If you haven’t been watching The CW’s Tomorrow People lately, you might have missed last week’s episode of the show, titled “Sitting Ducks,” where Stephen Jameson (Robbie Amell)’s best friend, Astrid, gets into a lot of danger once ULTRA finds out about her. The episode ended with Astrid basically being stuck in the underground lair of the Tomorrow People.
Between the engaging storyline, and the notion that Astrid finally got to interact with Tomorrow People fan favorite John (Luke Mitchell), people are taking a lot more notice of the character, and the talented actress who plays her, Madeleine Mantock.
We spoke with Ms. Mantock about recent events on the show as well as what’s happening in tonight’s all new episode, which airs at 9PM (ET) on The CW. We’re presenting this interview in a Q&A style; our questions are in bold, Mantock’s answers are not. Enjoy!
KSITETV’s CRAIG BYRNE: Now that Astrid has actually met the Tomorrow People, what does she think of them?
MADELEINE MANTOCK: I think primarily, she’s very “what the hell; get away from me! I quite liked my life before, when I wasn’t being shot at, so I think I’m good.” I think that’s her initial response; she doesn’t want that much to do with their world, because it’s scary, and she’s doesn’t have an equal footing as anybody else. She can’t defend herself in the same way, or disappear from a dangerous situation, so I think she feels quite like it’s this secret world that she did ask to be let in on, and now she’s decided that “thank you very much, but no. I’ll go back to my old life.” But obviously, ULTRA has other ideas about that.
What kind of danger might Astrid face if she were to leave the lair?
Well, essentially, they want to kill her, because she knows too much. That’s basically it. They want her to die. And the thing is, because she is being held in the lair, they’re keeping her there which she hates, because she wants to go make sure that her family are okay, that she sort of knows that at sometime, she needs to be there, so that they can try to get the situation under control. But yeah. She’s pretty terrified. She’s trying to get in touch with her dad. She goes to TIM, then John, then Cara, then Stephen… and nobody will help her until Stephen finally finds a way, and this is purely because we meet the Founder’s daughter and they’re willing to do a trade. If he can bring Cassandra to the Founder, they say that they will clear Astrid’s name and she will be allowed to go home and be under no threat. But of course, what Ultra says and what Ultra does are two different things.
Is that what is happening in Wednesday’s episode?
Absolutely. We sort of go back and forth with Astrid being kept underground, Stephen above ground, tracking this break out who is putting on big displays of bad behavior to try to get her dad’s attention. And so, it’s really about how he formulates his plan, and he strikes a deal with the Founder, to try and trade them, amongst other things. This episode is really — I remember reading and being like “GASP! So exciting!” So many twists and turns, and a massive one at the end which, I haven’t seen it yet, but I remember reading it and just being like “I just love this!” So I’m excited for everybody to see that.
Some people, I’ve seen tweet and they have it right, and other people, I think, will have no idea, but you’ll love it. You’ll be like “oh my God! How didn’t I see it!” I’m excited.
Are we going to see Astrid’s parents looking for her in the episode?
It’s spoken about. TIM makes reference to the fact that my dad’s been looking around all the hospitals, and searching for me, which is why Astrid’s so annoyed, really, that she is being held against her will, underground, because she wants to go and just let him know that she’s okay. You do meet my dad, but the focus of the episode isn’t necessarily him going out and looking for me. We do know it’s going on.
Does her disappearance cause anybody in the outside world to blame Stephen, like her parents?
Not my parents, although Stephen’s mom is worried. Stephen’s mom and my dad are friends, and she’s going “what have you done?” She’s used to things going on with Stephen, with him coming home with black eyes, and she kind of knows something is not right with him, because of his new job, but with regard to Astrid, normally she’s always around, and she’s normally with them, worrying about Stephen, so it’s very unusual for them to be wondering where Astrid is. So, Marla’s sort of going “is this something to do with you, and if so, where is she?” I’m really excited to see it, actually. It was [nice] to be able to work with lots of people that I don’t normally get to work with, so I’m excited to see it.
Do you think we might continue to see some spark between Astrid and John? They seemed to get along really well.
Yes. I love working with Luke! We do see more scenes between Astrid and John. In this episode, it’s primarily with most of Astrid’s [interactions] with everybody are like “Please, can I get out of here?” And then, I’m not in episode 14 but I appear again in 15, and it focuses on the aftermath of what happens across episodes 12 and 13, how that’s affected [Astrid] and how she’s struggling to deal with it, and she gets a little visitor who sort of talks her through it. That’s something for the fans to look forward to, people who are fans of John and Astrid.
That is really lovely, by the way. It’s nice that people support it and appreciate it, and want to see more. It’s really nice.
Was it really your voice singing on the show last week?
[Laughs] Yes, it was. People kept asking me on Twitter, and I sort of declined to confirm or deny, just because I was embarrassed! And then Aaron [Yoo] wrote “yes it was,” and I was like “why did you do that?” It actually came about because Danny Cannon, who was our director for the first three episodes and our Executive Producers, he likes to do karaoke, and I’ve never been before, so when we were in New York we went, and my karaoke song of choice was Ace of Spades by Motorhead, so I don’t take it very seriously, and then we went again just before he finished his last episodes here in Vancouver, and Micah [Schraft], who co-wrote this episode, was there. And at the end of it, he goes “Oh! I’m going to write that into an episode!” “You’re bluffing,” [I said], and then this came out, and I couldn’t quite believe it! I was very nervous about it, but I think people liked it, so that’s good.
A lot of fans were originally calling your character a “Pain in the Astrid.” Did you see the fan reaction to Astrid changing after “Sitting Ducks?”
Yes. Do you know why I think that is? I think a lot of the credit is because people love John so much, and they like it that they get to see her interact with him. I think Stephen’s character is so conflicted, because he has these two worlds, almost, co-existing. Don’t forget that not too long ago, he was only just breaking out. He’s still honing his powers, figuring it all out, and it just so happened that because of his father, he had such a high importance; it’s like a baby having access to CIA files. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s important to remember that this is all still new to him, which is why he gets beaten up by girls all the time, and is kind of struggling. So I think there’s always a lot of conflict between Astrid and Stephen, and I think people are enjoying seeing her getting to know someone that she can talk [with] about all the things; seeing her with someone new. I’m not saying that Stephen is not a popular character; it’s just it takes a bit more to understand him, I think, whereas people naturally feel for John, because you see all of the flashbacks between him and Jedikiah, and you already know a lot about why he is the way he is, whereas with Stephen, he’s going through that now.
How would you pitch tonight’s episode? Why should fans tune in?
You should tune in because you get to see more of Astrid trapped in the lair due to the Tomorrow People, you meet a new breakout who is bad ass; she rides around wearing white leather on a motorcycle. You’ve got more of the Founder, who is fantastic. I think that Simon [Merrells] does such a great job of playing him. We get more Marla, more Luca… there’s an incredible twist at the end… and it’s more of what you already love, but better.
Don’t miss a new episode of The Tomorrow People tonight at 9 on The CW! It’s called “Things Fall Apart” and you can see some preview images below:
