- 8 hours ago
Co-Creators and executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn, along with star Melissa Roxburgh, chat with THR's Mikey O'Connell to talk all about 'The Hunting Party' during a THR Frontrunners conversation series at the San Vicente Bungalows.
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00:00They were shooting a scene where, you know, he's doing his thing and they showed us the take and I was like, oh, that's disgusting.
00:06Like, it's, I can see it. It's stuck in my head now. It just feels like an extra layer of sludge on it.
00:18Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for coming. My name is Mikey O'Connell. I'm an editor at The Hollywood Reporter.
00:25I'm going to be moderating this conversation. Are people ready? Are we going to bring him on out?
00:29Awesome. First up, we have star Melissa Roxborough, creator and co-showrunner J.J. Bailey, and co-showrunner Jake Coburn.
00:51So many Js. We should also say that we have co-stars.
00:57Nick Swexwell.
00:59And Sarah Garcia.
01:04So I feel like this show hits on so many things that people love. They love prison breaks. They love procedurals. They love a mystery box. They love serial killers.
01:17I don't think anyone's done all four of those in one show. What was the genesis? What was the original idea of those four in that salad?
01:24Well, I think Jake and I really connected when we first met over sort of, you know, wanting to do a procedural that felt a little bit different.
01:33And, but our sensibilities sort of lean into more mystery and bigger ideas. And so we just tried to find sort of something that can marry all those things that we love together.
01:44And, and, you know, we, we love big serialized mysteries, but we also wanted to do something that was, you know, a week to week case.
01:52Um, and again, we, we both bonded over the love of serial killer stories too. So it really just, it came up kind of naturally out of that.
02:01Yeah. Yeah. We were actually sort of like set up on a creative blind date by the studio. They were like, oh, you guys should meet. And we had a meeting and it lasted like two hours. And by the end of it, we were like, well, that could be cool. And, you know, it sort of just developed from there. I think good partnerships sort of evolved slowly over time. And that's certainly what's happened here.
02:22Melissa, Melissa, you briefly studied criminal psychology in college.
02:28It was a couple of courses. It wasn't like that's studying.
02:32Yeah. Yeah. I went full down the path. Um, no, I mean, like I grew up watching a lot of the same like serial killer shows. And then by the time I got to college, I thought it would be super cool to become a criminal profiler. And then I realized you have to actually talk to the bad guys in real life. So I didn't want to do that. So I chose the made up version instead.
02:52Yeah. I mean, we as a culture are kind of grotesquely obsessed with serial killers in the writer's room. Have you guys diagnosed that? Like, what is it about this subject matter that enthralls people?
03:07I think we tried not to diagnose it because we'd be diagnosing ourselves quite a bit. Um, but I think there's just something sort of innately exciting or confusing about the pathology of somebody who would be a serial killer.
03:20And I think something we talk about a lot in the writer's room is, is, you know, we want to do serial killers, but we want to do the fun version of a serial killer. And so it's a lot of exploring sort of like, what would people find the scariest? So we talk a lot about what in our own minds, what would be the scariest killer to face or the thing that frightens us the most? Because there's an excitement to that. Um, I think, and, and I think people are sort of drawn to the curiosity of it. So we like to explore that.
03:47Having written the first full season, I'm assuming, um, we've only seen this one episode, but in terms of these killers that they're going to be tracking down, are you leaning into sort of like rip from the headline stuff, historical cases, or is it all fiction? Is it, is it a blending of that? What, what was your approach?
04:11I would say it's a blend. I think that there are, there are certainly a few killers in the first season who we felt like were sort of our version of this person. Uh, uh, uh, you know, Scott Peterson sort of was a real life person that we sort of created an episode that was sort of loosely inspired by, to a certain extent, I think the most fun that we have are with episodes where we sort of don't really know where it comes from.
04:38It comes from that sort of creative space that, you know, the fear that, that, that, that sort of grows into, uh, something larger that we've been dramatized.
04:49Are we ever going to explore this, the structural engineer behind this prison and, and how much they really screwed this up?
