Deadline Hollywood - Sponsored Issue - USA Network - 2018

PROMOTIONAL ISSUE PRESENTED BY

MR. ROBOT YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE PLAYERS BEHIND SAM ESMAIL'S BARNSTORMING TECHNO THRILLER HIT.

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2016 EMMY WINNER OUT S TA ND ING L E A D ACTO R I N A D R A MA SE R I E S

“ONE OF THE SUBTLEST, DEEPEST LEAD PERFORMANCES ON TV RIGHT NOW”

“ELLIOT ALDERSON IS TV’S BIGGEST DISRUPTOR”

RAMI MALEK OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

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“MR. ROBOT, PLAYED WITH ENERGETIC FERVOR

BY CHRISTIAN SLATER”

“MR. ROBOT [IS] PLAYED BY CHRISTIAN SLATER WITH A BURROWING ENERGY THAT NICELY COMPLEMENTS MALEK’S AFFECTLESS SADNESS”

CHRISTIAN SLATER OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

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FIRST TAKE

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Casting Mr. Robot Season 2 with Kim Miscia and Beth Bowling

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The secrets of Elliot's inner psyche with editor Philip Harrison

FEATURES

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SAM ESMAIL The creator and showrunner on the prescience and politics of Mr. Robot

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RAMI MALEK The man behind Elliot Alderson explains what drives him

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CHRISTIAN SLATER Mr. Robot himself speaks

DIALOGUE

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The women of Mr. Robot, Portia Doubleday and Carly Chaikin, sit down together

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Cinematographer Tod Campbell and composer Mac Quayle on their disciplines

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Hear from guest stars Gloria Reuben, Brian Stokes Mitchell and BD Wong

ON THE COVER Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Christian Slater and Rami Malek star in Mr. Robot.

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D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“MR. ROBOT IS ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING, WELL-WRITTEN AND COMPELLING DRAMAS ON TV”

SAM ESMAIL

OUTSTANDING WRITING FOR A DRAMA SERIES OUTSTANDING DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA SERIES

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CASTING OFF How Mr. Robot’s Season 2 casting bucks TV convention

WHEN MR. ROBOT CREATOR Sam Esmail took the reins as the sole director of Season 2, he turned convention on its head by following a production model far more typical of feature filmmaking than shooting a TV show.

Setting a rigorous schedule of block shooting in which multiple episodes were filmed in batches, every piece of the puzzle had to be set in place ahead of time, including the entire cast of actors—a rarity in television.

For Emmy-nominated casting directors Beth Bowling and Kim Miscia, this was the first time they were ever tasked with finding actors for a whole season before shooting, but—as with so many other aspects of Mr. Robot Season 2—Esmail’s shake-up only served to improve production.

“I think it helps everyone do a better job,” Bowling explains, adding that actors were able to audition with a fuller picture of the characters in mind. “It’s especially beneficial from the casting perspective because sometimes you’ll work on an episodic serial where a

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character has two lines and then, five episodes down the road, they have something larger to do. Then you’re like, ‘Wait, I would’ve maybe brought in different people for that role if I knew it was going to be larger.’”

Season 2 was also an opportunity to cast Joey Badass, who the show had wanted for Season 1, but the rapper’s tour schedule made his guest appearance a no-go in 2015. Ultimately, he filled the role of Leon, Elliot’s Seinfeld-obsessed friend who immediately became a fan favorite in Mr. Robot’s sophomore season.

Other popular guest stars—Season 1’s Michael Cristofer (Phillip Price) and Stephanie Corneliussen (Joanna Wellick)—were upped to series regulars with heftier roles this year.

“Stephanie Corneliussen [is our] Lady Macbeth and her performance is so cold and scary,” says Bowling.

“She’s the complete opposite of that in real life.”

Acclaimed for casting surprising faces in Mr. Robot’s first season, Bowling and Miscia continued this trend by bringing Craig Robinson on for Season 2 as Ray, a serious role that departed from his comedic filmography of The Office and Hot Tub Time Machine.

