one they blacked everything out except my lines [laughs]. So I had to quickly figure everything out. I got a couple pages the night before, and you just have to make some choices and stand out.

SPOILER: Are you doing self-tapes now?

TARUN KERAM: Yeah, I have my own little setup with all my Star Wars posters around. Just a little inspiration.

SPOILER: You’d be great on The Mandalorian

TARUN KERAM: I’m gonna put that out there. I’m gonna talk to my agent after this and say, “Okay, let’s do it!”

SPOILER: What is your favorite type of role to audition for?

TARUN KERAM: I think the “bad guy,” because I don’t see myself as that big of a bad guy in real life. But it’s really awesome when I’m on set and I’ve got guns and stuff. Especially being Canadian [laughs].

SPOILER: You’d fit in the Walking Dead universe really well.

TARUN KERAM: Oh yeah? ‘Cause that’s on my list. Mandalorian, Walking Dead, let’s go!

SPOILER: If you could give one piece of advice to everyone out there, what would it be?

TARUN KERAM: “Just stay true to yourself. If you want to quit your desk job to pursue something in the arts, you should definitely do it. Do what makes you happy because you never know when the world’s gonna end.”

Nicole Muñoz/Van Helsing/Nomadic Pictures/Dan Power/Syfy/Noah Asanias Photography

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Known for her roles as the green-faced villainous

leader Osyraa on Star Trek: Discovery and the conniving mayor Ruvé Adams on Arrow, Janet Kidder is no stranger to either the fandom world or playing treacherous characters, and does so very well. However, she just as easily brings to life the strong, confident Lila on The Man in High Castle with her dominating, yet warm presence every time she’s on screen.

The actress has enjoyed a prolific career that’s spanned back to the ‘90s, including roles on shows like Continuum, Earth: Final Conflict, and Limetown, and films such as Bride of Chucky, Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, and last year’s Operation Christmas Drop. With a career that’s spanned 30 years, the Canada native has recently taken time off from being on set to teach acting to a new generation of talent. She says she’s found fulfillment in a way she never imagined. Unlike the work she does on screen, which is satisfying on a more personal level, teaching feels good because of how she’s able to watch others grow.

Janet chats with Galaxy about some of her most notable roles, as well as her history with fan conventions and her aversion to social media.

SPOILER: I hear a little British twang in your voice. Where are you from originally?

JANET KIDDER: I was born in Canada, but I left when I was just 2-years-old. And then I was raised in England and came back to Canada when I was 18. So my accent is a real mix of the two. And I never really know from one minute to the next how I’m gonna sound [laughs]. Depending on the time of day or how tired I am, or whatever it is, my accent changes quite profoundly. It’s very interesting. I’ll be midway through a sentence or a conversation and I’ll say something that’s frightfully British. It’s very interesting how our mind functions in that way.

When I first came to Canada when I was 18, I had a really, really thick, not quite Cockney, but southern English accent—no one could understand a word I said so I really had to quickly change the way I spoke so I could actually function in Canadian society.

SPOILER: Does your voice change pitch when you speak in a given accent?

JANET KIDDER: I think it does. I

think I speak lower when I speak in my native British. I think when I’m American, it’s more of a singsong dialect, so I might speak a little bit higher. But I do notice a difference, yes.

SPOILER: You’re on so many different shows and films. Which medium is your favorite?

JANET KIDDER: It kinda depends. Working on something like Star Trek felt like you were melding both those [mediums] into one. It was like being on a film set making this TV show. And I kinda like that. Working on TV, it’s very quick and you know what the day is gonna hold and you’ve got a mission to get to the end of your scenes. Whereas film, there’s this sense of a slightly more luxurious pace. You need to delve deeper into a scene. I don’t really know. Both of them tick different boxes. I just love doing it so much, I don’t really care how it happens.

SPOILER: How was it working on The Man in High Castle?

JANET KIDDER: What a surreal, strange show. Again, it was like you’re involved in this other world.

It was wonderful to work on it. We had the pleasure of there being a readybuilt set out here in B.C. that they sort of manipulate depending on what show is being shot there. So every day you turn up on set and you’re already in this world. So that always adds so much to being in a show. You’re not walking into sets and pretending like you have a dining room. It’s like, we walked into this fully functional, fantastic, beautiful world. I loved working on that show. Very dark, very heavy. But wonderful people and an interesting premise. I’m glad it was just a show. But it really leaves you thinking. And I guess that’s what a good show does, right?

SPOILER: Amazon’s shows are very good. They just hit the mark. You were also on a show on Facebook called Limetown. How was that?

JANET KIDDER: Limetown was a really wonderful experience. Listening to the podcast after booking the role, I was like, “Ooo, this is good! This is really dark and exciting!” There was a real buzz to being on that set because it all happened so quickly for these two young guys who did the podcast, and suddenly they had Stanley Tucci and Jessica Biel on their show. So it was just a very exciting set to be on from beginning to end. Working with Jessica and Stanley was a dream. There was no sense of rushing through this. We were really dedicated to getting the best, most realistic performances that we could. I thoroughly enjoyed that whole experience and loved that character. I love the sort of bad ladies that I play. It was really fun.

SPOILER: You mention Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci, but people are thrilled to be working with you too. How does that feel?

JANET KIDDER: Fantastic! I mean I just want everyone to be having a good time. If working with me is a memorable experience, then that’s wonderful. It makes me happy to hear.

SPOILER: What was it like being at your first convention?

JANET KIDDER: I’ll be honest, the only convention that I did was many years ago for Earth: Final Conflict in Toronto. Because the Star Trek convention we were meant to go to came at the same time as COVID, so everything got pushed back. And actually my first Star Trek convention won’t be until [this month] in Las Vegas. So that’s gonna be wetting my nose in that kind of arena. I haven’t been to something that large before.

SPOILER: You are going to be wowed and amazed. I’m so excited for you.

JANET KIDDER: My aunt [Margot Kidder] talks about these conventions all the time. But what I do remember from way back from Earth: Final Conflict was an incredible amount of very passionate people who could tell you that you had your elbow on the table in this scene and that they loved the shirt you were wearing in this scene. They are very dedicated fans and I’m sure that I won’t have experienced anything like a Star Trek fan. I’m sure that Margot had the Superman fans, and this is gonna be a whole other world.

SPOILER: Have you seen a difference on social media for you since working on these fandom shows?

JANET KIDDER: So I’m possibly the worst actress in the world [at social media]. I don’t do social media. I actually consciously don’t do it. So I’m afraid I don’t know. I know that it’s a world that if I were to get into would be phenomenal businesswise and that people would really appreciate it. I’m a mom with two kids and I’m on my own with them. And I find that keeping up with social media is almost like another job. I just haven’t done it yet, much to the chagrin of several of the people involved in my career. But I stick by my guns unfortunately and I’ll just stay here with no social media [laughs].

SPOILER: Well you’ve got a pretty good following on your hashtag.

JANET KIDDER: [laughs] It’s working without me even being there! How do people keep up with it all? You have to dedicate several hours of your time every day to be on top of that stuff.

SPOILER: It’s a lot. Do you think with social media it’s too easy to connect with actors and celebrities?

JANET KIDDER: A little bit. Maybe it’s interesting. Maybe it’s a juxtaposition. But as an actor, I find that what you do is already so public that, me personally, I guess I’m just way more private. And I kinda like it that way. I’m sure that I could encourage more jobs coming my way if I were more active. But this just fits me better. I do my work and people see that, but they just don’t necessarily see behind my scenes.

SPOILER: A lot of the mystery’s gone nowadays. Sometimes I think it’s good to keep certain things to yourself to preserve that mystique. Do you think if someone knows you too well they’re affected differently by the series or movie?

JANET KIDDER: I wonder. I hope that the work would stand for

itself. I hope that they would enjoy the person you would bring to the screen regardless of their connection to you as a human being. Maybe it would be more exciting for people to go, “Oh, I know her!” Maybe they’ll feel like they have a more personal connection when they watch the show. I don’t know. If we get to meet in person that’s great, but otherwise, there’s my heart and soul out there on the screen. That’s me, really.

SPOILER: One of your new projects is Two Sentence Horror Stories. How was that? It’s very different from your norm.

JANET KIDDER: It’s really different. It’s a local Canadia producer, which is nice. I’ve never had the pleasure of working with her before, so it felt like a really nice local thing to be involved in. It was a very interesting, fun role—this demonic janitor. It was really nice. It was lowkey. A very interesting project to be involved in— the subject matter that they tackled, the social ideas that are explored in the show are really interesting to me. It had a real family feel to that [set]. And I really enjoyed working on it. I hope they continue to do really well.

SPOILER: You were so creepy! Nobody could have done that but you.

JANET KIDDER: [laughs] It was so fun! The contacts were a little bit of an issue sometimes to have those jet black eyeballs, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

SPOILER: How is it having children and pushing your career? Does it make you more picky about roles in order to set an example for them?

JANET KIDDER: As I’m getting older, I’m definitely getting choosier. If I’ve done something before, I don’t necessarily need to do a similar role again. Honestly, my kids are so unenthusiastic with what I do [laughs]. I think Star Trek may have triggered some excitement in them because their friends watched it. But otherwise, they’re not particularly interested. They don’t wanna watch what I do, but I know that one day they probably will. I can’t just go where this job calls me anymore. I have to really consider beforehand. I have two teenagers and it changes things. And they don’t wanna come with me when I go anywhere [laughs]. It’s a real, real challenge. Anyone who says it’s a piece of cake—I don’t believe it. Having kids and having a career—any kind of career—mostly as a single mom, is really tough. So it does change the landscape. There’s just more to consider.

SPOILER: What’s an ideal project for you? Your most favorite genre?

JANET KIDDER: Honestly I’m not a sci-fi person, but I would play Osyraa for the next 20 years because I think she’s just a phenomenal character and I loved her so much. I’m more of the thriller ilk. I’d love to be on another show like that. Maybe a detective show like True Detective. That’s my favorite thing to watch, and so to be involved in a project like that would be super cool. I played a detective here in a series years ago, but it was more white collar, political crime. I’d rather get down and dirty and get involved in murders and all sorts of stuff like that. And if anyone from Star Trek ever wanted to bring Osyraa or Osyraa’s twin back, then I’d be all over that in a heartbeat.

SPOILER: If you had a choice would you pick DC or Marvel?

JANET KIDDER: You know I have this discussion with my children, who have much more knowledge of these things. I feel like I should say DC, but… Oh man, this could change everything for me. Let’s say 50-50 [laughs].

SPOILER: What’s in the works for you right now?

JANET KIDDER: I’ve actually taken some time off and I’m teaching acting right now, which is something I’ve thought about for a long time. And I’m actually finding it much

more rewarding than I ever thought it would be. So I’m concentrating on that and helping my kids get through the end of school. It’s been a really tough time to be a kid these days. I think it’s underestimated, the effect of COVID on our young people. Obviously I intend to get back into the acting seat again, but I don’t have any projects that I’m working on at the moment. But I’m playing an acting teacher [laughs].

SPOILER: Is it hard teaching?

JANET KIDDER: I find it difficult. And it’s pretty tiring. You put out so much energy, because I’m so passionate about this business. I find my classes, which last about four hours, I spend a lot of time getting very excited and very animated. At first I found it quite a daunting process, like, “I don’t really know how to approach this.” But then when you start, you realize that after being in the business for 30 years, you do know quite a bit. And helping these young people discover things about themselves, and enabling them to breathe deeper and not shy away from fearful emotions, is really wonderful. And incredibly inspiring. I’m getting wonderful feedback from the people I teach and it’s something that I think I’m gonna focus on more and more if I have the opportunity, because I do like the idea of giving back. Acting is so incredibly wonderful. We give the world characters to enjoy, but ultimately I act because it feels good to me to do it. And teaching feels good to me because I’m helping other people discover things about themselves.

Janet Kidder/Star Trek Discovery/CBS/Roddenberry

Entertainment/Kristine

Cofsky/The Portrait Sessions

SPOILER: What advice can you give to an actor trying to get into the business?

JANET KIDDER: “Take some classes. Watch movies. Choose actors you really like and study them; watch what they do. And know that you’ve got the goods. Acting is just about telling the story. So just relax and tell the story.” I think it’s a really wonderful world to enter into as long as you know that it’s gonna be tough. You’ve got to really love what you’re doing or else you may very well not make it through the years. But man, it’s just the best feeling in the world when you’re on set. Any actor that I’ve spoken to is like, “There is no other place that feels like home than when you’re working.” The luxury of being able to do something that you love so much and to be able to support your family is such a gift and a blessing. If a tiny percentage could enjoy going to work as much as I do, then the world would probably be a much happier place. So I tell these young people to go for it. Maybe have a backup plan, but sink yourself into it and play. It’s all meant to be fun.

SPOILER: Do you think someone’s success is attributed more to their ability or because of the opportunities that get presented to them?

JANET KIDDER: I think it’s because of the opportunities. I think there are an equal number of incredible actors who may never be discovered or get to work as there are actors out there who do this for a living and are successful at it. I think it’s luck, it’s time, it’s all those things. And it’s where you are. The opportunities are going to be vastly different for people who go down to Los Angeles than actors like myself who are staying in Canada. You have to be conscious of your expectations and be realistic in terms of your choices. But some actors get a break and other actors don’t. But that’s the way of the world, isn’t it? In any profession, some people make a success out of it and other people work just as hard and are just as talented, but maybe don’t get recognized.

SPOILER: Does it help knowing the business side of things as well?

JANET KIDDER: Yes. More successful, I don’t know, but certainly more aware. More able to navigate those waters and make choices so they know they’re not just going into something that’s going to be a very passionate hobby. If you want to be successful at this then you have to look at it like a business. And there are certain things about it that you can’t escape from in terms of that. If they go into it with as much knowledge about that side of it then they can make choices that can possibly put them in a better position in the long run. Know what to look for and know what not to look for.

SPOILER: Is it harder to select actors with tapes versus in-room auditions?

JANET KIDDER: I think so. For me it is because I love to be in the room. I think there’s a connection you make with directors and producers that you just can’t do through a tape. It’s sad that that personal connection is lost. But people are adjusting. If they feel like casting through tape is the only way to do it right now, then we have to do that. But I think something’s been lost for sure.

SPOILER: How can fans get a hold of you?

JANET KIDDER: I have my publicist and I usually get mail through my agent, and it’s always lovely to get those letters. And I always send people photos and stuff. All that information is out there.

SPOILER: Is there anything you want to tell your fans?

JANET KIDDER: “Thank you so much for all the support. I hope I’ll be able to meet some of you in person. And just live your best life and hopefully there will be more stuff coming out that you’ll be able to enjoy soon!”

Janet Kidder/Kristine Cofsky/The Portrait Sessions

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Emily Hampshire has been on quiet the hot

streak in recent years, from Syfy’s television adaptation of 12 Monkeys to the Canadian sitcom Schitt’s Creek, both of which enjoyed insane amounts of popularity and success and have given the actress even bigger opportunities for the future.

By looking at her, you would never have guessed that her career has spanned nearly three decades already. As a child actor, she got her start in a pair of episodes on Nickelodeon’s

Are You Afraid of the Dark? and would continue to amass the impressive resume that she currently holds, with over 80 credits.

With Schitt’s Creek ending last year, the actress was able to parlay its success into a rather unlikely follow-up in the period horror series Chapelwaite which is set in 1850s New England. Galaxy chats with Emily about what it’s like to transition from a snarky, ostensible motel employee to a character like Regina, a highly intelligent writer trying to uncover insidious secrets in a small town.

Acknowledging the fate involved in getting cast in a show based on a Stephen King story (“Jerusalem’s Lot”), the Montreal native explains how she had the King of Horror on her mind even prior to landing the role…

SPOILER: What made you want to take this role on Chapelwaite?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: What’s crazy is that when this part came to me, I had just sold a show that I was gonna be a writer on, and I was reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing. And then I get this script, offered the part to be a writer in this story. So I was like, the universe is telling me, “It’s meant to be.”

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: I always think I don’t, and then I’m proven wrong. For instance, when we were shooting, the Chapelwaite

house—it’s haunted. Basically, a lot of people died in there and they’re not happy about it. And there was… stuff. For sure something is going on there. So, I wouldn’t say I don’t believe in it...around them

SPOILER: So you felt energy when you were there?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: Yeah. Not good energy, but yeah.

SPOILER: How is it being on a set that looks so believable?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: That was great. The exteriors, where the shops are and everything, it’s like a little old-timey town. And bringing even more reality to it was that all

the shops had quarantine signs on them [laughs]. And also being in a lot of those costumes, it does a lot of the acting work for you. And working with Adrien, you just look at him and he’s old-timey, like he’s from the past.

SPOILER: What was it like working with Adrien Brody?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: He’s a great actor. He’s so professional. When you work with an actor as good as Adrien, they make you better. They can’t help but do that.

SPOILER: Obviously, they’re very different shows, but what was your experience like on this series versus Schitt’s Creek?

EMILY HAMPSHIRE: For Schitt’s Creek, I’d show up to work in the morning and I’d take off my black Converse and I’d put on Stevie’s black Converse, and I’d take off my baggy jeans and put on Stevie’s baggy jeans, and sit behind the desk and make fun of David. For Chapelwaite, I come into work and have somebody help me get dressed and tighten me in for 20 minutes. It’s night and day. The only thing that was similar was that the creators and writers of Chapelwaite, the Filardi brothers, in a short period of time I felt like these are my people. They’re gonna be in my life forever. I adore them. And that’s how I felt on Schitt’s Creek [as well].

Marvel fans will undoubtedly recognize Susie Abromeit

from her time as Pam on the hit series Jessica Jones, but with nearly a decade-and-a-half in the industry, the actress has accumulated quite the resume, including roles in Battle Los Angeles and stints on As the World Turns and Chicago Med. However, prior to her transition into Hollywood, Susie has managed to do it all.

From ranking number 6 in the United States in tennis at 16-years-old, earning her a full ride to Duke, to landing a record deal with Atlantic, the multihyphenate has had a lifetime of experiences already. She sits down with Galaxy to chat about her brief foray into music, as well as the disillusionment that made her want to leave it behind. Admittedly not easy to forgo two careers, especially after dedicating much of her life to them, her past has informed her present, allowing her to gain the perspective needed to make it in this highly competitive industry.

Gathering a novel’s worth of stories in the process, Susie speaks on her friendship with Will Smith and his influence on her life even before the two of them co-starred in the upcoming Venus and Serena Williams biopic, King Richard, as well as her late-night hangouts with Dave Chappelle and his crew, and what makes him truly one of the real ones.

With her latest film, The Forever Purge, the actress continues to set her sights to the horizon as she never shies away from evolving as a person, remembering to leave one foot on the ground, and of course, always keeping it real.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

SPOILER: Everybody knows you from your breakout role on Jessica Jones How was it working on that show?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: I read the pilot and I had actually auditioned for Krysten Ritter’s role. But the only person who should have ever played that is Krysten Ritter. So I read the script and I literally put that show up on my vision board. I was like, “I wanna be on this show.” And six months later, I ended up booking the role playing Pam and it was one of my favorite projects. It was such an amazing cast. Carrie-Anne Moss and Krysten Ritter—they were such a joy.

SPOILER: Were you into comics before that or was this something new to you?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: I never got into comics, but I really loved and

appreciated the comic world. I feel like my guy friends really got me into it [laughs]. And being on Jessica Jones really opened my eyes. But I was such a big fan of the Christopher Nolan Batman films and just how well done those were. A huge fan of Batman. I’m excited for the new one with Robert Pattinson. He’ll be the perfect version of Batman for who he is. I’m definitely a huge Christopher Nolan fan, and also Star Wars. I was sick one day when I was 7 and my mom brought home the originals, and I was like, “Oh my God!” I wanted to be an Ewok. They were so cute!

SPOILER: You’re an ‘80s kid? You don’t look like an ‘80s kid.

SUSIE ABROMEIT: You’re very sweet, but I’m definitely an ‘80s kid! It’s the reason I was obsessed with Stranger

Things. It was a smash of every ‘80s Spielbergesque film ever, but mixed with suspense and horror. It was so well done. I loved the first season.

SPOILER: Most people don’t realize this, but you were ranked number 6 in the US as a tennis player. That’s amazing!

SUSIE ABROMEIT: I was training full-time. I was recruited by Andy Roddick’s coach when I was 12. So then I end up going to Evert Tennis Academy, and that coach leaves and coaches Andy full-time. But I stayed at Evert and knew what I wanted to do. I had a couple goals that I wanted to achieve but didn’t know, as a 12-year-old, if they were ever going to happen. I wanted to be top 10 in the country, I wanted to be sponsored by Nike, I wanted to have a full ride to Duke University because they were a number 1 tennis team.

SPOILER: And then you ended up going to Duke.

SUSIE ABROMEIT: Yeah, I did! It was either Duke or Stanford, but Duke had a better acting program. I loved it. It was a period of my life where I was traveling the world, playing in tournaments. But I did end up hurting my back. I was on my way. I don’t know if I woulda been sixth in the world, but I was definitely beating people in the top 100 and going toe-to-toe with people in the top 10.

SPOILER: When did the acting bug come into play?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: I was about 9. I was a really good athlete, and the first to be picked—boy, girl, it

Susie Abromeit/Matt Sayles/Lapalme Magazine/(cover image):Matt Sayles

didn’t matter—we’re talking before puberty [laughs]. But then I was also an artist—writer and painter. I was really encouraged by my mom and my art teacher and my other teachers, who would go to my mom and say, “She’s a really great artist. You need to encourage this.” I always thought I was gonna be a cartoonist or something. And she took me to a camp in Middlesex. Chris Evans actually went to this camp—I think we were there at the same time. It was a big acting place, but they had everything. You were doing woodwork, making things out of clay, doing all sorts of arts and crafts, but they were preparing you for the industry. It was really cool! And so that’s where I was put on stage and had to do some acting exercises and went, “Oh my God, I love this!” But at the same time, I was already playing tennis, which took up more of my time.

There were a couple other instances, like when I was 11, 12, when my mom entered me in a Macy’s modeling contest and I won.

That’s when I could have gotten an agent, but tennis again took up so much of my time. And then the 7th or 8th grade play, we were putting on Oliver Twist, and I had listened to one of the songs to learn it and did it in a Cockney accent [laughs]. And I auditioned with [that song] and the teacher was so impressed, but it didn’t work out because of tennis. So during senior year of high school, I kept coming back to wanting to act, realizing it was really my calling. At

some tennis camps there would be skit days, and I remember people losing their s**t being like, “You need to do this! You’re hilarious!” There was one time I was at Evert and I was just doing impersonations of all the other kids and one of my coaches said, “What are you doing? You should quit tennis and really pursue this acting thing because this is what you were meant to do.” I just remember feeling so high after that. So that’s when I was really encouraged by some of the coaches I really respected. And that’s when I went to college and really got to explore it.

SPOILER: You had a song called “Slow Your Roll” with Fat Joe. How was that experience?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: When I was 18, I had the opportunity to work with an Atlantic Records producer. Celine Dion just had a huge album and he had done one of her songs off the album, and he wanted to work with me. I was like, “Well, this isn’t really the right music.” But the A&R at Atlantic said we should work together, but I was like, “I hafta go to college. My mom will kill me. I’ve wanted this since I was 12, I have a full ride. I’m not putting it aside.” So my sophomore year in college I was on the tennis team. We were ranked number 1 in NCAAs, and it was a really tough schedule; being a student athlete, that’s basically your life. And I would get these opportunities for music. I ended up booking the lead in a play, but when I had to turn it down because of tennis, yet again, that’s when I was

Tim Rozon/SurrealEstate/Syfy/Blue Ice Pictures/Smallz & Raskind/Getty Images

like, “Okay, I’ve had enough!” And I quit. And that’s when I was able to focus on acting and singing. So, I called that A&R and was like, “Hey, I no longer have tennis.” And he’s like, “Actually there’s this song with Fat Joe I want you to sing on. The girl we were pushing ended up not working out.” And I was like, “Hell yeah!” So he ends up flying me out to New York and I stayed in this really amazing hotel, first class everything. Obviously Fat Joe wasn’t there, he pre-recorded his vocals. But I ended up seeing him at some club at some point and I was like, “Hey! We have a song together!” And he’s like, “I know! Come roll with me!” [laughs] He was so sweet. He didn’t say much, but I guess you don’t really talk much in a club, like “HEY! HOW ARE YOU?!” And then we took it to radio stations.

SPOILER: Why don’t you pursue singing more?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: With the watershed moment of MeToo, I wanna say the music industry is the mafia. It is legit very dark, and I managed to avoid a lot of stuff. Every time I would go work with a producer, they were trying to sleep with me. I was like, “I don’t wanna do that! This is annoying! Please go away!” I think if you’re a band you can go on tour and build up a following that way, but if you’re a pop artist you require a lot more money. It’s a little bit trickier. We would go to a meeting and the VP would be like, “Come see me,” and then he would show up in a robe at his house. We were very lucky we never had to do any shady stuff, but there’s all these loopholes in payola. You find out how things are really done. It’s not like you just have a great song and it gets played. It was kinda dark, man. As an 18- or 20-year-old, it was just not a place where I wanted to be. Billie Eilish has kind of spoken out about it. It’s just how the industry is run. With music, you can immediately move people. Because there’s so much money and power in it, I think a lot of people who run it, back then at least—it was kind of dark.

Now the industry has changed a bit. Back then, there were no rules or regulations. It was literally like dealing with the mafia. When I see Britney and Justin Bieber, it’s a real thing—from someone who’s dabbled in that and managed to say, “I don’t wanna be a part of this. I’m not gonna come out with my soul intact. This isn’t about the music.” But now you can make your own way [a little easier].

SPOILER: How do you like the actor lifestyle?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: Honestly, I wanna be living in nature and have a farm— that to me is so cool; that makes my heart sing. Being able to do art and create the stories I want to tell and working with amazingly talented people, that’s the dream. But as for the lifestyle, I’m not interested in that. I don’t like it. The Hollywood parties are fun, but you get to a certain age and you know what it is. But like, Edgar Wright throws this really cool New Year’s party.

And Edgar is a wonderful human, so naturally you have wonderful people at the party. Really down-to-earth people. And then you have, you know, some other parties [laughs]: There’s too many people, no one really cares about anybody, and everyone is just walking around pretending to be cool. There’s no real conversation. I’m like, “Get me outta here!” But if it’s genuine people, I have time for that.

I mean, if it’s a big Oscar party, those things can be fun. But generally, I’m not holding my breath. And “clock strikes 12” is always my

rule. Because after 12 is when people get really drunk, they start saying weird things. I’m like, “This isn’t my vibe.” It also depends on who you’re with. I’ve hung out with Dave Chappelle and his crew, and s**t never gets weird. He’s just Dave all the time. He does his sets at 2 in the morning and then people go out for drinks afterwards, and that actually never got weird, which I really appreciate. Dave Chappelle is one of the coolest cats on the planet. He’s a real person. He lives in Ohio. That’s exactly how I see it. He’s kind of the same, where he can dip in and dip out. What a beautiful existence.

SPOILER: So, tell me about your latest film. How was it working on The Forever Purge?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: It’s a wild ride! It’s very gruesome. I got to work with guns and do stunts. I had the best time. It was all Michael Bay’s team, because he’s producing, and it was the coolest experience I’ve ever had on set, and with this big of a scope. Michael Bay knows what he’s doing. The most incredible team of people I’ve ever worked with.

SPOILER: You’re also starring in King Richard. What was it like working with Will Smith?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: Working with Will Smith was a bucket list highlight. He’s the best. He’s my favorite. Basically, he’s been a voice in my head, just in terms of how he lives his life, how he treats his career, how he treats people. I was working with this bodyguard on a modeling shoot, and I asked him who’s the best he ever worked with, and he said, “Hands down, Will Smith. Anytime somebody would come up to him and I’d say, ‘No no no,’ Will would correct me and say, ‘No, these are the people who go see my movies and buy my albums, so I will always be grateful for them.’” And that really stuck with me. And I’ve talked to other people

and heard how Will would bring donuts to the set in the middle of the night to rally the crew. “Be like Will Smith.” And I shared that with him, and he was so moved by that. And we’ve kept in touch, and it’s been really cool to have Will Smith as a friend!

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: Well, considering I’ve already done Marvel… Actually, I don’t think I can choose. I love Batman and I also love Jessica Jones and the Avengers. I’m totally that nerd who’s like, “I have to go see The Avengers!”

SPOILER: Have you been to a Con yet?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: I have! I did a panel for San Antonio and it was so cool! I love everyone’s cosplay. I was so into it! Those are my people.

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna tell other fans out there before you head out?

SUSIE ABROMEIT: “Get your Purge on!” The running joke for all the makers of the movie was that it’s a documentary [laughs]. But I’m so excited for this film and it was such a joy to work with everyone. “Please go see it! It’s gonna be a fun ride!”

Susie

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

MIKE DOPUD HAS LIVED TWO DREAMS ALREADY.

Playing professional football for the CFL out of college and then transitioning to acting in his mid20s, now with nearly 200 different projects on his IMDb page, the multihyphenate has seemed to defy logic. Meeting the challenge of life with full force, Mike’s hard work and determination has paid off, yet he admits that his success is still highly attainable for anyone out there willing to put in the same effort.

Amassing credits on heavy-hitters such as Power, The 100, Arrow, and Stargate SG-1 on the small screen and X-Men: Days of Future Past, 2014’s Godzilla, and The Predator on the big, just to name a few, Mike is one of the busiest players in the game. Most recently starring in Syfy’s newest series Day of the Dead as Detective McDermott, the actor ensures us that his character’s arc will be one to keep an eye on throughout the ten-episode first season.

Despite playing some mean dudes on screen, Mike is one of the biggest sweethearts you’ll ever meet. Always humble and downto-earth, he manages to keep the conversation light as he discusses what it’s like to play these darker roles and how his time as an athlete has informed his life in Hollywood.

Mike Dopud/(cover image):Mike Dopud/Dennys Ilic

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

MIKE DOPUD: Growing up in Montreal, it was so farfetched to think you could be an actor. So I was an athlete first. And once my sports career was done, I said, “I wanna be an actor!” And I went into the union office and said, “Hey guys, what do I hafta do?” And they laughed [laughs]. I just asked them who the best agents were and if I needed headshots and that stuff. I was about 24, 25.

I have a bit of a background in stunt work and action fighting, so that was a good transition. When I got into the industry as an actor, they realized I had a background in athletics and that parlayed into acting.

From watching Escape from New York and Mad Max, I always wanted to be an actor, but I just didn’t know how to go about it. When I saw the original Mad Max, I thought, “Oh my God, this is the kind of world that I want to belong to.”

SPOILER: You played a member of the Serbian mafia on the show Power. You come from a Serbian background yourself. How much of that influenced your role?

MIKE DOPUD: I tried to make him my own guy. There’s a kind of caricature of these gangsters and these tsars and all these people. And I’ve played some Russian bad guys and Serbian bad guys, and I just tried to get creative and have a bit of a different take with this character. But my background does help with speaking the language and just getting the feel for what these guys are like.

SPOILER: How was your experience on Power?

MIKE DOPUD: My experience was amazing, starting with Courtney Kemp and Gary Lennon, who were the creators and showrunners. From my first day shooting a scene in season 4 with Joseph Sikora, who was such a great scene partner and person, and he treated me with open arms. It’s hard sometimes when you come on to a show—they have their own things going on [already]—but Joe was like, “Okay, let’s do this!” And they treated me with open arms. I really have nothing but great things to say about them.

SPOILER: And before all this, you were a professional football player in Canada. Was that American football?

MIKE DOPUD: Yes. I went to Southern Illinois University and played football. The Canadian Football League employs a lot of Americans on the teams as well. It was a short-lived career, but I was there and had some injuries. But as my friend always says, “The day you sign your contract and are on the field actually playing in a game, you’ve made it!” And then I tried out for the World League, but the World League folded. And then I couldn’t pass the physical because I had surgery on my right knee, and I couldn’t get back to the CFL. And then I went to hockey for a little while.

SPOILER: And does that mindset of being an athlete ever help you with the roles that you get?

MIKE DOPUD: Absolutely. I had dinner with Omari Hardwick last night and we were talking about that—the fact that we both played high level football and we have this sort of “let’s do it” [mentality]. In whatever sport, when you play at a high level, you’ve had a lot of discipline and you’ve had a lot of drive to succeed. And that definitely helps in acting, because you get rejected so much. And there’s always things that change, so you learn to deal and adapt with the different changes that get thrown at you.

SPOILER: You’ve now made it in two highly competitive fields. Does the challenge drive you?

MIKE DOPUD: Yeah, my dad used to laugh at me and say, “Why do you always like to do things that are hard? You were playing hockey in Canada, where hockey players are revered, but then you decide to go play football in America? It doesn’t make sense!” And then when I decided to do acting, my dad just looked at me and went, “You know what? You make your own choices. I trust you. I know you’re gonna do well. I just don’t know why you do it sometimes, but I love you, and whatever you do, I’ll support you.”

SPOILER: Do you prefer working in TV or film better?

MIKE DOPUD: What I love about television

is you get a lot of time to create a character. You spend months coming up with ways to play the character and working on the relationships. I love the steadiness of television. But I have to tell you, when you’re filming a movie, especially the bigger budget films, you spend a lot of time making sure it’s right. You’ll spend days on a two-page scene, shooting every angle. But on television, a lot of times you’re on a tight schedule, so you end up not necessarily getting the opportunity to make the scene perfect like you do in film. But I like both. And I think at the end of the day, I like the steadiness of television. I like working; I like moving. In film, sometimes the setups take forever.

SPOILER: Is there a particular scene from any of your projects that stands out the most?

MIKE DOPUD: I had just finished doing a play in Ontario, I flew in to do Power, and my first scene was this four-page walkand-talk with Joseph Sikora. I literally finished the play on the Saturday night, I flew to New York on Sunday, and we shot Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. I didn’t have as much time to get ready for it, but I thought, “I’m in the groove, I feel good.” And the scene couldn’t have gone any better. Dennie Gordon was our director—she was wonderful. It was a splinter crew and just Joseph and me the whole day shooting. He was a great scene partner and we just played off each other really well.

SPOILER: Tell us about your character on Day of the Dead.

MIKE DOPUD: My character is Detective McDermott. He’s been going through a rough time. His wife has passed, and he’s turned to alcohol to soothe his pain. He’s just going through the motions day-to-day and isn’t really present for his son. Keenan Tracey plays my son, Cam. We’re not close at the beginning of the series. He’s dealing with the loss in a different way. And my character gets called in to investigate a body that was found, and that’s where the chaos ensues. Detective McDermott goes on quite a journey throughout those ten episodes. It’s gonna be something to behold.

SPOILER: If you met your younger self, what would you tell him? MIKE DOPUD: I would tell him to

stay the course. “Trust the path. It’s gonna be okay.” And I think I did that, for the most part. But there were times when I was like, “Gosh, I’m not making any money. What am I doing? This is crazy! I left a job that was paying me well. Why did I wanna be an actor?” And then all of a sudden you book that audition and you’re on set, and you realize, “This is where I’m supposed to be.”

SPOILER: What’s life’s biggest mystery to you?

MIKE DOPUD: So many things! I’m still trying to figure out how to be the best dad I can. Interesting thing, my daughter was the first girl to be born on my side of the family in 72 years. So having a daughter was really challenging for me, like, “How do I do this?” [laughs] And I love it!

I love the journey I’m going through with my daughter—and my son. So, every day is a mystery; every day is an adventure, because you never know what’s gonna happen. I’ve also learned that you can’t plan too many things because life throws you curveballs all the time. Every time you think you know something, there’s the curveball thrown your way. But you figure out a way.

SPOILER: What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and be an actor?

MIKE DOPUD: Follow your heart and believe in yourself. And don’t be afraid of hard work. When I started acting, I went out and bought every acting book to try to learn and studied with the best acting coaches. I’ve always prided myself on hard work. You need to work hard in this industry. I think people wait to be discovered, but doing all the work will provide opportunities, and hopefully the opportunities will work in your favor.

SPOILER: If you had a choice, would you want to be a superhero or a super villain?

MIKE DOPUD: I’ve never really played the superhero, so that would be really fun. But I think I’m better suited for the villain [laughs]. For whatever reason, I feel more at home as the villain. They’re so much

fun to play. I’ve played everything from crazy drug dealers to crooked detectives to a cannibal on The 100. On screen, you do all these terrible things and you get applauded. Whereas in real life, you’d be thrown in jail.

SPOILER: If you could have a superpower in the real world, what would it be?

MIKE DOPUD: You know what would be cool? Being able to read minds [laughs]. But I guess it would suck in some ways too.

SPOILER: What would your weapon of choice be during the apocalypse?

MIKE DOPUD: Do you remember the video game Asteroids? When something bad was gonna happen, you could just hit that hyperspace button. I always thought that would be cool. Something’s gonna get you and you just hit that button. The scary part is you never know where you’re gonna land.

SPOILER: Does your job, getting lost in these different worlds on set, relieve a lot of stress for you? Or can it also give you a lot of stress?

MIKE DOPUD: A bit of both. This weekend I was doing a pilot called Abduction. It basically deals with the sex trade industry. I played the lead, Frank Johnson, who’s basically trying to stop these sex traffickers. And we infiltrate this one ring. But I’m also shooting a Hallmark Christmas movie where I play the lovable dad. You know, it’s Christmas time and the Hallmark world. And it was just the dichotomy of two extremes. So, I was a little bit stressed because I didn’t want any residual effects; I didn’t want the darkness of this one show to effect the lightness of this Christmas movie.

Mike Dopud/In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege

SPOILER: Is it hard to play those darker roles?

MIKE DOPUD: Usually not so bad, but every once in a while when you’re playing a darker character, it may stay with you for a little bit, and you don’t even realize it. Then all of a sudden, the aura you’re in gets a little darker. But I’m not a method actor by any stretch, so I don’t need to live in that world—I find it exhausting actually. So, in a way it’s nice to move on to something light after doing something dark. For me, coming home to my kids takes me out of that dark place.

SPOILER: After you get a role, do you ever think about the other people who also audition for that same role?

MIKE DOPUD: At the beginning, when I started out, you go for auditions and they give a description of the character ahead of time, and you’re sitting there going, “I feel good about myself. I feel good about the way I look.” But then you’d walk into the audition room, and you’d look and everybody would be perfect. Like, “Oh my God, that guy looks perfect for the role! Oh my God, that guy looks even better! These guys look better than me.” But what I’ve learned through that is I can still play that description of the character. There might be better choices, people who are meaner looking or better looking, or bigger or stronger. There’s always gonna be someone better than you, so you just gotta believe in yourself and go, “Hopefully they see through that and I’m the right guy.”

