From show creatorPaul Zbyszewskiand based on the Marvel comic of the same name, the Hulu seriesHelstromfollows siblings Daimon (Tom Austen) and Ana (Sydney Lemmon) and explores the complicated family dynamic that arises when your father is a mysterious and powerful serial killer and your mother is plagued by a literal demon. While Daimon is a professor of ethics who moonlights as an exorcist, Ana runs a successful auction house but secretly hunts down those who hurt others, at the same time that the estranged brother and sister both wonder just how deep the evil runs in their bloodline.
During the virtual junket for the show, Collider got the opportunity to chat with Austen and Lemmon’s co-stars,Elizabeth Marvel(who plays the demon-possessed mother of Daimon and Ana) andRobert Wisdom(who plays Caretaker, a Helstrom family friend and ally) about the show, what they love about their characters, shooting in a hospital ward, what makesHelstroma great set to work on, and much more.
COLLIDER: When you signed on for this, did you know what you would get to do with these characters?
ELIZABETH MARVEL: I didn’t know how far I would get to go or how much leash they would give me until I started working and realized, “Oh, there’s no end to the leash. Great!”
ROBERT WISDOM: For me, I was working on another project, a period piece in Budapest, and got the call and had to be sitting at the read-through two days later, so I had no idea what was in store. All I knew was what they told me, which was, “Welcome to the Marvel comic universe.” I sat at that table and started putting together what it was that we were doing and I started to make my soup. It grew on us all. It grew really organically on all of us.
What have you loved about your character from day one and what have you grown to appreciate about them the longer that you’ve played them and gotten to know all of the other sides of them?
MARVEL: I loved getting to play a two for one character because I got to play all of the keys on the piano and it’s rare to get that kind of opportunity. Certainly, as a woman, it’s rare to get that opportunity, and it was wildly fun. I have to say, something that I’ve grown to appreciate about my demon because there’s nothing better than getting to live as a demon, is how funny she is. I don’t think I realized how much of a sense of humor my demon had. I just was living with the horror and the terror of her. But upon reflection, I have grown to understand that because I had so much fun doing it, the fun is palpable in the performance.
WISDOM: The first day, what I loved was the fact that I didn’t know anything. Because Caretaker is a character described in his name but in this world, nothing is as it seems. You think it’s one thing, and then maybe it’s something else. We got to shade our scenes with those other things. That keeps it alive. That keeps the viewer the third party all the time. We never nail it so hard that you say, “Right, this happened.” You always wonder what you’re seeing and that’s special. That made it special to play. It’s medieval, in a way.
It seems really interesting to play a character that’s referred to by his purpose, as opposed to his individuality. As an actor, does it change how you play somebody when you’re playing a character that’s just known as Caretaker?
WISDOM: No because we get to fill it in. I’m at a buffet through 10 episodes and I can just feed the character whatever he needs and that’s what he becomes. He disappears from Ana’s life and she has no idea where he goes, and then he shows back up with this whole other ingredient that he might add to their relationship. I like the mystery of it, and I carry a lot of that mystery, like Mother. We’re the mystery characters.
This is clearly not your typical mother role, at all. Is there any fun in getting to torture your children?
MARVEL: Oh, yes! That’s whyRichard IIIis so much fun. Everyone wants to play the villain because you get to do and say everything. Every impulse you have, you get to act on. That’s what we all fantasize about. We all think about what we would have said, if we’d thought of it in the moment. But this character always says it, and always has the facility to say and do everything she feels like. If someone ticks her off, she just throws them against the ceiling. It’s awesome.
What was it like to find the voice and the physicality of her? Was that something you spent a lot of time working on, to ensure it felt right?
MARVEL: I didn’t spend a lot of time because none of us had a lot of time but I had a minute. I got the Marvel call. You get this voice of God call from Marvel saying, “Welcome to Marvel, Marvel.” I was like, “Okay, cool.” And then, you’re on a plane. And then, you’re off the plane and you’re doing it. I assumed, “Oh, I’m gonna be on the factory line. I’m gonna come out and they’re gonna give me my costume and tell me what I’m gonna do with it.” But that was not the experience I had, at all. I showed up and then it was like, “Now, you go make the thing and show us what you make.” I had complete freedom, which at first, was a little daunting and unnerving. I scrambled and I started watching every great actor that has played a demon. I watched Isabelle Adjani inPossession, I watched Anthony Hopkins, and I watchedThe Wailing. I just watched a lot of great film performances and stole from all of them. Then, with the voice, they were like, “Don’t worry, if we wanna do something, we’ll just do it electronically. We can play with it.” I was like, “I really wanna make something organically happen. I want it to emanate from my body because I think it’s important.”
