BUILD Series Dan Stevens

Legion Press | Crew Interviews | Cast Interviews | Dan Stevens Interviews

May 11, 2018

Based on the Marvel Comics by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, "Legion" is the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a man who believed himself to be schizophrenic only to discover that he may actually be the most powerful mutant the world has ever seen. Watch Stevens stop by BUILD to talk about the new season of the FX series.

[Archived Copy]

## Transcript

Ricky Camilleri: Welcome to BUILD. Thanks everybody. I'm your host Ricky Camilleri. He is easily one of the hardest-working actors right now with roles in Beauty and the Beast, The Man Who Invented Christmas, High Maintenance, and of course the fantastic show Legion, now in its second season, where Dan Stevens plays the son of X-Men's Charles Xavier. Let's take a look at a clip.

[Clip plays.]

Vermillion: The body must also be destroyed.

David Haller: The body?

Vermillion: The body of Amahl Farouk. His physical form. Many decades ago it was hidden after his defeat on the astral plane.

David Haller: By my father.

Vermillion: Farouk's mind is strong but the mutations are genetic. Meaning of the genes. Physical not mental.

David Haller: What is that--

David Haller: On its own the Shadow King's mind is powerful. But were he to rejoin his body he would be unstoppable.

David Haller: So where is it?

Vermillion: This information is not available to us at the present time. We are looking as is the Shadow King.

David Haller: So you're saying it's a race. We're in a race.

[Clip ends. Applause]

Ricky Camilleri: Everybody it's Dan Stevens! Okay, first question. What the hell was happening in that?

Dan Stevens: What's going on?

Ricky Camilleri: Just in that clip. Not even the show, just in that clip.

Dan Stevens: Well, he's meeting the Vermillion for the first time who are one -- I want to say one of but they're sort of three of, or maybe more -- of my favorite characters in the new season. They're kind of Sonny and Cher rolled into one. And yeah, so he's talking to Admiral Fukuyama who's surrounded by these man-ladies who's sort of wired up to his consciousness. It's very difficult to explain.

Ricky Camilleri: You're actually doing an amazing job.

Dan Stevens: And that is literally the explanation but it doesn't sound like an explanation. And yeah I mean, David is still trying to figure out what is going on, so he like you is probably quite lost in this world, I think.

Ricky Camilleri: How many questions do you ask, when you get to a scene in a day, or get a script? How much do you understand? Do you find yourself often showing up to, say, and being like-- What what's my intention? Okay, I'll do that.

Dan Stevens: No, hopefully by the time we get to shooting it, I have some sense of of what I think is going on. And very often that's all I need. And that's all the, you know, the director requires is that you know, I feel like I know what's happening and they will-- They'll make of that what they will. You know David is is often in a very different place mentally to whoever he's interacting with and so, you know, I can I can sort of pick a path for him.

Ricky Camilleri: And then they kind of intentionally disorient you. In the-- When shooting the first season was there a sense of like-- Keeping you away from certain storylines?

Dan Stevens: Audrey Plaza deliberately disoriented me, but I think that's just a hobby of hers. Ya know, she would-- She was definitely playing a lot of a lot of weird mind games from David--

Ricky Camilleri: Mind games usually included screaming: I don't like you. I'm kidding, I do like you. Wait, I don't. And you're like, wait--

Dan Stevens: She saves that for her interviewer's probably. But no, with me it was like it was more just like-- I know everything that's going on. I was like, what do you mean? She's like, nothing, and just, like, walking over to the coffee table. I didn't-- I really didn't know what was going on the first season a lot of the time. And that-- I think that was deliberate because David, as we find him in season 1, is really all over the shop and terrified and confused, and that was mostly what I was feeling a lot of the time. The second season, I think, having seen the first we knew what a kind of crazy beautiful show it could be. That didn't mean that the stuff coming in for season 2 did was any any clearer. But we still knew that we were in this very, very strange land. And you know, to expect the unexpected as opposed to just being completely baffled.

