Ian Kahn, Nick Westrate, Heather Lind, Craig Silverstein & Barry Josephson On The Final Season Of "T

[Music] sir I just want the chance to fight real murder shut up deserve to know the truth the colonies to the brink of destruction fire turn Washington spy I really enjoy the shows guys I'm really enjoying it I want to talk about the concept for the series how it began so Craig and Barry if you guys want to sound off on that okay based on a book by Alexander Rose they did amazing research for and we were very fortunate to be able to option it and Craig came along and created the series based on that book so where did you guys want to take obviously the book is its own form how do you guys want to turn into a series what was the concept behind that well it was all centered around the the culper ring which was you know this which is this team of spies they were all childhood friends who grew up and so they're a team they've got missions they've got an enemy and so these are things that that we recognize you know and we know how to we know how to TV that you know but then it was just the the exotic time period and all that stuff and that's really what made it and what was great about the book is it was an unknown story and I think that was one of Craig's original like impetus is to want to do it because nobody really knew what happened after Nathan Hale and how this Cobra ring formed Ben Tallmadge was a childhood friend a Yale friend of Nathan Hales and so it's sort of like builds from there and these were all truly you know it started with a group of four friends I mean we know a lot about that era but we also don't I mean what you guys do as far as research and then how much did you want to dramatize it well Alex's book really was the Bible and then everything dramatic was to to take some of the tensions that were happening at the time and put them into some of the characters like Abe for example Abe in real life got married after the war and his father was a patriot but for us to make his father you know a loyal loyalist a natori was a better metaphor for what was actually going on at the time about a family getting torn apart which what the Revolution really felt like as opposed to you know colonists pushing off oppressors who they didn't know they all felt like they were Englishmen trying to find themselves to something else yeah and I want to talk to you actors I mean obviously this is a crucial point in our country these are our founding fathers it's not to be taken too lately you know so what kind of research is due and what you think of it the script I'll start with Nik and then we go to an and up together well I I read Alexander roses book which is our Bible and I'm lucky because my dad's a history teacher so whenever I wanted to cheat I would just call him on the phone do your papers for you is he do any proof he proof read all my papers I actually joined this area's a little late so I had a lot of catch-up to do with the rest of these amazing people but Alex Alexander's book made it easy about you I mean obviously George Washington he's a pivotal figure in our history so would you think about taking on that role well you know at the time when I first started out with playing playing the role a when I first didn't I didn't quite hit me until you know I got the job one after I had auditioned I was I call it supports a role and then the the further I got into the experience of understanding truly who this man was beyond sort of just the grumpy man who I always imagined on the dollar bill who always looked like he was a disapproving dad as opposed to who he really was which was an amazingly charismatic figure who was by no means perfect but who really set the tone for this country and we can look at the choices that were made back then and see how we benefit from them even to today so it was it's been a wonderful experience of learning while having the honor of playing the role it's a bit of a challenge for you because you also start off playing a little bit on your heels you know they're driving you back and then you start to get your force back coming into this season I mean what was it like sort of play that transition of George Washington where he's you know trying to figure out how they're going to survive and then he's how we going to take over well this season was remarkable in so many ways we start off exactly where we ended the end of season three words Benedict Arnold has made the turn against General Washington in the Continental Army and the culper ring is sort of I was think of them now as sort of matured and ready to step in to to do the most important spy work that ends up helping the Continental Army to to win this war and Craig put it you know in an interview I saw recently where he was like the seasons about the darkness before the dawn and we all know that the dawn is quite bright you know that Yorktown is coming but the way that we got there is going to be I think surprising and satisfying for the audience over the course of this season and Heather playing and a strong you know maybe it's a bit of a shame we don't know as much as we should know about her she did so many amazing things for our country tell me a little about the research yeah I didn't have much information about her before we started there isn't much information about her there's a lot of speculation even Alex speculated she was involved in this firing in a big way but women weren't celebrated and that I mean spies weren't celebrated in that way if they were really good at