Patrick Somerville breaks down differences between the HBO Max show and the novel for EW.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the finale ofStation Eleven.
Patrick Somerville andEmily St. John Mandelhave a connection that feels straight out ofStation Eleven.
Parrish Lewis/HBO Max
That book, of course, wasStation Eleven.
“She cracked the code and made a piece of literary fiction with wide appeal.”
“This was right whenManiacwas ending and I had just enough juice to make the pitch.”
Danielle Deadwyler in ‘Station Eleven’.Ian Watson/HBO Max
It didn’t require Kirsten to have an arc.
I bet you she does.
Was it just to make it more familiar to American audiences?
Ian Watson/HBO Max
That was the one thing that, before we started, I called Emily to seek out her blessing.
She totally got it.
Like Lakepoint Tower, and Thompson Center, and the way the El operates.
I wanted to be able to do that, and Chicago is what I know.
I do think the whole show is a love letter to the Great Lakes.
There were 125 in all of Ontario.
We shot at the building itself, they let us shoot down in the lobby and use the elevator.
It’s sort of a Rorschach test.
But for me, Kirsten is the character that I feel most connected to.
I also just have to choose someone in the Traveling Symphony because I feel like a member in spirit.
It was really important that what she did mattered.
It mattered that Jim [Timothy Simons] came back and helped her find the phone number.
And it mattered that she actually connected to Hugo, and that he listened to what she said.
She could finally say what happened to her.
I see it as a Jeevan and Kirsten situation.
There’s some doubts, even, about what Tyler knows.
But these are unexplored territories for me as well.
This is a show with so many ellipses.
I think what matters is the idea that we’re all probably closer to each other than we know.
Even if Tyler doesn’t know it consciously, the backstory explains what their pull to each other is… What do you believe is the future or fate of civilization at the end of the series?
I think in the show, what interests me is what the characters believe is going to happen.
And if civilization is slowly coming back, do they want it back?
Clark is holding down the fort just waiting for the grid to come back on, basically.
Tyler’s like, ‘f— no, I don’t want it back.’
You’ve made me think about our collective COVID experience.
When it’s gone, we don’t get to go back to what life was before.
There’s been an opportunity for deep change that is rare for adults.
I hope we capitalize on it.
Danielle is a revelation.
I don’t know if it will happen, but I hope so.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