04:55Maybe. Maybe. We'll have something to say about him.
05:01Melissa, you initially didn't put yourself up for this role. And in fact, threw your name in your hat in the ring a little late.
05:12Yeah. I mean, if you've watched the first episode, you know, I talk a lot. Um, so the audition sides were no different.
05:18And when I got them, they were like, uh, great project, put it on tape for tomorrow. And I'm like, oh my goodness, really? And I read it and it was just this monologue. And I was like, there's no way.
05:30And then on the weekend went by on a Monday, they were like, don't even bother. They have their girls. They're going to screen test them. So just, you missed the boat.
05:38And then a couple of days went by and I was like, no, I'm going to put it on tape. And then I think it was like two weeks later. Cause I was, I'm a bit of a nut job that way. Um, two weeks went by and they got handed in. I didn't hear anything for a while. And then finally they called and I was very surprised cause it was indeed two weeks late.
05:58Wow. Um, I mean, this is kind of nerdied in the weeds, but I'm fascinated by the difference between like auditioning on tape and in a room.
06:08Like, how do you approach them differently?
06:11One, you wear sweatpants and the other, you do not. I don't know. I, I'm, I like taping at home because I get very nervous in the room. So, um, that's how I, which I don't think that's an answer, but yeah.
06:26It's never been harder to get a show on television than it is right now. So congratulations. Um, it's a feat in and of itself.
06:34When you were developing this and when you were, um, taking it out, like what, what was your elevator pitch and, and what was the thing that got your studio excited, got your network excited, got your collaborators excited?
06:49Well, I think we, we had a, like a two sentence version of it. I think pretty quickly, uh, we were sort of, we came to the studio with just a little blurb sort of like, is this exciting to you? And I think it encapsulated it pretty well, but it, I mean, it was the, it was always the secret prison.
07:04It was, uh, you know, the world's worst serial killers escaped and, and, um, bringing together the team to track them down, uh, learning that there was a larger mystery happening under the surface at this prison. Maybe it wasn't just a prison. Uh, and that was sort of like the, the short little blurb that we, we used to sort of tee it up. And then that was always sort of the spine of every, everything we were doing, everything we were exploring on the show always sort of came back to that spine.
07:29I don't think people realize how hard it is to write a show that is both mystery of the week. Like you can jump in at any point and not alienate a viewer and also have like a serialized mystery and like a real like death to these characters. If you follow it from start to finish in your point of view, like what is this sort of like sweet spot ratio between servicing that this is a single episode of television that people are doing?
07:59that people are going to watch. And there is this mystery for everyone. If you keep tuning in, cause I feel like the industry has gone back and forth the last couple of decades over like what they want. It's like, we want all mystery box or we want all procedural and you're doing both. And that is hard.
08:15I think it sort of depends how you imagine the person viewing it.
08:19Yeah. Like in theory, I think for us, at least we try to sort of sprinkle in the serialized story elements kind of at the beginning and at the end of the episode. So they sort of bookend it and then sort of sprinkle it a little bit throughout. But we were very, very cautious about trying to find that right balance and working with the studio and network in terms of what is that sort of perfect ratio. And not everyone agrees. And I think if you're watching a show, if you're, you know, if you're binging a show straight through, that's a very different experience.
08:47That's a very different experience than if you're watching something hopefully in reruns or syndication and it's out of order.
08:53Yeah.
08:54So it is taxing, but it's, you know, it beats really working.
08:59So.
09:00And do you like, is there an expectation in the, the room with your executives that there be a plan because we, we hear the, the, the term plan so often in shows like this, like how much do you know in advance about where you're going and where you want to go and how much are you just open to it?
09:21Yeah. I mean, I think it was important to, to show that we had a plan and I think the studio, the network both appreciate it. We laid out pretty concisely.
09:31I think what we wanted to do and sort of where we wanted to take it, but I will say that they also allowed us to sort of learn some things on the fly.
09:38Once the writers room was up and running because we had some things, you know, the process for this show is we had a mini room to start and then we got four scripts done in that.
