When I think of the great genre television shows that garner beloved fandoms, I think of one thing: The worlds they build. Whether it’s the Babylon space station, Westeros, or even just Sunnydale High School, fantasy is an escape and to build a world that feels real enough to make you want to journey through it is a magical thing. While the real city is a lot smaller and not populated by demons, the titular town of FOX’s Sleepy Hollow is a quaint little New York mountain town that has become ground zero for the Biblical apocalypse. I’ve been anxious to get to talk to the awesome, wild people who inhabit it and the creative geniuses who built it. At the 2014 New York Comic-Con, I did just that.
FOX’s Sleepy Hollow has been a major success and with only one complete season out there, it is bound to go down as a classic should the creative forces keep the momentum going. At the New York Comic-Con press room, a secluded area away from the chaos of the convention, I sat down on a roundtable with actors Lyndie Greenwood (Jenny) and Orlando Jones (Capt. Frank Irving), writer Raven Metzner, and executive producer Len Wiseman.
(Note: The following interview was conducted on a press room round table. Not all questions were mine, but all questions have been slightly paraphrased and edited to fit an easy-to-read Q&A format, as much of the round table happened conversationally. No drastic changes were made in the questions and the meaning and integrity of each question has been retained.)
The first to join us at the table was actress Lyndie Greenwood, who plays the tough-as-nails sister of Abbie, Jenny, and series writer Raven Metzner.
Sleepy Hollow has been a runaway success. With you guys personally, what is going on internally as the show ramps up for season two?
Raven: I wasn’t on the first season, but I was a giant fan of the show. So it’s extremely exciting to not only write and create on the show, but as a fan just watch it.
Lyndie: Excited and nervous. All of those things.
What’s it like joining a show that was full steam ahead already? Was it intimidating?
Raven: The first season was such a high bar all the way across. The great relationships, the amazing monsters, the great twists, the challenges and the bar of just trying to get above it.
For Lyndie, what’s it like for Jenny to finally start kicking some ass?
Lyndie: I feel like Jenny, the first scene you see her in season one, she’s doing chin-ups and push-ups, and is kicking ass from the beginning. It’s nice to have a team, to be a part of a team, and to be working towards the same goal, and to finally have people believe Jenny, which she’s been saying all these years. So, it’s gratifying to see her go through that.
So, Abbie and Jenny have had some tiffs. They’ve gotten over some of them, but they’ve been introduced to a new one: Reyes, and their mother. Can you tell us about how Jenny and Abbie will face those challenges?
Lyndie: We’re definitely going to learn more about the mother. And that is just an insane story. I think people will enjoy it, it was very fun to shoot too. And yeah, the sisters, they have tried so hard and they’ve worked so hard to be back in each other’s lives, you know Jenny has all these trust issues and she’s trying to work through them. But then they’re constantly hit with challenges of the apocalypse. [laughs] So it’s really cool to see them try to work this relationship out in this setting.
Do you think there’s something else? Once they do work through Reyes or even the apocalypse, that will eventually get in the way? Or is this the biggest hurdle they have to go through?
Lyndie: I just think life will throw things your way. Just by the nature of relationships you have to constantly work at them. So I think the sisters will have many, many challenges.
Raven: Also, the stakes are so high. I mean, its the apocalypse. The challenges they face are so monstrous, it puts all these characters into situations they never thought they’d be in before, and it makes them pushed up against choices they never thought they’d have to make and I think that you’ll see that coming up a lot this season.
How do you think Jenny feels about being out in the world when the demons that threw her in confinement are still out there? What’s her headspace like?
Lyndie: In a sense, she probably doubted herself at times. But now, she has other people backing her. She has that confidence within herself and is backed by people she’s starting to trust. So in a weird way, it’s probably satisfying. It’s kind of like, I told you so! In the worst way.
Filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter Len Wiseman swaggers over to our table and pops a seat next to Raven. Wiseman, mastermind behind the Underworld series, is among the helmers of Sleepy Hollow here at the New York Comic-Con.
You guys have crafted one of the most unique corners in genre horror. What exactly was the inspiration to mash up colonial America, modern America, and the Biblical end of days?
Len: You know, actually, here’s where it came from. When we did the research on the Washington Irving story, the original story of the Headless Horseman, [it] was created on the battlefield of the Revolutionary War. So, that had never been portrayed before. So that’s where the Revolution aspect came from. So it started there. And placing Crane there, being the one that was actually responsible for cutting off the head, creating the Headless Horseman, it then took us down the path of American history. With that character. And blending that with the Headless Horseman who happened to be one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which was so fun to pitch because when you pitch “the Headless Horseman is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” it just sounds correct! When we were pitching it to the studios, people were like, “I didn’t realize that.” You know? No, it’s not real, but it sounds so good.
What monsters have you guys enjoyed fighting the most, out of what we’ve seen so far?
Raven: I can say that my favorite monster is coming up in two weeks. Her name is the Weeping Lady, and she’s my favorite monster, because I made her! With the help of Len Wiseman and of course the rest of the writing crew.
Len: She’s a really cool monster.
Raven: I’m really, really excited about her.
Lyndie: One of my favorites is coming up too but I guess I’m not allowed to say. It’s the one after yours. And I’m not allowed to say! [laughs]
Raven: Nope! Nope!
Orlando Jones, who plays the hard-boiled cop turned institution patient Frank Irving, joins our side at the press table. We all have our iPhones, sound recorder, DSLRs, laptops, and camcorders scattered around the table. Jones, dressed like he just finished a GQ photoshoot, whips out his phone and becomes one of us. He could have had a fedora with a note that says “PRESS” and it would have been damn-near perfect.
