The Point Radio: Aaron Ashmore Could Use The Force

Aaron Ashmore joins us to start our coverage of the new SyFy series, KILLJOYS and to talk about his wish for a role in STAR WARS. Then THE TODAY SHOW’s Tamron Hall talks about the third season of her series, DEADLINE:CRIME on Investigation Discovery.

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Transcript

The Point Radio. Hey, it's Mike Raub. We start our look at the new sci-fi series, Killjoys, by sitting down with Aaron Ashmore. He talks about not only this, but also how much he misses Warehouse 13. And Deadline Crime is back for a new season on Investigation Discovery,

and host Tamron Hall talks about how you can get involved. Let's get to The Point. This is The Point. The Point Radio. Get The Point Radio.

Among the cool new stuff debuting on the sci-fi channel is Killjoys. But what is that? Well, just in a quick summary, Killjoys is basically about a trio of intergalactic bounty hunters. So that's the simplest way that I can put it for you. That's actor Aaron Ashmore, who stars in this series as well.

And I was curious as to, among everything else he's done, what drew him to this part? I've actually been working on a movie, and a casting director who cast me on the movie said to me, yeah, I'm doing this really cool new show, and it's by Michelle Louvretta, who created a show called Lost Girl, and by the production team who created a show called Or From Black. And as soon as I heard that, like, you know, two very successful, very cool shows,

I thought, well, this might be something to look into. And I read the first scene of the first episode, and I was hooked. It just had humor, action, adventure, and a twist all in the first, like, four pages of this show, and I thought, oh, this is something that I think I want to be a part of. So what does Aaron look for in a role?

And is there ever a time where a part that he's offered might even be a better one for his twin brother, Sean? Well, first of all, as far as, like, what you look for in a script, I think, obviously, you have to see yourself as being able to play the role. And, you know, maybe people think that, like, well, as an actor, you can just do anything. It's like, well, you can try to do anything, but realistically, you have to like the character, and you have to just really believe that you yourself can play it.

So I think that's the first component. Also, in a script, I think it's good a little bit to look for something that scares you, because if you're just doing the same things over and over again, it kind of gets, you know, a little bit redundant, and you're just doing the same thing. So you have to push yourself a little bit.

You have to, like, sort of step outside your comfort zone a little bit. I think that's something important to look for. As far as roles like Colin and Sean and stuff, we've both done it where we're either working on something, so we're busy, but we've heard of, you know, a project that sounds interesting, and it's like, hey, we don't have the same representation, and agents and stuff.

So we'll be like, hey, call your agent and get them to look into this for you, because this is really cool. So, yeah, we definitely look out for each other like that. And, you know, we do play the same age range, and these look really similar, so we are really great for monotone parts. So it's not always like, oh, hey, I'm not right for this part, but it is maybe sometimes, well, hey, I'm busy, and I think that, you know, you should look into this.

So, yeah, we definitely have got each other's back on those things. So after a pretty heavy resume of acting, how about writing or directing? Yeah, absolutely. Just over the past year, I've sort of started to think about writing and, you know, kind of coming up with some concepts just for even just for short films to, you know, practice it right

and just, you know, get behind the camera. I think it's really tough to just jump into like a feature or, you know, nobody's going to give you a shot to direct a TV show unless you've been starring on it for like six seasons and you work into your contract. So, you know, I have a lot of friends in Toronto where I live that are shooting short films and really doing really cool creative stuff, and I'm definitely starting to get interested in that. The other reason, too, is because, you know, at a certain point, you kind of get sick of waiting for people to say, okay, now you get to go.

Now we're going to give you a job. Sometimes you just want to be able to be creative and do something yourself and have a little bit more control over it. So I think that's the way to do it, is to start to write and, you know, direct your own things. I have a lot of friends that are doing that, and it seems very enticing in a lot of ways. So from Smallville to Warehouse 13, Aaron's had some pretty great parts.

Is there any role he'd like to revisit, maybe go back and add something, too? Yeah, I really like the dynamic and the things that were happening on Warehouse 13. I just love that group of people, and I love that group of characters together. So, you know, in my mind, I'm thinking, well, who knows, you know, with Netflix and all these things, maybe in a year or two, we'll get a movie or something, you know, something like that. And there's no talk about it. That's just sort of like a wish list of mine.

But I really like not just my character, but the dynamics between them all. I think there's just such a cool chemistry, and everybody really has found their place in this sort of dysfunctional family on that show. So I think it was really cool. In addition to Killjoy's, Aaron's other latest project is a film called Regression is a feature film, a thriller starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson. And it's, well, that's just what it is. It's sort of a psychological thriller.

There's a crime that's committed against Emma Watson's character, and it's pretty horrific. And it's really sort of Ethan Hawke's character starting to, as a detective, starting to look into what happened here and sort of peeling away the layers of onion, you know, of this small pan or of this case. And it gets pretty dark and scary, and there's really like a psychological element to this, like what is happening here? What is underneath this town? So it's, well, I'm not going to say it's fun. I think if you like the sort of scary, tense stuff, it's a lot of fun. I actually haven't seen it yet, but filming it was incredible, and I think people are really going to like it.

So as far as dream roles, something out there he'd like to grab, well, there's one, but it's in a galaxy a long way off. I was just talking to somebody just not too long ago about the new Star Wars stuff. I wouldn't mind having a decent role in one of these Star Wars movies. I think, you know, I mean, there's so many roles that I would like to do. There's so many amazing people to work with. But just sort of off the top of my head, I take a candy on a Star Wars movie or a bigger party on a Star Wars movie. I'd run with that.

