Defying Gravity’s Andrew Airlie Cast In Seth Rogen’s Upcoming Feature Film

Actor Andrew Airlie. Photo copyright of The Promotion People

INSPIRING actor Andrew Airlie has worked on over 100 television and feature film projects during his extensive acting career, and isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Coming up next for Andrew is the role of Dr. Ross in the highly anticipated feature film Untitled Seth Rogen Project starring Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The film follows Adam Schwartz (Gordon-Levitt) and his best friend Seth (Rogen). After being diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, Adam is forced to come to terms with the overwhelming challenge of beating cancer, and learning to appreciate what he has in life. Andrew, as Dr. Ross, is Adam’s oncologist with an unorthodox bedside manner.  

Andrew will be seen as well on the small screen this fall, appearing in the CW’s new television series Hellcats. He also plays Professor Harris in Dear Mr. Gacy, a true story from the producer of Monster starring Charlize Theron. The drama is based on the experience of 18-year-old college student Jason Moss and his relationship with notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy.  

The in-demand actor is also currently working on a made-for-TV movie entitled Killer Mountain, also starring Emmanuelle Vaugier and Aaron Douglas. Andrew plays Walter Burton, a wealthy industrialist who sponsors a climbing expedition in Bhutan. The mission goes awry and he has to hire another expert climber to rescue the members of the first climb team. With ulterior motives at play, danger and mayhem ensue. Killer Mountain is produced by Chris Bartleman and Jeff Schenck, and directed by Sheldon Wilson.  

One of the recurring roles that Andrew is most proud of is that of Mike Goss on ABC/CTV’s Defying Gravity. The program follows the adventures of eight astronauts onboard the international spacecraft Antares on its six-year mission through the solar system. The lives of the astronauts onboard are constantly recorded and broadcast back to Earth, both as part of an ongoing documentary and as part of mission monitoring. Mike Goss is at the center of the mission’s true purpose, a secret that he hides from astronauts until after the mission is launched.  

In 2009, Andrew was nominated for a Leo Award for his recurring role as John Oliver in Reaper. He greatly enjoyed the experience of being on the pilot episode of the hit series House, and a recurring role on the critically acclaimed CBC TV series Intelligence. Other small screen credits include recurring roles on Whistler, Saved, The 4400 and guest-star roles on Fringe, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1 and Smallville. He also worked with a star-studded cast in the feature film The Safety of Objects starring Glenn Close. Other film credits include Normal, The Butterfly Effect 2 and Fantastic Four, to name a few.  

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Andrew moved to Toronto before putting down roots in Vancouver. The well-rounded performer completed a number of impressive scholarly programs before venturing on his acting career. He attended the University of Toronto, Ulster College (New York) and George Mason University (Virginia), and graduated with a BA (History and Political Science) and a Masters Degree (International Relations), both from the University of Toronto.  

Looking ahead, Andrew plans to write and produce his own material. He is currently collaborating with British film director Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors, Laws of Attraction), writing a suspense/thriller and a TV pilot. When he is not acting and managing his busy career, the actor enjoys spending his free moments with his two children. Andrew also has a passion for photography, and is a die-hard Toronto Maple Leaf and Glasgow Celtic fan.  

As noted above, photo courtesy and copyright of The Promotion People, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Defying Gravity’s Eyal Podell – Physician Heal Thy Self

Defying Gravity's Dr. Evram Mintz (Eyal Podell). Photo by Kharen Hill and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC.

On the surface, Dr. Evram Mintz appears ready to take his first step into the unknown. As a member of the International Space Organization (ISO), he participated in a five-year program in preparation for six-year mission onboard the spaceship Antares to explore the other planets in our solar system. However, like his fellow shipmates, Evram brings with him some emotional and psychological baggage that could compromise his ability to care for the physical and mental well-being of those around him. Facing his inner demons is not easy for Evram, but for the actor who plays him on Defying Gravity, Eyal Podell, it is part of discovering just who his character is.

“Evram is the Antares crew physician, psychiatrist, resident drunk and in many ways voice of reality,” says Podell, who is dressed in his character’s flight suit and waiting in his trailer to be called to set. “The greatest [acting] challenge with him came, I think, when my conception of the character changed. Once all the roles were cast and everyone came together, we realized that between Zahf [Paroo], who plays Ajay Sharma, Florentine [Lahme], who plays Nadia, and Peter Howitt [who plays Trevor Williams], we already had three or four different accents on the show.

“So [executive producers] Jim Parriott and Michael Edelstein said, ‘Let’s strip the accent away from your character.’ That immediately sent me right back to ground zero because I felt in many ways that one of Evram’s defining characteristics was his foreign personality [Israeli] and point of view. So having to kind of start from the ground up again was a bit of a challenge, and then in the first few scripts there wasn’t much character revelation or backstory with Evram. However, as episodes four, five, six, seven and eight came along, more and more of Evram’s history began coming through,” enthuses the actor, “so that allowed me to piece him together.

“In general, astronauts have to be terribly brave, visionary and optimistic people, and part of my challenge was figuring out what the hell was Evram doing here. That meant talking with Jim and Michael about exactly why he wanted to be part of this mission, other than the grandeur of being one of the first humans to travel to these other planets. There must have been something else behind it, and answering that question helped me form a clearer picture of my character. Evram has a dim view of humanity and he’s experienced the trauma of war. He has been involved in some of the big Middle Eastern conflicts that have taken place in the future, and those experiences obviously shaped his outlook on life as well as humankind.

Evram ponders what situation might unfold next onboard the Antares. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC

“Maybe it was a subconscious choice of Evram’s to get on a spaceship and get as far away as possible from his own flaws, including his issues with alcohol and war. If he’s billions of miles away, he doesn’t have to be drafted, or read on the Internet or watch on the news the non-stop footage of bombings, killings and murders – the atrocities that man commits against man.”

Was it destiny that led Podell to his role on Defying Gravity? Ironically, when he was in 10th grade, the actor wrote a term paper about being a doctor. “Then, though, I realized I didn’t have the stomach to go to medical school and spend however long it would take with internships, residencies and all that other stuff,” he recalls.

“However, my parents raised me with the idea that an education is your ticket in life. One of the really important things they did for me was make sure I went to a good college [Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire] so that I would have the proper foundation and tools to pursue whatever [career] I wanted. So I actually came into this business thinking, ‘OK, I’ll try this for a little while and see what happens,’ but I soon found that it was almost like a drug. You get a little bit of the joy early on and become hooked. From there, I chipped away at it [acting] and built a resume role-by-role. Just a few years ago I booked my first regular job on a soap opera [The Young and the Restless] and landing Defying Gravity is my first big break.”

The pilot episode of Defying Gravity establishes that the story is told in present day (2052) and in space with the Antares crew – four men and four women – as well as in flashbacks where the astronauts first meet and start their mission training. Audiences also see that despite Evram Mintz’s rather dark and grim view of the human race, he has not scared away someone who truly cares about him.

Dr. Evram Mintz during training for the Antares mission. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC

“In the first episode we’re introduced to my character’s love interest, Dr. Claire Dereux, played by Maxine Roy, and it would appear that she and Evram have been in a relationship for a number of years,” notes Podell. “And it’s been interesting to find out through the flashback element of the show how they came to be in that relationship. It’s also a little strange because in the flashbacks we’re all just meeting as a crew, so we don’t quite know each other that well yet. However, in the present day, we’ve already been through five years of training, so what does that mean in terms of our relationships? Which of our strengths as well as weaknesses did we reveal to each other during training? What personal struggles have we seen one another experience? Have we been there for each other as shoulders to cry on? Have we picked one another up off the ground and said, ‘Come on, get back on the horse.’ Have we had fist-fights? Who knows?

“So there’s a while lot of history to be filled in. However, what we do sort of assume is that we’ve reached a point where we can look around at each other and say, ‘I trust you with my life.’ There’s a camaraderie among the crew. They’re a family, and they have to be because they’re going to be together for a very long time. That being said, even with your brothers and sisters, you feel like ‘killing them’ sometimes, which I think is a compelling aspect of our show, especially in that these people are essentially locked under one roof.”

Acting-wise, has it been difficult for Podell jockeying between flashbacks and present day? “It’s not so much the bouncing back and forth as to who we [the characters] are, but more how we relate to one another,” he says. “With relationships in general, you come into them being neutral. So as our characters come into the [training] program, they look at one another and think, ‘Oh, there’s a guy, and there’s a girl.’ The exceptions to that are those who have reputations, like Maddux Donner [Ron Livingston], Ted Shaw [Malik Yoba] and some of the other astronauts who have done some incredible things. However, the rest of these people look at each other and they don’t know one another from a hole in the wall, so they don’t have any preconceived notions.

“As the series begins to unfold, we see our characters in the flashbacks start to uncover pieces about each other. They then gather all this ‘evidence’ up and we sort of see how that affects their perception of one another. So the flashback elements are fascinating in that our characters are still trying to pull things out of each other and fill in the gaps. It’s a strange dynamic, and in some ways I feel like those scenes are much more fun to play when it comes to character development.”

Evram on-duty in the Antares' sickbay. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC

As far as a favorite Defying Gravity episode, one immediately comes to the actor’s mind. “Part of our characters’ training involves having to back each other up job-wise if necessary,” explains Podell. “So as a physician, Evram has to teach the other astronaut candidates something about medicine. So that was a fun episode where I really got to play doctor and ‘perform’ surgeries and things of that nature. As an actor, I’d never had to do scenes like that before involving medical jargon, special effects, blood and guts and cool equipment like you see on TV. Evram also gets to share some of his backstory with the other characters, which I was pleased about.

“Funnily enough, my wife went in for surgery not too long ago to have her appendix removed. I wanted to make her feel at ease, so I was trying to make light of the moment and asked the surgeons, ‘Do you want me to scrub up? I’ve had some experience.’ I started throwing words around that I’d used in the show and the doctors were looking at me as if to say, ‘Hey, you know your stuff.’ I had a photo taken on my cell phone of me on-set, which I showed to the surgeon and said, ‘See, I’ve been there.’ Meanwhile, my wife is rolling her eyes and saying, ‘He just plays a doctor on TV. Don’t let him near me,’” chuckles the actor.

