May 11, 2023 • 27 mins
What happens when a group of FBI agents navigate the rapidly changing world of technology and society? In this exciting episode of Pop Culture Weekly, Kyle McMahon interviews the phenomenal cast and filmmakers behind Hulu's new limited series, Class of '09. Join Kyle as he talks with stars Kate Mara, Sepideh Moafi and Brian J. Smith, as well as series creator Tom Rob Smith, Emmy nominated director Joe Robert Cole and executive producer Jessica Levin about their experiences working on this thought-provoking show.
Discover how a podcast featuring retired FBI agents inspired creator Tom Robb Smith to focus the series on the agents' personal stories rather than the crimes they investigate. Learn how Joe Robert Cole sees the fortuitous timing of the show's release amidst our rapidly evolving technological landscape, and dive into the intricate process executive producer Jessica Levin underwent to weave the show's multiple timelines together. Get ready for a thrilling exploration of three distinct time periods, personal evolution, and the impact of technology on our lives with Hulu's Class of '09!
Kyle McMahon's Death, Grief & Other Sh*t We Don't Discuss is now streaming: https://www.deathandgrief.show/Chapter-One-The-Diagnosis-AKA-WTF/
---------------
Get all the Pop Culture Weekly podcast info you could want including extra content, uncut interviews, photos, videos & transcripts at: https://podcast.popcultureweekly.com
Watch celebrity interviews at: https://www.facebook.com/realkylemcmahon/videos
or Kyle McMahon YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahon
Read the latest at http://www.PopCultureWeekly.com
Follow Kyle on:
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YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahon
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Discover how a podcast featuring retired FBI agents inspired creator Tom Robb Smith to focus the series on the agents' personal stories rather than the crimes they investigate. Learn how Joe Robert Cole sees the fortuitous timing of the show's release amidst our rapidly evolving technological landscape, and dive into the intricate process executive producer Jessica Levin underwent to weave the show's multiple timelines together. Get ready for a thrilling exploration of three distinct time periods, personal evolution, and the impact of technology on our lives with Hulu's Class of '09!
Kyle McMahon's Death, Grief & Other Sh*t We Don't Discuss is now streaming: https://www.deathandgrief.show/Chapter-One-The-Diagnosis-AKA-WTF/
---------------
Get all the Pop Culture Weekly podcast info you could want including extra content, uncut interviews, photos, videos & transcripts at: https://podcast.popcultureweekly.com
Watch celebrity interviews at: https://www.facebook.com/realkylemcmahon/videos
or Kyle McMahon YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahon
Read the latest at http://www.PopCultureWeekly.com
Follow Kyle on:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmacmusic
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/realkylemcmahon
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kmacmusic
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahon
Website: http://www.kylemcmahon.me
Pop Culture Weekly twitter: http://www.twitter.com/popculturepodca
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, it's all about the brand new Hulu series Class of '09.
(00:05):
I talk with Kate Mara, Joe Robert Coletam, Rob Smith, Brian J. Smith, Cepi Moffy, and Moilets. Go!
Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from I Heart Radio.
Your Pop Culture News, Views, Reviews, and Celebrity Interviews on all the movies, TV, music, and pop culture you crave, Weekly.
(00:26):
Here's Kyle McMahon.
[Music]
[Music]
Hello, welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.
I, of course, am Kyle McMahon.
And thank you for joining me on our crazy ride.
It's always fun, isn't it?
(00:48):
I know you guys have been so active on sending me messages and tweets and Facebook messages and all that.
And I've got to be better about sharing my socials, because I always talk about my socials and then never share them.
And then I get in trouble for not sharing my socials.
So you can always follow me on K-Mac Music at Twitter and Instagram.
(01:10):
I'm less active now on Twitter.
I used to be really active, but you know, it's died in the last couple of weeks.
But anyway, I'm super active on Instagram and Facebook and all that stuff.
I'm really active on Facebook and YouTube just find Real Kyle McMahon.
There's normally a checkmarker, whatever that tells you that it's the Real Kyle McMahon.
(01:33):
In any event, today I have an awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome show.
It's all about the brand new limited series on Hulu Class of '09 on Hulu.
So it's really cool because it's like kind of a time jumping series.
And it follows a class of FBI agents from '09.
(01:55):
And then it follows them through like three distinct points in time.
And obviously in those 30-ish years, 20-ish years on Bette Mat, there's different approaches.
The world has changed, society has changed, technology has changed, you know, it's so quick.
Society changes so quick, technology changes even quicker.
(02:20):
So it's a really, really great series.
And I love it.
It interweaves the different timelines.
And it's just, I think, a really smart series.
Well worth your time.
So I talk with the cast and the filmmakers about it.
I talk with Kate Mara, who stars as Poet.
(02:41):
And she plays like, she's like one of the, you know, most successful agents, undercover agents of all time.
I talk with SEPI Muafi, who plays our Brian J. Smith, who plays Lennox.
And I also talk with the creator, writer, executive producer, directors.
Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin, and Joe Robert Cole, who I just want to point out,
(03:06):
Joe Robert Cole is a filmmaker actor.
He did and actually was Emmy Award nominated for his work in American Crime Story,
The People vs. O.J. Simpson.