SPOILER: Is there usually a piece of you in each character you play?

MIKE DOPUD: Yeah, absolutely. I played this character named Michael Vinson on The 100, and he was a cannibal. But he was a pretty interesting cat. He was kind of a good guy. But how do you play that? You have to dig into yourself and basically try to find something in you that can drive you as far as that

character goes. Obviously I don’t eat people, but I had to find what it was that made him do that. So I think you have to put yourself in it, because that’s what makes your character so different.

SPOILER: Do you think social media has helped your career more?

MIKE DOPUD: At times it hurts in the sense of, it seems like if you don’t have millions of followers that you’re not a celebrity or a star. But I think it’s helped my career in terms of reaching the fans. I’ve had loyal fans since social media really started, so I guess the Stargate years. And a lot of those fans still follow my work. And sometimes people will send me a message saying they’ve been following me for years. And I would never have known that if it weren’t for social media. People don’t mind commenting on social media, whereas in person they might not say something.

SPOILER: If you could give a message to all your fans in the world, what would it be?

MIKE DOPUD: I’ll start with a big “thank you!” I’m forever grateful that people actually watch what I do and seem to enjoy what I do. “Whatever you do in life, believe in yourself. Because if I can do it, you can do it. Just believe in yourself and you’ll get there.”

SPOILER: Are there any upcoming projects you’d like to talk about?

MIKE DOPUD: The Hallmark movie I’m doing is called A Very Merry Bridesmaid, which is a fun time with Emily Osment. And then there’s this little pilot, Abduction, which should be out, we’re hoping, next year.

Mike Dopud

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If you didn’t know any better, you would never

guess that the ruthless and powerful vampire/oracle on Van Helsing, which just concluded its five-season run earlier this summer, was portrayed by Jesse Stanley, whose comforting enthusiasm and earnest sense of humor are completely mutually exclusive from her character Bathory’s personality entirely.

The young actress really wowed audiences with her conviction in the role and how easily she’s able to cultivate the sense of curiosity surrounding her character. With her performance on Van Helsing, Jesse’s career should be on the up and up, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for her.

Jesse gets deep with us about acting technique and performance philosophy, offering advice for aspiring actors alike. We catch up with the young star about what she’s got in store in her post-Van Helsing life and some other things that might not necessarily be on her resume.

SPOILER: Of all the roles you have played in the past, which is your favorite?

JESSE STANLEY: I got to play Malvolio in a commedia dell’arte version of Twelfth Night. I played him as a sort of mob boss gangster and it was the most freeing and fun time I’ve ever had on stage.

SPOILER: What attracted you to a career as an actor?

JESSE STANLEY: Getting to try out living as different people—with different histories and ways of seeing the world than me. Also, I get a huge rush being on stage.

SPOILER: When was your first role as an actor?

JESSE STANLEY: When I was 7 I played Simba in a summer music theater production of The Lion King. I was tiny and I remember the

costume lion head was too heavy for me, so I struggled to keep it level.

SPOILER: How do you show your castmates the importance of communication?

JESSE STANLEY: I think I just try to establish a connection when we’re working through the scene and let them know I am listening to them; that what they are saying to me is landing and impacting how I’ll respond.

SPOILER: How do you like to encourage ideas in others?

JESSE STANLEY: When I’m working in a collaborative creative setting, I don’t hold back. Oftentimes this means I’m throwing out a lot of bad ideas amongst a few good ones.

SPOILER: Describe your acting style.

JESSE STANLEY: Oh, I don’t know! You’d have to ask actors that I’ve worked with.

SPOILER: In which area would you like to improve as an actor?

JESSE STANLEY: I want to get better at judging a character’s actions from my [Jesse’s] point of view. Sometimes I make a snap judgement about something on my first reading of the script and it can be really hard to unthink as I work on understanding what makes the character do the things they do.

SPOILER: Think about a demanding director, professor, or castmate. What made him or her difficult? How did you successfully interact with this person?

JESSE STANLEY: Actors can be total narcissists with fragile egos. I have worked with actors who refuse to be affected or moved by their scene partners and it makes for a difficult scene that is void of anything spontaneous. I’m not saying I always manage to be open to spontaneity either, but I try!

SPOILER: When you suffer a setback, how does that emotionally affect you and your work?

JESSE STANLEY: This industry can be tough on your pride and can really test your perseverance. Setbacks can send me into a tailspin of self-doubt. But ultimately I keep coming back to choosing this career and to the craft.

SPOILER: What sort of acting roles will you be seeking in the future?

JESSE STANLEY: Gritty, unusual, funny women who don’t fit into a particular box. Women who you can’t say, “Oh I’ve seen her before.”

Jesse Stanley/Ruth Crafer/Kristine Cofsky/(cover image): Jesse Stanley/Kristine Cofsky

SPOILER: What has been your greatest accomplishment as an actor?

JESSE STANLEY: Understudying all of the female parts in Macbeth and being called to play Lady M with one day’s notice.

SPOILER: What’s the biggest audience you’ve performed in front of?

JESSE STANLEY: Probably about a thousand-seat theater.

SPOILER: What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not on set?

JESSE STANLEY: Hang out with my new baby boy!

SPOILER: What director would you drop any project you’re currently working on to go work with?

JESSE STANLEY: Paul Thomas Anderson.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

JESSE STANLEY: Yes, in the sense that I think there are events happening around us beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. I don’t know what I believe exactly but I think there are other life forms out there that are probably watching us self-destruct and are shaking their heads.

SPOILER: Tell me about what you’re working on now.

JESSE STANLEY: I’m working on an indie feature—producing and acting—

with a small group of actors and crew who are all close friends. We started shooting at the beginning of the pandemic when we isolated together in a cabin on a lake. It’s a horror film as you may have guessed!

SPOILER: Who is your favorite actor and why?

JESSE STANLEY: It changes all the time when I see new films and series, but currently it’s Frances McDormand after seeing Nomadland. She’s just able to convey such a striking emotional inner life. I could watch her watch TV and I’d be totally rapt. She inhabits the character so fully that she’s totally un-self-conscious—unless selfconsciousness was a facet of the character she was playing.

SPOILER: Do you have any special skills?

JESSE STANLEY: I can pick almost anything up with my feet. I have very dexterous toes.

SPOILER: Tell me something I may not know from reading your résumé.

JESSE STANLEY: I like doing my own stunt work whenever I’m allowed.

SPOILER: What advice can you give to a new actor starting out?

JESSE STANLEY: Don’t assume you’ve ever “figured it out.” The best actors I’ve ever worked with are still very curious about their work.

Jesse Stanley/Van Helsing/Syfy/Kristine Cofsky

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

One of the coolest dudes in this industry,

Aleks Paunovic might just be your favorite actor’s favorite actor. We’ve talked to a lot of celebrities in and around his circle for years, and they all have unbelievably fantastic things to say about the Winnipeg native. Landing his biggest role yet as Ivan—an enforcer for the Tracksuit Mafia—in Marvel’s Hawkeye, Aleks still doesn’t count his chips the same way you’d expect. For him, it’s all about the experience and working with amazing people.

That said, 2021 was a huge year for the actor, with the release of the aforementioned Disney Plus show, the series finale for Syfy’s Van Helsing, and one heck of a second season for the TNT hit Snowpiercer. Oh yeah, and he got to co-star in a movie alongside one of the greatest talents of all time in Anthony Hopkins. Zero Contact, in which Aleks just finished filming the second of three installments, was filmed entirely through Zoom during the pandemic, set in 12 countries. The sequel sees the actors actually going to those 12 locations across the globe—most notably the South Pole itself.

Always a big supporter of our magazine, Aleks chats yet again with Galaxy about his upcoming projects— and some past favorites as well— and also what it’s like to become immortalized in the MCU.

SPOILER: Congratulations on Hawkeye! It’s fantastic.

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: Thanks, man! It’s a blast to be a part of. And being part of the MCU is a really big deal. Every kid reading comic books has that vibe on wanting to be part of that imaginary world—I’m a part of it right now. I’m still a big kid at heart and a lot of my adult friends feel the same way. It’s seriously just an honor to be part of the MCU and such a great, fun Christmas show.

SPOILER: How would you explain the series?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: Hawkeye [played by Jeremy Renner] is part of the Avengers, and what I’ve always loved about his character is that he’s an ordinary man. He doesn’t have all these superpowers. He has will and heart and technique in something that he does extremely well, which is archery. And he was always a reluctant hero. I love those human stories. So, for

Disney and Marvel to give him his own show—and I’m a huge fan of Jeremy Renner’s work. He’s just phenomenal, obviously in Hawkeye, but in so many other projects that he does. So knowing his story and the way that the series unfolded, and introducing Kate Bishop [played by Hailee Steinfeld] to kind of take the reins, and a new character Echo—it’s just an exciting thing to be a part of.

SPOILER: What was the process like for landing this role?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: It’s interesting because Marvel was extremely secretive. There’s a lot of times where you’ll get auditions and it just says Untitled Project and a little bit of a breakdown of a character, and the names are changed so you can’t even try to figure it out. So, I was literally just reading for this cool scene and sent it back to my manager and agent. It was obviously something that was very

important, so I put my spin on my character and next thing I knew, I got the call that I booked a Marvel show. And I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I was like, “What do you mean I booked a Marvel show?” I didn’t even remember doing the audition, and then they told me, and I was like, “Wait! That was Hawkeye?!” And so the excitement happened after the fact, which is kind of nice because the pressure wasn’t on when I was auditioning for the role.

SPOILER: What does this mean for you?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: It’s a huge thing! I’ve been a comic book fan since I was a kid. My brother was a huge collector of comics to the point where he would buy number ones and keep them in mint condition in their wrappers and would never let me touch it, but I would go through his comics behind his back when he wasn’t around [laughs]. But what it means to be a part of something so big— Kevin Feige, who I think is just an absolute genius in how he just literally spits out hit after hit with his Marvel team, Trinh Tran and all the people with Marvel and Disney Plus who are making these amazing series. I’m very grateful and can’t wait to see what happens next.

SPOILER: Describe your character in Hawkeye

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: I play Ivan, who was actually in the original Matt Fraction comic books for Hawkeye. It was great to play a character from the comic books. So, reading the comics and getting an idea of what kind of character he was and loving the chemistry, and the way the Tracksuit Mafia was written—how they use bro all the time. Carlos [Navarro] and Piotr [Adamczyk], who play my buddies on the show, we took the bros to the next level. We would throw bros everywhere. There were moments when the

Aleks Paunovic: Isaac Alvarez/ The Walt Disney Studios

directors would come up to us and go, “Okay, we got that take, but maybe a little less ‘bros.’”

It was also a lot of fun for the crew because there was a lot of improv thrown out there along with the amazing writing. But they allowed us to play a little bit more. So having the cast and crew crack up at some of the antics we were doing, it was an amazing experience to the point where Bert & Bertie—who are phenomenal directors—whenever the Tracksuit Mafia were coming on set to shoot, they would have their Tracksuit Mafia suits on as well as a fist pump to us. It was just fun knowing that everyone really took to what we were doing. It felt great accomplishing the vision.

SPOILER: Van Helsing was on for five seasons. Do you feel like you grew over that time?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: I was so stoked to be a part of Van Helsing. I’m honored to be part of that show. I feel like things just keep moving and keep growing. I’m always looking for something new. I’m just a big fan of saying yes to stuff and seeing where it goes. If I don’t enjoy it, I still learn from it. And sometimes I say yes and it doesn’t feel good to say yes, but then it ends up being one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Jeremy Renner said it perfectly. We were sitting in the makeup chair. The MCU is very secretive because they want the fans to see the authentic version of what’s going on and not hear spoilers. I was looking at Jeremy going, “I never got a script. I don’t know what I’m doing in the next scene.” And Jeremy just looked over at me all chill and went, “Just be water, man. Kevin Feige’s a master. Just roll with the flow.” He reminded me of that, and that’s how I love to do my work. That was a really cool moment for me. So yeah, I feel like a lot of things have changed, but also a lot of things have reminded me why I do this.

SPOILER: You’ve come a long way since Karate Dad in [the 2012 movie] This Means War

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: [laughs]

Listen, man, I’m not gonna lie, that was one of my favorite things because I improvised all that stuff. When I did the audition, they had the lines, but I was literally going from one job to the other and I only had 5 minutes to throw this audition on tape. So I improvised the whole thing. When I booked it, I couldn’t believe it. But then all the improv and working

with Tom Hardy was great, and getting to slap his face [laughs] and just play around for something that was so small in the movie, was one of my funnest gigs. But yes, I’ve come a long way since Karate Dad!

SPOILER: What do you do to prepare for your roles?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: I have to find the truth within myself to play these types of roles. There’s always a little bit of myself within these roles—my life experiences or what I’ve seen. I observe other people a lot and I try

Aleks

Paunovic:Justina Mintz/TNT/ Isaac Alvarez/ The Walt Disney Studios

to figure out, “Okay, the way this person reacted to this bad news is so different than if I read it in a script and how I would react.” That’s part of my homework and something that I’ve done since I was a kid. I just love watching people and observing different intentions and different reactions, and how somebody gets good news and how somebody gets bad news, and where emotion lies and tells the story. So, I steal these moments in life and try to connect to them any way that I can.

I also do vocal warmups before I get on set. Usually when I’m doing an accent, I’ll try to talk the whole day with the accent intact. One of my favorite things to do is get into a taxi or an Uber as somebody totally different. I’ll just decide to be a dude from the Bronx and start a conversation in a cab in Toronto, and just see if I can pull it off and have this conversation with somebody. I love experimenting in those types of ways. Also, script analysis is a big thing for me. What can I find within this script that I can pull from and put it in my back pocket? When I have my wardrobe on, I’ll try to find something that’s personal that I have that I’ll literally put in my pocket; something that I fight for. I do play the baddies a lot, which are really fun, but I’ll find something that I keep [for sentimental reasons]. And if anyone tries to take that thing from

me, this character with a backstory that I built will do different things to protect what’s in his pocket.

I think it all starts with doing the work, remembering the lines back and forth, script analysis, and just experimenting—throwing everything into the wind and not feeling dumb if something doesn’t work. Your choice for the character might not work, but the only way you’ll find out is going 100% that direction and then going back and exploring the role a little bit more. I just love being part of a team. I was in a metal band for a long time. And when you’re making music,

that’s a team. But on set, you’re working with gaffers and focus pullers and camera assistants and DPs and the director. You’re working with so many people. And I love bouncing ideas off of my castmates. I’m very extroverted in my work and I think that gets me to work with a lot of people that I really wanna work with. First and foremost, just love the people that you work with.

SPOILER: Your résumé is already so impressive, and now you’re leveling up once again with these new projects!

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: Thanks, man. I’ve been really fortunate to be part of some amazing productions, but I would be just as happy working with great people on a student film or an indie. I just love to work and working with a good team, regardless of the hierarchy of the project. So, to be part of a bigger universe with a bigger budget is all gravy to me. But it’s also peaks and valleys, man. Sometimes you’re just not confident in yourself, and I think the best thing to look at is knowing that it’s not a journey if you’re going down a straight line. You know what the top feels like and you know what the bottom feels like, but also know that you can get out of that bottom—

the peak’s coming up. We all have to go through these mental health issues where we feel down about ourselves and figure out what’s wrong and try to stay positive. Be kind to yourself.

SPOILER: Do you feel like being on Hawkeye has opened the door for you in a big way?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: It’s interesting because I really don’t look at it that way. Because every turn that I’ve been taking has been just a little bit better than the last, production-wise. I’m working on a project right now with a couple of the writers from Van Helsing—Matt Venables and Jeremy Smith. They’re award-winning writers. For me to be able to hire them and work with them is key to me. I spent five years with them and I know what they’re like. They’re so amazing on set. When we talk about this script, it’s not a head-butting thing. So for me, those are the things that get me really excited. This big project, which I can’t talk about yet, is just as much a surprise to me as any of the other ones.

My biggest joy right now is being able to be part of something special—I spent 20 days in Antarctica for a film that’s the sequel for the very first Hollywood-scripted NFT film ever made, called Zero Contact, starring Anthony Hopkins. And because it did so well, we’re now making a second and third film—we’re making it into a franchise. We’re also the very first Hollywood-scripted film production to shoot in the continent of Antarctica, and that to me is very special. So, it’s hard for me to put an idea in my head about the next big thing.

SPOILER: What was that experience like, filming in Antarctica?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: We had a documentary crew following us because it’s such a unique experience into filmmaking. But it was tough. I think we brought 80,000 hand warmers and toe warmers for our crew of 15, because we also need to

keep the cameras warm. We put all these hand warmers in the camera cases. You can only film for a number of minutes before the camera goes back in. Some of the actors had some scenes where we really wanted to see their eyes, because everything is about the goggles. We had a polar explorer with us who led our film crew expedition—Sebastian Copeland—he said you take off your goggles and you maybe have two minutes, max, before you start getting snow blindness.

The universe was really helping us with the weather in some moments— intimate scenes—when we needed it quiet, even though it was cold. And then other moments, it was the worst weather that they’ve had at Union Glacier, so we got to take advantage of these amazing whispering winds, walking on top of a tidal wave of a snowbank—a desert of snow everywhere. It felt like we were on another planet. Even landing the plane, there’s no airport, so we just literally landed on ice. It was such an amazing experience and something that will never leave me, regardless of where this movie goes. I think it’s gonna be great.

SPOILER: Wow. How did you get involved on this project?

ALEKS PAUNOVIC: Rick Dugdale, who’s the mastermind, directing and producing, I worked with him on the very first Anthony Hopkins project I did called Blackway , years ago. And then when COVID hit, he had an idea to do just a Zoom movie. We like to say this movie was done without a handshake. We had 19 characters in 19 different places all over the world, doing a Zoom movie. So, from the success of that as an NFT film, we kinda turned it on its head for the sequel. Instead of just a Zoom, we’re actually going to the countries that are in the script. There are 12 countries. We didn’t want to do it on a green screen, we wanted to actually go to these places. It’s something that was extremely special.

Isaac Alvarez/ The Walt Disney Studios

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If you were a horror fan in the ‘80s in Los Angeles, then

Movie Macabre was must-watch television. Many of us would force ourselves to stay up a little later to catch the local horror host give her comedic, oft-innuendo-ladened commentary on bad films.

The host, Elvira, is the alter ego of Cassandra Peterson, who came up as a member of the improv comedy troupe The Groundlings with a quick wit that allowed her to have a hand in writing the jokes and bits seen on air throughout the run of Movie Macabre. Elvira’s goth/ Valley girl persona, accompanying her raven-black beehive hairdo and gratuitous cleavage, graced the airwaves with her late night program where she would interrupt B-grade movies with her sarcastic and campy quips.

Taking over for the late Larry Vincent’s character, Sinister Seymour, several years after his death, Peterson built on Vincent’s off-beat humor by adding more of a flippant edge, thus making it her own and eventually becoming a household name.

Elvira subverted our expectations by looking spooky while sounding like a total Valley girl. To take things one step further, she broke another stereotype by the intelligence and overall awareness she exuded underneath her intentionallymisleading demeanor. What truly sets Elvira apart from the rest of the pack is her comedic genius, which is just as impossible to miss as her skin-tight wardrobe.

While hosting a locally-based television program, Elvira’s popularity quickly skyrocketed on a national level following a string of Tonight Show appearances and Coors Light commercials, which introduced her to millions of viewers across the country. The people just wanted more.

One of very few celebrities who actually has full creative control and ownership of her persona, Peterson has made the most of the Elvira name. Over the years, there have been Elvira movies, comics, video games, even pinball machines, and much, much more. Where other celebrities try desperately to break away from their most famous roles, Peterson eventually embraced her alter ego and has become an entrepreneurial paradigm for how to successfully market your brand. Her 1988 film Elvira: Mistress of the Dark expanded on the character and gave Elvira a more three-dimensional depiction outside of her TV show. Released during a time when “spooky” comedies weren’t as prevalent in Hollywood and the formula wasn’t yet established, the film played by its own rules—perfectly in line with her late night show—as an amalgamation of different, yet kindred styles, and has now become an amazing snapshot of the era’s iconography and sensibilities.

The icon sits down with SPO!LER for an amazing interview to talk about her career, the upcoming holiday, and what’s on the horizon for the Hostess with the Mostest.

Last year, Halloween was all but canceled. And sadly, this year it’s at risk of meeting the same fate. It’s why we still need Elvira, because even if we can’t go out and celebrate in the same way, the Halloween spirit never dies.

After nearly 40 years of portraying Elvira, Peterson stayed at home on Halloween for the first time last year, much like the rest of us, due to the pandemic. But that didn’t mean her spirits weren’t high. The opportunist she is, Peterson made the most of the situation and had some creative ideas that helped us all get through the season unscathed, just like she will again this year.

We felt the need to re-release our interview with the Queen of Halloween. Peterson will be the first to tell you that Elvira isn’t the same without Halloween. But to be honest, Halloween wouldn’t be the same without Elvira, either. The two have become synonymous.

Elvira/Cassandra Peterson/Queen B Productions

interview interview interview interview

SPOILER: Cassandra, how are you?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: I’m great. Thanks for having me. I thought I’d never say this, but I’m actually missing going to Comic Cons [laughs], I really am.

SPOILER: You’re an iconic person. You play this amazing character named Elvira, but just your voice alone, whether in character or not, makes me nostalgic down to the bones.

CASSANDRA PETERSON: Woah! Good! Okay! [laughs]

SPOILER: You’ve been doing this character for so many years. How did you get the character of Elvira started?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: By the time it happened, I was working in Hollywood as an actress, trying to get work, and I was with The Groundlings comedy improv group for four-and-ahalf years prior to that, along with the late Phil Hartman from Saturday Night Live, and Pee-wee Herman, and a lot of other notables came out of that group. But I was struggling. Getting little jobs acting here and there on Fantasy Island and Sonny and Cher Show, but not setting the world on fire, that’s for damn sure. Barely paying my rent. And I heard about this job at a local station. A girlfriend called me up on my honeymoon and asked me if I wanted to come and audition for this little late night local TV show that was happening here in Los Angeles. And I said no, I didn’t wanna come back from my honeymoon. But a couple weeks later when I got back, they were still searching for someone to host the show. And it was a collection of old horror movies they had had forever, since the station had been owned by RKO General. They had a huge library of old ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s horror movies. And I went in and auditioned. Unfortunately, no one told me I was supposed to wear a costume. That was really awesome. I walk in looking like one of Charlie’s Angels or something, into a room filled with women dressed like vampires and witches and everything else in between. And I dunno, I somehow got the part. I’m positive, because I later talked to the director about it, that it was for

Cassandra Peterson

my comedy improv chops. He was wanting somebody who could be spooky, but could also be funny. And I think most of the girls that were auditioning had the spooky down, but not the funny so much. And you know, I was happy to get any job at that time so I could pay my car payment, but I wasn’t like, over the moon, like, “Oh my God! I just made it! I’m waiting for the Academy Awards!” It wasn’t like that, it was like, “Good, I got a job. I hope it lasts more than a couple of weeks.” Really that’s kinda the attitude we had. And I happened to have been a huge horror fan, so this was a dream job for me. I started at the end of September in 1981 and a couple weeks down the road, people were freaking out! I mean, I got called up and invited on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which at that time was kinda the pinnacle of show business. There were no other talk shows to speak of and he was definitely the king of that. Man, I got invited on that show and I was like, “Oh dude, something’s happening here, this is getting out of control.” And next year it’ll be 40 years that I’ve been doing the same thing. So it’s a trip. I really didn’t think it’d be 40 days.

SPOILER: When I see you on interviews and TV shows, you look the same. You haven’t changed a bit. Is there a solution or potion or something you’re drinking that you’re not sharing with anyone?

Cassandra Peterson: You haven’t seen me in the morning [laughs]. If there was some kind of solution, I would be marketing that stuff so fast you wouldn’t believe it. I wish there was. I wish I could say it was all due to good, clean living, but that never happened. But you know, I am careful about what I eat and I do

exercise. But that’s the only thing I can really say. I guess maybe I have good genes. I drink Dr. Pepper once in a while. I saw this lady who was 105-years-old on the news and they asked her what she owed her longevity to, and she said, “I drink a Dr. Pepper every day.” And I was like, “Damn. I’m gonna start drinking that stuff.” So I dunno. Who

knows? I think it’s the vodka that I drink that kept me pickled or something.

SPOILER: You’re such a funny person. When people see the name Elvira they think of horror, but it’s your comedy that sets you apart. And that comedic personality that you have is what’s defined the character through the ages and kept it alive. I remember when I used to see your show on TV and you always had these cool people back then, like Wolfman Jack and people like that. Do people often tell you what kind of memories you evoke for them?

Cassandra Peterson

Elvira/Cassandra Peterson/Queen B Productions

CASSANDRA PETERSON: Oh yeah, it’s crazy! I really do miss going to the Comic Cons for that reason. It sounds so crazy, but when it first happened, I thought, “This is very weird.” And now I’m kinda used to it, but it’s fabulous. People come up to me and they say, “I used to watch you every night with my grandma”; “I used to watch you with my grandpa”; “I used to watch you with my dad”; “…with my sister”; “…with my brother”; “…with my mom.” And they’d go, “…and now they’ve passed and it was the one thing that we kinda connected over. We both liked watching you, sort of for different reasons.” People will say, “My dad liked to watch you for the boobs, but I liked to watch you because you were silly and goofy.” And they grew up watching me as kind of a family thing, which you really wouldn’t think it. You’d think they would watch, like, Leave It to Beaver together or Doris Day or something, I dunno. But they grew up watching my show together, and people walk up to me, and many times, burst into tears. I mean, of course, that’s probably because of the way I look [laughs]. But they walk up and start recounting the story: “I watched this every night with my dad and my dad has passed and just to see you makes me so happy and thrilled.” And I just hear these stories and it’s just so amazing and makes me feel really, really good to hear

that kind of thing and to know that I brought a little bit of happiness to so many people.

SPOILER: When did you know that the Elvira persona was gonna come to define your career?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: It took

me a while. It was funny, in the beginning the character started getting very popular and I got invited on all these other TV shows and talk shows and parts in movies. And obviously I’m thrilled. I’m going, “Oh

my God. I really finally have made it as an actress. This is amazing.” Then I thought, “You know, I’m doing so great, I gotta go out and get some other parts and do some other things. I don’t wanna be stereotyped as Elvira for the rest of my life” [laughs]. And as time went on, we were able to get the rights for the character and started creating merchandise and licensing products and selling things and making our own shows for TV, for video games, movies, all of that. And all of that money came to me. Unlike other people who you might see—other characters who are equally great— like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, anybody, they do not own their character. So they don’t reap the benefits of all that merchandise you see in the store. You see a Freddy Krueger costume—unfortunately, the actor who played that is not getting that money. They may, hopefully, get a small percentage of it, but possibly not even that. When I do something, I get 100% of that money. And after a while, it really dawned on me and my manager, who was my husband at the time, “Are you kidding? Why would I want to get away from that and do something else?” I, in fact, did get a part to be on a pilot for a

Cassandra Peterson

TV show on NBC, and I was getting ready to enter into the contract as myself, and all of a sudden we thought, “Wait a minute, it’s October. I’m gonna be making $350 a week working on this show that might not even go and missing out on Halloween appearances? Am I out of my mind? What am I thinking?”

So, to me, there are very few people in the world who own their own licensing. I mean, the only few I can think of are Pee-wee Herman, KISS, Alice Cooper, but other than that, it’s a very small club. We own and control our characters. So, that is just an amazing blessing. So after a year or so, I was like, “I do not ever want to do anything but Elvira. This is really lucrative, and I have a fantastic time doing it.”

SPOILER: Do you think because you own it outright and you control the creativity and everything, you think that’s probably why it became so huge? Because you have control of this character and somewhere inside that character lives in you?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: Yeah, it definitely does. I was listening to a book by Woody Allen the other day about his career and his life and how he had complete control of all his movies—100% or he didn’t do them. And when he would work with a big studio where the suits got involved in telling him what to do, it was just a sure sign that the film was gonna be a disaster. And he was saying the lucky part about his career, which really, really hit home with me, was that he had complete control. You know, what’s that old saying about too many chefs spoil the broth or whatever the heck it is—it’s some old saying, believe me, I didn’t make it up [laughs]—then it just gets watered down. And I think the secret to making a truly unique, long-lasting brand is to let that entity, that person, control everything they do. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t have help along the way. Oh my God, no, I’ve had help from so, so many people. I couldn’t even begin to list all the people, who, without them, I don’t think I’d be doing what I do

today. It’s about control—and I’m a bit of a control freak—but it’s about, “No, my character wouldn’t do this,” “Yes, it would do this.” And if you get somebody else involved in it, they have their own personal agenda and it’s gonna change your brand, your character. And that’s when the character becomes—they want it to be for everyman instead of for a specific group that you’re aiming for; a specific audience. So I’ve gone off on that whole question, but the first part really hit home with me, because of just hearing that from Woody Allen the other day, it just really, really made an impact on me. I thought, “Damn! That is a fantastic point!”

SPOILER: I sense that a lot of Elvira is in Cassandra. How much percent of you is Elvira and how much is Cassandra?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: People used to ask me in the beginning,

“Are you anything like Elvira?” And I’d say, “No, I’m exactly the complete opposite. She’s really ballsy and confident and tough and strong. And I’m like a wuss. She’s my frontman.”

And then one day, I think it was Peewee who actually said to me, “You are exactly like Elvira! What are you talking about? You’re completely a teenager. You never grew up. You are

Cassandra Peterson

Elvira/Cassandra

Peterson/Queen B Productions

her.” And I started thinking about it. And I really think Elvira is that part of my personality that was me when I was a teenager. Because when I was a teenager, I was this—ugghh, oh my God, my poor parents—I was just this brash, loud-mouthed, know-it-all, kick-ass kind of kid. I mean, I moved out of my house at 14 and went to work as a go-go girl. So I really think that part of me has somehow come out in Elvira. So Elvira is Cassandra as a teenager, which is kinda scary [laughs].

SPOILER: It’s so hard in Hollywood to reinvent yourself, but you didn’t have to reinvent yourself. You kept the same invention and kept it going. And now the diehard fans are having kids, and they love you as well. I know conventions for you are probably wild. What was it like at your first convention?

Cassandra Peterson: It was shocking. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t believe the amount of people that had turned out and just wanted me to sign my name. I was like, “Seriously?” And I think we were charging something like $10 for an autograph [laughs]. It was at a car show in Denver, Colorado. I was the only celebrity and then there were just a bunch of cars— classic cars and stuff—and I was so thrilled that I signed and signed and signed and signed. And at the end of the day, my shoulder went

into a spasm and I had to go to the hospital and have an injection of cortisone in my shoulder muscle [laughs]. I was so thrilled that I didn’t know when to stop [laughs]. Isn’t that ridiculous?

Now I’ve built up such an incredible autograph signing muscle so I never have to worry about that anymore. People always, when they come up in line at the cons, they always say to me, “Oh my God, your hand must be killing you.” I go, “My hand is fine, it’s my butt that’s killin’ me. I’ve been sittin’ here for 8 hours.”

Elvira/Cassandra Peterson/Queen B Productions

SPOILER: It’s exciting with Halloween coming up. And Halloween’s your thing. But this year, with COVID, it’s not gonna be the same. Does it bother you a little bit?

CASSANDRA PETERSON: Actually, it’s very funny, I have a music video coming out at the end of September that I’ve been working on for quite a while with some friends. One of which is Jackie Beat, who is a drag queen here in LA and all over the place. Jackie helped write the lyrics and it’s a super funny song kind of addressing Halloween this year. So I’m hoping to God it comes out the way I’m imagining it will. But this Halloween will be the first time in 40 years I have been home. In a way, I’m really kinda looking forward to it. In another way, it’s depressing to think about.

SPOILER: Hopefully it goes back to normal soon. But you have a lot going on. If fans want to get a hold of you, your website is Elvira.com.

CASSANDRA PETERSON: Yeah, I’m launching a new site with all kinds of new designs for more Elvira crap [laughs], but actually some awesome fun things.

I’m actually selling my MAGA hats— Make America Goth Again. Those are coming out soon. Made in Transylvania. All kinds of new, really fun stuff for Halloween starting next week. And my comic book with Dynamite has been out for, gosh, I dunno, a couple of years maybe. But we have a new really special edition coming out and they’re doing a Kickstarter program for this one because they’re giving away all kinds of prizes like my new Elvira Ouija Board and different things for this new special edition comic book written by me and David Avallone. So that will be super fun for the comic book crowd. And I have, of course, my autobiography, which sadly I have finished after like, a thousand years of writing it. I really have, I’ve been writing it for 15 years [laughs]. And I

finally got done with it and we were all set to launch this fall when COVID-19 came along and we are gonna postpone it for now just because I can’t tour with it, I can’t go to book signings. And if you don’t, it’s like a musician putting an album out and then not touring, and then the album disappears into obliviousness. So, I don’t want to have spent the last 15 years of my life working on a book that just comes out and is just gone overnight. Especially, if you sign up for my newsletter we’ll be letting everybody know when [everything’s] coming out, so they’ll get a little jump start on the action.

SPOILER: Is there anything you want to tell the fans out there?

Cassandra Peterson: Well, just tell them that I really, really miss them, and being out in public and getting to meet them and see them. That’ll be a big disappointment for me this year. But you know what? We’re still gonna have Halloween. We’re gonna make it fun. Everybody, even if you’re celebrating at home or online or however you do, dress up, have fun! I’m having a contest: one-minute horror movie. Keep your eyeballs peeled for that on my social media. The best one-minute horror movie shot with your phone. And I’ll be giving away some really, really awesome prizes for that. I’m trying to make Halloween fun from home, what can I say?

Cassandra Peterson

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Natalie malaika is no stranger to the horror

genre, with both an affinity in her personal life and her career, featured in films such as Fractured and The Sinners. However, Day of the Dead is her biggest role yet. Starring as Lauren Howell, she plays a funeral director who’s surrounded by dead people all day, and now suddenly surrounded by the undead.

This is just the beginning for the actress who’s opening up a major new chapter in her life on a show that’s sure to be a hit.

Premiering on Syfy on October 15, just in time for Halloween, the series will be a love letter to Romero’s zombies, said to have a connection to its namesake movie, while also standing on its own as a brand new universe.

Natalie sits down with us to talk about how she got started in acting and her love for Mexican food and Zoe Saldana. She also fills us in on the prep work she did in order to grasp what would make someone want to work with dead people all day in the first place.

SPOILER: You’ve done several horror projects. What is it about horror that you like?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I didn’t necessarily pick horror. I think horror picked me. Growing up, my mom never understood why I was so drawn to the horror genre. For me, I think it really started with a babysitter I had who had this personal goal of trying to scare me. She would do the Bloody Mary thing, and she would make me watch all these scary movies at night time. And I was always terrified, but I wanted to overcome that terror.

SPOILER: Is there a particular way you have to scream in a horror movie?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Well Day of the Dead was actually the first time I ever had to do a full-on scream.

SPOILER: How did it feel when you first got cast in the show knowing that you were going to be part of the George A. Romero universe?

NATALIE MALAIKA: If I’m being honest, it is a little bit intimidating. You do want to do the genre and George A. Romero justice. It’s

not something that myself or the other creatives take lightly. It isn’t a remake [of the 1985 film], but more of a tribute to the legacy of George A. Romero and his zombies. But I think we did a great job with honoring him, and I hope it’ll be received well by viewers.

SPOILER: What’s the premise of the show? What can you share?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Obviously there are little nuggets of George Romero’s legacy embedded throughout. But essentially it’s these six strangers who end up finding and having to depend on each other to survive when their small town becomes overrun by zombies. And over the course of the 10 episodes, the chaos that ensues—it takes place over the span of 24 hours, so it’s definitely a jam-packed day for us six townies— we’re definitely taking viewers on a ride.

SPOILER: Were you ever terrified while making this?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I think the one part that takes some getting used to is seeing the zombies when they’re in their full getup, then you have them chasing you and you

have to run away from them. It’s a little freaky sometimes. [And then between takes] they’re just sitting there having some coffee, but in their full getup. I’m like, “This is strange, but I love it!”

SPOILER: Have you been able to go to any conventions yet to meet fans who are excited about the series?

NATALIE MALAIKA: We haven’t yet. That’s something that I am really looking forward to— connecting with fans of the show and George A. Romero. We did do Comic Con this year—it was all virtual, unfortunately, which kinda sucks—but it was still a really cool experience. But hopefully in the future there will be opportunities to meet with some fans and I’m looking forward to that.

SPOILER: Will the tone be similar to a lot of the Dead movies, which were kind of tinged with humor as well as horror?

NATALIE MALAIKA: The trailer definitely paints the show as more on the comedic side, and that’s definitely an element. The writers, Jed [Elinoff] and Scott [Thomas]— they’re amazing—they embedded it with a lot of comedy. But the thing to note is that there are a lot of deeper moments throughout. And there’s a lot of social commentary, which is something that’s present in a lot of George Romero’s films. It’s a different storyline from the original, however, the complexity of Romero’s zombies is a vital component that translates to the series. There’s also a number of Easter eggs throughout the series that Romero fans may pick up on and hopefully appreciate. Prepare to re-envision what a bite from a zombie could mean. Also, expect some super kickass effects and lots of blood-splattering goodness!

SPOILER: What’s your character’s role?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I’m one of the townies. I play Lauren Howell. She’s a former drug addict and a current mortician and funeral director. And when viewers meet her, they begin to get little tidbits of her backstory. And this is a big day for her because it’s the first time where her boss at the funeral home is allowing her to take the reins on handling her own funeral service. And for her, that’s a big deal because she’s very passionate about what she does. She’s kind of a lone wolf compared to the other characters, with a little bit of a Gothic edge as well. If we get a second season we’ll be able to delve a little bit deeper into Lauren’s history. I think people will definitely connect with at least one of the main characters, because every character is so vastly different.

SPOILER: Is there a piece of you in Lauren?

NATALIE MALAIKA: For sure. In a lot of ways. Lauren is very strong, she’s good at pulling herself together and doing what she needs to do to get by and get through. But nobody can be strong 100% of the time; we all need an outlet or else we’ll just be a bundle of pent-up emotions. And I think Lauren begins to realize this and we get to see her evolve emotionally and allow herself to open up throughout the season. That’s kind of something I had to learn too. Sometimes I have the tendency to just go, go, go without really checking in with myself emotionally, mentally, etc. to see how I’m doing and to recalibrate my energy, but I’m getting better!

