INTERVIEWS: Cast and Creators of AMC’s Into the Badlands Talk About the Final Season

Date: Friday, March 29, 2019

Location: Wondercon 2019 – Anaheim, CA

Day one of Wondercon 2019 proved to be an amazing day for me. Into the Badlands has such diversity, not only in the cast but in the crew as well. Sadly, the show wasn’t renewed for a fourth season on AMC and is airing its final episodes as we speak. The series finale will air on May 6, 2019.

During the press conference, I was able to speak with some of the cast and both series creators about the episode preceding Wondercon 2019 (Episode 310 – “Chapter XXVI: Raven’s Feather, Phoenix Blood” aired March 25, 2019), and what fans can except in the final episodes. Note: below is my transcription of the press conference. Press were only allowed to record audio (no video).

Present during the press conference – Sherman Augustus who plays Nathaniel Moon, Ally Ioannides who plays Tilda, Lewis Tan who plays Gaius Chau, Daniel Wu who plays Sunny and is also an executive producer, Orla Brady who plays Lydia, Aramis Knight who plays M.K., and both series creators Al Gough and Miles Millar.

I was beyond excited to meet the cast but especially Daniel Wu, Lewis Tan, and Orla Brady. Being Asian-American (or ‘hapa’ as we say), it’s always been important to me to see Asian representation in film and television. As I mentioned in my personal Instagram post, there wasn’t a large Asian community in the town I grew up in Georgia. I looked different than the girls in my hometown. And I didn’t see many television shows or films that featured strong Asian men or women in the lead that weren’t being stereotyped. It was an honor and privilege to meet and chat with both Daniel Wu and Lewis Tan. As for Orla, who is not Asian, I have been a huge fan since she was on the BBC series Mistresses and NBC’s American Odyssey. I digress.

Part one of the interview, below is my Q&A portion with Ally Ioannides (AI) and Lewis Tan (LT)

Q&A – Part 1:

JM: I have a question for Ally and for Lewis. In “Chapter XXVI: Raven’s Feather, Phoenix Blood,” there was a kind duality or alternate kind of universe with the widow having been put under by The Master. In the alternate setting, both of your characters meet a sticky end, but then in reality, you’re still alive. How was it playing that duality in this particular episode?

AI: It was a little fun. I feel like, I really enjoyed that episode. As an actor, it’s always great to be given different material but it’s also just really interesting to think about Tilda, but if she was in different circumstances — so it was really fun to kind of play with that, um, and play with like relationships with, you know, Gaius and the Widow, and just everything king of shifting, but it definitely was a lot more work. I think that we all had to kind of start over and (laughs) it was like doing season one, starting a completely different character and doing a lot of character work from the beginning; but yeah I feel like we were all down for sure.

LT: Yeah, I think Ally said it best, I mean, that was episode 10, so at that point it was kind of nice and refreshing to — I’m still playing the same character, but I’m playing a different version of that character’s life path in my eyes, you know what I mean? So, there’s still the relationship with the Widow, there’s still where Gaius came from, but let’s say there was different decisions that were made and the way that we approached how we wanna, you know, our relationship is – our dynamic is different, so it was playing the same character but with slightly different dynamics. So yeah, it was fresh and fun and, although we met a bitter end, we had a great time doing it.

AI: I love dying, that was so fun!

(laughter all around)

LT: She did really well; it was good. Iit was one of my favorite episodes to do.

Part two of the interview, my Q&A portion with Daniel Wu (DW), Orla Brady (OB), Aramis Knight (AK), and Miles Millar (MM).

MODERATOR: For everyone’s recording, if we can just go around and say your names quickly so they can identify on the recorders.

Daniel Wu: (picking up my mini-microphone and using a silly voice) Hello, my name is Daniel Wu.

Orla Brady: I was going to do that, damn (laughs and continues in a silly voice) hello, my name is —(continues in her regular voice) Orla Brady.

Aramis Knight: Hi, I’m Aramis Knight.

Miles Millar: I’m Miles Millar

Q&A – Part 2:

JM: I wanted to ask Orla a question. For Lydia, she’s recovering from being wounded, and now (in episode 310) you’ve been tasked with babysitting Sunny’s son (group laughter) so, um –

OB: Yes, I think Miles got a telling off, when I went “You’re getting me babysitting again, I did that last year!” (laughter)

JM: Right, and now with the relationship with Nathaniel, uh, progressing, how is it going to be for the next few episodes, obviously with the series ending – um, what are we gonna see with the evolution of Lydia?

OB: Uh, I don’t know how much, how much am i allowed to say into the future (nervous laughter, looking at Miles Millar)

DW: BOW CHICKA WOW WOWW!

MM: Let’s stick to what we have; talk about the next couple of episodes.

OB: The point is she has hopes, of course, that finally she has found somebody who sees her for who she is, and that she has a true connection with rather than a connection that is an alliance not to do with power, and she hasn’t had that in her life before; it’s quite disarming for the first time. I think the only way she could have got that is because she lost everything and I think sometimes in life, if you lose everything, it’s the very best thing that can happen to you because you’re kind of holding onto peanuts and you know, cause there’s a kind of beautiful meal across the room but you won’t let go of what you have. She had a sort of bitter little, vicarious power – that’s what she used to have – and now she has something that is true, so she has great hopes with the situation, and I think the baby coming into the house, of course, sends you to a certain place as it would do, you know. It’s the most graceful thing on the earth, you know, so that’s where she is right now.

