#season 3 episode 15 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

leverage-commentary · 1 year

Text

Leverage Season 3, Episode 15, The Big Bang Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Marc: Hello I'm Marc Roskin, director of this episode.

John: I am John Rogers, executive producer.

Geoff: I'm Geoff Thorne, I'm a co-writer of this episode.

Aldis: This is cookies, the good looking half of milk and cookies.

[All Laugh]

Christian: That's Aldis Hodge, I'm Christian Kane, and I play Eliot Spencer.

Aldis: That'd be milk.

Chris: [Laughs]

Christian: There you go.

Chris: And I'm Chris Downey, executive producer, co-writer of this episode: The Big Bang Job, part one of our explosive two part season finale.

Geoff: Yay!

John: Yeah, I think this one is gonna go a little slower since we have the boys in here today, we're gonna keep—

[All Laugh]

John: Gonna keep hopping back and forth, that's why I broke out—usually Guinness, I broke out the Irish for this one.

[Clinking Noise]

Marc: Ice in the glass, ice in the glass right there.

John: Okay, this is the big setup, we had to—we knew that at this point we were coming back after a break, so we had to do a big reset scene, and actually, this is pretty cut up. We had, at one point, a long sort of recap version of this scene to show you all the victims, the villains, and how they hooked up and how they connected, to remind you exactly, you know, how the season had built to this moment. This was a, this was a ton of—how'd we come up with this abduction/rescue?

Chris: Yeah, Geoff, I think this was, when we broke this-?

Geoff: I just think we needed a way in, we needed a victim, we—this show is very—this episode was very sort of James Bond-y movie-esque, and we didn't want to get too far away from what Leverage actually is, so we needed someone to bring the crew in, so we came up with Yasmin, and her—

Chris: Played by Ginger Williams.

Aldis: Yes.

Geoff: She did a lovely job, a lovely gal. And and this scene right now, is her being, sort of victimized, [laughs] but-

Aldis: Let me ask you something-

Marc: In the labs of Portland State University.

John: Yeah, this was great. Portland State was amazing.

Aldis: We actually, they got mad because we actually blew up a building. No, let me ask you something Geoff, I know that John and Chris write from personal experience of criminal history—

[All Laugh]

Aldis:—how many people have you abducted?

[All Laugh]

Geoff: No abductions, a little bit of grifting in my past.

John: Here, a little something for the red states: how many white women have you abducted in the past year and [drowned out by laughter].

Geoff: Uhhh, well they all came willingly, so is it an abduction? I dunno! If the victim comes along and they want to be there...

Aldis: So, so, how did that explosion happen?

Marc: Interactive light, and then we built some models and shot some models and put them in.

Christian: Man, don't give stuff like that away.

John: No, we, we actually... and unlike doing CG, we have found that models, which is the old school, actually looks best on explosions.

Christian: Yeah.

John: So we blow real stuff up.

Geoff: Practical.

John: And it's still pretty big, by the way, we have to build it in our parking lot.

Aldis: Basically part of their job is to build stuff just to destroy it.

Marc: And Christian, Christian actually wasn't in that scene, he was out doing bigger scenes.

Christian: Yeah, I was out doing-

Chris: That wasn’t you in the-?

John: Yeah, that was actually the reverse on you-

Christian: Yeah, that was- yeah.

Chris: You're kidding, really?

Christian: No, that wasn’t me.

Geoff: That's insane.

Marc: The reverse on Christain-

Christian: I was doing a bigger stunt that day.

Geoff: That later thing, ok.

Christian: I'll tell you where I was later on.

Marc: That was actually the last shot of the entire season.

Christian: Yeah, that's right.

John: Get out.

Christian: Me taking my mask off, that was it.

Marc: That was it.

Geoff: It was actually a lot more I-Spy-ish and we actually pared it down to make her more victim-ish.

John: Yeah.

Geoff: She was initially more…what would you say? She was more in the government. She had a gun in her desk, and she was, like, gonna pop off some shots.

Aldis: Ah.

Geoff: We were like, “Nah, she needs to be more victim-y.”

John: Well that's always the challenge when you do an off-speed episode, you have to make sure all the touch stones: the victim you care about, some sort of mystery to be solved. And this is a much more mystery oriented episode than usual.

Geoff: Yeah.

John: You know, we don't have our goal right up front, which is fun.

Chris: And also we’re trying to- ultimately we’re trying to prevent something which is typically not something we do.

John: Not ordinarily something we would do, exactly. Oh and here we are with Timothy Carhart, is that right?

Marc: That's correct.

John: Yeah playing the general, good job.

Geoff: Excellent job.

John: Looks exactly like a dude who was building rockets in the late 50’s to defeat the Soviets, thank you. And thank you to all the men out there who helped us defeat the Soviets.

Aldis: Has a fresh haircut right there.

Chris: Yeah, your eye goes right to that hair.

[Laughter]

John: That is some X-Men hair.

Aldis: It's just like boom!

Christian: He looks like that guy in Beverly Hills Cop II.

[Laughter]

John: He does.

Marc: That is the technical green color, as Dave Connel calls that.

John: Technical green?

Marc: Technical green.

John: [British Accent] “We need some technical green in here, mate.” Yeah. There you go. Yeah, look sciency!

[Laughter]

John: Which is an actual artistic term for that color.

Geoff: Sciency green.

Aldis: [Accent] “Sciencey!”

John: Yeah, this is a tricky as hell episode. We gotta meet the victim and then we have to set up the plot of the arriving bad guy. We have two bad guys, which is always difficult as hell.

Geoff: Right.

John: Always really tough to do. And it is an enormous amount of pipe. And there’s us towing a real plane.

Marc: Towing a real plane.

John: Lovely private airport.

Aldis: They allow us to do these things.

Christian: That's actually Timothy Hutton's plane.

[Laughter]

Marc: It came with another car.

John: That's right, that’s the plane he flies around to solve crime and woo authoresses in.

Chris: He has an interesting power like Elvis.

Geoff: It turns into an anime style mech suit to fight space battles in.

Marc: There’s Michael Rogers as a rival.

John: That's not Michael Rogers, Michael Rogers is the guy in the suit; that's a Portland actress. This is a lovely shot, looking up like this. Portland State has this great central staircase which we had scouted a bunch of times, and it always stuck in our heads and we finally shot the hell out of it when we did this.

Chris: Now how do you introduce the- there's a challenge here because we’ve never seen-

John: Always on his back.

Chris: We've never seen the big bad guy, and we've alluded to him the whole season, so how do you approach this?

Marc: Yeah, the idea was just to stay on his back the whole time, hear his voice, call him by name but never reveal his face until the proper moment.

John: Yeah, this is- in Inside Job I did that with Chamberlain, it's a very classic 1940’s way of- you know.

Marc: Well especially since this whole season has been building to this.

Geoff: Yeah.

John: We were very lucky to get Goran Visnjic who was amazing who doesn't normally do this kind of role and really enjoyed it.

Geoff: He did a great job.

