Q&A with cast/creators of AMC's Turn: Washington's Spies

you all right everybody okay so let me introduce to you who is up here on stage with me to my immediate left is Craig Silverstein the executive producer and the showrunner here of turn he began his writing career on Syfy's invisible man in USA is the dead zone and since then has worked on numerous television series most recently he created an executive produced The CW series Nikita and was a co-creator and executive producer on the Steven Spielberg produced dinosaur drama terranova in previously worked with 20th Century Fox television on a number of series including bones speaking of bones to his left is Barry Josephson who is also an executive producer on turn his television credits include the EP executive producer on bones I guess every episode of Bones ever made he's also a producer in both film and television recent film credits include Enchanted aliens the Attic life as we know it earlier he was the senior vice president for production for Columbia and Sony Pictures so some movies you may have heard of he's responsible for like men in black Air Force One in the line of fire the Fifth Element anaconda I wasn't gonna mention that but bad boys yeah it doesn't have wild wild west on here for whatever reason but it and now Jamie Bell who plays Abel hood would hole on the on the show turn you may know him as a when he's a teenager he shot the worldwide fame as the title role in Billy Elliot he received many honors for his performance including a BAFTA Award for Best Actor and the British Independent Film Award for Best Newcomer he also has many film credits under his belt including Clint Eastwood's acclaimed Flags of Our Fathers Peter Jackson's epic King Kong and doubly Doug Liman jumper and he will see him very soon as Ben Grimm and the Fantastic Four count which will come out very so clap down clap that which was it Michael Chiklis the last one that's a pretty dress it's a tall order too much Chiklis it to Jamie's left is Heather Lind who plays Anna strong on turn previously on Broadway she play opposite Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice for which he won the theatre world award for 'outstanding Broadway debut she's also starred in a Winter's Tale and Pygmalion as Eliza Doolittle our television credits include a recurring role on HBO's Boardwalk Empire for which Lynn went a SAG Award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a Drama Series Hugh her left is burn gorman who plays major Hewlett you may have seen him in many things he was bored the United States grew up in the United Kingdom he's worked across a just about every single kind of art field you could potentially imagine you might recognize him from major roles in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim FX is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and HBO's Game of Thrones which I won't ask you about how it was to be in two shows competing with each other on Sunday evenings they not to worry about that anymore and then finally is Alex Rose who is the co-producer and writer of turn the turn series itself as Peter mentioned in the very beginning is based on Alex roses Washington spies and after serving as consultant for the first season Rose join as co-producer and writer for season two now a plug for Alex Rose his latest book men-of-war the American soldier in combat at Bunker Hill Gettysburg and Iwo Jima comes out in June of this year right all right so again please join me in welcoming people who make turn possible so my first question can be tackled by by either Craig or Barry it's a question that many producers may not have to deal with especially ones doing something historical or even spy-related television shows and the fact that most of the stuff on TV it's very easy for us to identify with characters it's something that during our lifetime is set or during our parents lifetime this is something where you have to invent an entirely new world where people know a little bit about the history of the Revolutionary period but no one knows anybody who is around during that time it's an environment that none of us can really identify with other than when we were in third grade in our classes is that dramatically more difficult is that why you had to take a lot of time to introduce us to the world in turn in the first season that's something I appreciate it I appreciated the fact that we didn't jump right into the action so easy didn't even spy TV shows or spy movies where all of a sudden somebody's running around being chased but you make it a point it was a show decision to make it a point to say we're going to make sure you're invested in this environment not just the characters but the whole setting across the board was that a conscious decision that you had to make but was it difficult to do from the very beginning yeah it was it was a conscious decision the but it was more it was more about educating people as to what this world really was as opposed to what they may have thought it was you know it's a little bit different than the way that I think we're we're taught in schools and as far as the period thing goes I don't think it's harder to relate necessarily you get riding with people I mean Luke Skywalker lived a long time before these guys and you're right there with it so yeah but but because of that because of because I was I I was learning so much about how different the world the Revolutionary War and that the chaotic period of revolutionary time was so much different than the very sort of David and Goliath very simplistic version that I was taught in school I thought it took a little more time to kind of get the try to get a little bit of shades in because you do have the problem that peep come to the show thinking they know about the history of the Revolutionary period they think they know the story you know they think they learned it back in grade school and there's this whole other element to it that you're presenting to them you almost have to you know unteach them what they think they understand about the revolution yeah and and sometimes that rubs up against