The makers of the TV series of "The Event" have been keeping audiences in suspense about what exactly the event is. One thing that the show has hinted at so far is that it the event is on such a massive scale that it affects the human race. At the beginning of the series, which debuted in September 2010, Sean Walker (played by Jason Ritter) is frantically searching for his lost girlfriend, Leila Buchanan (played by Sarah Roemer). The couple has now reunited, but that does not that mean the two lovebirds are safe from danger.
"The Event" will have its mid-season finale (which airs November 29 on NBC at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time) before taking a break. The series’ first season is scheduled to resume with new episodes, beginning February 28, 2011, in its regular time slot of Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time. In a recent telephone conference call with journalists, Ritter and Roemer talked about the twists and turns in the series storylines and how they feel about the unpredictability of "The Event."
Jason, since we've only heard a small tidbit into Sean's past, can you talk about what we can expect going forward about Sean's back story?
Ritter: I know that the writers are planning to get into that and that's a whole plan for the future. But we haven't gotten there yet. I think that will probably get there in the next season. But as far as I know, we're only up to shooting the episode that's airing [November 29]. So we haven't found out too much yet. But we absolutely will in the future, they promised me that.
Can you talk about how you both find the right chemistry with only knowing so much about what's to come? Like does that help keep things off-balance for you guys?
Ritter: I think that there's something that's sort of exciting about that. I think out of all of the actors, we know the least about what's going forward. All of the actors know at least what they know. We all got these character bios at the very beginning so Sophia and Thomas and Ian Anthony Dale's character assignment, they all know exactly where they're all from and what's going on with them … I meet up with Sarah every day and we just kind of jump off into the unknown and it's exciting.
Roemer: Yeah, no. I think it is very exciting and I really love the show. So it's kind of nice being in the dark and see how it unfolds along with everybody else. And it does keep things interesting … We only really know what our characters know and I think there's something nice about that.
There seems to be an awful lot of action going on for both of you. Can you tell me if you had to learn any skills or what's the most exciting things you've had to do since you started filming the scenes?
Ritter: I've certainly learned a lot more about guns. This show marks my first shootout. So I had never done that before so that was a lot of fun. And I think that my favorite stunt that I got to do was I had to pick up Agent Collier and put her in the car and then we had to drive away from this giant explosion. And I had no idea exactly how giant it would be. And I started to drive away and then all three of my rear view mirrors just turned orange for about two seconds.
And then it was all over and I got out of the car and I looked at a friend's camera phone who had recorded the whole thing and I got scared in retrospect but too late. Those are my two things.
Roemer: For me, I'm more in shock and I'm so fascinated with the way they're able to rig everything from just like these big things that are exploding and then just all the things that go into making it happen. And the special effects I think are awesome and the makeup they're doing for the little girls and there's some things coming up I guess I can't say yet.
I'm just impressed with all of it or breaking away though and there's like a little explosive under the window to help it break. To get all the things that go into it are pretty incredible.
At the beginning of "The Event," your characters were separated for obvious reasons. And you were both kind of desperate in your own situations. Now recently, your two characters are kind of back together and trying to work this out as a couples thing. How do you see your characters in terms of you want to support each other and yet you also don't want to get in the way of the action?
Ritter: Well, I think for me, there's been a big shift. For Sean initially, Leila was his whole focus and he was desperate to find her and that was it. That was his one thing. And he also really does love Samantha and really loves her father and cares about her family, but there's a different drive there. Not that it's any less urgent but there's a certain calm in Sean now that he's gotten Leila except for the fact that Leila is now a little on edge; she's different from when I saw her before.
So balance that I'm trying to strike is I've gotten what I wanted, but now she's driven and I'm just sort of trying to hang on to her and make sure that she's OK and letting her actually sort of lead the way. I had FBI Agent Collier as a partner for a long time. Leila says, "We got to go," and I just jump in the car with her.