“I really felt like Craig Robinson was such a revelation,” saysMiscia. “It was so great watching his scenes. He’s fresh in a way that I couldn’t have imagined before and that’s what part of the magic of casting is all about.” ★

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“ONE OF THE MOST WATCHABLE WOMEN ON TV”

CARLY CHAIKIN OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

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WHO KNEW THE INSIDE of Elliot’s psyche would

CUTTING THE PSYCHE Editor Philip Harrison takes a trip inside Elliot's head in a tour-de-force of film and TV editing styles

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look so much like a 1990s sitcom?

Yet, in the first 15 minutes of “eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave. aes,” Season 2 of Mr. Robot placed viewers smack-dab in the glory days of Alf, TGIF, and TV theme songs you could actually sing along to.

Of course, in the land of Mr. Robot—where control is an illusion and things are not always what they seem— the throwback episode, which captures the benign drama of the family sitcom and then completely upends it, is definitely not something for the whole family.

Mr. Robot editor Philip Harrison approached the challenge of “Master Slave” as he had other episodes that connect with Elliot’s inner psyche; he found a visual style that would add to the narrative—not merely complement it. In the form of the sitcom, Harrison was able to use joke devices, but in a nightmarish way, as Elliot pushed himself deeper into a ’90s TV fantasy to escape his dangerous reality.

“It’s a disturbing humor, but it’s definitely humor,” Harrison says. “I like that Sam Esmail tried to make it as authentic as possible to a real sitcom. So it’s funny, but it’s sort of an untrustable funny.”

At other times, Harrison has taken a more cinematic approach to the inner workings of Elliot's inner world—from a 10-minute dream sequence following a visit to a drug den in Season 1, to an Adderall-fueled trip in Season 2 punctuated by peculiar digital visual anomalies.

“Season 2 presented more opportunities to be in this internal space with Elliot,” explains Harrison. “He’s really in this frozen emotional conflict with Mr. Robot.”

As much as experimentation figures into Mr. Robot’s visual storytelling, Harrison and Esmail are also cognizant of the value in playing it straight.

“At the end of ‘Master Slave,’ we’re back in the car, but it’s a flashback in reality to young Elliot with his father,” explains Harrison. “We’re playing it completely naturalistically. Sam’s famous for lots of negative space to make you feel off-kilter, and in this final scene, he dispenses with all of that. It’s very direct. It’s very emotional as the father tells his son that he has cancer, and you can see the son, in order to protect himself, start constructing this internal world.

“I just love that this episode can have this sort of insanity, but also this really grounded, emotional heartbreak.” ★

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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“CAPTURED THE SHAKY CONFIDENCE AND DIVIDED INTEREST OF HER CHARACTER WONDERFULLY”

PORTIA DOUBLEDAY OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

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“ONE OF THE DEFINING SHOWS OF OUR AGE”

“BREATHTAKING”

“LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE NOTHING ELSE ON TV”

“TRULY DAZZLING FILMMAKING”

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MR. ROBOT OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

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M

UCH LIKE Black Mirror’s Charlie Brooker, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail holds a unique position as one of Hollywood’s most prescient storytellers. Writing and directing the hacker drama, Esmail’s series was eerily prescient when it arrived in 2015, and has only become more provocative since, as destructive incidents of real-world hacking play out in the news.

manipulated public perception via social engineering, that was something that even surprised me.

Hacking has become a daily fixture of the news cycle. How has the show changed to respond?

It’s interesting because, on a personal level, I’ve always followed news about hacking, or tech in general. When the show got picked up—that same day, I believe—the Sony hack went public. I feel like, as the show aired, hacking started to become part of the public conversation. Obviously, it’s reached a boil in this last presidential election, and it continues, including recently, with the ransomware hack.

