[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 2 of La Brea.]In Season 2 of the NBC sci-fi adventure seriesLa Brea, Gavin (Eoin Macken) and teenage daughter Izzy (Zyra Gorecki) have made their way through a sinkhole that landed them in prehistoric Seattle to Los Angeles, on a mission to reunite with the rest of the family they were separated from. Only things are never that easy, with Eve (Natalie Zea) being held by a dangerous but mysterious group of individuals known as the Exiles and son Josh (Jack Martin) having mistakenly ended up in 1988. And even if Gavin can bring them all together again, they have to figure out how to get past all of their own personal family drama, in order to work together to find their way back home.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Macken talked about the fun of making a show full of crazy adventures, how Season 2 feels different from the first season, learning the meaning behind his character’s visions, how much he’s told about the story arc ahead of time, just going with whatever the show throws at him, what it’s like to work with a combination of practical and CGI effects, and the biggest challenges of making the second season.
Collider: I’m having so much fun with this show because how can you not have fun with a show like this?
EOIN MACKEN: Oh, that’s good.
You watch this show because it’s crazy and fun, and you know that it’s going to be crazy and fun, and I just enjoy that tremendously. We all need some of that.
MACKEN: It’s definitely bonkers.
In the best kind of way, though.
MACKEN: Yes. Oh, that’s good. I agree with you. What I find super fun about the show, at the moment, in that regard, is that it’s like all that cool stuff I used to watch in the 90s, like Indiana Jones. It’s got that type of crazy adventures that you used to love to watch. It’s got a little bit of that feel too, where it’s just a bit off-the-wall, and it’s fun. That’s what I enjoy about it.
The first season of any new show is about figuring out what it’s about, figuring out the characters, and figuring out their relationships, but with this, you were also figuring out the rules of a whole new world. How did it feel to navigate that, over the course of the first season? How different did you feel about the show, the story, and the character, by the time you wrapped the first season, compared to the first day on Season 2?
MACKEN: From wrapping the show last year, it was really interesting because, when we wrapped, our characters had just jumped into the sinkholes. I was quite excited about that because I had been watching some of that story from afar, being on a slightly different trajectory, and I was actually excited to be able to be a part of that adventure a little bit more, rather than be trying to figure out the mystery. I also did find that trying to figure out the mystery was fun because every time we see the script, I had no idea what was happening. But wrapping Season 1, I was really excited to be a part of this 10,000 BC casual excursion through the forest.
What was it like to go into Season 2, having a lot more information than you had when you started the first season? With all of the new twists and turns, and things that are revealing themselves all the time, does it still feel like you’re figuring things out, just in a different way?
MACKEN: Yeah. I was really jazzed to be down here in this part of it because of all the cool stuff, like bears and woolly mammoths and rhinos. I was pumped to be like, “All right, this is my jam now. We’re gonna be in forests and go on some crazy adventures. This is all gonna be a bit wacky.” I was like, “This is gonna be cool.” So, I was just excited to get into that.
What was your reaction to learning that your character wasn’t really having visions, but was actually having memories o this place that he’d been in before?
MACKEN: Yeah, that was definitely wacky. It was also cool. It all made sense and I thought it was a really cool twist that they didn’t tell me was gonna happen. It was interesting because then, as a character, I didn’t know what was going on either, which I thought really worked. I leaned into that. When I found out that Gavin was Isaiah, I was like, “Oh, fuck, that makes sense.”
As the audience, when we thought he was having visions, we also wondered if he was crazy. Now, we know that it was memories and that he’s not crazy, which makes you just feel really bad for him.
MACKEN: I was the same. I thought my character might be nuts. I had to keep that possibility on the down low, in case I had to go that way. And then, I was like, “Oh, it makes sense now. I feel really sorry for this poor dude.”
Especially because everybody else thought he was crazy and was treating him as if he was, when he really wasn’t, this whole time. It makes you feel for him even more because of the way all these other people were treating him.