So there's a lot of sort of compromising, and it'll be interesting to see where that all goes and how long that can last. If we find Samantha, I wonder what our relationship is going to be like once we've gotten everything we need or we're looking for because it's certainly not going to ever be able to go back to what it was before. So I don't know. It'll be interesting, but what do you thin
Roemer: Yeah, the relationship has completely changed from what they're both used to. So they find comfort in each other and Leila finds comfort in having Sean because she knows what lengths he'll go to to be with her and help her find her family. But it's not the same. And Leila is sort of on the brink of losing it a little bit and just really her focus is finding her sister and she has so many questions for her father whose tried to assassinate the President and so many things she just doesn't know or understand anymore.
Are you conscious of like sort of keeping that sense of desperation alive?
Ritter: Yeah. And I think that there's only so much you can do to try to appease someone and tell them that it's going to be all right before they stop believing you. And I also think it's hard to keep saying that when the truth is Sean doesn't know. Lovers do that for each other all the time.
When there's no way forward, you can't see any possible way out; you say we'll figure it out. It's going to be fine. But after a while, it's getting worse and worse and worse and not only is the person going to stop believing you, but you're going to stop believing yourself.
I think that Sean has many more doubts about finding Samantha than he'll ever let on to Leila. I think there's a part of him that believed that one guy when he said you should probably write her off as dead. But he's not going to say, "Yeah, she probably is dead. Let's go back on a cruise."
You both said that you find it exciting sort of being kept in the dark and sort of playing things as they come along. But now that you're reached sort of the halfway point of the season, are each of you pleased with the way your characters have evolved and with how everything's tied together with the overall plot of the show?
Ritter: Yeah. I'm excited for the next half of the season to see how more of our stories start interconnecting. I think we've been on our own little Sean and Leila story and that's been so much fun. And I really have loved watching both of these characters transition from sort of innocence in the world to kicking a little bit more ass.
But it's been an interesting journey. I completely was blindsided several times during the season. I did not think that Sean would find Leila in Episode 5. I really had been thinking about that as maybe a season-long problem. And so it was really exciting to make an assumption about where the show was going and have the rug pulled out from me over and over and over again. And next episode, Episode 10 is really exciting and takes everything up several notches. So that was a good one to read.
Roemer: I never really know what to expect. Same as Jason: I thought I would probably be apart for the whole season. And it is nice to kind of be surprised episode-to-episode with what's to come and what's coming up soon. It's got me even more curious that the next few episodes are really big huge things happening which I want to talk about, but I can't.
I've really enjoyed watching the show up to this point and how everything's been unfolding and knowing a little bit where it's going. I can't wait. I can't wait to get started on the second half.
What sort of hints can you give us about the episode airing November 29?
Ritter: Well, I did read somewhere so I'm safe to say this. I read somewhere that Leila makes a discovery about one of the cast members that is a stunning revelation that will change the way she views everything.
Were there any scenes that didn't come off quite as you anticipated or it kind of like blew you away?
Ritter: There are always things that change in the editing room and things that change, for time’s sake and things like that. There was a little something in [the episode that aired November 22] that was cut out where when I first talked to Collier, she kind of is mad at me for ditching her at the motel a couple episodes before.
But maybe that'll come back. Maybe we've talked on the phone before that. So they cut that out. But so there's sometimes we go, oh that was a cool thing. But I understand for the whole sake of the show that it was unnecessary for that moment.
But then for the most part, especially with a lot of the action stuff and a lot of the stunt things, when you're there and you're seeing some thing happen, you see … all the little pulleys and how it's all working. And so you can see all the magic has gone. And so when you get to see some of those sequences all cut together, it's really exciting.
And I mean for instance the scenes in the corn field, we were just running through the corn a lot for many, many hours. And but then to finally see it all cut together, it all really had a cohesion and made sense and you could follow where we all were. And so that in that way it's a lot of fun.
Roemer: I also think it's interesting they shoot with so many different cameras at once which I have never worked that way before. They often have three cameras going. And so it's interesting to see what they end up using and the way they spin it and the way it looks visually and the different takes that they choose.
And also it being such a big ensemble cast I think for me, because what happens on the day which we read the scripts but then what everybody's filming like so many little things can change that they're nice. It's a lot of surprises once I see the whole show when it comes out.