While Sci-Fi drama is nothing new to TV, Podell is hoping that audiences look deeper into Defying Gravity and discover what makes it different. “Michael Edelstein and Jim Parriott refer to this as Science Fact, and I think that’s very interesting given that we’re right on the cusp of these [real world] advancements with the European Space Agency as well as China and a whole new space race that’s being launched,” muses the actor. “All these things are relevant because our show looks at what’s going to happen with the space program 30 or 40 years from now. Although the series is set in the future, it’s not so far ahead that you can’t comprehend it. I think audiences will be curious to see what our technology might be capable of and where humanity might be headed as far as working together to explore the universe.

“There is also the fact that the stakes with space travel are quite high from a very real perspective because our characters don’t have transporters or any of the typical Sci-Fi devices. For example, they’re still vulnerable to the affects of exposure to space on the human body. I think it’s in the pilot where Donner says something like, ‘When exposed to the vacuum of space, humans are like pinatas. We just explode, burst, freeze, die, etc.’ So it’s a fine line between life and death, which is always intriguing. And then there is the mystery element to our story, in that what are we going to find when we get out there in the universe.

Evram Mintz standing in one of the Antares corridors. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC

“Jim and Michael have some really cool stuff planned when it comes to planting things along the way and piquing the audience’s interest to make people wonder what’s going to happen next.”

In addition to Defying Gravity, the actor’s other TV credits include CSI: NY, ER, The West Wing, House and Without A Trace as well as recurring roles on 24 and The Game. On the big screen, Podell made his debut playing Al Pacino’s son in The Insider, and has since appeared in such movies as Unconditional Love, Blowing Smoke and the independent feature Hard Scrambled. His fans perhaps best know him for his two-year stint on the aforementioned The Young and the Restless, as well as his multiple episode arc as Ryan Burnett in season seven of 24.

“24 was a lot of fun,” says Podell. “It was great to be back on-set with Kurtwood Smith, who played my boss [Senator Blaine Mayer] in the show. He also played my boss in a little independent film we both worked on. Kurtwood tortured me in that, and here I was getting tortured by Kiefer Sutherland [Jack Bauer] in 24,” jokes the actor. “It was awesome getting to watch Kiefer at work. I’m always looking to learn from people who have been in this business longer than I have and have endured. Kiefer gave 150% of himself. he was the hardest working guy on-set and totally dedicated and committed to making the best product possible. Not one ounce of him was phoning it in, and I thought that was amazing.

“The response I received from people about my being in the show was terrific. The second they saw me on it, they started saying, ‘You’re going to die, right? He’s going to kill you. That’s what happens. If you’re with Jack Bauer, you’re dead.’ So that was tough having to keep my mouth shut about it for a few months. Of course, my character got tortured and then had his throat slit. I don’t know why, but I tend to get killed a lot on TV. Hopefully that won’t happen here,” he says laughing.

No matter where his career takes him, Podell will never forget something Gene Hackman said to him and a group of other actors during a break on the set of Behind Enemy Lines. “One day we were all sitting around – these young actors playing sailors and naval airmen – and nervously pretending to do something else other than stare at Gene Hackman while he was sitting there reading a book,” says the actor.

Evram monitors a situation while on-duty on the Antares flight deck. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC

“Gene could sense that we were all hoping that he would say something, so he looked up and asked, ‘Do you guys still audition?’ It was a totally redundant question,which he knew, and we were all like, ‘Sure.’ And he said, ‘Man, I used to love to audition.’ At first I thought, ‘Why?’ and then it dawned on me that he got to be the success he is because there was nothing else he’d rather do than walk into a roomful of strangers and put on a ‘show’ for two minutes. It wasn’t about being in Yugoslavia and filming a multi-million dollar feature for Fox Studios. It was about the bare minimum of that moment in the audition room, and that for two minutes a day, a week, twice a week, whatever, you get to entertain people. Learning little lessons like that early on in my career is what continues to serve me well in this business.”

Steve Eramo

Defying Gravity is produced by Fox Television Studios and OmniFilmProductions, in association with the BBC, Canada’s CTV and Germany’s ProSieben. As noted above, photos by Kharen Hill or Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios and ABC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Defying Gravity’s Ty Olsson – Daydream Believer

Ty Olsson as Defying Gravity's Rollie Crane. Photo by Kharen Hill and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

International Space Organization (ISO) Astronaut Rollie Crane was a man on top of the world. After five years of training, he was ready to command a team of three other men and four women, including his wife, biologist Jen Crane, on a six-year mission to explore the other planets sharing Earth’s solar system. Then, suddenly, Rollie’s dream was snatched away from him and his long-anticipated journey to the stars was over before it even began. While he could not dispute the reason behind this,it was no less discouraging and heartbreaking, especially having to be separated from Jen. However, as he later tells a colleague, Rollie has to follow his own advice to “suck it up” and get on with his job. Sharing his burden is Ty Olsson, who plays Rollie in Defying Gravity, and while both the character and the actor suit one another, things could have turned out much differently.