MACKEN: Exactly. That’s why I was looking forward to Season 2, because I knew that information about him being down in 10,000 BC. Weirdly enough, from my point of view and from Gavin’s point of view, he feels comfortable down there while everyone else wants to get out. He knows the rules of being down there. He’s lived down there. Maybe this is all cool for him.
How do you get information about what’s to come on the show? Are you given broad strokes or general ideas, at the start of the season, or are you only told a little bit, and then you get more as the season goes on?
MACKEN: I get more as the season goes on. It’s one of those things where, personally speaking, when you know what the character is, it really shouldn’t matter where they put you because you should just know how to react. This really is that, in a nutshell. Once you know what your relationships are and who the characters are, they can put you anywhere. And so, we learn it script-to-script because they don’t let us know what’s going on unless it’s something that heavily affects what your character performance is going to be. We’ve on this adventure going, “I have no idea what’s gonna happen next.” I didn’t know what was gonna happen in episodes three, four, five and six until we got them.
It seems like some actors on TV shows don’t want to know anything other than what’s in the next script, and some want to know as much as they can. But either way, as the actor, you have to shape your character without knowing all the pieces.
MACKEN: Yeah. It’s a funny thing. On the one hand, you’ve gotta be careful. It really depends on the story and what the project is, but it works on this, to learn as you go, so that you’re learning with the character. I find that fun. I can only speak for myself, but that just means I’m on this adventure too. I still forget that everyone else who’s watching this show doesn’t know what’s going on. Now, we’re so deep into Season 2 that I have already moved on, mentally, from what’s happened to these characters.
At the start of the season, his wife has been captured by people we still don’t know much about, his son has gone through a portal to 1988, and your character and his daughter find themselves in prehistoric times. When you’ve got all that going on, how do you even wrap your head around it and make sense of it, as the actor trying to figure out what that would be like for the character?
MACKEN: When you just said it out loud and put it in those stark terms, that’s a good point. You just go along with it. It’s like one of those crazy adventure stories. That’s why this is so much fun and so cool to do. They can just bring this story anywhere, and all this weird stuff is happening. You just begin to accept it. It’s at the point where, if a T-Rex came along and someone was like, “That T-Rex is Gavin’s father,” I’d be like, “Oh, okay, that tracks.”
I would need a whiteboard and charts to understand it all and keep it all straight.
MACKEN: Me too. We’d be that meme from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. That would directly apply to this show. That’s probably David Appelbaum’s brain. It’s just one big, giant whiteboard, figuring it all out.
Your character goes through all of this craziness, just to be fully reunited with his family, but he still isn’t fully reunited with all of his family. Is he more determined than ever now, or is he feeling like he’s never going to get his entire family back together?
MACKEN: It’s a bit of a drag for him. He’s just trying to get his family back together, but at the same time, there’s a redemptive arc for Gavin, where he’s been able to focus, not so much on himself, but on getting his family back, which is really important for the character. Because he’s been able to redeem himself and change that relationship with his daughter, Izzy, now he’s gotta try to look for Eve and Josh. There’s an element where he’s embracing that because that’s what he used to do, as a pilot. He’d go on these missions. He’s focused on the mission of getting his family and his son back, and it’s almost like all of these issues he’s had over the last period have been resolved. He understands now why it’s happened and he’s able to use that knowledge to try to get everyone back. It’s a bit clearer for him than it has been for a lot of his previous life period.
Along with getting to know Gavin, we’ve gotten to know him through his relationship with Izzy because it’s been the two of them together. What have you enjoyed about exploring that relationship, and seeing how it’s grown and evolved? What has that been like to explore with your co-star, Zyra Gorecki?
MACKEN: It’s actually been really cool. That’s something that I really am intrigued by because it’s also been Zyra’s first part in a television show. Last year, the two of us were in this little journey together and we were in a lockdown the whole time. Now, the world has opened up, we’re not in a lockdown, and she’s a little bit older, so there’s been a change in the dynamic of our relationship as people, and that’s fed into what you see. Gavin can give her a bit more autonomy because that relationship has matured a little bit, which is an interesting mirroring effect of what happens when you get to an age like that. He’s had to treat her slightly differently. They’ve become a lot more like friends and mission partners than they would’ve been before, when there was that very direct father-daughter relationship. He’s literally allowing her to grow into a bit more autonomy than would’ve happened before, which is really cool.
