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Sarah Connor Producer and Lead talk S2
- By Crystal Carroll
- Published 09/2/2008
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Unrated
Crystal Carroll
Crystal is a 30-something writer living in Northern California. She divides her time between writing technical documentation (techy, tech, tech requirements docs), analytical essays on television shows that hold her brain for ransom, and the occasional bout of fiction (like plague, only with characters). She enjoys Pinot Noir, but not during robot apocalypses, and feels all movies could be made better if they had a Sleestack in the background.
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Josh Friedman, producer of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles (T:tSCC) and Lena Headey, Sarah Connor herself, talked about upcoming spoilerific themes in season two in a conference call with various online media. (spoilers)
Since one of the aspects of the show that I so enjoy is the gritty female lead, I was a little thrown off to have Headey say of season two,
"I feel that Sarah has kind of taken a backseat in terms of being proactive and taking care of business. I think that we’re going to see a lot more of John taking control and then becoming, making steps towards becoming the man he has to be to take on his tasks. And I think this season for Sarah is kind of her losing slight control over everything pretty much, and my feeling is that I think there’s a slow madness sort of happening in her because she feels that everything’s kind of out of reach right now,"
However in a later portion of the question and answer, Friedman said that,
"The Sarah/John relationship is the central relationship in the show, and I think that, at different times, there can be different shifts in terms of the power dynamic or the pro-activity. Lena talks a little bit about her character taking a back seat to John. I think that it’s a parent/child struggle, and I think that, as a parent, I’ve kind of, well, my child was a lot younger, but kind of watching the push and pull of that dynamic, to me, is fascinating. So I sort of look at them as a pair. Ultimately, yes, it’s called The Sarah Connor Chronicles and it’s about how does this parent of this special child deal with that, and it’s challenging. I think it’s challenging for any parent, and it’s challenging for this particular parent because of who he’s supposed to be, but I don’t believe that she ever has to stop being Sarah Connor. I think it’s just the challenge of kind of figuring out who that is on a daily basis."
It sounds like they'll be pulling even more overtly, if that's possible, on the dynamic of what does it mean to be, well, Mary, mother of Christ, but with guns and head butting.
Headey went on to say,
"You take a normal girl who’s suddenly, thanks to this conversation, gives birth to Jesus,... I absolutely think that her anger is partly at her son and her situation, obviously. And I think that’s what it is, her frustration in dealing with that as she can’t really throw down with her son. But I think there’s a rooted anger also with everybody that comes to advise her and say she should do this and look at it this way, and she would like to tell them all to fuck themselves and go away, and she can’t for various reasons."
This should be a very fresh angle. The history of epics tends to focus on the hero. Bible aside, mythology is littered with women who become pregnant under highly unlikely circumstances, spend a sentence or two raising their heroic son, and then disappear from the narrative. Knowing that Sarah Connor struggles with the natural anger and love of that dynamic should bring some interesting drama. Especially given that Sarah knows she has a cancerous-sell-by-date.
About Sarah's cancer, Friedman said, "We definitely visit it again this year, and an early episode kind of brings it back up, and I think it’s sort of investigated. It’s sort of explored in a kind of oblique way in one of the early episodes. It’s definitely not something that we’ve forgotten about, but I also don’t think you’re going to see her in bed with chemo anytime soon."
As part of this dynamic, it sounds like John will be home schooled and out of high school for the rest of the duration. However, he will still be interacting with people from high school. Well, he has to meet his new love interest somewhere.
Source
Terminator Site Friedman & Headey
io9 Friedman & Headey
Buddytv Friedman & Headey
Since one of the aspects of the show that I so enjoy is the gritty female lead, I was a little thrown off to have Headey say of season two,
"I feel that Sarah has kind of taken a backseat in terms of being proactive and taking care of business. I think that we’re going to see a lot more of John taking control and then becoming, making steps towards becoming the man he has to be to take on his tasks. And I think this season for Sarah is kind of her losing slight control over everything pretty much, and my feeling is that I think there’s a slow madness sort of happening in her because she feels that everything’s kind of out of reach right now,"
However in a later portion of the question and answer, Friedman said that,
"The Sarah/John relationship is the central relationship in the show, and I think that, at different times, there can be different shifts in terms of the power dynamic or the pro-activity. Lena talks a little bit about her character taking a back seat to John. I think that it’s a parent/child struggle, and I think that, as a parent, I’ve kind of, well, my child was a lot younger, but kind of watching the push and pull of that dynamic, to me, is fascinating. So I sort of look at them as a pair. Ultimately, yes, it’s called The Sarah Connor Chronicles and it’s about how does this parent of this special child deal with that, and it’s challenging. I think it’s challenging for any parent, and it’s challenging for this particular parent because of who he’s supposed to be, but I don’t believe that she ever has to stop being Sarah Connor. I think it’s just the challenge of kind of figuring out who that is on a daily basis."
It sounds like they'll be pulling even more overtly, if that's possible, on the dynamic of what does it mean to be, well, Mary, mother of Christ, but with guns and head butting.
Headey went on to say,
"You take a normal girl who’s suddenly, thanks to this conversation, gives birth to Jesus,... I absolutely think that her anger is partly at her son and her situation, obviously. And I think that’s what it is, her frustration in dealing with that as she can’t really throw down with her son. But I think there’s a rooted anger also with everybody that comes to advise her and say she should do this and look at it this way, and she would like to tell them all to fuck themselves and go away, and she can’t for various reasons."
This should be a very fresh angle. The history of epics tends to focus on the hero. Bible aside, mythology is littered with women who become pregnant under highly unlikely circumstances, spend a sentence or two raising their heroic son, and then disappear from the narrative. Knowing that Sarah Connor struggles with the natural anger and love of that dynamic should bring some interesting drama. Especially given that Sarah knows she has a cancerous-sell-by-date.
About Sarah's cancer, Friedman said, "We definitely visit it again this year, and an early episode kind of brings it back up, and I think it’s sort of investigated. It’s sort of explored in a kind of oblique way in one of the early episodes. It’s definitely not something that we’ve forgotten about, but I also don’t think you’re going to see her in bed with chemo anytime soon."
As part of this dynamic, it sounds like John will be home schooled and out of high school for the rest of the duration. However, he will still be interacting with people from high school. Well, he has to meet his new love interest somewhere.
Source
Terminator Site Friedman & Headey
io9 Friedman & Headey
Buddytv Friedman & Headey