He also co-wrote Black Panther and Wakanda forever.
I'm a huge fan of his.
He is freaking awesome.
And so I talked to him about this series.
(03:30):
Jessica Levin is executive producer, whose work includes true detective, his dark materials,
vinyl, love that show.
Um, really, you know, some interesting series and she does it again with Class of '09.
And then creator, Tom Rob Smith, who you may know from his first novel, Child 44,
(03:53):
which was like a huge, you know, crime novel.
I want a whole bunch of awards.
He was the EP and writer for season two of American Crime Story titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace,
which was really good as well.
So he created Class of '09 and I talked to him about that as well.
(04:15):
So let's get into our interviews.
First up, Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin and Joe Robert Cole.
I love Class of '09.
It is really edge of your seat.
It's thought provoking.
I absolutely love it.
Tom, if I could start with you as the, you know, the creator.
(04:37):
How did this come to you?
Yeah, I mean, I've credited and I think it's, it's better credit.
A real FBI agent was retired.
She's got Jerry Williams and she, um, she started a podcast and I stumbled across it when I was living in LA.
And I was going these long walks and, um, they're really detailed.
They're like an hour and a half.
(04:58):
She's interviewing different retired agents and the thing that struck me, I want to went in.
I was kind of hoping to stumble across a crime or some interesting criminal element I hadn't, and heard of before.
And what I came away with was how interesting these agents were, like as people are completely contrasting with each other.
Really very different way, not just in terms of their experience in the bureau, but the way they spoke about cases.
(05:24):
The way they interacted with Jerry, the way they, some of them were extremely proud of their work.
And in fact, they should have achieved more of the frustrations and I just thought, wouldn't it be great to do a show which really centered the agents and their character at the heart of it rather than the, the, the criminality.
So, you know, it was always about characters and not the crimes, I think.
(05:47):
And people going in since institutions wanting to change it and that was, that was the central, um, the spark that started as a piece.
I love that. And, and Joe, Robert, for you, did you see, you know, it's kind of interesting that this is coming out now, particularly with all of the very, very, it seems quick technology, uh, changing before our lives, um, right at this very moment.
(06:12):
More so than probably normal, uh, for you, you know, was it easy to kind of see how that changes, you know, over multiple decades versus as you're doing the show.
How it's quick, it's going now.
You know, I don't know that we.
I don't know that we thought, I don't know that we thought it would be going so fast.
(06:36):
Um, I, you know, Tom is spoken about this, you know, there was a time when, um, the future was going to be like 20 years in the show in advance.
And, and, and we ultimately, the decision was made to pull it back to, to make it 10 and, um, he was just mentioning that that probably was still too far.
(06:57):
Right. And, and so I think as, I think when we're shooting it, we obviously we knew this is a, you know, something that's coming down the road and that's relevant.
Uh, and that technology exponentially develops faster and faster.
Um, and, you know, talking to scientists and talking to people in general, you find that kind of stuff out.
(07:20):
You kind of know that that's happening.
Um, but I think it's a bit fortuitous for us that it's like, you know, the show is landing at this time when it is really, um, really in the zeitgeist, uh, in a way that I don't think any of us, um, you know,
or saw necessarily, uh, so, you know, we're, we're going to ride the wave with it.
(07:45):
And, and just a good for you, you know, uh, are you, as this has all unfolded, you know, for me, as a viewer, I am like, you know, like I said, it's on the edge of your seat for me the entire time.
It's so well written, so well developed and conceived and filmed. Um, were you able to, did you have to go like page by page as, as, you know, this is developing, um, like in other words, for me, I feel like I'd have to focus on, you know, one timeline.
(08:19):
Uh, then another timeline, like how are you able to kind of meld all this together as this is as, as the piece is coming.
Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, and how we looked at it, particularly in the editing, um, was, was largely sticking to Tom script, but also finding in the performances and in the execution of the shooting, you know, kind of moments that like the, the goal of the piece has always been that the time lines are in dialogue with one another.
(08:45):
So what's happening in the past has a direct, you know, or an indirect, um, a sort of thread to what we see playing out in the present or in the future and that there's always that that kind of dialogue between them, but really finding that in the execution of the material takes a certain finesse.
And then we could actually read it slightly differently or in a slightly different order that'll give it a little more punch. Um, so I would say that's one of the real pleasures of the piece is this, this kind of fantastic puzzle box that that comes from the script, but then evolves over the course of the shoot into the edit.
(09:32):
Yeah, and it was done masterfully time. I've got to ask you, how did you keep track of all of it? Like, did you have like a continuity editor, do you have charts or like, what, how did you do this?
I mean, Quantico kind of struck, you know, we all know that was one of the things that was kind of nice about it is that Quantico has this very is like a very familiar structure, you know, it's like college and then it were grouped each by the training units.
(09:58):
And then it was thinking in really like, you know, like how to get those units to speak to the other stories.
Um, but you always had this bedrock of Quantico, it starts at the beginning and arriving and ends with graduation.
