The kids in this show are so good, and that’s kind of a trademark of Steven Spielberg’s productions. Was he involved in the casting process?
Intimately. That’s one of those things that’s so fantastic — you look back at what Steven’s been able to do, with E.T., with Poltergeist… young Christian Bale’s first role was in Empire of the Sun which was a great movie. Spielberg has such a unique eye for knowing which kids are going to be real. We got so lucky with Abby Fortson who plays Harper, and with Kylie Rogers who plays Minx, and Kyle Harrison Breitkopf who plays Henry… so often in TV, when you come into a show like I did right after the pilot… you’re like “I’ve got these kids. How am I going to write for them?” And instead, we found ourselves writing towards them. They are a real emotional anchor of the show. These kids are playing real emotional stuff, and as the series goes on, you’ll see them really blossom into these wonderful performers.
Did Spielberg’s involvement have anything to do with the casting of Dee Wallace from E.T. in this series?
I would certainly venture to guess so, yes. But again, I wasn’t involved in the pilot, but Steven is definitely involved in every step of the show, [so] I’m certain he was [involved]. Everything is run by him.
A lot of the “creepy kid stuff” seems to be happening around Washington, D.C.. Is it happening elsewhere in the world, and we’re just not seeing that yet?
I think that is something that you will discover. But I would say is that each of these kids is not just random. These kids are all being played with for a reason. We will discover that it’s not just random, who Drill has chosen to “play” with.
How long will the audience have to wait to find out who “John Doe” (Milo Ventimiglia) is?
By the end of the pilot, you’re certainly going to know who “John Doe” is. What you will not know is exactly what he has to do with what is really going on.
Was it important to have a genre favorite like Milo Ventimiglia as part of the Whispers cast?
I think it’s important to have great actors involved, and so, the fact that he comes from shows with big fandoms and all of those kind of things that everybody loves – I think that’s just sort of a bonus. He’s somebody who certainly knows the tricks of this trade, and while a lot of actors might come to a script and want to know more about the mystery, what this means… he very much understands the importance of the secrets, and about the slow burn of the character, and when to reveal certain things. He’s a great partner in crime for us on this.
Lily Rabe has quite a following, as well.
She’s remarkable. What’s great about Lily is that on a show like this, I figure it doesn’t work if you don’t have an emotional anchor, particularly on ABC, which thrives on strong central female characters. To come to a show like this and have this talented and gifted and real actress at the center of it – that will be the thing that the audiences latches on to. They want her to be able to save her family. They want to see her intimately involved in all of this. She is such a gift to write for.
Does The Whispers Season 1 tell a full story?
It does, yes. One of the great things about knowing that you’re doing 13 [episodes] and knowing that they’re all going to air is that you have that freedom to not have to stall – to not be wondering “are we going to 22 in this one? What’s going to happen? I don’t know?” We have this gift of knowing that, so that we could break the story with a very specific end to the 13, but then of course have our little cliffhanger at the end that is sitting there to launch us off into future seasons, should we be fortunate enough to have an audience that demands it.
This is not one of those shows that when it ends – it doesn’t make you feel like “oh, that was a waste of time.” This one, you will have a very satisfying story, and then be left with [wanting more].
Why should people tune in?
I think what’s great about this show is that so many shows out there are catered to one type of viewer. People like to put it in a box. “Oh, you’re a procedural show. Oh, you’re a genre show.” I feel like what this show does is it invites everybody into that tent, because we are all of those kinds of shows. We are a great emotional character show. We are a great action conspiracy show. And, we’re a great genre show. So come on to the party if you like any of those things, and hopefully we’ll be wrapping them up into a nice little bow of awesome for you.
The Whispers premieres tonight (June 1) at 10PM on ABC. Find a trailer below.