what they were doing so I looked at some poetry from the time period I looked at paintings I looked at I was sort of focusing more toward the cultural domestic side of what life might have been like in that time just learning about simple things like how they did laundry and how they did dishes and what they ate and drank because I just knew that Anna's life was really amazed and apply to the more human universal experience of being alive in that century what can you explain one of those details that you took from that research and you put into the character yeah I mean in the very first episode of the entire series Anna is described as beating a laundry stick against a rock and I think in the first sex for a second take of the pilot I got a blister a blood blister all the way down my hand doing your work yeah yeah they would just wash these huge felt clothing and they would lay them on a rock and they would beat it with a stick to dry it off and I mean in a corset you know backwards and in heels that's really what it is huh yeah it's pretty badass I like that yeah and for the guys who uh for Nick and Heather you who you play spies I mean what was it like learning about that spy culture and sort of the break of what we were you know spy technology today it's it's all phones and blackberries and that sort of thing in that back then it was actual invisible ink it was actually like rolled-up things you could only see if you scrubbed with a potato or something like that I mean what was it like doing that research it was exciting I had to go off what Heather was just saying my character Robert Townsend no one found out he was even involved with the culper ring until the 1930s so it was a very very good spy and no one even knew what he looked like so other than Alexander's book it's hard to find a lot of information on him but it was great the invisible ink and all the spy craft we had was made by our incredible art department and props department on the show and you're going to see in the first episode premiering on Saturday I actually get to play with that stuff a lot so it was it was fun I got to I actually had to practice a lot of penmanship because they would surprise me with surprise we won't realize it but we don't really write that often these days back then they were actually had to do that for the correspondence yeah and I thought it was gonna get away with it because it was invisible ink but then when someone walks in the room you have to switch back to the normal ink and then the cameras gonna catch you writing so I had to work on that a bit have either yeah just the the fact that all the spy work that was happening was interpersonal it was you you were you weren't sending an anonymous tweet you were lying to someone's face you were putting someone at risk just by being near you and I think I think as a playing a woman from that period I had a unique perspective on how spying took place in a tavern it took place walking down the street at any time you got information you became a vessel for the for the delivery of that information to win the cause so there was a lot of spying in plain sight my character through the entire series is just listening in plain sight and the less he's noticed the better but he ran a very you know popular establishment in New York City and he was a public figure whoever when to his name and knew what he did and so that was the riskiest part about it and that's one of the great things about the show is that you know everyone knows George Washington everyone knows Benedict Arnold but these characters of Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend and Anna strong these are the people who actually would with Caleb Brewster without them there is no United States of America because as you know I've often thought this is like if it's were baseball we were going to be swept by the British Army so we needed to use guerrilla warfare and to have you know he's like what is Robert Townsend look like that guy right there that's that's what it looks like I mean because he is Robert Townsend and these this culper ring the exploration oh it's Washington's spies it's about this spy ring sort of and how they helped save this country and it's one of the most exciting things about our show it's amazing your average bar owner or your average wife or your average servant change the course of American history forever and that's why I love that Craig and Barry created it in bearing Craig I mean we've heard a little bit about this next season why don't you guys talk a little bit about how you decide to round out the series because you're going into this is the final season so everybody should catch up and dial into the season but tell us a little bit about how you wanted to round it out well we all know that merica won the war but we don't necessarily know where all these characters ended up and and where they ended up was surprising and it's very emotional it's a very emotional ending as you guys haven't seen it yet but I could tell you again you're getting choked up I can feel it yeah and I was also saying goodbye to you know all the characters as well and but leading up to that we have some of the most exciting spying some of the biggest battles we've ever you know put on screen and and not just york times those are the big ones and we've got some really great spy stuff that we weren't able to do in the previous seasons you know Robert Townsend was one of the biggest earliest signal sabotage incidents in espionage history in this season and so