Christian: Unbelievable.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: Yeah, this was a lot of fun setting up exactly the- oh by the way unfortunately cut was the fact that the battery is a xenon difluoride battery. The tech of this battery actually works.

Chris: The sound you hear right now is everyone listening falling asleep.

[Laughter]

John: No! No, no! They are fascinated by new battery tech! They’re on wikipedia now!

Aldis: You won't believe how many people are actually really truly fascinated by it, cause I get the questions all the time.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Geoff: Hey, the craziest thing about the show is we make up stuff that is less interesting than the stuff we grab from the news.

John: Yeah, almost everything you think ‘holy shit is that true?’ Yeah, that’s the true part. Particularly the horrible bits.

Geoff: Yeah, the most horrible is usually the truest thing.

Christian: You guys are a bunch of dorks, man. If I can't punch it, I don't care.

[Laughter]

Christian: If I can't punch it, it doesn't mean anything.

John: We give you shit to punch!

Christian: I know!

John: Is that how you read the scripts? “Blah, blah, blah, blah, Eliot hits a guy! Ahhh! Here we are.”

Chris: Punch!

Geoff: Spinning backfist!

Chris: It's true, he does enter here late after a lot of exposition is given.

John: He does, he does. As a matter of fact, he was scheduled to enter earlier-

Chris: What were you doing back there while all that- that exposition was happening?

John: He was flirting with some extra back there.

[Laughter]

Geoff: Punching people!

Marc This is a great moment where Eliot is holding back something, and Hardison is the only one who is tapping into it.

Christian: Actually I think Sophie’s the only one that’s tapping into it.

Aldis: Well, wait for Hardison.

John: Yeah, she senses something, but Hardison gets it but he doesn't get it. I think Sophie's kinda figured it out by this point.

Aldis: Like I said man, see, right there, boom.

Christian: There you go.

Aldis: “Are you ok?” You see all the passion in the eyes? See the worry?

Geoff: Bromance, it's a bromance.

Aldis: Told you man, milk and cookies.

[Laughter]

Christian: I'm working off of it right here.

Aldis: Just saying. That just means we spend too much time together.

Christian: It does.

Aldis: Hardison needs to spend some special time with Parker.

John: We’ll see what we can do.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: This was a long act 1. And this was kinda fun actually, was hacking out exactly- and something we discovered going into the third act: audience likes to see process, they like to see you guys figure the stuff out, they like to see how you plan, not just the actual execution.

Aldis: How many pages was that?

Marc: And we love shooting five-handers.

John: And the directors love shooting five-handers. You got through that coverage in what, 48, 72 hours for one scene?

Marc: No, yeah.

Geoff: They sent us memos, can we have more than five-handers?

[Laughter]

John: But now you’re split up, split up into two and two, essentially, here.

Geoff: Can I just say how awesome a job Portland does, doubling every place else in the world?

John: Yeah, really fantastic.

Aldis: We got- yeah, who is that, Geoffrey Blake, right?

Marc: Geoffrey Blake playing Bixby. This was a fun beat, Tim played this really-

Chris: Lionel Whitney, by the way, his alias here, was a nod to Tenspeed and Brown Shoe.

[Laughter]

Marc: No way!

John: Nice, very nice.

Chris: Yes, that was the name of Jeff Goldblum's character from one of our beloved shows.

Geoff: Sweet.

John: What is the scientist Bixby's first name?

Geoff: Is it William?

John: It’s William, yeah. We-

Christian: Bill Bixby?

[Laughter]

John: Bill Bixby, we have a theory in another series that guy gets exposed to radiation.

Geoff: And all Hulk breaks loose.

John: And he becomes a non trademarked- he becomes the Incredible Bulk.

Chris: Or become a crime solving magician!

Geoff: Hey, I'm trying to get that show back.

John: Yeah, the crime solving magician who turns into a giant green monster when you cross him.

Christian: This was the second to the last shot right here.

Marc: Yeah it was.

Chris: Oh was it?

John: Yeah it was, Friday night.

Geoff: You’re kidding, really?

Christian: Before we wrapped the season. Was me and Hardison and then I jumped outside, that's right.

John: In the basement of the theater.

Aldis: Remember the soup you were supposed to taste?

Geoff: You guys don’t look tired or beat at all.

Christian: Yeah, I was supposed to say, “Taste the soup.”

Geoff: Eat it all.

Aldis: The soup was something.

Christian: [Weird Voice] “Just taste the soup”

Chris: Now there was a fight here, there was a fight here that got cut.

John: Yeah.

Aldis: Nice.

Chris: It involved the billfold; it was-

John: Yeah, it was a lot of fun, but then we looked at the rest of the script and realized, there’s enough action.

[Laughter]

Geoff: Yeah, there’s plenty of-

Chris: There's never enough action, come on!

Geoff: Ass-kickery is the proper term.

John: It actually- it was one of those things we did because we were actually scheduling stunt men and running into trouble with the big, giant act 4 sequence, which you’ve seen.

Christian: Yeah, right, right, right.

John: If you're watching this, you've seen it. And it turns out him just saying his name and that guy being scared shitless-

Chris: Yeah, it worked.

John: Works better. That's one of those times the dialogue works.

Chris: It worked well.

John: Also, nice freakout there, Aldis.

Aldis: Thanks.

John: Very good panic, freak out. And a good reset.

Aldis: Nice pat on my back, boom.

[Laughter]

John: Little something for you, there you go.

Aldis: Feel like my life is complete.

John: You look good in a suit, too.

Christian: Yeah, I guess they've already seen this. We can talk about other scenes, ‘cause at this point they've seen it.

Aldis: They’ve seen it, they’ve seen it, yeah.

John: Yeah, yeah they watch it all the way through and then they go back and watch the- yeah. Yeah, you can, absolutely. Also at the- we’ll skip over this, cause this is the standard spook a guy and take his wallet, we've done this a million times.

Aldis: Yup.

John: Christain, the day you told me you were actually playing a certain beat, like a certain idea in your head when you- the whole sequence with Moreau when he gets thrown in the pool. What was the- it was trying to do the math of how far you could push it?

Christian: That was exactly it. I was- I'm counting the guys and I'm also counting exactly how long Hardison could make it where I could revive him; not only hold his breath, but where I can revive him.

[Laughter]

Chris: Like in the abyss.

Geoff: He can actually die, but I can get him back.

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

Chris: Part of the plan was to die.

John: So in your head you are Ed Harris and you're…?

Geoff: Mary Elizabeth.

[All talking over each other]

Marc: It would just be with compressions though.

Aldis: I actually counted it out, I could hold my breath for that long.

Marc: No mouth to mouth, just compressions?

Christian: Yeah absolutely, no mouth to mouth, just compressions. Listen, it's not my fault if he doesn't hack it - he got himself into that.

Aldis: I mean mouth to mouth- there’s enough ladies there to get him.

John: Yeah, but we actually timed the dialogue out so in theory you could have held your breath this long.

Aldis: Yeah, I got lungs of steel people. Asthma I got it yeah, but screw that.