Um, I think one of the things that was really interesting is you can, you can write a connection. I mean, Jessica mentioned this, you can write the scene that's talking to another scene, then when you watch it visually, they might not speak in the same way that you thought and then in the editor, you can find another moment, which just visually or some chemistry is almost
(10:31):
fine to explain just really speaks to a different scene differently and then you're kind of matching it up because one of the things I think was so important was that for these timelines, it's not a gimmick, it's not something we're throwing out there to be clever.
We're really interested. We think, you know, you know, even going back to Jerry's podcast, those agents were always talking about why they joined what they're to you and where the bureau is now.
So they naturally those conversations had three timelines in them. And so in this show, we're trying to make that flow. It was trying to capture that essence of these three things, the dream of your career, the career as you turned out and then the bureau as it ended up and trying to make that flow very naturally.
(11:09):
It was always meant to kind of feel.
Um, I think at the hearts of the piece, rather than a kind of edifice that we stuck onto it.
I love that and and Joe Robert for you.
You know, and this is kind of a more of a esoteric, I guess type of question, but you know, watching the series makes me kind of think I think naturally that maybe this was intended, but, you know, our past directly affects our future and one decision that I make today could, you know, or is influencing what will happen to me to more.
(11:48):
Or next year or 10 years from now, is there a moment for you in your own life where you have kind of recognize that potentially super life changing thing.
Oh, that's a that's a great question. I think there, um, well, I'll start by saying I fundamentally believe that we do not live in a vacuum.
(12:18):
In other words, what happened before is effects directly what happens to us now and what happens and what we do now directly affects what happens in the future.
And the individual level that's on a societal level, that's on a global level, you know, as you think about some of the challenges we have in the world and and the importance of what we do while we're here.
(12:40):
And the relevance of what has happened before. So that's philosophically something that I believe in just as a person as an individual.
Specifically, I think there are countless decisions that I've made in my life that have gotten me to where I am as a person choices mistakes.
Many of the mistakes.
(13:02):
Many stumbles that that have led me to the place that I am.
I don't know.
The deciding, you know, that here's one that that was random.
(13:23):
I when I decided to when I was going to go to before I went to college, I worked out at a gym and, you know, I was first person my family go to college.
And so I worked out as a gym and I didn't know anything about what good schools were.
What what a good school of weather. I applied to all these different schools because my college counselor at my high school said, you have great grades and you you should apply.
(13:49):
I was clueless and a guy in the gym that I knew from when I was had lived in LA when I was younger, who was just a nice guy.
He goes, you know, if you ever get into Berkeley, you should go.
And I was like, oh, that's cool. I didn't even know.
I didn't know what Berkeley meant. Like I was like, oh, that's cool.
(14:10):
So I got into Berkeley and I was like, well, that guy said I should go to Berkeley. I guess I should go.
That's how it wasn't like all but it wasn't some like, oh, I've been planning to do this my whole life.
This is my dream. It was as as random as this is a really nice guy.
He's a good dude. He's a smart guy and, you know, I know I also go.
(14:33):
So so like that choice, I can chose to go somewhere else with my life been different. I don't know.
But that is that's that's an interesting like a random choice that ended up being very pivotal in who I will have.
You know, it already very, very gifts out private information.
So this is a very special interview.
Oh, man.
(14:54):
I know. You got you got like a real.
You got a real.
That's pretty good. That's pretty good. He got me. He got me there.
Well, thank you all. I can't wait for everybody to see this series on effects on who Lou.
I am out of time. Thank you. I'll have a great day and I really appreciate all your time.
Thank you for coming.
(15:15):
Thank you.
Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin and Joe Robert Cole makes you want to watch the series.
Doesn't it? It's a I'm telling you. It's a really great series.
Very edge of your seat. It's also like I said, very smart and how they do it.
So I really appreciate that. All right. Let's take a break.
Then we're going to get into our interviews with the cast of Class of '09 when we come back.
(15:42):
Thank you for allowing us to pay the bills.
I am I'm excited for our conversation with the cast of Class of '09 on effects on who Lou exclusively on who Lou.
We're going to talk with Kate Mara, Seppie Moaffy and Brian J Smith.
(16:03):
Kate Mara, if you don't know for some reason.
I first watched her in Urban Legends, Beledi Mary, which was a sequel to the Urban Legends film.
You know, I'm a huge horror fan.
And then she was in Brookback Mountain. We are Marshall fantastic four in 2015 as who storm.
(16:28):
You know, AKA invisible woman. The Martian Megan Levy.
That's just on the film side on the television side. Susan Nip Tuck, Jack and Bobby.
She played Shari. Shari, Sherry Rothenberg on 24, which I'm a huge 24 fan.
She was on on Teraj, American horror story, Murder House, you know, season one House of Cards,
(16:52):
which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
And she's coming up in Black Mirror.
But we are talking about the series that came out today Class of '09.
So I'm really excited to talk to her and Seppie Moaffy and Brian J Smith,
(17:13):
until you know from Netflix's Sense 8. Oh, and the Stargate universe.
He plays Lieutenant Matt Scott.
In any event, let's get into that interview. Brian J Smith, Seppie Moaffy and Kate Mar.
So the series is awesome. It's very intelligent edge of your seat, really, really well done.
(17:38):
So Kudas, to all of you for that, I'll start with you, Kate, if it's all right.