“When my manager and I first got wind of this project, I put myself on tape because I wasn’t available for the actual audition,” says Olsson. “From that tape, the show’s casting people brought me in for a live audition, and I ended up trying out for three different roles. I think I put Maddux Donner on tape first [a role that ultimately went to Ron Livingston], then I read for Ted Shaw [Malik Yoba], and twice for Rollie. My last audition was for Ted, and it’s funny because I remember [executive producer] Michael Edelstein saying, ‘Oh, I think the Ted character is perfect for you.’ Then, of course, Rollie was the one that came down the pike, which, honestly, I think is a perfect fit.”

In Defying Gravity‘s first season opener, Rollie and a fellow member of the Antares crew are called back to Earth prior to the actual start of the mission. Both men are found to have a previously undiagnosed heart condition and there is no other recourse but to ground them. Ted Shaw is chosen as the Antares’ new commander, while Rollie is reassigned as capsule communicator. Rather than experiencing the mission in-person, he must watch it unfold from in front of a monitor in ISO’s Mission Control. Like his fellow actors, Olsson was suitably impressed when he saw Rollie’s working digs for the first time.

“I think you get a feel for the creative minds behind a project when you walk onto the sets for the first time, and when I saw Mission Control I thought it looked like a movie set,” recalls the actor. “I was just blown away by its level of detail and that of the Antares set. It’s comforting to look around and think, ‘OK, they put the money in the right place. This is a really good set to play on.’ That’s easily my first memory of working on Defying Gravity. I’m sitting in the [production office] board room right now and looking at the dozens of drawings and pictures on the wall of the Antares bio lab, the medical bay, the flight deck, Mission Control, etc. It’s unbelievable the amount of work and creativity that has gone into preparing this series, and it shows on the screen.

“Besides the sets, I can’t talk about our first episode without mentioning [director] David Straiton. He is the wackiest and funniest dude and he has such a cool creative energy about him. When you start a new show you don’t know what the people who are running the ship will be like. And from David, you get a sense that he’s a guy who allows you to play as well as make bold [acting] choices and doesn’t pigeonhole you into his idea only of how a scene should go. So I felt like everyone from the bottom up had the same type of creative energy that flows together. Our camera crew is the same one that worked on Battlestar Galactica and in my mind are some of the best in the business.

“When I saw those guys were signed up, and I got to meet David, and I’d already met Michael Edelstein, I knew I’d be very happy working in this place for the next five or six months. I’m very critical of the stuff I’m in, but I have no qualms about saying that this is a top-notch show and one that came together quite well. I mean, you look at the first episodes of some shows, even huge hits, and think, ‘Wow, they weren’t really gelled there.’ Some first episodes never look as good as the ones that follow, but I have to say that ours looks really tight.”

Fans of Defying Gravity know that its story is told in present day/Mission Control time as well as in flashbacks. So besides seeing Rollie at work, you also get to see him during training for the Antares mission, which is when he and Jen (Christina Cox) first met. As one of “the boys,” Rollie joined his fellow astronauts for beers at the local watering hole, and even took part in a bet with their female colleagues that he and the other male astronauts could overcome the effects of a libido-inhibitor patch designed for use during their mission. While he is still just as good-natured, loyal and kind, Rollie has grown since his training days, which has allowed Olsson to show more facets of his character.

Rollie Crane at his post in Mission Control. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

“When I originally auditioned for Rollie, I was told that they [the show's producers/writers] were going to go a different way with the character and make him a little goofier and a bit of a nerd,” he notes. “I gave them a version of that when I read for the part, but later on when I got the job and read the first script. I realized that Rollie wasn’t really like that. So I decided to kind of go against that and made him somewhat stoic, very professional and, for lack of a better word, a quarterback. I wanted him to be the high school quarterback/all-American type of guy who is always above-board and could be relied on to get the job done. The character read to me like someone who should be commanding a multi-billion dollar space mission.

“So that was an acting challenge because I was coming in with something performance-wise that I hadn’t really shown them. Luckily, an episode or two into shooting, Michael said to me, ‘We really like what you’ve done with your character.’ I thought, ‘Whew,’ because you’re never sure how something like that is going to turn out.

“The other thing I’ve tried to layer into Rollie, in particular during the flashback sequences, is to make it seem that he was much more easygoing and a bit wilder in his younger days. I think he experiences a lot in the five years heading up to the mission that kind of change him. Again, you never know how it’s all going to play out, but in my mind Rollie is much goofier and younger in behavior in the flashbacks than he is in present-day as the former commander of the Antares. So that’s been tricky, to kind kind of keep that in my back pocket and not make my character one level all the time. You don’t want anyone to come across as one-dimensional, so it’s a matter of trying to keep him all those things that I’ve talked about, but also make him a real person with flaws and who occasionally has chinks taken out of his ‘armor.’ Also, we haven’t pinpointed 100% when Rollie found out about Beta, but I’m guessing it was fairly late in the preparation leading up to the mission, and something like that has to change your outlook on life a little bit.”

