An Evening with FlashForward at the Paley Festival

For fans of the television show FlashForward, it comes as no surprise to hear the show described as ambitious and addictive. From the very start, the show landed on the television landscape with a “shock and awe” campaign with the premise of a worldwide blackout during which each person saw a vision of their future. It is a show that challenged the viewer to think about the complex struggle of free will versus destiny.

Christine Woods & Peyton List at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

So in recognition of FlashForward, the cast and creators were invited to share an evening of celebration at the Paley Festival on March 11th. Attending the panel were cast members: Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, Jack Davenport, Dominic Monaghan, John Cho, Gabrielle Union, Courtney B. Vance, Christine Woods, Zachary Knighton, Peyton List and Michael Ealy, as well as executive producer Jessika Borsiczky and creator Brannon Braga; and moderating the panel was Craig Tomashoff of TV Guide. (Brian F. O’Byrne was not able to attend as he was filming that evening.)

As a special treat for the audience, 20 minutes of the upcoming 2-hour return premiere of FlashForward which airs March 18th on ABC was shown. The episode “Revelation Zero” did a wonderful job re-introducing the characters and the doomsday-clock counting down to April 29th when each character’s flashforward visions may come true. Revealed in that episode was the significance and value of “future forecasting” which is akin to printing money as would be a priceless resource. Also making cool appearances in the upcoming episode are Gil Bellows (who faithful Ally McBeal viewers may recognize), a window washer given a new chance at life, and Neil Jackson (best known as Sasha Beloff to Make It or Break It fans). As a heads-up to viewers, it should be noted that there was one scene that may upset a few people as it depicts a burning Bible. But trust me when I say the upcoming 2-hour return premiere is a wild, adrenaline-pumping ride and you will not want to miss it.

Talking a little about what to expect for the 2nd half of the season for FlashForward, executive producer Jessika Borsiczky shared that they had already started thinking about ways to adapt the show as it went along, particularly with so many characters and so many layers. So, while they stuck to their overall plan, they have had to adjust to fine-tune the show a bit. Accordingly, coming up in the next 12 episodes (which includes 2-hour return premiere and the 2-hour finale) they aim to have big answers in every episode and to delve deeper into the characters. They will also be accelerating the pacing to help keep their audience engaged. Jessika noted that the show is intended to be a mirror for life in a lot of ways and that the characters are always going to be struggling to find answers and look for meanings behind things. But it will never be completely simple. She also cautioned that for those who think they know the ending because they have read the book, they are in for a surprise. (Michael Ealy, who joined the series later than the rest of the cast, was completely surprised that the show was even based on a book!)

John Cho & Brannon Braga at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

When asked about whether they are worried about having a serialized television show at this particular time, creator/producer Brannon Braga responded, “You can’t go into a show thinking like that.” Jessika also added, “There’s only so much you can control… You can control how big the show is, you can control the vision for the show and getting to work with the people you want to work with. You can’t really go into someone’s house and force them to turn on the TV.” Which prompted Brannon to half-jokingly plead, “Please watch the show and tell all your friends — we are begging you!”

While FlashForward” was originally developed for HBO, ABC was the most passionate about it and vied strongly for it. However, ABC’s tenacity has been a mixed blessing for ABC immediately had heightened expectations that it would become as successful as Lost. So, as Brannon noted, “It’s a double-edged sword. It’s amazing to have ABC’s [strong support] … On the other hand, it’s better to be the ‘come-from-behind underdog.’” He also conceded, “There were a lot of expectations for the show to do extremely well.” Because the show was spotlighted as the next big thing, the advertising was everywhere. However, for those working on the show, they are so deeply involved with filming that it was hard to take notice of the rising tide of total saturation and overwhelming expectations. Sonya Walger did note that she sensed a specialness about show when she was working on the pilot and that she could instinctively feel that it just had the right mix of ingredients. She also shared, “It has that ‘it’ factor … It also has spectacularly great writing.”

Joseph Fiennes & Michael Ealy at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

Michael Ealy piped in to add that he felt the show was something special when he saw the final scene at the end of the pilot with Suspect Zero was walking around the stadium. And John Cho said he knew that the show was something special once he found out that they were able to get the music rights to the song “Like a Rolling Stone” – for it showed that people were actually backing the show and its vision. Jack Davenport noted that for him, “I love how the concept is huge, but it doesn’t overwhelm everything.” For the show at its core is about the characters who bring it to life.

When asked whether the actors themselves ever stop to consider the weighty themes of the show, most responded that they are too busy learning their lines and working to really think about it. But Dominic Monaghan humorously said, “Those questions are heavy. I don’t know if I want to talk about my belief in God in front of a whole bunch of very charming strangers … I might get ousted — I might never work in this town again!”