Ricky Camilleri: It does feel like the second season is a bit different in terms of approach than than the first season. Like the first season felt like it needed to be-- The first season is wonderful, but it felt like it needed to be a bit more a part of the X-Men world, I think. Whereas this season feels like it's very much its own world.

Dan Stevens: Do you think? I mean, yeah, I suppose. I mean, there's a couple of little bits here and there which I feel like kind of leaning more into that. You know, where Cary's examining the orb and talks about Shi'ar technology. And what did he say? And then it was like, it's not mentioned for three episodes but we'll get there, maybe. You know and-- You know, I'm always vying for more psionic blades and things like that. You know I mean I love what it does borrow from the comics and what it what it leaves behind. So I think it's more-- It's as much in tone as anything else it really borrows from the comics. The sense of humor, the madness, the-- Just the real playfulness of that particular storyline in the in the X-Men comics. I think that's what we take on and use.

Ricky Camilleri: Do you guys talk about Twin Peaks at all, while you're shooting it? Because it feels very-- And not even the original Twin Peaks, which was amazing.

Dan Stevens: It was amazing.

Ricky Camilleri: It feels a lot like the new Twin Peaks at times.

Dan Stevens: That's very kind of you to say. I mean, I love both the the Twin Peaks. And I mean, I don't know if it's a direct influence. And I know a lot of us involved in the show had been watching the new season because it was just in the ether when we were making it.

Ricky Camilleri: It's just a weird sense of like, you can do this?

Dan Stevens: Yeah.

Ricky Camilleri: Like, what even is TV anymore?

Dan Stevens: I mean that really is what I think Noah is is going for with this. It's like, you really can. I mean, part of the the nature of that second season is, you know, that reality is what you make of it. And I think, you know, these days a TV show is what you make of it. And and there's absolutely no reason, especially with a character as mad as Legion, why it has to look or feel anything like any other show. And now that's gonna upset some people and make some people uncomfortable, sure. And that's fine. And you can go and watch shows that make you ,you know, feel whatever that is that you need.

Ricky Camilleri: Rosanne reboot. No, I'm kidding.

Dan Stevens: Sure. You know, there's a lot of parallels, you know. But yeah, I think there's no reason it's all-- Wait, why I can't look and feel different? And I think it does. And I think that that is exciting some people, you know? There's like-- Wow this is very refreshing. And I think when when there are 500 shows out there that you could possibly watch, why not have one that makes you, you know, that sort of tickles your brain in a different way.

Ricky Camilleri: It's thrilling in a way to to watch it. And consistently be going, I can't believe they're letting them do this. I can't believe they're allowed to get away with this. How does that work do you ever get does the show get notes from from anybody at FX?

Dan Stevens: I mean probably. I don't-- I don't get those directly.

Ricky Camilleri: I'm sure you don't, yeah.

Dan Stevens: I think this-- There's probably a couple of things that come in in the assembly. Because also you know I've never been in something that differs so much from how it feels when you're making it, to what you see on the screen. Does that make sense?

Ricky Camilleri: That makes perfect sense. Like when you're making it, does it feel not as kind of abstract as when you're watching it? Is that what you mean?

Dan Stevens: I suppose, it's often quite abstract in my mind. And how I might assemble it in my head is totally different. And that's immaterial, but like, if you're shooting a conventional drama you can go and watch playback on the monitor and you're like oh, okay that's the scene. That's roughly what it's gonna look like when it's on the big screen. With Legion, you know, they take that, they put it inside somebody's eyeball, and throw it out into the universe. And it comes back and it's sort of-- Splurge of something. You're like, wow, I have no idea what I just saw. And I don't even remember being in that scene, you know. And the music that they choose, you know. And just there's so many elements that sort of just put it in this weird vortex there. It makes it very enjoyable for me to watch back because it's not like, oh god that's that scene I remember shooting. It's just like, what did they just do?