there's that and then there's some surprising some phases might be coming back some surprises door of characters you might think are gone so and all the darkest before the dawn stuff is all right yeah use that didn't oh my dark yeah and I think people people who haven't seen the series don't realize how taught a thriller it really is and that plays out a lot in this season because the show really is a thriller and it's very suspenseful you don't know which way it's going to go and Washington put a lot of pressure on Tallmadge to increase and dial up the information from the spies so they were even more put upon and you really feel that this season you really do how was it like to show to shoot those bigger scale battle scenes he has described that a little bit it was great we went to we go to the real York town to shoot and we had some you know we learned from some of the battles that we've done in the past just how to do it better and our directors who have been with us this time like really know and the crew really knows how to get it done now and so it's really exciting I mean Nick was talking a little bit about history class but I feel like we don't really remember how much you know New York City itself was a stronghold for the British I mean I feel like I was watching this series I was being reminded that fact is like right this was a battleground right here I mean was the most insane fact that you saw or saw in the script or through the research you you want to share I remember reading might have been in Alex's book probably was but I live in Brooklyn and I remember reading that there was one night where they were waiting to fight can't remember which battle it was was early on in the war and the English were posted in New York City and the Patriots were the Americans were in Jersey I think and they were they were just looking at each other basically across the East River is that right yeah yeah or you know you know one of the rivers of can remember but anyway was they could see each other and they could see the bombs going off and they weren't fighting they were waiting for something and I just I like to think about that whenever I take like the F train or the queue and I'm like it's so surreal about you guys anything that you heard you were blown away by I think I was most surprised by you know growing up watching reading history going history cuz I always liked history but the Revolutionary War era was always confusing to me because it was like core all these guys they all were and we were clothes and their hair is all I don't get it I got whatever let's get to the Civil War but what I didn't realize was how lucky we are to have a country like how completely we shouldn't even have this place like we were gonna lose this war and all of these people that we now celebrate would have been hung for it we would have been treasonist we would have been you know what I call Owen Owen who I was on the phone with last night and I I just call him a treasonous you know what because he you know is as Benedict Arnold but that's got he's not here right well not no no I was were here but but but that's what we would have been had you know the Victor writes writes the history and I just didn't realize how close we were to not having a country at all and then in today's world in America where we're battle each other all the time that we should be a little bit more grateful about the world that we have and take better care of it and that's that's new information at least for me yeah I think the Benedict Arnold stuff really surprised me his defection how suspenseful it was when we got to the point to write it last season was like wow really it was it was that down to the wire and a lot of things I think you know some people could assume that we made up for TV like you know we didn't and then like this season the idea that Simcoe you know who is the scariest guy on our show and Benedict Arnold team-up is the thing that you would expect a TV show to do but they really did they teamed up they became part of the same unit and so that superhero movie it was like the gift that keeps on giving you know we're like oh they did this okay we'll do it one of the most surprising things to me I researched my character is a Quaker and so I researched a lot about Quakerism and the influence that the book common sense and that in Quaker thinkers and writers at the time had in the war starting in shaping thought around America towards the revolution and then they were really serious about it because they were a persecuted religious minority and just thinking about today in today's culture and all the conversation we have around that that these that this group of people was a persecuted religious minority who put everything who were pacifists who put everything on the line in support of this you know revolution is incredible to me it's just it's so modern and so relevant and you mentioned a little bit about the wigs and the Wardrobe me what was like the dawn on the George Washington garb it did it did a lot of the work for me a lot of time at the beginning of every season I guess it was probably like a month before we were stuff like doing this every once awhile in life no but but about a month before we would go back I would turn to my wife and I go I don't know how the hell I'm gonna pull this off like how am I gonna do George wood this is not gonna work like I'm not gonna buy this and then I would get into the makeup trailer and artists would put on my wig and Ashley would do the you know the