It seems like one of the themes of this season is taking responsibility. All of these characters are really forced to deal with their shortcomings and their failures from the past. How will that help Gavin grow in Season 2?
MACKEN: It’s tough because I don’t really wanna tell you anything. I know stuff that you don’t, in terms of what we’re shooting, at the moment, and that all directly feeds into how his character changes. All I can say is that everything that happens over this season really has a massive influence on Gavin’s character and how everything changes, and I think that’s really cool and interesting. It’s been really nice to see that. He’s a very different person to how he was in Season 1.
Because this show uses a combination of practical and CGI effects, sometimes you’re acting to nothing, sometimes you have people in funny suits mimicking what an animal would be doing, and sometimes you have an actual prop of an animal to react to. What do you find the easiest to work with? Is it ever just easier to fully imagine it for yourself, or do you prefer having something there, even if it’s a ball on a stick?
MACKEN: We’ve had some funny moments, where we’ve had these really cool stunt guys running around in green suits, or someone will hold these giant cardboard cut-out images of the creature to give it a sense of scale. They’ll move it around, and that’s your eye line. It’s bizarre, but you do need that. For the bear, there was someone in a green suit, replicating the proximity o the bear and what it would be like when it moved. He was moving through the bushes as a bear. You can only do that, as an adult, on a television or film set. Where else are you gonna get to go act with a guy in a green suit, pretending to be a bear? That’s normal, and it’s okay.
Is it ever hard not to just completely crack up, when you find yourself in the middle of a scene like that?
MACKEN: Yeah, because it’s ridiculous. We’re all taking each other very seriously, but there’s a guy dressed in a green suit, pretending to be a bear. We’re just like, “Everything’s fine. This is totally normal.”
Obviously, you know it’s eventually going to look amazing, but there’s so much that goes into getting it there.
MACKEN: It’s nuts. You’re so used to seeing cool effects that you’re like, “This all makes sense.” But if you watch the process, you’re like, “Oh, my god, what is going on? This is bananas.” When it works, it’s seamless and you just accept it. So much hard work goes into it with the special effects people. There a huge amount of work that they have to do, on a show like this. They have to plan all the shots in advance, to get the reflective colors and the surfaces. There’s a huge amount of planning and a huge process that goes into making it all work. And then, when you see how well it works, like in episode one and two this season, with the bear and the rhinos, then you begin to accept how cool it is. They’ve done a huge amount of work to get it to that point, but it’s really awesome.
What were the biggest challenges, specific to Season 2?
MACKEN: The weather here (in Australia) is a bit nuts, I’m not gonna lie. The weather here is a bit wacky. The biggest challenge is the fact that we’re in the forest and filming in these very obscure locations. It’s a huge challenge for the crew and our transport team. It seems like such a small thing, but you don’t realize how many people are involved in actually pulling something like this together. There are hundreds and hundreds of people moving giant base camps into the middle of the mountain, so that you’re able to be in the right place to film this type of thing. You just begin to accept it, but there are so many people that have to make that happen. That’s one of the biggest challenges, in terms of just the overall scale of making it all work.
Without spoilers, what can you say about what might be to come for Gavin and Eve? Are they going to have to have a serious conversation, once their family has been fully reunited?
MACKEN: There are many different conversations that need to be had. I can tell you that, when they meet each other, they have a lot to discuss. But what’s also really interesting is that, when they meet each other, especially in this moment, when they’re put in extraordinary circumstances, their personal opinions and relationships have to take a backseat. They have to be resolved later, which can sometimes make them even more fiery.
La Breaairs on Tuesday nights on NBC and is available to stream at Peacock.