It doesn’t surprise me. Tech grows exponentially, and you can never predict how fast and how big it’ll get; and hacking goes hand in hand with that. I’m at one moment shocked at the attacks, and how nuanced they get. Even the presidential election, though they weren’t hacking specifically into voting machines, the way they

When you say “not ever,” does that suggest that the show will never catch up with our current moment?

No, every season is a few months, and we started in February of 2015. I think, timing it out, we’ll never actually reach November 2016.

How will the election of Donald Trump influence the direction the series takes going forward?

In the current storyline, we’re still in 2015, so we will fortunately not ever have to deal with President Trump.

But look, we’re creative types, and because of that, we always get informed by what we’re watching in the news, what we’re reading, what we’re seeing. The presidency of Trump is a national tragedy. What we’re going through right now sort of goes hand in hand with something like a tragedy like the Five/Nine Hack happening in the Mr. Robot world. There’s a lot of overlap.

How have you evolved the show into Season 2?

To me, what we had to do with Season 2 was to expand the universe and really start to explore these other characters in deeper ways. The first season was driven by Elliot, but to sustain the show's long-term arc, we needed to deepen the characters around him.

Everyone was organically off in their own world, which was a good opportunity for us to take a deep dive and have them face their conflicts within their world, which sets them up nicely to intersect later.

Endless internet speculation means that people are anticipating twists before they come. How do you deal with that?

Initially, I was bummed, especially because they figured it out within the first episodes. Then a split second later, I was relieved, because the one thing about this show is that I’m not trying to create a puzzle for the audience to crack. This isn’t a game. This is meant to be an experience, and a journey that you’re going to go on with Elliot, and his internal growth.

One of the things we always try and do, with any sort of reveal, is we telegraph it, because any other way to do it would just be a cheat. So in a weird way, the fact that viewers were able to guess that right meant that we were actually doing our jobs right. ★

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D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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MR. ROBOT CREATOR SAM ESMAIL REVEALS THE WAYS IN WHICH DONALD TRUMP WILL— AND WILL NOT— FACTOR INTO THE FUTURE OF THE SERIES

BY MATT GROBAR

G POINT D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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TAKING C

OLDER SON Above: Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson. Below: Elliot and Cisco (Michael Drayer) ride the subway.

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D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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G CHARGE I

T’S NOT OFTEN THAT A YOUNG performer walks away with a best

actor drama Emmy win during a TV series’ first season. That’s exactly what happened to Rami Malek last year for his portrayal of Elliot Alderson, a young hacker suffering from a dissociative identity disorder in Mr. Robot.

For a sharp neo-noir show about a lone cyber gun who is hell bent on taking down the Illuminati that’s running society, it’s Malek’s sensitive portrayal which serves as the show’s emotional backbone and provides its set of twists and turns. In season 2, Elliot forgets that he’s imprisoned and creates a false world around him. In addition, Elliot is trying to find a former colleague Tyrell Wellick, who he believes he might have killed.

Given that you play a person who is jarred by their dissociative identity disorder, as an actor, do you ever portray Elliot in the moment?

I’ve approached the process from being entirely reactionary, but as an actor who likes to do research, knowing the entire arc of the character is entirely more useful. To know the timeline of what happened with the character—his past and future—when it comes to the completion of the narrative; I will have as an actor, created a thoughtful arc for Elliot in the same way that Sam Esmail has. It’s your responsibility to infuse your process. I have to make discoveries in the moment and have the extended knowledge of the finality to orchestrate getting to that final place. I tend to gravitate toward knowledge is power as a mantra.

Do you think Elliot will ever find inner-peace? There’s a dream sequence where we see him imagining his bliss as he sits down with friends and family for a happy dinner.

What I find so compelling about Elliot is that he may be searching for that sensibility and tranquility in all the wrong ways. He sets off on this lofty goal to really change the world and how the global economy functions and capitalism as we know it. Thinking that’s going to bring some sort of solace, I guess, is a very admirable goal. What’s been mesmerizing are the smaller things in life that give us a true idea of why we’re here and what we’re meant to accomplish in our lifetime.

