Interview with Jeff Bridges and Alia Shawkat

Warning: The following story contains spoilers for “The Old Man” Season 2, Episode 8.

The second season of FX. “The old man” It may have ended with a truly astonishing power shift, but for series developer and executive producer Jonathan E. Steinberg, it was “a long time coming.”

Season 2 revolved around saving Angela/Emily (Alia Shawkat), a goal that required Chase (Jeff Bridges) to team up with his former partner-turned-rival Harper (John Lithgow) to rescue the woman they both see as a daughter That trip forced them to put aside their differences and travel to Afghanistan. But as Angela/Emily spent more time in the country, she learned that her real father was actually Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban). In the process, she embraced her new identity and discovered her heritage, becoming Parwana Hamzad.

The season ended with a complete setback. To ensure Parwana’s safe return to the United States, Harper teamed up with his ex-wife, former British agent Marion (Janet McTeer). But in the process it disappeared. In the final moments of “XV,” Parwana tells Chase in no uncertain terms that she will help her do whatever it takes to get Harper back. Just as season 1 ended with Chase reluctantly teaming up with Harper, season 2 ends with him reluctantly teaming up with Parwana.

“Since the beginning of the story, a big part of it has been about raising an adult child and being an adult child and dealing with aging parents,” Steinberg told TheWrap. The showrunner noted that this exchange of power dynamics between Chase and Parwana is similar to “realizing that your child has real authority and agency and is no longer obligated to listen to you.”

“This is obviously the biggest version we can imagine,” he continued. “I thought it was an interesting place to take a story and an interesting place to take the relationship between Jeff and Alia’s characters.”

The scene between Bridges, Shawkat and Amy Brenneman as Zoe McDonald was filmed over two days. “It took a long time because they did a lot of special shots. Even though it seems like such a simple scene, there are so many angles to give it this dramatic effect,” Shawkat told TheWrap.

Filming the scene over several days allowed the actors to experiment more with this pivotal scene. However, both Bridges and Shawkat emphasized that the emotional weight of the moment was built into the script itself.

“I am a photographer. When you’re taking a photograph, sometimes you bracket your exposures,” Bridges explained, referring to the process of taking the same photograph multiple times. “I like to do that with my acting too. The actors make their paintings, and then the editor and director cut up those paintings and make a collage out of them. It’s a community art form here. That’s why I want to give my friends as many options as possible about what will work once they start putting it together.”

Bridges is a big proponent of trying shots in different ways. “It can give you good surprises, yourself and everyone else,” he shared.

“It begins with them meeting in this beautiful scene: they see each other after he thought she was dead. Then at the end she actually put him in a position where his hands are tied and he gets on a plane no matter what,” Shawkat explained. “It’s a great scene that captures the entire show from the first season. In a way, it’s saying that what you thought you knew was true isn’t true, and now you’re going to have to pay for it.”

To interpret Parwana’s discovery of her own identity, Shawkat drew on the atmosphere of the series, as well as her own relationship with her racial identity.

“I am mestizo. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to Baghdad, where my father is from, but every time I’m in an environment with other people from there or with other Arabs, I have that feeling that you say: ‘I’m one of you, but ‘I’m not one of you either.’ ‘” she said, noting that there have been times when she hasn’t felt “ethnic enough” or “white enough.” “I don’t feel like I completely fit in.”

“I leaned towards that in an extreme way. He wants to be part of these people. “She knows she’s like them, they’re the same, but she’s had a very different life, so she doesn’t feel the same,” Shawkat added. “It’s that identity thing of wondering who she really is and feeling a little lost.”

The actor kept the internal turmoil Parwana experienced in mind as he approached this final episode. “She’s falling apart this season, and then what’s left after that? I played as much as I could,” Shawkat said. “By the time you get to the restaurant scene, I wanted it to be like she’s been through a lot and has nothing more to hide. She just looks at (Chase) like, ‘You’re getting on this plane.’ There is nothing else to do. “She will not put on any more masks at that time.”

As for Chase’s claims that he’s seen and done things that are “uglier than death,” Bridges told TheWrap that he spoke with Steinberg about what that may mean. “I don’t know where it’s going exactly. But I have an idea,” he said.

Steinberg also noted that “The Old Man” team is now building the Season 3 story around “the answer to that.” “It’s no longer as simple as killing bad guys. It’s a lot more complicated,” Steinberg joked.

As for the future of the FX thriller, it’s still unclear. However, both Shawkat and Bridges are hopeful for another season. “I’ve signed on for three, I love working with people and I’m excited about where the story is going, so I play it by ear. I haven’t thought about that far into the future yet,” Bridges revealed.

“As much as the story has already covered, in some ways, the relationship between Jeff and Alia’s characters has really just begun. What I’d be excited about in season 3 is to see them occupy the same space in the story and deal with each other. “They can’t use a phone as a buffer,” Steinberg said. “We all feel very good about the story we told and the team that has been assembled.”