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By Suzanne

Interview with Meaghan Rath and Amy Aquino of "Being Human" on Syfy 3/28/13

NBC UNIVERSAL
Moderator: Stephen Cox
March 28, 2013
12:56 am CT

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome to the NBC Universal Being Human Conference Call.

Stephen Cox: Hi everyone, thank you for joining us today. We are very excited to have the lovely Meaghan Rath and Amy Aquino with us today to discuss Being Human.

The final two episodes of Being Human air over the next two Mondays, April 1 and April 9 at 9:00 p.m. ET only on Syfy. We're going to be talking about next week's episode a little more in depth.

You should be receiving the last two episodes of the season today or tomorrow. And so hopefully you will not spoil everything for your readers, but tease away towards the finale on April 9. So without further ado we'll hand it over to your questions.

Operator: And our first question comes from the line Erin Willard from Sci-Fi Mafia, please proceed.

Erin Willard: What can you tell us about what we have to look forward to in the final episodes?

Meaghan Rath: Well I mean I think it's pretty obvious to everybody that things are coming to a head right now, especially for Sally. She's made this decision that she's going to let herself die and decompose.

And next week's episode -- I don't know if you've seen it -- but that does happen. And she's forced to go through Donna's door and face her. So there's a big showdown. And more people are involved than you think.

Erin Willard: Okay.

Meaghan Rath: A lot of people are involved.

Amy Aquino: And it was a lot of fun for me as Donna to be able to involved with so many really cool people. I'll put it that way.

Erin Willard: Yes, and Amy you haven't done much in channel work before have you? I don’t remember seeing you in any other shows. You do explicitly well playing creepy by the way.

Amy Aquino: Thank you. That's such a compliment. I've spent most of my career, you know, playing judges who tell people to go to hell. And now I actually get to send them there. It's such - so much fun. It really is.

Meaghan Rath: No, we love Amy. We just love the whole witch element on the show. And Amy does such a great job. So it's such a pleasure to have her.

Amy Aquino: Oh, thanks. It's truly been a delight working on - you know, I was not entirely sure. It was like - because I don't - it's not a genre - you know, I'm not a genre person just in terms of my own consumption and nor in my career.

So I wasn't quite sure what to expect and what I found were just tremendous great professional sweet really talented people who really give a crap and you know, just give it 100%.

So it's been truly - it's been professionally rewarding and it's also been so much fun. These guys are so funny and so sweet. It's really been delightful.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Michelle Alexandria with Eclipse Magazine. Please proceed with your question.

Michelle Alexandria: What would you say are the main themes for the season so far?

Meaghan Rath: Well the theme for the season is, ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ So, you know, for the last two years we've seen these characters strive so hard to just retain a sense of the life that they've lost. And they wanted so bad just to fit in and this season they've gotten what they wanted. And I think we're kind of realizing that we're in for more than we bargained for.

I think that to have the life that we really want comes at a big price. And it's kind of tragic, because I don't know that these people will ever be happy in the way that they once were when they were human. And that's really what drives them. But I don't know that it's possible for them.

Michelle Alexandria: And then - and this question is for both of you. What has been the weirdest scene that you got to do this season?

Amy Aquino: The weirdest thing to do?

Meaghan Rath: You go for that Amy.

Amy Aquino: Oh my God. Where do I begin? Kind of like eating sawdust off the floor was very interesting for me. It wasn't exactly sawdust but it may as well as been. And by the way - and you're going to see it in this upcoming episode. Being transformed physically was actually the really weirdest thing for me and really exciting and fun.

Meaghan Rath: Yes...

Amy Aquino: And I've never been able to. Have you seen the episode's that's coming up?

Michelle Alexandria: I'm hoping it's in my mailbox today.

Amy Aquino: It should be in your mailbox so you'll see it soon. And there's a - it's pretty extreme transformation and I was really psyched about it, you know, being able to do this prosthetics and we had these brilliant makeup artists. And had a very cool time sitting in the, you know, basement on those locations out you know - an hour outside of Montreal in the dead of night and I'm talking about you know 3 a.m. surrounded by these like three hot women. And this very cool guy with music blaring, you know, turning me into a 200 year old woman. It was very cool -- very cool. Got it on my phone.

Meaghan Rath: And I think for me - I mean if we're going to talk about the stuff that I've eaten this season. I've eaten everything. I've eaten like... I've eaten 11 waffles and I threw up. I've eaten a mouse. The mouse scratched my face and shat all over me. I've eaten Sam Witwer. I'm mean it's really just adding up at this point.

Michelle Alexandria: Okay, and then what are you most looking forward to doing in the off season, when it comes to both personally or convention wise or any of that other kind of stuff? What are you most looking forward to this summer?

