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Museum of Television & Radio
March 3, 2004
The 21st Annual William S. Paley Television Festival
Creating Characters: J.J. Abrams and "Sydney Bristow" & "Felicity Porter"
SPOILERS!
Thanks to Coreen, Vartan Ho #194, for the following recap! You can access her entire write-up at the "Truth Takes Time" Yahoo Group.
J.J. reiterated throughout the evening that as a creator/writer/director you are always doing your best at all times and sometimes things don't work but most times they do. Matt Reeves (Felicity co-creator) then chimed in and said it was like being on a ship and its headed one direction and things are going well, then you realize that you need to turn right but it's a big ship so you can't just turn right (as in a sharp turn) you have to maneuver right. So sometimes the stories take you in a different direction than originally planned. But it was a night of analogy because J.J. also likened the process to "driving in fog - the closer you get the more you see". He mentioned that the fog bit a few times. He also said, "You need to have an idea of where [the story] is going. Not having an endgame is hell. The amount of work it takes [to plan out the story] is well worth the effort because the amount of work it takes to fix it is worse."
The only spoiler bit he let out was in regards to Vaughn. J.J. was asked where season three was going and he wouldn't tell but explained that season three was a sort of "deconstruction of Sydney, dealing with internal issues." In season one there was Sloane and SD-6, her mom in season two and now there's a sort of "sleeping with the enemy" going on with Lauren. He said season three has a lot to do with what he wanted to investigate with Vaughn. He made mention of being on the ship again, saying they were on it and can't get off and now that the season has explained the missing two years, what are those consequences? He said he realizes that the fans are frustrated with the rhythm of this season but he's always doing the best he can and that he looks at the big picture rather than one season as a time.
He sees it as phases and not everyone is going to love this phase. He understands fans are frustrated and questioning what they've done with Vaughn, he knows Vaughn has been "demolished as a person and is not the guy he was" but where he ends up, J.J. said, is the point. He alluded to big things coming for Vaughn and resolution by the end of the season. The only spoiler hint he gave was, "Vaughn is exactly where Jack was."
I'm not sure how much is truth and how much is what he thought we wanted to hear but he was convincing...then again, maybe he just believes it so much himself! He said more than once that he plots the season out to the end at the beginning and while I believe he does that - I think most creators do, I also think that sometimes things happen that change the course of the plot...for example he said Sark was suppose to be a one time only appearance but David was just so good, they chose to keep him around. So no matter how big the ship, there is always going to be change, so you should be able to turn it, right?
He claimed to be well aware of fan reaction...he mentioned it a few times.
For example about Bradley - how hated he was in the beginning, then how fans started to like him, blah, blah and with this season's "rhythm" and "demolished" Vaughn comments. His admission that Vaughn is exactly where Jack was is obviously a referral to the fact that he was sought out by Lauren, like Jack was with Irina. Regurgitated storyline but I suppose one could argue it's like coming full circle. In talking about his "Lost" pilot and the new Greg Grunberg pilot, he seemed a little spread thin but said even if he's not on set as much he "still keeps up with the "Alias" "writers, watches cuts and reads everything." However, his absence has been noticed this season, and the audience made that clear to him.
He also claims that it was his intention to make Lauren evil all along.
When asked what made him make Lauren bad, he responded that it was always his intention to make her bad because otherwise there is no conflict with a character like hers. He said Melissa had been great because she went into this year knowing she was hated. J.J. explained that he's seen a few episodes that we, the audience, have not yet (which got a chuckle from the crowd) and "it's good".
He paralleled Lauren's character transformation to Evil Francie. That when the audience knew she was evil, her scenes became ten million times more interesting, even if she and Sydney were just discussing soup. He went on to say it's the same with Lauren and now is the time to pull away some of the layers. He said he knows you can't have two central characters (Syd & Vaughn) of a love story have someone come between them because the audience won't sympathize with the character and will resent you for wanting them to.
He summed up with the ship analogy, "it's a ship that's sailed, we are on it, and it has to play out."
He was really big on using the ship analogy. He also talked about big name guest stars and J.J. said they were not knocking down his door, he pursues them. He then went on to praise Rickey Gervais. He said the episode (3.15: Façade, airing March 14th) is more of a stand-alone but it works well.
About Bradley Cooper - he gave him props as an actor and said he misses working with him but wouldn't want to have him on again unless he was able to give him stuff to challenge him as an actor, because he deserves that.
When asked about Irina, J.J. said that he had wanted Lena Olin all along to play "the Man" but couldn't make the deal so the casting director is who we actually saw walk on at the end of the season one finale. Then they were able to get Lena and he called her a "genius and can't disappoint." He said the hardest thing is not having her back but he's hopeful and still trying to get her back. He claimed it was inevitable that the character will make some sort of reappearance but he refused to speculate.
It seems that the next few episodes could be pivotal in making or breaking this season. It was alluded that there are interesting Sark/Lauren/Vaughn scenarios upcoming. Jennifer said they were currently filming episode 18.
When spoilers were asked, J.J. said he doesn't even tell Jennifer anything any more because she always leaks info to the other cast members, though Greg is worse. He said he knows everything that is going to happen and he again assured the crowd that it was good.
© Museum of Television & Radio 2004
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