What goes on behind the scenes? Is there anyone in particular who likes to play pranks?
Roemer: Well, Jason Ritter is a non-stop joke teller on set.
Ritter: We have long days sometimes, and I try to keep up morale. But also I realize that my jokes which are mostly bad puns really work the best at about 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock in the morning. So it's really a selfish thing to get the biggest laugh on what's probably a lame joke is when everyone's brains has stopped functioning at such a high level.
Do you have an exercise regimen?
Ritter: Yeah. I've been exercising certainly much more regularly than I ever have before in my life. And but yeah, it's important. I mean, even working on this show, I exercised so much during the pilot, and then I stopped exercising because I wasn't sure if the show was going to get picked up. And then it did get picked up and I jumped back in the gym.
But there are a couple times in Episode 2 and 3 where I was running. I hadn't been doing enough of it at home and my legs really hurt the next day. And I realize it's become important to just keep it up so that I don't injure myself because once the cameras are on, you really want to push yourself to the limit because it's only a couple minutes and then that's what people are going to see. So I've done that and paid the price later. I have to keep it up in the meantime; otherwise, I'm in trouble.
Roemer: I kind of change it up. I go through phases, as far as working out goes. I'll do yoga for a few months or then workout at the gym, and then if I'm not doing either, there are things that I usually try and do something active whether it's trying to jump in the ocean with the surfboard or go hiking.
At what point do you guys think your characters will interact with the President Elias Martinez or Sophia Maguire?
Roemer: I have no idea but I'm hoping soon. I can't wait to look for them.
Jason Ritter: Yeah. That - yeah. That's the short answer is we going to start mixing it up. They're going to start mixing it up in the last 12 episodes. So I'm definitely excited about that. I don't know. But I do think that three's been a lot of setting up in this first half season.
Roemer: And I've noticed that more and more of the cast are starting to slowly find out about the Event and more things about it which makes me think we're getting closer but that I also don't know. I don't know … Jason and I are probably the furthest from knowing what it is.
Jason, are they going to explain how Sean ended up from being on the cruise ship knowing about Michael's assassination attempt?
Ritter: I hope so. I mean they've told me how that all worked out and I'm hoping that they will go back and explain that to the audience because it's pretty cool. But yeah, that's the interesting thing about the show is that there will be some kind of thing in the script that where it says Sean and Leila are in a different car from the last time we saw them.
We go, "OK, well that's got to be something; they're doing on purpose." It’s not like we get there and they hand us a different car and we say, "Wait, how did we get to ...?" The writers have this whole thing planned out. So it's exciting and we just basically have to leave it up to them to decide when and where is the right place and time to share all those little secrets.
Do you guys know anything about what the Event is?
Ritter: I don't. I know that there are other cast members who do. Laura Innes does and Ian Anthony Dale does. I think Blair thought he knew and that was frustrating because ...
Roemer: And now he's not sure.
Ritter: And now he's not sure, yeah. So yeah, no, I don't know what it is. Sarah and I keep having theories with each other but we get proven wrong.
Does that affect your performance or does it not matter that you don't know?
Ritter: I think it might affect it more if I did know. I mean I don't know. There's something nice about being in line with you character as far as their ignorance of a certain thing goes. It's much harder to pretend you don't know something than to just actively not know it.
I imagine in those "Law & Order" episodes and things like that when you've read the script and who the bad guy is, the temptation would be to have your character already get a feeling that this is the guy who did it. Whereas in real life, it would be interesting if you were actually trying to figure it out as you went along, sometimes let the bad guys slip through your fingers.
What do you think of the three-month space between episodes? Is that good to be continuous or do you have any concerns about not being on that long?
Roemer: I think with the last few episodes are I think they're going to be really, really strong … I'm going to need to know what happens even if I have to wait a little bit for it to come out. But it's going to go with a bit of a bang.