SPOILER: Does preparing for your character ever give you stress or anxiety?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Not really. I actually find that to be the fun part, to delve into the writer’s work and find my own unique way into understanding the character. Once I do that, stress and anxiety are minimal or nonexistent because the character then becomes aligned with myself in a way.

SPOILER: What gets you into the mindset of playing a character in a horror project?

NATALIE MALAIKA: For me, I like to stay really grounded. I enjoy a little bit of quiet time mentally. There’s a lot of times where I’m there with my eyes closed, just to get outside of my mind, so that when I open my eyes I just feel very present. Depending on the scene, whatever thoughts I need to bring up, it gives me a moment to steady myself there.

In terms of actual prep work for the show, I was fascinated with the mortician aspect of Lauren and decided to visit a funeral home. I was just fascinated with what draws someone to want to be a funeral director and work with dead bodies on the daily. Personally, I didn’t understand the draw. And it was interesting, just seeing all the instruments they use, which helped me when I had a scene where I was doing what I do. And she was very thorough with her explanations and very excited about what she does. So, I tried to channel that in Lauren.

And they had a funeral director there [on set] to help me along the way as well.

I figured that someone who works around dead people on a daily basis has a very particular outlook on death, and not necessarily fearful of it as probably the average person would be. So the fact that Lauren deals with the dead on the daily, and now she’s dealing with the undead in this 24 hour span when they attack the town—they are two different things obviously, but there’s probably a part of her that’s a little less scared.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I believe in spirits, ghosts, and extraterrestrial life. I think in terms of the horror genre, [the paranormal] is the subgenre that scares me the most. I’ve never experienced anything super paranormal. I mean, I’ve had little instances growing up, but if I saw something like that in my house—I’m sorry, I’m moving out: “Goodbye, the house is now yours.” I do believe in it a little bit.

SPOILER: What happened as a child?

NATALIE MALAIKA: So after my babysitter told me about the Bloody Mary challenge, I decided to go home and try it myself [laughs]. And nothing happened, but a couple days later I remember seeing a figure swinging on my door. And then when I turned on my light it wasn’t there. And then when I was a bit older, I was about 17, and I was taking a nap and I felt myself kind of being lifted off of my bed. I was asleep and then [my body] dropped, and then I woke up.

SPOILER: What is your weapon of choice during an apocalypse?

NATALIE MALAIKA: A weed whacker. Swing that thing around a couple of times and it could do some decent damage. But it’s probably less than ideal to carry around, so if we’re talking practical, then hand me a sword.

SPOILER: If you had a choice, would you become a vampire or zombie?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Vampire! They don’t age, live forever, and apparently can compel others to do things for them. I’d compel a chef so I don’t ever have to cook again. Priorities!

SPOILER: What made you get into

Day of the Dead/Syfy/NBCUniversal/Sergei

Bachlakov/George A. Romero

acting?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I’ve always been a performer, but my interest in acting, specifically, started to bloom around middle school; I was literally in every school play possible! From there, I went on to attend an arts high school in Toronto where I majored in dance but slowly started to segue into acting. Prior to that I had been trying to find an agent. But being young and the fact that there are so many not-so-legitimate agencies out there, I did have a bit of difficulty at that time and kinda gave up on it at one point. But as I started to talk to some of my teachers at school who could actually point me in the right direction, that made me start to turn my attention to acting. I just love all art forms. I think all art forms are great and it’s a great way to express yourself. And I think all high schools should put a big emphasis on that, regardless if you’re an arts school or not. So I started taking more acting classes and found my passion, was able to find a legitimate agency, and started going from there.

SPOILER: What was your first gig?

NATALIE MALAIKA: THE FIRST THING I BOOKED WAS A COMMERCIAL FOR FAMOUS FOOTWEAR. BUT AS FAR AS FILM AND TELEVISION WORK, IT WAS AN INDIE FEATURE CALLED PICTURE DAY WITH TATIANA MASLANY, WHO IS AMAZING AND DOING GREAT THINGS RIGHT NOW.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone trying to get into acting?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Make sure you really, really love the craft and are passionate about it because there can be a lot of ups and downs. Once you know you’re prepared for that, start putting the work in: Get into classes, read scripts, find actors, directors, writers that you admire and absorb their work, create your own work, and begin to

forge your path in the industry.

SPOILER: What else do you have in the works?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I’m doing some writing. I’ve had ideas that I’ve wanted to start working on for a few years, and I’m finally starting to delve into that more heavily. And then with COVID, I wasn’t able to travel. And I didn’t realize until I couldn’t travel how big traveling has been for me, so I’m slowly starting to get back into traveling again. And I just finished up on a short film a few weeks ago. It filmed in Edmonton.

SPOILER: Are you from Canada?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Yes I am. I’m originally from Toronto. And now I’m in Vancouver.

SPOILER: Is the industry starting to pick up again in Canada?

NATALIE MALAIKA: When COVID first happened, everything shut down, but Vancouver was kind of the first film hub to pick up and start filming again. And there is tons of work because our COVID situation was getting better quicker than most other provinces. So it’s been quite busy here, which is nice.

SPOILER: Of all of your horror projects, which one has been your favorite?

NATALIE MALAIKA: All of them have a special place, but the two that stand out the most obviously are Day of the Dead—epic, epic opportunity—and then working on Fractured with Sam Worthington back in 2019 was pretty cool. Sam was great, and getting to watch him and how he works was awesome. He’s a really nice guy.

SPOILER: What are you gonna be doing for premiere night of Day of the Dead?

NATALIE MALAIKA: It’s still up in the air, but I’ve been talking to some of the other cast about just having a little watch party, but it’s still in the works.

SPOILER: Do you miss your castmates?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I do! Working on Day of the Dead was one of the few

Day of the Dead/Syfy/NBCUniversal/Sergei Bachlakov/George A. Romero

times I felt a sense of family and community on a set, largely because we worked with the same people almost every day for several months, and so we really got to know each other. It was a great feeling being able to show up to set knowing that I get to work with a talented, diverse, and fun group of people. We connected in our own individual ways with each other, which was really special. And although everyone is off doing their own thing, we have a group chat and still stay connected when we can.

SPOILER: Who on set is your go-to person for advice?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Paula Shaw, who plays Mrs. French, was a great person to talk to! She was only on set for a few days, but we went for a walk on her last day and spoke at length about her life and career. To hear the perspective of someone who has been in the industry for so long and has managed to build a longstanding career for herself was very inspiring.

SPOILER: Which castmate is the biggest practical joker?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Keenan [Tracey]. We were always laughing and cracking jokes on set. Sometimes we would just look at each other and burst out laughing—it was ridiculous!

SPOILER: Is there a particular director or producer who you’d really love to work with?

NATALIE MALAIKA: There’s so many, but right now I’d say my top two would probably be Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay. One day.

SPOILER: I hear you’re a big fan of Zoe Saldana.

NATALIE MALAIKA: That is true! I sometimes get lookalike comparisons to Zoe Saldana, which is a huge compliment. But I love Zoe Saldana and I loved her in Colombiana. That’s one of my favorite movies and the badass assassin role that she plays in that— something like that is a dream role for me. And something supernatural would be cool—vampire, witch, something like that.

SPOILER: If you could be on any TV show that’s on right now, which one would it be?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Lovecraft Country. It’s so good. I love the supernatural element, but then it talks about history too and it’s such a cool story.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

NATALIE MALAIKA: That’s hard, but I have to say Marvel. They gave us Black Panther! I mean, both...but Marvel.

SPOILER: Who’s your favorite character?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Black Panther and Letitia Wright’s character Shuri— she’s pretty badass.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite food?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I was in Mexico not too long ago, and the food there is [chef’s kiss]. So I’d probably say Mexican food.

SPOILER: If a boy wants to get your special attention, what would that boy have to do?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I guess tacos. Get me a full plate of tacos.

SPOILER: Do you like your food spicy?

NATALIE MALAIKA: I do. I love spicy food. Gimme those chili flakes, chili oil, whatever it is.

SPOILER: Would you want special powers in the real world?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Sure! I’d want teleportation powers! I love to travel but don’t necessarily enjoy long flights, so teleportation would come in handy. Want to be on a beach in Jamaica? No problem. Authentic Italian food? Italy, here I come. I’m sure someone, somewhere is working on teleportation as a real world thing, right?

SPOILER: If you could live anywhere in the world where would you live?

NATALIE MALAIKA: Maybe Europe. That’s a hard question. Maybe the UK. I’ve always wanted to experience living in the UK for part of my life.

SPOILER: Do you think social media and fan interaction is a good thing?

NATALIE MALAIKA: We’re living in a very interesting world. It’s part of what I do and so I’m definitely open to welcoming that, but I am a bit of a private person when it comes to certain things. I don’t post as often as maybe I should or could, but it’s a work in progress I guess [laughs].

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna say to the fans?

NATALIE MALAIKA: “Be you. Take risks. Take chances. And just live your best life.”

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

as a lifelong dancer, kristy dawn dinsmore

has performed everywhere from a Royal Caribbean cruise line to the 2010 Olympic Games closing ceremonies. However, as an actor, she’s still just getting started. Beginning with a breakout role in 2019 on the historical epic Vikings, the Vancouver native now stars in Syfy’s upcoming zombie series Day of the Dead. She plays Amy, a “spoiled bridezilla from hell”; a control freak who now must deal with literal chaos in the form of a zombie outbreak around her. While Kristy’s first on-camera role didn’t come until she was 16, the actress has been fascinated by the filmmaking process since she could remember, and recollects the home movies she and her friends would make—mostly horror, equipped with low budget fake blood and quiet screaming (so as to not wake up her parents). We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the actress as she continues to level up her career more and more.

interview interview

SPOILER: How was your experience working on Day of the Dead? kristy dawn dinsmore: My experience was incredible. It was a cathartic experience for me given all the chaos of 2020, as I had some hardships like most. I felt very strongly towards my character Amy. I immediately bonded with her adversities and felt I needed to do her justice by channeling all those hardships through her, which was very empowering for me as an actress. The show was a blessing for me and I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to get back to work under COVID circumstances and do what I love to do. Also, I lucked out with such a great group of talented people, cast and crew included. The make-up department killed it! No pun intended. Shout out to Ashley [Forshaw] and Chelsea [Matthews]. They did an incredible job. I was always egging everyone on: “More blood!” More is better, right?

We had a great energy on set—a lot of laughs and I think generally people were just so happy to be around other people again and working. So it created a fun, safe, creative, and collaborative experience for everyone.

SPOILER: Tell us a little bit about your character, Amy.

kristy dawn dinsmore: Amy’s misunderstood, misguided, and kind of a spoiled bridezilla from hell. It’s her way or the highway at first, until everything is literally out of her control. She really does grapple with a lot, striving for her own independence, she’s caught in between wanting her father’s approval and love and wanting everything picture perfect with her fiancé. She’s left with some pretty big decisions and some growing pains. We will get to see her transformation as the season progresses.

She does not pick the practical weapon of choice. I think Amy is a “go big or go home” type of woman. I can’t wait for fans to meet Amy and see what she’s made of.

SPOILER: Is there a piece of you in your character?

kristy dawn dinsmore: Of course! I think there is always a piece of any of the

characters I play within me. I often find a lot of my past characters have mirrored or shared parallels with my own life. Some characters take more work and sometimes you go into them thinking they’re completely opposite of who you are and then pleasantly surprised when you find the shared commonalities. But I always find I end up learning about myself and/or I grow as a person.

SPOILER: Who is your favorite castmate?

kristy dawn dinsmore: I’m too indecisive and I can’t leave anyone out because I love everyone so much. I feel I bonded with everyone in different ways. Dejan Loyola, who plays Jai Fisher, my co-star hubby, was so awesome. We really became close on set. Stefanie von Pfetten, who plays Cindy, was a great confidant of mine. We both have similar processes, so we supported each other a lot. Kevin O’Grady, who plays Rhodes, is hilarious—such a comedian and a fun guy to banter with. And also I can’t leave out Miranda Frigon, who plays Paula Bowman. She was really a great sounding board and such a force for so many of us on set, and just a down-to-earth, hilarious person.

SPOILER: Do you miss your castmates?

kristy dawn dinsmore: Of course! I miss them all the time. Fingers crossed we get picked up for season 2 so we can all reunite. We actually have a WhatsApp group, so we all stay in touch.

SPOILER: Who on set is your go-to person for advice?

kristy dawn dinsmore: I would probably have to say Stefanie von Pfetten. She was like an older sister to me.

SPOILER: What’s a scene in the series that still creeps you out? kristy dawn dinsmore: There was one day where we were shooting with a lot of zombie extras and I actually hate zombies. I don’t like things chasing me, but zombies

just creep me out in general. But I think it was the wedding scene where we all had to run away from them as they chased after us. And all the extras in their great make-up—it was traumatizing for me. No thanks! I remember Dejan laughing at me because I was legitimately scared and closing my eyes.

SPOILER: If you were a zombie killer would you be kind or ruthless? kristy dawn dinsmore: Definitely ruthless. I imagine it would be how I kill all the flies in my apartment mid-summer! I think we can all relate [laughs].

SPOILER: Who’s the biggest practical joker on set? kristy dawn dinsmore: I feel like I do love to crack jokes on set,

but Keenan Tracey is quite hilarious and witty himself. Also Jed [Elinoff] and Scott [Thomas], the writers and creators, are pretty hilarious and always cracking jokes.

SPOILER: What is your weapon of choice during an apocalypse? kristy dawn dinsmore: My weapon of choice would probably be something practical and boring like a knife or maybe a gun. See, I didn’t say flamethrower, because it would be too heavy and impractical to carry.

SPOILER: How would you describe Day of the Dead? kristy dawn dinsmore: Day of the Dead is really about surviving and watching these six people navigate that [space] between their

old world and new unruly world. Problems don’t just go away when there’s an apocalypse and of course the new obstacles, aka the undead, are causing most of their grief, but there is a lot of deceit in their small little town as well. Drama meets mystery. These people have to work together at the end of the day so they can escape alive and rebuild their lives. More or less, it is a family drama with some laugh-out-loud, gory, and over-the-top fun moments.

SPOILER: Can you share anything from season 1 that is juicy?

KRISTY DAWN DINSMORE: One of us may or may not be hiding something which may or may not be revealed at the end of season 1.

SPOILER: What originally got you into acting?

kristy dawn dinsmore: Dancing really led me to acting. I started at the age of 3 in a musical theater school. We learned acting, singing, and dancing, so it was bound to naturally blossom that way. I also had an extreme amount of energy, running around the neighborhood getting into trouble and bouncing off the walls. I had a huge imagination, so I needed to channel that energy

somewhere. I was always writing stories and filming funny home videos with friends. I would direct and choreograph, of course. Funny thing is my home videos always turned into horror movies. We would tape cellophane to our shirts and then pour ketchup down from above the camera to imitate blood and then “fake scream”—making the facial expressions and whispering the sound of what would have been a blood-curdling scream—due to the fact it was always past midnight when we decided to orchestrate these elaborate ideas of mine and

avoid getting in trouble while my parents were asleep.

Also, I think what inspired me to become an actress was really my love for storytelling. I had some great people and family in my life who would really love to laugh, joke, and tell stories, so I grew up surrounded by that. Watching films inspired me greatly as a kid and taught me amazing things. I was always curious about filmmaking and acting in general as a kid. I would watch films with my dad who would teach me about the metaphors, messages, and symbolism of them all. I would be completely puzzled by actors and ask questions like, “How did they know to move or eat or do the interesting things they do? Did someone tell them or is it in the script?” It was fascinating to me! And really my love for dance and my curiosity and love for storytelling turned into a passion for me. I wanted to inspire people the way films inspired me and learn how to do that myself. I had a big passion for understanding how it all worked. And from there, I did my first on-camera class at the age of 13, and starred in my first TV movie at the age of 16. And the rest is history.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone trying to get into acting?

Day of the Dead/Syfy/NBCUniversal/Sergei

Bachlakov/George A. Romero

kristy dawn dinsmore: Immerse yourself, stay inspired, and study, study, study! Find great, supportive people, teachers, coaches in your corner who believe in you. And believe in yourself. Do not act to get rich—you’ll be disappointed. Do it because you love it. If you are passionate and love it, don’t give up. We have to collect all of our nos before we get our yes! Be patient, your career is a lifelong journey in this industry, so do things that are in your control and learn how to manage stress and rejection well. Also, live life, have experiences, have a side hustle because at the end of the day that’s what life is truly about.

SPOILER: Does preparing for your character ever give you stress or anxiety?

kristy dawn dinsmore: Of course! I think we are all only human, and I have many stresses and anxieties about being truthful in my work and giving the character’s and the writers justice in the storytelling. Preparing for Amy was exciting for me, and I believe you should always go after things that scare you and make you grow. I love challenging myself and there were days that I had very emotional scenes and those can be scary or uncomfortable to perform because it’s harder to go to those deeper and darker places inside yourself. But it’s so rewarding when you can use that in your work to overcome and empower yourself to grow and be better.

SPOILER: What do you think fans of the original film will like about this series?

kristy dawn dinsmore: I think the fans will love all the same fun as the original: hoards of gross, flesheating zombies, secret labs, rogue doctors, hysteria, and bringing back badass characters like McDermott and Rhodes [from the 1985 original], along with some new faces. It’s all mixed in

with romance, new friendships, and of course drama, deceit, and unfair alliances amongst the surviving bunch. And it’s not without some laugh-outloud, save-all-of-humanity kinds of moments.

I think our writers Scott and Jed did a fantastic job at preserving the heart of the original film and fans will be impressed by the homage. It’s fun for the whole family all the while answering the ultimate question: “Maybe zombies are more human than we thought.” I think the show has a little mix of everything and will make original fans proud. Disclaimer: It will not be for the faint of heart... unless you got the guts. See what I did there?

SPOILER: Have you been to a comic convention? kristy dawn dinsmore: I got to experience San Diego Comic Con a couple of times and also went to a few others in Europe when I was on my last project, Vikings. Always a great time and cool experience. I love the fan dedication.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC? kristy dawn dinsmore: Ooh, hard to say, but I think it would have to be Marvel. The universe is so big. So many characters to discover still, and who doesn’t like Guardians of the Galaxy?

SPOILER: If you can give one message to all the fans out in the world, what would it be?

KRISTY DAWN DINSMORE: “Get ready for us! It’s going to be awesome and I cannot wait for you to meet all the characters in this season! I hope you like it and it pays homage well to the original. CHEERS!”

Bachlakov/George A. Romero

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

one of the most prominent newcomers

on Syfy’s Day of the Dead is Morgan Holmstrom, who studied science at the University of Winnipeg prior to transitioning to acting. Her character Sarah Blackwood is a military veteran and a rookie on a mysterious fracking operation that is being investigated on the same day as the zombie outbreak. Following Day of the Dead, the actress will star in the miniseries Shadow of the Rougarou as well as the upcoming Paramount+ medical drama Skymed. Morgan chats with us about her experience filming a zombie show during a pandemic, as well as learning the useful skill of choking somebody out and her dream of playing Wonder Woman.

SPOILER: How was your experience working on Day of the Dead? morgan holmstrom: It was a radical experience! I mean, shooting a zombie show in the middle of a pandemic is already quite apocalyptic. I think all of us were feeling that sense of urgency while shooting since it was so close to home.

SPOILER: How would you describe the series?

morgan holmstrom: A crazy show filled with lots of gore and frightening zombies. It’ll keep you on your toes. It’s all the things you could want from a zombie show, but with a great way of showing how the most opposite of people are able to come together in the face of a zombie apocalypse!

SPOILER: How much of George A. Romero’s influence will we see in the series?

morgan holmstrom: There is

quite a bit of Romero influence in the show in many aspects: through the sets, the characters, the storyline. I mean, the original from the ‘80s had a very serious undertone with comical elements and I think we found a great way to balance that while still having a new, fun perspective.

SPOILER: What got you into acting? morgan holmstrom: Well, I started modeling when I was younger and kind of fell upon it by accident. My agent told me to audition for this movie that was filming in Winnipeg at the time and to get an acting coach. I ended up booking a small role. Then I spent 2 years in denial that I wanted to be an actor, studied science in university until I said enough is enough, moved to Vancouver, took it seriously, and now I’m here!

SPOILER: Do you believe in zombies?

morgan holmstrom: I definitely do. Whether that’s the classic Romero zombie or the symbolism of what they represent. I think that’s a real fear of mine.

SPOILER: Do you miss your castmates? morgan holmstrom: Of course I do! You spend so much time together on set and then you have to go back to normal lives. It’s hard, I miss them a lot!

SPOILER: Who on the set of Day of the Dead is your go-to person for advice?

morgan holmstrom: I’d say my go to person would be Natalie [Malaika] or Daniel [Doheny]. They both have a well of knowledge in those beautiful heads of theirs.

SPOILER: Who’s the biggest practical joker on set? morgan holmstrom: I’d say Kristy [Dawn Dinsmore] or Keenan [Tracey].

SPOILER: What are some advantages of being a zombie? morgan holmstrom: You never have to think or plan out what you’re going to eat.

SPOILER: What is your weapon of choice during an apocalypse? morgan holmstrom: I think a handgun. Keep it simple.

SPOILER: If you had a choice would you become a vampire or zombie? morgan holmstrom: I think zombie, but maybe I’m biased.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite food when working on set? morgan holmstrom: Crafty always has a way to lure me in, but I eat a lot of chips. It’s a bad habit, but you will most likely see me eating any sort of chips.

SPOILER: Tell us a little bit about your character.

morgan holmstrom: Well, her name is Sarah Blackwood. She’s former military and a rookie working on a fracking crew. She’s a bit of a lone wolf but stands up for what’s right. She’s a hell of a fighter and she’ll always have your back.

SPOILER: Is there a piece of you in your character?

morgan holmstrom: I don’t think I would be doing my job right if there wasn’t a piece of me in every character I do. I always try to look for the similarities even when it feels like a world of differences; how they could still relate to myself or my life. And I definitely felt that with Blackwood.

SPOILER: What can the massive zombie fans around the globe expect from this first season?

morgan holmstrom: Lots of gore, lots of blood, action, awesome characters, and a whole lot of zombie madness.

SPOILER: Would you want special powers in the real world? What would they be? morgan holmstrom: I would want to be able to fly or be able to control the elements like water or fire. Something like that!

SPOILER: Did you learn anything exciting while working on the series that you can use in a practical situation? morgan holmstrom: I learned how to choke someone out properly.

That might come in handy one day.

SPOILER: Who is the hardest working cast member in the series? morgan holmstrom: Well, it’s kind of funny because each of our characters go through so much in our own worlds that I didn’t get to work with the rest of the cast until the very end. But I know that everyone gave it their all and all worked extremely hard to make this show a reality.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone trying to get into acting? morgan holmstrom: Keep your head down, work hard, and don’t give up! This industry is challenging, but it’s the ones who are crazy enough to think they can do it that end up becoming actors. And it’s so rewarding once you do.

SPOILER: Does preparing for your character ever give you stress or anxiety?

morgan holmstrom: All the time, which I think is natural in any scenario or any profession. You just want to do a good job and hopefully play a character that people relate with. I think as actors, we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. But

once you’re on set and get the first couple weeks underway, a lot of those feelings start to melt away and you can just focus more on the craft.

SPOILER: If you can give one message to all the fans out in the world, what would it be? morgan holmstrom: “Hi! I love you all so much and thank you for choosing to watch this show. I hope you see the hard work and love we put into making it.”

SPOILER: Do you feel social media has helped make the zombie genre even more massive than it already is? morgan holmstrom: For sure! Social media has such a huge reach. And from what I’ve seen online, such as zombie fan pages and what not, it’s definitely reached people on a larger scale.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

MORGAN HOLMSTROM: How do I choose? I mean I love to watch Marvel movies but would love to be Wonder Woman.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

never think that he’s had an adult acting career for over a decade now. The baby-faced star of Syfy’s upcoming series Day of the Dead, based on the works of George A. Romero, had early guest spots on the likes of Eureka and Fringe, but in recent years has earned recurring roles on The 100 and Bates Motel.

Exposed to life on set at a young age, the actor says he’s always felt at home going to work with his father, Ian Tracey, who starred in the show Continuum and has also acted alongside his son in Bates Motel. It was Ian who also helped influence Keenan’s love for music.

In perhaps his biggest project yet, Tracey plays Cam McDermott, the son of a police officer and a “reluctant hero” in this story about six citizens of a small town who are suddenly faced with a zombie apocalypse. The actor recognizes that his own admittedly-flippant nature serves well his character, who seems to be an embodiment of the series’ comedic tinges.

We get to see Keenan’s goofiness firsthand as he shares with us his experience on this show, including the unintentionally unappetizing craft services meals, such as pasta or tomato soup, neither of which should ever be served on the set of any project having to do with zombies.

if you looked at keenan tracey, you would

Day of the Dead/Syfy/NBCUniversal/Sergei

Bachlakov/George A. Romero

interview interview

SPOILER: How would you describe Day of the Dead?

KEENAN TRACEY: Day of the Dead is an immersion into the world of George A. Romero. It’s a classic take on the traditional zombie, brought back to life. It is a tale of our time, and through fantasy, it touches on real human issues, values, and circumstance in a collective group of characters.

SPOILER: How is your experience working on Day of the Dead?

KEENAN TRACEY: My experience is fantastic! We were shooting a zombie apocalypse in what felt like a pandemic apocalypse. The wild circumstance definitely brought us all closer.

SPOILER: Who is your favorite castmate?

KEENAN TRACEY: Natalie [Malaika]!

The majority of our scenes are together, so we spent the most time on set together. We quickly learned how to make each other laugh super easily. Turning it off to roll camera was the hard part!

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

KEENAN TRACEY: I grew up around film. It’s in the family. And I always loved going to set. It was somewhere I always felt at home and always envisioned my days of work. Not only that, but I loved watching movies. And once I cross that line of something I want to endeavor and shoot towards, it almost becomes a compulsion from there.

SPOILER: Do you believe in zombies?

KEENAN TRACEY: Figuratively, yes. I believe in the slow-growing trickle of complacency. People droning on in a society that plasters “the answers” on billboards and advertisements—

and we buy it! Marching along blindly towards what we’re merely told is a carrot on a string.

SPOILER: Do you miss your castmates?

KEENAN TRACEY: Of course! When you work with great people, in close quarters, for the hours you do a day, the days you do a week, you really become a strong team and good relationships have the ability to be made. It’s the first thing you notice on your first official day off after a long shoot. The “post-gig-blues” is a thing I’ve only felt in wake of seeing certain people every day, and then suddenly not.

SPOILER: Who on the set is your goto person for advice?

KEENAN TRACEY: Day of the Jedand-Scott! [Creators Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas.] These guys were the guys when it came to any questions or ideas. They rose this thing from out of the ground—quite literally.

SPOILER: Who’s the biggest practical joker on set?

KEENAN TRACEY: Again, Natalie. There would be times it would be hard not to stop laughing. And sometimes, you wouldn’t be laughing in the scene; sometimes it’s supposed to be anything but that happening, and you still struggle to squash the giggle.

SPOILER: Recall a scene in the series that still creeps you out.

KEENAN TRACEY: There is a scene before I know there are zombies that I think I hear something coming from the ground. When I put my ear to it, it’s not nothing—and what it really was on the day of shooting was still weird enough even though I knew it was fake. Sometimes just being in the moment of it happening, you can trick yourself with the illusions.

SPOILER: If you were a zombie killer, would you be kind or ruthless?

KEENAN TRACEY: Oh, absolutely ruthless. Once the fate of the world

has already well been realized, and that the zombies are the problem, I’d make a game of it!

SPOILER: What are some advantages of being a zombie?

KEENAN TRACEY: No silly emotions! Ever cry over a breakup? Feel sad that grandma died? Feel impatient in a line at Starbucks? Well, not zombies! Try feeling, nothing at all! All it takes is a bite! “Limited while supplies last.”

SPOILER: Who is the strongest character on the show in your opinion?

KEENAN TRACEY: Paula! Of all the people that take on this day, she seems to be the least reluctant and the most ready. I love people who are headstrong.

SPOILER: What is your weapon of choice during an apocalypse?

KEENAN TRACEY: My weapon of choice would have to be big enough that I could keep somewhat of a distance, but that also doesn’t ever run out of bullets, or arrows. Hmm, maybe a pitchfork? Just an idea.

SPOILER: What do you think would be the fastest way to kill a zombie?

KEENAN TRACEY: A large hydraulic press.

SPOILER: Have you been to a comic convention?

KEENAN TRACEY: Yes! I went to San Diego Comic Con in 2019, then we did a virtual panel for Day of the Dead this year. It’s a blast. The cosplay is my favorite part. I’m always blown away by the things people are able to make.

SPOILER: If you had a choice, would you become a vampire or a zombie?

KEENAN TRACEY: I think of the two I’d become a vampire and keep my wits about me. Pretty bloody either way.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite food when working on set?

KEENAN TRACEY: There were certain days on this particular set that made specific lunches a little harder to look at. Pasta on guts days—that was hard. Tomato soup on bloody days— unintentionally themed meals.

SPOILER: Tell us a little bit about your character, Cam.

KEENAN TRACEY: Cam starts out as the epitome of a reluctant hero. He has good intentions, but often talks long enough to accidentally say all the wrong things. He will never fail to impress in the ways in which one can put his own foot in his mouth.

SPOILER: Is there a piece of you in your character?

KEENAN TRACEY: Yes! Both intentionally and unintentionally I’m sure. We definitely share the trait of not taking things too seriously, perhaps sometimes to a fault. Trying to make light of things, even maybe in moments not appropriate, i.e., the zombie apocalypse.

SPOILER: What can the zombie fans around the globe expect from this first season?

KEENAN TRACEY: Lots of blood. Lots of guts. Lots of fun. And a love letter to George A. Romero. The team put a lot of work into making the setting have the tone of his worlds. I think it’s something he’d be happy about.

SPOILER: Would you want special powers in the real world, and what would they be?

KEENAN TRACEY: Yes! I’d love to be able to read people’s minds. I feel the world would be far more navigable in a state of constant truth.

SPOILER: Did you learn anything exciting while working on the series that you can use in a practical situation?

KEENAN TRACEY: I learned how to operate a motorized lawn mower. I also learned arguably the most effective way to soak an entire set in fake blood and guts. Remember what I said about pasta day.

SPOILER: Choose, Marvel or DC?

KEENAN TRACEY: I love both, so whoever hires me first!

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

a year for Daniel Doheny. With starring roles on two new series, Day of the Dead and Brand New Cherry Flavor, the actor might have his hands full, but I’m sure he wouldn’t want it any other way.

The Canada native has been in the industry since 2012, getting a lot of recognition following his lead roles in the films Adventures in Public School and The Package, winning him several

awards in the process. Classically trained in theater, graduating from Vancouver’s Studio 58, the actor is also a member of the improv comedy troupe HumanTown. And now, his comedic instincts have earned him the recognition necessary for his latest endeavors.

On Day of the Dead, loosely based on the George A. Romero zombie film of the same name, he stars as Luke Bowman, who has a “mysterious past” and is the son of the town mayor (played by Miranda Frigon). Daniel chats with us about his love of Star Trek, t-shirt towers, and the difference between Canadian and American Corn Pops. And then he invites us over to his house?

2021 is looking to be a heck of

Bachlakov/George A. Romero

interview interview interview interview

SPOILER: What got you into acting? daniel doheny: Making people laugh in elementary school, I think.

SPOILER: How would you describe Day of the Dead? daniel doheny: Well, I actually haven’t seen it yet so it’s tough to say. But I think it’s going to be kind of like The O.C. meets zombies. I think. I also haven’t seen The O.C. so don’t quote me on that.

SPOILER: Do you believe in zombies? daniel doheny: You mean Voodoo? That’s some dark magic. If we’re talking about a pathogen or some kind of rage virus, then definitely yes. If COVID mutates, then we all get turned into zombies—seems practically inevitable.

SPOILER: Who on the set of Day of the Dead is your go-to person for advice? daniel doheny: Probably the people at craft services. What kind of snacks do you have left? Where are the Corn Pops? Should I invest in Ethereum?

SPOILER: Who’s the biggest practical joker on set? daniel doheny: Jared Leto. He kept leaving gross s**t in my trailer! It’s like, “Dude, I know you’re ‘in character,’ but come on! No one cares.”

SPOILER: Recall a scene in the series that still creeps you out. daniel doheny: The zombie that comes out of the swamp to attack me. That would be, not creepy, but life-alteringly, therapy-inducingly horrifying.

SPOILER: Tell us a little bit about your character, Luke. daniel doheny: My character has a mysterious past. And I’m fed up with this small-town bulls**t!

SPOILER: Is there a piece of you in your character? daniel doheny: Of course! I don’t think there’s any role where the actor doesn’t bring a part of themselves to it. Even when Andy Serkis is playing Gollum, I think there’s a little bit of Andy in there. Andy loves eating raw fish—I know that for a fact.

SPOILER: What can the massive zombie fans around the globe expect from this first season? daniel doheny: Teenage drama, baby!

SPOILER: If you were a zombie killer would you be kind or ruthless? daniel doheny: Both. They’d call me “Sweet Baby Ruthless” and I’d have a gang of zombie dogs that I’m really nice to.

SPOILER: What is your weapon of choice during an apocalypse? daniel doheny: A crowbar. Thanks, Max Brooks!

SPOILER: What do you think would be the fastest way to kill a zombie? daniel doheny: Tanning booth. Wait, did you say “fastest”?

SPOILER: Have you been to a comic convention? What did it feel like attending your first one? daniel doheny: Hell yeah I have! Fan Expo in Vancouver. I go for the t-shirt tower. But they got rid of the t-shirt tower in the last couple Fan Expos. What the heck? Bring it back, you nerds!

SPOILER: What are some advantages of being a zombie? daniel doheny: Their union has great dental.

SPOILER: If you had a choice would you become a vampire or zombie? daniel doheny: Vampire: live forever, go to blood raves, make out with Tom Cruise, hang out with Kirsten Dunst as an immortal child, drink that blood! Suck it, Blade!

SPOILER: What’s your favorite food when working on set? daniel doheny: Great question. My favorite is Corn Pops. But I can’t eat them every day or Dan-Dan gets sad, so I have to moderate. Now, these are Canadian Corn Pops I’m talking about here, not the American ones. Yes, there’s a difference. The Canadian ones are on another level. Come over to my house and I’ll show you.

SPOILER: Would you want special powers in the real world, and what would they be? daniel doheny: My power would be to send myself to an alternate reality

where Star Trek is real, and I’m on the Enterprise, and I can’t remember this reality so Star Trek is just real-life now. So, kind of like The Matrix, but it’s Star Trek.

SPOILER: Did you learn anything exciting while working on the series that you can use in a practical situation? daniel doheny: Man, those stuntmen can get hit by cars real good. If I ever have a Lexus bearing down on me, I’m gonna roll like they do.

SPOILER: Who is the hardest working cast member in the series? daniel doheny: One of those stuntmen had to come out of a lake in full zombie make-up, in Canada, in the winter, multiple times. Those guys work hard. Us actors are all babies.

SPOILER: How much of George A. Romero’s influence will we see in the series? daniel doheny: There’s a goofiness to some of the zombies that I think is reminiscent of Romero’s work. Zombies in full football gear, that kind of thing.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone trying to get into acting? daniel doheny: Read some books on acting.

SPOILER: Does preparing for your character ever give you stress or anxiety? daniel doheny: Usually, no. If there’s something I’m worried about then yes, but if I’m well prepared and feel incontrol then usually no.

SPOILER: If you can give one message to all the fans out in the world, what would it be? daniel doheny: “If you see me in real life, come say hello.”

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

DANIEL DOHENY: This is a longer conversation than we have time FOR...

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

CHRISTOPHER RUSSEL IS NO STRANGER TO

the George Romero zombie-verse. In 2005, he landed his first major role in Romero’s own Land of the Dead. Fast forward 16 years and he now stars in Syfy’s latest series Day of the Dead, the spiritual sibling of Land’s 1985 predecessor of the same name. He plays Trey Bowman, the adulterous and chowderheaded husband of the town mayor.

Despite recurring spots on Star Trek: Discovery, Van Helsing, and, of course, Supernatural, the Canadian actor now faces his biggest role yet with Day, the project itself standing out in the sea of horror television shows with its balance of the sardonic and the grotesque.

Christopher is perfect for the character, as we’ve learned he’s got his own natural wit that’s equal parts goofy and insightful. He talks with us about his latest project, how he got into acting, the best craft services he’s had, and the importance of keeping a minty breath on set.

Christopher Russell/Waldy Martens

interview interview interview interview

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I feel like it was the movie Legend with Tom Cruise. It was one of his more obscure films, which he himself has denounced as being his least favorite of all his productions. But for me as a young boy, I remember watching it and going, “Man! I wanna do that! I wanna be able to run around and save the princess.” Then I was in preschool and they were doing a Nativity play for the parents at Christmastime and I got cast as the donkey. And I remember walking out to the audience towards the parents with my donkey ears and my little tail and getting the laughs, just feeling really encouraged about what I was doing. And I just wanted more of that feeling. So as I went through school, I just kept participating in every play I could. I was in the community theater, drama club. I was just such a fan of movies. Even from a young age, I paid attention to things that I don’t think most people did. Just the way the shots were set up and looking out for continuity errors [laughs]. So when I got out of high school, I went to the big city and got an agent and the rest is history.

SPOILER: Did you burn rubber, or did it take you a while to get where you’re at?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: It’s been a marathon and it’s still ongoing. When I first got into it, like most people, I had this false idea that if you just showed up, looked good, said some things, then you would get a job in film and television. And while that does apply to maybe 1% of actors out there, the rest of us are just slugging away audition after audition, taking classes, keeping up on current works that are out there—just hustling, really. They say it takes 15 years to become an overnight success, but I would argue it takes at least 20. And even then, sometimes it never happens. For myself, what I’ve come to learn is, I have to be in this business, not because I’m looking for accolades or respect, but [for the love of the craft]; to know I’ve done my best and that I’ve had an opportunity to participate in a medium that I’m fascinated with. So my goal from the beginning was to be a working actor; to be able to pay my bills as an actor. And at this point, mission accomplished [laughs].

