The Point Radio: Seth Gabel’s Life In SALEM
This weekend, SALEM wraps up it’s second season on WGN AMERICA (Sunday at 10pm/9pm Central). Series star Seth Gabel talks about the finale and what is ahead for season three, plus Moran Atias explains why you should be watching TYRANT on FX right now.
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Transcript
The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Rauf. This weekend, the series Salem winds up its second season and things are getting wild. Actor Seth Gable comes along to give us a sneak peek about that and what's ahead for season three as well. Plus, Miranda Tias talks about why you need to jump on the FX series, Tyrant.
Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio. We got to know actor Seth Gable in shows like Fringe and Niptuck, but right now he's been knee deep in Salem.
A series just about ready to wrap up its second season in a couple of days, and we ask him about what his role has been. Cotton Meller is a very dynamic character. He's a reverend charged with finding the witches in Salem and executing them. The problem he has is he's a Puritan, but he's a Puritan in the midst of an existential crisis. He's not sure if he believes in what the Puritans are doing.
He's not sure if he believes that the witches are killing our indeed witches. As a result, he acts out by drinking and visiting brothels and very self-destructive behaviors. In a lot of ways, he's conflicted with himself and having a really hard time living in the Puritan world. He's kind of a scientist and a rationalist thinker. At that time in the 1690s in Salem, Massachusetts, being that way was heretical.
He was very much at odds with himself and a total blast to play. Seth agrees that this season on Salem has been a pretty wild ride. Season one was all about the Salem witch trials, but we presuppose that witches were actually running the trials and killing innocent people so that they could complete what was called the Grand Rite and unleash hell on Earth. At the end of season one, that is successful.
Season two is all about who gets to be responsible for bringing hell to Earth. The rival factions of witches come to Salem, Massachusetts from all over the world. There's literally a witch war among them to see who will be the first to complete the Grand Rite and bring hell to Earth. We've got Lucy Lawless, who was Vena, and she's done a lot of other excellent work on Spartacus and Battlestar Galactica. She's joined the show. We have a lot of excellent actors.
The finale this year is we're going to see whether or not they are totally successful in doing that, and we're going to see who wins the witch war. Along the way, Seth has worked with some pretty incredible creative people in the business. I asked him if he ever had the desire yet to write or handle his own project. Oh, definitely. I'm developing a lot of different stories on my own right now,
and kind of keeping things on the back burner while the acting is not someone doing well. But yeah, eventually I would love to direct and produce and continue writing. Yeah, I love storytelling in general, so anything I can do to participate in that, I'm happy to do. So among all the parts he's played, any desire to revisit any of those? I mean, all of it, always. I think as an actor, if you're on a journey of growth and discovery,
I think everything that you look back on, now you feel like you could do better than you did at the time. And I think part of the journey of growing as an actor is that you need to accept that that's always going to be happening. I had the good fortune of getting to work with Donald Sutherland pretty early in my career on a show called Dirty Sexy Money, and he plays my father, so I was able to ask him a lot of advice from him, hear his war stories and what it was like being an actor during the days of the MASH movie and everything.
And I asked him, does the feeling of not being sure you got it right and kind of always leaving the set wondering, could I have done more? Does that ever go away? And he said, if that does, you bet. The day that you feel completely satisfied is the day that you're not doing it right anymore. And I think it's just a constant pursuit of trying to find the truth of the situation,
and I think one can never be sure of what the truth is, so you're constantly in that struggle, and it's the struggle that you learn to enjoy eventually. So I offered Seth an imaginary golden ticket, the chance to pick any role in any feature, film, television, whatever it is. And surprisingly, this is what he came up with. I'm not a star wars. I so badly want to be in one of the Star Wars films.
When Phantom Menace came out, and there was a young Anakin Skywalker, I looked exactly like that when I was a kid, and I was dying to get to be the part that ultimately Hayden Christensen got. At the time, though, I didn't have an agent, I didn't have a manager, so it was very unlikely that that was going to happen. But now that they're making some new Star Wars movies, I mean, what person does not want to hold a lightsaber in their hand and have those kinds of battles? So yeah, if you handed me that golden ticket, I would cash it in with Star Wars.
So what's on his agenda next? Next, I'm going to be working, a friend of mine is doing a film, an independent film, that's going to be pretty awesome, that is called The Free World. And then after that, we're going to be back to season three for Salem. Of course, like us, in a few days, Seth is headed to Comic Con. We'll be there again this year, and it's so much fun getting to talk to fans.
What's great about the show is every episode builds upon itself. It's not a show where you can really miss an episode because something major is going to happen, and next week will be all about the aftermath of that. And what's great about meeting fans at Comic Con is they've paid attention to every detail. They have brilliant questions about the show, and you can really talk to them on a deep level.