The aforementioned “Beta” that the actor referred to is, in fact, an unseen enigma that appears to be manipulating events regarding the Antares mission. It is inferred that Beta is responsible for the medical condition that led to Rollie and Chief Engineer Ajay Sharma (Zahf Paroo) being removed from the mission. This also meant that Rollie’s and Jen’s outer space “honeymoon” would not take place. Instead, they spent some time alone together on the Antares observation deck before Rollie returned home to Earth.

“I think Rollie had a crush on Jen from day one,” says Olsson. “When it comes to relationships with the opposite sex, that’s one area where he’s not the star quarterback who whisks women off their feet. He’s not a great pick-up artist. I think he’s slightly shell-shocked by Jen as well as a little love struck in the early days and slow to take action. Part of that could have been that he was a superior officer within the [mission] program at the time. Rollie is hopelessly in love with her, though, and falls for Jen early on. The chemistry between them is fun to play, and Christina Cox is terrific to work opposite. She’s very giving and listens as an actor, and the two of us have had a great time exploring who these two characters are as a couple.

“Christina and I have had some wonderful scenes via video conferencing between Jen on the Antares and Rollie back on Earth, and the funny thing is we don’t actually do the scenes together. I don’t remember which episode it was, but I was doing one of these calls with Christina on the other end and, of course, they hadn’t shot her portion of it yet. We did it a few times, and one of the great things about [director] Peter Howitt is that he has this belief that an actor should be able to do one take for himself – even if it’s terrible, even if it’s stupid, even if it’s in another language – which is awesome.

“We did the scene as scripted and then I asked Peter if I could do one [take] for myself and he said, ‘Sure.’ So I just let it rip, and I’m sure it was my best take of the day. That’s something I truly appreciate as an actor. When a director trusts you enough to say, ‘Have a freebie. This one’s for you. Do whatever you want,’ that, as an actor, is gold for me.”

Rollie onboard the Antares. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

A husband, father and actor, Olsson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and, like many people in the business, never imagined that he would one day make this his career. “I actually went to a performing arts high school, and from grade nine onwards I did two hours of drama a day. So I had the [acting] bug, but because I was never one to think what tomorrow might bring, I never considered this as a possible profession,” explains the actor.

“It wasn’t until my final year of high school, when I still had no idea what I was going to do with my life, that it dawned on me that everyone else was trying out for theater schools and I thought, ‘Wow, people can actually make a living at this. That’s awesome. I’m going to try it, too.’ I’ve lived a somewhat blessed life in that way, having been pushed and nudged in the right direction and I’m very grateful for that.”

The actor chuckles when asked about his on-camera debut. “My wife loves to tell this story. My first paying job ever for movies or TV was The X-Files [season five's Kitsunegari] when the program was at the height of its popularity. I came home from work and my wife asked, ‘How was it?’ And all I could say was, ‘The catering was amazing! They had steak, prawns, salads, fruit, desserts…’ My very first professional day as an actor and the biggest thing I had to talk about was the food,” jokes Olsson.

“Daniel Sackheim directed this episode, and he’s a super-intense guy. I told him years later when I worked with him again that I thought he was going to have a heart attack on The X-Files. I remember doing a scene where I was supposed to grab a doorknob and open the door as part of a spooky X-Files storyline. We did 14 takes, and I began to sweat and get really nervous. I wondered, ‘Why do we keep doing this over and over? What the hell am I screwing up?’

“I think it was one of the crew who finally noticed that I was starting to sweat, and he leaned over to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not you. He [the director] thinks he’s shooting a feature [film].’ I was like, ‘Thank God,’ because I was going crazy trying to figure out how I could get something like that wrong. Those were the glory days, though. I was on that set for five days shooting the opening teaser and I had a blast.”

Olsson has since appeared in several made-for-TV movies as well as miniseries and guest-starred on dozens of other shows such as Dead Man’s Gun, Cold Squad, The Outer Limits, Tru Calling, The L Word and Eureka. The actor also played the recurring roles of Captain Aaron Kelly in Battlestar Galactica and Danny in the Stephen King miniseries Kingdom Hospital.

“I was a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica and all the people who worked on it, so I was thrilled whenever I got a call from the producers telling me that they were bringing Captain Kelly back,” he says. “It was a fun show to work on and a bit stressful as well. This was a group of people who worked together for years and shot dozens of episodes, and I’d come back and have to remember how to pronounce some of the technical terms. I loved the challenge, though, and when I did the show, I also did my homework to make sure I was up to speed on everything.

Mission Control Flight Director Mike Goss (Andrew Airlie) and Rollie. Photo by Sergei Bachlakov and copyright of Fox Studios/ABC

“Kingdom Hospital was a great show to work on as well,” continues Olsson. “It was weird as well as creepy and creatively really on the edge in a lot of ways. My character of Danny was a paramedic and most of my scenes were with Ben Ratner, who is terrific to work with. I first met him during, I believe, a second callback for the part. The casting people were pairing actors up to read and they put us together. Ben and I chatted in the hall for 30 seconds, went into the audition room, did the scene, and the director looked at us and asked, ‘How long have you two been working together?’ It was one of those instant chemistry things where Ben and I just hit it off really well, and that’s always a bonus.”