SPOILER: How was it working with George A. Romero on Land of the Dead?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Land of the Dead was one of my first professional acting roles. And I was literally transported to another world when

I got there. The set was incredible. The visuals alone inspired me to keep going because it was just so exciting to be a part of. And then as a young actor, to see Dennis Hopper and John Leguizamo at work was also inspiring. And George Romero himself was incredibly kind and encouraging as a director. He could steer you in the direction he wanted you to go in, almost making you think that it was your idea, even though it wasn’t [laughs]. It was a fun experience for sure.

SPOILER: Isn’t it wild that that was one of your first gigs, and now here you are, 16 years later, in Day of the Dead?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: When I got the part, I was like, “Hmm, I wonder if Land of the Dead has anything to do with it.” Like, if they wanted someone who worked with George Romero to be on set. But my part in Land of the Dead is pretty small. Day of the Dead is so much fun to be a part of. They’re really going for it. [The show is] funny, but scary and thrilling, and really emotional. It’s got everything. Obviously, there are other zombie shows out there, but this one hits all the beats.

SPOILER: You’re Canadian. How was it getting roles back in the day compared to now?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: If you look at my resume, I sort of slowly worked my way up. The more work I put in, the more robust the roles got as the years progressed. I don’t know if it’s better now than it was back then. But I do know there was a point, with Smallville and Battlestar Galactica and Supernatural—shows like that were really good for local Canadian actors to get noticed in Hollywood—these were big shows globally that were doing a really good job of hiring a lot of the

supporting roles in town. I don’t think there was one actor in Vancouver who wasn’t on Supernatural [laughs].

SPOILER: What’s your ideal gig?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: To be a number 5 on a call sheet for a long-running series, so the weight of the show isn’t entirely on my shoulders, but I get to participate in the storylines in an exciting way without there being any pressure should the show begin to fail at any point [laughs]. As long as everyone on set is happy to be there. I’ve been on sets where nobody wants to be there, and I’m like, “What’s the point? This is what we’ve been hustling for our whole lives.” That’s the worst feeling.

SPOILER: Is there ever a feeling, when working on a show for a long time, that you’re missing out on other things?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Yeah, absolutely. That’s always a problem with this business. You spend so much time just saying yes to everything because you just want to work, and you don’t really care what it is. And then you get to a point where you have to make conscious decisions about which roles you say yes to. And it can be difficult because it’s not always clear if there’s going to be something on the other side if you turn something down. It’s a gamble. Like, “Okay, I’m not gonna do this because it’s very similar to something else I did and it’s gonna lock me in for a long time,” and then you just gotta pray the thing you really want is gonna come around the corner—and it might not. And then you spend 10 months unemployed [laughs]. So, at this point, I’m grateful to be a working actor.

SPOILER: For young actors out there, how hard is it to become a Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I would say it’s 99.9% impossible. There are so many variables that have to come into play at the same time. You have to have a screen presence, you have to have a certain look for the moment, whatever it may be, you have to be in the right

Christopher Russell/Waldy Martens

story that resonates with enough people that creates that type of phenomenon, like Stranger Things became, or Brad Pitt poppin’ up in Thelma & Louise. You just have to have that iconic role that just sets you up. But for the rest of us, the more obtainable goal is to continue to get work. A lot of people get off the bus in LA and just say, “Where do I go to get famous?” [laughs]

SPOILER: Over the years, I’ve noticed that certain shows get all the marketing while other really great shows don’t seem to get that same treatment. Is this something you’ve noticed in the past?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I have experienced it on a show that was really good, has a super high rating on IMDb, people who saw it really, really liked it, and [now] has a huge cult following, tons of really supportive fans. But if you look at it on a bigger scale, it was really small exposure when it could have been much better, and there are internal reasons why they didn’t push it more, which is unfortunate. Something like Stranger Things, which got huge press and those kids are super famous now—and they deserve it, they’re all amazing! I don’t know how they cast that show, it’s incredible. But there’s also smaller shows that get zero press, that have an equally talented group of people working on it, that just kinda disappear.

SPOILER: What advice would you give your younger self from 20 years ago?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: “Stop frosting your tips, take out the cubic zirconia, drop the seashell choker necklace, and get back in acting class and stay outta the bar.” [laughs]

SPOILER: Such a visual! Do you think nostalgia is ever dangerous?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: You can have a little bit of it and it can be a positive thing. Going back to Stranger Things, everything in the show is what the Duffer brothers grew up with in the ‘80s. It inspired

them to make their own version of it. So, it can be productive in that way, but there’s also the other side of it where you just complain about the way things are now and wish it was like things were back then. Your memory of that time is tricking you, like, “Was it really that great? Was Atari really that good?” I dunno. I feel like it was. But if you had told me back in 1987 that you’d be able to play 3D-looking video games with people across the world, I would’ve been like, “Well, give me that now!” But now that it’s here, people are buying refurbished Super Nintendos. I think people just want what they don’t have.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Do I

believe in it in a straightforward way where spirits will appear to you in the same form that they were before they died? I dunno. But yeah, you can’t not believe in the paranormal, because as human beings, we have a consciousness. I’m speaking to you, but I’m also thinking at the same time. And I might be thinking different things than what I’m saying. I can see images inside of my mind that I can’t see in front of me. There’s some type of energy happening in there. So, when my body dies, where does that energy go? Does it die with my body, or does it stay?

SPOILER: If you could choose, would you rather be a superhero or a super villain?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I’m gonna be boring, but I’d say I’d be

Christopher Russell/Waldy Martens

a superhero. Life would be a little easier for me if I didn’t have this problem, but I’m a little bit too compassionate. I understand that everyone, for the most part, is doing their best to make it through this life. And if I had the ability to help out in a bigger way, then I would. I don’t wanna be the cause of more pain and misery. There’s enough forces out there to take care of that.

SPOILER: What were the most memorable scenes from either Land of the Dead or Day of the Dead?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Well, I can’t speak too much about Day of the Dead yet. But in Land of the Dead, definitely the zombie cage fight—that was pretty awesome. Asia Argento is in there scrapping with the zombies, which is a pretty cool take on the whole thing. Another scene would be when I’m patrolling the perimeter, and my sidekick and I hear something, and I shine a spotlight and say, “There’s nothing there, man,” when in fact, there is. And then they get us—not to give anything away, but it’s an old movie.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite food when working on set?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Chicken [laughs]. It keeps me goin’, all day, all night.

SPOILER: What’s the best craft services you’ve ever had?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: Star Trek: Discovery had the best craft services. Day of the Dead craft services, I’m sorry, guys, it wasn’t so good. But the catering [on Day], which does lunch and breakfast—the craft services does desserts, snacks, and everything else throughout the day—was phenomenal. They had music playing and they had so many options. It was actually the best ever.

SPOILER: How often do you worry about your breath on set?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I always have a toothbrush with me and, I call them actor mints, but I’m not gonna say what brand they are. But I have worked with people who have no shame in eating a tuna cup before a scene.

SPOILER: Does the status of the breath have to do with the nature of the scene?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: I have minty breath regardless of the scene, so you can count on me to be minty fresh no matter what.

SPOILER: If you could share something with the fans, what would you say?

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: “I think that Day of the Dead is going to be some of the most fun you’ve ever had. If you are a horror fan, if you hold onto any nostalgia from the zombie movies of yesteryear, or if you’re just wanting to watch something well-rounded, you’re in for a treat.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

WHETHER YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT THE NEW HALO SERIES

or not, the reality is, it’s pretty darn good! The Steven Spielberg-produced Paramount+ series was a long time coming for fans of the Xbox game, which first launched over two decades ago. The show, which debuted back in March, is set in the 26th century as a genetically engineered super soldier, Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber), helps to combat an alien threat known as the Covenant.

The show also stars Danny Sapani as UNSC Captain Jacob Keyes, a heel of sorts for Master Chief. Throughout the first season, Keyes’ character gets expanded upon a bit, but fans can only assume that his development will continue to grow during season 2, which has already been given the go-ahead. Keyes has been a favorite of fans of the games, debuting right alongside the first installment back in 2001.

Sapani sits down to chat with Galaxy about his new series, how he got into acting, and his time in the Star Wars universe. He also waxes poetic on Doctor Who and its longevity, let alone within the cultural zeitgeist.

SPOILER: Every time I see you on the screen, I get super excited because ever since Harlots, I’ve been a fan. I hope to see more and more of you as Halo progresses.

DANNY SAPANI: Thank you! I mean, it’s definitely a slow build for me in this season, and that’s often the case. I think it’s just the way that these things work sometimes, but I think second season we’re gonna be hitting the ground running. As it comes to the close of the first season, you’re gonna see a lot more of Jacob Keyes as the story progresses.

SPOILER: What an exciting thing, already getting the green light for season 2!

DANNY SAPANI: Yeah, that’s incredible. I mean, they’ve thrown everything but the kitchen sink in this one, and you can see that on the screen. When you watch some of the effects and the work that’s gone into creating this 26th century world, it is quite incredible. It’s completely immersive. I find watching it on a screen, as I did with the first two episodes, I’m just completely in that world. And that’s what you wanna recreate. You don’t have too many kinds of obvious sorts of glitches or anything that

can take you out that. And I think that’s to do with how well the team has worked together collectively to bring that to life.

SPOILER: There’s nothing Earth-like on that show. And the design, this is like a big budget film, but on a weekly basis.

DANNY SAPANI: Absolutely. And what a treat. Very few people are going into the cinema at the moment. And so we need something with this kind of scale that is still gonna be better to watch on a bigger screen. Most of us are getting bigger screens and fewer people are going to the cinema, which is a shame. And I hope that we can find a balance with that, but to watch this on a really big screen, and with the sound turned up, is just a complete treat. It takes me back to my youth watching big movies, like Star Wars, just that sense of wonder and imagination put in front of you. It’s awesome.

SPOILER: You can’t compare this to anything currently out there. I get excited every week now. What do you think about streaming shows now going back to weekly releases? I get impatient when I have to wait.

DANNY SAPANI: Some people are gonna binge-watch it once it’s all come out and enjoy it in that way. I’m somewhere in between the two. I’m pretty impatient. I often want to binge things. As much as I love a cliffhanger, I hate that kind of feeling when you have to wait to find out what’s gonna happen next. Then, if it doesn’t necessarily satisfy, I feel cheated. It’s very emotional. So, I’m probably a lot like you. It does feel like a bummer when you have to wait a whole week for the next episode. But I hope that you stick with the show. That’s the most important thing.

SPOILER: They will. They’re gonna stick with it. The show was so hush-hush before its release. There wasn’t much convention coverage. Do you feel that you guys missed out on that, and do you think you guys are gonna be able go to conventions coming up to promote season 2?

DANNY SAPANI: I think the conventions will come. I think as people become more at ease with being in large groups and being together again, I think that all of that will open up. The premiere, for example, was just fantastic, to see everybody in their costumes and also educating us about some of the characters, because, as you know, the Halo lore, there’s just so many iterations and stories and characters, so it was great to see them out in full force. I’m really looking forward to spending time with the fans and really immersing myself in this world. There’s a lot of love and it’s a lot of fun.

SPOILER: How did it feel standing next to Kate Kennedy or Natascha McElhone or Pablo Schreiber? They’re all so tall. How did that feel?

DANNY SAPANI: Well, you should try training with those guys. I mean, it does make you feel somewhat less-than, shall we say.

But no, they’re great, and they carry themselves really well. When they put the costumes on, they become more than human in a way; it’s that meeting of machine and human. And so, as a person, you don’t feel intimidated by that because they’re a weapon. And I get to play the human side of the UNSC. Jacob Keyes is a very compassionate and sympathetic character in a lot of ways. So it feels like I get a different role to play alongside them. But in real life, those guys are beautiful, giant people, with big hearts. And we are like a family. I’m happy to stand alongside them and soak up some of their adulation.

SPOILER: Pablo carries that lead role so well.

DANNY SAPANI: So well! They’re all very, very versatile actors. They can pull off the vulnerability and the nuance of characters. So it really is quite a feat to be looking down on everybody most of the time, but still able to connect. I think it must be tough, particularly for women who are very tall, to find roles. And so, this is a great opportunity for both Natasha and Kate, and all the other tall, young women out there who don’t feel that they necessarily have a place in the world. This is great for them. It’s kind of saying, “Look, there are roles for you. There is a story to be told.” I think that’s really, really important to put out there.

SPOILER: Absolutely. Back in the day, actors used to hide their height. Now they don’t have to.

DANNY SAPANI: It’s very, very cool. You know this is another example of diversity. And that’s something we wanna make accessible to as many people as possible. Everybody should see themselves, to some extent, in the stories that are told. Sometimes it’s great to see yourself and sometimes you have to identify in other ways. But it’s all good.

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

DANNY SAPANI: I started out from a very young age. I think maybe I was a troubled kind of six-year-old, seven-year-old. It’s not unusual to

not be fully understood at that age. And then I think somebody said, “Well, why don’t you put him in the drama class?” hoping that would probably get me out of the way. And it just lit a fire. And from about the age of seven, I was like, “I’m gonna be an actor.” And people were like, “Yeah, sure you will. You’re not in the right school. You’re not in the right space. You’re the wrong color. You’re the wrong size,” all sorts of things to put in your way. Even I had a teacher, my English teacher, who said, “Maybe you should think about teaching instead.” But I’d already decided. And being the slightly stubborn and, I wouldn’t necessarily say driven—I’m like most people, I like to take things very chill. But when you find something that you are absolutely passionate about, and for me, it’s telling stories and connecting people through stories, eventually you are gonna hit your stream and you’re gonna find your place and do your thing. And that’s pretty much what it was for me. You know, I went to drama school, I did a lot of theater before I did a lot of screen stuff. And I had fantasies of being a director and a writer, which I

still have. I still think there’s so much more to learn about what it means to fully immerse yourself in a role. So, it still sustains me financially and spiritually and mentally, so yeah, I’m gonna keep at it.

SPOILER: Do you prefer theater or being on screen?

DANNY SAPANI: They are such different beasts. I’m very good friends with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and she’s somebody who, whether you see her on screen or you see her on stage, she doesn’t really change the style or shape of her performance. And she’s brilliant every single time. And you know, it used to be that you’d go to the theater to watch things kind of being done in a sort of big or avant-garde way. And that seems to become less now. I think we’re finding a middle ground. Not that you can’t have extremes of both on either side, but somehow we are so attuned to watching things close up that that has affected the way things are performed as well. So when I left drama school, certainly there was a range of things that you wouldn’t wanna do on screen because the

camera picks up so much. And that’s something that one had to learn how to adjust to. But I love the collaborative nature of all storytelling really. And you get that both on screen and on stage. That’s what really fires me up. There’s an amazing thing that happens when you are shooting a scene. If the focus is out or the camera’s not moving in the right speed or the lighting is slightly off, you step out of your light—there’s so many things that can go “wrong.” But when everything is in flow and everything is right, it’s the most incredible feeling. And everybody is working towards the same goal, to get that shot, to get that scene— that’s an incredible feeling. I love that, but I also love being in front of an audience and having that immediate sort of feedback. And every night is different. Repeating a show, repeating the story, it’s like a second life. So yeah, I just love acting. I love storytelling. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I prefer one or the other. I love them both, but for different reasons.

SPOILER: I know you’re a big Star Wars fan. How did it feel to have a role in The Last Jedi?

DANNY SAPANI: Mine was a post shot. If you look carefully at the screen, you can see that it’s got a different quality from the rest of the film, but I’m splitting hairs there. It was incredible to be involved in such an iconic movie in any way. I used to see great actors, actors that I admired as I was coming up through theater and through training, who played walk-on parts on Star Wars. And they were fulfilling a dream as

Matthew Kevin Anderson: Richie Lubaton

well. I was no different, and it wasn’t until I actually had a piece of tech in my hands that I actually went, “Oh my God, this is my moment. This is me as a 10-year-old boy in 1980, 1977, a 7-yearold boy holding this tech and living the dream.” It really was incredible. I can’t say enough about how amazing it was just to be part of that universe.

SPOILER: Another one that stands out is Black Panther. And coming up, the sequel [Black Panther: Wakanda Forever] is in post-production, yeah?

DANNY SAPANI: Yeah, that’s right. I think they’re planning to open this November. There’s a lot of secrets, but how do you follow the first film, which was such a groundbreaking movie on so many fronts? And continue that sense of legacy without Chadwick [Boseman]? It’s a huge undertaking, but I think that Ryan [Coogler] and his team have done an amazing job to honor him, but also continue to tell the story. And that’s no mean feat. The first time around, it didn’t matter whether we were playing small parts, big parts, walk-ons—everybody who was in that movie felt like they were part of a family and that’s why we’ve all come back. And I just know that’s gonna translate to the camera and people are gonna also feel that they are part of that too.

SPOILER: Being from the U.K., was it wild having a spot on Doctor Who?

DANNY SAPANI: Yeah, it’s really strange because I think that was probably the first sci-fi thing that I did. But it’s such a staple of British drama. I remember watching Doctor Who back in the day and it was wobbly sets. But that’s part of the whole charm of it, you know? It’s still got a very youthful audience. Even the way it’s put out, there’s no profanity or anything. The themes are scary, they’re challenging on that level for kids. Like the weeping angels, for example, it’s the concepts that really would give children nightmares. I mean, the Daleks used

to give me nightmares. Now I look at them and I think, “Come on, really?” It’s an institution. Growing up, it was our route into science fiction and the possibilities of the mind and space and the universe and the concept of time travel, all of these amazing, brilliant, challenging themes. And so, that was another dream come true. I’m literally living my dreams all the time, just getting to be in these great shows, but that was my first foray into it. I did a show called Misfits before that, which had a kinda sci-fi element to it I guess, but there was something about being in Doctor Who. I know how important that show is to the fans, and that was a very special moment. I still get a lot of love from people for my role.

SPOILER: Definitely. Well, the show reinvents itself, it just keeps coming back out. A new Doctor.

DANNY SAPANI: That’s right. It’s such a brilliant concept. It just says so much about who we are. You have the same thing with James Bond and some other characters, but the fact that you can have a time-traveling doctor with two hearts who can basically reform in a different body every single time, I just think that’s such a brilliant idea. I don’t think we’ve come up with anything as close to brilliant as that, and I think that’s probably why it’s lasted so long. I wish I’d thought of it.

SPOILER: A lot of great shows come from the UK and then they get remade in the United States.

DANNY SAPANI: Yeah. It’s interesting that they haven’t made an American Doctor Who, don’t you think?

SPOILER: I don’t think they will. I think the British citizens would be very upset about that.

DANNY SAPANI: [laughs] But if they made something similar. I think the Bourne Identity is a kind of James Bond mirror. So, I’m just surprised that they haven’t had any sort of major timetraveling characters.

Matthew Kevin Anderson: Richie Lubaton

SPOILER: We had Quantum Leap I guess. But not like Doctor Who. He would jump into people’s bodies and save their world, and then right before the end, when he would get used to those people, he would get flashed out and he didn’t like it.

DANNY SAPANI: So a little bit more Back to the Future and less hard sci-fi.

SPOILER: Exactly.

DANNY SAPANI: But then you also made Back to the Future, that’s nothing to be sniffed at. I grew up on The Six Million Dollar Man and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.—great shows!

SPOILER: I was so sad when Harlots got discontinued. Why’d that happen?

DANNY SAPANI: It was a very strange thing because when we first shot it, it was supposed to go out on a new channel in the UK and then for some reason that didn’t happen. So it took a long time to actually get the respect and love that it would’ve gotten if it had reached more people earlier. We were quite happy to be making this brilliantly written show. I mean, writers Moira Buffini and Alison Newman are just fantastic writers and it was great to be involved in something that just had that kind of quality to it. To see the lives of these people, because poor people and people of color didn’t get written about in those times, because if you didn’t have money or if you were the wrong color, then your lives weren’t interesting. So, it was really lovely for us to tell the story of the 1700s and the 1800s from that perspective. You know when you’re in something that matters. By the time we’d made the second season, that got a lot of interest in the States and Hulu was very keen to do a third, but it just didn’t get enough energy soon enough for us to feel supported. I think perhaps if that had come sooner, maybe we would’ve made four or five. There were still more stories to be told in that world. But now we have Bridgerton, which is doing a similar job I suppose. And that will run and run because of the nature of it and the support behind it, and money behind it. I mean, it

doesn’t always just come down to money, but it does help in terms of being able to get it out there and promote it. I love the fact that I was part of Harlots, but it will be one of those kinds of classics that people come back to and wish it had done more. And who knows? Maybe there’ll be some sort of revival, although I don’t have enough confidence in those.

It’s hard though. A lot of shows don’t get past three seasons anyway. The other one was Penny Dreadful, which I just thought could have run and run. We had such a great time making that. But again, if some element of the balance isn’t right, then these shows don’t tend to go on, even though they may have more to say. But then, you can also be in a show that runs too long and that you’re dying to get off. Sometimes it’s a blessing, because you get to go off and do something new.

SPOILER: What’s next for you besides Halo?

DANNY SAPANI: I’m still trying to bring to life stories of characters and people from different times. I’m particularly interested in the 1700s. I’m particularly interested in Nile Valley cultures, not just Egypt, but the Kushites, the Maronites, all the different people from East

Africa who went toe-to-toe with the Romans and the Greeks and Assyrians. It’s just really interesting stories that a lot of people don’t know anything about. It shines a different light on our history and who we are and how we’ve got to where we are now. So, I’m trying to find ways to tell those stories and to produce those kinds of stories myself. But also, I’m continuing to be employed to tell stories as an actor. And I’m about to tell a story of a guy whose son is murdered. It starts off that he thought he got drunk and died, but it turns out he was murdered. It’s a show called The Diplomat, which is set in Spain. The last great play I did was written by Lorraine Hansberry—the last play that she ever wrote. In fact, she didn’t finish it because she died when she was 35. It’s called Les Blancs. We had the very fortunate pleasure to put that on stage about five years ago. That was an incredible piece to be involved with. So, I try and do a play every now and then. And then I did a play called Him as well, playing opposite Adrian Lester, which was written by his wife Lolita Chakrabarti. I try to mix it up. I do stuff on the radio. And just wherever there’s an opportunity to tell a story, I’m there if they’ll have me.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

AMIDST THE STAGGERING ZOMBIES AND THE QUIRKY

teen heroes on SyFy’s Day of the Dead is Mayor Paula Bowman, who’s about as complex a character as the series has. Miranda Frigon plays the money-hungry town leader with a fun arc. And as the first season progresses, she slowly becomes a fan favorite.

Spanning over two decades, Miranda’s career in film and TV has also included spots on Dexter, V, Heartland, and most recently Aurora Teagarden Mysteries. However, the polymath has been singing and songwriting for just as long, with her catchy tunes featured in countless shows and movies over the years.

Miranda sits down with Galaxy to talk about how she got her start doing soundtrack music, the journey to landing her role on Day of the Dead, as well as her 11 years spent in Los Angeles’ MMA scene.

SPOILER: You did MMA for 11 years?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Yeah, it was awesome! When I moved over to LA, it was like this new community I sort of joined. My dad was a boxer and a wrestler growing up and he would teach me and my sister wrestling moves. That’s how we bonded. And I just loved it. I felt so empowered when I was doing it. So I ended up training at a place called the Bomb Squad, and it was when not a lot of women were doing it. It was where Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan trained. And then we moved over to a place called Legends MMA, which was Randy Couture and Bas Rutten’s gym that they started. A lot of the MMA and UFC fighters would train there. It was just this community; we all hung out with each other. I was there five hours a day. It was insane. Best shape of my life. But then I got a little injured, so I had to take a step back from it.

SPOILER: Those are some great fighters. Even just the training aspect of it was probably great. MIRANDA FRIGON: That’s what I loved. I had a couple of my female friends who started taking fights, and one of them broke her nose

and one of them broke her arm. And I was like, “I think I’m good. I think I’m just gonna train.” [laughs] I don’t need to prove that. It wasn’t so much for winning or any of that. It was more the training and the community that I loved about it.

SPOILER: Well, I saw you on Day of the Dead and you look ripped as the mayor. Was a lot of that character you?

MIRANDA FRIGON: [laughs]

I typically play these types of characters. I’m often with a gun. I’m either the police chief or the mayor or the CEO or the shark lawyer. I’m not those characters, but I have elements of them for sure. I’m extremely determined. I’m fearless when it comes to confrontations— not that I’m a person who loves confrontations with people, but I have no problem standing up for others or myself. I have an edge and a fire to me that, I guess, play out in these characters. So, I’m not making the bad choices that they’re making, but energy-wise I’m similar to them in some way. I’m like a chihuahua. I definitely think I’m bigger than I actually am.

SPOILER: Mighty Mouse. MIRANDA FRIGON: Yes! That’s

actually a nickname that’s been thrown at me in the past.

SPOILER: There’s so much acting talent in Canada, people don’t even realize.

MIRANDA FRIGON: Oh my gosh! There’s so much talent in Canada. Pre-COVID, for some of the lead roles, they’d always fly in the Americans. And we’re like, “Well, we got our people here.” But it was the whole “it has to be an American” thing. But with COVID, they weren’t casting as many Americans because of the whole quarantine process when bringing them in. So a lot of fantastic Canadian actors started getting more opportunities for parts we wouldn’t normally play. Research your favorite actors because a lot of them are Canucks.

SPOILER: Why did they want Americans in their lead roles?

MIRANDA FRIGON: It’s interesting. We’ve dealt with this a lot as Canadian actors, where we can do the best audition and be the best actor, but they’ll bring in an American because that person did this show or that show. They just like having the Americans in [those roles]. We’re considered less-than sometimes, I feel, as Canadians. We all sort of feel that way sometimes, even though we might be an equally good actor or even better.

SPOILER: But it should be about the acting, right?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Yeah, but it’s not about that anymore. Literally some producers will look at your Instagram or Twitter and see how many followers you have. That matters now. It didn’t used to. You could just go in and do your work and do your best. And now it’s about followers on social media. And I get it, because it’s a popularity contest too. So, if you have more followers, it’s going to

be more free advertising for the show. It makes sense, but it’s not always fair.

SPOILER: You’re also a great singer and songwriter. And you’ve had a lot of songs placed in shows and movies. What inspires your music?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Well, I typically write songs for myself and my fans. They come from moments of struggle in my life or moments of inspiration. And I produce or co-produce a lot of my own music. I play a lot of guitar and piano, so I go in the studio and lay down the tracks. I have stuff on iTunes and Amazon and Spotify. But then, I eventually started placing songs in film and TV. It first happened on a sci-fi series called Jake 2.0 many, many years ago. I was a recurring character, but I ended up doing every episode. But that character was only in a couple scenes per episode, so I had a lot of time where I sat in my trailer and I would bring my guitar and play around in there. I always loved writing songs for other people’s stories. And so, I wrote a couple songs about the two leads, their love story in the show. I recorded it acoustically and played it in the hair and makeup trailer one day, and a couple of the leads were like, “You wrote this? This is crazy!” They sent it to a couple of the producers. Then I got a call from Paramount and they were like, “We’d like to place two of your songs in the show.” And they paid me a bunch of money—I’ve played in cafes and bars and made $25 in tips in like, two hours [laughs]. That was the beginning of me placing music. Before that, I wasn’t writing specifically for film and TV, which now sometimes I do.

I have one director friend, Christie Will, who started placing my songs in a lot of the Hallmark stuff. And now I have songs in about 20 movies. Now it’s a fun side thing for me that’s another creative avenue, and it’s there for me in my downtime or whenever I’m struggling or inspired. Acting is so different. It’s someone else’s words on the page. But music comes from inside me.

SPOILER: You write a lot of love songs. Where does that come from?

MIRANDA FRIGON: It’s universal. We all deal with it. Falling in love, falling out of love. Being in the moments of bliss in the first part of the relationship and also being in the dark moments where you’re trying to grow. They’re not all happy love songs. My song “Invisible,” that was a tough moment. My husband— we were dating at the time and he was walking away from me. I didn’t feel seen or heard; I felt invisible. I remember that day he left, and I sat down on the piano and that’s the song I wrote.

SPOILER: What made you want to do Day of the Dead?

MIRANDA FRIGON: I auditioned for this role months and months before I found out I was on hold for it. I loved the character. I connected with her. She was dark and witty and edgy and tough. I was like, “I have to play this role!” I saw the breakdown for it, but I didn’t think I was what they were looking for. I even reached out to my agent and said, “This is something I would love to audition for.” She said, “I submitted you and they didn’t see you for [the role].” I asked if she could ask again. I know the casting director really well, she actually cast me in Aurora Teagarden Mysteries. She’s lovely. Her name is Candice Elzinga. And she actually saw me for the role, so I taped the audition from LA.

Like most auditions, you tape it or send it into the universe and you just forget about it because you mostly get nos. You don’t book everything you audition for. Months later, I was up in Canada doing a movie. And I found

Miranda Frigon:Odessy Barbu

out I was on hold in the middle of COVID and got stuck up there for five months. And so I chose [to take the role].

SPOILER: You really take over in the show. Was Paula written that way?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Yes, all the episodes were written that way, so we knew what was gonna happen. I started off as this gun-loving, onlycare-about-money-and-votes-andpower mayor who, over the course of the next 24 hours, looks at how her views and her choices have affected the life of her son and the world around her. So, during that day she goes through this awakening and remembers who she really is and why she started doing this in the first place.

I love characters who have a dark side to them because there’s always a reason. There’s always some sort of pain or brokenness underneath these characters that drives them to do what they do. They’re characters that people hate, but I love them. I got to play such a range of emotions with such a cool character arc over the series, being the mama bear and trying to save the day.

SPOILER: Did you ever think you’d be in a zombie series?

MIRANDA FRIGON: I never thought I would. It’s totally not my genre. I don’t watch zombie movies. But shows come out of nowhere and you think, “Oh! That’s a cool idea!” And next thing you know, you’re on the show. The zombies and the gore are not my thing, but I had a blast doing it. It was so much fun!

SPOILER: Is it greenlit for a season 2?

MIRANDA FRIGON: We have no idea. We just finished and that’s it. You just sort of move on with your life. If something happens, then that’s cool, but I’m never married to any of that. I don’t sit around waiting.

SPOILER: Christopher Russell plays your husband on the show. He’s been featured in our magazine and he’s such a great guy.

MIRANDA FRIGON: He’s alright [laughs]. No, he’s a great guy. It’s funny, the movie I was filming up in Canada, I was doing with him. And we both found out about getting [Day of the Dead] while we were on set. He’ll tell the story that I was trying to read his email over his shoulder, which isn’t true—but it’s sort of true, because I was standing behind him and saw, “Day of the Dead,” in the subject of his email. And I said, “Oh! Did you read for that too??”

And he kind of looked at me like I had invaded his privacy and it became a joke for the rest of the movie. But we were both waiting to find out while we were on that movie and then both booked it while we were filming. So, it was pretty cool because we already connected and liked working with each other, and it turned into a really cool dynamic on the show.

SPOILER: Have a lot of people reached out to you because of this role?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Actually, no. I’ve had people who said they saw me, but it hasn’t been this overwhelming thing [laughs]. I do have people on Instagram who post and say, “I love you! You’re my favorite character!”

At a young age, I started acting and I truly loved it, but I was always waiting for that validation. But I learned early on that if you keep waiting on that, you rely on it for your identity, so then, if you don’t get it, it kind of breaks you a little bit. I just wanted

to feel good about the work that I did without needing those things. But it does feel good when people reach out. It’s more validating when people say, “I love what you had to say. I love when you share your struggle.”

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

MIRANDA FRIGON: I think I’d have to go with Marvel. But if either of them call me and say they love for me to play their next superhero, I would do either.

SPOILER: What’s next for you?

MIRANDA FRIGON: I worked so much last year that I kind of needed a break. It’s sorta like the universe is open. I have some new music I’m working on. I have a show that I’m pitching in the design world with my friend Marilu Henner. Beyond that, I’m waiting for the next awesome thing.

SPOILER: What kind of show is it?

MIRANDA FRIGON: It’s in the reality world, in the design market. I also do interior design. When I was pregnant with my daughter—I can’t sit still, and I have to be creating every second—I decided to go back to school and I got my interior design degree. I love doing kids’ rooms and nurseries, and this show is centered around that, but I won’t give too much information. I also have some other shows that I’m developing based on my own ideas.

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna tell your fans?

MIRANDA FRIGON: Yes! I’m all about spreading kindness, living in acceptance of where the world is right now, and finding a way to spread your light and your talents, even amidst all of this struggle.

Miranda Frigon:Odessy Barbu;Natalia Anja

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

TNT’s Snowpiercer is getting

season 3—already underway—is slated to be the best one yet. Ian Collins, who plays Tristan, one of the First Class passengers, and assistant to Hospitality deputy Ruth, promises that fans will walk away in awe.

Citing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the show that originally inspired him to be an actor as a kid, the Toronto native eventually did theater throughout high school. But it wouldn’t be until after getting his culinary degree that he decided to return to his original passion.

The young actor has spent the last 10 years making a name for himself in this industry on shows like Loudermilk, Project Blue Book, and Arrow, as well as a slew of Hallmark Christmas movies (can’t forget about those Christmas movies!). And now, with his biggest role yet, he’s here to impart some wisdom for those just starting out.

A self-proclaimed comic book nerd, Ian discusses his love for Green Lantern. He also chats with us about some of his other career aspirations, including his dream role and whether or not he’s too old to be in Euphoria.

Calahan/Chad Archibald/IMDb

better and better with each new season, and

interview interview

SPOILER: What’s your experience like on Snowpiercer?

IAN COLLINS: I’ve spent four years on this show, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been on a show this long. And since season 1, it really has been absolutely amazing. To get to work with such a brilliant cast and crew is something that any actor would kill for. It’s family now.

SPOILER: How would you describe the show?

IAN COLLINS: Snowpiercer starts seven years after the world has become this frozen wasteland. The remnants of humanity are on this train that’s perpetually moving around the globe. It’s about class warfare, social justice. It’s essentially a classic tale of haves and have-nots.

SPOILER: Are you a fan of the Snowpiercer movie?

IAN COLLINS: I am a fan. I’m a fan of movies and comics. I’m a big comic book nerd and movie fan. Anything sci-fi is my jam. And director Bong [Joon-ho] did an amazing job on that movie. I remember watching it and being blown away by it. I was like, “How did I not see this in theaters?” Again, this show definitely focuses more on the characters. And that’s the big difference between the movie and the show. But the movie is beautiful.

SPOILER: What does it feel like being in a scene where there are like, 100 people on set?

IAN COLLINS: It was intimidating in season 1. Most of my scenes in season 1 involved Jennifer [Connelly]. I shouldn’t say this story, but I’m kind of a clown footed individual, and there was one scene that got cut where I had to

banana around a bunch of actors and follow Jennifer. And of course, I step on her foot [laughs]. It was very intimidating. But now it’s just a family event. We’re all in the tents and just laughing and catching up. It’s the best.

SPOILER: What are the sets like?

IAN COLLINS: The sets are unbelievable. They really bring you into it. I think a lot of people don’t even know how big this stage is. The stage is quite large, and you can get lost in it very quickly, because after season 2, they started filming two episodes at a time—so filming on two different sound stages. But the trains are actually moving, which is what a lot of people don’t realize either. There’s somebody on a seesaw that’s moving the train.

The sets still wow me. I get to see most of the trains because I work in the first class and I’m the assistant to Ruth. So I’m always behind her, in every car. And I’m blown away every time I see a new car. It’s been the same soundstage for four years and I still get lost. If an AD doesn’t come and get me, I have no idea where I’m going [laughs]. It’s massive.

SPOILER: What is it like working with Alison Wright?

IAN COLLINS: I refer to her as my acting mommy, because she’s honestly so skilled and talented. It’s absolutely unbelievable how much knowledge she has. She’s like an encyclopedia.

SPOILER: Do you ever get starstruck working with anyone?

IAN COLLINS: [laughs] As an actor, you try not to. But as a fan, that’s your first reaction, being in awe. I worked on a show called Hit the Road with Jason Alexander. And I grew up watching Seinfeld. And there was one moment where I had to do the scene with him and I froze because I was Ian the Fan, not Ian the Actor. It definitely happens. But

you try not to look at their name. You try to look at them as an actor, just a scene partner. It does take time.

SPOILER: What goes through your mind when you’re filming a scene?

IAN COLLINS: I’m someone who needs 100% preparation. I’m thinking about what the character would be thinking in that moment. For example, when I’m playing Tristan, I always play him as someone who has a secret or someone who’s pretending to be me. So I’m always thinking of who’s around me, who sees me. But sometimes I say lines and lines are just words. Acting is complicated. It’s a big craft.

SPOILER: Why do you think they love having you in all these Christmas movies?

IAN COLLINS: [laughs] I think it’s because I can play earnest very easily. It comes to me naturally. And that’s what you need to have on those movies. They’re in their own worlds—their own DC or Marvel universes. They’re kind of like theater to me. Sometimes we’re doing 17 pages of dialogue, so it definitely

gets your chops up. You can do a whole movie in eight to ten days now.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite kind of show or movie to work on?

IAN COLLINS: I love sci-fi. It’s really a big part of why I started acting. And I love comedy. I love comedic beats. Working on comedy is so fulfilling. Movies-wise, I love working on the Hallmarks, I really do. I wish I could say I didn’t. I haven’t been on a sci-fi movie yet, but I’m hoping I will be soon. Dream goal would be on a Fifth Element reboot. I watch it about three times a year.

SPOILER: You’re based in Canada, yeah?

IAN COLLINS: Yes, I’m originally from Toronto, but now I’m based in Vancouver. But I go back and forth.

SPOILER: Is it harder breaking into acting in Canada these days compared to back in the day?

IAN COLLINS: I think it is. I think more A-list movie stars want to do TV now. But I think the same rules still apply. You need to build that résumé and do what you can, eventually go to LA and see what happens there.

The acting world is still from the 1920s. You gotta follow the same steps [laughs]. I’m a firm believer that if you find your community and find who you are, there’s room for everybody.

SPOILER: It’s cool to see your favorite A-listers get these big TV roles, but I love watching newcomers absolutely kill in these starring roles too.

IAN COLLINS: I 100% agree. I love seeing the humble person who was working in their hometown as an actor and then hit it big. I’ve worked with those people, they’re amazing individuals. They’re talented, smart, and they know themselves. They’re ready for that fame. I love those stories.

SPOILER: When did you realize you wanted to become an actor?

IAN COLLINS: Grade 2. Power Rangers [laughs], when I realized Power Rangers didn’t exist and my parents had to tell me that it was acting. That’s really when I decided I still wanted to be a Power Ranger. I was like, “I guess I have to be an actor.” But I did drama all the way through high school and did some really great theater projects. Then I decided I was gonna be a chef and went to culinary school. I moved to a resort town. And then decided to come back to acting. I did a lot of commercials [early on]. I went to drama school and decided I would go full force. And it’s been about 10 years now.

