'Paradise' Cast On The Mythology Happening In & Out Of The Bunker In Season Two!
The hit political, post apocalyptic Hulu thriller returns for Season Two. Join Kay-B for a conversation with the cast about how the season shakes out.
Nerdigo correspondent Kay-B got some exclusive Season Two scoop for the hit political, post apocalyptic Hulu thriller, Paradise! As part of the Critics Choice Association virtual press conference, participants included Sterling K. Brown (“Xavier Collins,” Executive Producer), Julianne Nicholson (“Samantha ‘Sinatra’ Redmond”), Shailene Woodley (“Annie Clay”), and Thomas Doherty (“Link”).
Created by Dan Fogelman (This Is Us), Paradise Season Two picks up with Xavier determined to find his wife Dr. Teri Rogers-Collins (Enuka Okuma, Rookie Blue), and Sinatra seemingly down for the foreseeable future. Amid the challenges inside and outside the bunker (yes, we get to see the world for those outside who survived), we are introduced to newcomers Annie Clay and Link, who both have secrets that are sure to change everything we know about Paradise moving forward. Read their thoughts on how we can push society forward more positively, where they would hunker down in an apocalypse, swapping traditional gender roles, how this season shapes how the characters see the world, and so much more.
On what the show has taught them about what we could do better in the future, Brown shared: “This seems so basic, but we’re supposed to be in community. We’re supposed to be in association with one another. People aren’t meant to be splintered and fractured and separated. If we all use our collective skills in such a way that would make the world a better place, that would be great. Like I bring the one skill I am good at, and then Julianne, Shailene, and Thomas bring the skills they’re good at. Together, we can use our skills to uplift everyone as a collective. I think the show highlights that as well.”
Nicholson added: “Holding people at the top accountable and paying attention. Looking out for those in all stages of life, because what’s affecting them, you know, affects all of us.”
Woodley continued: “I think the beautiful thing about the show is how it does highlight community. And you know, there’s this idea of the world being on fire, and if you must walk into the woods, who are you going to walk into the woods with? We have a lot of division in our world now, and there’s a lot of judgment and perception about other people. I think the show is an invitation to debunk these ideas about what division means, and when push comes to shove, what does it look like to just look another human being in the eye and show up for them?”
Doherty chimed in: “It’s hard to top what everyone said, but I was watching the premiere and thinking how, when you’re in a post-apocalyptic situation, I assume that everyone does resort back to their basic instincts. With that, they can act however they want and feel it’s justified. I think the beautiful thing about this show is that people are in that very primal state of survival, but you can still make a choice. You can still make a choice to connect, to love, and to do something good and help a fellow human. In today’s world, the situation’s not quite as bad yet as in Paradise, but people are kind of justifying evil behavior, essentially. It’s that divide from a sense of community.”
On where they would hunker down in an apocalypse, Doherty told us: “Macy’s. It’s got a food court, there’s a sports section you can have fun in, and it has cookware. It’s kind of got everything.”
Woodley simply added: “Hogwarts!”
Brown told us: “Hogwarts is not bad. I like Hogwarts, because ‘The Room of Requirement’ has everything that I would need. I am not going to steal Hogwarts, though. I would probably be somewhere like a recreation center that has basketball courts, swimming pools, and gymnasiums. A place where I could use my body and play games—like ping-pong tables, shoot pool, and throw darts. A place that would keep me occupied for a very long time.”
Nicholson exclaimed: “Graceland!”
On Sinatra being this incredibly powerful, complex, and contradictory woman, Nicholson said: “Well, it’s always exciting to get to do a role unlike one that you’ve played before and to be the most powerful person in the room—and a woman. It is a great feeling to have and a great thing to put out into the world for people to see and normalize. Hopefully, we get more of that.”
On what audiences can expect from Xavier’s journey in Season Two after the events in Season One and his fallout with Sinatra—and how they have shaped the way he sees the world now—Brown revealed: “Xavier gets a chance to hear his wife’s voice in that tape that Sinatra plays for him. Thinking that she’s been dead for three years, now there’s renewed hope that she is alive. There’s renewed hope that there is life in the world. So, he leaves his children behind with the hope of reuniting his family. I think there is a sense of hopefulness that he enters the world in Season Two with, believing that Teri is there. Then he encounters all sorts of things: seeing children and meeting another human who helps him survive. We have all these ideas of what this post-apocalyptic world is going to look like. We anticipate zombies, and instead we just see people. We get a chance to see people either becoming the most selfish forms of themselves or the most selfless forms of themselves. So, I think there is a sense of encouragement and hope that he may not have had throughout Season One that he enters Season Two with.”
