Entertainment
It’s Not a Zero-Sum Game
Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Paradise Season 2 Episode 6.
If viewers thought that the first season of Hulu’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Paradise was intense, the show’s return ups the ante on a variety of fronts. Not only does the story finally move beyond the Colorado bunker to confirm what life has been like for the survivors left behind on the surface, but the situation inside Paradise has never been more fraught, with increased security and monitoring even before Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) makes an extreme move to take her power back. On the surface, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) has flown away from the bunker in an effort to reunite with his wife, Teri (Enuka Okuma), but their reunion is proving more complicated than he could have foreseen.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast members, including Brown and Nicholson, about some of their characters’ most pivotal moments over the first six episodes. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, Brown explains why the Dan Fogelman-created series will never become too bleak, while Nicholson reveals what Sinatra is thinking about that big group, led by Thomas Doherty‘s Link, that just showed up outside the bunker, as well as her ever-complicated dynamic with Jane (Nicole Brydon Bloom).
COLLIDER: Sterling, there’s a lot more story that takes place outside the bunker this season, including flashbacks with new characters and a really strong sense of what it’s been like for survivors on the surface, but it always feels like the show circles back to emphasizing the innate goodness in people. What kind of conversations did you and Dan [Fogelman] have about always trying to showcase kindness between the survivors over the tone that a lot of these other post-apocalyptic narratives tend to take, where they’re a little bit more brutal?
STERLING K. BROWN: I think that’s an astute observation, and I think that’s sort of core to who Dan is as a person, and what he wants to point the world towards, is that in a global catastrophe, what have you, there’s a tendency to either become very selfish or selfless, and that you can afford and try to keep things to yourself, or you can open yourself up and recognize that there is a greater level of community and existence that we have when we share ourselves with each other, rather than keeping ourselves apart.
So, I think he wasn’t interested in the bleakness of the world so much as how it affects people and what it pulls out of you. I think in his own little way, he’s always saying that moving towards the light is good for everyone. It’s not a zero-sum game, right? I think especially in today’s world, there’s this prevailing feeling that if somebody gets something, somebody else has to lose something. The rising tide can lift all boats. A win for me can be a win for everybody else. So, I think it’s subtle, but I think it’s present, for sure.
Julianne Nicholson Reveals Sinatra’s True Intentions Toward Link’s Group in ‘Paradise’ Season 2
“No one else can come inside.”
What’s happening on the surface sits in sharp contrast to what’s happening in the bunker in Season 2, where there’s this increased sense of paranoia, law and order have really taken this more militaristic feeling. Julianne, Sinatra still sits at the heart of it. Even though, initially, you believe that she may be knocked down, she’s not out at all.
BROWN: “I get knocked down, but I get up again…” [Laughs] That’s great.
I loved the twist [of] the breath mint reveal.
BROWN: [Laughs] It’s so good!
JULIANNE NICHOLSON: I don’t think I knew that when we were filming it. I think that I figured it out later. I don’t know why the ball dropped later. I was like, “Oh, no, it’s not just his breath.” [Laughs]
3 Episodes In, ‘Paradise’ Season 2 Just Confirmed the Bunker’s Biggest Threat
A wolf in sheep’s clothing might tear everything apart.
Not only does it leave the door open for her to basically walk back through and assume her seat of power again, but then it builds to Link and the caravan that is setting up outside the bunker, and how Sinatra is going to deal with it. Do you feel like Sinatra really has any intention of negotiating in good faith, or is her outlook, “What do I have to do to get rid of these people?”
BROWN: Oh, this is good.
NICHOLSON: No. I think she wants to get rid of these people. No one else can come inside. Paradise has been designed within a fraction of a millimeter of its life to be able to maintain this amount of people for X amount of time. So, she is not interested at all, and she’s trying to give them something that they want and send them on their way.
Sterling K. Brown Explains How He Became the “Baby Whisperer” in ‘Paradise’ Season 2
“I’m kind of like Cesar Millan, but with babies.”
Sterling, I just spoke with Shailene [Woodley], and obviously, the circumstances around what happens with Annie this season are so heartbreaking, but it is very sweet to see you carrying around a little baby this season. How much of the parenting knowledge that Xavier extends this season came from your own experience, or Dan’s, or any of the writers’?
BROWN: I have way more experience than Fogelman with kids. He’s just got one, and he’s only about five years in. I’m 14 years into the game, Carly. And let us emphasize, for the spoilers of it, it’s not just a baby. I like little white babies. I like to carry little white babies around. It makes me very happy. I think it’s a delightful picture. No, I love babies. Actually, my whole career, I’ve always had babies and children in my sphere, and off-camera, I will go to the nurse or to the moms, and I hang out with the babies so we get a sense of comfort with one another, so when we get on screen with each other, the baby knows me. It is one of my favorite things to do. I’m kind of like Cesar Millan, but with babies.
NICHOLSON: He’s the baby whisperer.
BROWN: I’m the baby whisperer. So, yeah, it’s great — mostly for me. And I think Dan actually likes putting me in scenes with children because I think he knows I’m just a 50-year-old child to begin with.
NICHOLSON: Wait, because then you have all those little kids, as well.
BROWN: That’s right.
NICHOLSON: That’s so sweet.
Pivoting to an almost mother-daughter relationship that’s maybe a little less maternal, but I get the feeling this season with Sinatra and Jane that Jane almost regards Sinatra as the mother that she never had. Julianne, what do you think Sinatra’s feelings are towards Jane, especially in the wake of the shooting in the finale of Season 1?
NICHOLSON: She’s not giving it all away to Jane at this point. It was so fun to do that scene that Jane and Sinatra have together that our fantastic Ken Olin directed, where they’re figuring out, sussing out, what Sinatra remembers and what Jane feels comfortable sharing. It’s a really fun relationship to play with Nicole [Brydon Bloom]. She’s such a wonderful actor, and I do think she looks at Sinatra as sort of a mentor or mother figure, like somebody to look up to. But Sinatra, again, is keeping both eyes open. Fool me once.
New episodes of Paradise Season 2 premiere Mondays on Hulu.
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