Zack Estrin’s writing career began with series like Tru Calling and Charmed, and as his career progressed, he saw himself as a co-executive producer for Prison Break. Later, he was an executive producer of recent ABC series The River and Once Upon A Time In Wonderland.
Now, Estrin is a showrunner and Executive Producer for a new series titled The Whispers, and the show premieres tonight (June 1) at 10PM ET/PT on ABC. Estrin took the time to speak with us last week about what we can expect from this series, which will air new episodes throughout the summer.
The interview is relatively spoiler-free, but it will explain what audiences can expect from the show.
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: For those who might not know – what is The Whispers about?
ZACK ESTRIN: I feel like the best way to sum it up – I would just say “what if Homeland was a genre show?” That’s kind of what I’ve been saying, because I think it sort of encompasses all of the things that we’re trying to do. If you want more than that? I would dig in to the fact that I have kids – a lot of people out there do have kids, there are a lot of parents in the world – and we all kind of worry from time to time about what or who is influencing our kids when we aren’t around, especially as they get older. Are they at a friends’ house? Are there older siblings there? Are they on the internet? And what if that thing that was influencing them was far more nefarious than any of those things, and it’s all happening right underneath your nose?
There’s a tension between Claire Bennigan (Lily Rabe) and Wes Lawrence (Barry Sloane). Can you talk about that?
They’re two people who were at various points of strain in their relationships, and they found a real connection through work, and they had a moment together, and had a real connection, and then things changed. Once something like that comes out, it puts a strain, obviously, on all of their relationships. What they have between them is a little complicated, because they’re trying to ignore it even though it is there, and they’re trying to piece together their relationship that they had prior.
Do you think that eventually Wes’ wife will be okay with the two of them working together?
It is very, very difficult to say. One of the things with this show is that people are being thrown into very extreme situations where all of a sudden the small things that used to trouble you before now are small in comparison to what you are up against. When potentially losing your husband turns into potentially losing more than that – to potentially losing your child, to potentially losing the world, I think those smaller things get put aside for the betterment of the whole.
Claire has faced a lot of challenges in recent years: her son becoming deaf, and then the death of her husband. Can you talk about those challenges?
We meet Claire in this show at this time of her life, where her husband has passed away, and that happened right after he found out that she was having an affair. So, she’s carrying around that guilt, that when he died, things were very much torn apart, and one of those things that was between them was their son who lost his hearing, and is there any culpability between them and how that happened? That’s one of those questions that we’re going to be asking, which will be a big strain on any relationship, if you feel like somebody was to blame for that act. So, she has taken a leave of absence from work when we first meet her, and she is just sort of piecing her life back together again when she’s called back into this case, and she realizes that this is much bigger and more personally connected to her.
This interview is a bit long, so navigate below for more!