DW: Right, I think it says a lot with Sunny and Lydia’s relationship is that he trusts her, cause he tells Bajie (Nick Frost) to bring Henry (the baby) to her or like he’s – he doesn’t trust anybody that well, right, but he trusts Lydia with this baby cause probably she’s only what he knows —

OB: That won’t kill him…

DW: Well, that actually knows how to take care of a kid, like everyone else has no idea what we’re doing – like, I don’t know —

OB: That should definitely kill him (inaudible)

DW: Bajie is not gonna know how to feed the baby, like nobody knows so Sunny’s like “get Henry to Lydia” because that’s the only person he can trust.

MM: It does speak to the evolution of the character as well —

DW: Yeah.

MM: Someone that I think you began with the series really as an archetype, someone who is a scheming sort of, Lady Macbeth type, and you see her evolution to where she is now, and it’s a credit to all – Orla’s performance, in terms of that, that journey, and I think it’s really something that an audience now roots for Lydia, which, in the first season, would never have rooted for her. So I think that is really a testament to the performance and I think it’s great that she has the relationship, it’s an adult relationship with another character – with Sherman, the character of Moon – so, I think that’s something that was really released to play the writer’s room and, uh, it certainly has some more twists and turns to come.

JM: Yeah! Thank you.

JM: A question for Aramis. So, in Episode 310, Nix (Ella-Rae Smith) is helping Sunny, but you guys are in the woods trying to find him, and then you suspect something is up. What are we gonna see maybe in the next episodes about what’s going to happen between M.K. and Nix?

AK: Uh, yeah – I think Nix is just playing both sides. One thing I’ve always really enjoyed about M.K. is that he’s very persistent in what he believes in and he’s very clear cut about which side he’s on; he’s never playing both sides, he’s a very straight shooter, I think. And I think he’s used to people around him not being that way, just – I think based off of the nature of the show and on the land that we live in, but uh, yeah, I definitely – M.K. definitely call Nix out on that and yeah, we have, uh —

DW: You see with that (inaudible) it really comes to a head, it does come to a head

AK: Yeah, it does (laughter) I don’t let that, I don’t let her [Nix] down if that’s what you’re asking, haha (group laughter)

JM: I found it [the scene] very interesting.

AK: Ah yeah, nah – I remember filming that, that was uh, that was fun.

Other media asked questions about Bajie (Nick Frost) and I piggy-backed to ask about a particular skill-set Bajie has.

JM: Um, in keeping the conversation going about about Bajie, in Ep 310, when he was fighting with one of the um —

MM: Black Eyes

JM: Yeah, the Black Eyes, he hits him with something and the Black Eyes just disappeared —

MM: Right.

JM: Are we gonna see more of, like, how that could actually happen?

DW: Well, he’s always actually had that ability, remember, uh, The Abbot?

JM: Oh, that’s right – sorry. I meant will we see more of this unique ability in the final episodes?

DW: He shot down The Abbot (Cung Le) and I split him in half, so, he’s always had that ability to – my good friend Cung Le; I split in half (laughter)

AK: And he’s still bitter about that!

DW: Yeah, he really is because he’s a real fighter and he doesn’t like to lose, right, like he’s a real REAL fighter (laughter along with inaudible discussion) he talks about it all the time – so Nick always had that, I mean Bajie always had that ability to shut people down so when he tells people that you’re not the only one that can do this —

JM: I mean, he just waited so long after he got his ass beat, and then he did it, haha.

DW: Haha, yeah.

JM: Why didn’t you (looking at both Daniel Wu and Miles Millar) do it sooner?

DW: Well, you have to get the timing right, you have to get the right point. It’s like you have to wait for the opportunity, and that’s in true martial arts too. There’s a point that you can lock somebody down or whatever, but you have to have the opportunity to get to that moment, you know —

MM: It’s a point of honor, I think, as well, you don’t want to do it too soon. There’s always a moment of… [Daniel jumps in]

DW: Can I handle it first, or not?

MM: Yes, it’s the honor code.

DW: Yeah, now whip out the gun, haha.

There was a special moment when another journalist asked the cast and Miles a question. Daniel Wu becomes overwhelmed with emotion when following up Aramis Knight’s response.  It is such an endearing moment that made me tear up as well.

The question that was asked by another journalist – “If you could, tell [me] one lesson each one of you learned in this latest season?”

AK: I think being on Badlands taught me a lot about discipline.  I think living life as a young actor, and being a child actor, where…there’s not a lot of discipline around you. Your schedules are not very set and maybe you don’t go to school as much as the kids around you. So, I think for me, being in the martial arts aspect of the show which is a big part of the show, it forced me to be more disciplined than I think I ever had to be and also taught me to love what’s mine. Being off the show now, and the show ending, it’s kind of made me really appreciate the last years that I’ve had and I think, overall, I’ve sort of come back to the adult world where –  I entered that world [Into the Badlands] as a child, so coming back out now, it’s kind of…it’s kind of daunting and scary, and makes me appreciative to have the sort of jump-start I have with this show.

DW: Yeah, I’m going to miss that a lot. ‘Cause he came in as a –, oh I hope I don’t cry, please don’t cry, he came in as a little kid, a little boy and now he’s a man and I saw that evolution happen and it makes me feel so great to be… oh God (starts crying) … sorry, sorry… this is as close of a mentor for Aramis I’ll be, of course I’ll always be there, but to be there every day, to see that, it’s great to be able to see that.

AK: Yeah

(everyone starts clapping)

–END–

There are only a few more episodes on Into the Badlands remaining in this final season.

Tune in Mondays at 10/9c on AMC. The series finale airs May 6, 2019.

For more on the show, visit:

Official Site https://www.amc.com/shows/into-the-badlands

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IntoTheBadlandsAMC/

Twitter @IntotheBadlands

Photos ©2019 Judy Manning/Your Entertainment Corner. All Rights Reserved.