Meaghan Rath: For the summer - I mean I'm excited to be just to be working on other things as well. I'm executive producer of this beautiful indie film that stars myself and Sam Huntington, and hopefully we'll do the round of festivals with it. I'm just really excited about it. So right now we're in the post-production phase. We're having test screenings, so that's really what I'm excited about right now.

Amy Aquino: Wow, I wish I had something that exciting to report. I'm going to do some traveling. I'm shooting a couple of episodes of Glee, actually.

Meaghan Rath: What? No way.

Amy Aquino: Yes way. So way.

Meaghan Rath: So cool. Are you signing?

Amy Aquino: No, I'm not singing. And I only tell one person to go to hell so far. But it was really fun. I was actually a big fan of the show, so it very fun to sit and be able to watch these guys do their work.

Meaghan Rath: That's so cool. Well you were live maybe.

Amy Aquino: Yes.

Meaghan Rath: All your years working, they finally paid off. You're now on Glee.

Amy Aquino: Exactly, my one scene on Glee. Yes that's why I went to the Yale School of Drama.

Meaghan Rath: It's really - let's be honest it's your claim to fame.

Amy Aquino: It is. It will be. It will be my epithet in fact. I'm making changes to my will. And she was on Glee. In black, yes. Just under Being Human. I'm thinking about it, but I've been checking into headstones to see how much space there is on there and what - how much of my resume I can include.

Meaghan Rath: Just the good stuff.

Amy Aquino: I know, and then I'm also, you know, hey maybe I'll get invited to a convention, you know; it's possible. Right? It's not out of the realm of possibility.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Tim Holquinn with Press Pass LA. Please proceed.

Tim Holquinn: For Meaghan, you just mentioned it, but my question was actually going to be about your upcoming film, the White Buffalo.

Meaghan Rath: Yes.

Tim Holquinn: And I noticed it was directed by another one of your Being Human costars. And I was just wondering what you might be able to tell us about that -- a little more detail. And do you and Sam play the married couple that's central to the same story.

Meaghan Rath: Yes, we do play a married couple. Which was really strange for us at first, because it's so not our relationship. Sam and I are very much brother and sister. We're really close. So it was strange to play this relationship. And at the beginning of the movie there's a three-minute sex scene with us that has no cuts in it. So you can imagine how disgusting that was for me.

Well I will say it just was - it's turning out to be such a beautiful and the script is so fresh and original. You know, almost it's a dramatic comedy but it's almost the anti-date movie because it's very true to life in a sense that we don't really necessarily end it in a happy way.

And it's effective, because what we're finding with the test screenings is that people have a really strong reaction to it, which is exactly the intention. But working with Pat Kiely who is the director was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. Because he really pushed us and you know it's very ambitious in the way that it's shot.

We're doing, you know, seven page scenes in one take with no cuts. And, you know, when you're doing that where he wants, you know, 20 - 22 takes of it and you want to kill him in the moment, but I'm just so proud of the way it turned out and so I'm really excited about it.

Tim Holquinn: Thanks very much.

Amy Aquino: Wow.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Diane Morasco with Morasco Media. Please go ahead.

Diane Morasco: I want to know what were you most ambivalent about filming these final scenes? Meaghan you first.

Meaghan Rath: What was I most ambivalent about?

Diane Morasco: Yes, filming the final scenes with the decomposition and what Sally's going through.

Meaghan Rath: You mean the final scenes of the series?

Diane Morasco: Yes.

Meaghan Rath: Or the season we're having? Yes, I - it was - well without revealing too much, I don't how much detail I can go into without ruining it. But I don't know. It's very scary. It was really physically demanding for all people involved. Help me out. I don't want to ruin it.

Amy Aquino: Definitely. It was definitely. We were ambivalent about getting hurt. Let's see. What were we ambivalent about? I'm always ambivalent about the idea of, you know, possibly being destroyed as a character.

But - because I was really - I'm very ambivalent about not being able to work anymore. But like on this - it's like one of the very few shows where it's you know being killed has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not you're going to come back.

Meaghan Rath: Yes.

Amy Aquino: So that made me feel like a little more - that made me calmer than I might have been on other shows. Not that I'm killed or anything, but there's certainly this big standoff between me and Sally and various of her compatriots. And it doesn't, you know, necessarily turn out all that well for me. So a little ambivalence about that, you know, and I - but who knows if dead is dead on this show. Damn.

Diane Morasco: I don't think so. I think that's what's so beautiful is that you always can be resurrected.

Amy Aquino: Yes.

Diane Morasco: My second question is if you were to title Sally's autobiography what would be and Amy if you were to title Donna's what would it be?

Meaghan Rath: That's good.

Amy Aquino: I know mine -- "I'd Like to Have You Over for Dinner".