Ricky Camilleri: And often scenes are intercut over the course of an episode, too. Rather than you know, you sort of, getting the scene here that tells this story to tell this story to tell this story. We are telling the sort of puzzle piece of stories all around one episode and jumping back and forth

Dan Stevens: Absolutely. And this stuff that you know in this last episode, you know, that was used from season one that, you know, stuff we hadn't used or had used and they were using different angles. And you know there's-- So there's there's footage that finds itself throughout the season that you know, is very different to the order in which we've shown it.

Ricky Camilleri: Are you the type of person who can watch your own work like often? Or is Legion something different for you because you don't actually know what they're doing, sometimes?

Dan Stevens: I just need to figure it out yeah. I don't enjoy watching everything I've done back. But Legion, I think, is one of the most enjoyable because of that discombobulation is just, like-- It's so different to what I thought it was going to be. I'm still trying to figure out where it's going and what exactly is happening and-- Yeah, I just think it's such a trip to watch. It's really, I just really enjoy that that hour of TV.

Ricky Camilleri: Now the last episode, I forgot what chapter it was. The timeline the quantum physics timing episode

Dan Stevens: Fourteen.

Ricky Camilleri: Yeah, you got to do a lot of work as an actor. What what did you think when they brought that script to you? When they told you that they were gonna do this episode?

Dan Stevens: Yeah, it's a bit like somebody saying: okay, you're gonna run the marathon in so many weeks. And that was one of the earliest scripts that Noah had written. He knew that he wanted to do this standalone multiverse episode that didn't feel-- It was gonna be shot in a slightly different style. It was gonna be set in modern-day Los Angeles where we're now shooting. It had-- It was gonna have very, very different elements to it. Again, they didn't know quite where it was gonna come in the season. But we knew we were gonna be doing this at some point. And there was something like, you know, twelve different characters in there. And there was obviously gonna be a lot of prosthetics. And they just sort of handed me this. It was like, don't know when we're doing this but just get thinking about that. And I was-- So that would be my project, like while we were doing episodes one to seven or whatever, I would be working on that the whole time and thinking about where that was going to go. And I kind of loved it, really. It was a great challenge to be sort of handed early on in the season. And just so much fun to play with and just to get to explore all those realities and, yeah. Anything's possible with this show. And I hope if we, you know if we go on to a third season, there'll be even more playfulness to come in that in that kind of department.

Ricky Camilleri: What was the toughest reality to wrap your head around? To shoot?

Dan Stevens: I mean that the-- The homeless David was pretty intense just because of the-- Well, there was the the prosthetic makeup so it was about four hours in makeup each day to get that look. And then you--

Ricky Camilleri: Didn't you say you were like taking it off midday sometimes?

Dan Stevens: Well some days we were shooting three different realities back-to-back. So they would-- So like the the old man, that sad bald old man David-- Was actually more or less the homeless guy but without the wig and beard. And with, you know, a slightly more bulbous nose, you know. So they could use some of the prosthetics and build on that. But the homeless guy, they decided to layer up in all these clothes on. It was like 94 degrees downtown LA, I was a shuffling around with this, in this shopping cart in an area that is not too far from that reality. And it was it was quite intense just, you know. And there was a lot of long shots were they just like: okay, you're gonna take this shopping cart two blocks that way.

Ricky Camilleri: It wasn't like blocked off.

Dan Stevens: Yeah, it's like bye. And you know I was shopping along, I'm trying not to faint. And it was it was-- Yeah it was really awesome and again, just so different in the middle of shooting Legion, for all of its Vermilion and sort of weird neon and stuff. Suddenly to be in in real LA, albeit heavily disguised.

Ricky Camilleri: With a long lens, and the streets aren't blocked off, and PAs probably aren't shuffling people to the other side of it.

Dan Stevens: Well some of them were. And then, like you know, there was one time I was-- I was melting in the heat. I just, like, crouched down by a parking meter just to kind of-- You know, not fall over. And this lady came up to me and gave me a quarter. And and the PA almost stepped in to, like, stop her, like, approaching the actor, like he was supposed to do or whatever. And and he saw what was happening and he just kind of very respectfully like bowed his head and let it happen. And I let it happen too because I was like, I'm not gonna-- I don't know. I think it would freak this lady out more to suddenly come out of character and be like, I'm fine. Obviously. So anyway--

Ricky Camilleri: You've seen Beauty and the Beast? That was me.

