TV Line Interview Comic-Con 2017

Legion Press | San Diego Comic Con 2017

July 20, 2017

TV Line's Michael Ausiello interviews the cast and crew of Legion at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con.

[Archived Copy]

## Transcript

Michael Ausiello: We're at TV Line's Comic-Con suite with the cast of Legion. Welcome. I love this show so much, I'm confused half the time. So I have a question for you. Fess up: how often are you confused by the show and when do you go to the producers to ask for clarity?

Bill Irwin: Most of the time.

Jean Smart: Often.

Michael Ausiello: Can you give me an example of something that you're like, help me understand this?

Aubrey Plaza: One time I was like: Who am I? Am I real?

Noah Hawley: She was, she said that.

Aubrey Plaza: Yup.

Noah Hawley: And this is what I did. [deadpan expression]

All: [laugh]

Noah Hawley: I said, you're real.

Michael Ausiello: Dan, what about you anything--

Dan Stevens: Well you know is I'm kind of confused by life generally. So I was going to producers for sort of life question which was incidental to the show but fed into the show.

Noah Hawley: When we made the first hour, you had a lot of questions that I said you don't need to worry about that right now.

Dan Stevens: Yes.

Noah Hawley: Be in this experience and then-- But then after, I sort of laid out what we were gonna-- We were going to do.

Dan Stevens: You did. But it was gradually being in this experience and then I thought there was something that would come after that.

Noah Hawley: Yeah.

Dan Stevens: And there wasn't. That was the end of the sentence.

Noah Hawley: Yes, be in the next experience.

Dan Stevens: Be in the next experience. And there were more experiences.

Jean Smart: The astral plane was a little hard to wrap my mind around at first.

Noah Hawley: Yeah the green box. Acting in the green box.

Dan Stevens: It's fun.

Noah Hawley: It's been a dream of mine to work in a green box.

Michael Ausiello: This show is so gorgeous. When you're shooting, it did you have did you have any idea of how it was going to actually look?

Jean Smart: A lot of it was a surprise. I mean a really pleasant surprise. Like when you go looping and see something and--

Dan Stevens: And all the sets were very cool. They were very cool spaces to inhabit actively-- Is it a diorama? Cyclorama. What is the 360--

Jean Smart: The hospital?

Dan Stevens: It's the same one right, with the goat and the?

All: [general agreement]

Dan Stevens: --down in the bowels of this round thing with all the colors on the wall and-- I really like that space.

Jean Smart: The zen garden outside.

Noah Hawley: Part of the fun of making an ensemble where everyone's in their own storyline is that when you finally show the cast, they don't really know what it all is together. You know, Dan knows the the show he's in but often Jean's in a different show, and Rachel is-- You know. And so when you put it all together and see how it cuts and with music and-- Obviously there's a very kind of hypnotic pattern to the cutting style and so the script doesn't really indicate what the show is going to be in the final, feels like.

Rachel Keller: [laughs]

All: [laugh]

Jean Smart: Something to say Rachel? Share with the rest of the class.

Noah Hawley: She's so high right now.

All: [laugh]

Dan Stevens: Legion.

All: [laugh]

Michael Ausiello: Where are you in the process of-- For season two?

Noah Hawley: I think everyone here has read at least one script, and I have some more that I'm working on. And we start shooting on September 5th so I think we're-- I think we're hammering our first nails today on the sets and everything.

Michael Ausiello: Aubry are you anxious, scared, curious, what crazy shit they're going to have you doing?

Aubrey Plaza: All of the above. All of the above. I just sit and stare at my window and wonder, like, what's going to happen all the time.

Michael Ausiello: Was there a highlight in season one? Something that you got to do where it was just like this this was pretty rad?

Aubrey Plaza: I got to do really my first real like harness stunt with Brad. And that was really fun because I've never done that before. So that was great.

Michael Ausiello: And Dan, are you anxious to see what it's going to be like not having this parasite in your head and sort of like you're full use of your powers?

Dan Stevens: Is it full? I mean, we will have the full-ish use. There may be other things in there as well.

Jean Smart: I see something.

Dan Stevens: There's something in there right now, is there? Yes, it's showing.

All: [laugh]

Dan Stevens: Yeah. I mean there's all sorts-- You know the scope for Legion, you know is-- is massive and the cosmos is very large it turns out.

Noah Hawley: Yeah and I think what's interesting is you have a character who can blame every bad thought or bad thing he's done on the entity that's now gone. Now is he thinking law I'm just purely a good person and every thought I have is a good thought and there's sort of a hubris to that.

Dan Stevens: Yes. And you know the identity of illness as well a bit you know people people's attachment to something that may be living inside them or or you know that sort of a bad entity you know it's an interesting story to look at illness in that way and that people do sometimes identify an illness, they give it a persona almost.

Noah Hawley: Yeah and the idea of what's normal and and what reality is that we continue to play with.

Dan Stevens: Still not sure. Still not sure.

Noah Hawley: I want to continue to make this a parable about mental illness and not just have that have been a gimmick to get us into a superhero show. So I think we'll continue to explore those ideas

Michael Ausiello: How are the discussions going with Fox in terms of an X-Men reference?

Noah Hawley: You know, I mean that we-- I don't have a lot of conversations with them about it I you know obviously we we have were true to David's origin story and we've introduced the fact that-- I mean i think the fan base knows who his dad is and the shadow king plays into that dad story we're not racing toward toward the reveal but i do think that that it's natural for David to have those questions and you know we'll get there eventually.