Christian: Well hopefully when it gets to that part you can actually see that, because I am counting in my head while I'm having the conversation with Moreau to see how long that Hardison can be under.

Aldis: Look at his eyebrow twitch and you see, every time it twitches, that's a second.

John: It's a twitch of compassion.

[Laughter]

Geoff: Oh my god.

Aldis: It's not constipation, which most of you probably thought it was.

John: We’ll go back to this scene for a second, because it was tons of fun just coming up with the little con and heist-y stuff to do in that scene. The little three way game it's like tinkers [unintelligible]. It's a great little scene.

Chris: Yeah.

Marc So this pool has been out of commission for years.

Geoff: Really?

John: Yeah, tell us about this.

Marc: Totally, for years.

John: This was empty when we came.

Aldis: It felt like it, too.

Marc: This was the bottom of the Governor and we rebuilt it for the show.

John: Filled it.

Aldis: It was like the bottom of the arctic; it was supposed to be hot; it was cold!

Chris: So was it disease ridden or-?

John: No no, you were cold cause you got thrown in the water.

Marc: You were the only one who was cold.

John: Actually puked in the mens room because it was so hot in there.

Aldis: No, the pool itself was cold!

John: Oh yeah, yeah, but you were the only one going in.

Christian: Nobody’s mentioning the girls in the hot tub.

Aldis: By the way, ~sexual chocolate~!

John: Very good.

Aldis: I'm just saying every time, boom.

John: I don't think you have to mention it every time we see him.

Aldis: No, but the ladies were awesome.

John: We actually had to dub that giant section because when the girls all stood up- cause they were actually in the hot tub-

Aldis: It was splashing!

John: It sounded like a waterfall.

Christian: There it is, that's the reveal right there.

Marc: See that's why we held off the reveal till the right moment to see our baddie.

Geoff: Our nice James Bond villain.

John: That’s a nice reveal, it is.

Christian: He did such a great job in this role.

Chris: He's the devil coming out of basically hell.

Geoff: That's right.

Aldis: Now in the original version we had three naked women coming out after him, but I mean it's a family show, people.

John: It is a family show, we want your kids to be able to watch this.

Aldis: Exactly.

John: And that's a nice play, trying to figure out exactly what the hell is going on and catching up a little late.

Aldis: A little late?

John: Ah, the USB.

Aldis: The USB saves lives.

Marc: Everything.

John: It does. Well the thumb drive, the thumb drive is our friend on the show, thumb drive and cellphones.

Geoff: Best invention in the world. That and the cell phone.

John: This was also- I'm trying to remember where we came up with the last calls to figure out what exactly- who the next person should be. We just spent a lot of time in the writers room basically fucking around with cell phones trying to figure out what they can do.

Geoff: Yeah.

John: GPS enabling and everything like that.

Geoff: Yeah, I saw something recently that's gonna be fun, hopefully, if we can work it in the next year that a cell phone can do.

John: Oh what is it?

Geoff: Holograms.

John: Ahh nice, holograms.

Geoff: They project a three dimensional light construct.

Aldis: Nice.

John: Cool. Tell visual effects now.

[Laughter]

John: Tim actually insisted on meeting Tim Carhart because they were shooting separately so he could imitate the voice properly.

Marc: Yes.

John: He actually rehearsed the voice.

Christian: That’s great.

Marc: He did, he made him a CD.

John: Nice. Also Derek Frederickson, the fifth Beatle, gave us all sorts of great graphics.

Chris: They all look fantastic.

Marc: Great graphics.

Geoff: God, those guys are great.

John: That exchange was actually one of my favorite bits in the script. “I'm not handcuffed to anything.” That just annoyed-

[Laughter]

John: Eliot's plan is working fine! Don't see what the-

Geoff: We’re on schedule man, chill.

John: I never realized how many characters I have in this show drink.

[Laughter]

John: Just looking at these now, I just put a glass in everybody's hand and-

Geoff: And they're kinda evil, dude.

Chris: This moment’s great too, here.

Aldis: All except for me; I can't get this glass.

John: Nope. And that was an improv too, that was-

Aldis: No love for me.

Christian: Makes him mad.

Chris: And shooting him a look like you-

Christian: It was in the script: Eliot does not look at Hardison when he goes in the pool. You know how hard that was to do, even though I knew I wasn't supposed to do it, but just not watch him go in the water right here.

John: Well also because it's your friend Aldis getting pushed in a pool.

Christian: It's my friend Aldis, exactly. And he's handcuffed to a chair! I mean he's really-

John: That is actually Aldis handcuffed to a chair going into a goddamn pool.

Aldis: I was handcuffed, I got kicked into the pool.

Chris: It was not a model of him.

Aldis: No, that was-

Chris: I know we talked a lot about models.

Aldis: No, this is not CG, people.

John: This is a dude handcuffed to a chair.

Geoff: That was really a money issue, though, I mean we could’ve built-

Marc: I saw Christain drawing up schematics of a bigger trailer if we knocked down the wall-

Christian: I can't wait till we get to the train.

John: Don't get me wrong, Christain liked the scene, it's just that-

Christian: No, I loved the scene.

John: Just, you know. No, this was an enormous- you got your underwater shot Chris.

Chris: I did.

John: Chris Downey has been waiting three years to do a shot underwater.

Geoff: Seaplane!

Aldis: And there it is, hold up, wait for it.

Chris: Oh yeah, here we go.

Aldis: And oh no, there I go.

John: Oh and that is Aldis Hodge going into the pool.

Aldis: That’s me.

Geoff: Oh no Mr. Hodge, I expected you to die.

Chris: Now what was that like, was that scary at all?

Aldis: To get kicked back wasn't scary at all, but to do- we had to do the takes over for the underwater shot of- alright standing up in the pool and then I had to sink down to the bottom and sit there for a minute, wait for the water to settle, and then they yell action and then I'm under there doing all that madness right there, yelling and all that screaming in the pool, that was terrifying.

Chris: That’s scary.

Aldis: Because you're sitting at the bottom of a pool like, “Alright, I'm waiting here.” And you know the chair is weighted down, so.

Chris: Did they call lunch?

Aldis: Like, ok guys.

Marc: Norbert wasn't scared at all.

Aldis: Actually you'll see my tie, I had to keep moving that thing out of the way right before we shot so I'm sitting there for a good 10, 15 seconds before they start rolling the camera.

Geoff: It looks great.

Christian: You did hold your breath for a really long time, man, I was impressed.

Aldis: It was fun man, it was fun.

Geoff: It was great, and ultimately all that matters is it looks great.

Aldis: It is.

Geoff: You guys breathing, surviving, you know.

John: No, they're great.

Chris: And it's a great-

John: Seven cameras, I think, in that room?

Marc: Seven cameras.

Christian: See, and there's the count and I'm counting right there.

Chris: You’re counting, I can see it.

Marc: Underwater cameras, you name it.

Aldis: At the same time, I also had a great stunt guy, Austin Priest, I've worked with him for years. He gave me-

John: He doubled you for part of this, right?