How are you able to with everything going on? How are you able to like kind of as an actor,
keep the timelines, the, you know, different spaces in the character's life separate
for that particular shoot, if you know what I'm saying.
(18:01):
Well, definitely a team effort, you know, there was there were so many elements that go into each timeline and, you know,
depending on which timeline we're in, it takes a certain amount of prep.
So for the future stuff, specifically, we're in the Harry MacGop chair for a lot longer, even a few hours at times.
(18:27):
And so definitely took advantage of those, that sort of downtime for us, not for Harry MacGop teams,
but really being able to prep for whatever scenes you're doing, because sometimes we would do different timelines in one day,
which is definitely, yeah.
But again, like everyone, the crew was so helpful in that.
(18:51):
And we really relied on each other to, you know, keep each other in the correct world and the correct emotional state as well.
And, and SEPI for you, you know, I feel like that would be really kind of, this is probably the wrong word to say,
but like juicy to play, to be able to get a chance to play a character in, you know, different periods.
(19:14):
Is that how you feel or am I off there?
You know, 100%, it's an education, right? Because you have to, you have to kind of get into the mind, heart, body of your character, and then see what, you know, what traits, what aspects of their lives and who they are, they're being, how that develops based on what they go through in their lives.
(19:40):
So it's something that I can't, I can't begin to, I can imagine 10, 20 years in the future, but I know that anything I would have imagined for myself into, like I was an opera singer in 2009, you know what I mean?
I had no affiliation or relationship to film and television, and now we're talking about the show.
So you just have no idea where your life is going to go and being able to play with that idea and play with somebody's past and what makes them who they are in the present, and then what ultimately, you know, happens in order to have them arrive at a certain place in the future.
(20:16):
It's a fascinating sort of human exploration and contemplation that we don't get the opportunity to do very often in our lives and careers, especially over eight hours on show.
I love that and Brian, for you, you know, you play Lennox, this kind of old money sort of guy, I guess you could say, is it fun for you or, you know, this is similar to my question, this EPI, is it fun and challenging and rewarding for you to kind of see the evolution of a character, which is also, you know, something we don't often get to see, you know, in a series, maybe we get to see a few years over eight, nine seasons.
(20:58):
In real life, this is a bit different. How is that for you?
Yeah, it's great. I remember really early on having a conversation with Tom Rob Smith, our writer and creator and him saying that this is basically a show about time and about the way that, you know, our lives, you know, you can you can find yourself all the sudden looking around and going how the hell did I get here?
(21:25):
And you can always trace those decisions back to this person you were with, there was like in their 20s that made all these very adult decisions, maybe before they had all the information and here you are in midlife, dealing still with the ramifications of of those decisions you made when you were still essentially a child in a way.
(21:48):
That's been a really interesting thing to relate to and telling the story.
And for you, Kate, this is I'm actually going to don't typically do this, but I'd like to ask all three of you the same question and that is, was there something in your life, which you were able to say seemed trivial or whatever at the time, but you now see how to profound affect on your life?
(22:17):
Um, I will say I will say I took some really big risks when I was younger and I was making a lot of decisions about what I wanted to do with my life.
And I got to say like those things are the are the those are the decisions that have had the most impact on my life and they're the decisions that I look back on on my younger self and I'm like really proud that I I had this sort of the guts and the wherewithal at that point of my life to really take a leap of faith and you lose that a little bit into you get older.
(23:02):
So maybe that maybe that trivial decision, but sometimes those bigger decisions you make, you might be spot on when you're that age.
It's hard to remember the trivial stuff because what you know, and I mean for me, and I remember the big decisions, you know, um.
And and like Brian, when I was in my early 20s, well, even when I was an early teen, when I was 14, I was already making huge decisions about what I wanted to do with my career and I was acting when I was 14.
(23:36):
And I do actually feel very lucky that I knew then that I wanted to do that so badly because I still to this day feel the same way.
And that just feels like a real a real blessing, you know, that I that I went for it so hardcore when I was a kid, you know, and still today I'm able to do it, which is feels so lucky.
(23:58):
And I'm sorry, but I just wanted to point out that similar similarly, you know, to what you were saying in what we were talking about before 10 years ago, you were in a totally different place.
So at some point, there was a decision that that you made, whether it seemed small or huge at the time that now we're here talking about the series.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if trivial would be the way that I characterize the decision, but it was definitely impulsive where I was I started working as an opera singer after graduating and you know, as an artist acting, singing, dancing, but you don't ever stop training the process of like, okay, now I'm done.
(24:38):
It's never done. And so I was still taking voice lessons. I was still, but I was intrigued and I was sort of hypnotized by the freedom of acting without having to worry about singing or delivering a high C or something like that.
And so I went into a straight acting class and and the one thing goes after another and I fell in love with Shakespeare and then shakes my love for Shakespeare outro my you know, I outro my love for offered.
(25:05):
So one thing leads to another and you never know how it's going to play out, but but yes, certainly be smaller decisions. You don't realize that they can have huge consequences or or effects on on your life. And that one decision came to the course of my career and life completely.
I love that. And you know, I hope to get to talk to all of you in 10 years on the projects that you're working on in 10 years and say, hey, never that convo.