SPOILER: Who’s your favorite Power Ranger?

IAN COLLINS: I wanted to be Zack. And also Tommy. I met Jason David Frank at Rogers Arena when I was 10 years old.

SPOILER: If you could work on any other TV show right now, what would it be?

IAN COLLINS: I just watched episode 2 of season 2 of Euphoria. And I know I’m in a different age category, but I love what they’re doing. It just feels so real and grounded. I’m just surprised what these kids are able to do. I would love to be on it, even if I was just a teacher. It would be the best.

SPOILER: What about a movie?

IAN COLLINS: Don’t Look Up. I was engulfed in that dark humor. I was like, “I really wanna be on this.”

Those news coverage scenes are absolutely amazing. Meryl [Streep] was amazing, and she improvised most of that. I just wanna sit in the room. I would do background for that project just to watch everybody.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

IAN COLLINS: That is a tough question. I’m gonna be honest, Green Lantern was my first comic book ever. I would love to be any Green Lantern. But I do want that Disney money [laughs]. I want to be on that Disney roster. So, I’m gonna go with Marvel. They’re doing some great stuff.

SPOILER: Have you experienced a convention yet?

IAN COLLINS: I definitely have! Multiple. Not as an actor, but as a fan.

SPOILER: What advice do you give to someone trying to come up in this industry?

IAN COLLINS: Community is important. If I could go back and give myself advice 10 years ago, it would have to be that. You really have to find an acting community and engulf yourself when you start. You have to be present and be there. And also, find other things that you’re passionate about and bring those to your acting. People are complicated. We are not just one thing. You can’t just be an actor; you have to be more than that. The last five years, I’ve had

a really strong acting community: acting friends, acting coaches, acting teachers. When the pandemic hit, it was really hard for those of us who didn’t have that. But if you already had that in your circle, you’re ahead of the game. It’s also helped to get me gigs in the past. I’ve had friends who’ve booked leads in things and mentioned my name, and that’s how I got an audition or a callback.

SPOILER: Auditioning has changed. It’s a lot of tapes now.

IAN COLLINS: I love it. It’s more pressure on yourself, but less anxiety. I do miss auditioning in a room. I miss having that interaction with the producers and directors and the casting directors. It still happens sometimes. But when you see your name and where it’s positioned, and you see the other three guys auditioning, it can play with your mind a little bit. But with self-tapes, you’re battling yourself instead. I’ve found that if you trust yourself and humble yourself, it’s there already.

SPOILER: What can fans expect from Snowpiercer this season?

IAN COLLINS: It’s an intense season. I’ve read every script from every episode about twice now, because it’s that good. It’s the best season. The finale—people are just gonna be shocked. I don’t wanna get in trouble, but we’re gonna see a lot more of Tristan this season. I’ll leave it at that [laughs].

SPOILER: Is there anything you want to share with the fans out there?

IAN COLLINS: “You guys have been absolutely amazing! We love the fan art, all the supportive messages. Keep on watching. This season is gonna take you on a journey—a full ride. It’s epic!”

Vicious

Fun/Black Fawn Films/Breakthrough Entertainment

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Believe it or not, Peacemaker is far from Alison Araya’s first

venture into the comic book universe. Beginning with Smallville and an uncredited role in Superman Returns in 2006, followed by a pair of projects in 2009—appearing in both Watchmen and X-Men Origins: Wolverine—and then later with a quick spot on Supergirl and a 9-episode arc on Arrow, the actress has been involved in more superhero projects than almost anyone. But now, with a much larger role on DC and HBO Max’s Peacemaker—a spin-off revolving around John Cena’s antihero character from last year’s The Suicide Squad—the actress is putting her experience to perfect use.

The Australian-born Araya seems thankful that her career has taken its time to mature. Now that she has the industry savvy and wherewithal to make prudent moves, she’s also garnering the attention from producers and directors that would allow her to do so. And she’s glad she has her roots so firmly planted.

Alison, a former Greenpeace employee, keeps it real with us about where she’s at now, and what it’s like to be part of James Gunn’s exploding DC world.

SPOILER: How does it feel working in the DC hemisphere?

ALISON ARAYA: Amazing! The superhero world is such a fun world to be a part of. And having had a mini foray into the Marvel world, it’s great to be back in the DC world for sure. It was really fun. I’m so thrilled to be part of this show. To switch gears and work on something like Peacemaker is an opportunity that doesn’t often come around, so when it presents itself, I’m like, “Yeah, this is what I want to be doing.”

SPOILER: The fandom community is incredible, isn’t it?

ALISON ARAYA: The fandom is everything. I’m honored to be a part of this world. The fans are the thing that makes this world and work so meaningful.

SPOILER: Have you been to any conventions yet?

ALISON ARAYA: There were plans, but then COVID happened and everything came to a screeching halt. But it’s on my bucket list. I see it in my future. I have so much love and respect for the fans. Even though I’m an actor, I am quite an introvert. I love meeting people, but I don’t do super well in big crowds. It overstimulates. And that’s not just myself, I think there are a lot of actors who fall into this category. But it’s part of the job. It’s part of the world. Over the years, I’ve been so touched and moved by the fans of different shows that I’ve been a part of. But something like Peacemaker, it has such a big following, and it’s only going to get bigger. So, give the fans that they want. I’m there!

SPOILER: Who is Peacemaker and who are you in the series?

ALISON ARAYA: Peacemaker is our irreverent antihero: Peace at any cost, even if that means killing people. He kills the bad guys to keep the peace. [My character] Amber is a hostage [laughs] and comes into contact with Peacemaker. From there booms an interesting relationship between the two of them.

Amber is in a very, shall we say, functional marriage. She and Evan have a very colorful way of communicating with each other. There’s a lot of passion there. But not fueled into a way that’s healthy. When Peacemaker comes into their world, both Evan and Amber are taken hostage. And Amber, being who she is, finds the experience of being in Peacemaker’s company quite intriguing and wants a little more of his attention.

Evan and Amber are wild. Finding that kind of chemistry and magic with Lenny [Jacobson] was so much fun! He and I had never met before, but we got to set and caught each other’s vibe. As soon as we started working, we found our chemistry. It was amazing! And we had an opportunity to improv a little here and there. Having that sort of freedom to play on set doesn’t come around very often. And to have James [Gunn’s] incredible eye guiding us was amazing. Genuinely, I learned so much as an artist working on this show in this heightened world, getting to explore some of the comedy. It’s an experience that I cherish.

SPOILER: Despite the first season having eight episodes in total, only the first three debuted on HBO Max the first day, with the next 5 coming out weekly after that. What do you think is the reason behind that unique strategy?

ALISON ARAYA: I think there’s lots of reasons behind that. But I like the HBO Max model, having those first three episodes come out. It’s enough to [satisfy] the audience with a mini binge feel, but then also, with that delayed gratification of one episode

Susie Abromeit/Matt Sayles/Lapalme

per week, you can sit with this story and the characters a little bit longer. I’m guilty of binge watching through something and missing nuances, not getting the entire experience of it because you’re just hungry to get more. Whereas releasing one a week, you get to reflect and talk about the story.

SPOILER: Are you from Canada originally?

ALISON ARAYA: I’m not actually. I’m an Aussie, born and raised in Australia. My folks are from Chile. I’m kinda international at this point. I’m currently based in Vancouver, but I hop around. I spent years living in Italy and went to theater school there. I’ve been working consistently in Vancouver for a while now, but I jump between here and LA.

SPOILER: I know you’re a big fan of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist. Such a great book!

ALISON ARAYA: It’s my favorite book. I’ve been reading that book every year since I was twenty. I got

to meet him in Australia many years ago. He was there for a signing of his book The Fifth Mountain, and I snuck out of work. At the time, I was working for Greenpeace. I lined up for about an hour and got to meet him. It was one of those moments where you get to meet someone with such integrity and presence that it was almost a spiritual experience. It really made an impact on me. The Alchemist, for me, is a road map and a reminder of the journey, which is

why I always come back and visit it. I read this book in the same way I watch television. Every year, I’m in a different place in my life as a human being, so I’m able to see something new or pick up on a new nuance in this story that resonates on a new level.

SPOILER: Have they ever made a movie about The Alchemist?

ALISON ARAYA: Paulo Coelho has not sold the movie rights to any of his books.

SPOILER: How far would you go to be part of that project if it ever happens?

ALISON ARAYA: Oh my gosh. If that were to ever happen, I would Hunger Games it to be a part of that movie! If I’m not mistaken, I think there were talks about making The Alchemist into a film years ago, but I think there were some creative differences when it came to the script and they ended up not making it. But I believe the story touches on such a profound part of the human experience and that hero’s journey lends itself well to a film. But unless the right person with a vision comes along, he’s not likely to make it. But who knows?

SPOILER: What brought you to Greenpeace?

ALISON ARAYA: Growing up, I was always a bit of an activist. My mom raised me to always have a profound connection to and appreciation for Mother Earth. So, I always thought if I didn’t get into acting, I could be some kind of activist worker or

Tim Rozon/SurrealEstate/Syfy/Blue Ice Pictures/Smallz & Raskind/Getty Images

humanitarian worker. And as I came out of theater school, I got a job with Greenpeace. I was actually one of the first people campaigning on the streets raising awareness for the pilot program they ran in Sydney. I was super passionate about it and worked there for quite a while. It was really impactful in that engaging with people is such a powerful way of communicating, the urgency of looking at our environment and making climate change a priority. But it was also disheartening because a lot of people just didn’t care. I’m grateful for the experience and hope to continue working and raising awareness in my own way.

SPOILER: How excited were your family and friends when they found out you were in Peacemaker?

ALISON AR AYA: Super excited. This is a big deal, getting to work with John Cena and James Gunn and everyone I got to work with. My family is super supportive. I feel like I’m really blessed. From the moment I realized that this is what I wanted to do, my family was like, “Yes, do what you have to do! We believe in you!” So, they’re pretty stoked.

SPOILER: Was this one of those secret auditions that DC and Marvel like to do?

ALISON ARAYA: It was hush hush. At first, the production had a different name, so we didn’t really know what was going on. But then, when I found out, I was like, “This is amazing!” And then anticipation of The Suicide Squad film coming out, I started to realize that this was gonna be a huge opportunity. I didn’t know the comics beforehand. I didn’t really grow up with that as part of [my world]. But I love the superhero genre and I love what John Cena’s doing with Peacemaker. It’s wild!

Comic books are really good, concise storytelling. I think they were the original memes [laughs]. You have to pack a lot of information into a single visual and limited text. So, when you see these comics that say a lot in a single frame, and really

captures an emotion, it really makes an impact, which is why it lends itself so well to film and television. And we’re only gonna see more of it.

SPOILER: When did you realize you wanted to start acting?

ALISON ARAYA: True story: My mom tells me that the second I was born, she held me in her arms, and she heard some voice tell her, “This young girl is gonna be an actress.” That’s what she says. So, I think it was predestined. As a kid, I was always performing. I was the child at the party who would gather all the kids and create shows and demand everyone’s attention for my 15-minute extravaganzas. My first role was in my preschool Nativity play. I played Mary. But I started to take it seriously as a preteen. I won an acting class from some junior modeling competition. And then the stars aligned. I was like, “This is what I want to do!”

From then, I went to a performing arts high school, and that really

consolidated my passion. That was the foundation for my work ethic. I had some brilliant teachers and mentors who really made an impact. I decided I wanted to go deeper into my studies, and that’s when I moved to Italy and did my formal theater training. Then I met an actor in Australia who told me about the industry here in Vancouver. So, I packed my things, came over here, and never went back.

I love what I do so much and try to get better all the time. It started out with me wanting to put all my feelings and emotions into

something meaningful, and then it turned into a real passion for story and humanity. When I look at my work, I’m always looking for ways to be a better storyteller and reveal more of myself, to find the nuances and bring the complexity of what it is to be a human being, and some truth and authenticity to my work.

SPOILER: You’ve been in this industry a long time now. Does it bother you when some young actors get that one magic role and skyrocket?

ALISON ARAYA: Listen, there was a time in my life where that would have crushed me, and I would have thought that it was the biggest injustice. But I haven’t been in that space for a while because I really started to work on myself. And the more I worked on myself, the more I realized that everyone really does have their own journey. I’m gonna be honest, when I first came to Vancouver, I thought I was ready for a series lead and had it all worked out. But the more I knew, the more I realized I had so much to learn. I know who I am on a mental level now, and I know what my core values are, so the ground beneath me feels stable. If I had been given the opportunity at a younger age, I couldn’t say that I would have had the same foundation. So now in my career, whatever comes my way, I know I can handle it. And for those who have that one opportunity that

catapults you to success, bless you! But also, continue to work, because opportunities can come easily, but can also vanish just as quickly. I keep studying, finding new teachers to work with. I look at my work like an athlete watches their game tape. I listen to how other actors work, I listen to how directors communicate, I listen to what the writers are saying, because I wanna be a good storyteller.

SPOILER: Do you think your experience has made you more savvy with picking your roles?

ALISON ARAYA: I think it’s something I’m still developing. Using that discernment and really trusting that intuition is a really important part of my journey. Being okay saying no is really important as an actor. When I first started out, I would say yes to everything that

came my way. But then I had to cultivate that discernment of what’s important to me; what are the stories that I want to tell; who are the people that I want to work with. Getting into that position to be able to make those choices and guide my career the way I want it to go, I feel like I’m just stepping into that space right now. And it’s really exciting. I feel like the best is yet to come for me.

SPOILER: Do you believe in ghosts?

ALISON ARAYA: Of course I believe in ghosts! I got the stories. My first gig in Vancouver was on the show Smallville. And we were filming at this very renowned location, Riverview [Hospital]. And so many people who have been there report strange sensations and weird kinda vibes. When I was shooting there, it just felt like there was a lot of energy around, so I refused to go anywhere by myself. The one washroom that was available to us was down this dark alley, so I held it until I was back at my trailer [laughs].

Susie Abromeit/Matt Sayles/Diving Normal/Devolver

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

It would be a John Legend concert that would inspire

Ricky He to pursue a career in performing. The Vancouver native already had somewhat of a foundation, attending a fine arts school early in life. But fast forward a few years and now he stars in the upcoming sci-fi/horror Epix series From, where he plays a resident of a mysterious small town that imprisons anyone who visits.

With a career that includes spots on Wayward Pines, The Magicians, A Million Little Things, and The Good Doctor, as well as the 2018 Disney Channel version of Freaky Friday, Ricky is accumulating quite the résumé. The actor sits down with us to chat about his upcoming series, what his bank account looked like prior to landing the role of Kenny, and who he’s eyeing to play in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

interview interview

SPOILER: What is From about?

RICKY HE: From is this mystery thriller. I’ve been telling people that it’s like a cross between Lost and The Walking Dead. It’s about a bunch of people who get stuck in this town and they don’t know how they get stuck in this town. And at nighttime, some pretty paranormal, creepy stuff starts happening.

The main essence of this show is to create an environment where all these people are put into these extreme circumstances where they have to find the humanity in it all. At the core of it, even though there’s a lot of scary stuff that happens, this show is built around the characters, and the emphasis is about the people who are stuck in this town and how they find a way to get along.

SPOILER: Describe your character on the show.

RICKY HE: I played the deputy in town, Kenny. He’s a first-generation immigrant. His mom works at the diner and his dad has dementia, so his parents don’t stay together, and he has to jump back and forth between hospital and home. Here’s this earnest, sweet young kid who’s trying to do his best. He wants to impress the sheriff, Boyd, who’s kind of like this father figure for him.

SPOILER: This show doesn’t wait to get crazy. It gets there in the first episode.

RICKY HE: Having taken such a big part in shooting the show and then having so much time to digest it, there’s a part of me that’s almost disillusioned with what’s happening. I watched the screener, and it took me a while to realize, “Yeah, that was really intense!” I mean, I was there and saw what

was happening on set in real life, but it didn’t look as jarring as when I was watching it on screen. It’s intense. It was a lot.

SPOILER: How did you land the role of Kenny?

RICKY HE: At this point in my career, there’s a whole lot of auditioning and a whole lot of rejection. Or a lot of waiting to hear back, finding out you’re close, and then getting that no. This was one of those where I did the audition and I was kinda hung up on something else. Like, I was almost over the process to some degree. And I got the callback and met [showrunner] Jack Bender. It went really well, in my head. And then waiting to find out if I got the role was one of those things where, I just paid my taxes, my bank account was the closest to 0 it’s been since I was a teenager. I was already assuming I wasn’t gonna hear back about this job, so I was already grieving it [laughs]. So when I heard that I got it, it was a massive breath of relief. I was like, “I don’t know if I should keep doing this,” so that was great timing.

SPOILER: Did that give you an added oomph in your performance?

RICKY HE: [laughs] I don’t know. I do Muay Thai kickboxing, and I like to think of it as similar. You have to prep really hard and work your ass off, but when you’re in the ring, you have to sort of lose that tension and just stay in that moment.

So, I think there was definitely a similar approach to the first week of shooting. My first day of work, we were shooting probably one of the heaviest scenes that I have this season. Before that, we had two weeks of quarantining, which I spent pacing back and forth in my apartment, just having this existential crisis like, “Am I good enough for this? What if they were wrong?” [laughs] So I prepped really hard. And when you get on

Jesse Stanley/Ruth

Crafer/Kristine

Cofsky/(cover image): Jesse Stanley/Kristine Cofsky

set, you just gotta release all that tension and just stay right there. Especially when Harold [Perrineau] is your scene partner. He’s the GOAT. He’s so f---ing incredible! He’s so there with you for everything. Such a generous actor. So, I was just there and added a little extra elbow grease.

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

RICKY HE: I grew up on the east side of Vancouver, which is like the less affluent part of Vancouver. But then I applied to a fine arts school on the west side of Vancouver, which is more of a well-off neighborhood. I took a drama program. Around 11th or 12th grade, I was like, “Why am I gonna become an actor? Are they really gonna put me in TV shows and movies?” So I decided I would stop acting and go to school, get a regular job my Chinese parents would be really proud of [laughs]. It sounds so cliché, but it felt like something was missing. I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I’m a big John Legend fan and I went to his concert. I remember just standing there being absolutely blown away. I could not believe what I was seeing and hearing and experiencing. I knew in that moment,

“I have to do something in the form of entertainment. I have to pursue something.” So, I went home and opened my laptop and Googled how to be an actor, and here we are.

SPOILER: These days, a lot more shows come out unannounced. It’s a lot harder to get that traction with all these different outlets.

RICKY HE: I would sound like a total optimist if I said that I had faith that what’s good rises to the top. But at the end of the day, at this point in my career, I hope for the best but expect the worst. From is really good. I gotta say, by the end of this season,

a lot of questions are answered, but in a way, I have even more questions than I started with. I feel so lucky to be able to have worked on this show. I’m a big fan of properties like Game of Thrones and the entire MCU. And a big part of those franchises is the fan involvement: the theory videos, the Easter egg videos. I genuinely feel like a fan of this show. There’s a hunger to find out what happens.

SPOILER: Are you focusing more on TV or movies right now?

RICKY HE: If the story is tremendously compelling, it doesn’t necessarily matter to me. I would love to work on more film because I’ve had the privilege to work on something like From. I grew up loving television and I loved the idea that, unlike film, you can stay with these characters in this world that you’re invested in. There’s something about finishing a TV show, as an audience member, where you’re almost grieving a little bit.

SPOILER: Did you guys shoot the show in an actual town?

RICKY HE: We shot in Nova Scotia, about 45 minutes away from central Halifax in a little town called Beaver Bank. And they built the town. It’s all these little sets. And it’s incredible! There’s a diner in town, and it really is a diner. Colony House is spectacular. The sets, at least for me, really help put you in that place. We all know the town so well, the geography, the climate, that when I’m watching the show, it’s hard for me to not think about where the porta potties are.

SPOILER: Was this filmed during COVID?

RICKY HE: Yes. We had some pretty intense COVID protocol. We were tested multiple times a week and always wearing a mask. One of the moments of relief was being able to go home. We spent a lot of time on set. And there were a couple of night shoots that got really wet and cold.

SPOILER: So where do you go from here?

RICKY HE: At the end of shooting, I really wanted to take some time off from actual acting. I really wanted to work on my writing and my directing a little bit more. Right before I flew to Halifax to shoot this, I had just directed my first music video called “Yet to Come” for a friend of mine. And I thought that was what I wanted to do. But after taking a break, now I’m auditioning and want to work again. I don’t know if we’re gonna get a season 2. Fingers crossed. But if we don’t get to do a season 2, at least I can be proud of having worked on something like this. Kenny is such a fun and specific character. Another character that I’m really looking to playing right now is sort

of a charming, smarmy founder of a pyramid scheme. Almost like DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. I just wanna play something that’s the polar opposite of Kenny. Or maybe something like a 1930s businessman in Shanghai. There’s something about that aesthetic that’s really appealing to me.

SPOILER: Are you similar to Kenny?

RICKY HE: There’s a huge part of me in Kenny and I relate to him on a very strong level. I have a massive need to be loved and affirmed. But also, there’s a really big aspect of me where I can be really arrogant, which is something I really had a hard time coming to terms with. It took me a long time in training to learn to accept that these are all different parts of me. I have all these aspects that make me this complete person. But that’s the dream of any great actor, to be able to show all these different parts of themselves. And with Kenny, I was able to strongly show such a big part of myself.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

RICKY HE: I can’t say too much, but I had at one point went out,

and was in the mix, for something Marvel related. Something I would love to do right now in terms of the superhero genre is, there is a member of the Young Avengers team called Amadeus Cho. People keep saying they’re shaping up to build the Young Avengers team. I am young and I do love avenging things. I need to tweet it like Simu [Liu] did.

If I got to work with someone like Tony Leung, it would definitely be a parents-get-off-my-back moment. But MCU is a close second to working with Tony Leung.

SPOILER: Has anything paranormal ever happened to you?

RICKY HE: Nothing personally, and I hope it stays that way [laughs]. But in grade 10, our drama teacher showed us her footage of some girl spirit she saw on some haunted tour. They were looking in windows, and this girl is just faded into the window, just standing there. I don’t feel like the CGI looked that good back then, so it might be legit.

SPOILER: Do you have any advice for young actors trying to follow in your footsteps?

RICKY HE: I realized last year that I spent so much of my early life just being bad at stuff. I think that’s the reason why the last two or three years I’ve kind of developed this obsession with getting good at stuff. So don’t be afraid to fail. Keep trying stuff. That’s the only way you can learn. Always be willing to learn in every situation. If you’re willing to learn about the intricacies of what’s going on in your industry, it’s a never ending pursuit.

Vicious Fun/Black Fawn Films/Breakthrough Entertainment

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

The ripple effect of Stan Lee will be

eternally present in the pop culture sphere. He forever changed the way we not only viewed comic books, but fictional stories, broadening the possibilities of narrative and depth of character.

Prior to his death in 2018, he and his right-hand man Gill Champion recruited The Walking Dead veteran Jay Bonansinga to tackle the Marvel Comics legend’s first novel, The Devil’s Quintet. The story follows a group of soldiers who are offered a deal with the devil that would give them superpowers, but would require them to act as his bounty hunters in return. It’s here where our protagonists come face to face with their own humanity and must make a crucial choice.

While reflecting on Stan Lee’s impact and his unparalleled vision, Jay and Gill chat with Galaxy and delve into some of the more granular aspects of building a superhero—or supervillain—story: the questions they’re forced to ask themselves while constructing the story’s foundation and figuring out the true anatomy of these characters and their limitations.

SPOILER: What is this book about?

JAY BONANSINGA: When I was lucky enough to be brought on board on this project, I had a feeling it was going to be the most interesting ride of my life and career. And so far, it hasn’t disappointed. It began as a premise that Stan Lee created, and it was a little different.

GILL CHAMPION: It was. One of the things that Stan always wanted to do was write a novel. As the years went by, he was preoccupied with so many other things. But he was always infatuated with heroes and villains, and wanted to tackle this particular story. It’s probably a little different and darker than most of the Stan Lee projects we did at POW! that he was known for. It started with a concept. We were determined to find the right person to begin collaboration with, and we were lucky enough to come across Jay. After meeting and conversing with Jay, Stan was thrilled, before he passed, that he was passing the torch of this particular project on to Jay.

SPOILER: Was the story something that was close to Stan’s heart? Or was it more of an homage to ideas that he gave before he passed?

GILL CHAMPION: Stan and I spent countless hours over the years talking about good and evil, and heroes and villains, and Stan always wanted to write this story about the ultimate villain. The devil is the ultimate representative of evil. Stan always wanted to have a hero too, and he was always attracted to stories that had to do with the military. So, taking these two elements and putting them together, Stan created the idea of The Devil’s Quintet. As the twilight was coming up on him, it was really something he wanted to put down in order to express some of his feelings about this particular journey, that he felt was very personal to him as well.

JAY BONANSINGA: I would also add that Stan was a genius at creating superheroes that were human and flawed and accessible to readers. People identified with his superheroes. Spider-Man is one of the prototypical human-sized superheroes. And this book is the ultimate version of that for me. Because when you’re a soldier, especially a special forces soldier, you’re pretty much the superhero of the military. But you also go and do what they tell you to do. You’re kind of an employee. That was one

of the first hooks that sunk into me about this premise: a bunch of incredibly elite, badass former Navy SEALs, and now they’re assassins for the government. Then they’re drawn into a Faustian bargain. For me, it resonated a lot. I have friends who were in the military. I had this one friend who would just help go through my past novels to make sure the military protocol was correct.

So, by the time I had this great opportunity, I had known quite a bit about military protocol. And it’s so eerie about how it jives with what a real soldier has to do in the modern world. And these characters talk about that. It’s a gumbo of different genres. It’s action, it’s military, it’s horror, it’s fantasy, it’s mordant humor. I just hope that Stan would have been as proud of this as I am.

GILL CHAMPION: I’m sure he would have. And hopefully he’s smiling down and not looking up [laughs].

JAY BONANSINGA: [laughs]

GILL CHAMPION: The military always played such a strong role in everything we did. Stan would usually think of who the villain should be first. And in this case, we have the ultimate villain. Then you try to come up with superheroes that seemed that the odds are already so far stacked against them that, how could they ever become superheroes? The journey of this military quintet is probably one of the most fascinating journeys because it combines both fiction and nonfiction. It makes for an incredible story for multiple generations of fans that will want to read this book, and on a global basis because of Stan’s reach.

SPOILER: What’s the biggest advantage of doing this in novel form?

JAY BONANSINGA: There’s a thing that you work with in film and prose and fiction and comic books—something that I went

from an undergraduate to a PhD working for [The Walking Dead’s] Robert Kirkman—and it’s called “tone.” I know this sounds like a cheesy cliché, but when I’m working on Devil’s Quintet, it feels like Stan is a North Star. Whenever I do something, I’m like, “What would Stan do?” There’s a Stan Lee tone. You don’t see it in prose very often because he was a creature of the graphic comic book, but I had eight years and millions of words and eight complete books with Kirkman, absorbing the comic book feel. Comic books are here and now. They’re closer to film than they are to literature. And so, I immediately started thinking in present tense. These soldiers are in the here and now.

It was very comparable to The Walking Dead field. Yeah, you can have flashbacks—and we do have them. But The Devil’s Quintet is really in-your-face, forward moving, and visual.

GILL CHAMPION: When you read the book, you become so engrossed with the characters. Reading is an imaginative process. You can very well see it as if you’re reading a film script because the characters are so three-dimensional. You truly feel like you’re put in this as an observer in a visual journey. And that’s what really attracted me to Jay’s writing. You feel like you’re living it along with the protagonist and antagonist as well.

JAY BONANSINGA: In Stan Lee’s original premise, he describes the devil. Maybe one day, Gill, you guys will publish that premise. It’s so interesting. For a Jewish person, there’s not really a devil. Stan’s devil was almost Dickensian. So, I figured

for each character, their own version of the devil would be different. That’s how I started. That was a Stan Lee thing. I used that as the commander of the quintet, but it changes for everybody.

GILL CHAMPION: The interesting thing about Stan’s characters was that they were always flawed. A superpower is both a blessing and a curse. It’s something that’s such a strong part of wish fulfillment: “If I were a superhero, would I be able to be that person?” It comes along with both happiness and sadness. And the complexity of these characters is very understandable. In a comic book, you don’t get a chance to get that, although it’s an imaginative process. But here, Jay laid it out so that everyone gets to know all these characters. And that’s what’s just so amazing, and what separates this medium, and what makes this book different.

With The Exorcist or The Shining, those are stories that people identified with, and yet at the same time, scared the hell out of them. That’s what we have here. It’s what Stan left as part of his legacy, and Jay’s taking that on to flesh it out.

SPOILER: How long did it take to come up with the whole story and all the intricacies?

JAY BONANSINGA: About a year. I’m in the middle of book 2 right now, but I’m already thinking in terms of book 3 and 4. It just keeps getting richer and richer. Good versus evil is an archetype; a classic conflict in story. The devil is the world’s greatest supervillain, and God is the world’s greatest superhero. The mechanical part of writing it was probably close to a year, but I started thinking about it a year before I wrote the book. I started working on the proposal with Gill’s help, and I started thinking about the arc of the story and where it’s gonna go. I read extensively, not in terms of military protocol, but in terms of religion. There’s such a rich meaning to mine there in a superhero story when it comes to religion. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, but in this book there’s all sorts of tips of the hat to the history of religion throughout the millennia.

Here’s a bit of a spoiler: They find that the devil can listen in to what they’re saying to each other. And through this Rube Goldberg, twisty story, they discover that if they can get to a church and get inside that enclosure, then the devil can’t hear them. That’s their cone of silence.

SPOILER: Why do you think the devil honed in on these five people?

JAY BONANSINGA: That’s a great question. In terms of our early development of this, I think it was Gill who said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if there was another quintet—a Vietnam-era quintet—but they didn’t work out?” I was like, “Oh, I love that!” So, we’re using that more than once—a sort of B story. There’s an aspect of the devil in this Stan Lee universe where he has a job to do. He may be the prince of darkness, but he is also a professional. He needs freelancers to help him track down people who have skipped on their own deals. The devil can’t kill you, so he needs humans in this earthly realm to kill you.

SPOILER: The intricacy of this story is found in the tension of whether or not these people choose to do this anymore.

JAY BONANSINGA: Right! It’s the tip of the iceberg. That’s what Stan Lee gave his artists. He gave them the tip of the iceberg, and then there’s so much to these characters and ideas that the stories tell themselves. When you’re writing something like this, you have to ask yourself fascinating questions like, “Do these characters know about other superheroes? Do they know about The Avengers?” And I had to ask myself that when I was working on The Walking Dead: “Have these characters seen Night of the Living Dead? Because of pop culture, do they know that they have to destroy the brains of these zombies?” My answer to that is usually yes. They exist in our universe. They know what a superhero is. It adds to the richness. This is a bad example, but

Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga:POW! Entertainment

it’s like if another person knows what an alcoholic is but they still drink and drink and drink, and eventually go, “You know? I’m an alcoholic.” You live in a universe where Spider-Man exists. But then when you become a superhero, it becomes even more terrifying in a sense.

SPOILER: It’s about free will—these choices humans make all the time, whether they have superpowers or not. GILL CHAMPION: That’s really the crux of what it is. Every hero at some point has to make a decision: “Am I a hero or do I have villainy in me?” The antagonist always has to believe just as strongly in their beliefs. And that’s part of the battle. Both of these forces feel just as strongly.

SPOILER: And sometimes the humanity doesn’t fully come in until after they get the powers.

JAY BONANSINGA: Another question you have to answer in a story like this is, “If we don’t go along with the devil, will he just take these superpowers away? Can we use these superpowers against the devil? Can we use them to do good?” These are eternal questions. I think of it as the Haunted House Syndrome. People are in a haunted house—why don’t they just move? [laughs] I mean, maybe they can’t afford a mortgage, but still! If there are these demons in there, why don’t they just move away? And so, you come up with clever little impediments. And we came up with a big one for this. We came up with the reason why the devil cannot just take those powers away, and maybe they can use them against the devil.

SPOILER: How long will this story keep going?

JAY BONANSINGA: There’s gonna be part 2, part 3, part 4. It’s very possible—I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but it will become a television series as well. All this stuff is in development. A story does, at a certain point, take over.

It starts to breathe. These are human beings just like the rest of us. That was the genius of Robert Kirkman, to take something that was a trope—a zombie? When I first heard about it, I was like, “No, that will never work.” And then I read the first issue of the comic book and I’m like, “It’s genius!”

And the reason it’s genius is because there’s just one thing that you have to suspend your disbelief about, and it’s that people could crawl out of the grave and want to eat you. But everything surrounding it is hyperrealistic. It’s real people dealing with real-life issues. And that’s a component here with The Devil’s Quintet. That’s what makes it great.

GILL CHAMPION: As we started working on the original treatment we thought, “Hey, this would make a great movie.” And as we continued to work with Jay, and saw the richness of the story and the depth of the characters, we now think that this will make a great series. We are in the process of, at least from book 1, becoming a series. And as we continue to publish the books, it will hopefully go on and live a life of many seasons. There’s so much potential in this and we’re hoping that the readers will get to this and share our enthusiasm.

SPOILER: The story is so great. It’s about the thing that terrifies us humans the most: making decisions.

GILL CHAMPION: Besides being entertaining and visual, I’m thinking it will make readers think a little bit about their own lives and their own choices. And if we’ve done all that, then it will be very satisfying.

Reading was always important to Stan. That’s why he always tried to elevate the level of comic books to not only entertain and to look at the pictures, but to be able to read. [Books] were always an important part of Stan’s life, and hopefully this book will be an important part of his legacy. People will be able to sit down and read a book!

Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga:POW!

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

In just 12 years, writer and showrunner Roberto Patino

has compiled a fantastic résumé. With shows that include Prime Suspect, Sons of Anarchy, and Westworld, the producer’s credits have either gotten better with each new project, or his role has gotten more involved. Now, with his latest series, DMZ, based on the DC Comics title of the same name, Roberto has recreated a new vision for television.

Released on HBO Max last month, DMZ is set eight years into a modern-

day American Civil War. It follows a young woman trying to find her son in the midst of all the chaos. First debuting in print back in 2005 as a DC comic of the same name, the 72-issue source material depicts a vastly different version of the United States than the one we’re currently living in.

In this extensive interview, the showrunner discusses the process of adapting the comic, the social conflicts of our nation during that time, and adjusting the tale to a present day where tensions are at an all-time high in our real world. Roberto also talks about the stars of his ensemble cast before eventually segueing into Do the Right Thing and the impact Spike Lee’s iconic masterpiece had on him as a kid.

Roberto Patino:Shutterstock/DMZ:HBO Max/(cover image):Roberto Patino:Juan Patino Photography

SPOILER: What is DMZ all about?

ROBERTO PATINO: DMZ stands for demilitarized zone. And for those of you who don’t know what a demilitarized zone is, it’s basically a plot of land between two warring countries that’s been deemed neutral. In other words, no military allowed in here; you can’t get in, you can’t get out. And so, the show and the comic on which this show is based assumes the second American Civil War between the Free States of America in the west and the United States of America in the east, and lying smack in the middle of those two warring parties is the island of Manhattan. That is our demilitarized zone. So it’s a land that has been essentially abandoned of people that remain, who either stayed there purposefully or they couldn’t get out. So that’s our world.

SPOILER: That’s pretty cool.

ROBERTO PATINO: Yeah, it takes shades, you can imagine, from Escape from New York, from The Warriors, but we really take that

concept, that dystopic sort of notion, and run in the opposite way, where the show is inherently about our worst-case scenario, right? And I just never really wanted to spin on or ideate on divisiveness. You asked ten different people how we might get the Civil War and you’re gonna get ten different answers, and I’m interested in none of them. So, we just assumed that worst-case scenario, we start in the middle of the war, eight years later, and we tell the story of what happens next, which, you know, in its most macro level, is the story of people from all walks of life, from all creeds, of all colors coming together. It’s a hopeful story, ultimately. And it’s a story about a people essentially reclaiming their identity, reclaiming their land, and sewing a new interwoven fabric of society.

SPOILER: I always squeeze the showrunners because...

ROBERTO PATINO: We can say everything [laughs].

SPOILER: Everything and anything. You’re not gonna get in trouble. You know what’s okay and what’s not. When we get actors on the show, I’m very careful.

ROBERTO PATINO: “I’m not at liberty to tell you.”

SPOILER: Nowadays, comic books are intermingling with all sorts of genres, it’s not just superheroes and stuff like that. You get a DC Comics thing that’s more of a drama and it has nothing to do with a Caped Crusader or anything like that.

ROBERTO PATINO: This comic is interesting because it’s sort of an amorphous mass. The comic came out in 2005. I remember I was in Boston. I picked it up at Newberry Comics and I was smitten, terrified, and hooked from the first page. It really presented something which was totally insane: a second American Civil War; the concept of war in our own backyard. I remember reading and being like, what is [writer Brian Wood] thinking? This is crazy! And it felt very much like a genre comic booky hook, you know?

I read every single one of the 72 issues. I came back to it in 2016, and a short ten, eleven years later, boy did that hook take on a whole new meaning. It was just an entirely different time and place then, and even now, six years after that, it’s even more harrowing. The comic is really predicated on a post9/11 world. And it’s also heavily predicated on the idea of our military being interred in the Middle East. I’d just say these days, we have much more sort of immediate internal and personal conditions to contend with when it comes to the concept of a second American Civil War. So the comic, which is based on that time and place, can’t just be faithfully adapted for 2022. It’s a different time and a very different place. So it needed a hefty amount of reinvention while keeping the spirit and the world and the sort of rules of this space.

SPOILER: 10 years ago you would’ve never expected things to happen like they are today, right? Never, ever, ever.

ROBERTO PATINO: Not at all. I mean, would you?

SPOILER: No, absolutely not. If they would’ve told me this three years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are.

ROBERTO PATINO: But it happened. I remember, and this is a true story, I wrote “THE END” on the first draft of the finale script before I sent it off to HBO Max. And within 30 seconds of writing [those words], I got a ping on my phone about the January 6th storming of the Capitol. Wow. That happened. It was within one minute of typing the letter “D,” and that freaked me out. And I was like, “Shoot, this is getting closer and closer to a real Civil War.”

SPOILER: You think that could happen?

