From Starrymag:
Link: Interview: Kristian Bruun
“I mean I would be remiss if I didn’t mention twerking on the bed with Alison (Tatiana Maslany) in our underwear and all the money. I mean, that was just an insane scene to film and it was something on my bucket list that I didn’t know was on my bucket list, you know rolling around on a bed full of money. If you ever get the chance to do it, I honestly recommend it. I mean it doesn’t have to be twenties, it can be ones.” Continue reading.
Spoiler warning: Do not read this article until you have seen Orphan Black Episode 505, “Ease for Idle Millionaires.â€
“This is what he does, he divides women.” —Cosima
In the same Orphan Black episode in which P.T. Westmorland’s (Stephen McHattie) evil plan for Kira (Skyler Wexler) was finally revealed (he wants her eggs!), so was his overall M.O. for success: The Neolution founder thrives on dividing women. This tactic was on full display at ‘ole P.T.’s twisted family dinner, as he happily watched Cosima (Tatiana Maslany), Rachel (Maslany) and Susan (Rosemary Dunsmore) jockey for position at his table and tried to pick the scabs of Cosima and Delphine’s (Évelyne Brochu) long-standing trust issues. If this was Season 3, we’d be in for yet another round of clone mistrust and Cophine heartbreak, but this is Season 5, and our beloved characters have learned their lessons and aren’t falling for the same old tricks anymore. So instead, we saw Cosima and Delphine defy P.T. and come to an understanding on their relationship, Sarah and Kira bond and swap skills in preparation for a showdown with Rachel, and Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Delphine continue their clandestine alliance to protect the clones. With all these women finally working together, you just know that P.T. Westmorland isn’t long for this world–despite the fact that Cosima is now locked in his basement!
We caught up with “Ease for Idle Millionaires“ writer Jenn Engels to learn more about Kira’s special abilities, Cophine’s relationship-saving compromise and how Cosima is going to escape that basement.  
We finally found out the key to Kira’s special abilities: Lin28A. Has this revelation always been part of Graeme Manson and John Fawcett’s evil conspiracy plan, or is it something the writers came up with this season?
Jenn Engels: As far as I can remember, I think there was definitely a desire to make use of Kira’s amazing healing abilities, but it was certainly not worked out in Season 1 that in Season 5 we were going to come back, and it was going to be this . . . I believe [science consultant] Cosima Herter had put this nugget of an idea about this gene related to healing, so that came up very early in the season. So many of these ideas are put in motion by Cosima Herter as like, ‘Let’s look at this, let’s remember that,’ and with this wonderful sort of constant, gentle reminder of, ‘OK, guys, it’s never one thing,’ which is a line I’m really glad lived and stayed in that final confrontation between Cosima and P.T. :Â ‘You know it’s never one gene, it’s never one thing.’ Then I remember having a eureka moment of learning about Wilms’ tumour when we learned that it’s just a gene that doesn’t turn off, doesn’t stop reproducing and becomes a cancerous tumour. And when we learned that, we thought that was really interesting, and we could put that into the science that’s happening on the island.
This episode really brings Cosima’s series-long struggle to maintain her humanity both as a scientist and a science experiment full circle. What were the major themes you wanted to hit when writing it?
From a story point of view, we really had to move the science piece forward and the conspiracy piece forward, so that was the main effort of the puzzle work for the longest time. And when we finally nailed that, it was like, ‘OK, now let’s figure out the story part of it.’ Because the early drafts of it were still pretty dry because we were working so hard to make those science and conspiracy pieces work that it was like, ‘OK now we can add the emotional piece and what is Cosima’s journey in this.’