On how this show has changed their lives, Doherty expanded: “For me, embarking on this job, the main thing that I took away was a sense of gratitude. This is the first time I’ve really been in a space with this caliber of actors around me, and to see how they all work was one thing. But to see how they all carry themselves in the world—the humility and the kindness that they have—that really had a huge effect on me. I ultimately concluded that my success and where I am today is a result of all these amazing people that I’ve had in my life, and I can’t really take much personal credit for it. The show has been a beautiful experience in my life.”
Nicholson disclosed: “I think one thing that’s changed from even the first season to the second in terms of the climate crisis and how we treat this earth we tread upon is that in the second season, we cut out all straws, plastic bottles, and reduced the amount of meat catering was serving. You can’t be on a show about climate crisis and still be passing out single-use plastic water bottles. If we can take that into our everyday lives—and if our audience can do the same thing—every little bit counts. That felt meaningful.”
Woodley praised: “I just feel so grateful to be a part of this. I was such a fan of Season One, and to be a part of this family feels like an honor and a highlight in my career. Dan and Sterling have curated such a great space from This Is Us into Paradise with the crew. It’s a very familial and comfortable environment and probably one of the rarest sets I’ve ever been on.”
Brown proclaimed: “I appreciate all the love. Like Thomas said before, we get a chance to exercise choice in who we want to be in the world. Regardless of the circumstances you find yourself in—even if they are dire and you feel as if things are unwieldy and untenable and there are no options—you can still choose to access the highest part of yourself. To be generous and kind. You may have an amygdala response to just hoard, take, and keep, but I encourage everyone to take a deep breath in those moments when they think they have no options and recognize that you always get a chance to choose how you respond to the world.”
On how the show mirrors the current state of the world, Brown informed us: “Dan had the idea for the show ten years ago, before Silo and Fallout were out, so they all sort of hit at the same time. I believe we have a responsibility to the generations that come after us to determine what kind of planet we’re going to pass along to them. It’s in the zeitgeist—like, ‘Well, maybe we go underground.’ Maybe we do something, because something has to be done. Otherwise, it doesn’t look great. I think what’s in every writer’s imagination is: What do we do? What is it that we pass along?”
On the underlying topics and themes this season, Nicholson teased: “I think it’s a real call to be paying attention to the people in power. It’s a real call to be paying attention to technology and artificial intelligence (AI), which will reveal itself more as Season Two goes on. And paying attention to how we’re treating one another—the idea of community in our show and the world at large—as well as connection, trust, and love.”
On her process of bringing Annie to life and her relationship with Link, Woodley alluded: “I play someone who was in solitude for many years. The physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological intimacy that she and Link choose to exchange with one another is one of the biggest offerings of vulnerability and heart that any of us could possibly go through. The fact that they didn’t really know each other lent itself to this desire to throw caution to the wind, look each other deeply in the eye, and choose to share all of what we had to share in those moments.”
Woodley continued: “I didn’t see this as necessarily a concentrated, high-stakes role. I saw Annie as just a human being doing the best she could in the situation she was in. When you’re fortunate enough to have writers like Dan Fogelman and his team, who create and curate a character that’s so thoughtfully and meaningfully crafted, I feel like my role was really to professionally listen to everything Annie was experiencing based on her environment and the situation around her. The thing I loved most about her was that her mind worked in a very analytical and linear way. I think it actually allowed her to process her experience without letting emotions inhibit the way she perceived survival and her willpower to forge forward. She’s a character I learned a lot from. I feel like I’m a more still, patient version of myself after playing Annie.”
On the show’s mythology moving forward, Brown concluded: “It’s a mind-bender going on, but the show has its own mythology. The show will continue along its own mythology, but hopefully there will be reverberations of things happening in society right now. With any good genre storytelling, you’re reflecting on the world in which you live while also giving it a degree of separation so you can see it from a distance. It doesn’t feel so personal, but you’re able to say, ‘Hey, maybe we’re not so far off from this thing that we’re watching that’s also entertaining and taking us outside of the world, but it’s also commenting on what we’re going through now.’”
Catch Season Two of Paradise on Hulu beginning February 23rd!
Editor’s Note: This coverage reflects a condensed summary of the press conference. Some remarks have been paraphrased or edited for clarity and flow.
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