ROBERTO PATINO: I don’t think we’re going to Civil War, in truth. I think that we, as a community and as a country, are bigger than that. But what was scary was just the steps between where we are now and the premise of potentially landing as something as divisive and ugly as that just getting smaller and smaller, and you could see a clearer and clearer path. So, it’s something that kept me up throughout the development of this and the writing of this. And we really had to kind of look forward. Each one of those moments was a reaffirmation of my angle to make this as hopeful a show as possible: assuming the Civil War, not caring about how we got there, and telling the story of what happens next.

SPOILER: By creating this series, it’s gonna show a lot of people that we are close to this. Or that this is something that can happen if we don’t watch out. So, your series is coming out at the right time. It’s like the perfect drop at the perfect time.

ROBERTO PATINO: It’s a limited series, there’s four episodes. And

the good news about shows these days is that you put them out there and they live on the platform. They don’t go away. People can find them at their own pace. We are making a big old splash. HBO Max is giving us a healthy amount of support in their push. And I appreciate your support so much. I don’t like to speculate on how people receive the show. I certainly have a hope for it, that it will get people to question who we are and how we are as a society, and why we’re that way, as well as who we want to be and how we might be able to get there. Beyond the action and adrenaline and the drama and the sexiness and all of that, there are a lot of ideas to consider in this show and every person is gonna internalize them in their own way. So ultimately, my hope is that this show can inspire difficult conversations that we all need to be having.

You hinted at it just now. There’s

a horrible, disgusting, and super tragic war going on right now, that’s plastered on almost every front page and every news channel. And you know, the truth is that there’s been a war going on somewhere in our world every single day since you and I have been alive—since man has stepped on this planet.

My family is from Columbia. They’ve had their Civil War going on since 1964. That’s pushing 60 years now. So like I said, I’m just not interested in the politics. My show stays away from politics. My show is really about a mother’s love for her son and how that love, that pursuit, really neutralizes politics and gets to the core of true nation-building.

SPOILER: Well, that’s why you went eight years into the events and didn’t start from the beginning, because the beginning would’ve been politics and death and craziness. Eight years

Roberto Patino:Getty Images/DMZ:HBO Max

in, things are trying to adjust. This is civil war, it’s very intricate.

ROBERTO PATINO: In 2005, this was a far-off concept. This was akin to an alien invasion, or another insane concept in 2005 that we know all too well now, like a pandemic. But the comic book, because it was such a faraway concept, it almost reveled in the idea of a war-torn New York. It was about that. And you, as the reader, couldn’t peel your eyes away. You wanted to see more about this world. And the main character of the comics is this photojournalist named Matty Roth, who is, by definition, a passive person receiving this world. He’s essentially a proxy for the reader. And that works for the comic because that’s what you want to do in the comic. You want to know what happened to Central Park, what happened to the Empire State Building; what happened in this belly-up, inside-out Manhattan, and that’s what you get.

That’s what’s fun about the comic on a number of levels that doesn’t really work at all for a television show, beyond the sort of tender quality of the premise hitting a little too close to home. On a character level, you just need a main character that needs something—that wants something, is not gonna stop at anything to get it. And so, I took my favorite character of the graphic novel, who is this fearless Latina medic named Zee. She’s

a background character. She’s so badass. But in the comics, she’s pretty underdeveloped, rather twodimensional.

The other thing that is true about the comics is that it’s fundamentally male. It’s very masculine. Testosterone drives a lot of the story engines and pursuit for power, pursuit for territory, all of that. And to me, the idea of inverting this premise into something hopeful, it felt right to infuse this world with a feminine energy and, more than that, a sort of maternal superpower. So, with all of these ideas spinning,

I decided to focus on Zee and stay true to the spirit of her, but basically build her up anew. So, I gave her a first, middle, and last name. Her name is Alma Zorella Ortega. And she slowly embodies this new persona within the DMZ, known as Zee. In a lot of ways, this show is the origins story of my favorite character of the graphic novel. But it’s a super complicated, multilayered world. We’re telling a very, very simple story within it, which is just this mother’s pursuit for the son whom she lost on evacuation day, the evacuation of Manhattan eight years prior.

SPOILER: You have such a starstudded cast: Rosario Dawson, Benjamin Bratt, Rey Gallegos, Hoon Lee—who was on another great series called Warrior, which we covered tremendously. You have a great cast.

ROBERTO PATINO: Warrior’s incredible. And Rey Gallegos—I’m not gonna say I found Rey, but I was in the casting session where we cast him on Sons of Anarchy. Basically, he was getting cast as a red shirt—a guy who was just gonna service the episode and probably get killed by the end of it. But he played this guy named Fiasco, and he was so amazing. That guy is a force and we

ended up keeping him on for, I think over a season and a half, and became part of the Sons of Anarchy mythos.

Benjamin Bratt, this guy is like the definition of charm and swagger. His history, barring things like Blood In, Blood Out, he’s kind of been typified as the exotic other—he’s always been typecast as the boyfriend to the lead, or a pretty one-note mafia boss, or something like that. And same with Rosario to a certain degree. I know she’s taking the Star Wars universe over in a year. But you look at her before Ahsoka Tano, and again, she was always this sort of exoticized secondary character. And so now, we’re taking these two massive, massive talents, putting them front and center, calling them the leads of our show and inhabiting them with these characters; people you’ve never seen them play. You’ve never seen Ben Bratt this charmingly menacing—and the guy is inherently handsome, so he brings a warmth to the character. But he is really, really terrifying. And yet he’s the kind of guy that you would want to hang out with. You just kind of wanna be in his orbit, but you also wanna have your guard up.

And Rosario, this show really calls for her to go to some pretty, pretty intense emotional places. I feel like these kinds of scenes can easily feel canned or faked, but Rosario digs deep. She is phenomenal, and she really elevates these moments into this place of effortless grace, where it’s just tremendously heavy, but it’s coming off as just so simple and believable. They’re both really, really powerful performances in the show.

SPOILER: You picked some amazing people. And they all fit in the New York theme. It’s gonna be a hit, I feel it.

ROBERTO PATINO: You take a 10% cross section of Manhattan, and you’re gonna get people literally from every corner of the globe, from every walk of life, of every color, every creed. And that was really the ethos we brought into this show. We really wanted to elevate people of color. We also have Freddy Miyares, who was in When They

See Us, who is just a force of an actor. And then we have Hoon Lee, who you mentioned, from Warrior, who is also just dynamic. Have you ever seen him in Banshee?

SPOILER: Oh yeah, absolutely.

ROBERTO PATINO: Oh man, that guy, his character in Banshee is insane. That guy is a total chameleon. We found him by luck through the casting process, but the cast goes on. There’s Sydney Park. There is this incredible actress named Jade Wu, who plays Hoon Lee’s character’s mentor. The list goes on and on. We have Rutina Wesley from Queen Sugar.

And, let me not bury the lead here, my freaking incredible visionary partner and collaborator on this, Miss Ava DuVernay, who also directed episode 1. She is just a force and such a joy to work with. This woman is a boss. She’s just not scared of anything. It doesn’t matter if you have budgetary restraints, if you have limited hours of sunlight in the day, whatever it is, she doesn’t care. She’s not scared of spinning, in the most insane ways, new ideas. It’s so liberating. Some of her ideas are such crazy concepts that, if you think about for more than five seconds, you’re like, “Oh my God! That’s actually a perfect idea! We need to rewrite it and include that.” She’s a one-of-a-kind person. To call her my partner is just—I pinch myself regularly.

And then there’s also [director] Ernest Dickerson, who was Spike Lee’s cinematographer in his earlier movies Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X—that guy is his own legend. I remember watching Do the Right Thing when I was 9 years old—way too early to be watching the movie. I used to wake up in the middle of the night and watch all the movies I wasn’t allowed to watch, and that was one of them. And that was the first time where I became aware of the camera and how it was moving. It was so intentional. It was its own little character in the movie. I remember watching the credits. It was the first time I actually watched the credits because I wanted to know what the

cameraman’s name was. And that was the first time I learned the term “cinematography,” and it was directly tethered to Ernest R. Dickerson. And that guy has now directed some of the best episodes of The Wire—my favorite show of all time—and he’s done plenty of episodes of The Walking Dead. So fast-forward 30 years, and I’m on a Zoom with him, pitching him DMZ, asking him to be my partner on this. And he says yes, if you can imagine my joy, my total mindlessness at that moment of like, “What just happened?” So, to say we have an incredible team is an understatement. But we were all on the same page, man. We were an inclusive cast, an inclusive crew, and we were all very diligent and passionate about the material.

SPOILER: I know it’s a miniseries, but are you going to have another season?

ROBERTO PATINO: We’ve definitely been dancing around the concept of more stories from the DMZ. The world is so big, it’s so rich. And the way we position it at the end of this four-part limited, you can go in a million different directions. The truth of the matter is that the DMZ is a place that is predicated on either reinvention of self, or reclamation of self. In other words, you can be truly free, outside the confines of what society or the system tells you what’s right or wrong, or you can reinvent who you want to be. And that could be something that is used for better or worse. So, there’s no shortage of completely

insane and rapturing and magnetic characters in the DMZ. I have a very long folder of these characters with very, very thought-out and detailed backstories. And any one of those could make for an apt center of gravity for another tale. But the way I picture it, if it were to be ongoing, it would basically shine a nice big spotlight on another corner of the DMZ and really just building out the world, and having these worlds create their own mini universe, having the narrative threads crisscross at the fringes. We’ll see how this one does. If the appetite’s there, the stories are certainly there as well.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone who wants to do what you do?

ROBERTO PATINO: I’m realizing more and more that there’s no real such thing as “making it,” there is just continuing to work. My first show was this show called Outlaw. I have zero background in anything legal. It was an NBC show starring Jimmy Smits about a retired Supreme Court Justice that opens up his own shop and kind of fights for the little man. And it aired for like, seven episodes and got cancelled. That was by no means anywhere near my dream job, but I parlayed that into a new show at NBC called Prime Suspect, which was awesome. And on the heels of that, which got canceled too, I got an opportunity to meet at Fox and then at FX. And then they got me to meet with Kurt Sutter, and that’s how I came about Sons of Anarchy. But my point is, you take all these little wins and you really have to capitalize on them. At the end of the day, the only common denominator between anybody who is working is that they have a trove of material.

I was very decided in wanting to write. And so I had a lot of scripts. I’ll tell you how I got my agent: I wrote a script about a small school in my family’s home country of Columbia, that was the center of a battle in their Civil War. It was a Spanishspeaking script, and I used it to apply

Roberto Patino:Getty Images/DMZ:HBO Max

to the Sundance Fellows Lab. I got a finalist interview. I took that and sent it to everyone I know. And then I got a manager off of that, and that manager put me in touch with my agent today. I ultimately didn’t get into the fellowship. But getting that first gig is the hardest step. And then you gotta parlay that into the next gig. And then you gotta parlay that into the next gig. And every single time you have to continually expand, you have to continually grow, because if you’re not growing, you’re sliding backwards. And by growing, I mean, taking on new responsibilities.

I remember on Sons of Anarchy, Kurt Sutter let me cover prep meetings. And the first time I went to cover a prep meeting, I had no clue what I was doing. I was terrified.

I sat there, all these people looking at me, and suddenly they started asking me questions about the script. I knew the script and I started answering the questions, and suddenly, the prep meeting was over. And that was my first prep meeting. And then you do it again and again, and you start getting a rhythm for these things. And then after that, you go to the production meeting. And after that, you cover set. And after that, you get to edit. It’s just these little things where you kind of just learn how to swim by jumping into the ocean and flailing. And in time you figure out how to maximize your efficiency in doing the job.

But at first, my advice would just be to write and write and write and find any sort of resource that you

know that can help you. There’s a bunch of fellowships. I know ABC, Warner Bros., even Netflix has a fellowship. Ava DuVernay’s company has a fellowship. There are these little programs that can be your toe in the door. Then it’s up to you to just hustle and get some sort of representation. I think that would be the first specific goal for anybody: Get a manager and agent that really understand you, and that can plug you into a path of success. But listen, that Outlaw job was 12 years

ago. And it’s been a very steady upward climb, but I would say that it was a steady sort of broadening of responsibility, ultimately—to the point where I’m suddenly executive producer on Westworld season 2, where we’re spending eight figures per episode. And I felt the same way I felt at my first prep meeting when I walked into the production office for DMZ, where I was like, “Okay, I know this story, I’ve got the scripts. Now we have to create war-torn Manhattan. How do we do that?” And that’s the question everyone asks at those meetings. They look around, there’s no genius in the room. [But] you just slowly start figuring it out. You really gotta surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. I certainly did on DMZ. But just keep writing and keep opening yourself to more and more responsibility, and keep having the guts to say yes, even though you’re terrified.

SPOILER: And each one of your projects is even better than your last.

ROBERTO PATINO: You just stick around until after the dust settles.

I would say there is no greater wisdom I’ve learned than that. If you have a setback, keep at it. I mean, when I got Sons of Anarchy, my agents were telling me not to take the job because I was gonna repeat the baseline [staff writer job] a third time for a third year. But I knew that this show was a welloiled machine. I knew that there was opportunity for growth, and I went in with a very explicit mandate to etch myself into the show, make myself indispensable. I really wanted to hang on for as long as I could. And I did.

SPOILER: Was show business something that you always wanted to get into, or did you just fall into it at a certain age?

ROBERTO PATINO: My story is pretty straightforward. I just loved movies. I loved movies in the ‘90s. I loved thrillers, and by the time I started trying to break in, the thriller was a quickly vanishing product of cinemas, because it was either massive scopes or tiny indie darlings. But what I realized early on in my career was that the thriller hadn’t gone away, it had just migrated to television. And this was when seasons were still 22 episodes and basic cable seasons were 13 episodes. It was a novelty that a seasons might come down to 10 episodes. So, I came in for moviemaking, feature film writing, and I pivoted into television. And

I found a very upward-swinging industry that was just exploding with a whole new sense of a canvas for storytelling.

I wrote one script in 2009 called Cut Bank, which made the Black List that year. And I was like, “All right! Cut Bank! Here we go!” Guess when that movie came out? 2015. It took years to package it up. We ended up getting an incredible cast: John

Malkovich, Billy Bob Thornton, Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Oliver Platt, Michael Stuhlbarg, who’s incredible. But it was this amorphous mass for so long before it kind of congealed into something real. And that is indicative of features just taking forever. And TV, suddenly, on the flip side, was something that was skating along. There was an appetite for more, there was an appetite for different kinds of stories.

SPOILER: Are you working on anything else right now?

ROBERTO PATINO: Looking forward, I’ve got Nocterra, which is a project you’re gonna be hearing a lot more about in the future. Which, if you haven’t read the comics, are just amazing. They’re by these incredible writers, Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel. It’s by Image Comics. And it’s the coolest show in the world. Imagine Mad Max: Fury Road mixed with Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs [laughs]. It’s a monster show and it’s about a world where

DMZ:HBO Max

the sun doesn’t rise and night never stops. And this darkness is sort of this weird energy. If you’re exposed to it for too long, you start morphing into this thing called a “shade,” this monstrous version of yourself. So all organic matter, trees, ants, all the grass, any animal, and humans become these shades. And the whole thing is about these outposts of light, these havens of light of artificial light. And it’s an incredible show that I’m developing right now with James Wan and his company, Atomic Monster, at Netflix. So that’s another world-building sort of enterprise in a totally different way. You’re using darkness as your everything, so there’s a weird sort of claustrophobia and, yet, expansiveness to the world. That one’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’re still plugging along on that one, but it’s going well so far.

SPOILER: Nocterra just came out with the comic book last March, and within a year, they’re getting picked up to do a series. So how fabulous is that? That’s the thing people have to understand. You don’t have to come out with stuff and wait a decade to get picked up. You can come out with something and, if it’s good enough and catches someone’s eye, it can get made. So the best thing to do is just go out and do it.

ROBERTO PATINO: Failure is something that you have to recalibrate your perception of. It’s not about failure. It’s about forward progress. And if you fail, you’ve learned something and that is forward progress. There’s no such thing as backward movement if you’re trying. And the key is to take those lessons and implement them in the right way, and capitalize on them. Build opportunities out of those tiny little openings. But you’re right. Don’t try to make it, just do.

SPOILER: I know DMZ is a DC comic, but it doesn’t always have to be from a major publisher. Creatives can go and find some comics they like from some small publishing houses and they’re fabulous.

ROBERTO PATINO: Absolutely. The wonderful thing about comics is they bring such an energy, with the images and the really specific storytelling, because you don’t have a lot of real estate in comics. So, what you show and what you tell is important. But the beauty of adapting that is, by nature of adaptation, you’re adding to it, you’re building off of it. And in a case like Scott Snyder and Tony Daniel with Nocterra, they are so cool. They’re like, “Call us whenever. Let’s ideate on something.” They’re so collaborative, which is what the medium inherently calls for. That was the case with DMZ as well. Each frame is just bursting with energy and with a certain sort of spirit, and it was my job to, even though I largely reinvented it, stay true to that spirit and stay true to that world and stay true to the tendrils of the characters that exist in both the comic and in my show, because they’re amazing.

SPOILER: It’s always great when someone takes a comic and changes it up a bit.

ROBERTO PATINO: Yeah. I’m thrilled to show DMZ to the world. It’s a ginormous world. We’re telling a very specific story with a very narrow narrative aperture about this resilient and fierce Latina medic breaking into the DMZ to look for her son whom she lost on evacuation day. I’m so excited for people to watch it. So, tune in. I think the world will be pleasantly surprised with the “having your cake and eating it too” approach to this comic. It’s reinvented, but essentially the same in spirit.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

IF YOU’VE WATCHED A GOOD AMOUNT OF TV OVER THE PAST

decade-plus, you’ve undoubtedly come across Dan Payne. The Canadian-born actor has dipped his toes in hit series such as Once Upon a Time, The Flash, Stargate: Atlantis, R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, but also huge film projects such as Watchmen, Star Trek Beyond, The Cabin in the Woods, and Disney’s Descendants franchise.

Dan continues to live the dream, now starring in the upcoming prison drama Corrective Measures alongside his longtime idols Bruce Willis and Michael Rooker. Read on as we invite him to drop some legendary names.

A dear friend of SPO!LER’s over the years, the former pro athlete is kind enough to catch us up on all he’s been working on, eventually opening up about some of his personal struggles as well, which have allowed him to embark on a journey that’s given him even more appreciation for those around him.

Dan Payne:David Tenniswood/(cover image):Dan Payne:David Tenniswood

SPOILER: Every project you’re on does so well. Do you hand-pick these or are you just lucky?

DAN PAYNE: [laughs] I wish I could say I hand-picked them. I think there’s a pretty big horseshoe lodged in a certain area for me, my friend, but I’m very grateful for it. I’m just really fortunate to work with awesome people. I like to do my part and work as hard as I can, but it really comes down to, as I’ve aged in the industry, I’ve gained more experience. And as I’ve gained more experience in the industry, it’s really become about who I get to work with. I’m really grateful for the teams, people, and individuals that I’ve had the good fortune to work with. I think that’s where a lot of the luck is born.

SPOILER: Your career spans so many different types of genres and mediums, from video games to Disney to holiday movies to all sorts of cool TV shows. Since last time we spoke, what’s been happening with you?

DAN PAYNE: Fortunately, a lot’s been happening. Lately, I feel like I’ve somehow shifted into a little bit more bad guy, villain roles. I don’t know if it’s the salt and pepper in the hair, and suddenly that means you’re a villain, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. It’s a lot of fun to be bad. I did an MOW called Framed By My Husband with a wonderful director, Sam Fichtner—it was his first feature I believe. And he was amazing, his passion and attention to detail. It was just an exquisitely cool experience because I was taking on a pretty nasty character, a serial rapist, super unappealing individual. And it sort of feels weird to say it, but it was so much fun to do. When you’re under the right tutelage and guidance and you know that you’re telling a story, it is really fun to go dark and have a little bit of a play in that kind of other side of the fence of darkness.

And last year I had one of the coolest experiences of my career to date. I got to work with people who I grew up thinking were the definitions of cool. They defined what cool was and are people that I’ve respected in the industry. I’ve had really cool experiences working with some bigger names in the past, but this was collaborative and a very, for me, big role—a lead in a pretty big feature. Is it name-drop time?

SPOILER: Name drop, brother.

DAN PAYNE: Right, here goes. So I had the amazing experience to work with Bruce Willis and Michael Rooker [in Corrective Measures]. I didn’t want to jump the gun and say it too early, but I’m pretty dang excited about it, so...

SPOILER: That’s a huge deal! I grew up watching them as well, but you get to work with them!

DAN PAYNE: It’s mind-blowing. Before I was an actor, Bruce Willis was the epitome of cool, the guy that I wanted to be. Just everything I thought was awesome: smartass, badass, funny. And then I got to stand across a camera from him, and work with him on camera.

And then Michael Rooker—what a crazy, amazing, talented guy. And I fell in love with him over the years, but I remember the first episodes of The Walking Dead, I’m like, “That guy’s just insanely amazing.” It goes way back before that, but that’s when I was like, “Wouldn’t be cool to work with him one day?” He’s got all the grit and sass and kickass. And well, that happened, and I got to hang out on set with him and talk to him and hear stories. He’s a heck of a storyteller.

But it doesn’t stop there. Tom Cavanaugh, I got to work with him on The Flash. What an unbelievably generous and kind of individual. He is so supportive and so caring. So when he was on set [of Corrective Measures] and I got to hang out with him, it was just comforting. Because he’s done some amazing stuff. And he has zero ego and he’s just so supportive. And he’s got a steel trap of a brain. He remembers conversations you had with him two years ago.

And then I got to work with friends. Sean Patrick O’Reilly, who wrote directed and executive produced, he was the greatest collaborator of all. He was so open. Once I knew I was on the show and knew they were looking for a couple other roles, he was very open to me throwing in names. So I got the good fortune to kinda involve a few friends. I got to work with people I absolutely adore like Dan Cudmore, Matt Kevin Anderson, Vladimir Ruzich. So that was just an unbelievably cool experience to have all these people be on one set for one movie, and to have some fun together.

And I have to say thank you to Sean and his wife, Michelle, because they created that environment, and let us all go play in literally a giant playground.

SPOILER: What was it like hanging out with Bruce Willis?

DAN PAYNE: Well, first of all, he still looks like a million bucks. He somehow doesn’t age. I wish I could say I don’t get starstruck, but I know there was some, because he had such a presence when he walked in. I was probably just oddly staring at him. And I’ve been consciously aware of the fact that in my career, I’ve always wanted to [work with him], and to have it be a reality right then and there solidified it all in that moment. And he was extremely kind and pleasant. I had a blast. I’m just grateful to have said hello and spend some time with him off and on set.

SPOILER: Does being in that situation make you want to perform even harder, or do you just settle in?

DAN PAYNE: I think I might be a bit more conscious of my prep, but between action and cut—and this might be leftover from my pro athlete days, but when the game is on, you do your thing. I had the good fortune to kind of sink into the character prior to flying to Atlanta to work with Mr. Willis and Mr. Rooker. When you’re feeling out the character in the first few days, and you’re getting that feedback from the director and, and you’re seeing how other actors are interacting, what their thoughts are, that was all already established. So, I felt really comfortable with the character, and I was just ready to do the work and be very present for them. Just being a thousand percent

present. I might have been more attentive to detail in my prep than before, because, right or wrong, I felt a little more responsibility to not let Mr. Willis or Mr. Rooker down in some way, like getting called up to the top line on a team, you wanna make sure that you respect the opportunity. But I kind of approach all of it the same way. If I have the good fortune to be in a Hallmark movie or a Disney show, I’m gonna bring everything. I’ve got to give everything I’ve got.

SPOILER: What is your favorite genre to work in?

DAN PAYNE: The first thing that comes to mind is that I want to do more comedy. I enjoy comedy. And I know maybe I don’t look the part, but I enjoy the opportunity to do comedy. I did a couple of shows as an alien in Aliens Ate My Homework and Aliens Stole My Body. Being a

goofy blue alien was pretty freeing, and somewhat intoxicating, because there’s no precedent set for a big goofy blue alien.

And also, I’m not just trying to pump the Corrective Measures tires, but that was an incredibly fun experience too, for me to play a character who had a really interesting backstory. It’s an unapologetically popcorn, havea-good-time, we’re-not-trying-tosolve-any-issues type of film. So, I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed that as well. I think I’m caught between two worlds. I’d love to do the kind of darker drama and/or comedy, which are both ends of the spectrum.

SPOILER: Did you ever get to try stand-up? I know that was something you wanted to try before the pandemic.

Dan Payne:David Tenniswood

DAN PAYNE: Yeah, the pandemic did kind of keep the lane narrower than I was hoping to expand it to. But just the fact that I got to work through the pandemic is an unbelievable gift in itself. I have some brilliantly funny friends and I’m writing a comedic script with one of them right now. And that’s kind of the cathartic outlet for the comedy release as it stands. I mean, I got to do [Disney’s new live-action] Mighty Ducks, which was brief, but still a lot of fun. And it was a very specific kinda comedy style, and that’s also fun as an artist to try and hit the right vein. And I love that challenge.

SPOILER: You have such a great sense of humor. Is it ever hard to keep the comedic elements out when you’re writing a different genre?

DAN PAYNE: Well, I don’t have the writing chops to not write with a partner. And I think the benefit of that for me is that if something doesn’t call for any levity, then yes, I do always try and put in a little bit of levity. And the beauty of writing with a partner is they can see the forest for the trees and go, “No, not in this one.” And that helps to keep it on track. Especially in the last couple of years, I definitely have wanted to find more outlets for laughter and joy.

In my everyday life, I like to think that I can be funny. I have to give credit to my brother and sister, and my dad. They’re the OGs of that kind

of feedback. We always had good riffs and have good times. But I think there’s been a lack of it in the last couple of years, at least for me. I’m a huge, huge advocate for mental health. I know I’ve got some stuff that I am working on, so laughter is a fantastic medicine. And if I can find it in everyday interaction, awesome, I’m gonna chase it. Maybe sometimes too much—or so says my wife [laughs]. And then also in writing, it’s a nice, cathartic outlet. I’ve written a series that we jokingly call [a Northern version] of Californication And it’s a wonderful outlet too, and something that helps me. It exercises that laugh muscle and allows me to have some fun with friends.

SPOILER: Do you have a go-to list of people that you like working with?

DAN PAYNE: A thousand percent. I’m tending towards producing solely

so that I can act with people and friends that I want to work with. So as I try and venture into this producing game. The selfish element of it is that I want to be able to put together dream teams of all these amazing people, from crew to directors to other producers, cast, everybody. Again, it’s about who I work with. Now, I know there’s a huge learning curve there, and I’ve spent 20 years in this industry, and I’m still learning, I know that every single day is a learning opportunity. And I definitely wanna go on that journey as quick, as fast, and as far as possible to try and get to that point where I can be like, “Hey, we have funding for this film and I wanna get so-and-so, and would you be willing to direct?” And create content that I really am excited about doing.

SPOILER: Do you feel that as an actor you’ve had an advantage when it comes to producing?

DAN PAYNE: I do see the advantage you’re talking about. But [the platform that you guys have for your projects], I see as an incredible advantage that I don’t have, like the marketing and the access, potentially, to funding, that’s another humongous piece of that pie of trying to get projects made. I don’t have the same level of access to that. In the 20 years that I’ve been doing this, I’ve always been so consciously aware of how much of a gift it is, how grateful I need to be, because it is such an awesome opportunity that I think the building of relationships and networking has been unbeknownst to

me—to get to the point where maybe, through friendships and relationships, this could become a reality.

SPOILER: With everything that’s going on these days, do you ever worry about always saying things correctly so as to not offend people? Is that something you feel you have to think about?

DAN PAYNE: That’s a really good question. I feel I like I have a pretty good radar and I think my compass is fairly grounded in all of those aspects of crossing lines that you shouldn’t. There’s always the chance. Like even just with Instagram, I post when I feel the desire to post, because my biggest thing is authenticity. About a year ago, I opened up about struggles that I have with depression. And I started to realize that the biggest road back to health for me is authenticity. And I trip and fall and stumble. Sometimes I people-please and forget about

myself. And sometimes you have to say the harder things in order for the conversation to start. For people who really matter to you, that conversation will give both of you a new understanding and a growth. And it might be borne from the fact that you said something a little bit incorrect, but that’s where you’re at. That’s your starting point—as long as you have no malicious intent and you’re seeking your authentic self. I feel like those things have value. And if I can’t have those conversations or if I fear—I mean, I truly do fear some of the cancel culture. Again, that’s my insecurity. But I don’t want to create negativity ever. So that’s a tough one.

If I’m doing a project, I want to know that the show has integrity and that there’s an authenticity to the message that they’re saying. So, it might have to be a dark and s---ty subject. But if you don’t let a dark and s---ty subject be that, then you’re dishonoring the message. You can

hope that it creates conversations and leads people to the roses and sunshine through that darkness. But if you don’t call a darkness, a darkness, you’re not doing it justice and it won’t be dealt with in a way that resonates for people to actually deal with it in a real way. You can’t sugar coat. You should always strive to learn, grow, and see the other side of the coin. If you don’t, it can come across as narrow-minded and in some ways can limit your own growth.

SPOILER: Since you opened up about your depression, did you get a lot of feedback from fans? Did you get a lot of support during that time?

DAN PAYNE: Unbelievably so, and the fear prior to opening up and saying it out loud, it was intense for me, but the other side of it was spectacular. The support from my immediate family was unbelievable and then extended family. And then on and on, all right out to fanbase,

Dan Payne:David Tenniswood

it has been phenomenal. And that’s what’s helped me find the strength to do the work and to be my best authentic self I can, and know that I’m allowed to fall down. I’m human, I’m allowed to make mistakes. If my intention is always positive, and if my goals are always to better myself, then those mistakes and those trips along the path are human and are recoverable. And if cancel culture wants to shut something down because I’ve made a mistake, then there’s nothing more I can do if I’m doing my absolute best to live the best that I can. It’s why two years ago, something might have been acceptable, but isn’t now, because we are all growing and evolving. And there are things that are truly needing to come to light because they are fully unacceptable, or they’ve been so ingrained that they need to change. And I love all of these eye opening movements that happen where there’s shifts and adjustments—and sometimes too far one way, but back the other way at the end of the day, as long as we’re moving forward and things are getting better, that’s the right direction. And I want to be a part of that.

SPOILER: If you had the chance, which Marvel character would you want to be?

DAN PAYNE: It’s pretty simple for me. I already know the answer. I just want to say it in a way that’s respectful of the unbelievable performance and phenomenal character that was created by this individual, but it’s StarLord. Chris Pratt is a comedic genius.

He can tug at your heartstrings and make you laugh all at the same time. And that character has the flash, flare, smartass, comedic elements to him that just make it so wellrounded. It would be the joy of joys for me. But I’d have to be Star-Lord’s long-lost brother that he didn’t know he had, because nobody could replace the Star-Lord that is Chris Pratt’s version. It is pitch-perfect. Exquisite.

...He had a brother, right? Hey, multiverse. You know what? I think Guardians of the Galaxy 4, they go find his brother and voila!

SPOILER: What’s on the horizon? Anything that fans can be looking forward to or expecting in a near future?

DAN PAYNE: Like I said, I’m writing a couple of projects and I really hope [they can get] greenlit. And in the meantime, I’m looking extremely forward to Corrective Measures coming out in late April, early May.

SPOILER: Anything you wanna say to the fans before we head out?

DAN PAYNE: I just want to say, “To all of you who are sticking with me and have stuck with me, thank you so much for anyone who wants to come by and drop by. The support that I get from fans is definitely the fuel for the days when I don’t find it myself and I am extreme grateful for it. I’m very consciously aware of how important it is.”

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Before Paula Adbul was a recording artist and, eventually,

a judge on the inaugural seasons of American Idol, she was a dance girl for the Los Angeles Lakers. Her story is magnificent, touched upon in HBO Max’s latest series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Actress Carina Conti was fortunate enough to play the dancer-turnedmusician in her biggest role yet.

Moving to Orlando from Germany early in life, the actress is still no rookie, appearing in over 30 commercials as well as Barney as a kid. Getting the performance bug from her mom, a former actress herself, Carina ended up studying dance and drama, eventually minoring in theater in college at Dartmouth.

Carina debuts in episode 5 of the tenepisode first season of Winning Time. The actress is kind enough to chat with us about her research process when prepping to play Abdul, what it was like meeting the icon for the first time, and also why she hates mangoes so much.

it’s all about the rebirth of the NBA at a point when it was about to go into bankruptcy. It’s a story about rebirth. It’s a story about redefining oneself and it’s a story about ordinary people fighting to do extraordinary things. Based on the time that we’ve all had these past couple years, it filled me with so much inspiration and joy, and I felt like it was a story that deserved to be told.

SPOILER: And you play Paula Abdul who was a Laker Girl back then.

CARINA CONTI: That’s how she got her start. And that in and of itself is so inspiring as a story. She was 18, and I think she had just graduated, and she was auditioning with her friends for the Laker Girls, and she didn’t make it. And so she got back in line, changed her outfit, changed her name, and auditioned again, didn’t make it. She had to audition four times in a single day, and she just kept changing her outfit, changing her name, and then [finally] she made it. And that was the start of her whole career.

SPOILER: Was she a choreographer as well?

SPOILER: You are on a new series called Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, which I love. Why did you want to be on the show? Was it about basketball or was it just something that intrigued you?

CARINA CONTI: I actually didn’t even grow up in a sports family. That’s something that’s been totally new to me and like a beautiful new world that’s opened itself up to me. But I wanted to be on this show so badly because it’s based on a book called Showtime and

CARINA CONTI: Within a year of being a Laker Girl, she became the head choreographer, which is insane because she was one of the youngest girls on the team. She was the shortest girl on the team. I mean she had to audition four times to get in. But she was such a great dancer because she was so passionate about it. And the way that she moved was a little different from what was current at the time, and what was normal for the team. And that’s all a part of the show. Jerry Buss came in, bought the team and redefined what it meant to go to a sporting game. He made a spectacle of it. Part of that was introducing dancers. Part of that was introducing the idea of pizzazz and panache. And Paula was a huge, huge agent of that. And that’s how she became head choreographer. She actually got noticed by the Jacksons, who had courtside seats. They noticed how good the choreography was and asked who the choreographer was.

Corina Conti/(cover image):Corina Conti

They got Paula to choreograph Janet Jackson’s music videos. And that’s how she was introduced to the music industry.

SPOILER: How did you research? Did you get to meet Paula during this process?

CARINA CONTI: I did as much research as I possibly could. I YouTube deepdived. And this was all during the audition process. After I got the part, after we finished filming, I was in musical theater class over Zoom with Bob Garrett. And one of the special guests at the end of the class was Paula Abdul. And nobody in the class knew that I had been on this show. Nobody knew that I was playing her. So it was a total coincidence. And Paula told that story of auditioning for the Laker Girls. And I was just sitting there. I hadn’t even said anything. And I was just speechless. Like I could not believe that I was in the right place at the right time. Just happened to run into her. So that story is actually straight from her. And then at the end I got to introduce myself and be like, “Hey...”

SPOILER: What did she say to you?

CARINA CONTI: Well, she was so funny. She was so sweet. She goes, “Oh my gosh, that’s right! I know who you are.” And so I got a chance to thank her for a lifetime of giving to the arts community, and the opportunity that she gave to me. And she started to cry. I could not have asked for a better meeting with her.

SPOILER: It’s a little different playing someone who’s still alive. Did that make you nervous?

CARINA CONTI: Yeah. It’s definitely a little intimidating in that sense. But how I deal with it is just trust. I trust that the producers knew what they were doing when they picked me. They picked me for a reason. It’s not my job to question that, it’s just my job to do the best that I possibly can. And so, I don’t try to imitate Paula. I have too much respect for her to do that. I do as much research as I can, I figure out what her circumstances are in that scene. And I focus on the ways that she

and I overlap. So, the way that she comes to life in a whole different way when she dances, the way that she fights and doesn’t take no for an answer and will do whatever it takes to just get to do what she loves. I understand what that feels like. And so that’s what I focused on when I was playing her.

SPOILER: Have you had a lot of fans reaching out about your new role?

CARINA CONTI: Honestly, mostly just family and friends. It’s been really sweet. It’s been super fulfilling. People who know me know that I’ve been dancing my whole life, and performing is my reason for living. It’s the thing that brings me the most joy. It’s the thing that brings me purpose. It’s the way that I love the people around me. And so, this has definitely been an occasion of love. I have felt very loved and supported by the people around me.

SPOILER: What was it like filming during COVID?

CARINA CONTI: They did such a good job making us feel comfortable. They took all the precautions necessary, and even went above and beyond that. So we had to get tested the day before coming in. I had to get spray tans for this show, because Paula is so tanned. I’m naturally oliveskinned, but I’m not that dark. And so I was getting spray tans every time we were shooting, and I had to get COVID tested before the spray tan, I had to get COVID tested the day before shooting, the day of shooting. And we’re always wearing shields and masks whenever possible. I definitely felt safe. I feel like I was pretty lucky because it’s obviously easier for a high-budget production than it is for a smaller production.

SPOILER: Are there talks already for season 2?

CARINA CONTI: Honestly, I have no guarantees in all of this. That’s kind of how I treat my career in general. Nothing is taken for granted or set in stone. I appreciate the process. The grind is associated with negative things, but I don’t resent it at all.

What’s so beautiful about this whole setup is that we get to see the stars that we know, the legends that we’ve heard of all our lives, and get to see what they were like in the very beginning before they made it. We get to see the ordinary people that they were, and how they fought to become the legends that they became.

There’s a joke in the makeup and hair department that we just hope that we get to stick with Paula long enough to experience a wig change. Because it’s like, everyone is in a wig, but Paula’s wig is heavily stylized. And it’s exactly what her hair looked like in the very early stages of her career before she had her pop star glow-up. So, the dream for us is just to get to stick with her story long enough to go down that path.

SPOILER: What got you into acting originally?

CARINA CONTI: I’ve been doing musical theater and local theater since I was really little, like six or seven. I started doing commercials when I was eight or nine, and I got to be in Barney as a kid, too. That was cool.

I think my mom was such a big influence in this. I grew up listening to mostly musical theater soundtracks, so much so that I was very out of touch by the time I got to middle school. I didn’t know any popular bands. We didn’t listen to the radio all that much. I didn’t know what was cool. But I was really lucky because my mom was always so loving and encouraging any time that she heard me sing or perform. She just made it feel like a very normal thing that I would express myself, however I wanted.