So why did Mr. Robot disappear in the computer store after Joanna Wellick asked him to find her husband Tyrell?

It’s the same question that Elliot keeps getting asked throughout the entire series: When and where does he lose time? Why does he lose time? Why are

RAMI MALEK WON A FIRST SEASON EMMY FOR HIS ROLE AS ELLIOT ALDERSON AND HE'S FAR FROM FINISHED WITH ELLIOT'S JOURNEY

BY ANTHONY D'ALESSANDRO

there moments so fractured and dissociative? If anyone was in his position, they would be wrapped up with confusion, guilt and shame over why that happened. To put yourself in Elliot’s shoes, consider how devastating and difficult it is to live with his mind. It can dissolve in any moment. His personality is vivid and vibrant in one moment and a ghost in another.

Can you tell us anything about what to expect in Season 3?

I can tell you that in Season 3, I will be reprising my role as Elliot Alderson; I haven’t told anyone this.

All I can say is that the intricacies we laid out in Season 2 dig deeper into this ensemble and everyone’s story; the blueprint from which Elliot will now have to navigate. It will make for a captivating, and I would say, rather lean and fast-paced third season. ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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H

E’S THE VOICE OF REASON in Elliot’s head—

perhaps. After the young hacker realizes that Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot is his father, and that the character is also a figment of his imagination, Elliot strives in season 2 to get Daddy out of his head. But is that a good thing? Season 2 is thrown for a loop when Mr. Robot suddenly disappears at a time when Elliot needs him: his colleague in the cyber war on E-Corp, Tyrell Wellick, has gone missing, and it could cost Elliot his life. Christian Slater has a history of playing the prophet in movies like Pump Up the Volume and Heathers; the guy who steers others toward the light with his punctuated cadence. As Mr. Robot, Slater is the ultimate lucid seer, not just for Elliot, but for all plebeians on the TV series as they’re crushed against a nefarious one percent-ruling society.

What changed for you in your character during Season 2?

I knew from the onset in Season 1 that I was a figment of Elliot’s imagination. After shooting the graveyard scene in Season 1, I felt like writing Sam a letter as I didn’t know what he was going to do to make me come back or make any sense of it. In Season 2, my relationship with Elliot is combative. Elliot is doing everything he can to control me; there’s that part of him that really

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wants to strike back. My character is furious that Elliot chooses to live with his mother, a woman he can’t stand. I spend a lot of Season 2 frustrated with the decisions that Elliot is making. There’s a frustration where I want Elliot to dive in and be this leader and take these guys down. Sam kind of took us in a wild direction by the end of Season 2 where Elliot is completely confused of what’s real and not real. At which point, it couldn’t be a better time for Mr. Robot to develop a better relationship with him, so he can see my point of view as my character doesn’t want him to be hurt in any way.

With the news of the Russians allegedly hacking and throwing the U.S. Presidential election, has it become eerie for you, how prescient Mr. Robot has become?

Since the get-go Sam has had some sort of crystal ball. He’s just been tracking all these different hacks in the world from Walmart and Target, the Sony Hack, even the Arab Spring was an inspiration; all these aspects built toward a show as true and real as he possibly could get it. It’s a show about technology, but it’s also a very human story dealing with loneliness. We’re doing a show that’s mirroring what’s happening in the world and the show continues to do that. It’s a very scary and very real situation. I hope the world is better equipped at navigating and maneuvering through all of this.

We learn in season 2 that Mr. Robot pushed Elliot out of a window as a child. That explains a lot about both characters.

Knowing this information as an actor, does it become a challenge emotionally when portraying Mr. Robot further down the road?

Does he carry guilt?

It is challenging, but something that Sam reminds me of is that this story continues to unfold. Elliot is definitely a character who sees events his way and is on a continual path of understanding. We’re on that journey with him. With each season and episode, I have to reserve my opinions of any interactions with the characters I have. I’ve seen everything that goes on between Sam’s ears. This is not a procedural show. At readthroughs, my jaw drops at new discoveries and I get excited.