Aldis: Yeah, he doubled for some of it; he gave me a break every now and then. I did a couple takes and then he ran down and did a few himself. Cause after a while I was like, “Oh, lord.”

John: Well, I mean, the trick is you gotta work the rest of the day.

Aldis: Yeah, right.

John: Can't have you just exhausted. I love this exit, love this exit.

Geoff: God.

Christian: It’s great.

John: This is very-

Geoff: He fixes his jacket!

[Laughter]

Christian: Fix the jacket, he's back!

Geoff: Like alright I'm smooth, I'm tripping, but I'm smooth, baby.

John: Just the kobayashi-

Aldis: Wait for it!

All: Yeah!

Christian: It’s a wet rag.

Geoff: With a wet-!

Chris: Classic handkerchief.

Geoff: Well done, my friend.

John: It was great. And then the accent. Where’d you come up with that man, just fucking around with the suit?

Aldis: The- what, the-

John: The napkin- the-

Aldis: Oh at first I asked- I was talking like, “Christain, dude you gotta have some napkins. Cause I'm gonna ask you for a napkin.” And we were like, where does he pull a napkin out of?

Christian: My jeans are too tight, dude.

[Laughter]

Aldis: Yeah, the great Nadine Haders was like, “hey, handkerchief.” I was like, throw one of those in the pocket and we’ll go from there.

John: That's actually the test onset is when Christain puts on jeans, you have to try to put shit in the front pockets.

[Laughter]

John: And if nothing fits then they are tight enough.

Aldis: Have you seen my jeans? One time I spent ten-

Christian: Yeah, that's right, you have tighter jeans than I do.

Aldis: I literally spent ten minutes jumping into a pair of jeans. I was like, c'mon, this ain't happening.

John: And just so you know, if you buy- the job of checking those pockets is actually part of the lottery on the DVD, so if you didn't get the slip in the DVD set to get that job, then you should go out and buy like four more.

Christian: Nice, that's exactly it, man.

Geoff: Oh wow.

Marc: We’re talking about, the guys-

Christian: And I'm really hoping a female gets that ticket.

Marc: Elisabetta on screen in a bikini.

Aldis: Well I was about to say just for that moment right there, hot dayum to all the bikinis in the room!

Geoff: Well done, Mr. Clooney.

Christian: George Clooney is a lucky man. [Transcriber note: George Clooney and Elisabetta Canalis were dating at this point in time.]

Aldis: Yes.

John: Well because she's a lovely person too, it's not just the bikini.

Christian: Yeah she's great.

Aldis: She has nice, straight teeth.

Marc: This is a fantastic scene.

John: This was a bear.

Marc: Everybody was up on their game here, and big reveals and brilliant acting.

Christian: This is the first time I think you've ever seen anything emotional come from Eliot in front of the crew; he's done some stuff before, but never anything like this. And to do it in front of the crew, man this was a tough day for me.

Chris: Now how did you approach that- to get that vulnerability?

Aldis: He cried a lot, he cried.

Christian: If you'll notice, I really worked off of Tim right here to be honest with you. Tim gave everything back to me every single time, so I really worked off of Tim right here. And he helped me out with this a lot. And he didn’t do anything, just gave me his eyes, man, and it was really- I let- I felt like I let Nate down in that and I really used that in this scene.

John: Well it's a little like the second season finale, the one where he snaps in the conference room, cause I know he was anchoring off you in that, when you were trying to calm him down.

Christian: Yeah, right.

John: And he had the total meltdown.

Christian: Yeah.

John: That's what's great about television is the actors work together, they learn how to work with each other, and you get stuff you won’t get in a movie.

Geoff: From a fan perspective, before I came on this year, I was just a person watching this show and every season, the end of the season, there's always a moment like this where you guys gather, the characters gather, and something big is released.

Christian: Yeah, yeah.

Geoff: And this is, even though this is darker than the other ones, it's just like a big, nice compliment to the other two seasons.

Marc: This is my favorite beat, here.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: This is a great moment.

Chris: Yeah, this.

Marc: Just a great piece of dialogue.

Aldis: Kinda begs the question: who is next in line for a mental breakdown?

John: Yeah, yeah.

Marc: Me.

[Laughter]

Geoff: I have to say, that line of dialogue was written by Mr. Chris Downey and not by me.

Aldis: Ahhh.

Chris: No, no, I don't believe so, I think Dean, maybe-

Marc: I think Dean wrote that.

Geoff: Oh really? Okay.

Chris: Dean actually pitched this beat.

John: Dean pitched that line.

Chris: Dean pitched this beat.

Christian: Yeah, Dean told me about it coming in.

Geoff: Well done, Mr. Devlin.

Christian: This was tough for me, this whole thing was tough for me.

Chris: And I got a question: were you working your head off of what that thing was? I mean, you don't have to say, but were you-

John: As a matter of fact don't say, ‘cause we’ve got something in mind.

Chris: Yeah, don’t say but what's in your process?

Christian: No, I won’t say but yeah, I did, I had something yeah. It was-

John: Yeah, cause you look pretty goddamn heartbroken there.

Chris: Yeah.

Christian: Yeah.

John: Nice. And by the way, for those people listening that pay attention to the stuff we talk about on the other commentaries when we talk about writing, Hardison taking the iPad there is important. We use Hardison as the thermostat, the emotional thermostat for the audience. A lot of times the audience knows stuff is ok when Hardison acknowledges that it’s ok. And him accepting that beat allows you- is a subconscious cue that we’re ok to move past what Eliot’s done.

Christian: Right, right, right, I noticed that myself.

John: And the scene plays on. Even past the revelation which is nice, I mean this scene stays heavy all the way through, no break because this reminds- remember when we did the pilot in Chicago, the first time you go up to Nate - I'm talking to Christain - when Christain goes up to Tim and is like, “Hey, about your son, I'm sorry.”

Marc: At the pool table.

Christian: The pool table, yeah.

John: The pool table. You're like how do I play this? I was like you're two gunslingers who always respected each other and might not want to know who's better, but you're equals, you’re peers, and that's the vibe here.

Christian: It's a standoff.

John: They're playing a separate scene than sort of everybody else here.

Christian: And that helped me the most. Standing in front of Tim helped me the most on that. Cause, you know, I worked off of him and it was just- like I said, it was just four hours to film that and it was tough ‘cause I had to stay there the whole time. I went home and went to bed. I mean, I was tired.

Aldis: Not to mention, the distractions from the passers by on the street [high pitched voice] “Oh my god are you guys shooting a scene? Can we get a picture?”

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

[Laughter]

Aldis: “No, we’re filming!”

Chris: That always helps when you have those emotional scenes.

John: This by the way- that park ain’t empty. That’s all of us hiding behind trees.

[Laughter]

Geoff: That’s hysterical.

Christian: That’s true.

Marc Gary Camp with a steadicam.

Aldis: Remember they said action, and people scattered like roaches.

Marc: Give all the credit to the cameraman.

Christian: You have to.