(25:33):
Thank you. Thank you all so much for for your time. I can't wait for everybody to see class of oh nine on fx on Hulu. Thanks guys.
Kate Maura, Stephanie Mawafian, Brian Zay Smith, I'm telling you, you know me, you know the things that I like. I really enjoyed this limited series. It is edge of your seat. It's smart.
(26:01):
I'm twisty, turning and like like I said, you know, in the interviews, I would have needed if I was like, you know, an EP or directing this or even acting at it, I need a freaking chart to keep all this stuff on track in my mind.
And any event thank you for joining me for pop culture weekly, follow me on social review. It really, really helps if you review the episode on or review the show on Apple podcasts. It helps us to continue to grow every week.
(26:32):
And that's what we're doing because of you. I love you for that.
And I love you for just hanging out with me every week anyway and you know hit me up on the socials. So there's a very special episode coming out very, very soon.
And it features Jane mother, Fonda, okay, and Candace Bergen and Mary Steenberg. And it's all about book club, book club. The next chapter.
(27:01):
I'm going to New York to the premiere and it's going to be an amazing time. I have sit downs with the ladies and the filmmakers and it is going to be awesome. I can't wait for you to hear it.
All right. I love you. See you next time.
We out.
Thank you for listening to pop culture weekly. You're all the latest at popcultureweekly.com.
(27:23):
[Music]
In this episode of Pop Culture Weekly, it's all about the brand new Hulu series Class of '09.
(00:05):
I talk with Kate Mara, Joe Robert Coletam, Rob Smith, Brian J. Smith, Cepi Moffy, and Moilets. Go!
Welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon from I Heart Radio.
Your Pop Culture News, Views, Reviews, and Celebrity Interviews on all the movies, TV, music, and pop culture you crave, Weekly.
(00:26):
Here's Kyle McMahon.
[Music]
[Music]
Hello, welcome to Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.
I, of course, am Kyle McMahon.
And thank you for joining me on our crazy ride.
It's always fun, isn't it?
(00:48):
I know you guys have been so active on sending me messages and tweets and Facebook messages and all that.
And I've got to be better about sharing my socials, because I always talk about my socials and then never share them.
And then I get in trouble for not sharing my socials.
So you can always follow me on K-Mac Music at Twitter and Instagram.
(01:10):
I'm less active now on Twitter.
I used to be really active, but you know, it's died in the last couple of weeks.
But anyway, I'm super active on Instagram and Facebook and all that stuff.
I'm really active on Facebook and YouTube just find Real Kyle McMahon.
There's normally a checkmarker, whatever that tells you that it's the Real Kyle McMahon.
(01:33):
In any event, today I have an awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome show.
It's all about the brand new limited series on Hulu Class of '09 on Hulu.
So it's really cool because it's like kind of a time jumping series.
And it follows a class of FBI agents from '09.
(01:55):
And then it follows them through like three distinct points in time.
And obviously in those 30-ish years, 20-ish years on Bette Mat, there's different approaches.
The world has changed, society has changed, technology has changed, you know, it's so quick.
Society changes so quick, technology changes even quicker.
(02:20):
So it's a really, really great series.
And I love it.
It interweaves the different timelines.
And it's just, I think, a really smart series.
Well worth your time.
So I talk with the cast and the filmmakers about it.
I talk with Kate Mara, who stars as Poet.
(02:41):
And she plays like, she's like one of the, you know, most successful agents, undercover agents of all time.
I talk with SEPI Muafi, who plays our Brian J. Smith, who plays Lennox.
And I also talk with the creator, writer, executive producer, directors.
Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin, and Joe Robert Cole, who I just want to point out,
(03:06):
Joe Robert Cole is a filmmaker actor.
He did and actually was Emmy Award nominated for his work in American Crime Story,
The People vs. O.J. Simpson.
He also co-wrote Black Panther and Wakanda forever.
I'm a huge fan of his.
He is freaking awesome.
And so I talked to him about this series.
(03:30):
Jessica Levin is executive producer, whose work includes true detective, his dark materials,
vinyl, love that show.
Um, really, you know, some interesting series and she does it again with Class of '09.
And then creator, Tom Rob Smith, who you may know from his first novel, Child 44,
(03:53):
which was like a huge, you know, crime novel.
I want a whole bunch of awards.
He was the EP and writer for season two of American Crime Story titled The Assassination of Gianni Versace,
which was really good as well.
So he created Class of '09 and I talked to him about that as well.
(04:15):
So let's get into our interviews.
First up, Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin and Joe Robert Cole.
I love Class of '09.
It is really edge of your seat.
It's thought provoking.
I absolutely love it.
Tom, if I could start with you as the, you know, the creator.
(04:37):
How did this come to you?
Yeah, I mean, I've credited and I think it's, it's better credit.
A real FBI agent was retired.
She's got Jerry Williams and she, um, she started a podcast and I stumbled across it when I was living in LA.
And I was going these long walks and, um, they're really detailed.
They're like an hour and a half.
(04:58):
She's interviewing different retired agents and the thing that struck me, I want to went in.
I was kind of hoping to stumble across a crime or some interesting criminal element I hadn't, and heard of before.