What can you tell us about Season 3?

I asked Sam for what the word is to describe Season 3 and he said “disintegration”. Elliot and Mr. Robot’s relationship is going through another phase in Elliot’s psychological journey. ★

ROBOT R

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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DOMO ARIGATO Main image: Christian Slater as Mr. Robot.

Below: with Rami Malek and Stephanie Corneliussen; in the kitchen.

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AS THE VOICE INSIDE ELLIOT'S HEAD, CHRISTIAN SLATER'S MR. ROBOT IS A FRIGHTENING KIND OF CONSCIENCE

BY ANTHONY D'ALESSANDRO

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“FBI AGENT DOMINIQUE DiPIERRO, PLAYED WONDERFULLY STRETCHED BETWEEN ORDER AND CHAOS”

GRACE GUMMER OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

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“ARGUABLY THE BREAKOUT STAR OF MR. ROBOT’S SECOND SEASON”

STEPHANIE CORNELIUSSEN OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES

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D

THE DIALOGUE

Po r tia

DOUBLEDAY

C arl y

CHAIKIN

A N G E L A & DA R L E N E

AFTER PROVOKING THE COLLAPSE of E Corp—an all-powerful multi-national conglomerate—in Season 1, the hackers and corporate climbers of Mr. Robot are left reeling, facing a new, broken world of their own making, a world of confusion and heavy consequences.

With Rami Malek’s Elliot off in his own internal, distorted world, trying to get one over on the delusion controlling his life, the women of Mr. Robot veer off on their own separate journeys, facing vulnerability and revealing extreme strength—all searching for answers, and colliding at critical moments.

Angela (Portia Doubleday), climbs the corporate ladder at E Corp, wrestling for power in a male-dominated corporate world, while grappling with her conscience; Darlene (Carly Chaikin) tries to keep the hacker clan afloat in Elliot’s absence; FBI Agent Dominique DiPierro (Grace Gummer) follows a trail of breadcrumbs leading her to answers about the Five/Nine Hack; and the ruthless Joanna Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) pursues a mystery of her own, following clues to track down her murderer husband.

One of the most commendable and fascinating facets of Mr. Robot is the complex female characters Esmail creates in collaboration with his actors—characters who are the

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major driving force of Season 2.

“I think that Sam and all the writers do a really good job of layering these characters and making them multidimensional."

Doubleday says, taking a break from production on Season 3. "Especially for women, I think it’s easy to kind of fit a description; something that’s incredibly linear. It was really interesting to watch the complexities of each of the characters, because although their journeys are different, they’re quite synonymous in their struggle.”

“It’s interesting because we do have such great female roles about these empowered women, and we’re all so much smarter than people give

us credit for,” Chaikin comments. “All these characters are just trying to do what they think is good, with no direction whatsoever. Every character is being held back by somebody, or by The Man, in some way. We’re all just on this page of trying to figure it out.”

Season 2 does come to a head with a romantic moment between Angela and Elliott—twin spirits in suffering, with the loss of their parents at the hands of E Corp—but

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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COUCH SURFING Portia Doubleday and Carly Chaikin as Angela and Darlene in Mr. Robot.

while the women portrayed face obstacles due to their gender, they are never defined by their male counterparts.

“I love that all of these female characters have an arc that has absolutely nothing to do with a romantic interest, or filling some sort of stereotype, and the level of equality that these characters have with the males on the show, I think is really important,” Doubleday says. “In terms of other work that I’ve done,

[Mr. Robot] feels so evolved. The set feels extremely evolved. I love what they’re able to write for me, and I feel like it’s important.”

The actresses of Mr. Robot confront no small number of challenges in production, between block shooting, frequent “oners” and the level of secrecy Esmail maintains in his work. Nonetheless, for Doubleday and Chaikin, every difficulty is worth it in the end, to be a part of a series as timely as any on television.