Marc: But on this particular beat, all the actors have to hit their marks exactly or you're not gonna see them and you're not gonna timeout when they speak.

John: This actually is something we do in the writers room is we figure out one per, and then it makes the blocking easier. But there have been times we've kinda gamed this out in there.

Christian: I don't think people realize how difficult a shot the roundy-round is like this, when everyone’s got dialogue you gotta end up on every shot.

Aldis: Gary Camp kills this.

John: You see how Gary sped up that turn a little bit just to catch you 'cause he knew that dialogue?

Geoff: He's a maestro.

John: Probably the guy who knows the script- after you guys, he knows the script the best.

Aldis: Gary Camp, yeah.

Christian: Gary knows the script the best. I mean, he's unbelievable. We couldn't do it without him.

Geoff: I love the duality of these guys, too. The one that Eliot could have grown up to be versus what he ended up being.

John: And the fact that- that came late to the idea that “you got the job?” That they knew each other. We originally envisioned it as a different guy, a new guy who didn't know the reputation. But that- but having him know him and be jealous.

Christian: Yeah, anytime there's a past.

Geoff: It’s awesome.

John: Yeah, well also that guy is vaguely resentful he'll never live up to the Eliot Spencer legend.

Christian: Right, yeah, I mean he plays it very well, as an actor he chose that and he played it very well.

John: But then the ability to say, “I heard you'd gone soft.” He just- he sees a hink, this guy isn't the badass he thought he was, makes him feel better.

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

John: This was us, second unit, this was a fun day.

Chris: Yeah that’s right.

John: One camera, two actors banging the hell out of that.

Chris: That's right.

John: In the fine tradition of Marc Roskin, that’s the-

Marc There you go.

John: Keep talking, move fast.

Aldis: I actually drove past this set on my way to lunch.

Marc: The streets of downtown Portland.

Geoff: By the way, I'm from DC, this looks like DC, okay? It tripped me out.

John: I know, I know.

Marc: Paul Bernard's daughter.

John: Paul Bernard's daughter. And actually, unfortunately, we had a communication breakdown, we couldn’t talk- we were standing across the street shooting across the street, we couldn't talk to the actors because we had a problem with the radio, so I'm literally standing on a chair across the street going, “You love your daughter! Tell her you love her! Now hug her! Now go die!”

[Laughter]

Christian: Some of the locals that were on the stoop didn't know what to think about that.

John: And this was actually for those of you who were making your amateur films, those were Sony ex-1s bolted to the front of those cars. Perfectly good footage.

Marc: They come in handy.

Geoff: Oh, yeah.

John: And then the distraction, so he puts it into park so he doesnt go rolling away when his neck gets snapped, which was why we wrote this scene.

Christian: And he was great with this, too, he really trusted me.

John: Yeah, cause if the guy looks tense, it doesn't look good.

Christian: Yeah, and he really trusted me. I mean that's a tough thing to do, that's somebody's neck, man, and you gotta be really careful with that. It was a big safety issue, but he was great. He really sold it.

Geoff: Oh, you didn't actually kill him?

[Laughter]

John: No, the fact that he was found dead of a fall the next day is total coincidence.

Christian: No absolutely, absolutely.

John: That was his last scene and he went home.

Christian: Exactly, and it was weird how he fell in his trunk.

Geoff: [Laughing] He fell in his trunk!

John: People do that, they put tire irons and shit in his trunk and then ‘Oh! I've stumbled.’

Geoff: Lid comes down.

Chris: He was digging a shallow grave, it was weird. I wonder why he was doing that.

John: This was great, this was actually the morgue set from the hospital scene- the hospital the previous year, right?

Chris: In Order 23?

John: Oh no no, this was from a film that was shooting up there. This is a plug. That room is not a morgue; that room is a big empty classroom.

Geoff: You're kidding?

Marc: Big empty science room.

John: That we dropped those drawers halfway to cut it in half, and then Becca Molino and our fantastic production design propped it up and it looked gorgeous.

Christian: They do it every time, they do it, I'm surprised by how they do it.

Marc: I worship Becca, Becca is a genius.

Christian: It's an unbelievable crew that we’ve got.

John: I love the resentment, by the way, that Aldis is playing here. And it kinda ties into the resentment here that nobody quite understands how hard Hardison works.

[Laughter]

Geoff: Yeah, get a body.

John: Yeah, exactly. That’s just shit he does now.

Aldis: Get a body!

Geoff: It's not magic folks, it's not a magic trick.

John: There's the red wig. Which we almost had her do the entire second episode of this in.

Marc: Yes.

John: This was one of the ones where Gina said, “I wanna do it in a wig” and we’re like, “No” and she showed up in a wig and we said, “Damn, that’s hot.” And then we were worried that it would confuse the viewer coming in for the second set, so we just kept it for here. I love him reining her in like that, lovely. And then a little bit of pipe before we go to the fourth act. That's also crucial part of the script is reminding the audience, “Okay things have been moving very quickly, just to remind you this is what we’re gonna do in this act.”

Marc: Yes.

Aldis: Hot damn!

Christian: Yeah, that was a good day.

[Laughter]

Chris: What is he doing, playing online poker?

John: What is Moreau doing online?

Chris: What is he- he’s got a strange business model.

John: He's doing his Facebook status update, “Going to kill dudes; gotta go now.”

Marc: Also we had to put CG water in that hot tub cause it wasn't-

Geoff: What?

John: Oh! It didn’t work, that's right.

Marc: It didn’t work, as I said, we remodeled this and it was leaking.

John: This had been closed- that was like a hundred year old basement or something, yeah.

Aldis: Yeah.

Geoff: That's insane.

John: Yeah, the hot tub leaked, that was badly designed, that was poorly thought out. Yup, a lot of fun with this, banged out in the- that’s the parking lot of the studio.

Marc: Parking lot of the stage.

Christian: Is it really?

John: This is also a reminder that Sophie ran the crew when Nate was in jail. One of those little things that when you look at the show this year, they are much more peers.

Marc: And if at all possible, you can avoid shooting in an elevator, I would recommend it.

John: Oh sweet Jesus.

Aldis: That elevator was a beast.

Chris: Was this the one where the elevator sucked the camera down?

John: Yes, no, the light.

Christian: I remember a really bad day in an elevator.

Aldis: This, by the way-

John: No, not the one where you were attacked by a box.

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

Aldis: This guy right here, his name is Kevin Champion, he’s been my stand in, a trooper since the pilot and he finally got his just desserts.

Chris: He did a great job.

John: And by the way, he did great - fantastic job.

Aldis: Now who did we have on set to slate for him?

Marc Charles Barkley!

Aldis: Sir Charles Barkley.

Chris: Oh that's right!

Christian: That’s right.

John: Charles Barkley was in town

Geoff: Where was I when all this was going on?

Christian: Charles Barkley was on set-

Chris: I missed Charles Barkley, I was in a warehouse with you!

Marc: His first time acting with us and all of it-

John: Barkley showed up.

