Co-Creators and executive producers JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn, along with star Melissa Roxburgh, chat with THR's Mikey O'Connell to talk all about 'The Hunting Party' during a THR Frontrunners conversation series at the San Vicente Bungalows.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00They were shooting a scene where, you know, he's doing his thing, and they showed us the take,
00:03and I was like, oh, that's disgusting. Like, it's, I can see it. It's stuck in my head now.
00:09It just feels like an extra layer of sludge on it.
00:18Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for coming. My name is Mikey O'Connell. I'm an editor at
00:24The Hollywood Reporter. I'm going to be moderating this conversation. Are people
00:28ready? Are we going to bring him on out? Awesome. First up, we have star Melissa Roxburgh,
00:35creator and co-showrunner J.J. Bailey,
00:42and co-showrunner Jake Coburn.
00:46So many J's. We should also say that we have co-stars Nick Swear and Sarah Garcia.
01:05So I feel like this show hits on so many things that people love. They love prison breaks. They
01:12love procedurals. They love a mystery box. They love serial killers. I don't think anyone's done
01:18all four of those in one show. What was the genesis? What was the original idea of those
01:23four in that salad? Well, I think Jake and I really connected when we first met over sort of,
01:30you know, wanting to do a procedural that felt a little bit different.
01:34But our sensibilities sort of lean into more mystery and bigger ideas. And so we just tried
01:40to find sort of something that could marry all those things that we love together. And we love
01:47big serialized mysteries, but we also wanted to do something that was, you know, a week-to-week
01:52case. And again, we both bonded over the love of serial killer stories too.
01:57So really just it came up kind of naturally out of that.
02:02Yeah, we were actually sort of like set up on a creative blind date by the studio. They were like,
02:07oh, you guys should meet. And we had a meeting and it lasted like two hours. And by the end of
02:12it, we were like, well, that could be cool. And, you know, it sort of just developed from there.
02:16I think good partnerships sort of evolve slowly over time. And that's certainly what's happened
02:22here. Melissa, you briefly studied criminal psychology in college? It was a couple courses.
02:29It wasn't like, that's studying. Yeah, yeah. I went full down the path. No, I mean, like,
02:35I grew up watching a lot of the same serial killer shows. And then by the time I got to college,
02:40I thought it would be super cool to become a criminal profiler. And then I realized you have
02:46to actually talk to the bad guys in real life. So I didn't want to do that. So I chose the
02:50made-up version instead. Yeah. I mean, we as a culture are kind of grotesquely obsessed with
02:59serial killers. In the writer's room, have you guys diagnosed that? Like, what is it about this
03:05subject matter that enthralls people? I think we tried not to diagnose it because we'd be
03:09diagnosing ourselves quite a bit. But I think there's just something sort of innately exciting
03:16or confusing about the pathology of somebody who would be a serial killer. And I think something
03:21we talk about a lot in the writer's room is, you know, we want to do serial killers, but we want
03:26to do the fun version of a serial killer. And so it's a lot of exploring sort of like, what would
03:31people find the scariest? So we talk a lot about what, in our own minds, what would be the scariest
03:37killer to face or the thing that frightens us the most? Because there's an excitement to that,
03:42I think. And I think people are sort of drawn to the curiosity of it. So we like to explore that.
03:47Yeah. Having written the first full season, I'm assuming, we've only seen this one episode.
03:55But in terms of these killers that they're going to be tracking down,
04:00are you leaning into sort of like rip from the headline stuff, historical cases, or is it
04:06all fiction? Is it a blending of that? What was your approach?
04:12I would say it's a blend. I think that there are certainly a few killers in the first season who
04:17we felt like were sort of our version of this person. Scott Peterson sort of was a real life
04:27person that we sort of created an episode that was sort of loosely inspired by. To a certain extent,
04:32I think the most fun that we have are with episodes where we sort of don't really know
04:38where it comes from. It comes from that sort of creative space, the fear that sort of grows into
04:46something larger that we then dramatize.
04:49Are we ever going to explore the structural engineer behind this prison and how much they
04:54really screwed this up?
04:58Maybe. We'll have something to say about him.
05:01Melissa, you initially didn't put yourself up for this role. And in fact, through your name in your
05:09hat in the ring a little late.
05:12Yeah. I mean, if you've watched the first episode, you know, I talk a lot.