Orlando Jones: What’s coming up midseason that you can reveal to us?
Lyndie: I told you to get out of here. I’m not answering your questions. Can somebody remove this man?
Raven [to Jones’ camera]: Irving gets naked!
Orlando Jones: Does Irving ever get naked with Benjamin Franklin?
The table laughs. I was told the Sleepy Hollow cast and crew have a warm work environment and that everybody there has a good time. Being up close in person to just a few of the actors and creatives, I wish I could be a fly on the wall on set.
Lyndie: You know what one of my favorite monsters was? Demon Jenny.
Len: Demon Jenny was awesome! When the dailies of that came in of that, you were so awesome in that. That was really creepy. And the final product of that, you with the eyes, with the voice, with everything, that was always for a director or producer, those elements are potentially very cheesy. Somebody gets possessed, and they do the demon voice, there’s always a high potential of failure for that there. And Lyndie pulled it off amazing. That was one of our creepiest moments.
One of the other reporters tells the table that she couldn’t sleep after Demon Jenny.
Lyndie: [laughs] Thank you so much! My friends and I when we were growing up, we used to find out who would do the most Satanic smile. Let me try.
We all freak out.
Len: I think the best demons we’ve had have been Jenny and Brooks, John Cho. That was amazing too. Those two moments I think were — creatures aside — were I think some of my favorite.
When is Irving going to break out?
Lyndie: Yeah, when are you getting out?
Orlando: [to Lyndie] Listen, I don’t like your tone of voice. [laughs] You know, it’s gonna be a slow burn. And rightfully so. Right now he’s facing a different set of circumstances. Right now he’s estranged from his family, he just sold his soul to the devil, [he’s gotten] people killed … his family, [his] daughter in particular, thinks her father is a murderer. So, he’s in a bad way. Abbie, fortunately, gave me the advice to move to the psychiatric ward and get out of the prison to get greater access which makes sense given Jenny was able to do so much while she was there. So, it’s gonna be an interesting season. There are a lot of eyes on him. He’s in a very difficult post. He’s in harm’s way.
How do you think Irving feels about being banned from Crane and Abbie?
Orlando: He’s not aware of that. He didn’t know he was signing a contract with the second horseman, so he has no clue that visitation is being controlled by his lawyer At present he thinks that this is who his wife thinks should be his attorney, and that his wife has faith — his wife is an attorney — so he has no reason not to accept her her expertise. So, it’ll be an interesting Monday, I’ll promise you that. [laughs]
Irving sort of mirrors Ichabod, in the sense that he has both ties to his family and his higher duties. But Frank we saw in the finale do a really noble thing. And now he’s in a place where has to choose between his family, his protection, and doing his job. What is that struggle going to look like in further episodes?
Orlando: It’s interesting you say that. Tom and I were literally just talking about that two nights ago. In season one, we realized that we were captain to captain and having a conversation. [We were] two people who had been in military ranks as it were, and had committed to a structured environment, and now we’re fish out of water. Him being here and me understanding what he’s brought to this world with the war raging. It’s gonna be, I think, topsy turvy for him, because I don’t think he has his sea legs yet. He doesn’t know yet a lot of things that are still happening. But I think that his journey is still very clear to him. It’s to protect his family and do what he can as a disciple in this war. I see him very much as a disciple. He’s a man of faith, he’s a man who believes, and I think he’s a man who wants to try and leave the world a better place and whatever he has to do to do that, he’s willing to do.
Sleepy Hollow has garnered a lot of praise for being one of the most racially diverse cast on television today. People are now eyeing Sleepy Hollow as one of the most progressive shows out there. How do you feel about developing that reputation? Was that at all intended from the beginning?
Len: Not by design. It was not something that was in our plan whatsoever. Our script changed quite drastically throughout the process when we were writing. Abbie was, for instance, not written as African-American. And Ichabod wasn’t written [for] a British actor. So everything just came organically from what was fitting through casting. And, so, it wasn’t anything by design. John Cho was a favor. When the show was [when] no one knows what it’s going to be, when we were putting the pilot together, I called John because I worked with him before, I thought it would be great to have — you know, nothing to do with his ethnicity — it had to do with the fact that I wanted somebody people would freak out if he died in the end.
Good choice!
The table laughs. This isn’t Sunday at Comic-Con. This is a Sunday barbecue.
Len: I called him up and I said I want people to, at the end, [make them] say, “Did they kill John Cho?” And we can say, “Yes we did. We killed John Cho.” So that was it.
I don’t know what’s worse: The betrayal or the killing of Cho. I think it was the betrayal. It was, “No John Cho, no!”
Len: The head on the back wasn’t pretty either.
Orlando: But what’s really cool about the show, as Len said, was that wasn’t an agenda. And that the show became multi-cultural based on absolutely no choices about that. Just, who’s who we’re casting, who feels right for who, so it’s always interesting to read people on the internet go, “Oh, these people are so racist.” I’m like, you got it totally wrong! These are the last racist people ever. Because they didn’t cast it based on a grid. It was cast based on who was right for the role. And there is nothing truly better than that. To look at Hollywood today, and to have that happen in Hollywood today, given what Hollywood was just not a very long time ago, is a major step and kudos to our creative crew.
Sleepy Hollow airs Mondays at 8 PM EST on FOX.
Check out our interview with Sakina Jaffrey and executive producer Mark Goffman from New York Comic-Con 2014!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyl95obG0ac