TV GUIDE: Fringe Oral History: The Road to the Series Finale
Jan 17, 2013
by Natalie Abrams
In the final part of our farewell to Fringe, producers and cast discuss the episode that took Fox's sci-fi series in an entirely new direction: into the future. The series has always been known for its offbeat 19th episode, but its final one took the viewers on an adventure to Observer-occupied 2036, in which Peter, Astrid and Walter were freed from amber by Peter and Olivia's grown-up daughter Etta. In the race to the series finale, what's left of the team will attempt to reset time in hopes of ridding the world of Observers...
Read Fringe Oral History Part 1: Building the world of "science fact" - Part One
Read Fringe Oral History: Dual Universes Open Up a New World Of Possibility- Part Two
Read Fringe Oral History: How the Series Changed Forever with One Sacrificial Act- Part Three
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), Seth Gabel (Lincoln Lee), series co-creator J.J. Abrams, executive producers J.H Wyman and Bryan Burk, Warner Bros. President Peter Roth and Fox's Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly about the bumpy road to the series finale. This is the final installment in a four-part oral history...
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO PROMO FOR THE TWO-HOUR FRINGE SERIES FINALE - AIRING FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013 AT 8/7C ON FOX.
... TV Guide: he family-like bond between the cast helped to create a lot of fond memories over the years.
Nicole: "Most of my fondest memories involve laughing with my castmates on set, whether it's because John Noble is being hilariously inappropriate or because I am trying to make Lance break character in a scene."
Reddick: "The moment that stands out for me was a prank. I think it was the first discovery of the typewriter, where they send the messages back and forth to the other universe. Walter's always pulling out food. There's this scene where we discover this backroom of the store. In the scene, Walter pulls out a cookie and starts eating it while he's examining this device. In between takes, Josh said we should all pull out cookies during the next take and start eating them. As Walter is bending over, me and Josh and Anna, we all pulled out cookies and bent over the typewriter and looked intently as we started chewing on our cookies and John Noble lost it. None of the crew knew we were going to do it either. We just laughed and laughed and laughed. It was just one of those moments that for me epitomizes the relationship that we all shared over these five years."
Jackson: "Never ad-lib eating Red Vines. You may be stuck with it for five years."
Nicole: "One memory I have that takes the cake is when I was doing one of my scenes with my doppelgänger. My stand-in, whose name is Nicole, we were filming the scene where I was playing alt-Astrid and explaining to Astrid how my father passed away and was now buried in the ground. In the middle of alt-Astrid's speech as she is crying, tears started streaming down Nicole's face too. It was an incredibly sincere and special moment that we shared, and the success of those emotional Astrid scenes are owed in part to Nicole being so present and listening and responding honestly to the moments. It was such a sweet experience, but we never talked about it with each other. It was just this special bubble we existed in for a short while we mirrored each other."
Noble: "I'll never forget the episode when Astrid and alt-Astrid played some scenes together. It was so beautiful to be in the room with Jasika when that happened and the feeling of support that every company member gave her. It was so touching. Those are the special moments I'll never forget."
Nicole: "Walter never gets her name right. He knows what her name is. He just does it to mess with her."
Gabel: "I really enjoyed the episode where Peter and Lincoln cross universes together and infiltrate the DOD on the other side. We have a bit of a bromance where we're causing trouble and having a lot of fun. I felt like it was a really fun episode to do."
Nicole: "A drinking game was drink every time Astrid's on screen but doesn't say something, and you would be trashed by the end of the episode."
Noble: "I was particularly proud of where Walter crossed over to the other side to steal the other Peter. It was a critical episode. I mean, it was a wonderful episode to act in. I had to go into flashbacks for that, so I had to play back in 1980. So I got to play Walter as he was before he lost his mind, when he was still married and of course, Orla Brady was brilliant as the wife. Also, it explained to the audience exactly what this whole issue was about, the fact that this man, in his grief and his hubris, shattered the laws of the universe. The whole thing about Fringe is we've been paying back ever since because of that. That's the whole story! That episode was probably the most fun as an actor."
Jackson: "For whatever reason we had never taken a crew photo, so on the second-to-last night I asked [set photographer] Liane Hentscher if she would take one. Wyman gave his blessing and at the end of the very last night, just before the very last shot, after nearly 20 hours at work and having the sun come up, our now tired/ragged/ecstatic crew took their first and last photo together. The rest is all just a blur..."
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