I recently got the opportunity to speak with Blindspot creator Martin Gero as as well as series star Sullivan Stapleton about the new NBC drama. This will be a two-part piece with Stapleton's thoughts coming a little later today. For now, have a read of what Gero had to say on a whole host of things, including Jane's tattoos, the importance of good characters, the mystery aspect of the show and lots more.
NOTE: This took place before the second episode aired this past Monday.
On Agent Reade's (Rob Brown) character
Gero: I think it’s really important on a show like this to find humor where you can so it doesn’t become all gloom and doom and dour. And it’s something we do more and more every episode because our cast is really funny, Rob Brown especially. Certainly Ashley Johnson is going to carry a lot of that weight as well.
And no, it’s one of those things when we started testing the show, I was so pleased to find out that people just really connected to Rob’s character and the fact that there was a little bit of humor in the show. So it really allowed us to run with that as the episodes come up.
On the number of tattoos on Jane's body
Gero: There’s a real concrete plan for the first three seasons, and then I have an idea on how to take it past there if we get there. So the crazy thing about pitching these shows nowadays is people have been so burned by an idea that can last ten episodes. So you really have to -- even in the origination of the pitch -- come up with an enormous amount of backstory, which at the time feels like an enormous waste of time because you’re like, no one’s even bought this show. What am I doing?But the second it gets picked up it’s like, I’m so thankful that I put in the groundwork when it was a little crazy. So no, we have all of the ten full episodes for the first season mapped out and we know what the second season is and how to get into the third season. And then hopefully we’ll see.
On how the differing appeal of mystery vs. action works on the show
Gero: I think I’ve said from the beginning this is a procedural for people that don’t like procedurals and a character drama for people that don’t like character dramas. I think we can find a way to do both really well.
Our story of the week, so to speak, comes from one of Jane’s tattoos and is closed-ended and like a little action movie in and of itself. But then what’s great about the show is that we’re able to do a layered character drama on top of that. And I think with previously-ons and people finding out information within the show, it’s the type of thing that will reward the loyal viewer but won’t alienate the casual viewer, which I think is so important on shows like these.
Certainly, for me, especially when you’re doing twenty-two a year, sometimes you find out about something and you’re like, oh man, I don’t have twenty-two hours to catch up on the first season. And so for us it’s very important that the show has an entry point for anybody at any time.
On the relationship between Jane and the rest of the cast
So she really has an impact on all of their lives and the great thing about doing a show like this is week to week you get to deepen al of the characters, not just Weller and Jane. And so you start to have [other stories] - Patterson’s going to have her own stories and then Zapata and Reade will start to have their own stories.
But it’s all directly tied to how Jane is impacting all their lives. So it’s a fun line to trace as who welcomes her with open arms, who’s suspicious of her, who’s worried about her. It runs the gamut and all of their lives are changed for good and for bad by knowing Jane.
On how he came up with the idea for the show
Gero: I wish I had a better answer for this, but I’ve always loved puzzles. This kind of show is a show I would watch. And I just looked around and felt like there’s not a lot of these puzzle shows and it’s because they’re really hard to do, certainly, and so I really thought about it just in the back of my head for years about how to do a show with a treasure map in it somehow.
And then I was - I lived in Times Square -- which is a long story -- during the Viacom bomb threat where they emptied it out, and that image has just stayed with me. It’s, like, so freaky because Times Square is like one of the world’s most famous busy places. And to see it totally empty was kind of an amazing thing.
So one morning I was just thinking about - wow, I wonder what they would do if they went and dismantled a bomb and there was a person inside that bag instead of a bomb? And then I thought how could I connect that to a specific person? You could tattoo Kurt Weller’s name on her back.And then I was like, well, what if she was covered in tattoos? What if it was a whole treasure map? And I had never seen that before. I’d never seen a person as a treasure map.
So I just got really excited about it and was like let’s figure this out and see where this goes.