Chris: I was at the shoot out. Man, Barkley

Aldis: Barkley was a great man.

John: He was in town doing a fundraiser, swung by the set.

Chris: By the way, Charles Barkley, big friend of TNT.

Marc: This was a fun little beat.

Aldis: Yeah, I met him, I met him and I told him to come on down, he had a good time.

John: Really charming guy.

Chris: We better have Barkley on season four.

Geoff: I don't get to see the special things.

John: You don't get to see Barkley, I'm sorry. Just the elevator thing, what had happened is, was we stopped the elevator, we had lights in there to light it, and then all of a sudden the elevator just restarted, the doors closed and it started flying downstairs, pulling the wires after it into the-

Christian: Oh my god.

Aldis: Yeah, the elevator had issues.

Chris: Oh, this is a great reveal.

John: Nice little flash of the lift. And we've never seen Parker do the front lift.

Geoff: Yeah.

John: He actually- Kevin did a great job.

Christian: Kevin did a great job.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: Very pleased. And by the way, there are ID’s that do this, that do the live tracking in the buildings.

Chris: Oh yeah.

John: Yeah, absolutely.

Marc: Technical green!

Christian: Technical green.

Aldis: [British Accent] “Technical green, mate.”

John: This was also a lab that was already there that we shot from the other room.

Marc: Already there.

Geoff: Wow.

John: Yeah we just built- yeah, all the equipment was there and we just built where the bomb had been, that was it. That was all we laid in there.

Geoff: You make this stuff up in the room, you hope for the best.

John: It’s- and you have talented people busting their ass to make it real.

Marc: The people at Portland State- that's a green screen back there.

Geoff: No way!

Chris: That’s right, that is terrific.

John: Yeah, that's not the airport.

Geoff: Get out of town!

Marc: That was a warehouse at a stage.

Christian: Yup.

John: Yeah, that's like a couple blocks from our stages, right? Yeah.

Christian: It’s weird- everything you see in there, though, it's the real deal.

Marc: Yeah, we got a lot of use out of this stage.

Christian: Yeah, I can't believe they let us use it with as many- we went 2500 rounds of a gunfight?

[Laughter]

John: 2500 rounds.

Christian: Inside a place with flammable material- I'm just saying!

John: On the list of stupid ideas.

Aldis: Now wasn't this also the day we found out that we got picked up?

Marc: That stores chemicals and paper rolls.

Christian: Exactly.

Chris: That's right.

John: Nothing can go wrong there.

Chris: And failed microbrew brands. I walked around there. It was like microbrews you never heard of.

Geoff: The opinions shared by the writers and actors are not necessarily shared by TNT or Electric Entertainment Company.

John: Or the insurance companies therein.

Aldis: The thing I love about this is usually when people do car scenes like this when they’re shooting out the back it’s a green screen, but this wasn't, we ran the traffic.

Chris: You can tell.

John: No. And all 200 pounds of me is folded up in the back of that thing.

Geoff: No!

John: I'm in the rear seat.

Aldis: John was literally in the trunk of that car.

Geoff: Oh my god!

John: Yelling through the backseat.

Aldis: Shouting out directions. We did it guerilla-style, people.

John: We stopped traffic, had a cop chase us through the streets.

Aldis: Now you see how wild she's driving. It was a bumpy ride for us and we were seated comfortably with seatbelts.

John: Yeah, I don't think we're gonna let Gina drive again, that's not good.

Aldis: John was back there, we gave him a pint of Guinness, he was alright.

Christian: She doesn't know what side of the street to drive on.

[Laughter]

John: That's what made it more exciting. This is a great- now the shadowy figures and we’re setting it up.

Marc: Shadowy figures.

John: This act is insane, this act really is crazy. It was tricky structuring it, each storyline had to have three acts in itself, so you had to be able to switch between development, execution, and aftermath in each plotline. No, this was a ton of fun. And shooting a real train.

Marc: A real train, just a neighborhood in Portland. And I don't know if you know this, but Portland is a huge biking community and we shut off-

Aldis: Yeah.

Chris: That's where I take my bike ride, spring break bike path.

Marc: Everybody takes their bike ride. They rerouted it, no one complained, everybody was gracious, it was nice.

John: That's where the camera truck drove, the camera truck drove on the bike path next to the train.

Aldis: People ride their bikes on the freeways there - it’s insane.

Geoff: Safely!

Chris: That’s true, in driving rain storms in ponchos.

John: That’s a nice moment there, that acting moment- this is the first time in a while we’ve heard Eliot go, “yeah, we’re fucked.”

Christian: Yeah, yeah.

John: It’s a nice beat. That's my actors on a bridge.

Aldis: Yeah.

Marc: And one of the busiest bridges in Portland.

John: Yeah, exactly. And that's the thing, I was not- I was at the other set while they were shooting this, so I was- a lot of times I was watching the dailies I was like, “Oh wow, those stunt doubles are great- wait that’s-”

[Laughter]

Christian: See that right there, I really wanna concentrate on that - you’ve never seen Eliot kill anyone.

Geoff: Yeah, that’s true.

Christian: I just broke that guy's neck, he's dead.

John: Yeah, that guy’s gone.

Christian: That's the first time you saw and, you know it's-

John: It escalates the stakes; you realize whatever’s gonna happen next is not gonna be the normal thing.

Christian: Yeah, exactly.

Marc: CG DC in the background there.

Aldis: Yup, DC.

John: Real train under my actors.

Aldis: I begged you guys for days to let me jump down.

[Laughter]

Geoff: You must be high, are you crazy?

Marc: What was it like writing Eliot’s first shootout?

Geoff: We talked about it in the room, we bounced it around a lot, we wanted it to be a little bit over the top frankly and kinda John Woo-ish because every one of the characters is so perfectly- they're like the perfect example of whatever their thing is. And throughout the show, Eliot generally fights opponents that are numerous, but they're really not on his level. So to really show him doing what he does- it's kinda like that first episode where he has the teacup and the room full of guys. We didn’t see that, we saw the outside of that. This is what happened inside, basically.

Chris: By the way, can I just say something about that acting moment there? I loved that moment of picking up the gun.

John: Well the look to Tim.

Chris: You played three different emotions in a row, just on your face, of kind of the resignation and then you became a different person.

Christian: Yeah, well that's the point is once he picks up this gun- how's he gonna be in season 4? Cause now it's a whole box he never wanted to open again. I'll tell you, this is my favorite thing I've ever filmed in my entire life. This is my favorite thing I've ever filmed in my entire life.

[Laughter]

John: Two days. Two straight days for that gunfight.

Christian: You guys usually only give me 3-4 hours to fight and I got two days on this one.

John: Great shot here.

Geoff: Boom!

Marc: And boom!

Aldis: I swear I wanted to jump down, but at least-

John: That's our stunties jumping, but that's you on top.

Aldis: We were allowed to run on top.

Chris: Look at you go!

Christian: Them on a train, man.

Geoff: Which really you should not have been allowed to do.

Chris: There you go.

Aldis: Probably shouldn't have been, but it was gonna happen.

