Black Sails’ star Zach McGowan talks about his role as Roan in the 100, and see what Eliza Taylor says about Clarke
We know that Zach McGowan‘s character has just captured the elusive Clarke in the mid-season premiere episode of The 100. And we want to know what exactly he plans on doing with her, or should we say which clan he plans on delivering her to, if any.
Roan has just made an impressive entrance into the series, and it looks like he’ll be around for a bit (at least another three episodes, including tonight’s), so Collider got to talk to the actor in-depth about his character on the show and working with the cast.
Collider: So great to see you on The 100! Your character is definitely making an impression this season.
ZACH McGOWAN: It’s a good opportunity. I was excited that Jason [Rothenberg] wanted me to come on and have some fun with the cast. I’m a friend of Bob Morley’s, so it’s really cool.
Had you been familiar with the show, prior to doing this role, or did you have a cram session?
McGOWAN: I had watched a few episodes because Bob is in it and I know Bob. I hadn’t seen all of them, so I did a big cram session that weekend. My storyline comes into it in a different way, so between watching and talking to everyone and the scripts, I was able to get filled in.
How do you view Roan?
McGOWAN: This show spends a lot of time showing these societies, and in any society, there are those who are disenfranchised by it. In some ways, Roan is one of those people. He’s an outsider, in that way.
You had some very physical scenes with Eliza Taylor, dragging her around, chained up and gagged. What was it like to work with her and explore that dynamic?
McGOWAN: It’s funny, I ended up meeting most of the rest of the cast at that Warner Bros. party, and I met Eliza there. Jason was like, “Well, it looks like he’s going to be dragging you around, tied up and gagged, over stones and across streams and rivers, through the woods and to Grandma’s house.” It was great. And getting to meet the rest of the gang was really cool. And then, going up to Vancouver and spending so much time with everyone was fun. Eliza is really great. She’s really cool and fun to work with. We had a lot of fun. There were constant hurdles to get over, and she was all tied up, being dragged. And I couldn’t believe how many different locations we shot in. There was a lot of jumping around, in the beautiful summertime in the mountains.
Without revealing the circumstances or the outcome of it, since it’s in the trailer for the season, I can say that there’s a great fight scene between Roan and Lexa. What was that scene like to shoot?
McGOWAN: When Jason and I were talking, he said, “We do a lot of fight stuff.” And then, I met with the stunt team about it, while we were shooting Episode 3, to talk about Episode 4. I met with Alycia [Debnam-Carey] and she had never done a sword sequence, and I’ve done a lot of that recently. She’d been a dancer, so I told her that she’s totally got it, if she’s been a dancer, because it’s basically just dance, but with a sword in your hand. So, we started working on it. When you do stuff like that for TV, you shoot a lot of stuff and assume it’s going to end up getting cut down to 30 seconds. But that scene is about two and a half minutes long, of straight sword fighting. It’s awesome and a testament to what everyone was able to put into it. If I remember correctly, I think we shot it in half a day. We had to finish by a specific time, so it was about a half a day of shooting. But, we’d had a few days to rehearse it. It was really fun. It was very Gladiator. There were a lot of extras around watching us. Sometimes we looked pretty bad-ass, and sometimes we looked silly when we messed up. It’s always fun days when you get to do that kind of stuff.
Southern California native who likes movies, books (Shadowhunter Chronicles, NA, YA fantasy, Red Rising series), TV shows (The Sandman), and San Diego Comic-Con. I also like to write, but don't get to do much of that aside from on here. I fell into the BTS rabbit hole, and I refuse to leave.
