ATHLEISURE MAG #82 OCT ISSUE | WHO DO WE WANT TO BE? The Peripheral

We love epic sci-fi shows and we were able to get screeners on Prime Video's The Peripheral which takes us on a journey between moments in time and the impact on how changes affect our humanity and it is out now. We talked with some of the cast and filmmakers of this show to dig into how this project came together.

We wanted to know how the actors approached acting and navigating these worlds that we are introduced to as we go between different time periods. They also talked about what they want the takeaway to be for viewers. JJ Feild, T'Nia Miller and Gary Carr talk about what it was to be part of this cast and a realistic look into a future that gives us pause on who we want to be.

We talked with filmmakers, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and Vincenzo Natali who we have enjoyed in Westworld as well as other projects. They talk about how they worked with William Gibson's book to create the immersive show.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We’re so excited to talk to you as we watched all 6 of the screeners from this 8 episode series and we can’t wait to see the remaining episodes! We’re fans of your work. What drew you guys to want to be part of this project and to tackle the themes that are involved?

JJ FEILD: Well, they are layered on and they are not 2 dimensional. They represent these huge power struggles maybe villainous, maybe they are trying to save the world, but underneath, they’re just humans and they are trying to find order in all of this chaos.

T’NIA MILLER: Yeah and they’re challenging roles, aren’t they? I mean, the writing is intense and it doesn’t appear so when you watch it. But to get those roles, you ask yourself, how do I bring these elements to the surface because there are these huge weighted parts. On a personal level as an actor, it's a great challenge!

LISA JOY: Well, Vincenzo, the director, which I have been a fan of and have idolized his work as I had the chance to work with him in Westworld brought me this book by his buddy, Bill Gibson! So, if you’re a fan girl like me and someone says, “my buddy is Bill Gibson,” it’s like Sir William Gibson is that who you are talking about? Vincenzo was like, “I don’t know maybe you would like to work on this with us.” I was like yes, of course.

I didn’t even need to read it, there was Vincenzo and Gibson and then I read it and I was so blown away as I always am by Gibson’s keen understanding of the future which is now basically the present of our world, but I also wanted it in a way that not a lot of science fiction makes me feel, it really took me back to when I was a girl growing up in NJ. You know, the idea of, “am I ever going to have a boyfriend, what am I going to do with my life and how do I make a difference,” and right now especially in this moment where we’re kind of on the cusp of something. The environment is changing, we’ve just come through this pandemic and I think that so many of us are thinking who am I meant to be? Like, the future seems so overwhelming. How am I meant to interact with it? Can I make a difference? Does my life matter? All of these existential questions that we’re really having to confront now as society and as individuals much more heavily than we used to. We’ve lived through lucky times before the last couple of years and we’re realizing that now! To see characters like Flynne and Burton and their family and of course Will from the future grappling with these same issues was almost reassuring to me because I liked them so much and they were dealing with this shit too! So maybe there’s hope.

VINCENZO NATALI: I have a long storied history in trying to adapt Gibson’s work and failing. So when this one finally got into the hands of Lisa and Jonathan Nolan, I thought that this might actually come to fruition and of course, it has in the best possible way. I mist say that I was very keen to see if we could bring Gibson’s vision to the screen in a way that does justice to him and in a way that I don’t think that has been done in the past. Because he really gives a picture of the future that I think is believable. Whether it’s going to be or not, I don’t know but I believe it because it feels very much so rooted in the present and as Lisa was saying, very much rooted in a perspective of the street. Just regular people and how they would contend with an alternate world. Honestly, there’s a million reasons and one of them is that I just want to build that future. I want to see what it looks like and I want to be part of the conception of it. It was like being a kid in the candy store really!

GARY CARR: I think for me, the first thing was having the opportunity to work with Jonathan, Lisa, Athena – I have been a massive fan of theirs since forever. Jonathan in particular as well!

AM: Same!

JONATHAN NOLAN: Thank you! I’m blushing!

GC: That is the case so for me, it was such an honor to be part of this. I was so grateful for that and I get to sit here and talk about this now. Also the story itself, I loved the novel and it was the first time that I had ever read anything from William Gibson! I was like, “wow, I’m so late,” this guy is amazing. Then again, with what Scott and the team did with the script, I thought that it was so solid. There were so many highs and so many positive things. There were so many things that I found to be attractive about the project. I also loved the character and I have never played a character like this before. I found it challenging but I was looking forward to that challenge. All of the themes that the series explores - all the topics, I just thought that they were perfect and it's so right to be discussing this right now.

