Jessica Szohr & Anne Winters Interview: The Orville Season 3

Time to chart a route to space The Orville third episode. Seth MacFarlane stars as eponymous starship captain Ed Mercer in this sci-fi comedy as they venture out into space to explore new worlds and fight threats.

Despite Fox renewal, show has been off the rails for too long The Orville Season 3 in May 2019. After going off the rails and setting course again, the show returns in a new form, The Orville: New Horizons on the gourd.

Before the show returns, screen roar specifically with The Orville Stars Jessica Szohr and Anne Winters discuss the latter as a newcomer, how Szohr welcomes her new co-star to the cast, and what’s in store for season three.

screen rant: the season The Orville The partnership with Hulu is pretty exciting, and the new tone is a little more serious than before. Annie, your character is indeed a fun new addition to the cast. I don’t want to say she’s bad because she’s sympathetic, but for you, for such a complex character, are you really going down that path?

Anne Winters: I think I really found where she was coming from. In my opinion, it felt very real in the beginning, which made her arc very important. I’m glad you guys can see what I’m talking about.

She was definitely the only survivor of the Battle of Chiron, so it was a huge weight on her shoulders. I think that’s definitely her mindset going into this new team and then her conversations and everything she has with Isaac. Obviously, she doesn’t like him, but I think she ended up learning a lot with the new cast of The Orville, which might make her a little bit different at the end.

Even though she was very hostile to Isaac, what was it like for you and Mark to work together and find a rapport off-camera before entering each scene?

Anne Winters: I love Mark. It’s always a funny thing with actors because you love someone offscreen and then you have to actually hate them and feel sorry for being so mean and then it’s like, “Oh, sorry, don’t Accept that it’s personal.”

Also, it felt weird working with a robot for the first time because it was literally eye contact with someone as an actor. It’s so strange to look into two blue eyes and see there’s a person inside them worth hating. But without that eye contact, it’s weird, so it’s definitely challenging. But Mark is great. I love everyone on the cast and it’s great to be joining this new cast.

Jessica, this is only your second season. How does it feel that you’re not coming back as a new character?

Jessica Szohr: I’m excited about the way these scripts are coming together and the storylines and themes we’re playing with in this space world. I feel like we should go deeper and then we let the audience draw their own conclusions about what we’re talking about and exploring and touching on. I think it’s a very beautiful thing. I’m so excited that we get to come back and work with you all and perform with these amazing actors in these breathtakingly beautiful scenes.

Then Anne comes on the scene, and what she brings to the table—of the ship, of the character—is flavor. These layers are so delicious to play with and watch, and I’m so excited for everyone to be on this journey with us this season. They’re like mini-movies and a lot of us are on board.Boat [itself] It’s been developed, all of our storylines and characters have been developed, and it’s been spectacular. I look at these and I don’t know what words to describe besides grandeur. It brings you in.

There are moments — it sounds super weird because I’m playing an alien and I’m an alien — it’s a sci-fi show, but all of a sudden we’re in the middle of the forest and we’re here High school, it amazes me that we lived on this spaceship for a second. So I always thought being an actor and being able to be on Hulu with the creator of Seth MacFarlane was the most amazing thing, because we got to get in there and do all these things.

Anne Winters: They can write anything and everything can make sense or be written in space because there’s really no limit.

Jessica Szohr: I think that’s amazing and beautiful. It was also very challenging, some of the dialogue and sightlines were like looking at a green screen, I was talking to John, but I was actually talking to a bright red X in the middle of the room. So it can be challenging at times to really get that pattern and beats out so that it still looks organic, like I’m talking to another person, actor or alien.

But all in all, when you see the finished product, everyone really brought their A-game and it was a really nice experience. The only disappointment is that it took so long to come out, but that’s because we didn’t know the world was closing down and so on. So I’m glad it was worth the wait and I’m really excited for everyone that we have to do it in the safest possible way possible.

From what I’ve seen so far, I think it’s definitely worth the wait. Now that you did mention the evolution of characters and storylines, I’m curious about Chiali. Last season we saw her bond with Lorcal in that episode, and since then, we haven’t really seen her in any sort of partnership. Can we explore that further this season?

Jessica Szohr: Yeah, Tara has some interesting storylines. [Laughs] I know we can only talk about certain things. Her career went through many ups and downs, and Ed found more trust in her and gave her more responsibility. But between her personal life and work, it’s been an interesting journey with Tara this year. I’m so excited for everyone to see it, I can’t say more.