So I really enjoy that process. Catch the season finale of Salem this weekend on WGN America. See more on WGNamerica.com and get ready for season three, premiering on the network early in 2016. As always, it is the very latest in pop culture. More parts are coming together for the post-Secret Wars World of Marvel, and that includes the new Avengers title.
Called the All-New All-Different Avengers, of course to be written by Mark Wade, and now it looks like Adam Kubert will be handling the artwork on that project. And along with the other titles, post-Secret Wars will start debuting in comic stores in October. Amazon is expanding into the feature film business with a new project that stars Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey. The movie is Elvis plus Nixon following the meeting between the rock and roll artist and the then president of the U.S.
Amazon Studios will debut the film in theaters and then bring it along to Amazon Prime Video sometime early in 2016. Start counting down the days to the premiere of the second season of The Flash on The CW. That takes place on Tuesday, October the 6th, along with the second season of I Zombie that begins that very same night. And then 24 hours later, there are new episodes and a new season of Arrow and Supernatural, along with The Vampire Diaries and the originals beginning their new seasons on Thursday, October the 8th, all on The CW network.
After the series premiere, which was online for a couple of weeks before the actual network debut, the drama series Mr. Robot from USA has garnered a lot of buzz and 2.6 million views, and that gained it a second season order already, even though it's only one episode into this very first season on the network. New episodes of Mr. Robot air every Wednesday on USA. Fans of The Grateful Dead are pretty pumped with the fact that the band's five final shows will stream on YouTube, but for a price this summer.
Live broadcasts of the Fare The Well celebrating 50 years of The Grateful Dead can be purchased on YouTube for $19.95 through the Live Alliance link. We have a new Spider-Man for both the new series of films and the crossover in Captain America Civil War, and that is actor Tom Holland, who will be playing a younger version of Peter Parker. Holland will premiere in the Spider-Man suit in Captain America Civil War, thanks to a recent deal with Marvel Studios, and there will be a Spider-Man reboot from Sony, which will debut in 2017.
The hit FX series Tyrant is back again for another run of episodes this summer, and once again at the center of it all is actress Moran Adyas, who told me what we need to know to catch up on the show. Well season one tells the story of the son of a young man who was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States. He was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States.
He was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States. He was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States, and he was born in the United States. And through this course of first season, they're really fighting for power and exploring the right way to lead the country, to lead Abigene. A country that in the Middle East that, as we all know, is the most terminal part of the world. And season two starts with the choice, a devastating place where in season one,
the brother actually chose to betray his brother and take over. And now we are facing a really big conflict for all the characters. Whether or not we follow what the country sets for such a betrayal, there's only one punishment for treason in Abigene and that's execution. Or do we forgive and allow him to grow and become maybe the people's leader? So how do you lead? Do you lead with strength or warmth? And can you do both?
And that, this season, takes us into an epic family drama where all the members of the family are exploring leadership and presidency, and also we have threats from different groups. And as far as her role? Well, I'm married to Jamal athlete. I'm the first native of the Dean. So every decision-making in the palace goes by my character, whether it's from her being invited to the conversation or she makes herself invited because it is extremely important for her to be participant in the decision-making. She, I think this woman, unlike the men that are finding ways to escape the responsibility and escape the complexity of the situation, she understands the bigger picture and what is truly perhaps suitable for the people. And whether she's right or wrong, we will find out through the course of the season.
And with that, she's said between these two brothers, one whom she loved when she was a child and the other she married. And they're completely different. One lacks responsibility and self-control and the other one is perhaps not the man that will show you love. And she said she was in between country and love. And it's a very hard place to be in. Moran was a very successful international actress before coming to the U.S. And I ask her what it was like to transition into the entertainment industry here. Oh, it's never the same thing. I think every day is new and different. I think that I had a big challenge, first of all, getting into the door of even just an audition space.
This is being seen because it didn't really matter to casting directors or filmmakers, my successful career abroad. So I had to prove myself and start from scratch. And it's a great place to be in because you study yourself and you cannot be dependent on anything, any past experiences of the system today on. So it really allowed me to grow as an artist. There's an incredible privilege that I have here that I can find in another place in the world, which is a variety of roles I could play. And being in the United States, my career started with an immigrant Latin and the series crash.
And then I played in Elbene and Gypsy in Paul Habbitt's last movie. And I'm playing the first lady of an Arab country, which is truly an incredible gift for myself. I get to study and explore different cultures, languages, habits with thoughts. It allows me to get a different perspective on everything, on even the value of life and betrayal and concepts that affect so differently different societies. And it's like traveling to different countries without ever departing. So it's been a real gift. And I can't wait to see what my next part will be. And it has to be completely different because that's kind of what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
So what does she look for in roles? And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career.
And I think that's what I'm hoping to achieve in my career. Thank you.