“I think it’s a platform for what we’re all thinking, especially for this generation and what’s going on. It’s opened my eyes,” Doubleday says.

“I couldn’t feel more blessed to be on this show right now, given what’s happening [in the world].” “[Sam] writes what’s real,” Chaikin adds—and with Season 3 bowing in the fall, there will be no shortage of the same darkness; the darkness of the world we really, somehow, live in now. —Matt Grobar D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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D

THE DIALOGUE

Tod

CAMPBELL C I N E M AT O G R A P H Y

CONSIDERING THE ARTISTRY ESTABLISHED in the first season of Mr. Robot, it’s a wonder that cinematographer Tod Campbell felt the need to up the ante in Season 2. But that’s exactly what the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) winner told showrunner Sam Esmail he was planning to do.

Building off the visual vocabulary from Season 1, Mr. Robot set a new bar in its sophomore season, starting with the premiere.

There’s a pivotal scene in the first

the first few episodes of Season 1. But for

episode in Elliot’s mother’s house

me coming into Season 2, I really wanted

when Gideon comes to visit him. How

to craft the lighting more.

did that scene establish the new look

Sam directed all of Season 2 and we

for Season 2?

had all the scripts prior to shooting, so we

This scene embodies everything to me—

could treat it a little more like a movie and

the production design, the photography—

not so much like a TV show. We were able

and it was my favorite set of the year. The

to arc the photography and the lighting

whole idea is that we’re in Elliot’s head, so

for each character throughout the entire

at this point, we’re kind of allowed to go

series—versus getting a script a week

anywhere we want.

before having to shoot it, which is typical

The production designer Stasia

in the television world.

[White] and I worked really hard to get everything perfect. I think the way we

Were there specific technical changes

photographed that scene meant I was

as well?

able to control it—I could control the light-

We really wanted to craft what we found

ing, the depth, everything.

in our storytelling for Season 1 and make

So, to me, it really embodies the

it a lot sharper. We don’t pan and tilt; our

entirety of Season 2’s look. We have a lot

frames are typically static. We move the

of cyan in there and we play with half-light.

camera quite a bit, but we try to stay flat

The compositions are the same composi-

to walls. The lines and composition are

tions we used in Season 1, and there’s a lot

very important to us, as well as creating

of short-sighting and head room.

a frame for our actors to perform within, so I got a lens that was a little “flatter”. It

How did Season 1 establish the look

doesn’t bend on the edges as much; the

for Season 2, and what changed

lines are a little straighter.

with Sam Esmail at the helm of every

We took great care. The way I kept

episode?

describing to Sam in the off-season was,

I think we found our vernacular in terms

“I think we just need to make it a bit more

of composition and framing and how we

sophisticated Season 2,” and I think we

were going to tell the story of Mr. Robot in

achieved that. ★

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Ma c

QUAYLE COMPOSING

EMMY-WINNING composer Mac

We didn’t use any music from any

Quayle knew that Mr. Robot was going

Season 1. It was completely new music,

to take a different tone in Season 2.

which helped the viewer catch up on

The series, which had already been subjective to Elliot’s point of view in

It’s also in this premiere episode that

Season 1, planned to spend even more

Quayle cleverly scored a pivotal scene,

time inside its hero’s head during Mr.

which the viewer would eventually

Robot’s sophomore run.

come to understand was not what it

In order to create a more emotional vibe in the music, Quayle built upon the

LIGHT AND MUSIC This image: Rami Malek and Christian Slater.

Below: Rami Malek.

what had happened.”

originally appeared to be.