At the time, I was living in a hotel in Vancouver, far from home and far from my family, and I watching a lot of the news and was really upset and angry alone. I had a couch pillow that I would scream into, and I screamed so much that I blew my voice out, which organically happened. It was not me training for the character. It was me just raging out about the moment in history that’s unfolding. But I blew my voice out and had this really ragged, hoarse voice that then I had to go to work with, so it just naturally happened.
Caretaker is the kind of character that has clearly seen some things that would give us all nightmares. As somebody who obviously is more intimidating than he is intimidated, how did you want to weave in all that he’s seen and done into who he is now and how he carries himself?
WISDOM: Wow, that’s a tightrope question. The one thing about intimidation is when it’s real, you don’t play it. It’s like someone who’s intelligent doesn’t have to talk about it or show it. It was really how we occupied space together. Sydney [Lemmon] and I would always space ourselves in a scene, so that you had these counterbalances happen, visually. And then, something else could happen. Instead of sitting, I would stand, or instead of standing, I would sit. We would do different things that filled the frame in a certain kind of way. I could say my words loud or say them soft. All of these different tools that I had to play with allowed me to project this thing called intimidation. And sometimes you play against it and it makes it stronger. I always tried to keep it in my heart that there was a caring for this woman and there were forces outside that were bigger than both she and I. Then, whatever protection would emanate out of that, it’s like a mother who goes to protect her child and can lift a car or fight off a bear. It’s that same thing. It comes out of love. That’s ultimately what he had for Ana.
What was it like to shoot in the hospital ward?
MARVEL: The hospital that we filmed at is the largest mental health facility in North America. It’s massive, that place that we filmed, and it’s intense. There are a ton of ghost hunter shows that film there. It’s a known sightings place. Whether you’re a believer or not – and I happen to be a believer but it’s not necessary – you just vibe it. There are some heavy vibes happening, and you definitely don’t wanna take a nap and wake up and have set have moved. You don’t wanna find yourself alone there. It was intense. There’s history that we can only imagine.
WISDOM: It’s in the walls.
MARVEL: And then, the material that we were making there was summoning all kinds of weird energy. It was intense.
You guys have both been on a variety of different TV series, throughout your careers. What makes a great set to be on and a great experience to remember, and what makes a set more of just a job that you go to because you need to?
WISDOM: One thing that you’re able to always count on, when you look around with the first table read and you see that there are no jerks in the room and there are no assholes, and everybody is genuinely excited to be there, and people wanna serve the material first, the rest is smooth sailing. I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a number of really great sets, and this was one of them. It happened on the first day. It was confirmed the first dinner that we had and it plays out now. We still send texts and stay in touch, and we watch each other’s lives from afar. It was well cast. They did a great job pulling a group of people together for this really complex material that everybody wanted to service. Nobody wanted to spread their wings and be number one. They met the material and not their career, so it was big fun.
MARVEL: Bob and I have been doing this a long time and there usually is an asshole but there was no asshole in this group, which was awesome. I’ve done plenty of gigs to make my rent. I’ve done plenty of gigs because the material was awesome but maybe the company was a little tough. When you get a gig where it’s truly an ensemble, it was really an equal opportunity experience. Everyone had their moment to shine and everyone passed the ball. It was just a fun group.
I’ve also done shows where the material is so good and the demands of the material are so intense that when people aren’t on set working, they need to go be in their space because of the nature of what it is. This was the unusual combination of great material and great people but also people that were just game and having fun. There was just a joy about the workplace that I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in this way. It was great. This is not a superhero show. It’s not the traditional kind of fantasy superhero. It’s supernatural horror. It’s very dark territory. The joy that emanated from the making of it was really surprising and awesome.
Helstromis available to stream at Hulu.
Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter of Film, TV, and Theme Parks for Collider. you may follow her on Twitter @ChristinaRadish.