On what the past week or so has been like for him
Gero: It’s been extraordinarily overwhelming for me and the entire cast and crew. We were really excited about the show and to see that it has connected with so many people is just really exciting. And you never know in this business. I’ve been on shows that I thought were pretty good and no one watched. The last show that I created was the lowest premiere in the history of television.
So this is a marked difference, certainly, than that experience. And it’s been really wonderful. And I think for us, too, it’s exciting because we’re really proud of the pilot, obviously, but we’re even prouder of the series that we’ve made. A lot of people are like, sure, but how do you do this week to week?
And I really think we’ve cracked it and found that balance between a great, thrilling action hour and then emotional character drama. And I just can’t wait. People have told me [they] can’t wait to see it, but we’re just so anxious to get it out there and have people watch it and go on this ride with us.
The fun thing, too, is it’s like - who doesn’t love a puzzle? Who doesn’t love a mystery? And this one is wrapped in a lot of fun stuff.
And so the drama - the mystery of who she is and why someone did this to her - we feel like we have a good answer for that. I think it’s really dangerous for shows like this to feel like all middle from this point on. So we’re really going to churn through some pretty amazing story real quick. Even by the end of the first active, episode two, there’s a pretty major reveal in there that really shapes the entire show. So we’re just excited for people to see it.
On characters (in general)Gero: For me it’s all about the characters. If you’re not interested week to week in what the characters are doing, it’s really hard for the show to work. [For] the pilot you really have to have these amazing set pieces to really draw people in, but even our opening, which is so enormous in Times Square, I think what works about it is you’re genuinely concerned for this woman. It’s a hook into the show visually but it’s also like oh, my God, what’s happening to her?
And so for us the type of action we do on the show is very character-centric. It’s not just massive explosions and car chases. It’s about this woman and this man trying to figure out what the hell is going on with them.
And so for me, I’m just really excited to have a canvas that’s this big that you can do some really amazing stuff on, but at the end of the day it’s the story that we’re telling about these, I think, rather unique characters and the drama that they’re involved together is what really gets us excited.
I know I’ve worked through a lot of genres, but at the end of the day it’s the characters that - the television shows I like -- and I’m obsessed with television. When they come back on it’s like, oh, my friends are back, which is sad and lonely.
But that’s kind of how you know it’s a good TV show when they transcend that and you just think about them when they’re not on TV, if that makes any sense.
On whether they will return to previous cases
Gero: Yes. I don’t want to say much more because that bleeds into spoiler area, but I will say all of the cases are interconnected. There’s nothing random about any of the cases they investigate. I can think of one that seems semi-random, but the rest of them are - the cases that come from her body are there with a specific purpose in mind.
And part of the puzzle is trying to figure out who’s doing this and why. And the really clearest information you have about that is the cases start to develop -- at least outwardly -- a theme. And that theme is very telling, and it’s something that our characters are struggling with.
So yes, they seem disconnected, [but] if you put them all up on a board, their similarities start to tell a story, if that makes any sense, which makes it very hard to come up with cases because they all have to fit a very specific plan that these bad guys are doing.
And so you can’t just come in and be like, hey, I have a great case idea. And you’re like, well, no. that doesn’t fit with our villain’s overarching goal. So it’s occasionally frustrating in the writer’s room, but I think it gives it a homogeny that is really interesting.
On the two leads
Gero: I think what’s really amazing about both of our leads is - and by the way, you’d be lucky to have just Jaimie Alexander in the show. You’d be lucky to have just Sullivan Stapleton in a show. But I have both of them - really puts us over the top in a way that I think can’t be discounted.
And I think what connected me to both of them is Jaimie is an internationally known hard-ass. But she has this incredible vulnerability inside of her that is so important for this character to feel balanced because what she’s going through is totally traumatic. And so when we met with her initially, just her talking about the character there was this emotion that I had seen under the surface of a lot her performances. I had been a fan of hers and then before we offered it to her, I just watched everything she’d ever been in. And I just thought, she’s a really great actress on top of being very physically capable.And it was exciting when you see somebody who’s really great and hasn’t shown all of it yet to the world. And so that was really exciting for us and I think it’s really exciting for her.