On the big screen, Olsson’s credits include Lake Placid, Missing in America, Elektra, The Day the Earth Stood Still and X2: X-Men United as Mitchell Laurio. “A job like that is a dream come true insofar as getting to work with all those people with such amazing careers,” says the actor. “I was telling someone not too long ago that I put on 35 pounds in three weeks for this role. When I was hired, I was told, ‘Hey, we want you to go on a beer and pizza diet.’ Well, you don’t have to tell me twice. I already admitted how much I love the catering at work.

“Wardrobe took my measurements three days after I got the job and I told them that I was going to put on some weight. When I went for my first costume fitting there was something like a three-inch gap between the button and buttonhole of my pants. I came back three weeks later and there was still a gap because I’d gotten that much bigger, so they had to switch pants. On the first day of filming, there was another three-inch gap, so they had to let the pants out again. After Ian McKellen [Eric Lensherr/Magneto] found out I’d put all that weight on, he would come over to me every day, pat my stomach and ask if I needed anything from craft services,” laughs the actor.

Around the world, there are people who begrudgingly get up every morning and go to work, but Olsson is not one of them. “I’m so lucky to be doing something that makes me happy,” he enthuses. “I like to audition, I like to work, I like to be on-set and I love the creative process and problem solving. I also enjoy surprising people and being the guy who doesn’t look like an actor but who has a great deal to offer.

“Growing up, I was a daydreamer, and my daughter is the same. It makes me so happy when she says, ‘I’m going to bed early because I would like to daydream before I go to sleep.’ That was me to a tee. I used to love to lay in bed and daydream, and now I get to make those daydreams my career. I should have been born in a different time, too. I’ve always felt I was in the wrong time-line, and this [acting] is my way of finding those alternate realities that I fit into.”

Steve Eramo

Defying Gravity is produced by Fox Television Studios and OmniFilm Productions, in association with the BBC, Canada’s CTV and Germany’s ProSieben. As noted above, all photos by Kharen Hill or Sergei Bachlakov, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!

Defying Gravity’s James Parriott And Michael Edelstein – Up, Up And Away

What do TV shows like The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Forever Knight, Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty all have in common? If you said James Parriott, you are right. The veteran executive producer/writer has lent his considerable talents to these and countless other TV series over the years. In 2003, he and executive producer Michael Edelstein, whose credits include Hope and Faith and the hugely popular Desperate Housewives, worked together on the short-lived series Threat Matrix. More recently, they teamed up again to exec produce Defying Gravity, a Canadian-made space thriller that makes its Stateside premiere this Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

Set in the not-so-distant future, Defying Gravity was inspired by Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets - a fictional docudrama produced by Impossible Pictures (the same creative minds behind Walking With Dinosaurs) for the BBC. It follows the crew of the spaceship Antares, an international team of eight astronauts (four woman and four men) who embark on a six-year mission to explore Venus as well as other planets in the solar system. Their journey is being monitored closely by Mission Control back on Earth, but only a handful of those involved are aware of the very real dangers and mystery surrounding this mission. Defying Gravity is not so much Sci-Fi as Sci-Fact and served up with a large helping of human drama, all of which is part of Parriott’s and Edelstein’s original blueprint for the series.

“Michael saw Voyage to the Planets on the Discovery Channel, and I then happened to see a rebroadcast on the Science Channel and thought, ‘This is extremely well-made and cool. There’s something here,’” recalls Parriott, who, along with Edelstein, took time out from their day to talk about Defying Gravity on the show’s Vancouver-based set. “In this business you’re always looking for a new arena for a drama. I mean, there are thousands of law shows and thousands of medical dramas, a lot of which are very, very good, but you’re always thinking, ‘What’s the next arena?’

“So after watching Voyage to the Planets I got really excited and, right after the [2007] holidays, I ran down the hall to Michael’s office – we were both working at Disney at the time – and said, ‘What do you think? If we throw in a little Grey’s Anatomy along with a little Lost, this could actually work.’ Because it has an international crew, it felt like an international show and, therefore, would have a broad appeal. It would appeal to Sci-Fi fans, but the drama part of it would appeal to those who have no interest in Sci-Fi. Michael and I looked at each other and said, ‘This could be the one that really works.’”

Ron Livingston (as Maddux Donner) and Malik Yoba (as Ted Shaw) in Defying Gravity. Photo copyright of ABC Television

Continues Edelstein, “What appeals to me about working with Jim is that he’s all about the characters, and I just thought if someone was going to tackle this, give it to him. So Jim took this idea, put it to his brain and months later Defying Gravity came out of that. It was somewhat different from our early conversations, but I think it’s richer and more compelling, not to mention addictive. We’ve been very selective about who we’ve shown the pilot to. Recently, I had an older female friend from London visiting me and I didn’t think she was our demographic at all. However, she watched the pilot, got hooked and wanted to watch more and more late into the night. We’re hearing stories like this from everyone who has seen the pilot.

“To Jim’s credit and that of the other writers, they’ve come up with, once again, an addictive show. There’s just layer upon layer of mystery, and the amazing thing about the characters they’ve created is that you can go to any one of them for a story and you can fall into their world and find those multiple layers. So that’s been a thrill, and I get really excited when I read the scripts. I think the challenge, obviously, is to build a show of this complexity, and from day one Jim told me, ‘Michael, this is a space show. Space shows are incredibly hard to produce.’”

