Collider Visits the Set of Eli Roth’s Netflix Series HEMLOCK GROVE
By: Rob Vaux
Date: April 16, 2013
Source: Collider
Note: This is a snippet of an interview with the cast and crew of HEMLOCK GROVE during a press set tour on December 12, 2012 in Toronto. I have included the parts of the interview with AARON DOUGLAS below. To read the full interview, click HERE.
“The beautiful thing about Netflix,” McGreevy says as he walks among the cameras and lighting squeezed into Parkwood’s confines, “is that there’s so much freedom. We can do the things we want to do, go as dark or violent as the material demands, and not have to worry about landing the right rating. We’ve got great people to bring the material to life and a partner in Netflix committed to giving them the freedom to do their thing.”
That fact isn’t lost on the show’s cast, most of whom are wrapping up their schedule when we arrive. They speak fondly of their time there and stress how different this felt from other shoots. “I’ve been a part of some special shows,” says Aaron Douglas who plays the sheriff in the town of Hemlock Grove. “Battlestar Galactica was something that comes along once in a lifetime. But this one, it’s up there too. We all can do our thing and be what the show needs us to be. No jumping through hoops to please some suit back in LA or New York. Do you have any idea how awesome that is?”
Douglas finished his last shot just before speaking to the visiting press; he’s still dressed in his sheriff’s uniform, and his energy level is bouncy and upbeat. The rest of the cast and crew share his ebullience, even director Deran Sarafian working under a tight deadline to finish the last of the show’s thirteen episodes. He lets the press come in close to watch him set up a series of shots, while the lighting crew works hard to get the composition just right. He chats briefly with us and looks into his viewer. On the other end of the camera, Famke Janssen’s stand-in sits patiently as the crew does their work. (She resembles the actress so closely that several press members mistakenly approached her with questions.) Sarafian looks at the composition, nods and smiles.
“I’ve been directing television shows for a long time,” he [director Deran Sarafian] explains. “People are consuming it differently these days. They don’t like waiting a week to find out what happens. They’ll download the whole thing, take a sick day, and power right through it. We want Hemlock Grove to speak to that, to be the kind of vehicle through which those changes can be made to the medium.”
It’s a tall order, but there’s no shortage of confidence at Parkwood. More than anything else, the cast and crew feels hopeful that the show will become a hit… letting them come back and do it all again. “Everyone wants another season when you’re doing a TV show,” Douglas says, his smile growing broader. “But in this case, it’s a lot more than steady work. You don’t get this combination of elements very often. If they can keep it going past the first season… man, that’s going to be something worth watching.”