And director Helen Shaver had a lot to do with that when she came in and started working with us on it. She really put it to me bluntly, like, ‘What is the most important thing to Cosima in this?’ And we came across the idea of humanity because we knew we wanted to tie it in with her discovery that she is a clone and that other devastation in the scene with Delphine where she learns she’s intellectual property. And so just working with that idea of, ‘I’m not who I think I am, everything that I thought about myself is a lie, I’m not even a real human, am I?’ So that behest of Delphine’s that ‘You have to fight this with everything you have and everything you know yourself to be, all these wonderful qualities, like your intellect and your passion and your sense of humour, those are you and nothing can take that away from you.’ This full circle of humanity. They can’t take this away from you, use those things to fight them and you will win. And then circling back to that when P.T. puts the gun in her hands and challenges her and tries to bring her down to his level, and for a moment she’s debating it, like ‘Am I going to put this guy out of his misery? No, this isn’t my thing to do. I’m not gonna do this. I’m not gonna lose my humanity and become P.T. in the process.’
As a Cophine fan, I was thrilled that you finally resolved the long-standing trust conflict between Cosima and Delphine once and for all.
When we came up with the idea of answering that teaser, of answering such a huge moment in their relationship, I was totally psyched and really daunted by the idea, knowing the level of expectations from the Cophinery of it all. It just felt like we’ve got to take the black hat off of Delphine for good, and this seemed to be the way to answer that. You can’t reverse too many times–she’s good, she’s bad, she’s good, she’s bad. So you just have to deal with the reality that she’s done some things that maybe that we’re not so great with, but she’s always had her reasons, she’s always been ambitious in ways that Cosima is not. But we just sort of felt like, ‘What if there is this middle ground where Delphine will always do things behind Cosima’s back because she thinks she knows better, and Cosima will always forge ahead and be impulsive, and can we just agree to disagree on this because we love each other so much and just accept it for what it is?’ And that seems like a really neat way through. So when we came upon that in the writers’ room, it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s our solution.’Â Because we do want a happy ending for these guys, and we do want a feeling that they are going to make it.
I loved Cosima’s line about P.T. Westmorland dividing women. Where did that come from?
It sort of came from finding the backstory with Susan and Virginia Coady, that they were both involved. It just seemed so baked into the idea that all these women are being subjugated and held down, and this is the way he takes their power away from them. There would be strength in numbers, but he finds ways to divide them, and Neolution as a whole does that. It just felt like that’s totally a part of the whole universe. So it felt like the best way to fight this guy was not to let him win by falling for his tricks that would divide them.
Speaking of women working together, Delphine and Mrs. S are still working together to protect the clones. What else do these two have up their sleeves?
I can’t hint too much, but it was really great to have a reminder that there’s a lot of weird tension here. We’re glad to see that there’s an alliance that we hadn’t been expecting, and I think Maria [Doyle Kennedy] played it really beautifully, like ‘I’ve gotta do this, but this isn’t like she’s one of my daughters, one of my pets.’ There is a charged history between them.
Sarah is bonding with Kira by teaching her some of her old grifting tricks. Is that going to come into play with Rachel?
We now know what’s ahead for her, we know the plan. So we’re going to see more of her at Dyad, but this is a season in which she is really coming into her own power. So I really like the scene where Mrs. S comes back and is happy to see her girls good once more after being so divided at the end of Episode 502, but also a sense of, ‘Oh, you did that did ya? You want to be in on the family business?’ So, Kira’s going to use her smarts and her street smarts that she’s learning from Sarah, but I don’t want to tip too much.
Susan is a fascinating character. She seems the lesser of four evils when compared to P.T. Westmorland, Dr. Coady and Rachel, but I still don’t trust her.
She’s an amazing character, and Rosemary [Dunsmore] is a terrific actress who plays those levels really well. I love that scene with her and Rachel seeing each other for the first time since the stabbing. She’s obviously incredibly wary of [Rachel] and incredibly scared but also still thinking, until Rachel touches her, that she’s got, if not the upper hand, then some hand here. But what I love about this show is that no one is white or black, and she’s guilty of a lot of very questionable acts, and she’s incredibly ambitious and that’s blinded her to her inhumanity. So I think she is somewhat but not perfectly redeemed in this season.
What were your favourite scenes in the episode?