And what I came away with was how interesting these agents were, like as people are completely contrasting with each other.
Really very different way, not just in terms of their experience in the bureau, but the way they spoke about cases.
(05:24):
The way they interacted with Jerry, the way they, some of them were extremely proud of their work.
And in fact, they should have achieved more of the frustrations and I just thought, wouldn't it be great to do a show which really centered the agents and their character at the heart of it rather than the, the, the criminality.
So, you know, it was always about characters and not the crimes, I think.
(05:47):
And people going in since institutions wanting to change it and that was, that was the central, um, the spark that started as a piece.
I love that. And, and Joe, Robert, for you, did you see, you know, it's kind of interesting that this is coming out now, particularly with all of the very, very, it seems quick technology, uh, changing before our lives, um, right at this very moment.
(06:12):
More so than probably normal, uh, for you, you know, was it easy to kind of see how that changes, you know, over multiple decades versus as you're doing the show.
How it's quick, it's going now.
You know, I don't know that we.
I don't know that we thought, I don't know that we thought it would be going so fast.
(06:36):
Um, I, you know, Tom is spoken about this, you know, there was a time when, um, the future was going to be like 20 years in the show in advance.
And, and, and we ultimately, the decision was made to pull it back to, to make it 10 and, um, he was just mentioning that that probably was still too far.
(06:57):
Right. And, and so I think as, I think when we're shooting it, we obviously we knew this is a, you know, something that's coming down the road and that's relevant.
Uh, and that technology exponentially develops faster and faster.
Um, and, you know, talking to scientists and talking to people in general, you find that kind of stuff out.
(07:20):
You kind of know that that's happening.
Um, but I think it's a bit fortuitous for us that it's like, you know, the show is landing at this time when it is really, um, really in the zeitgeist, uh, in a way that I don't think any of us, um, you know,
or saw necessarily, uh, so, you know, we're, we're going to ride the wave with it.
(07:45):
And, and just a good for you, you know, uh, are you, as this has all unfolded, you know, for me, as a viewer, I am like, you know, like I said, it's on the edge of your seat for me the entire time.
It's so well written, so well developed and conceived and filmed. Um, were you able to, did you have to go like page by page as, as, you know, this is developing, um, like in other words, for me, I feel like I'd have to focus on, you know, one timeline.
(08:19):
Uh, then another timeline, like how are you able to kind of meld all this together as this is as, as the piece is coming.
Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, and how we looked at it, particularly in the editing, um, was, was largely sticking to Tom script, but also finding in the performances and in the execution of the shooting, you know, kind of moments that like the, the goal of the piece has always been that the time lines are in dialogue with one another.
(08:45):
So what's happening in the past has a direct, you know, or an indirect, um, a sort of thread to what we see playing out in the present or in the future and that there's always that that kind of dialogue between them, but really finding that in the execution of the material takes a certain finesse.
And then we could actually read it slightly differently or in a slightly different order that'll give it a little more punch. Um, so I would say that's one of the real pleasures of the piece is this, this kind of fantastic puzzle box that that comes from the script, but then evolves over the course of the shoot into the edit.
(09:32):
Yeah, and it was done masterfully time. I've got to ask you, how did you keep track of all of it? Like, did you have like a continuity editor, do you have charts or like, what, how did you do this?
I mean, Quantico kind of struck, you know, we all know that was one of the things that was kind of nice about it is that Quantico has this very is like a very familiar structure, you know, it's like college and then it were grouped each by the training units.
(09:58):
And then it was thinking in really like, you know, like how to get those units to speak to the other stories.
Um, but you always had this bedrock of Quantico, it starts at the beginning and arriving and ends with graduation.
Um, I think one of the things that was really interesting is you can, you can write a connection. I mean, Jessica mentioned this, you can write the scene that's talking to another scene, then when you watch it visually, they might not speak in the same way that you thought and then in the editor, you can find another moment, which just visually or some chemistry is almost
(10:31):
fine to explain just really speaks to a different scene differently and then you're kind of matching it up because one of the things I think was so important was that for these timelines, it's not a gimmick, it's not something we're throwing out there to be clever.
We're really interested. We think, you know, you know, even going back to Jerry's podcast, those agents were always talking about why they joined what they're to you and where the bureau is now.
So they naturally those conversations had three timelines in them. And so in this show, we're trying to make that flow. It was trying to capture that essence of these three things, the dream of your career, the career as you turned out and then the bureau as it ended up and trying to make that flow very naturally.
(11:09):
It was always meant to kind of feel.
Um, I think at the hearts of the piece, rather than a kind of edifice that we stuck onto it.
I love that and and Joe Robert for you.
You know, and this is kind of a more of a esoteric, I guess type of question, but you know, watching the series makes me kind of think I think naturally that maybe this was intended, but, you know, our past directly affects our future and one decision that I make today could, you know, or is influencing what will happen to me to more.
(11:48):
Or next year or 10 years from now, is there a moment for you in your own life where you have kind of recognize that potentially super life changing thing.
Oh, that's a that's a great question. I think there, um, well, I'll start by saying I fundamentally believe that we do not live in a vacuum.
(12:18):
In other words, what happened before is effects directly what happens to us now and what happens and what we do now directly affects what happens in the future.
