First, how was it directing your first episode of TV?
It was awesome. We contemplated me directing in Season 3, but the timing of it just didn’t work. I actually decided myself not to do it because I felt like it wasn’t going to be the best thing for the show. But, Season 4 came along and it became a moment of, “Well, I think I should do it or I may not have the chance.” So, it was amazing.
I, of course, picked the hardest episode. I had a choice between Episodes 2 and 3, and I was like, “Well, of course, I’m gonna do 3, obviously.” It was incredible and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, for sure, but also the most fulfilling. I had an incredible partner in Stuart Biddlecombe, who was my DP, and Elisabeth Williams, our production designer. Then, this incredible script written by Bruce [Miller] and then these actors. It was very much a collaboration, and it was so fun.
BuzzFeed: Episode 3 is a massive episode, not only for your character, but for the show overall.
Right? I had all these huge sequences. I was telling Erica, my publicist, I was like, “Can you imagine, I walk onto the studio set where we shot the roof scene, and there’s a 360 blue screen, and we’re doing rain, indoors.” It was this massive stage inside our studio that we built, and it was my first time directing. I had one of those moments where I walked in in the morning and was just like, “Alright, here we go.” Then, I had the train at the end. It was all of these gigantic set pieces that I had to do. So, it was incredibly challenging, but it was really, really fun.
Did you know going into Season 4 that you’d be directing three episodes?
No, I didn’t know I was going to be directing three episodes. For Episodes 8 and 9, it was kind of one of those things where everybody really liked Episode 3 and responded really well to it — the studio, the network, and everything — and we needed a director for Episodes 8 and 9, and I had read the scripts and I felt that I could do a good job with them. They were very, very different from Episode 3. Very different. I wanted that challenge, so I kind of put myself up for the job. I just said, [laughing] “Hey, I’m available.”
BuzzFeed: “I’ll already be on set. I’m here.”
[laughing] Yes, like, “I’m in Toronto to do, you know, this show.” And they embraced it, which was really great.