I really loved that scene between Susan and Rachel. I thought it looked beautiful. I thought [director of photography] Aaron Morton just lit that so beautifully, and Helen [Shaver] got great performances from those amazing actresses. And I loved the climax with Cosima and P.T. and the Creature. I literally got chills and cried while they were filming that. Tatiana is so raw and yet so wonderfully in control. It’s a knife edge of ‘I am totally open to what’s happening in the moment, but at the same time, I’ve got it completely under control so it works for the camera, and it works for the crew, and it works for my fellow actors.’ It’s really amazing to behold.
And I also loved Andrew Musselman’s performance [as the Creature]. We knew when we were writing this that it had the ability to go to a really bad place acting wise and writing wise, and we knew it was going to be tough casting it. And when I saw Andrew give his audition–which didn’t have any words in it, obviously–he played this stunted and terrified but very human creature so beautifully and with a lot of restraint. And he was such a nice guy, such a pleasant guy, such a funny guy. In the scene where Salvador got killed, he was doing these takes at one or two o’clock in the morning in minus 11 degrees without socks and a coat, and he was just giving it and going over and over again. Working with him was a real highlight of this episode.
When we last see Cosima, she’s caged in P.T. Westmorland’s basement. What can you tease about Episode 506?
Well, she’s gotta get outta there, or we’ve got a pretty static episode! [Laughs.] So, who’s going to help her with that? It doesn’t seem like she has a lot of options.
Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Space.
Images courtesy of Bell Media.
Much like Episode 503 focused on Alison a couple of weeks ago, this week’s new instalment of Orphan Black spends extra time with Cosima, as she accompanies Delphine to a bizarre dinner at P.T. Westmorland’s mansion and digs into the science behind the Creature in the woods. Meanwhile, Sarah spends some quality time with Kira, which leads to a better understanding of Kira’s special abilities.
Here’s our spoiler-free peek at “Ease for Idle Millionaires,” written by Jenn Engels and directed by Helen Shaver.
Cophine angst
If you thought Delphine getting shot to protect Cosima and the rest of the Leda clones would forever end Cophine’s trust issues, you were sadly mistaken. However…
Cophine romance
…it’s Cophine. Of course they can’t keep their hands off each other.
P.T. throws a dinner party
And Westmorland family values are as twisted as you imagine.
Cosima folllows the science
And finds a disturbing connection between the Creature and Kira.
Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Space.
Image courtesy of Bell Media.
Spoiler warning: Do not read this article until you have seen Orphan Black Episode 504, “Let the Children & Childbearers Toil.â€
“Your hands never get dirty.” -Susan Duncan
“No, only my beautiful, filthy mind.” -P.T. Westmorland
So that’s what happened to Dr. Coady!
A season and a half after Coady (Kyra Harper) was presumed to have met her demise at the hands of Ferdinand (James Frain), the evil doctor (and we now know just how evil she is) turned out to be the “Neolution defector” that Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) and Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) were searching for in tonight’s new Orphan Black episode, “Let the Children & Childbearers Toil.” Meanwhile, Cosima (Maslany) discovered a chamber of horrors in P.T. Westmorland’s  (Stephen McHattie) basement, and Sarah and Helena (Helena) shared a huge bonding moment.
We caught up with Orphan Black writer and co-executive producer Greg Nelson to learn more about the decision to bring Coady back, what’s going on with the Creature in the woods and Sarah’s maturing relationships with Helena and Mrs. S.
A lot happens in this episode. It connects a lot of dots from previous seasons but also has some pivotal moments of character growth. What were your major goals/concerns as you began writing it?
Greg Nelson: Once we landed on the big reveal at the end of the episode, which was bringing Coady back, then the whole episode really became about getting to that moment. It happened, obviously, on two levels. Both for Cosima on the Island, and her exploration of the basement, seeing the horrible room where they had kept the creature, the monster, and sort of understanding the level of danger she was in, that the clones are in and that Kira is in, because of what P.T. Westmorland is capable of doing, and at the same, with Sarah and S discovering Coady. So it all seemed to come together nicely storywise when we landed on that, and then it was really about telling the story.