Geoff: Oh my god.

Chris: That's you!

Christian: On a moving train, on a moving train.

Aldis: Moving train.

John: This is- by the way, they got so excited, they came over the next day and I said, “What’d you do yesterday?” And Beth said, “I ran on top of a moving train without any safety equipment-! Oh, shit,” I was like, “That’s right! From now on, say it out loud just once!”

[Laughter]

John: “And if you say oh shit at the end of the sentence, don’t do it!”

Geoff: That's right.

John: No, but honestly guys, we can’t thank you enough for doing that for the show. Not a lot of actors would come out of their trailer to watch that happen, nevermind actually do it.

Aldis: Beth was hardcore about it, too.

Marc: This scene was shot over a period of two days.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah, this is crazy.

Christian: By the way, everybody needs to know, that’s me. That’s only me, no stunt double, that's it, always me.

John: No stunties. I always joke - your stunt double has the easiest job in Hollywood.

Geoff: No joke.

John: “What are you gonna do today?” “Oh I’ll just have a latte, watch him bust his ass, have a good day.”

Christian: Nice punch right there, by the way, nice form.

[Laughter]

Christian: I'm serious! I'm being honest!

Chris: Now how did you- how much experience did you have doing gunfights on screen? I mean, obviously this is-

Christian: I mean, not that much, but I mean honestly I'm from Oklahoma, so-

[Laughter]

John: This, by the way: not a train. A fake train car we built on the set that we had interns- pardon me not interns, PA’s actually shaking and rocking and then strobing light, poorman’s process, through it.

Geoff: Poorman’s process.

Marc: Eric Bates built that bomb, he’s very proud of it.

Chris: There's a couple [unintelligible] on it.

Marc: This is my favorite-

Geoff: Love that! Love that!

Marc: Ohhh!

John: No look, no look it's fine.

Chris: Now here, oh!

Christian: That was so much fun right there man, that was so much fun.

John: What I love is the countermove by the guy in the back, actually.

Geoff: I would date this sequence if I was single.

[Laughter]

Marc: That's a shoutout on The Closer.

John: No that- oh The Closer, no they've never done a shootout like this.

Chris: Now how much of that is like you're 12 years old and you're in the backyard?

Christian: Oh all of it, all of it. This was my favorite thing I've ever done. This is the scene I came to Hollywood for and I'm not lying; I'm being dead serious.

Geoff: Hey!

Marc: Kevin Jackson worked so hard with you on this. It was great.

Geoff: Kevin is great.

Christian: Yeah.

Aldis: Yeah, Kevin Jackson, our stunt coordinator.

John: And we showed up, we showed up, we’d been shooting that other stuff and we showed up in that warehouse on, like, hour 16 and you had been doing the slide on the concrete floor like, “Again! Go again!” Like Jesus, boy!

Christian: Yup, yup.

Marc: Christain looked like an offensive lineman, you know.

[Laughter]

Marc: In an overtime game.

John: Soaked in sweat.

Christian: 2500 rounds man; 2500 rounds for the day.

Aldis: Jeez.

Christian: That's a lot for television, I'm telling you.

Aldis: Yeah.

Marc: And if a gun didn't fire, we added it.

Christian: Yeah.

Marc: There's a lot of-

Geoff: Oh really, you CG’ed in muzzle flashes?

Christian: Now this is- this was my idea, I brought this to Dean and John. This was my idea. I wanted to slide through the oil or the water or whatever you had, whatever it was.

John: Oh the sights, the double cock.

Christian: Double cock, I came up with that. I'd never seen it before, you never do it with your own guns because it ruins it, and I can't believe how cool it looks.

[Laughter]

John: Who cares if it's wrong, it looks cool!

Chris: Now how about that shot?

Marc: And Joe LoDuca’s music during this.

Chris: The push up here.

John: Slow push, yeah, that's a great shot, there you go.

Geoff: You are about to die.

John: Now I would also mention this was a wire assist at the end, but you did it without the wire the first time.

Christian: That's all me right there, that’s all me. I went- right there was as far as I went without wiring.

John: And you got a good- remember we were testing it that first day. And you're like, “I can do this!” And just banged it out and you got about 15, 20 feet even without the stuff on the floor.

Chris: By the way folks, even those of you in good shape, try and get- try and just get on your knees.

Geoff: Yeah, no joke.

Chris: On your knees and lean back like that. I did it on set.

John: It was not fun.

Christian: There's my Desperado shot; I had to have a little fun. John gave me that one.

Aldis: Dun-dun dun-dun.

John: And this is the CG explosion, little pop, and then a real explosion.

Geoff: Oh nice, oh man! I love that.

Marc That’s a model-

John: That’s what I mean, a model blow, a real blow.

Geoff: But bear in mind, also this is the end of the season, these guys have been jumping, getting punched, blown up, hiding for-

Christian: Oh I didn't walk for two days, man.

[Laughter]

Chris: That looked painful.

John: And this is where we pay off the taser.

Aldis: Paid off the taser!

John: We introduced the taser in episode one, do a runner throughout the whole season and this is what you've been waiting for, the moment to pay off why she's been carrying it. We totally planned that - that wasn't accidental at all.

Geoff: [Forceful Laugh]

Christian: No, absolutely not.

John: We didn't cook that up in a drunken stupor in the writers room one night.

Geoff: I meant to do that, I meant to do that.

Marc We’re actually driving cars on the bike path, removing fence.

John: And we did a blow.

Marc And blowing up trains.

Aldis: We did a blow.

John: Yeah, we actually did a blow in there. We video assisted it, but that was a real explosion.

Chris: Wait, that was a real blow on the train?

Christian: Yeah.

John: Yeah. We didn't take the door off, the door was added.

Christian: See if you can't tell that's a little hard getting up there on the knees. I'm not as young as Aldis, but-

Geoff: You're excused man, you did your job.

John: And this is the classic, this is really-

Geoff: Awesome!

John: I'm gonna say Johnny Toe instead of John Woo because that’s really more of a Johnny Toe shot. And the flame bar.

Chris: That's an iconic shot right there.

John: Yeah it is.

Chris: We’ll be seeing that shot in a lot of fan videos.

Geoff: That move, I love that.

Aldis: It’s clean.

John: Very clean, and he was worried he was too slow on the night, too.

Christian: I did, I was like, “Man, was it fast enough? Cause I'm tired.”

Geoff: Plenty fast enough, man.

John: But you had done-

Christian: This was important right here, I wanted to show that, you know, the guns are done, I still don't like ‘em.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: But you practiced quickdraw on the other thing you did, what was it?

Christian: Oh man from Anywhere from Into The West to Crossfire Trail, we were always out there. I got that actually from Emilio Esteves, who is a friend of mine, who directed me on Close To Home and he was telling me about how they used to go out there and they- when they were all doing Young Guns they used to practice quick draw against each other to see who was the fastest.

John: Well Geoff Blake, who played Bixby, was on Young Guns.

Geoff: He's really good.