09:48And we sort of had a game plan coming out of that. And then once we got ordered a series and we put the full room together, we had all the writers working.
09:54We sort of found some new things and we had already sort of pitched out what we wanted to do, but then things were sort of changing.
09:59You know, some things that we thought we were going to do at the end of episode four, we ended up sort of moving further down the line.
10:05Yeah.
10:06So there was, there was a plan, but there was also sort of a process of discovery once we were in it.
10:10And it also, it evolves because there's the character on the page and then day one of shooting and, you know, Tor, our incredible director and EP and Melissa are doing the scene, the interview scene, you know, at the base.
10:23And we're sitting there at the monitors watching this and we're sort of like, Oh wow. Like, like we were kind of taken by surprise by how well it felt like it was coming together.
10:36And that sort of, it starts to iterate. Like you're, we're learning about the character from Melissa. She's talking to us about directions, what's working for her, what's not. So it's not like you can't, you can't be firm in these things. You have to be able to adapt and grow through the creative process.
10:52Well, Melissa, how, what changed for you from filming the pilot to filming this whole first season in a non-spoilery way, like your approach to this character, like what, if you could like go back and do something different or if you, if you could like tell yourself something when you started this, like, what have you learned?
11:09Um, I mean, I've learned a lot. I think with the amount that she profiles, I wanted to find a way to not make it boring, I guess.
11:19Um, because it's easy to just rattle off information, but to make it interesting.
11:24So, um, in the first episode, it was very, I was like, okay, I got that.
11:29But then moving into the different killers and how I talked about each of them, it felt very, um, exciting to kind of find the way that she felt about them.
11:38Like she doesn't like that one, but she's kind of excited by that one or however it was.
11:42And so, yeah, I feel like I got to figure out different ways to like navigate these monologues.
11:47They kept praying for me.
11:49This is your next big, um, project after Manifest, which was a, a hit on so many levels.
11:57I don't think anyone foresaw like how much that was going to snowball on Netflix.
12:01I would imagine a lot of doors open when you're on a show like that.
12:04What did that experience like inform you about what you want to do with your career and, and, and how you might, it might be different than the one you originally envisioned for yourself?
12:15I don't know, like Manifest was such a beast, but, and this is going to sound very cheesy, but it wasn't really about what I wanted to do with my career.
12:23It was more about how I wanted to handle the opportunities that came up.
12:28Cause, um, on that show, uh, a lot of our cast mates and our show runner, they were just the most giving grounded people.
12:35And I feel like that's what made the show work.
12:38And then I came onto this show and it feels very similar as far as the personalities.
12:42Like there's not one bad apple on set.
12:44And, um, I genuinely feel like if you can create a really happy set, then, you know, it helps.
12:51And, um, I feel like those shows go further a lot of the time.
12:55You're shooting in Vancouver?
12:57Yeah.
12:58What is the flower and the onion of shooting in Vancouver and not Los Angeles?
13:03Is this a purely me question?
13:05No, everyone, no. This is a, now we're going, we're going down the line.
13:08Our studio is like within walking distance of where she grew up.
13:12It is kind of nice. Cause like manifest was in New York.
13:14So I didn't get to see my family that often, but then they chose the studio, which is literally, I had to, I walked that road to, you know, go to the movie theater and stuff.
13:22And it's two minutes, five minutes away from my parents' house.
13:25So if we had a long lunch, I got to go home, squeeze my dog, see my mom. It was, it was really nice.
13:31Oh my gosh. That's lovely.
13:36That's Nick.
13:40I mean, the onions, the weather it's been here, Uber. It's terrible.
13:44It's not good.
13:46Um, what is everyone's favorite female detective or profiler like previous to this in film or television?
13:58Cause I feel like that is such a like archetype.
14:02I mean, we can obviously talk about like Clarice Starling, but like, there are so many examples.
14:07Like what are the true crime stories that really got you hooked on the genre?
14:10I don't know about hooked on the genre cause I think I was already into it, but, uh, you know, mayor of Easttown, just in terms of like, you know, uh, a female pushing and pushing and pushing to get the job done, uh, was something that I, I thought was fantastic.