Meaghan Rath: That's really great. Mine would probably be called - probably something like "Living Dead Girl” or something… just “Living in a Material World” or like "Sally Malik: The Truth Behind Ghost Boners.

Operator: And our next question is a question from the line of Leslie Walker with SciFi 4 Me. Please go ahead.

Leslie Walker: It's so nice to hear your voices. So Meaghan this question is for you. At the beginning of the season Sam Witwer met with us all and talked about the filming of his favorite scene. And reflecting on hat discussion I'm pretty sure he was talking about his conversation with you in the kitchen where you share your theory with him that his problem is that he's backed up.

Meaghan Rath: Yes.

Leslie Walker: In the call, he said that was his favorite scene, and you guys talk about it a little bit in the video short on Syfy.com, that a lot of that scene apparently was ad-libbed.

And so I was wondering if you could provide your perspective on that scene as well. And, you know, maybe talk about how much throughout the course of the season you got to do that and how you think it impacted the time you had on the set.

Meaghan Rath: Well to be honest, not much of that scene was ad-libbed. And I don't want to take any credit away from our writers, because it was so wonderfully written.

What was improvised was the intention behind that scene. I definitely don't think that the writers meant for that to be a scene about sexual harassment in the way of Sally towards Aiden. It just sort of turned into that. It was just that kind of morning.

And I think I started doing it as a joke in one of the rehearsals. And I just kind of went to a really interesting place and that's what's so amazing about the man who directed that episode is that he saw us doing this like really weird stuff and was like yes go with it.

You know, he really embraces creativity and he loves when things go strange. So that's what happened with it. And we did end up adlibbing some of the lines towards the end of the scene, but the real chunk of it was written. And just kind of turned out, you know, kind of in a way that Sam and I are in real life.

I mean we must - what I love most about it is that they kept it and it wasn't explained never. And you see in the following couple of episodes we sort of do that little more. And by that I mean Sally sexual harasses Aiden a little bit, verbally.

But I love that we never talk about it, because that's what it is in real life. You have, you know you live with somebody and you develop this relationship with them and a sort of short hand and no one ever talks about it. So that's what I like about the show -- real, as real as it can get.

Leslie Walker: That was a great scene. Another scene that I also wanted to ask you about was I think your characters really come into here own a lot over the course this season and part of that character development I think has been you getting to have so much fun with the non-sweater yoga pant.

You're beginning to express yourself in some other ways of other fashion choices, jackets with shorts and boots and the like. I've always enjoyed is like what shoe is Sally going to where this week.

So maybe if you could just talk maybe a moment about what that process was like for you when you're able to compare season one and two in terms of the fashion plate - the limited fashion plate you had there as compared to what this season was like.

Meaghan Rath: Yes, I mean everyone knows that by no means is our show a fashion show. It's not Gossip Girl or anything like that. But, you know, I think after two years of seeing me in the same thing I wasn't the only one who was sick of that outfit -- all the fans were. You know, and they were waiting for me to wear something else.

I mean that was the most popular question I got was, are you tired of wearing the same outfit. And I was like yes, I was. So I was really excited when I was given this freedom to really create who this person is through her fashion sense. Because now we're really getting a sense of what Sally was like when she was alive and how she dressed herself and how she expressed herself.

And fashion for me is a huge part of my life, because I feel like I can express myself that way. So I was really - I felt grateful when they gave me the opportunity to sort of create her look with our costume designer Janet Campbell.

And together we sort of decided on what kind of stuff she would buy and it was a mix of you know some of the guys clothes and thrift shop finds and you know, Janet went out and found some really amazing stuff for me and basically gave me the freedom to style it the way I wanted to and you know express myself in that way. So I was really - I felt really lucky to be a part of that process.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Christiane Elin with SciFi Vision. Please go ahead.

Christiane Elin: This season like we've seen a lot of past and present clash. I wanted to know for the last few episodes are we going to see some new things popping up to possibly carry us into the next season? Or are we just going to wrapping up the current business with Amy's character?

Meaghan Rath: Oh, come on. You actually think we would end the season without a cliffhanger.

Christiane Elin: I hope not.

Amy Aquino: Hard to imagine.

Christiane Elin: Well when we get to see a lot of the past of the characters and it would be interesting to find out if we could see any of Amy's character's past.

Amy Aquino: Well you will kind of in this upcoming episode. You get to see sort of my - you get a little inkling about my past. You're going to find out more about my past. And you're going to see an indication of it a little bit. But yes it's actually kind of funny. It's the fun and funny about...

Meaghan Rath: I would love a Donna origin story.

Amy Aquino: Well we give you a little bit of my resume which is kind of great. It goes back to some really iconic witches. I come from some really good witch stock, well-educated, et cetera. It's kind of fun.