As far as casting the show, because FlashForward was the first pilot filmed last year, all the actors were the producer’s first choices. Though Brannon did clarify with a bit of a smile, “Every person we cast was our first choice – except two.” “Well, really one,” Jessika said looking pointedly at Dominic. While Dominic merely grinned broadly, Brannon explained, “We had to beg Dominic to do the show.” To which Dominic happily exclaimed, “Yep!” Dominic also noted that he was pitched an entirely different story for the show, and once he agreed to be on the show, it was a completely rewritten! However, gauging from the beaming expression on his face, he was not very upset about it. Brannon and Jessika both said that, in the end, they just knew that this particular group of actors would work great together. “But the love affair between Courtney and Jack is new!” Jessika teasingly added, making a playful reference to
Courtney B. Vance and Jack Davenport’s outrageous attempts to hijack the panel by slowly rubbing each other’s legs in an attempt to show how much the cast “loves” each other.

Sonya Walger & Zachary Knighton at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

When queried how much they actors themselves know about their characters and the show, the actors ruefully admitted that they typically only read their scenes. Additionally, the producers/writers do not want the actors to know too much about their characters as it helps keep the scenes real. As a result, the actors are never sure if they will be around for the next episode and are constantly checking with the writers whether they will still be alive. One good example was Joe saying that when he read the script about his character being the one to murder John Cho’s character, he immediately thought, “I shouldn’t have read that!” Jack Davenport also admitted that once he found out that the pilot script was completely different than the book, in which his character was the main character and that he would only be appearing in 5 seconds of the pilot, he kept rewinding and rewatching that tiny bit just to remind himself that he was actually a part of the show.

When asked what finally persuaded him to take a role in television, Joe said he had always been interested in working in television, and more particularly after he had done a pilot with Ryan Murphy, which unfortunately did not get picked up. But it was at that point he began actively looking into television roles. And once he read the script for FlashForward, he jumped at the chance because he thought it was an audacious premise and just loved the writing. For him, it is all about the writing. He explained that, from his perspective, theatrical film work is entirely too predictable and thus one of the major attractions of television is that the storylines and characters are much more flexible and unpredictable as the writers are free to accentuate a story or character and then pull back as necessary. John Cho also noted that the distance between film and television has become shorter and shorter as the level and quality of writing talent has become higher.

As to whether he is finding it difficult to juggle both a major film career and a television series, John said, “There’s two jobs that I care about and two stories that I care about.” He is clearly delighted to be working on both FlashForward and the Star Trek sequel. He quipped, “It’s so much money…[I’m] trying to jam all the boxes into my car!”

Jack Davenport & Dominic Monaghan at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

When asked about the differences in filming Lost versus FlashForward, Dominic Monaghan noted that one distinct difference is that one is filmed on an island and he also noted that the characters he plays are vastly different. He felt the character Charlie on Lost was very reactionary and frantic; whereas, Simon on FlashForward just pushes through with his ideas, while using very specific words and physicality. He also noted, “I tend to base the characters I play on animals — and Charlie is kind of a monkey — Simon is a praying mantis — and those animals are very, very different. Whatever job I’m in is kind of where my focus is… [it’s hard] to jump back into something else, which I have done recently with Lost and then to come back into FlashForward.” Sonya Walger also shared that she feels like the character Penny on Lost and Olivia on FlashForward are practically the same — except that Penny is British, which posed a slightly awkward moment when she recently returned to film on Lost. For it was only after she filmed an entire scene that she was told, “You remember Penny’s English, right?” Sonya was pretty mortified, but had to laugh over such a blatant oversight on her part.

During the panel each cast member was asked to either analyze or give some advice to their character on the show, so Courtney assessed that his character Stanford Wedeck is so in-control that he is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Jack noted that Lloyd Simcoe is less overwhelmed by the “why’s and wherefore’s” but is entirely guilt-racked and conflicted.

Then Dominic analyzed Simon Campos as arrogant with a one-track mind, who feels no guilt, and who does not feel responsible even if he ultimately were responsible for the black-out. He also noted that even though Simon has lots of issues; therapy would be wasted on him. Dominic shared that his character Simon is so dark that he really struggles to get rid of that feeling at the end of the work day. It is an overwhelmingly dark persona that is hard to shed.

Christine said that she would urge her character Janis Hawk to open up because Janis is too cold and work driven.