It was also fun working with them and coming back to New York, where we are now. That set is beautiful. That’s what I mean with this show, I’m going to New York, I’m going to take dance lessons. It’s been a really great trip.

Annie, I know you developed a strong relationship with Scott Grimes’ Gordon in the first episode. What was it like working with him, especially now that he’s a Seth MacFarlane veteran?

Anne Winters: I love sitting next to him, it’s a lot of fun, even dangerous at times, because if you’re doing something serious in front of the camera, he’ll make you laugh at the most unwarranted moments. A lot of times, a lot of us don’t even have lines to say, but we’re fighting or we’re doing something, and we have to have these serious faces. I swear, on those days, you feel a little stupid, but you know, everything will come together. He just can crack a joke, and I just can’t keep my face.

It’s been challenging to be honest, but from a fun and buddy standpoint, we have a great relationship both on and off the show.

Does that seem daunting to you, though, since he’s had that relationship with Jay for most of seasons 1 and 2?

Anne Winters: I don’t know. I think, but I also think it’s an opportunity to go in and create something new. People ask about intimidation; I find it intimidating as an actor that you’re constantly performing with different people that you’ve met or respected until you get there. Once I put on the uniform and get into character, everything just goes out of my head. I thought, “This is me, this is me, I’m sitting next to you for a reason. It’s taken me a long time to get here, audition after audition, meeting after meeting. Here I am.”

Jessica Szohr: I also think that if anything — I don’t know if the word is “intimidation” — you just bring it into the scene and make it like, “I’m not going to let It affects what I’m getting that’s going on here.” Because like you said, you’ve worked so hard to finally get the chance to work with great actors. There’s definitely tension and all those things, but I think when you have any type of feeling, my mission is to try and bring that to the scene.

Anne Winters: Plus, Scott made everything very comfortable. It was so easy to get into that scene and feel at home.

Jessica Szohr: I was you the year before I came in, and everyone was so welcoming, so nice. But she does too, and I wish I did, you really have to come in and be ready to understand the conversation. Obviously, as an actor, you have to understand the dialogue of anything you put on, but it’s very specific.

We started with a mini-dictionary [scripts], there are different layers, sight lines, green screens, it’s not like you go to a set and have dinner with friends. You’re in space, you’re in combat, you have a different line of sight, there’s a lot going on, so you have to be ready, and she’s ready to go. So if there was any intimidation, you definitely didn’t see it.

Anne Winters: My gift as Charlie is being able to see things in four dimensions and bring in a very clever mathematical element to that. I watched a lot of YouTube videos, and I was like, “I’m going to take a physics class, or try to learn a little bit of what Charlie knows.” I’m telling you, this Charlie girl is smart. I hope one day I can truly understand even the tip of the iceberg of what she did. But I think I’m really doing pretty well.

Since it’s such an interesting environment, as you both said, for the cast and crew, is there room for everyone to improvise in these scenes? Or is it really on the page?

Jessica Szohr: I think it depends. I think most of the time, it’s on the page because it’s very specific to what we’re talking about. Not just because Tara is the Xelayan out there, when we’re in battle and all that – you have to speak in certain ways, and you have to use certain terms, because that’s what we’re doing.

I think I always really like what’s on the page, unless Seth and I have talked before, if we hear it read it at the dinner table and don’t like it, or talk before a scene and say, “Hey, let’s Change it this way.” Then you go into the little video village and change it for them. For me, I think I already liked it, but Tara also had a very specific tone and what she was talking about. I don’t believe there’s a lot of room for me to improvise. you know what i’m talking about

Anne Winters: Yeah, me too, but I can maybe see it in those lighthearted conversations or in the cafeteria. You can probably chit-chat, but I’d like to say that I’m enjoying this page already. The first season — I’m just guessing; I wasn’t there — I’m guessing there was probably more improvisation.

The Orville: New Horizons summary

Set 400 years in the future, The Orville: New Horizons finds the crew of the aircraft carrier The Orville continuing their mission of discovery, exploring the mysteries and complex relationships of the universe.

Check out our other interviews The Orville: New Horizons Starring Scott Grimes and J. Lee, as well as Adrianne Palicki and Penny Johnson-Gerald.

The Orville: New Horizons Premieres June 2 on Hulu.

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