NEW YORK–Do humans create evil or is there a supernatural or unexplained force that may be at play when things go terribly wrong?
That is the driving question behind the new CBS drama Evil, and the creators and cast talked about their inspiration for the show and what drives their characters forward last weekend after the world premiere screening of the show’s pilot at the Tribeca TV Festival.
Writers/creators Michelle and Robert King (the creative team behind The Good Wife and The Good Fight) said the idea was partly created by their own continuous discussions with each other about the origins of evil, with Michelle King being more skeptical of religious causes of problems and typically looking for scientific explanations and Robert King being more willing to believe that there are unexplained phenomena that could have non-scientific origins.
“It has been a discussion (in our relationship) and it has been going for more than 30 years. Robert tends to believe evil comes from something demonic or religious and I tend to jump to something psychological,” Michelle King said.
“Demonic may be too strong but I do think supernatural… When you look around and see evil in politics, for example…there’s something beyond (what) science can explain. If you see what’s going on with racism in this country. There’s something that holds people, and I don’t think it’s all in (the) genes” Robert King said.
Michelle and Robert King said it was their intent to bring in current events to their discussion of evil. Many of the ideas of the show are going to come from the question about how evil operates within society–whether it’s evil in racism, evil in politics, or evil in social groups.
“If you’re not writing about that today, I don’t know if you are awake,” Robert King said.
The show follows a team of three: a psychologist, a priest-in-training, and a skeptical carpenter, who explore demonic possessions, hauntings, unexplained miracles, and all sorts of phenomenon that are difficult to explain.
Katja Herbers, who plays psychologist and mother Kristen Bouchard–the moral compass of the show–says she had little background on the topic before she stepped on set. Katja said that while she “has very little knowledge of the Catholic church” she doesn’t need to understand religion to fully appreciate her character:
“I work on intuition and I go with what’s on the page. The scripts are incredible. The other actors in the scenes will tell me what’s in the moment. I’ve done a bit of research. (While) I’ve never had a night terror in my life I can imagine what it’s like to be scared,” Herbers said.
While her character is always looking for answers from science, the actor who sees every issue with a heavenly or hellish view is David Acosta, played by Mike Colter.
Colter said he greatly admires the complexity of his character in the scripts he’s seen so far.
“He’s a work in progress. He’s trying to achieve something few people can and be happy in the world. I really enjoy a challenge… I find (him) intriguing and the journey where he came from and where he’s going is going to be so wonderful,” Colter said.
The third member of their investigative team, Ben, is a carpenter who uses logic and his own knowledge of how things work to disprove the existence of supernatural things. Ben is played by Aasif Mandev, who said he truly feels his character is still evolving.
“Ben is a guy who really believes only in things you can touch, taste, feel, smell, hear… he doesn’t go into that (supernatural) world…He lives in a world of pragmatism… We don’t have the answers but that’s because we haven’t gotten there yet. Ben struggles with the things he can’t figure out because he so needs to find truth as something he can hold onto,” Mandev said.
A character is who is fully confident–albeit confident in the power of darkness–is Leland Townsend, played by Michael Emerson. Emerson agreed that his character, who seems to be the physical representative of evil (possibly even the devil) or the one who at least “creates” pathways of evil on earth, is particularly fun to play.
“There’s some fun in playing these parts. You hope the villains you play are all different,” he said. He noted that unlike his fictional character on Lost (Ben Linus), the character he plays on Evil seems even darker.
“He’s unredeemed. Ben was unredeemed… but not a psychopath,” Emerson added, wryly. He noted that audiences have to “stay tuned” to see what other surprises his character holds in the future because “evil is fun.”
Christine Lahti, who plays Sheryl, Kristen’s mom, said family is a key component of the show. Because Kristen’s husband is off “climbing a mountain somewhere” it is up to her character to help raise the children but also provide some light-hearted moments.
“Right now my character is a little more comic relief… a real free spirit. The show is showing innocence and goodness vs. evil. I’m more of an innocent,” Lahti said.
Lahti said she was also drawn to the show because it paralleled the classic psychology debate of nature vs. nurture.
“It’s also that the concept of evil that I think is so fascinating is are people born evil (or) is it nature vs nurture? So someone can be really empathetic and not a psychopath and because of trauma, because of poverty, because of abuse…it erodes one’s empathy. And if you have enough of that do you lose it entirely and do you tip into evil? And all that is so interesting psychologically too,” Lahti said.
Actor Kurt Fuller who plays therapist Dr. Boggs, agrees, saying, “I am, in this show, the person that Kristen is actually honest with. She does not lie to me. She trusts me and tells me everything that is going on with her. When she hooks up with Michael and Ben, she jumps into the deep end… the repercussions of what she’s doing is very damaging to her,” so she absolutely needs therapy.
Fuller also praised how, as the season goes on, the scripts delve into the characters’ personal lives.
“Yes, it’s a show about evil. But it’s a character study. We see how interesting they are…Several of them are damaged and trying to save themselves at the same time as they are trying to solve this problem of evil. And for me … that is the most compelling thing. How these characters interact and just try to get well themselves and figure out their own lives at the same time that they try to figure out the nature of evil is equally interesting for me. And that is called great writing,” Fuller said.
Herbers agreed, saying, “I don’t think there is any other show (I’d do) right now. The writing is astonishing. Every script I get I’m dancing around in my room. And our characters get more and more layered each episode.”
Robert King said there is a Catholic official, a Monsignor, who is a consultant on the show and he’s been a tremendous help to the writers and cast.
“It’s nice. We are very different but I love talking to him because I get a perspective I didn’t have before,” said Colter.
Herbers added, “He was there for an exorcism (scene) to see we were doing it properly and it was really intense.”
Robert King said there are many great opportunities for guest stars. “Some may be in the White House. Some may be in ICE? Dante had fun putting people in hell so we also… (have fun) casting. We couldn’t repeat roles in Good Wife and Good Fight… We can get a lot of…actors to play other roles,” Robert King said.
While not all shows will be dark (episode 2, for example, will explore a “medical miracle”) cast members said the way writers are able to integrate current events with theories of evil promise to make the show something that is always relevant.
Evil premieres September 26 at 10:00PM Eastern on CBS