The island story was a pretty straightforward story to tell. The trickier one was the Sarah and S story, because they had to get to their big discovery, but at the time, we were picking them up in a situation where they were really caught. At the end of Episode 502, a terrible thing happened with M.K., and the hammer really comes down from Rachel, Kira is going in and visiting Rachel, and they feel powerless. It’s a show where–particularly with Sarah–she is constantly on the move, constantly trying to get to the bottom of things, fight back against the bad guys. So we needed to create the sense that they’re doing something at the same time as they can’t be seen to be fighting back against Rachel. So, it was a tricky story challenge, because–without giving too much away–they had to be really active and awesome in the way they respond to this level of danger.
And they also had relationship issues that they had to work out, there’s so much going on there. That was the trickiest part, was sort of blocking out their road trip, where they go on the road and try track down the little bit of information that S has, and the relationship stuff of S keeping it from Sarah, all of that was tricky. One of the things we were conscious of, was wanting to have Sarah and S in a new relationship and showing that basically Sarah had earned the ability to deal with S and an adult. There’s always been a quality to Sarah of being still the kid, still the rebellious adolescent, S constantly having to step in and help with Kira. Now, it really feels like in this episode–and we talked a lot about this in the writers’ room–about how Sarah is able to step up and deal with S as and equal, and that was a big moment for those characters. That really formed the heartbeat emotionally of that story, and it really pays off when Sarah says, ‘No, we’re going to see somebody else on the way,’ and she kind of takes control of the mission for a little bit, and the banter between S and Sarah kind of has a new kind of maturity to it.
I loved the scene with Sarah visiting Helena, too. It really moved their relationship forward.Â
This is a scene that Graeme knew was coming. It was a scene that he had in his pocket, that he knew–just in terms of their relationship–he had sort of been waiting for this scene to happen. It had been a long time since Sarah and Helena had had a scene together. And it’s the same story that I just talked about with S, where all of these characters–and this goes through the final season, the final trip–all of these characters were reaching a new level of maturity with each other, the sense that they had been through so much together, that they had learned a lot about themselves as well as each other. And that feeling, I felt, was really suffused in that scene between Sarah and Helena. When you think about it, are there any two characters in the show that have gone through a bigger journey in their relationship? They’ve gone from being massive antagonists to being, in some ways, the closest of the clones.
So Graeme had a lot to do with that scene. In every season, there are scenes that you really kind of see as tent pole scenes, scenes that really anchor the thing and the relationships. So it was really an opportunity for them to establish their relationship as twins and equals and sisters supporting each other in a new way.
Was it always the plan to bring Coady back, or did that you only come upon that idea this season?
No, that happened in the room, for sure. That was sort of a discovery that occurred to me one day as we were thrashing through the story, and we had talked about Coady coming back in at some level, and we had talked about having a discovery at the end of this episode that leads us closer to the mystery of P.T. Westmorland and what he’s up to. And we realized we could put those two together. It was one of those lightbulb moments where you go, ‘Oh, of course! It’s Coady they discover!’ And it provides you with a huge reveal at the end of the episode, and the rush of the backstory of Season 3 kind of fills in, and it just brings up to a whole new level of stakes because Coady is one of the baddest villains that Orphan Black has ever had.
Then there was a certain amount of going into the past to kind of figure out Coady’s line, so we could connect it all in a way that made sense. It’s not stuff that we had contemplated previously. But once we started to do that work, where we figured out that Coady was involved with P.T. Westmorland, she was involved with Susan, that there’s a history that they all have together. It was one of those things that connected the dots throughout the whole series, not just in this season. It enriched the world by connecting the backstories–and that’s all stuff that we’re going to learn more about in Episodes 505 and 506.
We learned that Mud has a special relationship with both P.T. Westmorland and the Creature. What can we expect from her in coming episodes?