what you know somebody wants to see I mean this season you see George Washington you know become vulnerable and it's not something he's the guy in the dollar bill he's just absolutely you know strong in in every single aspect and the truth is that he had some some severe moments of doubt and it's just not something we're too used to seeing so someone might look at and go that's not the George Washington I know no but it's like well you didn't know him yeah it's the way so Jamie let me let me ask you the question about your character because a wood hole is if there is a main character it's a man now you know there's so many interesting characters that that without them you don't have this show there's a pretty dramatic transformation I would say in in this Lisa's first episode with a but you almost have him suiting up like Batman at one point with his knife and everything else thinking back to the first episode of season 1 and just this the scared unsure man who just doesn't understand his role in this broader you know war do you see that transformation you know with the rest of the seasons looking like it without giving away too much do you see that transformation continuing is that a conscious character decision that's been made yeah I mean I think I mean that the show is very much an ensemble show as you can see it's filled with fantastic characters across the board my fellow cast mates here so I mean I think the way into the story though was very much about an everyman a farmer a family man who was resistant he was hesitant to stand up for his beliefs he knew his father was on a different side than he was and that was going to present problems it was going to be turbulent and I think in the first season what we what we kind of started with was a guy who literally wanted nothing more than the water stay away from his front door and I think that was a good way into it because it wasn't a guy who was so willing to jump into high water he was terrified he was we was dragged into this kicking and screaming you know and I don't know can I spoil things with the end of her season one yes I can yeah it's that worry so Netflix what's your time but you know basically in the end of the first season if you haven't seen it a bunch of events happen he ends up taking a life in his own house so the season one starts you know by the end the the war is literally on his doorstep and I think that was just a good way in I think now we know that what this guy has to play with what he has to risk we know that he loves his son dearly we know that his relationship with his father the idea of legacy what he's going inherit means something to him and this decision to to work for Washington to help the rebels to further the cause he's going to leave him out in the cold and potentially get him killed and I think we wanted to start season two with the determination you know the idea that this character has doubled down he's lied to everyone and he's continuing this mission I think for this season arc this character is that his chips are all in he's all in on this mission so Heather you you're from New York I you you went to Fordham in NYU was this a story you were familiar with growing up what would it happen during the Rebbe I I grew up in it in a place where the revolution didn't touch it was Spain it was Florida but you're right in the middle of where this is taking place I mean New York City Long Island what was this a story you heard of growing up no I I mean we'd study the we studied the Revolutionary War when we studied the Battle of Saratoga was probably touched on quite a bit because it was so near where I grew up I grew up just outside Albany and so I I sort of was familiar that there were historic places around me but honestly I'm and I think my education was as good as it could be I mean we had so much to cover and it was more than these guys got but um but um I I think I felt like I knew the basics of the battles and I knew that that George Washington was a hero and I knew that the Redcoats were bad and and I think that in terms of education that's not like the educators fault necessarily but there's so much more to every story so when I came onto this project I I realized how little I knew about the real people who were confronting this conflict and the the real women and the families I mean it was just like these small economies that were so hugely affected by it and you know if you can imagine being sort of a lower low class family having to house an enemy to your government I mean it's just unfathomable actually if you can't even afford to feed your family and then you're forced to feed these people who you don't agree with and who are essentially conquering your town I mean it's just horrifying and so I think I think the idea of the show that's so brilliant is that it wasn't this historical conflict that we've come to know through our education it's this it was this really small town revolution and it feels exciting in that way and accessible and and new to me as an American it's a burn you play the Redcoat you play the bad guy that's right but you're your major Hewlett it would be very easy for you to play it way over the top to play the sinister bad British guy I mean you Simcoe is a bad guy in real life so it's not hard for that character to come across as he is if you read if you read Alex Rose's book he's not a good dude but Hewlett is somebody that you could have played either way in what I think comes across is he's a human and you do see that the end of season one you also see that the beginning of season two and I think it really speaks to the idea that the Americans and the British aren't so dramatically different at this point and that there really are people who are trying to piece together this you know what people see is a not absolute path to independence how hard was it not to come across as the meaning you're the bad guy I mean it would've been much easier for you to be over the top sure I think that it was very apparent from when I first got the first script that Craig and Barry and the whole creative team had it quite a clear idea about not presenting it as just black and white I think from my own personal point of view I try and approach every character to find the grey you know to find the humanity in them all but you know the first time we meet Hewlett he's talking about law and order and authority and essentially he was there a good man essentially a middle manager you know trying to do the best that he can in these extraordinary circumstances but me personally just approaching any character I try and look at try and find the gray areas rather than black and white you know it was such a strange time in terms of divided loyalties and from Hewlett's point of view he's there to do a job which he's been sent there to do by his king who is you know if not the mouthpiece of God then certainly the the highest authority and he's going to follow that through the complexity comes from when he's from what he comes up against meeting the the other side you know the humanity there so Alex am I giving anywhere anything away in this case because on the AMC website it does have a little preview of season 2 and there's a new character a real-world character actually a very important part of the culper ring that is introduced in season 2 and that's culper jr. that's Robert Townsend he talked a little bit about who were going to meet in the next couple episodes in the real world who is Robert Townsend in real life okay well I got to be very careful how I tread here because there's a lot of people staring at me if I give something too you know too much if I give something away but Robert Townsend was basically sort of a is one of the more one of the most interesting of the the culper ring agents in that he was the only one who didn't grow up them from childhood you know the copper ring were basically sort of one-man dogs and that you know they had all grown up together they only worked for George Washington they all knew each other and that was that kind of circle of trust so that they that's one of the reasons why the British never were never able to penetrate or blow the network you know with informers and and and doubles and so forth which is the usual way of destroying these agents so you know letting Townsend in was a huge risk so he had to pass all kinds of you know sort of tests I guess and that's what we kind of show in the show and he's also not an entire I don't give too much away he's an entirely voluntary so we there's all sorts of nefarious skullduggery going on to lure him or invite him if you prefer into the int into the ring let's play you got the word skullduggery in there so i think the answer is thank you thank you yes tomfoolery I'll drop it in again if yes and nefarious yes Anna Faris so let me actually keep it with you really quickly because I think this is a this is really kind of holistic for the cast you've got British actors playing Americans and American born actors playing Brits and and a lot of mixture across the board and Australians in forget Australia these students just get everywhere yeah so there's almost rally a you know there's a five eyes for those you know it is covered across the board here um there's a question that I've asked and this actually could be maybe burn as well that wasn't your father a linguistics professor at one point yeah so maybe this is a question that never seen answered to my satisfaction oh yeah did the founding fathers have English accent ha ha who knows yeah well maybe Alex as well can I get you are the AL I think um it's a very tricky sort of linguistic question and it's sort of filled with you know it's a filled with it's a minefield basically basically I think you could probably say that English accents in the 18th century were not English actions as we now know them I mean there was no there was no sort of received pronunciation the kind of Oxford you know sort of Hewlett Ian Oxford you know upper-class yeah the RP so that there was different vowel pronunciations and so for different pronunciations of words and so on so this idea that all you know that all the the Brits to talk real posh kind of thing that's sort of a that's sort of an imposition that that that you know that we've all grown up with mostly from sort of Hollywood movies in the 30s you know with and but you know it said people kind of expect it that's why it's kind of in there it's an instant identifier of class and so on but yeah so did you know it's a very short answer made very long but basically they didn't speak they didn't speak like us basically so I'd like to ask Heather and actually baby Barry as well actually both producers can be part of this question because Ana strong historically there's not a lot known about her I you know a Woodhall Jamie you have you know hundreds and hundreds of pages of Alex's book as background even major Hewlett pops up over and over again and a strong there's not a lot of source material Heather how did you go about constructing this character without a lot of background and as producers what was the decision to increase or increase her role might be the wrong word but she may have had an unbelievably large role but we just don't know like where where was that it's part of the conversation about how much to include the Anna strong historical figure in this show I'm going to start from my ignorant position which was coming in I didn't realize she was a real person until my third audition um I think I came in I mean I'd never heard of her I'd never heard of any of them honestly but somehow a woman spies seemed really unbelievable to me and I sort of ashamed to admit that and then I my third audition I thought you know I should research this fella the huh oh I am googled her and and it was fascinating there wasn't any information on her except the first sort of thing that came up on Google was this a classroom in Virginia was had their online curriculum up and it was um just children's drawings of Anna with her laundry line was like 25 drawings that kids made of this woman next to her laundry line and I just thought like a good teacher great but whoever's his teacher whether I need to look her up actually um but that was the first sort of feeling that I had that she mattered you know bizarrely because it felt like all these children are being educated now that women were a part of this and I didn't grow up so long ago but I didn't get taught any of that so I I was inspired by that and I think that kind of triggered a lot of curiosity about what wasn't written about women in history and I sort of investigated that a little bit and it's hard to know I mean they didn't have agency they didn't have power so they didn't write stories about them really in general um so I think it felt like a privilege to try to represent her and also just imagine I think because we didn't know for sure it was a it was a good bet and a dramatic bet to just assume she was really a part of it and then from that point on it felt like we could kind of play and see sort of see how powerful we could make her believably and that felt really exciting to me as a modern woman so that's where I started on yeah I mean Barry did that give you the you know the flexibility to go or Craig did that give you the flexibility to go as far as you felt I mean you don't have this defined historical figure that you know if you go too far outside of it then people are like hold on you have somebody that you can do a lot with and actually make it to where you know Anna strong becomes a much perhaps a much bigger part of the culper ring but who knows maybe just as big and you may actually be going far enough does that give you a bit of freedom that a normal historical period drama would not um yeah I mean women did a lot during the war and we're not giving credit the things that we took from Anna strong as we knew that her husband Selah strong had been taken had been imprisoned and that we also knew that at some point a wood hall had asked her to pose as his wife to make to get past checkpoints to get into New York City and so those two things we took and started to broaden out as much as we could some people think that Anna strong is agent 355 who is mentioned in the culper intelligence 355 wasn't the name given the code name given to a certain agent 355 in the culper glossary the the spy glossary stood for lady but we say that we reveal who 355 is this season and it's not Anna strong it's another woman and there's a bunch of other women who enter the picture this year Peggy Shippen and you saw one in the the pilot she got taken out but um patience right is it was a real spy who worked for the Americans and sent stuff back to Ben Franklin in her waxworks she wasn't caught and killed we did that to her but now maybe people will look her up and actually see the patient's right existed so that's you know part of the whole thing and maybe that's the question for you is is when do you decide the direction of the plot what kind of historical liberties can you take with something that is a real historical story I mean how how far can you go before you're going too far in your personal opinion it was smart to realize from the very beginning much is known much is unknown and if you want to tell a really great narrative and you want to tell a story you want to connect the dots it's 250 years ago and so much is unknown and these were spies that were never caught never uncovered never found out so the ring started and the ring grew and it expanded and it served Washington to a great degree but they did a great job so I think what Craig had to do with the writing staff was do as much research as possible use Alex's book to the best degree that they could and Alex was part of our staff to sort of inform as much to then connect the dots and create a narrative for the show you know we hit all the historical landmarks during the period we try to be as accurate as possible but I think when you jump into something that is historical fact you also have to breathe into it a little bit a fiction order to create the story I also think you know if you really look out there and you look at many story historians and you look at books and research that are done they make certain assertions they take certain leaps so I think it's fair for us to do the same thing so let's let's open it up to the audience you don't need to hear me asking all these questions so please wait for the mic to get to you so everyone can hear you and we are recording this so if you got a question raise your hand and we will come to you if not I've got more questions but I figure that you guys have some things you want to ask as well don't be shy there's one all right and Jason will come to you thank you this is for mr. Bell also fantastic first episode of the second season really excited thank you very much thank plays out mr. Bell Jamie Lee's Jamie Jamie Jamie over the last few years man you've been in a bunch of really great roles where you kind of play the underdog the unassuming character that kind of steps out of his mold and just rebels in a great way like defiance snowpiercer now turn can we expect more of this like you think you thrive in that kind of a role because personally I I enjoy it a lot so well thank you um I I don't know I don't know um I don't know someone point out another an actor that I was working with the time come over what movie was but he pointed out something was like dude you always play orphans I was like I don't I don't and I look back and I was like usually my character usually has one parent dead or they're both dead or like there's no mention of any parents at all so like there is a continuity and I think there is something about actors like you establish your own sense of a continuity whatever it is like whether it be often or underdog or wherever it is that I think people just want to see you do those roles often can have come to you for example I said to my agent like years ago as I here period pieces they hate him always in them though don't know how that happens but know how that happens I must have a face something about the face I don't know but I don't know what it is it's not a conscious choice I don't know I think whenever I read it I think it's right talking about the other night this other thing is whenever I read something where I go like I understand what that is I think we ought we've all had a feeling of being an underdog at some point we've all had to rise against something and get out of a situation or stand up for someone or something and I love those kinds of characters I just think they're very moving noble characters I think the world needs those kinds of characters you know Billy Elliot is a big character for that specifically so that's why I started from it's very much a part of my heritage it's very much about Who I am so I think I do kind of attract myself to those kinds of things yeah good well well well spotted all the way in the back Jason Jamie and mr. Gorman you've gone from this role Jamie you were in Flags of Our Fathers and mr. Gorman was in one of where he played a Nazi how did you prepare differently for those roles as opposed to this one I know it's I know it's a big time differential but I heard that Clint Eastwood had all his actors read not only Flags of Our Fathers but other books to prepare but how did you kind of prepare as well we did read I believe it's James Bradley I believe what the book wrote a fantastic book and then Paul Haggis is a great screen I wrote a great but I will tell you Clint Eastwood does not do any form of at least with the actors any form of preparation at all he you know I mean which is crazy when you're dealing with like pyrotechnics and explosions and you know the Battle of Iwo Jima because you know this like strafing things all over the floor on this explosions going off and he's just like okay guys go for it you're like where is all the bombs got a prop which I think he likes that you know they obviously like set from actors he you know he trusts his actors and he just kind of lets you go with the flow um but a great movie experiencing it just quickly good burn it he Linux word is someone who is in the trenches with you people that guy wore fatigues everyday he was in landing craft with a camera on his shoulder I mean he was at the gym every day he's an amazing amazing cinematic force and amazing human being I was finding quite an honor to play anyone in uniform I always feel its various it's such an other life to what what I you know what I my experiences and I always feel that um for me as somebody who has an interest anyway in history I try and get a sense of context so I'll always perhaps do research material about the particular period the Nazi that I played was a a guy involved in the you know that the atrocities in in Hungary which I knew nothing at all about and so it yeah it's always a great honor to player to pay I loved period dramas because I always get cast in them because of my face sideburns you know so that is why what that you please feel free to raise hands for the next question but while I asked this the Alex may want to earmuff himself how much beyond Washington spies did you guys go to prepare for your roles for the three actors and you already Heather's already talked about going on Google and other things but it let's just I mean look we do it real it story we do it here too as well but you know the book is great it has everything it's mean for abled Hall as well but are there other resources you went to I mean you do have some of the battlefields that have some of the resources CIA actually has a very good history of the Toba ring in this time period if you haven't seen that for if going to look at or did you go beyond Alex's book to research the character and kind of get to know this time period sorry I was look I looked at the articles I looked at you know books and tomes on gentlemanly conduct Articles of War what was expected of of not so much soldiers but of commanding you know of mages etc you know there was the whole buying your way in you know the the status of people buying your way in getting a commission you know there was lots of men who had absolutely no war or warfare experience at all putting great positions of power and and of influence simply buying their way and so I sort of that's a personal thing that I do just yeah it sort of research as to as to the characters status and yeah it was easier for one reading about Benedict Arnold or for Ian reading about George Washington or for set numeric reading about Ben Tallmadge and I think Craig could tell you something anecdotal about Angus reading about Robert Rogers okay pretty much read a lot about him but Angus yeah like he he brought to our attention that Robert Rogers was the first published American playwright in London and he wrote this play about the persecution of the American Indian by the British and it was not well-received in London and but he so we wrote a whole scene and we shot it and was we had to cut it for time in a season one where he goes into the detail about this play but the idea that that guy that crazy savage guy you know wrote this play and you can read it it's free on like Kindle or iBooks you just get it's not it's not that great and you could tell like somewhere someone else took it over where he kind of gave up you could see the style change but yes so sometimes you'll get that from the cast and try to incorporate it just someone's coming to you is there Mike coming in you got it oh he picked me already I just wanted to say first of all so like I study intelligence right now or I'm getting ready to as well but one of the things that I kind of wanted to know is how much of a motivation is there to kind of become more educational on the actual acts of collecting and gathering intelligence is there in creating and writing the show because we do see a lot of very real techniques used there's a lot about the drama and the story and all of that but how much motivation is there to make sure we include the correct information and the actual really cool tools that we use to actually collect information at the time we try to season two as a lot more of it than season one did we have a lot more I mean tools if you're going to say talk about tools we a lot more gadgets this season they were saying we introduced sympathetic stain the invisible ink this season and we even do some stuff that don't think it's been seen on film before we have the first American submersible that the turtle American turtle makes its appearance and we had a it's going to be pretty awesome and there's a lot more trade craft this season now that the culper ring is actually formed and is sort of moving into action thanks this segue was better with the earlier question but my family is from Scotland and I'm curious specific to Rogers character how you were mentioning the Native American piece is any piece especially given the current political situation in Scotland after the indie referendum that happened last year does any of that inform the character in terms of the Association and also the separation of the Scottish and British relationship and will we see that explored through his Scotsman personality yeah I don't want to spoil anything but but yeah and Angus Angus Angus himself was he flew back to Scotland to be involved in that that's right yeah I say so he was and I think his his side didn't win this time but you know but um but yeah he and and and there is it wasn't intentional but now that you asked that question there is a mirror of that that happens in this season between Rob Rogers and and the British but yeah happens all right now sorry thank you have a question for mr. Rose I grew up in Huntington so I learned about Nathan Hale from a young age or I thought I did until I until I read your book and I think it seems like kind of a common theme that we didn't really know any of this was going on or what was actually happening so if you just you know talk about how you know over 200 years later you you know were able to dig this up and put these pieces together you know to tell this incredible story question um about you know hey Liz I'm Hales you know is the great is the great figure in American espionage history and you know I you know I hope that we can you know introduce him into the show at some point I keep on mentioning this in public forum in public fora so one day or maybe taken up on this but about Hale you know there's some you know there's so many different tales about him and I think he's when I was writing the book you know he was you know you again there was so many different ways of nobody even knew which way he went really or what he was supposed to be doing he certainly didn't and you know so I began I began to become very very interested in Hale himself and you know what exactly was that was that mission of his we sort of vaguely loved Oh George Washington sent him to go spy on the British but if you look at the timing of his mission and so forth you know he was sort of dogged by by problems from the get-go it was never going to work and then he fell prey to you know to you know Rogers you know the the great sort of killing gentlemen of the time and you know if you actually read the book in hindsight I devote quite a lot of time to neh the nail considering he's not even a member of the culper ring but it's because I was actually being the thing hey maybe I should write a biography of Nathan Hale and it got severely truncated for that chapter but you know what again hail hail is such an interesting figure in his own right that I just wanted to sort of try and really dig in dig into his story and of course the great coincidence of course is that he was best buddies with Ben Tallmadge yet at Yale that was that was the the key point and that leads to all sorts of revelations about Talmadge's own motivations in real life about why he got into why he got into the into the business so yeah I mean as it Hale as Hale is a kind of fantastic person I think he's been greatly misremembered so I hope to you know sorta I hope to sort of chip away some of the myth and and get to the to the man sort of existing below it hello it hi um this is for our two British actors I'm curious what what we're this was talked about a little earlier what were you taught as children about the American Revolution not tell us it's yours it's yours it's yours all right all right listen nothing 9 17 17 18 was it nothing I mean like literally um nothing the monarchy lots of monarchy lots of like you know Elizabeth's and George's okay so many Henry's and things like that Battle of Bosworth Field but not literally I mean a little bit on colonies nothing to do really in-depth about a major major war that was waged on a place that we tried to take and loss they just like swept it under the rug I mean so what's interesting about this show you know I'm not really more than anything and what I really enjoy about the show and I think being a part of it and what what the show really focuses on is that these people are really unsung heroes in a way who really did risk I mean everything you know em it's amazing that there isn't some monument to these people somewhere in this city who has monument everywhere yeah that you know that there isn't anything documented really well known in the consciousness of these people that these young people these young children basically who were just kind of starting out their lives risked everything and and threw everything in and really helped Washington and turn the tide of that war and established what we now know as the United States of America it really blows my mind but having done the show I do know a lot more about it you know I do I really do and getting to experience it every day on the set is it's great it's really there's nothing better than experiencing it and smelling it and living it and seeing it so it's great it's true you know Nathan Hale is there's a statue of him right at CIA it's where is it and there's also one is also one at CIA okay so he's got a couple and and and you know he failed his mission maybe he got cold he's not and he got hanged and you know the culper ring never got caught and the mark of a truly great spy is that you never hear of them like they're not famous they're not famous the most famous spies you hear over the ones who were dead or who you know like famously betrayers like the the real great spooks you know go to the graves with their secrets purpose to with them that they sort of had the opportunity at the end of their lives to reveal themselves and they went all went to their graves with the information right we didn't know anything about them talk after they died yeah it's because Washington kept their letters and the protocol was to burn the letters and they burned the letters from him but he kept them against protocol so he just didn't get a lot on his mind but that's how we know that's they were found in the 1930s or something right I was all the way in the letters role in the Washington papers at the Library of Congress but the thing is is that there's hundreds of thousands of sheets of Washington correspondence and though he had a most efficient secretarial staff they were the ones who were filing all the copies back and forth much against the culpers you know at admonition not to burn everything but they were all written in code and they were in under you know aliases and they were under initials and they were misfiled and so on so it was only fairly recently that we were able to put the entire culper correspondence in sort of chronological order there's about 150 letters back and forth between them and they and the commander in chief just a quick question during the season opener what was interested in the the relationship that you started building between exploring George Washington and his the wait great wait yes on his shoulders a lot of popular film on him we kind of he's always off to the side because he's a figure that we don't like to touch so I'm really excited that you guys are diving into that because he has got quite a it does have a much more human side that and then paralleling it with Darwin with that with King King George V with King George I like the the going back and forth and I'm interested alright throughout the season we're going to see continue to see two leaders as or as they continue to evolve I'm very interested in seeing what with King George whether whether are we going to see him I liked I the first reference playing with the agricultural aspect he was actually quite a brilliant guy and how we could kind of portray him as crazy King George though and that's not necessarily the fact but like playing later in life but we're going to see his evolution to as he's empire is slipping away we don't have no we don't have that many opportunities to cut back to him with everybody we start to introduce we do sort of return to that that scene a little bit later in the season with with him but the contrast that we play more is between Benedict Arnold and Washington and two different types of commanders and how they treat slides to their character but yeah we loved him because we loved Paul Ryan performance as as King George so awesome so like and you know he's still there we can get to him at some point back to him yeah well Arnold's a good a good character to have a conversation a stack uestion about that because Arnold is arguably the best US commander at the time I mean Washington is holding the army together but if our as a strategic and tactical commander on the battlefield Arnold is above and beyond just about anybody and at the point of most of this season I would imagine again not given want to give anything away Arnold is going to come across as being that kind of guy that top-notch character that's not what any of us learn I mean we learn that yeah it you're Benedict Arnold you're a traitor it had nothing to do with how good he was and that makes it even doubly or Tripoli worse in that it would be like if our best if General Petraeus well he's not good anymore someone like that all of a sudden was working for the Iraqis or you know if if Douglas MacArthur started fighting for the Japanese I mean it would be that kind of level of the top commander going over to the other side and I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how Arnold's evolution even evolution of all these characters is really what this show has been about and Arnold somebody I'm looking forward to seeing how that's going to come across you do however see an episode the effect of King George on the colonies and how and its meaning to these characters so you'll see that effect with others and that growth no doubt we have time for one more I saw right there on the aisle this is more of like a technical coming together question but I was wondering kind of how this came to be did you write the book than you the bruisers got together hired actors or just how how did the story come to life and how did you get everybody together to produce this great production he wrote the book he found the book he gave the book to me and I was like whoa we should yeah you got a check and then we then we tried to sell it and then they said no and then we tried to sell somewhere else and they said yes and then we got checks and then we wrote it and he hasn't got that'll come little get your check and and then yeah and then we we cast the actors but it was it was it was a it was kind of a long road but but yeah I was it was pretty much straight and I was I was terrified when I wrote the first draft mr. I was terrified to contact Alex I you know because I had made some changes which I considered huge which nobody you know we're like like for example Abe would Hall's father was not a Tory he was he was a patriot but that that conflict I thought was so central to to what the war was really about that you know people were divided in their own homes and I was quaking in my boots and then and you know Alex was like I love it I love it I didn't actually say it like that yeah come write the show all right well please join me in thanking the producers cast and writer a turn you

Channel: IntlSpyMuseum

Views: 71,632

Rating: 4.8757763 out of 5

Keywords: Washington, AMC (TV Network), TURN (TV Program), Washington's Spies, International Spy Museum (Museum), Culper Ring, patriot, spies, spy, Alexander Rose, Jamie Bell, Heather Lind, Barry Josephson, Burn Gorman, Craig Silverstein, REvolutionary War

Id: kO4uANQDiqg

Length: 49min 0sec (2940 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 21 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/havey_cavey]

man that interviewer is reeeeeally chatty, isn't he?