14:24And something that I think I, I took from that show was just how human that character can be and, and still be this, you know, incredibly dynamic crime fighting character.
14:37Next.
14:38I honestly, I don't know.
14:40I don't, I, my brain's blanking at the moment.
14:43Sorry.
14:44You can just say yourself.
14:46You can't say that.
14:48That's terrible.
14:51I think, I think, uh, you know, for, I would say for me, it's a tough, it's a tough question.
14:56It's a tough question to answer.
14:58Uh, I don't know that I have a good answer.
15:00Okay.
15:01I don't feel alone anywhere.
15:02At least it's hard.
15:03I don't have one either.
15:05Well, JJ.
15:07So obviously there's so much potential for guest casting in a show like this.
15:12Are there any names that you want to drop of the exciting people who are going to see in this first season?
15:17Any, anyone still on the wish list for that potential season two?
15:21I mean, there's, there's a ton of people we'd love to have.
15:24I, I will say that the first person who came to mind, uh, right away was Kevin Corrigan from episode four.
15:31He was just like this force of nature onto it.
15:34And obviously I've seen him in a million things and I've, I've, I love how wonderfully bizarre he can be.
15:40And he brings that to the role that we have him, him in, in episode four.
15:44And he ad libbed a good amount and we kept a lot of it.
15:49It was, it was pretty brilliant stuff and terrifying and wonderful at the same time.
15:55I think we were both kind of like stunned because we were sitting there and we're like, wait, what's happening in this scene right now?
16:02Because we have not written this, like it is now taking its own path, but he was so locked in that it was, it was, you know, beautiful.
16:11I would say for me, David Ramsey, uh, I worked with him for years on Arrow and that was a character that was just, you know, a strong, like it was Diggle.
16:24It was just like this tough bad-ass guy and the, the character that he embodies in this, in, in our episode five is so different from anything that, that I saw on Arrow really than anything he's done before.
16:39And so it was really fun just because he's such a great guy and I've known forever to see him kind of embrace something that feels sort of the antithesis of what he's known for.
16:47Yeah. This is a very intense episode of television and I would imagine there's a lot of room for like frights on a show like this.
16:54Having done these 10 episodes now is, is there a agreed upon episode that is the scariest or most intense?
17:02Not discussed amongst, no.
17:04Oh.
17:05I have my scariest.
17:06Yeah, I'm curious.
17:08Um, it's episode nine.
17:10Yeah.
17:11It just feels like an extra layer of sludge on it of like...
17:15And like in the beginning, that beginning stuff, I'm like, oh, like I, I can still picture.
17:25Cause they showed us, you know, like we didn't get to work with the killers a lot.
17:28They did their thing and then we caught them.
17:30Um, and, uh, this killer, they were shooting the scene where, you know, he was doing his thing and they showed us the take.
17:38And I was like, oh, that's disgusting.
17:40Like it's, I can see it.
17:41It's stuck in my head now.
17:43I think I would agree with, yeah, nine and Jay.
17:47I'm trying to remember the actor's name, Jay Paulson.
17:49Yeah.
17:50He's fantastic.
17:51And there, without giving away anything that happens in the episode that there was like an audio component to it.
17:56And we had to record something and he's recording this sound bite with, uh, this other actress.
18:01And I couldn't watch, like I was there while he was doing it, but he was, I was like, I had to look away.
18:06Cause he was so locked in as this really creepy, scary killer.
18:09Who would basically record his conversations with his victims.
18:13That was sort of his trophy.
18:14So.
18:15Yeah, I'd agree.
18:16Nine.
18:17Wait, I think I'm mixing it up now.
18:18I think I meant, I think I meant seven.
18:21That's.
18:22That's.
18:23No.
18:24Nine.
18:25Nine.
18:26Nine.
18:27Nine.
18:28Nine.
18:29Yes.
18:30Oh no.
18:31I will say.
18:32Yeah.
18:33I mean, each, each episode has different pieces of it that kind of stick with you, you
18:36know, where you feel like you've really kind of found the scariest version of something.