JN: First and foremost, William Gibson. Vincenzo Natali our director, came to us with the project, came to us with the book and I had grown up reading Gibson’s books and spent years shamelessly ripping off his ideas and putting them into our own movies and shows. So it felt like there was a debt of honor there, but then I read the book and it was brilliant.

It’s also one of his books that is the closest to the bone of William in terms of his childhood in West Virginia. You can feel the reality of that world – of Flynne’s world and then when you step through the looking glass, and you meet Gary’s character and you meet Wilf – you feel the reality of his universe. So the two worlds were both so beautifully textured and lived in that it was impossible to say no.

AM: How did you prepare to play these roles?

JM: It’s all about the page, isn’t it? The book is not very different from the plot, but is very different in its style as the book is abstract and esoteric in its text. But then they turned it – Jonathan, Lisa and Scott into a story where we care about the characters a lot whether they’re in Clanton, NC or London or wherever - we care about them and that’s a great achievement of this series. You take something that can be frightening or cold or futuristic – they’re humans. They’re trying to find their way in that world.

AM: That’s great and the styling of the characters with the power shoulders that yours has T’Nia and the vests that yours wears JJ. Just these little aesthetics that also have a powerful look to them is another great layer.

TM: Often when you get a script and you have to do a lot of prep, you have to find yourself and it’s generally because it’s not terribly well written. The story might be great, but it's not well written. This is very different from that, it was serving the words on the page and then also trying to understand the bloody book because it was very confusing! For us, I mean for me, I mean you were confused too right?

JF: Of course! Once you start seeing it, you were like “oh yeah!”

TM: I didn’t understand it we shot it in May of last year and then we did pick ups and I was like, “oh, I get that now!” It was during pick ups where it locked in!

JF: It was like, oh that’s what a stub is!TM: I kept hearing this word stub, stub, stub. What is stub? Now I get it!

AM: Do you find it difficult to take something that obviously has source material and to make the show its own while still being tethered to the root of the book that it came from?

LJ: I think that one of the things that makes it easier is my respect for Gibson is so true and so deeply rooted that I think that all of ours is. I also think that it is reciprocated. He knows that we really respect his source material and his brilliance. He knows that we really want to make the best show possible, but every time – film, TV – it’s a collaborative media. There’s no one person that owns it. It’s a beautiful thing that it’s made truly by a group of people together you know?

Scott Smith, his writers, the actors bring new angles – there are new characters in this and there are new beats and new moments and at the same time, it feels so Gibsonian and it really tries to honor the brilliant book that he made and I think that honestly and deeply, all of us nerding out together in this way and trying to make this universe, it’s been a wonderful collaboration.

VN: I want to mention Scott Smith because he had the very challenging task to adapt the book and it doesn’t adapt directly into a narrative format. If Mr. Gibson was adapting it himself, I'm sure he would change it and I know he would. But he is very open to that kind of thing and I think that Scott cracked the code which is an intensely difficult thing to do and I want to be able to give a pat to him!

AM: We love the story and we love the visual texture that is in it. What do you want people to walk away with in seeing this series?

TM: Obviously we want them to be left with wanting more, but to also take pause and to think about where we’re headed. What kind of world we’re heading to and what it looks like for ourselves and how as a global community we have a responsibility towards each other. I hope that it gives people cause to pause and really think.

JF: I think that great sci-fi writing works as a warning on where we are and where we could be by projecting an image of ourselves into the future. We get to learn and as ourselves, “is this where we want to end up?”

TM: Yes Science Fiction – Science Fact. Let’s not go there. Let’s please not go there!

JN: Several years of Prime Video subscriptions!

AM: Yes, please!

JN: I don’t know Gary, what do you think?

GC: Nothing deep. I just want people to be able to enjoy it. Enjoy what’s being presented to them on all different levels from the themes, the aesthetics and a lot to what Jonathan said, a lot of amazing talented people have worked on this project to bring it to life. I think that it’s great high quality work and great TV. I love it and I just want people to enjoy it. Obviously, people are going to have questions about life and the world as well as the future. But I just want people to be entertained and moved as well as all of that good stuff.

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PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Prime Video/ The Peripheral