Christian: That's right, oh my gosh, that's right.

Aldis: I got a question, as far as season 4 for Hardison and Parker, cause you know, she just did the pretzels thing, the people are expecting something.

Geoff: What are you trying to say?

John: A lot of shirtless you.

Aldis: I gotta do push ups? Jeez.

John: We’re gonna advance the relationship.

Chris: But we'll do it at our own pace.

Christian: You know I haven't seen this scene yet, man, I can't wait to see it.

John: You haven't seen this?

Christian: No.

John: Had you not seen the full edit of this?

Christian: No.

Geoff: It’s tasteful, it’s tasteful.

Christian: I've been on a radio tour, man.

[Laughter]

John: Oh that's true. Kinda the whole music career giant international thing.

Christian: It’s- you know.

John: This was a ton of fun, and again, just a little bit of fun. It's tricky when you're showing the moves this fast, how to reset for each act just to make sure the audience knows at all times where you are, what's going on.

Christian: Again, Goran was always on his game, man. You couldn't have picked a better Moreau, he was great.

Aldis: Oh he was spot on, man.

John: Well it helps, he was physically intimidating too.

Christian: He’s like 6’6”! I didn’t realize how tall he was.

Aldis: Yeah, yeah.

John: He's like a paratrooper. And this was Dean’s idea to finally do, like, the threeway-

Marc: Do the triangle.

John: Do the triangle, yeah.

Christian: Just to let people know, when the gun goes off, one of the loads came out and hit Tim in the eye. We went down for about 20 minutes ‘cause it hit him right square in the eye.

Geoff: Wow!

Christian: And nothing against- it was just a weird shot, it wasn’t even pointed at him, it just- every once in a while- guns are unpredictable and it went off to the side.

John: That's why you have safety guys on set.

Geoff: And you don't do this at home, kids.

John: No, well I doubt they'd have the jet.

Christian: Right.

[Laughter]

Geoff: Some kids have a jet, you know.

Chris: Well they might have a bus up on cinder blocks in the backyard.

Christian: When I come running out here, you don't know how many times I hit my head on the bottom of this wing.

John: I know! I was counting, actually.

Christian: I hit my head four times on the bottom of this wing trying to get under it.

John: Every time you stood up, you didn't quite time it right.

Christian: I stood up early and damn near knocked myself out. It freaking hurt.

Geoff: So Marc, some of these shots are pretty complex-

Aldis: And there we go, Bonanno!

Geoff: What's the stuff that drives you most logistically, you’re like, how am I gonna do this, and you know-

Marc: A lot of it is where are we gonna shoot it, what we can get away with, and how much time we have. And this was tricky cause we had so many locations. We’re barely in HQ and in the finale, in 16, we are, but this ist a lot of locations. You’re in a train, you're in a fight.

John: You're losing light. The great thing about an outdoor set like this is you got that beautiful sky, the bad thing is the sun goes up, sun goes down.

Marc: Sun goes up, sun goes down.

Geoff: Right, no control.

Christian: We were working against the clock this day man, we were losing the sun.

Marc: But you know, you would think at the end of the season you would lose energy with the crew and with the actors.

John: Not at all.

Marc: And I think this is some of our best acting in these last two episodes.

Geoff: I agree, I agree.

Marc: And they're big emotional scenes, they're heavy page count, and we shot the hell out of it.

John: Yeah, this is three pages of Tim talking.

Marc: And it's not just tapping us on the back, most shows don't do coverage like we do, and spend the time to light it like we do, and have flashbacks and cutaways and special effects and greenscreens and CG, I mean.

John: We’re crazy.

Marc: We’re nuts!

John: Why the hell are we doing this?

Geoff: Rockwood.

John: By the way, I'd like to say: quick note because we just blew by it, Elisabetta, who had not acted a lot when she joined us in the first part of the season, the beat where she says, “You opened the envelope?” And she sounds actually kind of hurt? It's a really nice communicative beat.

Christian: Yeah it is.

John: She's really found her voice as an actor.

Aldis: Yeah, I liked that beat.

Geoff: She did a good job.

Chris: She was really great.

John: She really did a nice job. “Who are you?” And that is the best choice by Goran.

Christian: That is the best, I love that.

Marc: I just kept saying build, build, build, and it- just all the way to the end of 16.

Christian: You've never seen him not be in control, except that moment right there.

John: You never see him he's- he’s not out of control there, he's just impatient.

Christian: No, yeah.

John: That veneer is going.

Chris: Oh here we go.

Christian: Boom!

Geoff: You wiped out there?

Christian: Didn't do it that time.

John: He slammed his head. Look at his process right there, he's like how is this gonna go.

Marc: And I just love the little-

John: And the fuck you smile. That’s a great look from Goran.

[Moment of Silence]

John: Sorry, we all got lost in the show there for a second.

[Laughter]

Christian: Yeah, sorry.

Chris: Sorry, yeah now we’re like-

John: No, she did great, she did a great shot, we got a lot of footage of this. And it was really convincing. And then a little something for the ladies cause you gotta stop the blood flow somehow.

Aldis: Ah, there he goes, boom.

John: There's a whole box of rags right stage left, I mean.

[Laughter]

Chris: There's a whole first aid kit.

Marc: Could you imagine if you were doing pushups?

Geoff: What is wrong with people?

John: I mean, by god.

Marc: And a real plane taxiing away.

Geoff: Jesus.

John: What the hell were we thinking?

Christian: Did you see that? You saw on my shoulder right there, that’s where Tim stopped me a couple times. It was that really ripped up and bruised cause he had to stop me running full speed.

John: This was nice, by the way. I actually prefer this coverage, it's tempting to go into closeups there when he asked him not to tell the others. This is a very British shot to do this in a medium, because it allows the shot to kinda sit for a second, rather than forcing it.

Marc: Yeah, so we just thought we'd do it on a crane.

[Laughter]

John: Well that too. But I'm saying I liked the shot. ‘Cause it allowed you to set up the other shot. Also I love this bit, the little hurt look that Nate has when he finds out she wouldn't have done that for him.

Marc: Yeah.

Chris: And a very matter of fact, no; it was reminiscent of the flashback when he was getting strangled, his fantasy sequence. She's very bored and matter of fact about things like that

John: It's really- the character really did exactly we wanted her to be, which was a 1960’s spy character who was transplanted into the show. And this is something we almost never do. We've only done it twice - tie together the episodes, even in the season finales they tend to just end and you have no idea what we're gonna do next.

Christian: Right, this was fun to do. This was so great waiting on the second script.

Aldis: Yeah.

John: Yeah the walk- oh that’s right, cause somebody didn't quite finish the second script by the time you were prepping this.

Christian: Oh, that's right.

[Laughter]

John: Somebody was writing the script in Portland, say.

Geoff: I don't know who that would be.

John: And then the crane up, pull away, and you're out. Now this is cinematic as hell. And that’s 3x15!

All: [Cheer!]

Geoff: Nice!

Christian: Awesome.

John: Thanks for tuning in, and stay tuned 3x16!