So yes, you don't get to see it so much, but you will - you're definitely going to hear about it in the episode that's coming up. So we - it's part about what we love about this year. That you get the - you know, you get the full picture of these guys. So you do get a little backstory.

Christiane Elin: Great. I want to know also like if we're going to get more human touches. Right now it's been lost of different aspects of like paranormal-ish scary side of things. Are we going to get some normalcy coming back?

Meaghan Rath: Yes, as we're getting to the end of the season this show is a supernatural show. So it's - all our fixed plot points are coming to a head. But, you know, I'm just going to - I think we see this in the preview. But next week is Josh and Nora's wedding. So that's really for Josh the closest to normal it's going to get for him and that's the reason he wanted to marry Nora in the first place. So it's a really beautiful symbol that we do get into next week.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Tim Holquinn with Press Pass LA. Please proceed.

Tim Holquinn: Oh great. I have two questions for Amy actually. You could answer in either order. One is I was wondering if you could maybe tell us something about your upcoming movie Insecurity which has a stellar cast. But in regards to Being Human, I was wondering if you did any research to prepare for this role and what that might have been. It's the first time that you played a witch right?

Amy Aquino: I know it is. You know, in terms of Insecurity it's got what I know is it's an adorable script. It's very kind of - it's very real, very funny, very sweet. The co-directors, they're brothers, and I think they are destined to be, you know, the next incarnation of the Cohen Brothers or the Weisses. They're just terrific, smart, lovely guys and a great sensibility.

And the movie is really a labor of love. The people involved. I got involved with it because Adam Markin is a good friend and he's in it and his daughter is one of the producers and just an extraordinary group of people involved for that reason.

And I'm very excited about it even though I've got just a small part but I was really happy to be a part of it. And in terms of my research I did some. I did some work on the Latin. I went to a Latin scholar who's a freshman at Columbia who did all my translating and helped me with that.

But I didn't - I'm not going to say that I kind of did a whole lot of research on witches. I felt like it's, and as much as they are not real, that I could have some real - there was some leeway in how I portrayed her. I also felt like because this show is Being Human, that the more grounded and the more just absolutely matter of fact and humanoid she could be the better off we were. So that things that she did that were witch-like were coming out of a place of being of what a human would do.

I thought it was very important to not make here to kind of, you know, out there supernaturally. It's like, well what would I do as a person who was hungry. You know, approached everything I needed to do as a human being would do. I'm just doing different activities involving like hearts and saw dust and things like that.

Operator: And the next question comes from the line of (Emma Lee Pinto) with Sci-Fi Everywhere. Please proceed with your question.

(Emma Lee Pinto): Hi guys it sounds like you have, you know, - just over the phone you guys have great kind of chemistry together. How did you like working together on the show?

Amy Aquino: Just hated it.

Meaghan Rath: It was the worst. What's funny is that, you know, Sally and Donna's story is intertwined and it has been the entire season. But Amy and I didn't really get a chance to work together until the end of the season just because when I was brought back from the dead that was Josh and Nora who were really dealing with Donna and she sort of became this I mean it was a - she was definitely a presence in Sally's story but without ever really having that many scenes together.

So it was only at the end of the season that we got to come together. But I had a great time. And, you know, we might not have seen the last of Donna, which I'm really excited about, because I'd love to work with Amy some more.

Amy Aquino: You know; it’s mutual. I've done a lot of guest starring on shows. That's how I make my living. And you just never know how, especially when it's a tight cast that's been together for a long time, you don't know how you're going to be accepted. And I could not have been more warmly received by everybody. And, you know, and obviously including Meaghan we have just had a great time. We have a very similar sense of humor. We approached it very much the same way, and we had to get very close in certain ways.

But she's right; I mean, it's kind of fun going back and watching some of the episodes and I finally see and her and I'm like whoa you cleaned up good, because it's the first time we had a conversation even though I've been kind of manhandling her body for a while.

We will see if we get to develop that further, because Donna's a lonely girl. It's hard. She does not have this whole kind of Wiccan thing. She doesn't have any coven. She's like all on her own in a soup kitchen.

So I'm sure she would like to have company - and she sees I think in Sally this fire and this spark and intelligence and courage that she admires and probably wants to kind of keep her around -- stay close to her. So we'll see. I don't know. Anything can happen in this damn show.

Meaghan Rath: We will see.

(Emma Lee Pinto): Thank you guys.

Amy Aquino: You got it.

Stephen Cox: Okay, thank you everyone for joining us today. Thank you Amy and thank you Meaghan and please make sure to watch Being Human next Monday and the Monday after April 1 and 9 for the final two episodes of the season. Everyone have a great day.

Amy Aquino: You got it.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude your conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

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