We've got more on Killjoy's coming up, but right now check out the very latest at sci-fi.com and see new episodes every Friday on Sci-Fi. Let's check out the very latest in pop culture. And yet another way to market their new series Scream, which premieres this week, MTV, has an interactive online game called Choose Your Own Murder. There are horror movie set ups with lots of different options and some fun things to do. If you want to check it out, you can do so right now at MTV.com.

The new relaunched Spider-Man title done by Brian Bendis that will come after the end of Secret Wars will feature Miles Morales in the role of the web slinger as opposed to Peter Parker. Parker will be involved in this series as an adult mentor to Morales, who will also be a member of the Avengers. All this, as we said, coming in the fall at the end of the Secret Wars event. Former Doctor Who David Tennant has joined the cast of the animated Chew series. Tenable Voice's choose mentor turned menace Mason Savoy in the series.

According to some online reports, this part originally belonged to Robin Williams, who was in negotiations to be part of the Chew cast before his suicide last fall. Some interesting rumors over the weekend that perhaps the CW is now developing a Hawkgirl TV series, even though we've never really seen the character in costume so far. Actor Sierra Renee is said to play the character in the new Legends of Tomorrow series when it debuts midway through the new TV season. However, according to some rumors, their CW is already developing a full series based on Hawkgirl that will bypass pilot season and go straight to a series. Again, just some rumors, but we do know for a fact that the character will debut, as we said, in Legends of Tomorrow, which will be on the CW come January.

NBC reporter and Today Show host Tamron Hall is back for a third season of Deadline Crime on Investigation Discovery. And for those who haven't caught the show yet, I ask her to describe what the focus was. The focus of our show is to try to give the viewer the perspective or the view of the family in many cases. A lot of these cases, we learn about the victims from their families, the people who know them the best, the people who know the most about them. So while we are following these cases and the twists and turns, we want you to see and feel what it's like from the family's view, whether it's a father who's grieving his daughter or a sister who is grieving the loss of her brother.

We want you to follow along and feel what it must be like to lose a loved one in a violent way. And several of our cases take you through that. We also focus on cases of injustice. An episode aired last week, our first of this new season, where a woman spent 17 years of her life behind bars for a crime she did not commit. And it was so touching. I spoke with her right out of prison, and she had a pair of sneakers where she wrote the word freedom on the soul of the sneakers. And she said, every day, I believe I was walking on freedom. So to hear her say that this mom, you would see her on the street and think, that must be the nicest woman in the world. And here she spent 17 years accused of a brutal murder that was carried out by gang members who set her up and lied and kept her behind bars from her child who waited to get married because she wanted her mother to be at her wedding.

And that's going to happen. So how do they find the cases here? We don't have a litmus test. You know, it's honestly, I have a fantastic team, Peacock Productions and the I.D. team. We scour over a number of cases. Some of them are brought to us by people who watch the show. I'll tell you a case last year, one of the most emotional cases for us. I was covering a story in Florida about this wealthy couple who's been killed by their son who wanted the insurance money and the detective who was retiring said to me, listen, I get why people are interested. You know, these wealthy people, they were senselessly murdered. But I have a case that's haunted me my entire career as a detective in Miami. And it was a wonderful woman who was murdered. And it took 10 years to solve that case. And I would love to see that. I want people to hear her story and what happened and see the struggle that this family went through.

And as a result, we did the story last year. So they come from a number of sources. We don't have a checklist. I know that I do a lot of work with domestic violence survivors, but that's not a criteria. It really is stories that we believe will have our viewers, our audience sit on the sofa and be riveted and wonder, could that happen to me or how could this happen to someone? Cameron filled us in on a few things we can look forward to this season. And she went into one of these chat rooms and met an individual who turned out to be one of the most frightening human beings I've ever read or heard about. And they, through just the weirdest of circumstances, ended up connecting. And what happened ultimately affected the Minnesota State Supreme Court.

And the debate over what is a crime as it relates to murder. So it's an amazing case. I think people won't believe what they are seeing. One thing Tamron is proud of is the fact that Investigation Discovery has made Deadline Crime an interactive show this season. Well, right now, Investigation Discovery, we teamed up with Safe Horizon, which is an organization on the front lines of helping survivors of domestic violence, their families. And really, they're working to educate all of us on what we can do, what our role is. So we have a campaign going right now with them to inspire a difference, put a nail in. Domestic violence really shuts the door on this crisis. And what we've done with them is allowed for a honest dialogue, one of no judgment, one of helping and healing, but also a dialogue that says, enough.

We have had these statistics put in front of us. We know that domestic violence can turn deadly and all too often does. So how do we finally put a nail in this and save lives? It's interesting, Mike, I've been shown new statistics on the number of young people, I'm talking middle school, who are abused by their boyfriends in seventh and eighth grade, or are victims of cyber and internet social media attacks. When I was growing up, you called my mother's house to harass me, you had some nerve and you'd be in trouble. Now, with all the kids having a cell phone, a Facebook page, an Instagram page, you open the door for these kinds of violent and just really abusive attacks on young people. And we talk about cyberbullying, we don't talk about the avenues that are open for domestic violence and verbal abuse because of social media. So we're opening the dialogue, we're opening the conversation without judgment, but with the focus of healing and finally addressing what we all know is a crisis in this country.

There are new episodes of Deadline Crime every Sunday, an investigation discovery. That's it for the podcast, but we're coming right back in a couple of days with a lot more as we get ready for Comic Con just a couple of weeks down the road. Your home for all that is right here on websites like ComicMix.com, MichaelDavisWorld.com, GetThePointRadio.com and of course in the iTunes podcast directory. Keep in touch with us right now on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under the Point Radio and we'll see you back here in a few days.