The Point Radio: The Twists And Turns On CRISIS
Transcript
The Point Radio. It's my problem. The new NBC series, Crisis, has plenty of twists and turns, which may be a little tough for the folks trying to perform the scripts. We talk to Rachel Taylor and Lance Gross about what life is like in front of the camera for
that series. Plus, a little comic book prequel for 24. And who's talking TV on Twitter? Let's get to The Point. This is The Point.
The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. The new NBC series, Crisis, is one where the audience should well expect the unexpected, with plenty of swerves and twists and turns. So is that fun for the actors who have to work week to week from script to script?
Or is it difficult? I talked to series star Rachel Taylor. I mean, for me, I look at it like we just accept the information and the given circumstances that we have in any particular scene. And I'm kind of excited by the idea that Rand Rabbit, who is the creator of the show
and really kind of a mastermind, in my opinion, at this particular kind of genre. I'm excited by the kind of possibilities of all the chips being kind of thrown in the air. But I will say, we worked with Phil Neumann on the pilot, who is a great director, who knows the genre really, really well.
So what I feel like we really tried to create, both on the pilot and in the first episode, maybe you have to agree, is this kind of really solid kind of foundation of who our characters were and how they kind of behaved. So then we had that kind of solid basis to operate from. But I have to say, just as a number one as an actor, but as kind of a fan of the show
and in my own kind of weird way, it's kind of exciting to feel like things could change on a dime at any minute. So while watching it and reading it and also while working on the show. I also asked that question of Rachel's co-star Lance Grose. It's super exciting for me.
I mean, as the cast members, we're kind of reading these scripts, we get the scripts and we're reading them and their page turners. And we, as the cast member, want to know what's next because we don't know. So I like that element of surprise. Of course, Rand gives us enough information because if there's something super important
that's coming along down the line, of course he wants to prepare us for that. But yeah, it keeps us intrigued as actors, you know, and it's fun and you just never know who to trust and it's always exciting for us. Did they have to research the roles? I talked to anyone that I could that was a retired Secret Service agent because, you
know, I got a lot of good information, but of course with their job, there's certain things that they can't reveal. Also we had onsite training, we had gun training. So yeah, we definitely prepared for these roles in advance. Rand Ravitch actually gave me a great book that became my Bible along the way.
It's called Standing Next to Greatness by, I believe the author is Peter Petro. I might be wrong on that, but yeah, this was about a Secret Service agent, a retired Secret Service agent who worked, President Kennedy's, I'm sorry, Ronald Reagan's details. So I got a lot of good information from that, but yeah, it was, that was the fun stuff, training for this role.
For Rachel, the research went a little deeper. I spoke to a couple of, one FBI agent, former FBI agent, retired guy, he was so valuable and interesting here in Los Angeles and I also spoke to a former female FBI agent, which was super, super valuable, just given the kind of personal sort of conflicts that my character is kind of, that carries throughout the series.
So it was cool talking to her about the culture of being a woman in the FBI and I infused a lot of our conversation that I had with her into my performance. She was, we spoke more, we spoke less about kind of the technical aspects of being FBI and more about kind of the sophistication of what being an agent does to your inner person, which is intriguing really because all of our jobs, I'm sure yourself included,
affect us on a kind of deeper level. In some way they affect our families and our relationships and our interpersonal relationships. So I'm intrigued, being a federal agent is a fairly, is a meaty and important task. So I was kind of intrigued as to how, like, what do you do at the end of the night? You come home and you take a shower and you just leave your work at the office and we
spoke a lot about that kind of psychological crossover, if you will. So it was a very valuable conversation. Also in the cast is Jillian Anderson. So I asked Rachel if she managed to talk to her about getting some pointers on the FBI from Jillian's X-Files days.
I didn't specifically, but I will say that just in general, she's a very valuable presence to have on a set. You know, she's an incredibly elegant actress and a very thoughtful and intelligent one. She really kind of doesn't miss a trick. So I just really watched and learned purely from observation of her, actually.