little pock marks on my face and then I would put on the costume I was like all right well there it is like that's all I got to do I stand in a room you got to stand in the room and and just listen so it was it was actually true I will miss it I'm very grateful to the producers for you know letting us keep certain pieces that I can what you take come on uh I got the I think you know very well no no they got the Cape which makes me very happy because I have this great picture when I came home to the Cape and the hat in the wig so I've got the wig like in a corner of the room and my two sons when I first got home they put on the Cape in the Hat and I got great pictures of them pretending so it's it's really quite it was a sad Melbourne one seein to come there very often okay he is the president right now I like it Halloween's gonna be really fun this year yeah and Nick how about you did you I was the whole time like I'm not gonna miss the wig at all no comments it's like the only show on TV where the guys have to spend more time in the hair trailer than the women right um no I'm not I'm not gonna miss the way no but what you'll take did you take stuff I I got I have the the chair from Townsend's bedroom have the rug from Townsend's bedroom I have some guys guys just took loads of stuff correct your decorating is like anyone I'm talking about it yeah it's like a museum is an online auction right now to buy every asset from the show I'm not kidding you can look it up attorney want you to spies online assets okay awesome Heather how about you how is it I got the corset it's in my house I'll probably never wear it again but I have it to burn in case no though the Wardrobe for me was I was fantastic but yeah it's true I would sit in the makeup chair and watch them go through hours of glue and alcohol and I just had it you know my hair brushed out and put in a bun yeah but I suffered I suffered plenty they know that was it surreal to be hanging out in the wardrobe like going to craft services and be wearing yeah the best that's when you'd see a lot of the background actors and the period costumes waiting because they'd sit in kind of a circle of of metal chairs and it kind of looked like a colonial a a meeting I was my favorite lots of people wearing red coats and texting you know very incongruent images I mean the locations look so fantastic you guys speak a little bit about finding those location you chose a lot in Virginia right we shot all in Virginia yeah Richmond and around there Petersburg was New York City for us Williamsburg was Philadelphia and then some other places around for London we go back to this year and like I said we go to Yorktown this year so Virginia really had in about an hour outside of Petersburg I mean our Richmond and everywhere around there all the stuff that that we needed it's very good clinic place we gave great productions honor Caroline Hannah Nia who just put together exactly what the period looked like and we would be able to you know do certain things in Petersburg and some of these towns that still had the cobblestone streets and so on then we just made this decision which town would be which city we were trying for so Petersburg for example was York City early New York lots of assets there and you know the actors made great sacrifices we would work you know October November December into February and it was freezing cold and sometimes they're standing there poor period wardrobe with 21 degrees doing scenes you know a lot of exposure for everybody you know this is a great challenge I never had to do any of that because we just I bar hospice so I everyone on the cast hated me because they would all be cold and muddy and I would be completely warm and fine well there's a couple of great cast members that aren't here any agreement says you want to air with them anything want to say out of the camera lay it out I should have brought the list I mean we Belle with Jamie wearing a suit right now yeah we love and miss them all and so it's nice because especially when you're doing something out of town and where none of us are from Richmond so you get a kind of family feel because we're the ones that we hang out with and go to the movies with and watch the Super Bowl with you know it's it's nice and it's been a fun family to be a part of for the last few years you guys stayed in touch it all with the rest of the cast now that the show is coming out and talking about it yeah it spoke to yeah I mean we Dan Hentschel senses love to everyone from Australia yeah Skype them in you know we should one thing I want to say is how how how grateful we are to finish this to have an experience you know television is different these days than it was when you know in the 80s and the 90s where it was going to be on television at 9:00 p.m. and if you didn't see it at 9:00 p.m. you're never going to see it or maybe you're going to VCR it but with with what we've just done we've just put 40 episodes of television that eventually the first three seasons are already on Netflix and it's going to live forever so every day someone's going to press play on the first episode and start the journey of this experience and we've all given so much of our heart our and every bit of our spirit to this and to know that it's going to live forever it's it's something that speaking personally I think for all of us to that how grateful we are to AMC for letting us get to the end of this experience it's a success we we have we have we have finished this war and we have told a story