“So much was happening in Elliot’s

themes he had established in the first

head, and there are these pretty bizarre

season by layering more organic sounds

scenes, such as when Elliot is meeting

onto the famously electronic score.

with Gideon at his mom’s house,” the

“The point of view was a little dif-

composer explains. “It was this bizarre

ferent in Season 2,” Quayle says. “We

exchange between them about the FBI

had established this sound which

and who had done the hack. The music

was pretty much purely electronic for

we came up with was very unsettling

Season 1. The only thing alluding to a

and weird, and a lot of fun to do.”

real instrument was the piano sound.

As with every other aspect of

Now, the idea was to bring a little bit

Esmail’s psychological drama, attention

more organic flavor into the music. We

to detail in Mr. Robot’s musical score

introduced strings—there was some live

rewards a leaned-in audience with little

cello—and a few things like that which

clues, or Easter eggs. To anyone paying

we thought would help bring us into

close attention to every layer of the nar-

Elliot’s head and also evolve the music

rative—from the music to the framing

to a different place than where it had

of the camera—the highly subjective

started.”

nature of Season 2 is apparent from the

From the downbeat of Season 2, Quayle set the new tone by writing an

very first episode.

“To get the opportunity to go

original cue to score a 90-second recap

super-weird with something like that,

of the first season.

I thought, really helped because what

“What Sam Esmail wanted was

was happening on screen was certainly

something that was energetic and a

weird, but it wasn’t as weird as the

bit exciting, like, ‘Here we are! Season

music was. The music was way weirder.

2, let’s go!’” Quayle recalls. “Something

I definitely think that’s a nod to, ‘Okay,

that really pulled the audience in and

there’s something off here that’s not on

got them excited about what was com-

the screen necessarily. There’s some-

ing without really telling them anything.

thing that’s going on; what is it?’” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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D

THE DIALOGUE

Gloria

Brian Stokes

K R I S TA G O R D O N

S C O T T K N OW L E S

MITCHELL

REUBEN

ANY ACTOR WILL TELL YOU how grateful he or she is to land a TV gig, whether it’s a one-time appearance or a multi-episode character arc. But there’s something extra special about working on an auteur series, where the entirety of the production serves the single vision of one person, or ‘author’, which is often the show’s creator, writer, and director.

In Mr. Robot Season 2, with showrunner Sam Esmail directing every episode, the impact of the auteur was felt by all involved, and for the guest stars, the shift in authorship

28

made for a special acting experience.

“Needless to say, we had terrific directors in Season 1,” says two-time Emmy nominee Gloria Reuben, who reprised her role as Elliot’s counselor

Krista Gordon in Season 2. “But to have one person—particularly the creator of the series—being at the helm of telling the story visually in a very specific way has no comparison.

There’s a continuity that just doesn’t happen otherwise.”

For Reuben, it’s a thrill to play opposite Rami Malek’s character, and often their chemistry lives in the silences. “You’re so curious and terrified to find out what Elliot is thinking,” Reuben says about her

D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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BD

LL

WONG W H I T E RO S E

intense scenes with the Emmy winner. “You’re drawn in, and I think that explains the relationship between Krista and Elliot—curious and terrified.”

Brian Stokes Mitchell, who returned as E Corp exec Scott Knowles, saw his character deepen at the end of Season 2 with a scene that was both visceral and contemplative.

“When I read the script for [the finale] episode, I was so grateful,” Mitchell recalls. “I felt like the luckiest

actor ever to get such a damaged, disturbed, sad, pathetic character.

It’s so rare that an actor gets the opportunity to sink his teeth into something like this. Sam takes his time revealing character traits, which is certainly true of this scene.”

BD Wong, a prolific actor who plays the enigmatic figure Whiterose, feels a similar sense of gratitude for the way Mr. Robot departs from TV conventions.

“I’ve been in this business for

a while, and I’ve never been in an eight-minute scene on TV,” says Wong. “It’s an incredible thing because when a scene goes from point A to point B to point C, it allows you to breathe and take the audience somewhere that a more two-dimensional scene just cannot do. Sam doesn’t want anything to be surface, brushed aside, or taking you to the commercial. It’s never that; it’s always about what’s right for the story.” ★ D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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