She has a very intelligent presence on a set. So while I didn't speak to her about playing an FBI agent specifically, because I think that's one of the important things really is you don't want to do like a generalized impression of an FBI agent. You want to kind of find the things that specifically make the character who they are.
In the case of Susie Dunn, I really feel like that she's very kind of cold, in a way, cold and kind of fractured. So I tried to lean mostly on my own personal insight and feelings about the character, but in general, Jillian Anderson is incredibly elegant as an actress and very valuable for me to watch her.
And I do feel very fortunate to work with all of this cast. It's been a really great learning curve for me. We've got more coming up on Crisis. Meanwhile, new episodes every Sunday on NBC and catch up with full episodes right now at NBC.com.
Let's get rolling with the latest in pop culture. Paper Cuts is pushing out a new line of graphic novels, a lot of which are tied to some pretty familiar franchises. For example, they'll be doing something based on the Lego franchise as well. They'll hit stores in May.
And also, of course, their WWE tie-ins continue with a collection of the comics into one graphic novel called WWE Number One, Money in the Bank, again written by former superstar Mick Foley as well. It'll be supported with ads in the WWE magazine and on the television properties as well. And then there's the Power Rangers, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Number One, Rita Rapulsa's
attitude adjustment. We'll be hitting stores in June from Paper Cuts. It'll be the first of the series. It'll continue with more Power Rangers tie-ins later on in the year. There's no doubt about the future success of movies like Frozen and Despicable Me.
That's because movie growers in the age bracket of 2 to 11 have grown a huge amount over the past couple of years. They're up 54% since 2012. That's up to about 4.3 million, according to the Motion Picture Association of America's annual statistics that they reported this week.
On the other hand, the once much desired 18 to 24 year olds dropped 21% and the 12 to 17 year olds also stopped going to the movies as well over the past year or so. They're down about 15%, all being blamed of course on smartphones and material being available easily on home computers and tablets. They're calling it a place where pop culture and storytelling collide.
Read Pop! The folks behind the New York Comic Con and C2E2 as well as other events will be hosting BookCon, a one day event coming up in May in New York City. Tying directly into Book Expo America, the long running trade show also in New York City at the end of May.
Announced guests for BookCon so far include John Grisham, Amy Poehler and Martin Short, as well as Stan Lee. And for more information you can get it at readpop.com. AMC has announced they're renewing Comic Bookman for season number four on the network and as well entering into an agreement for a couple of more shows produced by Kevin Smith.
Donald B. his Hollywood Babylon podcast heard weekly online, coming to us as a weekly television show for AMC with the possibility of a nightly version should things work out for that. They're also producing a show based on Comic Bookman regular Robert Bruce out searching for geek collectibles in odd places and finding out how much they're worth.
Both projects are under development now and should be announced on a schedule later this year. Now 24 returns to Fox in just a few weeks with a limited run of episodes of a series called Live Another Day and now IDW is publishing a prequel to this little tie in events at the end of the last season right into the beginning of the new run of episodes as well.
24 the comic book will hit stores beginning with the first issue in April and 24 Live Another Day premieres on Fox on May the fifth. So who's talking about TV on Twitter and more importantly what are they talking about? All over the recent days a list of the 10 most talked about shows include some interesting things like The Voice, WWE's Monday Night Raw and How I Met Your Mother.
However the top three most trending TV shows that were mentioned on Twitter in order to begin again number three with Teen Wolf number two Walking Dead and number one the most talked about show on Twitter. Pretty Little Liars from ABC Family. That does it for right now.
We'll be back in a few days more on the NBC series Crisis and of course all the very latest in pop culture but if it happens between now and then you can catch up and get the point radio dot com. Listen free right there at your laptop or your desktop or take us on any mobile device Apple or Android with iNet radio.
It's an app that's free in the app store or iNet radio dot com. The podcast turns up in the iTunes podcast directory and on websites like ComicMix dot com and Michael Davis World dot com. Follow us on social media under the point radio and we'll see you right back here in a few days.
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