TV GUIDE: Fringe Oral History: Building the World of "Science Fact" - PART ONE
Jan 14, 2013
by Natalie Abrams
A mad scientist, his genius prodigal son and a noble FBI agent compose the surrogate family at the core of Fox's supernatural drama Fringe that, under the direction of sci-fi kingpin J.J. Abrams (Lost), struggled through five low-rated seasons of endlessly fascinating twists and turns that, quite literally, attempted to tell the story of the universe, er, universes. It will all come to an auspicious end Friday at 8/7c, in what devotees hope will be a satisfying ending to the little series that could.
TVGuide.com talked to stars John Noble (Dr. Walter Bishop), Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), Anna Torv (Olivia Dunham), Jasika Nicole (Astrid Farnsworth), Lance Reddick (Phillip Broyles), Blair Brown (Nina Sharp), Mark Valley (John Scott), series co-creator Abrams, executive producers J.H Wyman, Jeff Pinkner and Bryan Burk, Warner Bros. President Peter Roth and Fox's Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly about the bumpy road to the series finale, starting with the conception of the show. This is the first in a four-part series...
... TV Guide: When time came for casting, the producers had little trouble finding the trio that would comprise the eventual family at the center of the show.
Abrams: "We were very lucky to get Josh [Jackson], who was someone I'd known a little bit for years back when we were doing Felicity and they were doing Dawson's Creek. He had a great, wry sense of humor and also a real skill with drama."
Joshua Jackson: "I had gone out for Star Trek. I had gone and auditioned for both Kirk and Bones and maybe that was the thing that put me into their mind. Knowing J.J. peripherally long before that — I am really close friends with a guy named Scott Foley, who was in Felicity — so I just happened to be there right around the beginning of J.J.'s TV career. I'd known him off and on through all those years so I think maybe he already had a pretty good idea of who I was."
Abrams: "Actors go in for all sorts of roles. I didn't need to see him for anything else to remember him and be aware of him and want to work with him. Any kind of Star Trek thing didn't have anything to do with it."
Reilly: Josh was somebody who I've always liked his work. It was like he was at that moment in time where you thought, "Wow, what a great way to reinvent him to the next level on television."
Jackson: "The pilot script introduced almost an endless amount of possibilities for what the show could become, which is what I found so intriguing. Also knowing the pedigree of the people involved, having J.J. involved in the show and Bob [Orci] and Alex [Kurtzman] writing the pilot with him, it gave me the confidence in it. Everybody has high hopes, but they actually have a track record."
Reilly: "We had a hard time [casting Olivia]. We went through a number of actresses, and what was difficult was that J.J., coming off of Lost and having done Felicity, was known for finding ingénues, and he's just got this magic touch for finding that next great star in the making. We saw Anna [Torv]'s audition and it was perfect: She is the one."
Abrams: "Anna had an intensity and a sophistication and a beauty, but still a human being that you'd believe, but she seemed smart and she seemed connected and real. I believe that she would be this agent."
Anna Torv: "I think the pilot really read like a movie. It was so very clear, especially Olivia's story. You started it with this young, fresh-faced, gung-ho FBI agent. By the end, her world has just been absolutely rocked. That's where you meet her in Season 1. I feel like she is still not quite healed because just from there, it was just knock after knock after knock after knock. So, that was just a great character and journey."
John Noble: "The first attraction for me was the character of Walter, and I knew about that before I read the script. I knew from basically the time I got the sides to audition that this was a character I wanted to do. When I read the part, I thought that I was reading a big motion picture, which it was; it was a two-hour special. I knew the reputation of J.J. too. He could just do these magical things. We were set up in freezing Toronto in 3 feet of snow to do this, so I was very excited about it."
Abrams: "John clearly had that wonderful brilliant, heartbreaking, funny mad scientist skill that he made seem effortless. That was awesome."
Reilly: "John Noble is a prince. I just can't even imagine anybody else doing that role now, because we had to get somebody that played brilliant, but potentially crazy, and aloof, but warm..."
Check back for Part 2 of our four-part series, in which the cast and producers discuss the introduction of the parallel universe and Seth Gabel's Lincoln Lee, along with some of the more crazy story lines on the Fox series.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO PROMO FOR THE TWO-HOUR FRINGE SERIES FINALE - AIRING FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013 AT 8/7C ON FOX.
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