05:15So the audition sides were no different. And when I got them, they were like,
05:21great project, put it on tape for tomorrow. And I'm like, oh my goodness, really? And I read it,
05:26and it was just this monologue. I was like, there's no way. And then on the weekend went
05:32by on a Monday, they're like, don't even bother. They have their girls. They're going to screen
05:36test them. So just you missed the boat. And then a couple of days went by and I was like, no,
05:41I'm going to put it on tape. And then I think it was like two weeks later because I'm a bit of a
05:47nut job that way. Two weeks went by and they got handed in. I didn't hear anything for a while.
05:54And then finally they called and I was very surprised because it was indeed two weeks late.
06:01I mean, this is kind of nerdy in the weeds, but I'm fascinated by the
06:04difference between like auditioning on tape and in a room. How do you approach them differently?
06:11One, you wear sweatpants and the other you do not. I don't know. I like taping at home because I get
06:19very nervous in the room. So that's how I, which I don't think that's an answer, but yeah.
06:26It's never been harder to get a show on television than it is right now. So congratulations. It's a
06:33feat in and of itself. When you were developing this and when you were taking it out, what was
06:40your elevator pitch and what was the thing that got your studio excited, got your network excited,
06:47got your collaborators excited? Well, I think we had a two-sentence version of it, I think,
06:54pretty quickly. We came to the studio with just a little blurb, sort of like, is this
06:59exciting to you? And I think it encapsulated it pretty well. But I mean, it was always the
07:04secret prison. It was the world's worst serial killers escaped and bringing together the team
07:10to track them down, learning that there was a larger mystery happening under the surface at
07:16this prison. Maybe it wasn't just a prison. And that was sort of like the short little blurb
07:21that we used to sort of tee it up. And then that was always sort of the spine of everything we were
07:26doing, everything we were exploring on the show always sort of came back to that spine.
07:30I don't think people realize how hard it is to write a show that is both
07:36mystery of the week, like you can jump in at any point and not alienate a viewer and also
07:41have like a serialized mystery and like a real like death to these characters if you follow
07:47it from start to finish. In your point of view, like what is the sort of like sweet spot ratio
07:55between servicing that this is a single episode of television that people are going to watch,
08:00and there is this mystery for everyone if you keep tuning in? Because I feel like
08:06the industry has gone back and forth the last couple decades over like what they want. It's
08:10like we want all mystery box or we want all procedural and you're doing both and that is hard.
08:16I think it sort of depends how you imagine the person viewing it. Like in theory, I think for us
08:22at least, we try to sort of sprinkle in the serialized story elements kind of at the beginning
08:28and at the end of the episode. So they sort of bookend it and then sort of sprinkle it a little
08:33bit throughout. But we were very, very cautious about trying to find that right balance and
08:38working with the studio and that work in terms of what is that sort of perfect ratio. And not
08:42everyone agrees. And I think if you're watching a show, if you're binging a show straight through,
08:47that's a very different experience than if you're watching something hopefully in reruns or
08:51syndication and it's out of order. So it is taxing, but it beats really working.
09:02And is there an expectation in the room with your executives that there be a plan? Because we hear
09:12the term plan so often in shows like this. How much do you know in advance about where you're
09:19going and where you want to go and how much are you just open to it?
09:22Yeah. I mean, I think it was important to show that we had a plan. And I think the studio,
09:28the network both appreciated. We laid out pretty concisely, I think, what we wanted to do and sort
09:33of where we wanted to take it. But I will say that they also allowed us to sort of learn some things
09:38on the fly once the writer's room was up and running. Because we had some things, you know,
09:42the process for this show is we had a mini room to start. And then we got four scripts done in
09:48that. And we sort of had a game plan coming out of that. And then once we got ordered a series,
09:52and we put the full room together, and we had all the writers working, we sort of found some
09:56new things. And we had already sort of pitched out what we wanted to do, but then things were
09:59sort of changing. You know, some things that we thought we were going to do at the end of episode
10:03four, we ended up sort of moving further down the line. So there was a plan, but there was also sort
10:08of a process of discovery once we were in it. And it also, it evolves because there's the
10:13character on the page. And then day one of shooting and, you know, Tor, our incredible
10:18director and EP and Melissa are doing the scene, the interview scene, you know, at the base.
10:24And we're sitting there at the monitors watching this. And we're sort of like,
10:28oh, wow. Like we were kind of taken by surprise by how well it felt like it was coming together.