And the individual level that's on a societal level, that's on a global level, you know, as you think about some of the challenges we have in the world and and the importance of what we do while we're here.
(12:40):
And the relevance of what has happened before. So that's philosophically something that I believe in just as a person as an individual.
Specifically, I think there are countless decisions that I've made in my life that have gotten me to where I am as a person choices mistakes.
Many of the mistakes.
(13:02):
Many stumbles that that have led me to the place that I am.
I don't know.
The deciding, you know, that here's one that that was random.
(13:23):
I when I decided to when I was going to go to before I went to college, I worked out at a gym and, you know, I was first person my family go to college.
And so I worked out as a gym and I didn't know anything about what good schools were.
What what a good school of weather. I applied to all these different schools because my college counselor at my high school said, you have great grades and you you should apply.
(13:49):
I was clueless and a guy in the gym that I knew from when I was had lived in LA when I was younger, who was just a nice guy.
He goes, you know, if you ever get into Berkeley, you should go.
And I was like, oh, that's cool. I didn't even know.
I didn't know what Berkeley meant. Like I was like, oh, that's cool.
(14:10):
So I got into Berkeley and I was like, well, that guy said I should go to Berkeley. I guess I should go.
That's how it wasn't like all but it wasn't some like, oh, I've been planning to do this my whole life.
This is my dream. It was as as random as this is a really nice guy.
He's a good dude. He's a smart guy and, you know, I know I also go.
(14:33):
So so like that choice, I can chose to go somewhere else with my life been different. I don't know.
But that is that's that's an interesting like a random choice that ended up being very pivotal in who I will have.
You know, it already very, very gifts out private information.
So this is a very special interview.
Oh, man.
(14:54):
I know. You got you got like a real.
You got a real.
That's pretty good. That's pretty good. He got me. He got me there.
Well, thank you all. I can't wait for everybody to see this series on effects on who Lou.
I am out of time. Thank you. I'll have a great day and I really appreciate all your time.
Thank you for coming.
(15:15):
Thank you.
Tom Rob Smith, Jessica Levin and Joe Robert Cole makes you want to watch the series.
Doesn't it? It's a I'm telling you. It's a really great series.
Very edge of your seat. It's also like I said, very smart and how they do it.
So I really appreciate that. All right. Let's take a break.
Then we're going to get into our interviews with the cast of Class of '09 when we come back.
(15:42):
Thank you for allowing us to pay the bills.
I am I'm excited for our conversation with the cast of Class of '09 on effects on who Lou exclusively on who Lou.
We're going to talk with Kate Mara, Seppie Moaffy and Brian J Smith.
(16:03):
Kate Mara, if you don't know for some reason.
I first watched her in Urban Legends, Beledi Mary, which was a sequel to the Urban Legends film.
You know, I'm a huge horror fan.
And then she was in Brookback Mountain. We are Marshall fantastic four in 2015 as who storm.
(16:28):
You know, AKA invisible woman. The Martian Megan Levy.
That's just on the film side on the television side. Susan Nip Tuck, Jack and Bobby.
She played Shari. Shari, Sherry Rothenberg on 24, which I'm a huge 24 fan.
She was on on Teraj, American horror story, Murder House, you know, season one House of Cards,
(16:52):
which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series.
And she's coming up in Black Mirror.
But we are talking about the series that came out today Class of '09.
So I'm really excited to talk to her and Seppie Moaffy and Brian J Smith,
(17:13):
until you know from Netflix's Sense 8. Oh, and the Stargate universe.
He plays Lieutenant Matt Scott.
In any event, let's get into that interview. Brian J Smith, Seppie Moaffy and Kate Mar.
So the series is awesome. It's very intelligent edge of your seat, really, really well done.
(17:38):
So Kudas, to all of you for that, I'll start with you, Kate, if it's all right.
How are you able to with everything going on? How are you able to like kind of as an actor,
keep the timelines, the, you know, different spaces in the character's life separate
for that particular shoot, if you know what I'm saying.
(18:01):
Well, definitely a team effort, you know, there was there were so many elements that go into each timeline and, you know,
depending on which timeline we're in, it takes a certain amount of prep.
So for the future stuff, specifically, we're in the Harry MacGop chair for a lot longer, even a few hours at times.
(18:27):
And so definitely took advantage of those, that sort of downtime for us, not for Harry MacGop teams,
but really being able to prep for whatever scenes you're doing, because sometimes we would do different timelines in one day,
which is definitely, yeah.
But again, like everyone, the crew was so helpful in that.
(18:51):
And we really relied on each other to, you know, keep each other in the correct world and the correct emotional state as well.
And, and SEPI for you, you know, I feel like that would be really kind of, this is probably the wrong word to say,
but like juicy to play, to be able to get a chance to play a character in, you know, different periods.
(19:14):
Is that how you feel or am I off there?
You know, 100%, it's an education, right? Because you have to, you have to kind of get into the mind, heart, body of your character, and then see what, you know, what traits, what aspects of their lives and who they are, they're being, how that develops based on what they go through in their lives.
(19:40):
So it's something that I can't, I can't begin to, I can imagine 10, 20 years in the future, but I know that anything I would have imagined for myself into, like I was an opera singer in 2009, you know what I mean?
