'The Fall' Panel at TCA 2015 (January 7th)

Update: Added more new HQ pictures and live blog.

@netflix: "#TheFall's @GillianA and @JamieDornan at #TCA2015. Join us for a Twitter Q&A at 10:30 A.M. PST #TheFallOnNetflix"

Full Live Blog

9:46 AM: “I think you’ve really got to cling to what makes sense to you,” Dornan says of the humanity in Paul. “You have to find something likeable…there are qualities to him that make him somewhat normal, and I think we can understand being relatively good father and not a terrible husband for the most part.” He also notes he read books to get inside the mind of a serial killer. 

9:48 AM: “He’s very much an ordinary man, and that’s disconcerting to people,” Cubitt says of making Paul more realistic versus more surreal, a la Hannibal, etc. “It’s a deliberate choice to make someone who is closer to the reality of the situation.” 

9:50 AM: Were Dornan and Anderson on the phone with each other when they filmed the final scene of the first season? Nope. Dornan says Cubitt was playing Stella, and Anderson cracks that he does a great impersonation at her. 

9:53 AM: Cubitt says he pitched THE FALL for a 12-episode first season to BBC. When they picked it up, they told him they could only make five episodes for season 1, but he didn’t have to end the tale there. 

9:54 AM: Could the show continue, perhaps even without Dornan? Whether Paul makes it through the season, Cubitt says, “I’m very confident there will be a third season.” There’s official stuff to work through with BBC, but he’s hopeful it’ll happen. 

9:56 AM: Does Cubitt have an end planned? “As a writer, reaching that point when you [eventually] come to the point when you’re going to end this thing, you have to do what you think is best…you can’t please everyone,” he says. 

9:57 AM: Cubitt says he thinks we’re now geared to watching things in bigger clumps. “From that point of view, it’s a good model,” he says of having the show launch in America on Netflix. Anderson says while people talk on social media about being so excited for the next episode of show, etc., but being able to binge a show means they don’t have to, so you don’t risk people forget to tune in, etc. And the way people have watched television has shifted throughout her run: “X-FILES was the beginning of appointment television, this is the end of appointment television.” 

10:00 AM: Anderson loves working on this show, calling it her favorite thing to work on right now. “I felt strongly while doing the first season that Stella was one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played.” 

10:01 AM: Do they binge-watch shows? Anderson says her daughter tried to get her to binge-watch BREAKING BAD, but they didn’t get very far. She did make it through SERIAL during the winter break. Dornan is a few episodes behind on SERIAL, but he did binge BREAKING BAD after the finale. 

10:05 AM: “I was never in a room, situation, or audition where I was in the conversation to play someone like him,” Dornan says of playing Paul. He notes that while he takes complicated roles, he’s also a “complicated dude.” 

10:06 AM: “I think it’s quite typical teenage behavior,” Cubitt says of Katie’s relationship with Paul. “To use a cliche, she’s playing with fire, and she doesn’t quite realize it.” Things come to a head with that storyline in season 2. 

10:07 AM: Cubitt confirms he wrote a lot of the role of Stella with Anderson in mind. He notes it’s a dream come true to get your ideal actor to play a character. What characteristics specifically did he write for Anderson? “I’m wondering the same thing as well,” Anderson laughed. “She is incredible focused, understated, detailed…with an underpinning of emotion for the most part she chooses to keep in check,” Cubitt says. He points out when you first see Stella in season 1, she was wearing a facial mask and sweatpants. 

10:11 AM: “The creation of a female character in order to investigate [the crime]…I had, broadly speaking, feminist intentions at the start of that,” Cubitt says of focusing the show on a female who was searching for a male killer. “These things work if you bring something fresh to them.” 

10:14 AM: “We were approached and we had a deal that fell through for a remake of THE FALL,” Cubitt says. He says that since we share a language, we shouldn’t need to remake it for America. 

10:15 AM: What’s the different between filming in America versus overseas? Anderson says it feels more personal there, and in America, it feels a little bit like “cattle ranching.” 

10:16 AM: “You have to sort of rely on professionalism and see it for what it is,” Dornan says. “You’re still human beings, and it’s still odd positions to be putting people in, often literally with THE FALL. I personally do everything in my power to make the moments before or after the take very light…I don’t find it very personally comfortable to stay in the headspace of someone like [Paul] for too long. A lot of apologies. If I’m doing something especially heinous to an actress, I apologize and say, ‘I’m probably not going to derive a huge amount of pleasure from this.'”

Pictures

HQ/Untagged







Media

  

Tweets

@Kristiturnquist: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan ('50 Shades of Gray') are here to talk about Season 2 of #TheFall, on Netflix 1/16 #TCA15

@Kristiturnquist: Jamie Dornan says he's read about Ted Bundy & other serial killers as research for the killer he plays on #TheFall

@netflix: #TheFall's @JamieDornan read books on serial killers like Ted Bundy to get ready for the role. #TCA15

@JarettSays: "I'm obviously not a serial murderer in real life. You have to find something human in them you like" Dornan on playing Paul #TheFall #TCA15

@trishbendix: Creator very confident there will be a Season 3 of #TheFall, but no official announcement yet. #TCA15

@JarettSays: "I'm very confident there will be a third season," says Cubitt on #TheFall. He also has a plan for the series finale. #TCA15

@trishbendix: .@GillianA says #TheFall is her favorite thing she's done. She likes shooting in Ireland, working with the crew.

@trishbendix: .@GillianA says #TheFall is her favorite thing she's done. She likes shooting in Ireland, working with the crew. Wants more seasons

@JarettSays: Jamie Dornan has 4 episodes left in #Serial. Asks Gillian Anderson not to spoil it #TCA15 #TheFall

@netflix: "She's one of my favorite characters I've ever played." -@GillianA on Stella Gibson #TheFall

@JarettSays: "I'm a pretty complicated dude." Jamie Dornan on playing complicated characters #TCA15 #TheFall #50ShadesOfGrey

@TVWatchtower: Jamie Dornan says Gillian's character is flattered by his character's attention and may be a little bit in love with him.

@ChannelGuide: #TheFall's @GillianA says it's her favorite project. Cubitt says he wrote her role with her in mind and landing her was a gift. 

@TVWatchtower: #TheFall lucked out finding Jamie D. He portrays the duality necessary for audiences to both love & loathe his character

@JarettSays: #TheFall EP was approached to create an American version, but the deal fell through. #TCA15

@debrabirnbaum: #TheFall EP: "We share a common language. I'm not sure why we would remake The Fall." #Netflix #TCA15

@KSiteTV: "I don't want to stay in the head-space of someone like Spector for too long" - Jamie Dornan #TheFall #TCA15

@TVWatchtower: Jamie Dornan admitted it is bizarre and uncomfortable to put some of the actresses in the positions he has to in #TheFall.

@TVWatchtower: Jamie Dornan will apologize in advance to the actresses that his character attacks in #TheFall. Such a gentleman! #TCA15

Media Pictures: 1 | 2 | HQ Pictures: The50ShadesWorld | Source