Says Parriott, “I started out doing The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man and other Sci-Fi and complicated shows with [visual/special] effects. And I told Michael, ‘This isn’t a medical show. This isn’t Desperate Housewives. This is [outer] space we’re getting into. Aren’t you scared of getting into space, and on a budget?’”

Says Edelstein, “I came up here in early November [2008] and since then I’ve been back home less than ten days in seven months. Initially, Jim was going to be up here a week or two, maybe a month, and he’s been here at least three weeks a month, but it’s been a ton of fun. Vancouver is a beautiful city and it has a great film community. We’ve inherited a wonderful group of people to work with and are settling into a nice groove.”

Paula Garces (as Paula Morales) and Christina Cox (as Jen Crane) in Defying Gravity. Photo copyright of ABC Television

Defying Gravity‘s international cast is led by Ron Livingston (Antares flight engineer Maddux Donner), Laura Harris (geologist Zoe Barnes), Malik Yoba (Antares commander Ted Shaw), Christina Cox (biologist Jen Crane), Florentine Lahme (pilot Nadia Schilling), Paula Garces (pilot, scientist and onboard documentary producer Paula Morales), Eyal Podell (psychiatrist and medical officer Evram Mintz) and Dylan Taylor (theoretical physicist Steve Wassenfelder).

Overseeing the entire operation back on Earth are Andrew Airlie (Mission Control Commander Mike Goss), Karen LeBlanc (scientist Eve Shaw), Zahf Paroo (flight engineer Ajay Sharma), Maxim Roy (flight surgeon Claire Dereux), Ty Olsson (capsule communicator a.k.a. cap comm Rollie Crane) and William Vaughn (assistant cap comm Arnel Poe). Episodic director Peter Howitt also plays BBC journalist Trevor Williams. In creating such a large and diverse group of characters, Parriott took a page out of his Gray’s Anatomy days. Once the onscreen players had been named, he and Edelstein then began casting the roles.

“We wanted to create characters who are sort of archetypes,” explains Parriott. “On Grey’s Anatomy you can point to those characters and say, ‘That’s the pretty one who was the model,’ or, ‘That’s the Asian girl who’s the hard-ass,’ or, ‘That’s the guy who is…,’ etc. You create characters who, at first, the audience might not necessarily identify with, but at least they know who they are. I tried to do that with Defying Gravity in order that the characters would be very specific, and even a little bit stereotypical at the start, so you’d think, ‘Oh, I recognize him, or her.’ As the series goes on, you then give your characters different dimensions and continue to expand upon all that as the viewers get to know them.”

Says Edelstein, “In terms of casting, we went through an exhaustive process. That really was a luxury, and I think it took us five months to cast the show. We cast out of Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal and even Germany. Jim and I were up at five in the morning to audition actresses via teleconferencing and it was great. That’s when we found Florentine and she’s been fantastic. The funny thing is Jim and I have very different tastes in things, and we found that the right person for a part would be the one where we both overlapped. There are actors who Jim zeroed in on right away and it took me a while, and vice versa. It’s been terrific casting this series together because we both looked for different things, and I think I speak for Jim and myself when I say that we’re both thrilled with who we have on the show.”

Mission Control Commander Mike Goss (Andrew Airlie) and scientist Eve Shaw (Karen LeBlanc) watch intently back on Earth as the Antares mission unfolds before their eyes. Photo copyright of ABC Television

As the actors were being auditioned and cast, the cosmetic elements of Defying Gravity, including sets and costumes, were also being designed and built. “We were fortunate to find some incredible department heads, including our production designer, Stephen Geaghan,” notes Parriott. “He has a tremendous amount of Sci-Fi experience and is also meticulous as well as wildly knowledgeable about [outer] space, and he brought his enthusiasm to the job. By the time we met, Stephen said we were already two weeks behind. We didn’t start construction on the sets until mid-October [2008] and we began shooting mid-January [2009]. So it was a Herculean effort, and there was a Christmas holiday right in the middle of it all as well.”

Continues Edelstein, “There was very little stage space in Vancouver when I initially came up and scouted around. This [a portion of Bridge Studios] was, I think, the only stage really available, so we took it. Unbeknownst to all of us, Stargate Atlantis has left this massive steel cage-type set behind. Lucky for us, Stephen had the good sense to say, ‘Hey, let’s keep this. We can strip it down and turn it into something else.’ So he built Mission Control around it, which was fantastic because on our budget I don’t believe we could have achieved the same results from scratch.

“We were also lucky to get Monique Prudhomme, our costume designer, who has a wonderful background in feature films. She received rave reviews for her last movie, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. We just thought that Monique had a great vision and she jumped headlong into research for the show. For example, with our EVA [extra-vehicular activity] suits, our white spacesuits, she looked at the new direction that MIT believes NASA will be going in next with their pressure suits. So Monique did some hardcore research and then she had to figure out how to make the suits ‘work.’ In real life they cost something like a million dollars apiece. Obviously we couldn’t do that, but Monique figured out a way to make something that looks great on-camera.