18:40So it's, it's pretty spread out, I would say.
18:43Have you discussed just how many murders could have escaped from this explosion?
18:50Yes.
18:53Do you want to give me a ballpark?
18:55Do it.
18:59I mean, you see the pit.
19:00Yeah.
19:01It's huge.
19:02So that's sort of, that's the, those are the cards we're dealing.
19:06Okay.
19:07You know what I'm saying?
19:08I mean, I think it's, it's three digits, not two digits.
19:11Okay.
19:12Okay.
19:14Huh?
19:15It's a big, so that's a lot of episodes.
19:18A lot of seasons.
19:19A lot of seasons.
19:20Yeah.
19:21Are there any like double up episodes?
19:24Have you thought about that yet?
19:26I don't want to ask spoilery questions.
19:27I don't want to like know what happens, but I am curious how you think about that.
19:32I mean, I would say that for a first season show, you're kind of,
19:36to a certain extent, you're learning how to make the show while you make the show.
19:40Yeah.
19:41Right?
19:42So there were a lot of things that we were trying, but we were also trying to stay within
19:45the realm of kind of like the fundamentals of the show.
19:48Once we sort of established the formula, then we can break the formula.
19:51Yeah.
19:52But we did not, we did not try and come up with an episode that was completely different
19:56from what we imagined the show to be, because we were really learning what the show
20:00was as we went.
20:01Yeah.
20:02Well, I already asked Melissa this, so I'll ask you guys.
20:04What did you, what was like the biggest lesson from start to finish in this?
20:08Like what's, how did it change for you?
20:10I don't know if it was necessarily the biggest lesson, but how funny our cast was,
20:14was like surprising to me.
20:16And I don't know if it's, it's, I'm just kidding.
20:21But I don't know if it's a function of working on sort of like dark material, but in between
20:26takes and stuff, it was, it was such a fun time to just watch them be humans with each
20:31other.
20:32It was, it was great.
20:33But then also finding ways to sort of infuse that into stories and have these funny moments
20:37between the characters that, you know, we didn't necessarily lift from the real people,
20:42but sort of like getting a sense of their vibe as humans and sort of starting to write
20:47to that.
20:48Well, I think you told us to stop at one point.
20:49Cause I think I was, I was profiling someone and you're like, this isn't like, it's still,
20:54someone died.
20:55I'm like, oh yeah.
20:56Until there are times.
20:57Yeah.
20:58So you're not method.
20:59You're not carrying this to craft services.
21:02Absolutely not.
21:03No.
21:04That's good.
21:05That's good for your health.
21:06My managers like that as well.
21:09Um, I guess before we wrap things up, I'm, I'm really curious in a non spoilery way.
21:15Um, like in one sentence, how would each one of you tease out the rest of this per season?
21:24I didn't mean to like limit you.
21:27You can have, it can be two or three sentences.
21:29You can say what you want.
21:30I really liked the way it comes together at the end.
21:34Um, so like the killers are all very unique and creative, but the hit mystery comes to
21:41a really cool head at the end.
21:43Um, that I'm very excited about the good guys might not be the good guys.
21:48The bad guys might not be the bad guys.
21:50You don't know.
21:51Yeah.
21:52I think similarly, I think the, um, the question I think a lot of people are going to be asking
21:58is what what's going on down there.
22:00And, you know, so it's not really a spoiler.
22:02I think you're all asking the question, but it's, it's the idea of what the pit was really
22:06for and about, I think is something that's going to be fun for an audience to learn.
22:11And I, I w I would agree.
22:12I think the, the, the ever expanding understanding of what was happening in that pit and the
22:20things that they were doing, uh, the more we kind of unfolded, I think the more shocking
22:25it is.
22:26And so that for us is what we're constantly building towards.
22:30I think Nick knows, and that's why he's not on this stage right now.
22:35Uh, well, thank you guys so much for doing this.
22:38Congratulations.
22:39Fantastic first episode.
22:41And, um, best of luck this season.
22:43Thank you so much.
22:44Thank you so much.
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