and for all audience members who have not yet climbed aboard you will have that chance and have this long ride and it's something that you will absolutely enjoy there's nothing better than binge watching a show and then gain to be a part of the actual finale that's or highly recommended everybody so we have some questions out in the audience where I get to hello so I'm a really big fan of the show I'm really excited for the final season as a cast or individually was there like a most challenging senior episode for you guys to film and why was that I think the turtle was really challenging to shoot on stage in the water we found somebody who had a practical one I don't know if you do you remember that episode where Caleb Brewster yeah is travelling that that that was a real major challenge the battle scenes that Craig sort of created for the show and supervised how they would be orchestrated those were you know a great challenge and I I think actually there were so many things even just in Setauket village where you know like I said about you know I always remember that scene with you and Heather with yeah you and Meegan in the first season like 22 degrees it was and felt much colder and they're having to do a very dramatic scene amongst each other I think the challenge of just you know cold weather and dealing with that and it sort of was reminiscent I think you know it made us all think about Valley Forge and what the sacrifices were for Washington and the troops and just how hard it was you got to sort of experience that a little bit in shooting the show what were the challenges especially back in the period living in tents and being so exposed on a much lighter note of something that was challenging one of my first episodes on the show Jamie Bell and I had to play very long game of checkers while talking to each other these really long speeches and his scene is very complicated between the two of us but also requires us to make certain checkers moves at certain times which was took a lot it was Kate Denis who choreographed it so it was a kind of a dual concentration that was very I found very challenging it's like 22 degree weather right 22 degree what I had I had a very challenging episode which was valid the Valley Forge episode where General Washington goes you know so interesting they chose instead of doing the whole Valley Forge was the hardest one of the many many hard parts of the war and one of the things the writers that Craig and the writers decided to do was sort of sum up the experience of that through the mind of George Washington so we actually see George Washington have a nervous breakdown on screen and that was challenging not just in the doing of it but also in getting to a vulnerable place and showing this other side of this man that we all think we know so so well that was definitely the the most challenging one even to this day about creating a season is that the most challenging I think yeah the first season was that once we once we I felt we cracked the code in the second season when there's just so many different ways to go with the show and this time people we just don't put this period on TV that often and the second season when we really buckled down and said this is a spy show first and foremost and we let the period come into the prism of that is to me that it was it was it was not easy I mean was it was became easy to crack it production-wise it was anything to do with the water anything on water hotel yeah water was hard water was hurt I didn't have to do a lot of that I think I had an amazing stunt woman who did most of it for me you jumped it did you jump in the water i iced we can we see g'd your facial I was really doing I think it was a most transition okay next question hi guys how are you um I was wondering if you could meet any historical figure in the show who would it be and why I would meet George Washington they tried why wait um why um I would I would I feel like I've been living with a man for four years Meryl Streep said when she was playing Margaret Thatcher she said that she when you play a real person what you should do is sort of ask that person to come halfway down to you and then spend your time going halfway up to that person and so that's what I tried to do every day and I'd like to just sit with him and say you good with what I did you know you good with it and also say good job overall not a perfect person by any means made choices that even to today we can look at and judge rightfully judge in regards to slavery though there was growth in that through the later part of his life so he was a very complex and interesting and imperfect man but also a great human being and without him were not here for me it used to be reading I read so much about Talmadge before this and during it and had always thought God if I could meet him and understand you know sort of who he was and how close to Washington or you know just the conduit of all this but as you know we sort of progressed there was like I had a fascination for you know the ring and you know wanting to meet any one of them and understand how they kept the secrets with their families and you know kids after that and talk about things outside of the show would have been a fascinating thing and I remember in Alex's book reading Craig and I talked about this a lot reading aid would holes letter to Washington about wanting to be paid back for the sacrifice of the spying you know not being able to pull in crops and so on I felt like my god it takes balls to be able