00:00So I'd love to start off with you, Yaya, asking about Creasy, who notably suffers from PTSD in
00:06the series, and your performance is so powerful. How did you tap into this side of Creasy throughout
00:19the process of shooting the show? That's a great question. Really, in terms of the post-traumatic
00:23stress disorder, I try to make it human. I took something as big as a very real theme as that,
00:34and I tried to say, well, how can I make it manageable, small enough to make it fit into
00:39the palm of my hand, so to speak. And to me, when I cut it down to size, it was
00:45really about
00:46sadness. It was about loss. It was about not being able to accept help, really, you know? And
00:57that sort of created a barrier, an obstacle, so to speak. And then the rest of my job was to
01:03figure
01:03out how to represent a character that was managing that obstacle. When Creasy did that with isolation,
01:10he did that through drinking, you know? He did that through some self-harm, and, and, and, you know,
01:21really, it came down to cutting down that obstacle, cutting down that big thing into something that
01:26was human that everybody could relate to, and then, you know, letting the character work,
01:31work through it from there.
01:32While the stories are different, both this series and there was a 2004 film adaptation of
01:38Man on Fire, did either of you take any inspiration from the film adaptation for this, or did you feel
01:44like you were kind of trying to create your own reimagining of the story?
01:47It's a great opportunity to take inspiration, you know? I've been a part of some, I've been a part
01:52of things that, you know, part twos and sequels and reimaginings and all those things, whatever
01:56you call it, you know? I think the, the, the smart thing to do is to, I think, would be
02:04to look at it
02:04and to say what worked, uh, and to be more, you know, uh, to take a closer look and, and
02:11to not
02:12stop at saying, okay, well, what did these, these actors do? What did the director do? But why, what
02:16was the essence? You know, what was, what did the audiences respond to? For myself, uh, when I look
02:22at the earlier works, I see a lot of heart. I see a lot of soul. So I say, okay,
02:28well, that's something
02:30that I can take. Um, and that's just be, that's just really doing intelligent field research and
02:35then applying it to what we're doing this time around. Um, so, you know, I think we, I speak for
02:41myself. I took what, what I saw worked that I could apply, um, that would not get in, in the
02:47way of my
02:49performance at all. You know, the, I think there's a, there's a couple of huge ghosts in the room when
02:54you talk about these, about, about this project and Tony Scott and, and, uh, Denzel Washington. And I
02:59didn't want to give myself, uh, any, um, obstacles. I like to, to stack the cards in my favor, you
03:07know,
03:07when I get up and when I go to work and, and, uh, you know, I was fortunate enough to
03:12be able to work
03:13in that way and have, have a creative partner who also, uh, found a healthy degree of inspiration.
03:19Ultimately. Yeah. I think we also have to remember that it was, uh, it was a movie pre
03:2304 in 1980s with Scott Glenn, who also did a man on fire. And then there's the book that AJ
03:28created.
03:29So there are some overall overlap when it comes to inspiration, when providing a texture, like each
03:34individual and each, each John Creasy and those reiterations were outside of their comfort zone
03:39in a foreign country, learning new things and by themselves as they're sort of trying to figure
03:43out this way to resurrection, so to speak. And so there is some of that in terms of inspo and
03:48that's
03:49more of the plot engine, but ultimately we were trying to do our own thing, you know, between him
03:53being a new Creasy to the rest of the cast that we had in our location, sort of offered up
03:57a new
03:57story and opportunity to explore new, uh, new avenues. This ending leaves the door kind of open
04:03for a second season. I got a situation developing. I'd like you to take a look at it. Pretty sure
04:08you
04:09already have guys with her. I do, but they're actually long list. In fact, no one else has had, uh,
04:15firsthand experience with these guys. Do you guys feel there could be, or do you feel like this story
04:19kind of is wrapped up in the season? Without giving away everything about the,
04:24about the show? Uh, I think it's always nice to be able to potentially peer forward into the future.
04:30Uh, truly and honestly, I'm really excited to just to, to present what we have and what we've made
04:36right now. Um, I'm excited for people to, you know, to go, you know, sit down at home and cut
04:43off
04:43the lights and get really comfortable and, you know, go through these seven episodes that we want
04:47to present. Um, and anything after that, you know, I think we'll creatively cross that bridge when it
04:53comes to it. But I know that I can say it was a pleasure to make, you know, and, uh,
04:58and I'd be,
05:00I'd be, I'd be happy to have more conversations when the right time.
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