Ritter: And I think that it’s a necessary break in order for NBC to be able to air the final 12 all in a row. So it's sort of that thing where it's a longer wait but the payoff will be all the better for it, but they're going to do a whole re-launching. And I mean I think that obviously it's something that they thought a lot about and they know that it's a dangerous time for shows like this. And I knew that they were deciding whether or not to take shorter breaks … And so I think they decided to just go for one big one but then really give the audience what they want once we start back up. So once we start back up there's no stopping us until the very end. So that's an exciting thing.
So do you think the long break in between episodes is a necessary evil but is it one that you don't mind?
Roemer: If it was between that taking one break or taking several little breaks, for me when I watch things, I think it's more frustrating to just get a little bit, take a break, get a little bit, take a break … I'm someone who likes to watch things consecutively and all at once as fast as I can.
And so having to be like, "Oh wait, is it on this Monday or is it not on this Monday ..." would be I think more frustrating than just taking a break and then, , then doing a little bit of a re-launch and saying that or it's back and running and you got them all. They're ready to watch.
Ritter: Yeah. I mean it's the same thing. I really enjoyed these first 10 episodes being largely. I think actually we had to take one week off because they had decided to air a "Women of Saturday Night Live" thing before. But other than that, we got to watch these first 10 all in a row, and that was really great. I got into a rhythm with it where all my friends would come over and we'd all watch it together. And so I'll miss it while it's gone, but once February 28 rolls around or whenever the actual date is, I will get that group back together and then we'll be able to...
Yu also mentioned too someone had asked you if it affects your character that you didn't know what the Event was and you said no, you didn't; it's better not to, because in real life we don't know what's going to happen next. Why would he have the advantage over everyone else?
Ritter: Absolutely. Yeah, that's exactly it. And that's one of the great things about TV is that there is these continuous arcs. It's the only place where your character story continues; in a play or in a movie, that's the entire story from beginning to end. And in television, we're lucky enough to tell a chapter every week and it's exciting not to just sort of skip to the end and read the last page, and then go back.
The ideal thing would be get the ratings up and the series will go on. Is that what you want?
Ritter: Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, once we get to the end of this first season and people get a sense of where we're going and what the writers do know what they're doing and all of these things like that, I think that the people who didn't jump on board this year. Hopefully, this is my fantasy.
That they get the DVDs for the first season and inhale the entire thing and get sucked in a watch it. Because sometimes, especially initially, it's hard episode-to-episode and waiting a week whereas the people who generally have less patience, and I'm included in one of those, there are a couple shows that I've only watched when the DVD comes out and then I watch the entire season in three or four days. And it's a great way. It really works. So I'm hoping that over the summer people will get into the show, and then when we start Season 2, it'll be a whole rejuvenated new audience.
Sarah, who do you think your audience is for "The Event"?
Roemer: I think it's actually pretty wide range. I don't know. People who come up to me and say they like the show. I mean it's really come from a lot of all different ages.
What's your biggest challenge that both of you face in this series?
Roemer: One of the bigger challenges for me, and especially just starting off, I've never done television before and the concept, well there was working with three cameras was very strange to me. And also changing directors every episode is such a bizarre concept to me. And so that's been interesting just because you have to learn a new language within and how you communicate with each director.
Ritter: I think one of the challenging things for me has been to sort of put my trust in the writers, and there are times where generally I can sometimes get lost in my new show. If I'm doing a movie or a play or something like that, I go, "Wait a second …" I get involved in continuity and I want to know where I'm coming from and where I'm going.
So there have been times where they're not letting us know what's happening in the meantime, and I know that they're doing it on purpose and I know that they have a plan. And so the interesting thing for me has been to just trust that. OK, now all right. So now there is a little bit of a jump but I'm here now and I know that it's all going to work out fine.
Why should people who've never seen the show before or only watched the first few episodes watch "The Event"?
Ritter: I think they should come back because I feel like a lot of people in general will make sort of snap judgments just in life, and I think that happened to our show. So one of the things that we promised is that we were going to give answers right away. And so in the second episode, we said that these people are not from terrestrial origin. And immediately a bunch of people went, "Oh aliens, I knew it. I'm tuning out. And it's without really examining how complicated that answer can be. And it's not a simple show.