My mom was an actress in the ‘70s and ‘80s. So, for the premiere, I wore things out of her closet from head to

toe. She raised me as a single mom. She raised me on musical theater. I was in dance classes almost every day of the week. I did local musicals and, because we lived in Orlando, I was doing commercials for Disney and Universal and whatever there was. So, it’s always been part of my life. I’m really lucky to have her. I’m a first-generation immigrant, and she always wanted me to get the best education that I possibly could. From the age of 13 to 21, 22, I didn’t act really. I just focused on education. I went to Dartmouth and then, because I couldn’t find anything lucrative that I wanted to do, I gave in and I moved to LA and I pursued an acting career.

SPOILER: Does she give you a lot of advice?

CARINA CONTI: She has a lot of opinions. A lot of things have changed [since the ‘70s and ‘80s] obviously, but her advice still holds up in a lot of ways in the sense that, you have to stand up for yourself, you have to be your own advocate. I can’t imagine what it was like to be a woman in this industry 50 years ago. We think it’s hard now. I can’t even imagine the way that they had to bend over backwards to just work. I’m so grateful for her.

She’s not gonna like that I’m telling this story, but I think it’s the funniest thing: I sent her the trailer when it

first came out in December and I was like, “Mom, look! I’m in the trailer.” And she goes, “You’re not in it very much.” That was her only feedback. And I was like, “I’m in it more than Oscar-winner Adrien Brody! Cut me some slack.” She’s really proud. But yeah, she’s a tough cookie. It comes from a place of love.

SPOILER: If you could choose anything, what would the perfect role be for you?

CARINA CONTI: I want to play roles where I can act, sing, and dance. That’s what makes me feel most alive, when I get to do all three. And because I love film and television, I would love to do a musical on screen. I feel like this is what I’ve been training my whole life for.

SPOILER: Would you work in a superhero show or maybe a horror show?

CARINA CONTI: Yes! Postapocalyptic stories—I don’t know what it is about them, but they have a hold on me. That’s on the very top of my list for things that I would love to play, just because under extreme circumstances, we

become so much more of what we already are. It’s almost like becoming a superhero, like the traits that are already within us are augmented when the world ends. When it’s in a survival situation, we’re no longer caring about being polite or like tiptoeing around one another. We’re the ultimate versions of ourselves. And I just think that’s so badass. I just want an excuse to be like that.

SPOILER: It’s crazy to think about what we would be thinking in those situations. What would keep us going?

CARINA CONTI: Yeah. What’s the value in that anymore? I was talking to a friend recently about the value of empaths in a post-apocalyptic situation. And I think that’s the heart of it—that’s a pun. What makes life worth living when all we’re doing is surviving? The answer to that is empathy and love.

SPOILER: Do you have a favorite comic book character?

CARINA CONTI: It’s weird, but I just think that Poison Ivy is so cool. I’m not saying that because I think I could ever portray her. She’s an incredible redhead. It’s not who I am, but there’s something I find so enigmatic, so enticing about her and the way that she’s powerful in a very feminine way. I also really like Rogue from X-Men. That was my nickname when I was on my hip hop dance team in college, but they didn’t ever give me an explanation. Rogue’s superpower is that she absorbs other people’s powers through

Corina Conti

touch, or she can absorb lifeforce through touch. And that’s a big part of my self-identity. I really think that the parallel between us is empathy. I can absorb other people’s feelings just by being around them. I can understand what it’s like to be them just by having a conversation...to some extent.

SPOILER: Did you battle other people with your dance team?

CARINA CONTI: Yeah. So, my whole life I’d been doing ballet and contemporary and then I got to college. And for the first time, I was really making my own decisions. I was like, I wanna do hip hop. So, I joined my college’s competitive hip-hop troop. In ballet, you always have to hold your body really high. And the energy is very up and in. But with hip hop, it’s the opposite. It’s very out and down, which was such a good lesson for me physically, but also emotionally, it was such a good challenge. We competed with other college dance troops. We competed at JOI, which is at Wellesley. We competed at World of Dance in Boston. yeah, I was in the same competition as Les Twins—that was a really cool memory. I got to do my own choreography for competition— that was awesome too. I’m so glad that I went out on a limb with that, because that’s mostly what I do for dance now: jazz, funk, hip hop.

SPOILER: How tall are you? I know Paula is short.

CARINA CONTI: I think Paula is 5’2”. I’m 5’3¾”. I was actually really lucky because a lot of the basketball players are so tall that some of the cast, in order to round out the heights, had to wear these enormous cinder block platform shoes. And so you’ve got these A-list actors lounging around waiting to film with enormous—I’m kidding you not—10-inch platform shoes. It was just the funniest thing. And because my character was supposed to be short, I didn’t have to wear those.

SPOILER: Was the real Magic Johnson at the premiere?

CARINA CONTI: No, he wasn’t. Unless he was there and I missed him. I didn’t see him. I was trying not to get my hopes up, but I totally had it in my head that maybe Paula would be there.

SPOILER: Do you believe in ghosts?

CARINA CONTI: See, I wanna say yes, but I feel like I’m being listened to by them. And me saying yes will summon them. So, I almost wanna say no.

SPOILER: Has anything paranormal happened to you in your life?

CARINA CONTI: No. But I think without being religious, I am a spiritual person and I believe that life is connected. And I think that there’s more than we understand, but I don’t know if I would qualify that as ghosts.

SPOILER: Have you ever had a fun food experience while filming?

CARINA CONTI: When I was like 10, I was on set at Universal Studios filming commercials for Chiquita bananas, and they had me sitting, eating a box of mangoes. And I did not like mangoes. I really was a

picky eater as a kid. But, you know, I’d been taught to obey and follow directions and be respectful. And so I didn’t say anything. I just kept eating these mangoes and, you don’t eat just a few mangoes—they do so many takes that you have to eat a lot of mangoes. And so, I’d been eating mangoes for like, I don’t know, 30 minutes. And then we cut that scene and my mom jokes with the director, “She’s doing such a great job. She hates mangos.” And the director was like, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have given her some strawberries!” And then I ended up throwing up because I had eaten so many mangoes.

SPOILER: And now you don’t like mangos anymore probably, even more than before.

CARINA CONTI: They’ve been ruined for me for the rest of my life. They’re my mortal enemy. Don’t come at me with a mango. I will put you on my blacklist.

Corina Conti

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Just over seven years ago,

Yvonne Chapman was pursuing a career in finance. A stressful class led her to follow her passion for acting. And now, she’s on one of the coolest shows on television: Kung Fu.

An adaptation of the popular ‘70s series of the same name, starring David Carradine, the CW’s Kung Fu follows a Chinese American woman in the present day who journeys to China for three years to learn martial arts. Upon returning to her home of San Francisco, she now must use her skills to protect her community from crime and corruption.

Yvonne plays Zhilan, an archenemy of our hero, Nicky (played by Olivia Liang). From season 1 to season 2, Zhilan gets promoted to series regular and we finally get to dive into her character a lot more. The actress is quickly making a name for herself in this industry. With roles on Family Law and Street Legal prior to this, Yvonne is now becoming a fan favorite on Kung Fu and has even gotten to do some voice work as Kyoshi on the upcoming live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series.

She chats with Galaxy about her show, which just entered its second season, how she got started acting, and how big of a scaredy cat she is.

Yvonne Chapman:Richie Lubaton/(cover image):Yvonne Chapman:Richie Lubaton

SPOILER: You are in a series that came out during the pandemic, and is now in season 2, and it’s all about Kung Fu. So how is your experience on the show?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Honestly, it’s been incredible. I know that we probably sound like broken records, me and the cast, but filming this thing in pandemic with all the craziness going around, it’s just been truly a blessing to be surrounded by people who genuinely care about each other. We’re friends, we’re close, and it’s just been a really, really incredible time. So, we’re really fortunate to have such a close-knit group. And we’re excited for everyone to see season two.

SPOILER: Do you feel that the show didn’t get the oomph that it should have gotten because it started during the pandemic?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Well, first of all, thank you for watching the show. The fans have been amazing. I mean, I personally don’t feel that I’ve gone without that experience. The fans have been incredible in the response to the show. And I think just in the first season in particular, just getting used to COVID protocols and just trying

to figure out like how we’re gonna film this thing with everything else going on—thankfully the studio has been incredible in keeping us safe and keeping us going. I think that was the number-one priority. But when it came out and we saw the response that we got, everyone seemed to be having a great time with it. I personally couldn’t have been more grateful for the fans’ response and how gracious and how great they’ve been in their response to the show. And in season 2, the fans that were in season 1 have really carried along with us. So we’ll see. TBD I guess [laughs].

SPOILER: For those who haven’t watched, what’s the premise of the series?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: In season 1, we follow a young woman, Nikki Shen, who goes through a bit of a quarter-life crisis in her hometown of San Francisco, which leads her to travel to China, where she is taken in by this wonderful monastery of kickass women, who she learns incredible skills from. She takes that kung fu skill back to San Francisco and helps her community, persevering through kung fu and fighting, and

understanding the ways of the monastery. And as people watch season 2, there’s a bit of a different arc for my character Zhilan. But season 1, I am the big, bad villain of the show. And so, Nikki also has to use those skills to fight me. And it’s a really fun, cat-and-mouse ride. We’re carrying that into season 2 a little bit, with different dynamics at play.

SPOILER: Why are you two at each other’s neck?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Zhilan and Nikki fight a lot. We’re at each other’s neck because there’s this really interesting ancient bloodline that we share. And it’s about warriors and guardians of these mystical weapons that wield a power called Biange. And we’re both after this. I’m going after this because I feel like it could destroy someone who I’ve had a vendetta against for a very, very long time. So, I’m going after this power. Nikki’s trying to stop me, and these weapons are scattered all over the world. Once you gather them all in their entirety, they evoke this power. So that’s what you see in season 1. In season 2, the mystery of the bloodlines of the wars and guardians who protect these weapons continues on and we get to go even deeper into that story.

SPOILER: It’s such a cool story. Are you finding that people are confusing this Kung Fu with the David Carradine series from the ‘70s?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: What I really love about our show is that, yeah, it has the same name, but it is a complete reimagining of the old series. But it doesn’t lose the overall underlying tone of the excitement, and of course the amazing action. It stays true to the spirit of the show, however, we do stand on our own two feet apart from the original series. So again, the spirit is kind of carried through

from the original, but it is a complete reimagining with a female lead. I really am proud of our show for being its own in that way.

SPOILER: Do you have a martial arts background or is this this new to you?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: It was very new to me. I do practice Muai Thai, so I had a bit of that going in. I was very, very, very green in season 1. I remember it being a really steep learning curve for me, because I’ve never done stunt work like that before—not to this level of choreography anyway. But I can’t say enough about our world class stunt team. They’re incredible martial artists, teachers, mentors, guides. They really got me up to speed very quickly. And this season, I definitely felt the difference from all their training from the first season. It’s been challenging, but really fun for me. I really enjoy it.

SPOILER: Are you sometimes amazed by this opportunity you’ve had?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Yeah, I gotta pinch myself sometimes. I mean, it’s just been a joy, honestly. I know I’m probably sounding cheesy and whatever, but screw it [laughs]. I’m very fortunate to be on this show.

SPOILER: What made you get into acting?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: I really loved acting from a young age. There was just something about playing makebelieve that [I loved]. I continued on in school, but I was so, so shy as a child that I just kind of did it in secret, like in my room, whenever I could. And I never really had the courage to just say that that’s what I wanted to do. I would go secretly try out for my school plays and do them on the side. And I just kind of shoved that idea to the back of my head because I always just thought I probably couldn’t do it. I had this misconception in my head. I thought that because I was such an introvert and shy that I didn’t have what it took to be an actor, which I know

is completely untrue now because actors come in all different kinds of personalities, right? But for whatever reason I didn’t really see myself on TV growing up, and secondly, I just thought that these people are really extroverted, and I don’t have that, so I probably couldn’t do it. And it wasn’t something that was readily accepted as a career path in my family, and understandably so, so I actually went the route of finance.

I got my BComm in Calgary where I was born and raised. And then, I just remember I was doing this really challenging financial course, kind of in the thick of it—it was one that required studying for months on end, evenings, weekends. It took up my whole life. And I just wanted a stress relief. I wanted something for myself. So I took an acting class and fell in love with it all over again. And then, for whatever reason, something snapped. I was like, I love

my work in finance, but I really, really love this more. And I just decided to take a leave of absence, packed my car, drove to Vancouver, and here I am seven years later.

SPOILER: Wow, in just seven years you’re already on this amazing show. YVONNE CHAPMAN: I do have to just take some moments and say, “Wow.” I have no disillusionment about how fortunate I am to be doing something for a living that I absolutely love. It’s been incredible and I just hope it keeps going. Even if I wasn’t on this show or had the opportunities that I had, I’m just really happy that I gave it a shot. You know, when people ask me that, I’m like, “I’m just happy that I at least tried for myself.” That that’s all you can do in this life, you know?

SPOILER: And you’re working with such a diverse cast as well.

Yvonne Chapman:Richie Lubaton

YVONNE CHAPMAN: I’m lucky that I have a lot of friends and family of the same kind of diverse makeup. It just feels like life. And it’d be great to keep seeing more of real life on television; more of that diversity. I think the really beautiful thing about being in media is that we have the opportunity to be in people’s homes, people who maybe don’t get exposure to those kind of groups in their day-to-day lives. So if they don’t get exposure to it in day-to-day life, they can at least see us on TV and build some kind of connection that way. With the world being as it is, it’s the least we can do, try to connect with each other on a different level, and try to understand each other more. And I think the media has the power to do that.

SPOILER: Do you think you’re inspiring future Yvonne Chapmans? Do you think this is opening the door for others as well?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: I mean, I certainly hope so. We’re not the solution, but I hope we’re part of this solution. I think we are. We need more storytellers, whether it be in acting, producing, writing, directing. We just need more people of a different background. The proof is in the research, right? Like when you bring people of different backgrounds in a room together, everything becomes more rich, no

matter what industry it’s in. And especially if we, the medium of television, we’re one that prides ourselves on being empathetic and creative and innovative, well, you can’t do that in a homogenous environment. So I hope that it’s inspiring more people, not just of my similar background, but of any background to take the chance and go into the arts because we need storytelling. If the pandemic has showed us anything—I know subscriptions to Netflix and streaming services went way up—it’s the arts that really got us through it and helped us stay connected. So I hope we don’t forget that lesson.

SPOILER: I always see you on Instagram, always smiling, always having fun. Is that you most of the time?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Hey, I try to be. I think having a positive attitude is everything. I mean, look, I’m pretty chill, I have to admit. I’m pretty easy going, and having that kind of approach to things helps with a lot of other things. Again, I’m just really fortunate to be doing what I’m doing and I don’t forget that, on a day-to-day basis, I’m really just grateful to be able to do the work that I’m doing.

SPOILER: When you heard that you were gonna be promoted to a series regular, was it planned or was it a big surprise?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Oh, it was a big surprise. I mean, I came in season 1 thinking that this was gonna be a one-season character. So for me, when I got that phone call and just having the experience that I had with the cast and the crew in season 1, I was like, “Of course I’m gonna come back if they’ll have me!” It’s such a great work environment. It was a shock for me, but a really, really great one. I’m just happy that they wanted me back.

SPOILER: Do you like playing the antagonist? Would you like to take on a hero role in another project?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: I love playing the bad guy. It’s been a ride. Thanks to the creators, Christina Kim and Bob Berns, they really wrote Zhilan as something very special for me. They gave her a lot of different colors, so it’s been great.

SPOILER: What’s the interview circuit been like for you so far? Especially with these shows, you have to do a lot of them.

YVONNE CHAPMAN: It’s been a great time. I’m always appreciative when people take the time to chat, because we do the show, we film it kind of on its own, and then it comes out and the whole point of it is to be able to share it with as many people as we can. It’s one thing where it feels like our own when we’re filming, but it’s a whole other thing and such a joy when we actually get to share it with people. That’s when the payoff comes out. So I’ve had a blast, honestly, doing all the interviews. It’s been fun! Just like people are when they’re interested in stuff, I’m down to talk about it. It’s great to be able to share this outside of just the cast and the crew.

SPOILER: Have you gotten the convention experience yet? Or do you have plans to go to one?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Yeah, actually we’re going to WonderCon this month. It’s gonna be fun because, for the last two years, those were put on hold, right? So I think we would’ve gotten opportunities to go last year, but unfortunately we just couldn’t because keeping people safe is the priority. So this year, now that things have opened up and things are getting back to normal, it’ll be really fun to see people in person.

Olivia [Liang] will be there, Jon [Prasida], Tony [Chung], Shannon [Dang], and Eddie [Liu] are gonna be there. So it’s nice that we get to do it together. I think that’s gonna be the cherry on top.

SPOILER: What other projects do you have going on right now?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Well, they just wrapped my guest spot over on Avatar: The Last Airbender. That was really, really fun. I think they’re still filming right now, but I can’t wait for that to come out. I don’t know when it is coming out, but I can say personally that the the fans of the original series

will definitely not be disappointed. It looks phenomenal from what I’ve seen from all the departments. I was fortunate enough to be Avatar Kyoshi over there. That was a really great experience as well.

SPOILER: Marvel or DC?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Oh, why are you making me choose? Okay. If I had a choice, I’d probably do Marvel. There’s a lot that I love of both worlds. I think Marvel is just the one that kind of resonates with me a little bit more. I hope either one takes me at some point, that’d be great.

SPOILER: Would you ever wanna work in a superhero series or movie?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: Yeah, absolutely. That’s a dream.

SPOILER: If you had a choice right now, what kind of show or movie would you be in?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: I love everything sci-fi. I love reading science fiction. There’s one in particular—I don’t know if they’re making it into a show—but I just find the world fascinating. It’s the Red Rising series. That book is really, really rich. I’ve been gripped by [the entire series] ever since I started reading it. And if that were ever made into something, I think that would be a fascinating world. I don’t even have words for it. I just love that kind of world.

SPOILER: Do you believe in the paranormal?

YVONNE CHAPMAN: No. Although sometimes, because I’m a huge scaredy cat. Like, I jump at everything. People get such a kick out of scaring me because, I don’t know why, I’m just so susceptible to it. So I say no, but you would think that I do.

Yvonne Chapman:Richie Lubaton

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

WHEN MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON TOOK OVER THE REINS

as host of MTV Select, Canada’s version of TRL, he never thought that two decades later he’d still be going strong. With the upcoming prison thriller Corrective Measures, which also stars Bruce Willis, and medical drama Skymed on the horizon, the actor also looks back fondly on his time with the interactive show and discusses the state of music videos today.

Appearing in projects such as Trick ‘r Treat, Tomorrowland, and The Flash, Matthew takes the time to make suggestions for those wanting to pursue a career in this industry. He chats with us about everything from Hallmark movie fandom to excessive doggie slobber, before diving into his latest string of roles, which include those on Resident Alien, Turner & Hooch, and the anthology series Two Sentence Horror Stories.

What he does for a living is never lost on him as he reflects on his years in this industry and what makes it so special and rewarding, especially considering all the work put in when the cameras are turned off and the red carpets are rolled up.

SPOILER: Were you born and raised in Canada?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: Born and raised in Vancouver, man. It’s a great city to grow up in. An amazing city. It gets a little rainy. Everyone complains about that, but you can’t beat this city in the summer. It’s probably one of the best places in the world.

SPOILER: You worked for MTV Canada. How was that experience? Is it different from MTV America?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: We had a studio show based off of TRL with Carson Daly. It was called Select and we had a live studio audience every day, and we had all kinds of bands and performers coming through the studio and it was honestly one of the best jobs. I look back on that time very fondly. It was a really great start to my career. I just had so much fun. Every night, we would go to concerts. All the bands that were coming through Vancouver, they’d come on the show and then we would go see them play live. My first interview was Destiny’s Child. We went in and interviewed them before their show at the arena. I’m a huge music fan, so I got to meet people that I really admire.

SPOILER: MTV has seen so many iterations over the years.

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: It’s so weird how it’s changed, right? Like music videos, they still exist obviously, but that was such a big thing, watching music videos on television and all the culture around music videos. And then all of a sudden it just kind of went away.

SPOILER: Well, back then, we didn’t have a television stuck in our pocket. That was the only way to see what’s cool, meet celebrities. It gave a different edge and a different side of everything. It put celebrities in a different perspective; it made celebrities look like celebrities. I just think a lot of things have changed these days.

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: Oh. A hundred percent. And not necessarily for the worst, changing it and evolving. But [back then], you had the MuchMusics and the MTVs. MuchMusic was like the Canadian version of MTV and it was a culture point, and it no longer exists. So, it’s an interesting time.

SPOILER: Were you widely recognized in Canada because of that show?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON:

Yeah. It was a lot of fun. It was the first job that I got out of film school. So it was such an awesome beginning to my career. And then having hosting in my back pocket was nice. Like, I’ve always been an actor, but I also host and I just enjoy that aspect of the industry. You meet a lot of really interesting people. You’re constantly learning about new people and meeting new people in a different way. I really enjoyed it.

SPOILER: How did the pandemic affect things for you?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: It’s been challenging for everybody, but I have to say, I’m lucky. My family’s all healthy, everybody I know is healthy and still doing okay. And somehow the film industry got deemed, like, an essential service. There was that initial three-month shutdown and then everything kind of came back. So I’m very blessed in that regard that I’ve been very busy with work the entire time, after the shutdown. I used the time for a lot of personal growth. For me, luckily, without sounding like a total privileged a--hole, I’ve had a pretty good COVID experience, to be honest.

And it’s exciting that conventions are coming back. Because I know that’s a really important thing for a lot of people, to get together with like-minded people and be with your friends and be with fellow fans and celebrate the shows and the movies and the comics that you enjoy. I think the social aspect is what has been really challenging for a lot of people. And I think it’s really exciting that all that stuff is starting to come back.

SPOILER: Oh yeah, absolutely. The conventions are a way for people to go out and get to see the celebrities they like and they get to see cool things happening and buy stuff that they like. It’s a cool scene. And these days, you don’t

have to go to San Diego, you can go to a convention near you. It’s all the same. San Diego just gets some bigger sponsors and brands.

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: San Diego’s like the Super Bowl. There’s all kinds of conventions. I’ve been to conventions all over the world and had amazing experiences everywhere. But San Diego and DragonCon are like the Super Bowls of the convention circuit. You know what I mean? I have the best time at conventions.

SPOILER: Are you focusing on writing and producing a lot right now as well?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: It’s all sorta moving forward at the same time. Writing is something that I sort of pivoted into, during COVID actually. A friend of mine was up here in quarantine because she was working on The Flash, and she was stuck in quarantine for like the second time and was kinda losing her mind. So, we decided we would sit down and start writing some pitches. And we sent those out to some producers that we know, and we sold the script very quickly. So all of a sudden, we were writing a script and I started pitching other producers. So that was the other positive that happened. COVID created the space for people to start being more creative, and it just gave people space to do other things that they might not have been doing before. But I’ve always sort of been a producer, creating my own projects just to always stay busy. And I think the more you know about every aspect of the business, the better you are as an actor. You just understand how things work. You respect the writing on the page more because you’ve sat down and you’ve actually written a script. And you’ve argued about how to say a joke or how to write a joke a certain way. So, you [now] wanna respect that for the person who wrote that, if you’re an actor. If you’ve done editing, if you’ve done directing, you just start to understand all these different

elements that all come into making a film or a television production, and it just makes you a better actor and you respect everybody else’s job and how it all comes together.

I think everybody looks at the red carpet and they think, “Oh, making movies is all glitz and glamor.” But it’s really, really challenging work for everybody involved from front to back. It’s long days, long hours. And there’s a lot of people who put in a lot of really, really hard work to make it. A lot of people just see the end product.

SPOILER: You have a few projects coming out. Which ones are you most excited for?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: It came out on Netflix: Two Sentence Horror Stories. It’s so much fun. They’re half-hour episodes, all kind of one-offs, they all have their own story. I just find the stories to be so unique and they’re all dealing with really intense social issues. My episode [deals with] ageism and how people take advantage of the

elderly. So, they deal with really serious social issues, but in such an interesting, fun way. It’s a horror genre. They’re on season 3 now. The people working on the show are just amazing. I had an awesome experience and I think the episode turned out great. It ended up premiering the season.

And coming up April 29th, we have the release of a movie called Corrective Measures, starring Bruce Willis. The cast is really great. It’s about a super villain prison. If you can imagine like an Arkham Asylum, it sort of takes place in that space and it’s so much fun. We had a blast shooting it. It was a great crew of people, really great actors, really great team putting it together. Everyone gave 150%.

SPOILER: Who do you play?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: I’m on the security guard team that runs the prison. I don’t really know who’s good and who’s bad. I can’t talk too much about it.

It’s coming out on Tubi, Fox’s

streaming platform. I believe it’s one of Tubi’s first original films. I’m really excited.

SPOILER: How was it working with Bruce Willis and Michael Rooker?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: With big stars like that, you just kinda give them their space to do their thing. You kind of read the room if they’re chatting. And if they want to chat with you and hang out, then that’s cool. And some people have that energy, but when you’re a lead on a show, you have a lot of weight on your shoulders. And sometimes people just wanna rest, like I do that on set as well. I kind of keep my own space when I’m not acting. When I was young, I was always running around and saying hi to everybody. But once you start realizing that it’s all about saving your energy for on camera, you really like resting and recharging your batteries when you’re off camera.

They’re really gracious people. Michael Rooker’s wild, he’s got a lot of energy and he’s really cool. And Bruce Willis is kind of chill. Really great people. And it was just an awesome experience.

SPOILER: You were in a movie called Fixing Up Christmas and a few other holiday movies. What’s it like working on projects like that?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON:

I’ve retired from doing Christmas movies. And a lot of that is because of the market in Vancouver. So Hallmark, I don’t know why they

Matthew Kevin Anderson: Richie Lubaton

chose Vancouver, but they’ve chosen Vancouver and make, I don’t know, anywhere from 70 to 100 movies like that in Vancouver every year. It just makes up a very large portion of the working market in Vancouver. So you end up doing these movies. I have to tell you, aside from wearing a jacket and a turtleneck in the middle of summer, which can be a little sweaty, they’re so much fun to work on. Vancouver’s a big city, but it’s really a small town, and especially the film community here, it’s even smaller. So, you’re just hanging out with friends, having a good time. All of the women who are the leads on these shows are the kindest, sweetest people. I’ve worked with Lacey Chabert multiple times. She is honestly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And you just have a lot of fun, and you have a lotta laughs.

It’s like, if you came up in New York, everybody used to work on soaps, right? They would be working in theater, and then a lot of them, their first jobs were on soaps. Or now, it’s like, Law & Order or whatever it is. It’s been running forever. It’s like, if you’re an actor in New York and you haven’t been on Law & Order, you’re not an actor. It’s so great because it gives a lot of people in the industry their first jobs. And they get their first credits, and they get on set for the first time and they start to learn and figure out how everything works. It’s awesome.

I forget that so many people watch these movies and every year, even though I haven’t done one in a while, everyone starts sending me photos like, “We’re watching your Christmas movies!” Because everyone downloads all the Hallmark Christmas movies and they watch them all month long. It’s so wild. I think they have their own convention too. Like, I think they have Hallmark conventions, and you can go and bake cookies and meet all the stars of the Hallmark movies.

SPOILER: Really? Are you serious?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: Oh, I’m

dead serious. A hundred percent. I’m very grateful. It’s great to have Hallmark in Vancouver creating so much work in this market. The fans are very loyal and they’re just lovely people and I’m very grateful. It’s awesome to have them here.

I love fandoms. You look at baseball fans, football fans, you look at Hallmark fans, sci-fi fans, comic book fans—it’s just a group of likeminded people getting together and enjoying what they love together in a social setting, and then be able to talk about it. And I just love it. I’ve been to a lot of conventions and I’ve just seen how they bring people together. I’m so happy that conventions are coming back because I think it’s actually really important for a lot of people. I think it’s really a special place for people to get together. I always used to say that I liked to go on a trip to Mexico, and a lot of people save up their money and they go on a trip to San Diego for Comic Con. That’s like the big trip for the year, you know?

It’s awesome. And I think it’s important. And I’m really glad they’re coming back.

SPOILER: What was it like being on Resident Alien?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: I was really excited to work on that show because I know Alan Tudyk, but I didn’t actually get to work with him on the show unfortunately. But that show’s hilarious. I think Alan is, honestly, one of the funniest actors out there and he’s doing amazing things with that part. I mean, he’s playing an alien who’s pretending to be a human being and he just does such a great job and it’s such a fun show. It’s just a great group of people.

SPOILER: Did you work a lot with Hooch on Turner & Hooch? That dog slobbers a lot.

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: The dog slobbers like, you have no idea. I’ve never seen so much slobber come out of a dog in my life. They had towels. There were people constantly coming

Matthew Kevin Anderson: Richie Lubaton

over and trying to manage the dog slobber. Also, there’s five of those dogs. They’re all ready to go at any time. And then there’s animatronic dogs too. They have robot versions of the dogs. It was so wild.

Again, an amazing group of people. We had so much fun on that show. Josh [Peck], the lead, is just the sweetest guy. And it was a trip working with dogs and having to act with a dog. And Josh was in every scene with that dog and he was so good and patient. That’s what they say with independent films: Never use dogs or babies, because it takes up so much time and it’s so much work. But that’s why they had five dogs. If the dog didn’t want to do what it had to do, they would switch it out and bring in another dog. And the dogs were treated like kings. It was amazing. It was a really cool experience.

SPOILER: What breed were they?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: French Mastiff. They’re massive dogs and they have huge jowls. And because, when a dog’s on set, you’re acting and a dog wrangler is right behind you looking at the dog and getting the dog to sit and stay. And it’s just constant treats. So he’s just salivating.

I remember the original movie with Tom Hanks, the slobber was big part of it. He was always shaking and slobbering all over the place. And so it’s part of the show. But I’m sad it got canceled because it was really fun and it’s was such a good group of people. I wanted that show to go for a long time.

SPOILER: What projects do you currently have in the pipeline?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: I am looking into doing some directing. I’ve directed a couple music videos and some short films and I want to explore that space a little bit more. I’ve also got a couple shows coming out. One called Skymed coming out on Paramount Plus. That’s gonna be later in the year. And another show called Ellen—it’s a cool throwback ‘80s action TV show. It’s so dope.

And then I’m writing scripts and hopefully directing a feature this year.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone who wants to be an actor?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON:

Obviously I’m an actor, and I’ve listened to a lot of advice, but this is the classic one: If you can do anything else, do it. Acting is a very, very tough, challenging business. And if there’s anything else that you kind of want to do, you should go and do that because, to be an actor, you have to want it 1000%. It’s a challenging business to navigate. But I also find that to be a hair on the negative side, and I think people should follow their dreams.

There’s a video of Bryan Cranston talking—you can find it on YouTube—I think it’s behind the scenes of an awards show and someone asks him, “What advice would you give to a young actor?” And he says, “When I changed my point of view about auditions, and I realized that auditioning is just me presenting my interpretation of what this audition is, it was no longer about winning the audition or booking the job.” If you let go of booking the job and trying to get the actual audition, and you just present your version of what that material is, you go, “Hey

guys, this is how I think this could be cool. This is how it’s interesting to me. You can take it or leave it, have a nice day,” that completely shifts the way you are interacting with the business essentially. And it puts you in a place of power. There’s always gonna be auditions. There’s always gonna be hundreds and thousands of auditions. So go in, do your thing, and walk away. And if they like it, cool. And if they don’t, they don’t. But don’t try to book the job. Just go in and present your ideas and that’s it.

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna share with the fans before you go?

MATTHEW KEVIN ANDERSON: If you can donate, donate some money to Ukraine right now. Things are really crazy over there. I have some people that are very close to me who are struggling with a lot of stuff going on over there. And if you can find some time to commit to helping people over there right now, I think that would be really great. We live in a very challenging time right now. Lead with kindness and love and joy and be good to one another. And I think hopefully we can get out of all this and make the world a better place.

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

OVER THE PAST YEAR, NFTs HAVE BEEN EVERYWHERE, DOMINATING

the news and social media. However, those who understand these newfangled virtual gizmos seem to be few and far between. Everyone else is either curious, if not apprehensive, or inexplicably averse to their existence. We, of course, have been big advocates for the non-fungible token for some time now, and can’t wait for the rest of the world to unlock their potential. Then there are people such as Neil Stevenson Moore, someone who wants to help you unlock that potential. His company House of Kibaa is a 3D and NFT design studio—a production company of sorts—partnering with creators and artists to make amazing assets for selling on the virtual marketplace. Neil and his team have just launched the very first live-action NFT project, GenZeroes, a series of micro-shorts that follows a group of postapocalyptic survivors 200 years into the future. The talented creatives behind this endeavor hope to find success in this burgeoning industry and show people that NFTs are not only extremely beneficial to everyone, but the inevitable way of the future.

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SPOILER: Neil, what is the NFT?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: So instead of going into the big conversation about what fungibility is and whatnot, an NFT is the future of IP protection for artists. That that’s what it is. It is the future. For digital artists, musicians, filmmakers, anyone that produces something in a digital format, this is the future for their IP protection. The second thing, it’s a way for communities to get involved in several different ways, whether it’s collectibles, like you see it with NBA Top Shot and trading cards or unique pieces. And then it’s really the future that’s gonna bring people into the metaverse that Mr. Zuckerberg keeps talking about. But essentially, it’s about IP protection for artists and a way for them to connect with their communities.

SPOILER: So you’re creating a project through your brand House of Kibaa that’s basically the first ever live-action NFT series called GenZeroes. What is GenZeroes?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: GenZeroes is the evolution of a project that did make some money called GenX. And it is, as you said, the first live-action series. There’s a community in the NFT world that is passionate about technology. They’re passionate about pushing the envelope and they supported us as we rolled out the GenXs. The GenXs—and if you want, you can go check them out on our website at GenZeroes.com—were 10,000 artist renditions of robots. And these robots were imagined by artists that work at Marvel and Star Wars, on things like The Mandalorian, and each of these 10,000 stemmed from these 10 factions, these 10 factions that were splintered to create those 10,000 pieces. So what GenZeroes is, it’s a story of these 10 factions told by live-action with some incredible actors attached to it. I can’t share everyone yet. There’s more coming. Our first actor was Aleks Paunovic, who people probably recently saw in Marvel’s Hawkeye as one of the lead villains and he’s been on Netflix’s Snowpiercer. [We saw that] the NFT community was super passionate about our project there, and there’s a lot of ways to make money with

it. But we wanted to bring in an adjacent community. When we looked at another set of people that are really into pushing the boundaries, getting passionate about projects, we saw the sci-fi community. And a lot of people may or may not know that House of Kibaa is based in Vancouver. And Vancouver is a massive hotbed for the sci-fi world. X-Files is from here, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Continuum. So there’s a ton of sci-fi actors here that are joining our project to make it something pretty special.

SPOILER: The traditional way to raise funds online are these crowdfunding sites. But with NFTs, it’s a similar model, but more futuristic. Do you think those two sections will be in competition?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: I think it’s gonna be the evolution of the crowdfunding sites. I think that with these crowdfunding sites, one of the problems is, okay, I give you a hundred bucks for your movie, but that’s all I get. You know, I get maybe a t-shirt, right? But what we’re doing is one of the things the NFTs allows us to do is whenever somebody buys one of the GenZeroes NFTs, they get value, and that value can depend on which NFT they get. So, for example, when we release the episodes, if you buy an episode NFT, you actually get fractional ownership in the entire series. So, our roadmap for this is we’re already talking with the three big distributors. If this gets picked up, you actually not only benefit and get behind the scenes looks and special wearables for the metaverse, but you can also get a cut of whatever we do in licensing or sales for the project. So it’s a way for the community to support projects that they really believe in, and not just do it in a way where they throw a bit of money and say, “Hey, I hope you do well,” but it’s a way for the community to make some money out of it as well.

SPOILER: What is the storyline of GenZeroes?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: The world gets attacked by aliens. And these aliens, when they come, they’re like Vikings, they haven’t come to eliminate us. They haven’t come with technology that is so much

stronger they wipe us out. They’re Vikings that come, they steal our stuff, they take our resources, and then they leave. The world is left in ash. We’ve lost a significant amount of our population and we need to rebuild. So humans do what humans do well in times of trouble: We come together, we work together, we start taking some of the technology that we took from the aliens that we killed and we reverse engineered it. And we’re working together as a world to rebuild, and be ready if the aliens ever come back. The problem is, 100, 150 years go by and the aliens haven’t returned. So here we find ourselves 200 years on from when they attacked us, and humans have done what humans do at our worst: We’ve splintered into 10 factions. We all have different beliefs. It’s kind of like thinking of Game of Thrones, just set 200 years in the future.

So, the series will introduce one faction in each episode, and the faction leaders will take you kind of into their ideology and talk about what they believe. And of course, there’s the palace intrigue between the different factions on who’s working together and who’s kind of undercutting each other. So, it’s really about the political battle between these 10 factions.

SPOILER: How can people watch it?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: One thing I should make clear as well, the first four episodes, they’re only about four to eight minutes each. It’s really just that first taste of the story. The next six will be a little bit longer. They can come to our website and watch the first four. You do have to have an NFT to watch them, but you don’t necessarily have to buy one. What I mean by that is we’re working on giveaways. People should go to our website, put their email in, and when they get these giveaways, they may just get one of our common NFTs, or they may get one of the rare ones, which will have not only monetary value, but extra value, like being able to get real-world props or signed photographs, or a trip to

Comic Con when we air the final. But the vision for this project is once the community has participated and been part of it from the start, the goal is that we will license this to one of the major producers and they’ll be able to watch it on whoever picks it up. So one of the big guys.

The exciting part for the fans of some of the incredible writers we’re working with, the artists, the actors, is that they kind of get to be on the side of investor, producer that they would never otherwise get the chance to do. There are so many projects out there that studios put money behind and they have to test them and see what happens, and it’s never really fan-driven. And what ours allows the community to do is, yeah, come see these first four episodes, participate in the NFT project, get some value, but if it takes off, the rarity is going to push

that up. Our vision is that this will become a full series with hour long episodes that really is similar to a Game of Thrones but just set in the future.

SPOILER: So it starts in 2022 initially and then jumps to 2222.

