Tag Archives: Neil Grayston

Fargo is, after all, the boss of us …

This post contains spoilers. You have been warned.

If I've pushed the Big Red Button correctly, this should post automatically right after my episode of Eureka, All the Rage, has concluded in the Eastern time zone.

I'm at Comic-Con right now, and I've just seen this episode in its entirety for the first time. Since I'm actually writing this yesterday, I can't comment on how I felt watching it, or on the final cut of the episode itself, but I can tell you that during production, it was a bit of a challenge to play a guy who hates Fargo as much as Doctor Parrish does, since I personally like Neil Grayston so much.

Here's an amusing story about how much everyone in the NolWep Lab feels about Fargo:

When Fargo demands a demonstration of the energy field thing, Zane and Doctor Parrish share this knowing look that may or may not have made it into the final cut of the episode. Niall Matter and I decided that we both knew the field wouldn't stop that bean bag, because it wasn't ready, and we really didn't care if Fargo got shot with it. We thought it was a cool way for us to play a character moment together that establishes our relationship, and drive home to the audience just how much we hate Fargo (and illustrate how different Fargo is in this universe.) The thing is, we didn't have time to make sure this choice was okay with everyone, because we were working very fast that morning.

We played several takes like that, and when they came in for coverage on us, the director told us that we should react to the bean bag almost hitting him, like it was a pretty bad thing that could have had really bad consequences. Fargo is, after all, the boss of us.

Niall and I looked at each other like we'd been caught playing ball in the house.

"We've, uh, actually been playing it like we knew it would happen, and we enjoyed how much it scared him," I said.

Niall quickly added, "but we could decide that we didn't expect him to get shot in the face, like we just thought it would hit him in the chest, so we can still play both beats."

The director told us that he thought that was a good idea, and we finished the scene like that. When he walked away, Niall and I looked at each other.

"I thought I was fired for sure," I said.

"I was glad they can't fire me," he said.

"Still, we established an awful lot with just one look," I said.

"Yeah, that was cool."

We didn't have that many scenes together, but we spent a lot of time hanging out on the set when we weren't filming, and got along brilliantly. In fact, I got along brilliantly with everyone in the cast, and I can confirm that everything you've heard about them being awesome people is entirely true.