The first episode of Second Chance airs on FOX tonight, and beyond the “Frankenstein monster” aspect of bringing a man back to life, there is some character conflict in the background.
Some of that conflict occurs within the walls of “Lookinglass,” a Facebook and Apple-like behemoth founded by the brother and sister team of Otto and Mary Goodwin. The siblings have an extra reason to save the life of Jimmy Pritchard (Rob Kazinsky), as he may be the key to saving both of their lives. Spoiler warning: Mary is dying, and if she dies, her reliant brother Otto won’t be in very good shape.
Dilshad Vadsaria, who plays Mary, sees her character as the heart of the show with a mortal compass, where her brother, Otto (Adhir Kalyan), sees Pritchard that he separated from an experiment.
“Mary sees Pritchard as this human being who has these flaws, with the pain and the complications and everything,” Vadsaria explained to us on the Vancouver set of Second Chance, explaining that Mary was responsible for raising Otto, which primed her for having a very big heart and an empathy. “You have sort of these polarizing characters. Otto and Pritchard are so in their worlds and very much on their roads, and Mary has to balance these two important people now in her life. Pritchard, she needs to live, [and] Otto is her brother and this human being that she’s raised from a very young age. It’s quite complicated,” she says.
“Otto’s center rests in Mary,” Kalyan adds. “And so in that sense, how she’s doing and how she’s operating really affects him in a very direct way. If she’s doing well, he finds such great comfort and happiness in that. But, of course, within the framework of where the show picks up and is taking place, this disease — in the way that it’s consuming her — is consuming him too. And, as a result, he’s shifted his focus away from work and is entirely focused on trying to find a solution to do the impossible, really. Which is to try and save her from this terminal illness. So, to speak to that, he is really a character who is…who depends on her and it’s a genuine fear of his that if she goes, that he will be completely lost. And may not know how to get through it.”
Vadsaria’s Mary has quick chemistry with Jimmy Prichard. “Mary’s inclination is to treat everyone with a degree of kindness and compassion,” Vadsaria continues. “She sees Pritchard immediately, once we’ve done this thing of bringing him back — she humanizes him immediately. There is obviously a degree of chemistry between the two of them, and that is something that you get the sense is going to develop. Those intimate moments become more profound as the season unfolds,” she teases.
“Right now where we are with the characters are really just getting used to the dynamic that Pritchard brings into the Goodwin home, and this element that he’s brought into Mary’s life, because the two most important things in her life have been Otto and Lookinglass. Now [Jimmy’s] brought this other facet into her life, and I think that’s quite exciting and new and eye opening and in the sense of she’s never traveled down that road before,” she says.
The series premiere of Second Chance airs tonight (January 13) at 9PM on FOX. Browse KSiteTV for more interviews and content related to the show here!