I had no affiliation or relationship to film and television, and now we're talking about the show.
So you just have no idea where your life is going to go and being able to play with that idea and play with somebody's past and what makes them who they are in the present, and then what ultimately, you know, happens in order to have them arrive at a certain place in the future.
(20:16):
It's a fascinating sort of human exploration and contemplation that we don't get the opportunity to do very often in our lives and careers, especially over eight hours on show.
I love that and Brian, for you, you know, you play Lennox, this kind of old money sort of guy, I guess you could say, is it fun for you or, you know, this is similar to my question, this EPI, is it fun and challenging and rewarding for you to kind of see the evolution of a character, which is also, you know, something we don't often get to see, you know, in a series, maybe we get to see a few years over eight, nine seasons.
(20:58):
In real life, this is a bit different. How is that for you?
Yeah, it's great. I remember really early on having a conversation with Tom Rob Smith, our writer and creator and him saying that this is basically a show about time and about the way that, you know, our lives, you know, you can you can find yourself all the sudden looking around and going how the hell did I get here?
(21:25):
And you can always trace those decisions back to this person you were with, there was like in their 20s that made all these very adult decisions, maybe before they had all the information and here you are in midlife, dealing still with the ramifications of of those decisions you made when you were still essentially a child in a way.
(21:48):
That's been a really interesting thing to relate to and telling the story.
And for you, Kate, this is I'm actually going to don't typically do this, but I'd like to ask all three of you the same question and that is, was there something in your life, which you were able to say seemed trivial or whatever at the time, but you now see how to profound affect on your life?
(22:17):
Um, I will say I will say I took some really big risks when I was younger and I was making a lot of decisions about what I wanted to do with my life.
And I got to say like those things are the are the those are the decisions that have had the most impact on my life and they're the decisions that I look back on on my younger self and I'm like really proud that I I had this sort of the guts and the wherewithal at that point of my life to really take a leap of faith and you lose that a little bit into you get older.
(23:02):
So maybe that maybe that trivial decision, but sometimes those bigger decisions you make, you might be spot on when you're that age.
It's hard to remember the trivial stuff because what you know, and I mean for me, and I remember the big decisions, you know, um.
And and like Brian, when I was in my early 20s, well, even when I was an early teen, when I was 14, I was already making huge decisions about what I wanted to do with my career and I was acting when I was 14.
(23:36):
And I do actually feel very lucky that I knew then that I wanted to do that so badly because I still to this day feel the same way.
And that just feels like a real a real blessing, you know, that I that I went for it so hardcore when I was a kid, you know, and still today I'm able to do it, which is feels so lucky.
(23:58):
And I'm sorry, but I just wanted to point out that similar similarly, you know, to what you were saying in what we were talking about before 10 years ago, you were in a totally different place.
So at some point, there was a decision that that you made, whether it seemed small or huge at the time that now we're here talking about the series.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know if trivial would be the way that I characterize the decision, but it was definitely impulsive where I was I started working as an opera singer after graduating and you know, as an artist acting, singing, dancing, but you don't ever stop training the process of like, okay, now I'm done.
(24:38):
It's never done. And so I was still taking voice lessons. I was still, but I was intrigued and I was sort of hypnotized by the freedom of acting without having to worry about singing or delivering a high C or something like that.
And so I went into a straight acting class and and the one thing goes after another and I fell in love with Shakespeare and then shakes my love for Shakespeare outro my you know, I outro my love for offered.
(25:05):
So one thing leads to another and you never know how it's going to play out, but but yes, certainly be smaller decisions. You don't realize that they can have huge consequences or or effects on on your life. And that one decision came to the course of my career and life completely.
I love that. And you know, I hope to get to talk to all of you in 10 years on the projects that you're working on in 10 years and say, hey, never that convo.
(25:33):
Thank you. Thank you all so much for for your time. I can't wait for everybody to see class of oh nine on fx on Hulu. Thanks guys.
Kate Maura, Stephanie Mawafian, Brian Zay Smith, I'm telling you, you know me, you know the things that I like. I really enjoyed this limited series. It is edge of your seat. It's smart.
(26:01):
I'm twisty, turning and like like I said, you know, in the interviews, I would have needed if I was like, you know, an EP or directing this or even acting at it, I need a freaking chart to keep all this stuff on track in my mind.
And any event thank you for joining me for pop culture weekly, follow me on social review. It really, really helps if you review the episode on or review the show on Apple podcasts. It helps us to continue to grow every week.
(26:32):
And that's what we're doing because of you. I love you for that.
And I love you for just hanging out with me every week anyway and you know hit me up on the socials. So there's a very special episode coming out very, very soon.
And it features Jane mother, Fonda, okay, and Candace Bergen and Mary Steenberg. And it's all about book club, book club. The next chapter.
(27:01):
I'm going to New York to the premiere and it's going to be an amazing time. I have sit downs with the ladies and the filmmakers and it is going to be awesome. I can't wait for you to hear it.
All right. I love you. See you next time.
We out.
Thank you for listening to pop culture weekly. You're all the latest at popcultureweekly.com.
(27:23):
[Music]
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