And there are lots of theories as to who they are. I mean one of my favorite theories that I've heard out there is that they in fact are from Earth but in a different time or a parallel [time], all these different things that are exciting to think about. And so when someone makes a judgment on a show with sort of a broad stroke, it's frustrating because the show really has been excelling in the subtleties of all of these things and the gray area of are these people different from us. And can we just toss them off as aliens or write them off as aliens when they're really less than 1 percent DNA, genetically, different than we are.
So it's those subtleties that I feel like were glossed over by some of the people who were turned off to it. And I would hope that if they tune back in they would get really sucked into some of the more complicated elements of the show.
Roemer: I also think in the beginning, it was jumping around a lot, which I think confused a lot of people as well. And but there was so much they were trying to cover to like catch people to speed on like what's happening.
So it just showed so many different puzzle pieces to this massive puzzle. And I think now by this point like they've been able to go so much deeper and do all of the different storylines and who's who and what part people have to do in the grand scheme of things.
And I feel it's less jumping around and less of the flashbacks having to explain. I mean it still does it but not to the extent, which I think threw some people as far as keeping track of what's going on. But I think they've done an excellent job of explaining very quickly what's going on. I mean, it still leaves questions but that's the whole fun part of the show.
What was it about the initial premise of the event that appealed to you that you wanted to audition for it?
Ritter: I guess I'll start with selfishly for me I was really intrigued by the journey of the character of Sean Walker that he goes from this regular nice guy who's about to propose to his girlfriend to a guy pulling out a gun on a plane and demanding to be led into the cockpit.
And that was really exciting. And I think on a show that goes back and forth in time, you get to jump back and forth between sort of emotional states much more than you do on a show that's just continuous. So that was exciting.
And I just was really just intrigued by everything else in the pilot, the characters. I wanted to know more about every single character that I read. I wanted to know where the plane went, who these people were. So it was really intriguing in a way that a lot of the other [TV] pilots weren't for me … But this was a script where I got to the end and I needed to know what happened. I was intrigued by almost everything about it.
Roemer: Yeah. I was intrigued by almost everything about it as well. But I flipped through it so quickly, [at] just the end I need to know what happened. I needed to know, "How in the world are they going to explain this plane that just disappeared out of the sky?" When we were filming it, in my head I was thinking how in the world are they going to show that. Like how are they going to really make that work?
And I was so impressed when I saw it, I thought it all looked incredible and the rigging of all the tables and all being blasted away. I loved the script and I really wanted to be the first to find out what happens next. And I sat down with everybody and talked to them about their ideas and what their vision was for the show and I was sold and really wanted to be a part of it.
"The Event" has such a big ensemble cast. Are there any particular actors or cast members that you would like to work with more that you haven't had the opportunity to do so as of yet? Roemer: I think it's such a terrific cast. I can't wait for the bell to ring. I really want to work with Laura [Innes] and Blair [Underwood] like everybody, Bill [Smitrovich] … I think it’s bound to happen.
Ritter: Yeah, I'm the same way. I've - it's hard to choose but I would love to do some scenes with Blair and Zeljko [Ivanek] and it's hard to imagine at this point when I'm a fugitive on the run. It's not like I can just waltz into the oval office and say, "Hey guys, what's going on. By the way, I got some information for you."
But I also really want to get to work with Laura Innes and Ian Anthony Dale. It's the same thing. I keep on having these fantasies about who Sean Walker is going to align himself with, because there's two camps now. Actually, there's sort of three camps. Maybe Clifton Collins Jr. and I join forces against Sophia and the President or whatever. I have no idea where it's going. But I hope I get to work with every single one of them before the show is over.
Do you see a lot of the rest of the cast members?
Roemer: Mostly it's just … there are two stages next to each other, and for me anyway it's coming to and from work and we'll just have our 20 minutes of catch up and talking about our theories on the show.