Dan Stevens: But it was a really kind of-- It was an oddly sort of magical, beautiful moment and very, very sort of touching and-- But yeah I was I was melting. I went to-- Bought myself a popsicle.

Ricky Camilleri: Did you ever expect that when you signed up to do a television show? I mean, I guess the other TV show you did was Downton.

Dan Stevens: Yeah.

Ricky Camilleri: That you would be shooting on an LA Street with long lenses. And it would be a bit more guerrilla style. Rarely is TV ever shot that way.

Dan Stevens: It's true, yeah. I mean, I didn't I envisage that, no. But the fact that I'm allowed to do that is is awesome. And I'd always envisage the kind of variety that this show has afforded me. I mean, it's just the most playful thing I can imagine. And just the fact that, yeah, literally in that, you know, in the middle of a season you go: Right, okay, we're doing something totally different now. And you're gonna do nine different versions of this and go. And you know it's just-- It creatively inspires and challenges me in a way that I, you know, I could only ever have dreamed really. But I've always been looking for this kind of thing.

Ricky Camilleri: Is that kind of your first priority when it comes to-- Outside of working. But your first priority is to find challenges and and to be challenged?

Dan Stevens: I think so. I mean, it can be different things that sort of pique your curiosity. And sometimes it's the filmmaker or the script or a particular actor who's attached or something. You know, it's got to be something that just sort of--

Ricky Camilleri: Don't you jump done initially because it was Hawley?

Dan Stevens: Noah and this mad concept that was-- You know it, was very very brief but it was just, you know. This guy who's been told he's insane and paranoid schizophrenic and, you know, maybe that's not the whole truth. And you know, unreliable narrator. I was like, fine, great. It just sounds mad, it sounds, you know, I mean it sounds wild. And having read some of Noah's books like one of his early books, Conspiracy of Tall Men. You know it's all about paranoid conspiracy theory anyway, which I'm kind of fascinated in anyway as they're sort of--

Ricky Camilleri: Fargo. Fargo is very much like that as well.

Dan Stevens: It scratches those worlds a little bit. And it's very fertile ground for storytelling because you have the unreliable narrators and these sort of weird narratives that may or may not be true. And so for a show like this it's perfect. And I knew that Noah's brain kind of fitted with this story was going to be a wild ride whatever it was. And he just-- He promised me that it would be something weird and beautiful. That was like literally his sort of-- That was his pitch. I can't say anymore but it's gonna be weird and beautiful. I was like, I mean, I'm in.

Ricky Camilleri: I was gonna say, if you're good at conspiracy theories, you're kinda good at storytelling. Conspiracies are storytelling.

Dan Stevens: Good ones.

Ricky Camilleri: Right, yeah yeah.

Dan Stevens: Good ones should hold enough just enough water. We like--

Ricky Camilleri: The human need for conspiracies, is that human need for like, for having a story that explains something.

Dan Stevens: Trying to make sense of of this weird world. And you know, a lot of people can't figure out what's going on. It's like, yeah, but have you looked around lately?

Ricky Camilleri: Satire's become reality, guys. We're living in a surreal environment.

Dan Stevens: Unintentionally very, very relevant. I think people who're like-- Oh right yeah, I'm trying to figure out my reality right now. And like, what if this, what if that, and the sort of multi-- The multiverse theory is always is always fascinating.

Ricky Camilleri: What I also really like about Legion-- About this far into the season is that-- I was really lost for the first few episodes of this season. But in the last episode or two I feel like-- Like good television does. It's kind of bringing the stories together in a lot of ways.