And then for Sullivan it’s kind of the same thing. I mean, I became aware of Sullivan through Animal Kingdom, which was this insanely human, beautiful, tragic performance that he gave. And then he went on to become a massive action star.
He’s one of the manliest men I’ve ever met in my life, but also has got such a beautiful soul and can play this tragedy and this hurt that this character clearly has. And I think it’ll be explored a lot. After the second episode you’ll see what I’m talking about, but they both have both of those - the strength and the vulnerability in them, which makes them human and insanely watchable.
On the creation of the tattoos
Gero: When I started developing the show, I made a book of like a hundred tattoos that I really liked. And then we hired a graphic designer eventually to layer them on her body in a rough placement. Then we hired Tinsley Transfer, which specializes in cinematic tattoos. And this guy Christian Tinsley and his team really took the design to a whole other level, brought an amazing amount of detail and brought an amazing amount of stuff with it.But for us there’s a lot of story on her body that needed to be incorporated. So yes, it’s really a team effort between the writers and Tinsley Transfers, and we’ve brought in this guy David Quong, who’s a magician and puzzle-maker for the New York Times. He’s amazing. And so he’s one of our chief puzzle consultants and makes sure that these things make sense and they work, which is super important to me.
The second tattoo for the second episode - we put it out for Entertainment Weekly because you could solve it yourself after having seen the pilot. No one has yet. I was like - it’s some sort of prize for the person that can figure it out. I’d be so impressed. But you can piece these together yourself, and so it’s really important for us as a collaboration between the writers, Tinsley, and David Quong that this all makes sense and it all has a flow to it. Outside of that it’s hard to get into how we made each tattoo because they’re so based in story that hasn’t come up yet.
On the approach to writing each episode
Gero: When we started, I knew what I wanted episode five and six to be, and I knew what episode seven was. And then I definitely knew what episode ten was. That’s our midseason finale - what eleven was. And then you have some midway points where it’s like, okay, well, fifteen and sixteen have to be this. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two -- if we’re so lucky -- have to be those.
So - and then it’s about - it’s kind of like an animation in-betweening. You do the big moves and then you’re like, okay, well how do we get there in an organic way? We know where we have to land with these characters in ten, so how do we get everyone there in a way that feels like it happens naturally and organically?
And that’s really fun to know - to know where you’re going makes this job way easier because you’re not just like, well, what do we do this week? You have a plan of where you have to get to and so both for the characters and for the mystery. So it’s been really fun to work with these amazing writers and craft these episodes week to week, building on, ideally, what we’ve done last week.On how social media affects the show
Gero: We live tweet both the East Coast and West Coast feeds, and it’s really fun to engage the audience in a real-time way and see what’s working and what’s not working, and what they get excited about.
And it creates a buzz. We trended on Twitter worldwide for I think four or five hours Monday night, which is extraordinary. And I think it drives interest in a show like this because if you’re just somebody that’s not into the show and all of a sudden your Twitter feed blows up with all things Blindspot, I think it drives you to the program.
And then as far as the East Coast - West Coast thing, certainly there are shows that I just as a fan have participated in live Tweet-wise. And I just think they’re savvy enough to just be like, well, I’m going to stay off Twitter for two or three hours. And then we do it all again. So it’s not like they’re missing anything.
What’s really interesting is how it stays hot well after the show. Because what a lot of people do is they watch the show and then they just enter hashtag Blindspot into their search and then just scroll back over the next hour. And it’s kind of like a director’s commentary or something like that with hundreds of thousands of participants.
And so yes. I think it’s something we take really seriously and I think it helps more than it hurts.
Blindspot airs on NBC on Mondays at 10pm.
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