Mud is one of those fascinating characters who is a bit of a cipher. We know that she has a kind of special relationship to P.T. Westmorland already. We see her in this episode administering the medical care to P.T., and we’re going to find out later what that’s all about. She has access to the house in a way that other people don’t; we see her going through that special entrance way that Cosima can follow. And we have the scene in the woods where she takes the blanket to the Creature in the woods.
I can’t say too much in terms of where that goes, but in terms of the Creature itself, the general growth of seeing him from Episode 501, where he’s a really, really scary violent presence that Sarah runs into, the sense of menace he provides through Episodes 502, 503 and into 504, and then in Episode 504, it’s the first little hint that there’s a presence, a personality behind that creature. I think we get a little glimpse of that. David Wellington, I think, beautifully shot that scene in the woods with Mud. It’s a tricky scene to shoot, because we want to have a little moment of human connection between Mud and the creature, but we want to maintain that sense of menace. But when we go into the basement and see that terrible room that the creature was kept in, we also begin to see him as a victim. And so it really begins in this episode to change. You know, we’re building up P.T. Westmorland as such an evil guy, and so it begins to change our perception of the Creature at, I think, exactly the right point in the season. Suddenly, we’re looking ahead to, ‘Oh, this creature is going to be the clue to something else.’ It’s all starting to pay off.
The things we learn about the Creature’s background also make us fear for Kira all the more. She seems to be the key to everything.Â
The thing that was interesting working on Season 5–I hadn’t worked on the first four seasons, but I’d watched them–and the wonderful thing about Kira and the way she functions in the series is that she starts out being an emotional pull for Sarah. In those wonderful first episodes in Season 1 when we see Sarah watching her from across the river, and there she is with S. That incredible love that she has for her daughter, the tragedy of how Kira is caught in the crossfire to some degree as Sarah is targeted by Leekie and Neolution, Kira–as the most vulnerable member of that family–becomes a bit of a pawn in that power struggle. And it’s heartbreaking because she’s just a child, and the emotional stakes around that character are so high for S and for Sarah.
And then I thought what the show and what Graeme did so cleverly is that they planted a seed fairly early on with that car accident that Kira has where she has really fast healing, and you see that starting to come back again in Season 5. And so she becomes a keeper of the stakes in a whole new level. Suddenly, she’s not just an emotional touchstone for us, but she becomes incredibly important in terms of the science. This season, she’s both somebody that we care about and our characters care about, but she also holds the key to the great questions of Orphan Black in terms of the science and Susan and Neolution and P.T. Westmorland. And as we go through the season, we’ll see more and more how Kira’s biology and genetics are a really, really key part of the Orphan Back mystery.
What can you tell us about next week’s episode?
The next episode is just fantastic. I think the best thing to say about Episode 505 is we really start to draw back the curtain on P.T. Westmorland, all those questions about, Who is P.T.? What is happening to him? It’s going to be really enjoyable for people to start to get a good look at him and his operations and what he’s got going. We don’t get all the answers by any means, but we spend some time in P.T.’s world, and it’s quite an interesting place.
Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Space.
Images courtesy of Bell Media.
Following last week’s psychedelic pit stop in Bailey Downs, Orphan Black turns its attention back to the main conspiracy storyline, as Sarah and Mrs. S follow the lead on a Neolution defector, and Cosima searches for information on the mysterious “bear” roaming the woods on the island.
Here is our preview of “Let the Children & Childbearers Toil,” written by Greg Nelson and directed by David Wellington.
Kira wants answers
But her methodology upsets Sarah.
Sarah and Mrs. S go undercoverÂ
Expect a detour and some extremely satisfying character moments along the way—including a moving scene that writer Greg Nelson tells us Graeme Manson “had in his pocket” for a long time.
Cosima plays detective
And makes a horrifying discovery about the creature in the woods.
Another familiar face returns
We’re thrilled. Felix? Not so much.
A big “aha” moment
Expect a major reveal that connects several dots from seasons past and seriously raises the stakes for upcoming episodes.
Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Space.
Image courtesy of Bell Media.