Dan Stevens: Yeah, I mean, you shouldn't be fully satisfied one hour into an 11 hour story. I think the same with a novel. It's like you know, you don't want to-- I don't be like, oh well I know where this is going two chapters in. Like, you want to feel like you're being led into a world and through it. Through a maze, literally, by a skillful storyteller. And I think, you know, in this in this case you really are. And I think in those last three hours, really, with that Syd hour, then the Lenny hour where you have her, you know, interrogated in that room. You dive into her backstory a bit more. Amy's story, you know, and Amy and David's relationship in the last one. Like it's very-- It's very texturized this season. I feel like, you know, a lot of those stories, particularly for the female characters, are getting very very deep and real. And that's again something you don't see nearly often enough in other shows let's say.

Ricky Camilleri: I loved the Syd story. I was telling you backstage. Not just because-- But the Bon Iver song at the top of it, yeah. Do they tell you what kind of music they're gonna be using for this stuff? Is that just a surprise for you when you go to watch it?

Dan Stevens: Very occasionally there'll be a suggestion of like-- We would like this. So you know, this song plays, and if they can get it then they do. But no, there's an amazing music supervisor called Maggie Phillips who who works with Noah on choosing just the right stuff. And yeah, I mean, that song is beautiful. Anyway, and I think you know-- When you lay it on top of Syd's really tragic story. And it's a really beautiful episode that it was directed by Ellen Kuras, who was the DP on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and is now going into directing. And she just had such a great vision, literally, but you know-- A beautiful sensitivity to this girl's story. And yeah, I was really really proud of that episode and all of the Syds there. It was great.

Ricky Camilleri: This is one of the few TV shows that I feel could sort of live or die based off of the directors that are brought onto each episode. Where you know, TV is always known as the writer's medium. It's kind of the cliche about it. And film, movies are the directors medium. This show really feels like the directors have to know exactly kind of what they're going into and what their vision is for the episode, because each episode kind of differs in a lot of ways.

Dan Stevens: It does. And it can like totally-- It can be, you know, there can be great shifts. I think it's really inviting some very playful and inventive filmmakers. You know we had Ana Lily Amirpour, did you know? Episode 2. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is an incredible film. And just, you know, such a fresh weird take on that genre. And I think it's something that Noah and I were quite keen to establish with this show was a was a kind of playground mentality where actors would want to come and do a guest because it's fun and weird, and you know, directors who-- Yeah, they might be developing X number of features but you know-- Do you want to come and try some some weird stuff out? You know for an hour on this show?

Ricky Camilleri: A sandbox.

Dan Stevens: We've got this weird lens, you know, come on. Like coaxing them in with it. It's sort of weird jelly eyed lens or some--

Ricky Camilleri: Fisheye lens.

Dan Stevens: There's-- I've never seen a camera department, a lighting department more fired up than on Legion as well. Just like being around a crew who is so engaged with with what's happening rather than the kind of, roll camera, you know. And it's just sort of some procedural moment you know it's actually just like you know it's all about this weird shot and we might rehearse that one shot for hours you know so that it's so that it's just right and it it feels a very like creatively engaged.

Ricky Camilleri: Crews get excited when they get to sort of creatively solve problems for what seemed like really great creative ideas, you know. They can rally around that. But if you don't rally them around that they are like, am I getting OT today?

Dan Stevens: What time is lunch, yeah.

Ricky Camilleri: The truck, yeah.

Dan Stevens: And you know each episode of Legion is-- You know that it is certainly problematic in a sense. It comes in and everyone's like-- What? how are we gonna do this?

Ricky Camilleri: That was my first question for you in the greenroom was like-- I don't understand how you guys get this show done right in the timeframe that TV shows need to get done.

Dan Stevens: Time travel.

Ricky Camilleri: There it is.

Dan Stevens: There's a secret. I wish. No, I--

Ricky Camilleri: You don't block shoot it, right?

Dan Stevens: we don't no it's it's about nine days in episode I think and we just come in and and yeah it happens somehow Andrew Wiley cooks up the sets and we just yeah we just go in and live on them and and yeah like I said some very you know inventive and very well-prepared directors come in and yeah just

Ricky Camilleri: Let's get some questions from the audience. Who's got a question? Right here.

Audience Member: HiI I've been a huge fan of you-- (fade out)