Mira Sorvino Talks Falling Skies and Intruders [Exclusive] 

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Mira Sorvino is one of those great talents you recognize your favorite movies. Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion? Mighty Aphrodite? The lady played Marilyn and Norma Jean, for starlet’s sake. So take that great talent and mix in your favorite summer shows and BOOM, that’s some great TV. Mira Sorvino joined TNT’s post-apocalyptic alien Falling Skies as gutsy Sara and is having a helluva time challenging Pope and the militia. Her stint on Falling Skies is a precursor to her debut on BBC America’s new eerie series Intruders. Premiering on August 23rd at 10pm, Intruders is a conspiracy thriller from executive producer Glen Morgan of X-Files. Mira’s character Amy Whelan is right in the middle of the thriller and joined by John Simm (Doctor Who), who plays her ex-cop husband. As the mystery unfolds, we learn of a secret society who chase immortality by seeking refuge in the bodies of others. But where does it go from there? It’s gonna be a creepy ride to find out the truth.

Mira gave us an exclusive chat about what it was like working on Falling Skies, her love for Intruders and a few more details about to expect from BBC America’s newest paranormal thrillers.

TV GOODNESS: Were you familiar with Falling Skies before joining in their 4^th season?

Mira Sorvino: “I was not. But I was very excited once I actually started learning about the plot lines and watching the show in preparation for creating my character. I think it’s a really cool show.”

TV GOODNESS: Let’s talk about your character Sara. She is a former graphic designer who was really unhappy with her life before the apocalypse. What is she like?

Mira: “I love the character of Sara. She’s very off the cuff. Kind of a wild card. You just don’t know what she’s going to do next. I think ultimately beneath it all she’s a good egg but she definitely has some surprises up her sleeve. Very gusty and fun and funny and sexy. She’s really a fun character. Quite different from other characters on the show in that she has this sense of humor to her. She got this different color than a lot of the other colors that different characters play on the show.”

TV GOODNESS: Is the apocalypse the best thing that ever happened to her? Does she really mean it when she says that?

Mira: “It’s one of those things she says to Pope as she is drugging him and trying to steal his truck, so you’re never really 100% sure what she’s up to. I think for her she was a square peg in a round hole before. She didn’t really find her place in modern life. You got the feeling she was on some sort of medication. Maybe she was manic-depressive or bi-polar or something, mildly so, in her previous incarnation as a normal person. I think she likes the wildness and free spiritedness of not having anybody telling her what to do. Although I do think she’s lonely and I think she’s happy to ultimately to join forces with the other folk.”

TV GOODNESS: She can hold her against Pope. She’s ballsy.

Mira: “It’s a very fun relationship to watch unfold between the two of them because they are quite alike in certain ways.”

TV GOODNESS: What’s Colin Cunningham, who plays Pope, like?

Mira: “He’s a great guy, such a nice guy, such a funny guy. An excellent magician, by the way. A lovely person.”

TV GOODNESS: What does Sara really react to in Pope?

Mira: “I think she sees a kindred spirit. Another rebel soul, surviving in the new age.”

TV GOODNESS: How did this role come to you?

Mira: “An offer. I decided to work with Mr. Spielberg in some capacity. I just had a blast doing it. I really loved it.”

TV GOODNESS: Working on Falling Skies, did it make you want to seek out a permanent TV gig? Did it entice you for Intruders?

Mira: “In a way. I had been trying to find the right material for a while to be my series regular debut and Intruders was just fantastic. Intruders is just an amazing confluence of talent and material. Glen Morgan is just a pretty genius showrunner-writer. He’s just incredible. The book that it’s based on is amazing and scary and this tremendous concept, this concept of immortality and people who can control immortality.

My costar is John Simm. I think America is going to discover its newest male star in John Simm. He’s long been a big hit in England and some Americans know him from Doctor Who but he’s going to break out to a much wider audience with this one because he’s really excellent in the role, as a kind of everyman who is unfolding the secrets as the audience does through him. He’s just an ordinary person caught in extraordinary circumstances, paranormal circumstances. My role, although minimal in the first couple of episodes because I disappear and everyone is looking for me, is really a fine, fine acting role. It has so much range and so much depth. There are things I get called on to do later in the season which are just an actor’s dream. I’ve just been so really, really lucky and fortunate to be able to have this as an opportunity, acting-wise.”

TV GOODNESS: You were quoted saying Intruders has been one of the greatest artistic challenges of your career. What can we expect to see from your character?

Mira: “Unfortunately a lot of spoilers involving the show directly involve my character so I can’t technically talk about what some of them are. [Laughs.] But it’s really unbelievably well written and well-directed scenes that I’m in with John and James Frain. Just really great stuff and great twists and turns. I get to play a real range of human behavior and experience. From weak and broken down and tragically desperate to very strong, very empowered, kind of beyond morality in a way. Kind of Machiavellian but also passionate and driven by her heart. Very complex role.”

TV GOODNESS: What can you tell us about Amy Whelan and her story?

Mira: “When we first meet her, she’s obviously going through something. We see her keeping to herself obviously struggling with something internally that she can’t quite communicate to her husband. Her mid is taken away at times, by music or just thoughts. She’s definitely wrestling with something bigger than her and she’s very sad. You just wonder what the heck is going on with her. Then she disappears and her husband, the ex-cop, sets off to her look for her. But things are not what they seem and it’s not like an ordinary domestic disappearance. Things are quite different from that as they unfold. And everyone is connected, but not right away.

The point is that you should be intrigued by the mystery and every episode you learn more and more. It’s like a Hitchcock movie. He’s not going to give you all the answers, he’s just going to set up the mystery and the chills and the abnormality of everything. As you go along, you’re going to be rewarded and get more deeply entangled in the characters’ lives.”

TV GOODNESS: It looks incredibly spooky. What is the genre? Is this a horror? 

Mira: “I would say it’s a paranormal thriller shot in a horror style with the camera work and the music and the feeling to it. It has horror elements to it but it’s not horror. I think horror, while vastly popular, is not for everybody and I think this story actually is for everybody. It’s not going to be about who gets killed off in the next episode. It’s about getting to the bottom of this mystery and this secret society.

The story is also about love and what you do for someone you love, how far you would go, would you kill for them, would you die for them. What would you risk? It’s all very relatable on a human level. It’s really a love story within a thriller within a conspiracy theory plot. Much more than a horror.”

TV GOODNESS: Any return to film soon?

Mira: “I did a film last summer in San Francisco called Quitters. I know it’s being submitted to festivals as we speak. I don’t know yet where it’s going to land but that’s a pretty cool black comedy. I play an addicted mom of a teenage son who is really off. [Laughs.]”

Watch Falling Skies Sundays at 10pm on TNT. Intruders premieres August 23^rd on BBC America.

VIDEO

Falling Skies “Door Number Three” Preview:

Intruders Preview: