Djimon Hounsou and Jason Patric talk Season 2 of Wayward Pines
|||BY MUNYA VOMO
When Tonight last published an article on Wayward Pines, we speculated what the second season would bring.
The show is set in the same quiet and mysterious town. The story takes a new turn when a surgeon, Dr Theo Yedlin (played by Jason Patric), comes to town and he, too, has to go through the confusion that Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) first endured. As was last seen in the first season, it is unclear what this protagonist’s motivation is, but that’s how the story unfolds.
“I’m trying to figure that out. I’ve done not even two episodes yet. So I’m trying to figure out this guy,” confessed Patric.
The information he has on his character is based on the script he’s been given to date and the parts they have shot so far.
“So Theo Yedlin, the surgeon, is dropped in the middle of Wayward Pines. I don’t have any definitive ideas about who he is or where he’s going, but I think that was one of the interesting things about choosing to do the project. I’ve always been attracted to characters in movies that are at some primal moment that’s going to determine who they are one way or the other,” he said.
“And this is an opportunity to do that with a guy who has to decide who he is. And we all rely on our past. Now he probably doesn’t have a past in his mind and certainly the way I’m playing the first few episodes, he does not believe where he is, and does not believe anybody else.
“But, ultimately, you get to a place in your life, or in his life, where you have to accept who you are and where you are, because you’re still alive. So that’s what I’m dealing with, moment by moment.”
Patric steered clear of the show’s first season so that he would not be influenced into thinking in a particular way when it came to his character.
“I watched the pilot; they told me what happened with this character. Since he was dropped in the middle of Wayward Pines, I didn’t think there was any reason for me to watch all of it, because then I would be influenced by the thoughts and all those other things. So I wanted to do it as naturally as I could to experience every moment,” he said.
Also forming part of the new line-up is esteemed actor, Djimon Hounsou, who will also bring his expertise to the franchise.
“I play CJ Mitchum, and I’ve been described as the ‘duster’ of Wayward Pines. He comes out of animated leave every 20 years and is sort of a major infrastructure of Wayward Pines. I think sometimes we tend to try to do too much research into this and that, which really means nothing other than where you exist at that moment in time,” he said in support of Patric’s sentiments on character development.
Patric, who has starred in movies like Speed 2 with Sandra Bullock and The Prince with Bruce Willis, explained further: “That’s a fresh, interesting thing to do, because it doesn’t happen in movies. And I have made television before, but in movies, you want to immerse yourself as much in your character as possible, get as much research and understanding. But this, just make some decisions who you are as a person that satisfies that character, and then just go with what’s in front of you.”
Like Patric, Hounsou is also still in the dark when it comes to his character and confesses that he prefers it that way.
“I just started this week. So yeah, there’s a lot that I’m also trying to comprehend, and I’m not quite sure I sort of have an idea where I exist, and I’m not quite sure who all my interactions are with. I’m not quite sure of that yet.”
With most movie actors going into TV, both actors agreed that television had much more room for actors to explore than film.
“When you’re doing a film, you’re doing that film, and it’s that theme that you’re exploring in the film. But when you’re doing TV, you explore so many different themes through telling a TV show,” said Hounsou.
Patric could not disagree.
“I found it indecipherable from the movies I’ve done equipment-wise, look-wise and everything else. It’s the same. It gives you more opportunities”.
The second season of Wayward Pines premieres next week Monday at 9pm on Fox (DStv channel 125).