What happens when loved ones who have passed suddenly start to return? New drama series Resurrection reveals how a small town deals with this extraordinary circumstance.
"Essentially, 'Ressurrection' is really at heart a family drama. It's dealing with this high concept "what if?" but it's really about, what do ordinary people do under extraordinary circumstances?" shares series star Omar Epps. Epps plays the role of Agent Bellamy, who gets involved with the lives of the folks in Arcadia, Missouri, when he returns home Jacob, an American boy who appeared in China without a clue how he got there.
Omar Epps, known for his role in hit medical drama 'House,' recently toured Asia to promote the television series with co-star Kurtwood Smith, popular for his portrayal of Red Foreman in 'That 70's Show.' In Resurrection, Smith portrays Henry Langston, whose eight year old son Jacob died over thirty years ago. He and his wife Lucille's lives change when Jacob suddenly appears, unchanged after all the years.
This is not the first time the two actors are together onscreen, as they have both worked on 'House.' "We didn't have a bunch of stuff though, we were in group scenes," Epps says. "Omar is also a buddy of Danny Masterson, who was a regular on 'That 70's Show,'" Smith adds.
Epps and Smith recently met with the press for a Q&A and exclusive interviews to talk about the series, their roles, and their thoughts on resurrection.
How did you approach getting into your character for this series?
Omar Epps: It was interesting. You usually build your characters and sort of build a world for them, a back story sort of thing, I did that and it was cool. But once we started filming, all of the characters are dealing with a phenomenon that's never happened. So all that preparation–the preparation takes you to that point where you have to launch, jump off the cliff and just be in the moment. And honestly, that was quite refreshing for me, because it was so challenging for me. You're used to having your character grounded in these things, so you just have to give yourself away to that moment. I really enjoyed that process.
Kurtwood Smith: You know, it's odd. In some ways, it's the easiest role that I've had, and in many ways it's the most difficult. Because I've had in the first few episodes of the show a lot of emotions to deal with that in the past I haven't very often. As Omar was saying, in terms of preparations, it was like, once we did the basic backstory of our character, it's just show up and do it. Because every week it's something new, and it's not like something we really should prepare for, because a lot of it relies on the initial reaction coming at you for the first time.
Are there elements of religion or faith involved in the series? As 'resurrection' is also a biblical term.
Smith: Absolutely. There's a preacher, Tom. And he has his own story. See, it's a small enough town that so many of the characters are related. Tom, the minister, turns out he's he best friend of the boy who comes back. He is now in his late 30s and the boy who was his best friend is still eight years old. A boy from his life comes back and that complicates his life to a great extent, and causes him to question his faith.
Did working on 'Resurrection' change your philosophy on life and death?
Epps: For me, it didn't necessarily change my philosophy. If anything, we have so many questions, and as you progress in life, the more asnwers you get, the more questions you have. Things grow and change, your beliefs change, sometimes depends on what you're experiencing in life. For me, it made me dig deeper. It made me want to discover more, and at the same time, you just got to live and find out as it happens. Nothing's set on stone.
Smith: Actually for me, what's it's done–the show–it causes you to think about your life and what you're doing now, what you've been doing and where you're going. I think for me, rather than thinking about what's beyond and what would I be doing in my life, if I was to have somebody come back into my life, how would I justify or how would I explain what I have done with my life? It's made me want to reflect a little bit more on what I'm doing.
The series is based on a book ('The Returned' by Jason Mott). Will the show deviate from it?
Epps: We used the book as sort of–we took the concept, but the show is its own thing. The book is very broad in the scope of this concept. In the show's pilot it's [the resurrection] just happening. When the book starts, it's already happening all over the world. We just sort of took the underlying concept, and the show has its own identity. There are some characters there that are on the book, and characters we took creative license with. What's great about the book is that it gives us sort of a blueprint of–knock on wood we get 4, 5 seasons on this–how we can make it happen.
Smith: Some of the characters have been altered, and some are the same. Bellamy (Epps), Henry (Smith), Lucille (Fisher)–they're characters in the book, but they've all been tweaked a little bit; like one of the main characters, the sheriff, he's not in the book.
Do the producers and writers of Resurrection know the end point of the series?
Smith: They say they do [laughs]. But they haven't shared that with us, so, you know…
Epps: Let's put it this way, and this is classic television. The way that this season ends, this first season, was actually something that they pitched as possibly to end the series. The network was like, 'Make that the first season!' I think they have a couple of ideas, but you know what's fun about this… It's almost a call and response? You have this idea then the audience is reacting this way, so you kinda have to start to cater to that. But hopefully we get to the point where we have a big, big ending.
Who would you want to resurrect and why?
Smith: I've answered this question before and so I have thought about it, because there are always people in your life that you would like to have to come back. That's one of the features of the show, it causes you to think about who you want to come back into your life. The show also causes you to reflect about them. What would my life be like, compared to what my life was back then? For me, my father, my real father. My step-father, the guy who I used as a model for Red Forman [his character on That 70's Show]. My biological father was killed in World War 2, but he'd never seen me and I have never seen him. So it would be quite something to meet and spend time with him. The difference, of course, he would be 24 [laughs] and I would be 70, so it would be an unusual situation.
Epps: For me, it would have to be my great grandma who I was fortunate to have in my life. She passed when I was around 16. It would just be awesome to sit down with her–you know, I'm a father now, a husband, made something of myself. It would be great to share these with her.
You've already wrapped up the first season, and now we're looking forward to a second. Without giving too much away, what can viewers look forward to?
Epps: It's a lot to look forward to. More than one person comes back, and it really affects everyone. The town is just so small that everyone knows each other, you know? So everyone knows everyone else's story. You're dealing with the past spilling on to the present, which opens up a can of worms. It's really suspenseful, it definitely has thriller aspects to it. But then it has a lot of heart to it, it's grounded, essentially it's a family drama.
Smith: And people have their own kinds of stories as it goes along, and so you get more involved with particular characters. You get more into the story of the Langstons, it may be more about my character in one episode, the next episode, the minister, then back to my wife, perhaps. So it all kind of moves around.
Catch the first season of 'Resurrection' every Monday on Lifetime (SkyCable Channel 65).
Additional images taken from the official website of Lifetime Asia (www.LifetimeAsia.com).