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: Yeah. We couldn’t really resist the 2222. We know two things. One, that the NFT community hates when Hollywood or celebrities try to come in and just make money off of them. As you said off the top, the NFT community is in the cultural conversation right now, it’s hot, there’s a lot of money to be made, but the NFT community hates if a celebrity just pumps out a project to try to grab cash. So we knew we couldn’t do that. And on the other side, the sci-fi community, as I said, we have a ton of respect for. So, we couldn’t just try to say

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we’re gonna do this NFT project and shove it down sci-fi’s throat. We had to make sure that we did both sides in an authentic way. We’re not gonna be using NFTs just to kind of nickel and dime and try to make money. It’s all about actually providing great utility. So the NFT community is already getting behind us there. And then more importantly, we knew we had to make a great, great show. And that’s why we went out and hired the writers from Van Helsing, Matt [Venables] and Jeremy [Smith]. I mean, they just sold a script for seven figures to another department. Like, these guys are incredible writers, and the story itself, people are gonna be blown away by. Some of the actors who read the script got so excited by the script that they jumped on. These are people that we never thought we would get, people that are taking pay cuts to be part of the project because they see an exciting story and a longevity to it. So those will all be kinda getting announced in the next couple weeks as we finalize their contracts. But the project is moving quickly. And it’s a chance for people to get on a train that’s going fast.

SPOILER: Is this your first NFT project, at least in entertainment?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: I’ll be the first to admit this is my first foray

into Hollywood and television. My background is technology, I’ve been in the startup world. I’ve built and sold technology companies, but the biggest thing I’ve learned about all these pieces is you need to have the right people in the right seats. So, the first thing we did was we made sure we hired the right people to do it. After Matt and Jeremy came Aleks. I mean, you can’t get a better person to be involved. And not only that, but he’s also built a reputation in the industry of being an honest actor. Someone that people wanna work with, he’s humble, he comes to set every day and puts in a huge effort. He’s prepared. So when he reached out to people in this executive producer role, it really spoke volumes. And my job is just to make sure to outta the way and let these guys make a great show. Make sure they have all the tools

they need, that we’re setting things up to complement each other. And with the team that we put around it and the story that’s coming out of it, I think are really gonna show that.

SPOILER: Where do you see this going next? Do you see a lot of people following in your footsteps?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: I do. I mean, we we’ve already, goodness, another six projects that people have brought to us that are pretty incredible, from big name comic book IPs. As I said, NFTs are about protecting and celebrating artists, and the comic book artists often get overlooked, but to be able to release things on NFTs and bring it out in the right way and celebrate them with projects that are interactive and let the community get involved, is huge. So I see this being the first, I see many coming after. We’ve had phone calls from some really exciting funding opportunities as well. There’s no shortage of excitement around it. And we just need to make sure that we spearhead the community with an exciting, great project. The sci-fi community is loyal.

I’m a huge sci-fi fan myself. That’s why we leaned into this. There’s a reason we’re gonna be bringing this to Comic Con this year in July. And we’re hoping that they’ll grant us a panel. We’ve been conversing with them, but nothing is sorted out yet. We’re so excited and we couldn’t be happier than to be the standardbearer for the NFT sci-fi community.

SPOILER: How long did it take you to create the GenZeroes universe?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: The GenXs that we dropped in October, we already have a really passionate community there that got excited about it, but then immediately we went to work. We got Matt and Jeremy involved. It took us three months to really develop the story. It’s such an exciting story to tell. The world that has just been ravaged by, essentially, a virus. I think people could understand what that’s like. And we drew a lot of things from reality. So that came together quickly. We were in the boardroom talking about who we would like to get. And there was one actor that we’re like, “Oh my God, he’d be incredible.” Aleks literally got on the phone and he goes, “Oh, I think I’ve got a connection to him.” He texts him, and we’re like, “Let’s just see what happens. Maybe we’ll hear back from him the next couple days.” We get a phone call from that guy, and 30 minutes later, he’s on the call. We pitched him the story. He jumped on board, and I was blown away. We’ll be announcing that in like two weeks after we finalized the contract. So that happened. I was blown away by Aleks. And then we’re sitting there two days later working on some of the other cast and crew that we

want to go after. And then the actor calls, all of a sudden, we look at the phone and my heart kind of sank. I thought he [changed his mind]. But no, he literally had read the script and he wanted to know more about the backstory and his character, and he had ideas, he was so excited by the quality of the story that he just wanted to comment and get ready for it. And it just gave me so much confidence that every one of the actors we’ve gone to has said yes. And we’re picking from some incredible sci-fi names that your fans are all gonna recognize. And they’re favorites at Comic Con. So, it’s pretty exciting.

And the excitement’s growing. I mean, after we announced the live series, people can buy the NFTs on opensea.com. And the price just started growing, because people know that when people like Alex, Jeremy, and Mat get involved, that it’s a real project. We’re not just trying to blow smoke here. It’s pretty exciting to see the community get behind it.

SPOILER: There’s also something called The Art of Future Living. What’s that about?

NEIL STEVENSON MOORE: House of Kibaa kind of has three prongs.

We partnered with, for example, the Board Apes. We’ve just announced a huge collaboration with Hapebeast, who is one of the leaders in the community. And the reason that we’re able to track so many people is Jason, our founder, has built integrity and authenticity around House of Kibaa by sharing his vision for what we want to be, how we want to be creator and artist driven. So The Art of Future Living, we’re actually rolling out our own metaverse. We kind of see ourselves as the Rebel Alliance. As people like Facebook and some of these other guys that have a lot of money are building these big metaverses, we’ve been working with people at the Board Ape Yacht Club and other groups that are well funded, but coming together to build a new metaverse that is built in what’s called Unreal Engine 5, which is hyper realistic and is gonna allow people to have their own place in the metaverse that isn’t boxy or cartoony. It’s gonna be really, really special. We’re working with realworld artists that are coming into the metaverse in unique ways that are super engaging. And even the projects that we’re doing around scifi. Imagine watching an episode and then someone is killed in a room, and you’re able to walk into that room in the metaverse and explore it for clues and just completely engage in it differently. Some of the projects are gonna give fans a whole new level of entertainment. That’s really, really exciting.

We believe in community, we believe in partnerships. So getting the right people there is exciting. Yeah, the galleries did really well. We dropped them to our community and they were selling for thousands of dollars. Later that afternoon, one guy sent us a thank you, because it paid off his rent for the last three months. The metaverse that we’re building, it’s gotta code name, Project Origin. That won’t be the name it’s released under, but some of the talent we have joining us is just exciting. I’ve been blown away every day.

Dan Payne:David Tenniswood

interview interview

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

You listen to Chris DeMoulin, the head honcho

of Los Angeles Comic Con, speak about this massive undertaking each year in Downtown LA and you can tell that there’s nobody better suited for his job. The CEO has been helping build up the convention since 2012, during the show’s second annual event, and each and every year he and his team have continued to evolve LACC while maintaining its roots. Chris has been working in the trade show industry for around 20 years, and event planning for even longer, and knows what it takes to run one of these colossal events smoothly, but also totally grasps what fans want out of the experience, because he’s a fan himself.

The mantra over at LA Comic Con is, “for fans, by fans,” and Chris lives by that mission whole-heartedly. Growing up a collector of comic books and a Star Trek devotee, Chris never dreamed that he’d one day inherit and help grow the biggest convention in the pop culture mecca of the world. LACC represents Los Angeles, and vice versa. ”We want to reflect the eclecticism of LA in the show, because LA is a sort of smash-up of every cultural influence in the world,” remarks the CEO of the importance of maintaining that homegrown identity. It’s what separates this convention from all the rest, fusing mainstream fandoms with the spirit and local culture of Los Angeles itself.

After a year without conventions across the globe, LA Comic Con is back and better than ever. Chris discusses their recent expansion to take over the entire Downtown Convention Center, which includes an additional hall specifically for anime and gaming. The show also features 800 vendors and exhibitors—their most ever—who are all thrilled to finally be able to sell in person

again. But with COVID still being at large in our world, LACC has taken the proper precautions while still widening its scope to decrease crowd density as well.

Chris talks, almost poetically, about his love for conventions. They’re not only his career, but a fervent passion. “Trade shows are sorta magical, right?” he says, referring to the experience of taking an empty convention center and briefly turning it into a bustling metropolis packed with people of similar interests for only three days. It’s like a dream, and then you blink and it’s gone. Well, Los Angeles Comic Con is a city within a city; a fandom mecca in its own right.

But staying true to his credo, the CEO concerns himself less with attendance numbers than he does with what’s best for the fans: “I hope everyone who comes has a great experience, but whether it’s 100,000 or 160,000 people, it doesn’t matter. I just hope everyone who comes feels like they got to do what they wanted, has a smile on their face when they leave, and looks forward to coming back next year.”

interview interview

SPOILER: How did LA Comic Con start? CHRIS DeMOULIN: The show was founded by a sister and two brothers back in 2010. For the second year in a row, they couldn’t get tickets to a certain comic convention that’s south of here [laughs]. So, in their frustration they thought, “Heck, we’ll just throw our own show!” They reached out to friends and have a lot of connections within the community. And their first show was in November of 2011, called Comikaze. I was fortunate enough to get introduced to them the following year because I was in the trade show business and their largest investor was an old friend of mine.

SPOILER: What made you get into the convention business?

Chris DeMoulin:George Chinsee/(cover

image): Chris DeMoulin:Footwear News

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I moved to LA almost 30 years ago to work for Disney, where I worked in their licensing group. And I got very involved in entertainment. But I had little kids, so after about 10 years of working at Disney, I decided to spend some more time with them. I never thought about the trade show business, but as a person who worked for Disney, I went to trade shows all the time. Trade shows are sorta magical, right? Because you take over this giant convention center, it’s a million square feet of space and it’s empty, and you essentially build a city so that all the people who care about something come together for three days. Sometimes you’re creating a marketplace, sometimes you’re creating an experience for fans. And they come and there’s this explosion of “wow.” And literally 24 hours later, it’s gone and it’s back to being an empty box.

I ran trade shows in the apparel industry, one called MAGIC, I ran the Licensing Expo. And when I met the founders for Comikaze, I thought, “This is great! I work with all the studios, but what the studios do eventually gets represented in stuff for the fans.” Comic Con is the final resting place for all that work. It was a great opportunity, not just to work with the studios on the business side, but also be able to bring the fans together and see the results of all that hard work.

SPOILER: The guests this year are amazing! Were some of them scheduled for 2020 or did you start from scratch for this year?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: We’ve always been driven by the fact that this is a show for fans, by fans. And all of us who work on it are, ourselves, fans. And it’s a delightful responsibility to be able to think about who we would [want to see at the convention] as a fan. And we want to reflect the eclecticism of LA in the show, because LA is a sort of smash-up of every cultural influence in the world. So, we started building the talent base for the 2021 show when we were originally scheduled for September 2020. And now we’re finally getting to do the show. Zachary Levi

has been planning to be with us for two years. Frank Miller for a year and a half. Tom Kenny for a year. And some other people, like MingNa Wen, we just added in the last couple of months. So, it’s really been this sort of rolling process of trying to add new pieces to compliment who’s there. We try to cover all the bases of the fandoms because that’s what LA’s all about. And that was the impetus for us adding this whole extension into West Hall for anime and gaming and esports because that’s a big part of what’s growing in LA and in entertainment right now. The show should always reflect what the fans love at any given time. We’re also gonna have 800 vendors and exhibitors who haven’t been able to sell their stuff to fans in person in two years. That’s so exciting to us that they’re going to be able to see their fans again!

SPOILER: This year, LA Comic Con will feature a Nichelle Nichols Farewell event. What can we expect from that?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: The folks who have done a number of these—they did James Doohan’s farewell a few years ago—they came to us and said that they had been hoping last year to do a farewell event for Nichelle. They had been working with her and her family, and Nichelle was 100% on board with what they were planning, but with COVID, they didn’t have a place to do it. And we said that we’re expanding to take over the whole Convention Center, because we wanted to do that anyway just to be able to space things out, and for people who aren’t entirely comfortable coming out in crowds yet—we figured if we were in a much bigger space, it would lower the crowd density. So, we said, “We’ll give you guys thirty-five or forty thousand square feet of space. Why don’t you just do it with us?”

Star Trek’s one of my fandoms. I’m a huge fan. We just thought it was a terrific opportunity to be part of a farewell for Nichelle and do it in a proper way. They have it really well thought out. They have 20 or 25

cast members from every single TV show that there’s been, and some movies. And they have some really cool props. So, we said, “We’re happy to give you a home for it. Just bring it here.”

I think “honor” is the right word. She’s had such an amazing career, and an impact on so many young women. For us to just be part of her last farewell, [it’s an honor]. And for her family and her team to really be part of planning it, that’s really important too.

SPOILER: I know Stan Lee is a big part of LA Comic Con’s lineage. What was his role before he passed [in 2018]?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: Stan met the founders and actually came to the very first show. And he sensed that they were really creating a fancentric convention. It was actually a licensing agreement with him. We were involved with Stan and Stan’s company. And the show became “Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo,” and

then eventually “Stan Lee’s Comic Con.” And so we worked with Stan and his team. We would bring in a prop museum. We would figure out what panels Stan would want to join on the Main Stage and how much signing he wanted to do, and we would facilitate that, and would build the rest of the show around that.

For me, as a kid I grew up a huge comic collector in the suburbs of Rochester, New York. So, 50 years before I ever met him, I already worshipped the talent that he brought together and what he accomplished with those stories—such an important part of my life. And to come full circle years later and be able to work with him was such a magical, amazing thing. He was an unbelievable human being—incredibly caring and creative. He really was a force of nature. You met him and he did not disappoint.

For those couple of years that he was involved, we would bounce creative ideas off of him and he was always at the show all three days. He would call up his friends and ask them

to do things. One of the panels I’ll never forget, in 2013 or 2014, Todd McFarlane came to interview Stan on the Main Stage. And we’ve always put our Main Stage right in the middle of the show floor, because I don’t like that thing that happens at a lot of the other Cons, where in order to see the really cool stuff, you have to leave the convention and go wait in line for three hours. So, when the panel started and Todd and Stan started talking to each other, almost every single person in the Convention Center—it’s a big building, it’s 350,000 square feet— they all turned around and made their way towards the Main Stage. By the end, there were about 14,000 people watching them talk. And we have this picture from behind them on the stage: these two guys who are amazing creative forces interviewing each other, and then there’s thousands of fans in front of them listening and eating up every word. To me, that’s what the essence of LA Comic Con is all about, bringing creators together and then giving them the opportunity to talk about what they do in a way that the fans can experience firsthand.

SPOILER: What’s your favorite part of the convention?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: One of my personal favorites is when we bring on voice casts from animated TV

shows, because I have two kids— they’re 25 and 22 now—but when they were little, we spent hours and hours of wonderful time together watching animated shows. So, Tom Kenny’s a guest this year, and he came last time as well, and both my kids came because that’s SpongeBob. And we spent a lot of SpongeBob time together as a family [laughs]. Folks like him get a very warm reception. Regularly, we’ll have about six or eight thousand people at a panel where we have a reunion of a voice cast.

I’m also really thrilled that we have Sideshow Collectibles coming to our show for the very first time. They’re putting together a museumquality experience. And one of the things they’re going to have there is their life-size Grogu from The Mandalorian. And, of course, we have Giancarlo Esposito and MingNa Wen coming from the cast, so I’m hoping at some point we can get them over and have a photo op with Grogu.

And the other thing I’m really looking forward to is Gerard Way— I’m a big Umbrella Academy fan and he’s a brilliant creative—interviewing Frank Miller on the Main Stage. To me, that’s going to be the sort of next generation moment of that Todd McFarlane/Stan Lee interview.

As a fan, those are the three highlights that I’m looking forward to, but we also added this whole anime and gaming hall. So, we have a whole second Main Stage in the West Hall. And we’ve got over 40 voice actors coming in from some of the largest anime shows and video games out there—the whole casts are coming. In some instances, for the video games, we’re hoping to get some of the cast members into a pro-am competition where we load

Chris DeMoulin/Los Angeles Comic Con/Magic

the games on the Main Stage and they play against each other and do a little improv voice over of what’s going on on screen.

Also, a special thing Friday night, Laugh Factory is programming two hours of a comedy show on the Main Stage, so they’re going to bring in six or eight headliners and do a comedy show. I think it’ll be somewhat similar to what we did with Jack Black a couple years ago where he and Tenacious D took over the stage for an hour and a half and just entertained.

SPOILER: Any tips for attendees?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: If you have younger kids, Sunday’s a great day to come because we’re doing a kids costume contest. On Sunday, kids 6 and under are free. They can get up on the stage and repurpose their Halloween costumes one more time [laughs].

If you’re a hardcore shopper or collector, Friday’s always a good shopping night because it doesn’t tend to be as crowded, and so you really have an opportunity to go around and see all the show exclusives. You can spend a little more quality time with the artists and talk with them about why they do what they do and their inspiration.

SPOILER: What is your wish for this year?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: My wish for this year is that everyone comes and not only sees the things that they came to see, but they find something that reminds them of the shows that they loved as a kid that nobody else quite got. One of the things I love about this convention, and I think makes this convention different, is we try so hard to have such an eclectic mix of stuff. As a fan, we love the big stuff— we all love Avengers, we all love Star Wars—but we also have those little individual personal things that are so meaningful to us. And I hope people have the opportunity to have those moments as well. And that’s why we’ll have 120, 130 talent here,

because we want people to have that opportunity to have that moment of discovery, that moment of wonder where something just resonates, something that was so important to them as a kid that they’ve carried it into adulthood.

About 30% of our attendees bring their kids, and I love that. I love that this is one generation sharing their love of these stories and these characters with the next generation. I’m not as focused about how many people come. I hope everyone who comes has a great experience, but whether it’s 100,000 or 160,000 people, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that everyone who comes feels that joy of being together in a crowd of fellow fans again and feels good about the fact that we can finally get out and, with safety precautions, start to re-indulge in some of these wonderful activities with friends and like-minded folks out there. I just hope everyone who comes feels like they got to do what they wanted, has a smile on their face when they leave, and looks forward to coming back next year.

SPOILER: The website is also very easy to navigate. Was that something that you’ve worked hard on?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: Yeah, I think we’ve really tried to learn a lot about making the website easier to use.

One of my obsessions, having been a trade show person for ten years, running hundreds of shows with millions of people attending them, I think it’s super important that the organizer thinks through where all the possible bottlenecks are and solves for them before the first fan shows up. It’s just inexcusable to have to wait in line for an hour, hour and a half to get through something. I know there are going to be 20,000 people who wanna come in the first three hours on Saturday morning, so we need to develop the capacity to get those people in. We have 36 different entrances people can use, so they’ll be spread out. 15,000 of our tickets were mailed in advance this year, so they already have their badges, they don’t need to go through the third badge check. As

Los Angeles Comic Con/Getty Images

a fan, your time is precious. You’re paying good money to come here. And if you’re gonna be at the show for eight hours, you should be going around doing things you like for eight hours, not spending four or five of those hours in lines that don’t need to be there. We give as much attention to the logistics as we do to who the guests are that we should bring in.

SPOILER: If fans want to meet you during the weekend, where can they find you?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I’m everywhere. If anyone really wants to say hello, they can ask any of the security people. We have a lot of people with “Ask Me” shirts on. They’ll get on their walkie talkie and call me, and I’ll come over and say hi. Look, we do this because we’re fans. It’s really a true story that three siblings got frustrated that the convention they used to go to, they couldn’t get in anymore. And so, they wanted to create a convention that’s 100% fan-focused. And we keep that as our mantra—it’s at the center of

everything we do. I always say, if there’s something you don’t like, tell me. If there’s something you love, tell your friends.

We have a new ticketing partner this year, called Tixr, so when people go to buy tickets, it’s through them. And Tixr has a rewards program. When you buy a ticket, you get a code. And if you give that code to your friend and they buy a ticket, then you get money back on your ticket. So, if you bring in 10 friends, your ticket will be free!

SPOILER: Where do you see the convention going in the future?

CHRIS DeMOULIN: I think the convention should go where the fans want it to go. So this year, this expansion of talent and gaming and anime is an important expansion. Because we’re not walking away from anything we’ve been doing.

All of the traditional Con stuff—the comics, the toys, the collectibles, the guests, the panels—we’re still doing all of that stuff, but we’re adding these other things because we’ve seen so much growth in fan

interest in those areas. And the stories cross over. Avengers isn’t just a big movie, it’s a big video game. And you get terrific anime shows that become collectible lines and then they become video games. We’re going to really expand that [in the future] and we’re going to make an announcement at the show about continued expansion we’re going to do in that area. So, you’ll see LA Comic Con always trying to make sure that we represent the full spectrum of entertainment that really represents Los Angeles.

We’ll be throughout the entire Convention Center, and I can see us [in the future] having activities over at LA Live, really spreading out over that whole part of Downtown LA, and all of Downtown LA becoming a celebration of pop culture fandom on our weekend every year. There’s a lot of people in this city and a lot of fans of different things. I mean, we’re doing a crossover effort with the LA Kings this year. That’s the thing about LA: There’s all these different fandoms and we all live side by side, and we gotta find ways to celebrate together.

NIGHTWING #98

what’s it about?

Nightwing meets Nite-Mite! (And Bitewing and Oracle and Daniele Di Nicuolo!) That’s right, that meddling Nite-Mite booped himself from the fifth dimension, and after reading Seven Secrets, he hitchhiked his way over with Di Nicuolo into our Nightwing series! Trust us, you’re not going to want to miss this one.

THE GOOD Nightwing has an imp. In case the cover didn’t make that abundantly clear. If you’re even somewhat familiar with the Silver Age goofball known as Bat-Mite you know that Fifth Dimensional Imps are troublemakers to say the least. Taylor gives Dick his own imp this issue in the form of Nite-Mite. Unlike his 5th Dimensional Bat-counterpart, Nite-Mite is a well-meaning fan.

Nite-Mite is a welcome inclusion to a series that consistently delivers with Tom Taylor at the helm. Nite-Mite is not only a fun character, worthy of the Batfamily, but a clever meta commentary on fandom as a whole. Guest artist Daniele Di Nicuolo does a spectacular job bringing the absurdity of the Fifth Dimension into Bludhaven. The panel layouts flow seamlessly from page to page and Taylor’s dialogue is witty and engaging throughout.

THE bad

The way that Nite-Mite interacts with both Nightwing and Batgirl was absolutely amazing. Like Nite-Mite,

I’ve always pictured Starfire and Dick together but this issue highlighted what a great team Nightwing and Batgirl make. I’ve enjoyed the covers by Bruno Redondo since he started on Nightwing #78 but when I saw this in the solicitations I was less than interested. It seems cartoonish to the point of absurdity. Little did I realize at the time how well the cover fits the theme of the book and how fun it would be. The lesson here for me is not to judge a book by its cover even though most of the covers are absolutely gorgeous!

VERDICT

Writer: Tom Taylor | Artist: Daniele Di Nicuolo | Colorist: Adriano Lucas

GOLD GOBLIN #1

what’s it about?

It’s not easy being… Gold? Norman Osborn’s sins may have been cleansed, but his memories weren’t and he’s done plenty of horrific things to remember. Norman’s worked hard to avoid all things “Goblin” and to stay on the straight and narrow. Consequences in Amazing Spider-Man pushed him to try super-heroing, and he liked it. But when the media dub him the Gold Goblin, he has to start wondering— can he ever get away from the Goblin inside?

THE GOOD

I’ve been extremely critical of Spider-Man books as of late, finding little joy or redeeming qualities in reading them. Their depictions of Spider-Man and his supporting cast are generally erratic at best. I’ve publicly sought out recent SpiderMan reading recommendations and came up wanting. Gold Goblin #1 is a remarkable improvement on the Spider-Verse family of characters. The writing and the visuals are excellent as is Norman’s new role as a haunted hero in the Marvel Universe. The dialogue is sharp, the visuals are stunning and the ghosts that haunt

Norman are both terrifying and deserving. I love the way Norman is written throughout the issue and, quite honestly, Peter Parker is in this book for roughly two pages and I enjoyed those pages better than most whole issues I’ve read lately.

THE BAD

I think we can all agree that this isn’t going to end well for Norman Osborn, most likely with a different hero inheriting the title of Gold Goblin. As much as I enjoyed this issue and I’m sure I’m going to enjoy this series in the hands of this creative team, the whole redemption angle is something we’ve seen quite

a bit of. I expect this series to end with Norman back as the Green Goblin but I’m enjoying it while I can. It’s hard to believe that this book is written and drawn better than most Spider-Man books currently on the shelf.

Writer: Christopher Cantwell | Artist: Lan Medina | Colorist: Antonio Fabela

BLOODSHOT UNLEASHED #1

Readers title that puts the blood in Bloodshot.

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

Dangerous super soldiers and bloodthirsty living weapons have mysteriously escaped into the world to wreak havoc across the dying towns and forgotten farms of America. Now, Bloodshot must take up arms again to travel across the country hunting down these violent monsters, battling his own demons, and defending the most defenseless. Deniz Camp (Agent of W.O.R.L.D.E.) and Jon Davis-Hunt (Shadowman) join forces to unleash Valiant Entertainment’s first Mature

I normally don’t enjoy stories that bounce back and forth non-linearly jumping from “now” to “then” and back again. Bloodshot #1 is a rare exception to my well documented dislike of non-linear storytelling. The original Bloodshot run will always hold a special place in my mind but if this issue is any indication of the quality of the series we’re getting then count me in! Setting Bloodshot on a path to hunt down other government created mercenaries is a clever take on the story. The art by Davis-Hunt was perfectly rendered and the dialogue was snappy and well written.

THE BAD

I’m somewhat familiar with Bloodshot and admittedly was a little confused by the changes that were made to the origin of the character but the issue eased the reader into it

surprisingly well. I’m assuming that this series is serving as a soft reboot of some kind which, as a long time fan, disappointed me a little but I can absolutely understand the choice to do so. Valiant dove head first into the Mature Content pool with Bloodshot #1. Every other page has massive amounts of blood reminiscent of a Troma film. My largest issue with this book is that it seems like an ultra violent version of Stitch rounding up other experiments or Pikachu and Ash traveling the globe collecting them all. It is definitely a run concept but may get formulaic and played out quickly. Regardless, I’m down for more Bloodshot.

Writer: Deniz Camp | Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt | Colorist: Jordie Bellaire

ONCE UPON A TIME AT THE END OF THE WORLD #1

Bastards) launches his most ambitious creator-owned series to date with the first of three unique artistic partners - Eisner-winning artist Alexandre Tefenkgi (The Good Asian) - to take on a vision of the end of the world that’s brutal and nostalgic, whimsical and grounded... and ultimately, timeless

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

In this epic post-apocalyptic tale, Maceo and Mezzy have never met anyone like each other, and they’ll need all the help they can get to survive a planet ravaged by environmental catastrophe. This epic trilogy-each issue overflowing with 30 story pages-spans a lifetime as philosophical differences tear at the threads holding Maceo and Mezzy together. Will they, and the earth beneath their feet, ultimately be torn apart? New York Times bestselling, Eisner and Harvey Award-winning, and Marvel flagship writer Jason Aaron (Thor, The Avengers, Southern

Falling in love with a romance story set at the end of all things was not something I expected to do when I picked up this book but I did and I regret nothing! Our two protagonists could not be more different and both the narration and dialogue give the readers a clear understanding, while leaving a great deal of mystery, of who they are. Without giving too much away, the prologue of this issue gives us a glimpse into the future, revealing that Mace and Mezzy (at least Mace is confirmed alive) are alive but certainly not well. Not to sound too cliche but this is definitely one of those situations where it seems like the journey will be twice as fun as getting to the destination. Unlike a lot of other post-apocalyptic stories that focus on the setting and how the world got that way, this book focuses on what matters most, its characters.

The art throughout the issue was stunning by Tefenkgi, soft edges and simple designs on the characters while the setting is ragged and edgy. I have a whole lot of questions after reading this issue and can’t wait to get some answers.

THE BAD

A few years ago the comic industry was deluged with zombie books. Now it seems like every month or so a new post-apocalyptic set book hits the shelves. If you’re looking for something new, you may want to skip this title. The characters are interesting but lack the depth you might expect from a character driven book like this. Aaron did a lot in a single issue. He built a cold and distant world for our apocalyptic romance to take place. I personally enjoyed the story, the art and the coloring but I’m sure there will be issues with the last few pages of the prologue. The art and tone by Dragotta and Renzi differed greatly from the rest of the book. I can see the reasoning behind it, to set a darker, bleaker tone, but I can also see why some may not care for it. All in all, a fun teenage post-apocalyptic romance that was enjoyable from start to finish.

Writer: Jason Aaron | Artist: Alexander Tefenkgi and Nick Dragotta | Colorist: Lee Loughridge and Rico Renzi

BLADE: VAMPIRE NATION #1

what’s it about?

A deep dive into Dracula’s new kingdom as established in Avengers. Starring Blade, the sheriff of Vampire Nation! An assassination threatens to unravel the fledgling country and spread chaos throughout the world. But is getting rid of a nation full of bloodsuckers really all that bad of an idea? Blade himself isn’t too sure...

THE GOOD

Dracula has established a nation in the ruins of Chernobyl and the surrounding area for the vampires

of the world with Blade working for him. Blade and Dracula both want to see this new nation succeed. Blade working for/with Dracula is an interesting concept made more interesting by this issue by and large being a murder mystery. Blade doesn’t slash and punch anyone throughout the issue but still manages to be at his best. I’m out of the loop with the current Avengers run and haven’t read much with Blade as of late but if this is the character I’ve missed out on, I need to get back into it. I’m extremely interested in seeing the Blade/ Dracula dynamic play out and see what schemes lie in the dark heart of Dracula. Russell and Wachter made an amazing team. I wasn’t expecting much from this book but absolutely enjoyed it.

THE BAD

Whatever you think of this book you definitely have to give credit to Marvel for making Dracula, a potentially one dimensional character, into someone you’re intrigued by. I’m sure it was established within the pages of the Avengers book but I was a tad perplexed by Blade working for

Dracula and protecting a nation run by vampires that openly is turning humans and hunting them. I’m admittedly more familiar with Blade in most media outside of the comics so I unwittingly read Blade’s lines in Wesley Snipes voice. Nothing about this book was bad per se but as every grievance I can make can easily be dismissed by my lack of knowledge of the material that precipitated this series. Blade: Vampire Nation is a great book, worthy of the Day Walker.

Writer: Mark Russell | Artist: Dave Wachter | Colorist: Dee Cunniffe

FANTASTIC FOUR #1

what’s it about?

It’s the start of a new era for the Fantastic Four...and they’re already in a ton of trouble. Something has gone terribly wrong in New York, and the Thing and Alicia are traveling across America to escape it! But when they stop in a small town for the night and wake up the morning before they arrived, they find themselves caught in a time loop that’s been going on since before they were born...That’s been going on since before they were born...That’s been going on since before they were born...

THE GOOD Move over ‘Groundhogs Day.’ Take a seat ‘Edge of Tomorrow.’ There’s a new live, sleep, repeat story in town. Fantastic Four #1 gives us a fun, entertaining and character driven story focusing on the Thing and Alicia Masters. Coello’s art and page layouts are wonderfully rendered, especially the pages that deal with the Thing repeating day after day. What makes this issue a stand out one for me is that Ben and Alicia were able to save the day by using their hearts and minds not guns and fists. Alicia was written wonderfully as well. Their romance and devotion

was on full display throughout the entirety of the issue. North’s writing was spot on. The Thing may be a ton of rock but North’s dialogue made him so incredibly human.

THE BAD

In the forty years I’ve been reading comics I would never call myself a fan of the Fantastic Four. When Marvel published the Life Story series with the Fantastic Four it ignited my interest in Marvel’s First Family. It’s great to see the Fantastic Four comics return to what they do best, telling fun and fantastical stories. The only thing that makes this issue feel somewhat incomplete, for newer readers especially, is the absence of the remaining three

quarters of the Fantastic Four. Other than a panel where Ben reflects back on Sue, Johnny and Reed and an occasional reference, the other members of the Fantastic Four sit this issue out. However, the issue does end with a mindblowing final page that addresses their absence. I’m definitely hook for more Fantastic Four.

Writer: Ryan North | Artist: Iban Coello | Colorist: Jesus Aburtov

DR. STRANGE: FALL SUNRISE

what’s it about?

From the mind of Tradd Moore! Doctor Strange awakens alone in a distant world not his own. Lost of purpose and surrounded by danger, the wandering sorcerer must explore this land of blades and mystery to unravel arcane secrets and escape the deadly horrors that lie in wait!

From the fantastical mind of creator Tradd Moore comes a Strange story like you’ve never seen!

the good

Silver Surfer: Black was an imaginative and modern take on comic book art. Tradd Moore brings that creative styling to the Sorcerer Supreme. Moore’s work is fluid and creative. The abstract alien world that Strange emerges in is bright and

alluring. This is definitely a book that any aspiring artist would want to study before entering the field, from the imaginative story arc broken into three chapters to the clever panel layouts. This is a beautiful book that takes Dr. Strange on a warped voyage through an amazing world. The final pages give us a well laid out action sequence pitting Strange against several unknown armored assailants.

the BAD As I said, this is certainly not your typical comic book. The abstract art style, minimalist character designs

and limited dialogue might be hard for some to enjoy. This is one of those books that will age well with time. The plot of this issue was a little light and at times confusing but it really doesn’t matter. I feel like this is an art house film that I’m afraid to say I didn’t understand as the people around me praise its brilliance. Truthfully, I understood little of the plot, that may be more on me than it is on Moore, but I certainly enjoyed the visuals and the risks Tradd and Heather Moore and Marvel took with this series.

Writer: Tradd Moore | Artist: Tradd Moore | Colorist: Heather Moore

what’s it about?

Desperate to make enough money to go to Scotland and kill herself after not getting into her dream college, Brenda Zelinski has just agreed to take a babysitting job for Elsie Baker, a 134-year-old vampire in the body of a 9-year-old girl. Sick of being unable to go out and about without being hassled by adults, Elsie pays her “babysitter” to take her to the local mall so she can get some shopping done without being reported lost by security. What begins as a lighthearted night shopping for CDs and Chia Pets, turns into a night neither will ever forget. Will Elsie be able to convince Brenda she shouldn’t end her life? Will Brenda’s bully have the

SHE BITES #2

last laugh? What outfits will they buy in the obligatory friendship shopping montage?

THE GOOD

This is the only series in recent memory that has made me literally laugh out loud. I’ll make the occasional chuckle and break a smile every now and then but hardly do I guffaw as I did when reading She Bites #2. Herndandez R.’s  art is so kinetic and exciting. The art blends perfectly with Hale’s witty writing style. This is a book that as I read it can’t help but visualize as a live action movie or tv show. I hope to read in the trades that She Bites was optioned for a tv show in the near future. I enjoy a great deal of content coming out of Scout Comics but this is by far my favorite.

THE BAD

It’s hard to get behind a book that is published with such substantial gaps. Issue one came out roughly four months before issue two. I enjoyed this book thoroughly and recommended it to others, some of whom, like myself, pre-ordered the second issue. Both they and I were displeased by the publication gap.

Actually, that’s a bit of exaggeration on my part as I had completely forgotten about the series until issue two was included in my pull list and then I was reminded that I was displeased. I’ll have to do some digging into the cause of the delay but it’s delays like that kills the momentum and interest in a series like this which would be a complete shame.

Writer: Hedwig Hale  | Artist: Alberto Hernandez R.  | Colorist: Alberto Hernandez R.

what’s it about?

The Creep scares up two all-new standalone stories in this starstudded anthology based on the hit Shudder TV series. David & Maria Lapham terrify with the tale of a tree whose roots grew so deep they reached Hell...and the girl who sat beneath it. Steve Foxe shares the shocking story of legendary comic creator Sal Medina-and the dedicated fan who went too far.

THE GOOD

The comic book industry looks like the 1950s all over again! Horror comics are in demand and Creepshow is back on the shelves. Creepshow #2 delivers two tales of woe and suspense. One (Creator’s Rites) more suspenseful than the other but still creepy nonetheless. The stories themselves have vastly different art and tonal differences. If you’re a fan of the new Creepshow series on Shudder or the classic series you’re going to enjoy this issue.

THE BAD

Creepshow is a hot book right now and deservingly so. It’s a mix of old school horror combined with a

CREEPSHOW #2

modern theme. The second meta story dealing with an elederly creator deprived of his intellectual property was well written. It speaks to what so many creators are going through however, there’s a bit that mentions the creator actually was fully compensated for his work and he’s simply not aware of it, that doesn’t sit right considering so many creators are not compensated appropriately when their creations are used in media outside of comics. The first story “The Gorgahmorahh

Tree” is more in line with the classic Creepshow stories of old, full of mystery and terrible people you want to receive their comeuppance but lacked the message that most of these stories carry. All in all, a fun issue but nothing revolutionary.

Writer: David Lapham & Maria Lapham and Steve Foxe | Artist: David Lapham and Erica Henderson Colorist: Trish Mulvihill and Erica Henderson

DOOR TO DOOR, NIGHT BY NIGHT

closets so full of skeletons, they’re bursting. When they discover a terrible secret behind one fateful door, it opens their eyes to a world full of real monsters hidden in every small town.

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

From all-star creators Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, The Last Book You’ll Ever Read) and Sally Cantirino (I Walk With Monsters, Human Remains) comes the story of a motley crew going to battle against supernatural evil throughout the American South. Perfect for fans of “The Boys,” “B.P.R.D.” and “Proctor Valley Road.” The Heritage Mills sales team travels from town to town, knocking on doors. They’re the best at what they do... which also means they’re the worst. They’re broken, each and every one of them, haunted by

A rag-tag bunch of unlikely, unsuspecting heroes arise in this tale that blends the supernatural and sympathetic in a wonderful tale sure to entertain. Cullen writes a wonderful tale that is complimented by the edgy art style of Sally Cantirino. The concept of down on their luck, door to door salesman going town to town hunting paranormal threats is surprisingly fun and interesting. Cantirino art is solid and able to establish a scene with a character’s glance sans any dialogue. Later in the book the art, focusing on horror, is offset by Cullen’s dialogue, which is both absurd and humorous.

THE BAD

With so many characters introduced within a single issue it was inevitable that, despite attempting to find a voice for each, we would get characters that are by and large one dimensional. The preacher and

former high school biology teachers that act stereotypically throughout the book was a bit of a distraction from an otherwise solid first outing. The only flaw of the book lies in the lack of character development that focuses on Max (and to a lesser extend Fred) and dismisses the remainder of the ensemble.

Writer: Cullen Bunn  | Artist: Sally Cantirino   | Colorist: Dee Cunniffe

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