Ritter: Yeah. I mainly see them at press events and things like that because the White House is on a stage and we're usually out in some corn field somewhere far, far away. So yeah, it's nice to get to run into them and see them and things. But yeah, it feels funny because there are some actors that I literally just almost never see.
Do you have a favorite storyline besides your own? Like if you could be a different character on the show, who would you choose?
Ritter: Oh boy. That's a tough one. What do you think Sarah?
Roemer: I really love the character of Sophia and everything that's surrounding her. But that's hard to say. It's really just connected to so many other things and so many other characters.
Ritter: I can see every character has their own cool journey. I mean, Thomas is such a great character. He's the leader of the people outside but then he has this complicated to say the least relationship with his mother. And then Ian Anthony Dale's character, his loyalties are to Sophia and the detainees and the sleepers and everyone. But he also has found himself really feeling like the humans have accepted him and that and just that whole complicated thing. There really are a lot of great characters. But I think that we all feel very lucky to be playing the character that we are playing. It's a lot of fun for all of us.
Sarah, what drew you to a television show?
Roemer: I heard about the script, and my agent told me that they absolutely loved it and that it was special and to read it. And so I did. I took a look at it, and I was never really opposed to the idea of doing TV. I feel like I usually just doing a film while pilot [season] was happening. But I read it, and I kind of fell in love with the whole story and idea. It left me with a lot of questions that I just wanted answer to, and that was that.
Sarah, you started working as a model. Was it difficult to convince that you could be an actress? Do you have to work hard at it?
Roemer: Acting it's very different. It's obviously very different and a lot more difficult than the modeling world I came from. And I ended up falling into it being picked up at a coffee shop five or six years ago. And I started to do it and I really loved it. And it wasn't really a question for me once I started. I enjoyed doing it, so I’ll keep on doing it.
Had you always had the acting thing in the back of your mind?
Roemer: No. I had not. I had friends who were actors. I had some close friends who are actors before I had fallen into it. And but I never approached anybody about doing it. But once I had been approached, I said, "Sure and I'll give it a go."
What’s the most bizarre encounter either of you have had with one of your fans?
Ritter: With the fan. Well, there was a guy who came up to me, and this was pretty early in the thing. And he came up and he said, "Hey I really like ‘The Event.’" And we started talking about it a little bit and he went, "I just have to ask you like what is the Event? Ha ha."
And I think in hindsight he was sort of making a joke but I started to kind of like go into some of my theories about it. And could tell that he like he wanted to go. Like he was in a rush to get somewhere. And I was sort of bending his ear a little bit more than he had expected.
He probably expected me to go, "Oh yeah, ha ha, yeah man, I don't know. We'll see. Bye." But then when I was really like well let's sit down and talk about it, I think it weirded him out a little bit.
You mentioned the corn field, but what's been the most difficult scenes for you folks to shoot this season?
Ritter: The corn field actually was pretty tough because it was uneven ground that we had to run on. And for me personally it was tough, because I had asthma growing up and I haven't had a problem for many, many years now. And something in that specific cornfield really started to mess with my lungs.
And so that was particularly hard because with an asthma attack comes all of my long-forgotten insecurities and it's hard to be confident and beat someone up when you're having trouble breathing. So that was tough for me sort of psychologically to be like all right, you're not a wimp. You can still play sports and all this stuff comes back with my asthma attacks.
How challenging is it to work on a show with so much secrecy and to choose your words carefully?
Roemer: It's hard for me because we're usually a couple episodes ahead. I do get nervous about what I can and can't say because I lose track of time a little bit. Like I know where we are like where our characters in present time but from where everybody else is exactly I sometimes get a little confused because they all kind of carry over into other episodes.
Ritter: Yeah. I think that the secrecy part is great for all aspects of working on the show. I think sometimes the interviews are the hardest part, the answering questions, because I certainly in my life generally am somewhat of a blabbermouth, so it's hard for me to rein myself in and keep from ruining it for everyone else.
For more info: "The Event" website
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Interview with Blair Underwood and Jason Ritter for "The Event"
Interview with Blair Underwood and Željko Ivanek for "The Event"
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