“Our whole idea going into prep was, ‘This needs to feel real and be believable.’ One of the things that Jim and I learned at NASA is that the space shuttle, which had its first launch, I believe, in 1981, was built using solid-state technology. It was technology from the late 60′s and 70′s. The thing is, NASA has a great deal of redundancy in their systems. Once they lock into something they don’t necessarily update as new technology comes along. The International Space Station is run by 46 computer chips, because when NASA first designed it, they knew peoples’ lives were at stake, and that meant its systems had to be very reliable. So early on, Jim figured out that if Defying Gravity is set in 2055, the technology would probably be from the late 2020′s to 2030.”

Says Parriott, “We looked out to 2020 and decided that that’s what we were going to do. Of course, everything on the show is from what we think will happen looking forward. I actually think some of our technology is behind 2020. It could be better in [the real world] 2020. In our case, though, what you see on-screen all depends on our budget and how much money we can put into the show.”

Zoe Barnes (Laura Harris), Steve Wassenfelder (Dylan Taylor) and Nadia Schilling (Florentine Lahme) on the Antares observation deck. Photo copyright of ABC Television

Adds Edelstein, “Budget-wise you don’t get all the money in one lump. We had to take our episodic budget and use it to chip away at [building] the sets. The sets that you see now were not that evolved when we began shooting. However, we’ve slowly been able to put it all together and, fortunately, the studio has been very supportive of our vision. That’s what’s made this whole thing possible. It’s a lot of hard work and people solving one problem at a time. Every day we’ve continuing to learn about the show. At the moment [late May] we’re shooting episodes 12 and 13 and we’re still learning things insofar as what we’d like to do in season two as well as ways to improve the show.”

Story-wise, the 13-part first season of Defying Gravity is divided between the present day, as the Antares travels towards Venus, and the past, with flashbacks to when the astronauts were in the gruelling selection and training process. Although the show’s characters are not aware of what lies ahead. Parriott has a definite plan for where this story is headed.

“Before we started filming, we had outlines for all 13 episodes,’” says the executive producer. “I’d basically arced out the entire season, which helped us a lot of terms of production and knowing what we needed to build. Beyond that, I wanted to do two things. One, in our ninth episode we have a major reveal, and it’s a cool one that catapults you into the next part of the season. Also, having started in Sci-Fi, I know Sci-Fi audiences are demanding and I wanted to be demanding of myself, which meant I needed to know where the series was going. I didn’t want to jump the shark; that was very important to me. So I know the ending to the show. I know season by season where it’s going and the big [story] beats along the way. That’s crucial for the Sci-Fi audience, in particular, and audiences in general.”

Continues Edelstein, “My time is valuable as is everyone else’s. There are only so many hours in the day to watch TV, and if someone wants to look at our series, then I feel extremely flattered that he or she wants to spend their time watching something that I’m a part of. You have to take that commitment to your audience seriously. It’s sort of a covenant that you make – you give us an hour of your time and we’re going to entertain you, we’re going to move you, and we’re going to keep your interest.”

Evram Mintz (Eyal Podell) and Nadina Schilling (front) along with Zoe Barnes and Jen Crane (back) sit through yet another training course. Photo copyright of ABC Television

Says Parriott, “It has to be a show that I want to watch, too. I think that’s also part of the criteria. If you’re making a program that you wouldn’t want to watch, then you’re kind of a cynic who’s just out for the buck. We started out in a very calculated, dare I say cynical place of, ‘OK, [outer] space, that will have a broad appeal.’ But then as you start to write it, you fall in love with it and your characters, and you become passionate about it. We’ve very passionate about this project now, and I think all the actors and the crew feel the same way.”

Adds Edelstein, “Episodes eight and nine changed everyone. After eight, everyone was like, ‘What happens next?’ And after nine it’s just been a mad sprint to the end of these first 13 episodes. It’s a very cool show and certainly not like anything else on TV. I feel the same way about Defying Gravity as I did about Desperate Housewives. When we first came out with Desperate Housewives there were no drama/comedies on the air and people didn’t know how to react to it. Some people said that men would never watch a show called Desperate Housewives and there were those who wanted to change the title. With Defying Gravity we’ve made a show that’s interesting and unique as well as compelling, and we’re hoping it finds an audience.”

Says Parriott, “I always say keep your eye on the ball. Make the shows as good as you can make them, and make the scripts as good as you can make them. That’s the joy of something like this. I find I’m the happiest when I’m in the cutting room or when I’m writing. The time just flies by because you’re doing what you love. The true reward is in the actual doing. And then in the larger sense, it’s in the relationships that you build making a show. These last two episodes have been bittersweet. It’s kind of sad and the cast as well as the crew are feeling it,too. They’re like, ‘Why does this have to end? Do we have to go home?’ It really has become a very happy family and one of the tightest-knit groups I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Steve Eramo

Defying Gravity is produced by Fox Television Studios and Omni Film Productions, in association with the BBC, Canada’s CTV and Germany’s ProSieben. As noted above, all photos copyright of ABC Television, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any form. Thanks!