Gabrielle Union & John Cho at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

Gabrielle said that her character Zoe Adata is like a bad Bridezilla and that she could see Zoe pulling a Weekend at Bernie’s and dragging Demetri’s corpse to their wedding. Gabrielle said she feels that Zoe needs to focus more on the man and not the event. Adding to the comedic revelry of the evening, Gabrielle leaned over to hug her co-star John Cho while impishly saying, “Our characters have formed a love bond.” To which John slyly added, “You know what I’m saying, it’s a sexual bridge!”

As far as his character, John noted that Demetri Noh only sees people as good and bad and that he really needs to learn that there are other categories. Then Joe noted that Mark Benford needs to lighten up and have a drink. (He was just kidding of course!) Michael shared that as to his character, Marshall Vogel, a therapist would only strive to be more like Marshall because Marshall is so fundamentally good at his core. Sonya then commented that Olivia Benford needs a big cry and that is really all she needs. Zach said as far as Bryce, he has a problem simply because his name is “Bryce Varley” and that Bryce needs to hear that there is more to life than girls and to chill out. Finally, Peyton said of her character Nicole Kirby that she needs to live it up because she may not be here forever and life is short.

Returning to the structure of the series, one of the burning questions everyone seemed to want to know about was what was the significance of the April 29th date – the date that everyone saw in their flashforwards – which creator/producer Brannon Braga sheepishly admitted that he chose at random because it sounded cool. Also, in the novel, he explained the flashforwards were set 20 years later and that would not have fit within the time limitations of television.

Then when asked what it was like to work with the kangaroo in the pilot and in the Halloween episode “Scary Monsters and Super Creeps,” Joe said he felt like he wanted to put on a set of boxing gloves and go a round or two with it, but he was not allowed near it. Which prompted Brannon to explain that the kangaroo was actually quite aggressive and they had to keep it on a tight leash so it would not attack Joe. But, mysteriously, the 2nd time they worked with it, the kangaroo was super mellow — so they suspect it was a different kangaroo.

Jack Davenport & Zachary Knighton at the FlashForward event / Wireimage

As far as how different it is to film the “flashforwards” versus the regular scenes, Jessika explained that “each flash forward is filmed differently … but in the language of the show.” For example, in Joe’s flashforward, they actually used a different type of camera to create the drunk and disoriented effect. They also used a different vernacular and language so that those scenes are visually different and individualized. Then for Olivia’s vision, they used flares so that the vision was not entirely in focus, making it appear a bit more unusual and soft. Gabrielle also shared that she had not been told that in her flashforward it was a funeral and not a wedding, so when she first filmed the scene she was all happy and hand-waving like a happy bride. It was not until afterwards that they told her that it was actually a funeral and they had to reshoot the entire scene. As for Jack, he is delighted to not have to do anymore flashforward scenes. He laughingly explained, “Shirtless is a two syllable word to the writers — to me it is like 9,000 sit-ups!”

As to what to look for when the series returns, there will be additional appearances by Ricky Jay, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Seth McFarlane. Jessika cryptically explained, “Ricky Jay plays a big part on the show and I don’t want to say too much about it but he has a really cool part… We’ve now dangled a pretty big mystery about [Shohreh’s character]… I can’t say when or whether it will be this season, but she’s on our come back list.”

Then responding to a fan question about why they elected to use a different building to film the scene in which Agent Gough jumped from the top of the FBI building, they explained that the DWP building they normally use was simply not tall enough for the stuntman, so they had to use another building. But they quickly added that they love filming at the DWP building because it is so beautiful architecturally.

When asked if they read or check-out fan-sites, the actors all said that they don’t, but the producers said that they do, but they watch out for chat-rooms because there is too much conflicting information. Mostly, they just love the immediacy of seeing the fans’ reaction while the show is airing. They had no idea that the show would turn into such a phenomenon. It is not just a show, it is a fan obsession. Additionally, Jessika noted, “It’s fantastic to see that our show triggers a creative impulse in other people.”

As far as the longevity of the show, it really depends on whether the viewers return when the show does. Right now the network is standing strongly behind the show — which is demonstrated by the one-hour clip show which will air Tuesday, March 16th and the 2-hour return premiere episode on Thursday, March 18th. Both episodes do a great job at re-introducing the characters and the story to the television audience. Plus, the remaining 12 episodes (14 hours worth) will build towards a satisfying ending in which most, if not all, the questions will be answered. As for the resolution of this current season, Jessika was quick to reassure that there is a satisfying ending to the first season and concluded with, “We’re anticipating getting to do this for a long time.”

And on that last final positive note, it remains to be seen where the show will go from here or how much longer we will have a chance to enjoy the mysteries it has in store. Be sure to tune in tonight, Thursday, March 18th for the return of FlashForward on ABC.