to write a letter to General Washington wanting to get recompense you know to be paid back for that I just thought god I'd really like to have met him all of them you know and understand what that friendship meant you know to them how they kept that bond for so long it's a really interesting thing that we explore this season two is recompense and what that means to each of them in closing out this story how it gets you know we've already seen a bit of how it's gotten Benedict Arnold into trouble but we see how each of them deal with what have I sacrificed and what should I get back for it front for it so yeah that's really interesting Barry for me would be Benedict Arnold I was really fascinated by you know this guy who was so respected and admired and get reviled at the same time and as much as he was respected he just didn't see it and he he became somebody I really didn't know anything about honestly beforehand except for you know it was a huge trader he was so getting into him and getting into the research he was so complex and so human and I kept wondering the same way that you know Ian says like you know did did I get it right we're like you know are we getting this right was he you know is he obnoxious enough is he hurt enough are we showing all the right things and I just kept wondering what it would be like to meet him and look at his face Oh was brilliant yeah Owen I just want to say I mean I the work he did this season I you know traitorous dig but he he really he was so much who so much leaned on him this season and you know he with the world the way it is he's a very good indication of power and what power can do to somebody and how it can destroy them and he just did amazing work he's a wonderful actor and a great man and I you know I want to tip my hat to him absolutely okay we have time for one more question right there I so I was just wondering what each of your what you'll each miss most about the series now that it's come to a conclusion the cast me to same cast is the best cast low play I've worked with I've said that before it's not like what we were you know they know they know I've said that you know and it's not just the talent and that the the way that everybody you know was distinct from from one another but it was you know you're asking about like the grievances like it's crazy it everybody got along and that was that's rare it just is and that was also a great gift they had meals together they were friends they lived in Richmond together they rehearsed together in I really sense this great bond between the whole cast and for Craig and I it was great pleasure you know just being social and you know looking at looking at you know Heather often would start a text string and we'd all respond and it was great I mean it just I'm gonna miss that a lot I had this really great family there for four years at the same yeah yeah the people really were incredible I mean I think I also will miss the it's really unusual to get to work with such a deep rich context underneath you I mean I think maybe actors get to do that in theater slightly more often than you guys want have backgrounds in theater so that's something right now so I think I'll miss I mean I think I'll speak for myself but I think of acting in some ways sometimes is like a service profession if you think about it if you try to give homage to the people you're playing or the imaginary people you're playing but to get to play a real person who didn't ever get celebrated is just very moving to me and feels like it it links me to a history of people that that I'm that I'm proud to be a product of yeah it's it's it was really reciprocal I mean I'd never worked on a show like this Craig put together a brilliant writing staff and and each member the staff was so committed to something historical that a story they wanted to tell something they wanted to do with each character and as seasons went by you know they'd be excited about the history would be excited about the portrayals of everybody everybody was so passionate about coming to the show it's great it was just great experience that way it's also not just the regular cast but we have an incredible guest cast on the show and I because I my character runs this bar I get all these guest actors coming through I get to work with John Billingsley and John Carroll Lynch and Johnny Coyne lots of people named John and we have other great people like Aldous Hodge who comes on the show and Steven root incredible actors that we get that get to come through and we just get to visit maybe tina banco this season that we get to take out for dinner - dinner for maybe one night after work but um it's this incredible ensemble from New York and Los Angeles and London and Canada it's this real in Australia this real international group of people working together to tell the story it's really incredible well I can't wait for everybody to see how this all play plays out on on turn AMC on Saturdays right tuning guys yeah I took it out thanks so much for being here so thanks for having me [Applause] [Music]

Channel: BUILD Series

Views: 31,158

Rating: 4.9322033 out of 5

Keywords: Turn: Washington Spies, Jamie Bell, Ian Kahn, Nick Westrate, Heather Lind, Craig Silverstein, Barry Joesphson, TV, TV Show, AMC, Series, AOL Advertising, BUILDseriesNYC, AOL Inc, AOL, AOLBUILD, #Aolbuild, build speaker series, build, aol build, content, aolbuildlive, BUILDSeriesNYC

Id: KSFfcDYA3as

Length: 32min 6sec (1926 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 15 2017