10:36And that sort of, it starts to iterate. Like you're, we're learning about the character from
10:40Melissa. She's talking to us about directions, what's working for or what's not. So it's not
10:46like you can't, you can't be firm in these things. You have to be able to adapt and grow
10:51through the creative process.
10:52Well, Melissa, how, what changed for you from filming the pilot to filming this whole
10:58first season in a non-spoilery way? Like your approach to this character, like what,
11:03if you could like go back and do something different, or if you, if you could like tell
11:07yourself something when you started this, like what have you learned?
11:11Um, I mean, I learned a lot. I think with the amount that she profiles, I wanted to
11:16find a way to not make it boring, I guess. Because it's easy to just rattle off information,
11:23but to make it interesting. So in the first episode, it was very, I was like, okay, I got
11:29that. But then moving into the different killers and how I talked about each of them, it felt very
11:35um, exciting to kind of find the way that she felt about them. Like she doesn't like
11:39that one, but she's kind of excited by that one or however it was. And so, yeah, I feel
11:44like I got to figure out different ways to like navigate these monologues. They kept
11:48waiting for me.
11:50This is your next big, um, project after Manifest, which was a, a hit on so many levels. I don't
11:57think anyone foresaw like how much that was going to snowball on Netflix. I would imagine
12:02a lot of doors open when you're on a show like that. What did that experience like inform
12:08you about what you want to do with your career and, and, and how you might, it might be different
12:14than the one you originally envisioned for yourself?
12:16I don't know. Like Manifest was such a beast, but, and this is going to sound very cheesy,
12:21but it wasn't really about what I wanted to do with my career. It was more about how I
12:25wanted to handle the opportunities that came up. Cause, um, on that show, uh, a lot of
12:32our cast mates and our show runner, they were just the most giving, grounded people. And
12:35I feel like that's what made the show work. And then I came onto this show and it feels
12:40very similar as far as the personalities, like there's not one bad apple on set. And,
12:45um, I genuinely feel like if you can create a really happy set, then, you know, it, it
12:51helps. And, um, I feel like those shows go further a lot of the time.
12:56You're shooting in Vancouver.
12:58Yeah.
12:59What is the flower and the onion of shooting in Vancouver and not Los Angeles?
13:04Is this a purely me question?
13:06Everyone knows this is a, now we're going, we're going down the line.
13:09Our studio is like within walking distance of where she grew up.
13:12It is kind of nice. Cause like Manifest was in New York, so I didn't get to see my family
13:16that often, but then they chose the studio, which is literally, I had to, I walked that
13:20road to go to the movie theater and stuff. And it's two minutes, five minutes away from
13:25my parents' house. So if we had a long lunch, I got to go home, squeeze my dog, see my mom.
13:30It was, it was really nice.
13:31Oh my gosh. That's lovely.
13:36That's Nick.
13:40I mean, the onions, the weather it's been here, Uber, it's terrible. It's not good.
13:46Um, what is everyone's favorite female detective or profiler?
13:54Like previous to this in film or television? Cause I feel like that is such a like archetype.
14:02I mean, we can obviously talk about like Clarice Starling, but like there are so many examples.
14:07Like what are the true crime stories that really got you hooked on the genre?
14:11I don't know about hooked on the genre cause I think I was already into it, but
14:14you know, Mare of Easttown, just in terms of like, you know, a female pushing and pushing
14:19and pushing to get the job done, uh, was something that I, I thought was fantastic.
14:24And something that I think I took from that show was just how human that character can be
14:32and still be this, you know, incredibly dynamic crime fighting character.
14:37Next.
14:38Go.
14:39I honestly, I don't know. I don't, my brain's blanking at the moment. Sorry.
14:44You can just say yourself.
14:47You can't say that. That's terrible.
14:51I think, I think, uh, you know, for, I would say for me, it's a tough, it's a tough question.
14:56It's a tough question to answer. Uh, I don't know that I have a good answer.
15:01Okay. I don't feel alone anywhere. At least it's a hard.
15:03I don't have one either.
15:04Well, I'm JJ.
15:08So obviously there's so much potential for guest casting in a show like this.
15:12Are there any names that you want to drop of the exciting people who are going to see in
15:16this first season? Any, anyone still on the wishlist for that potential season two?
15:21I mean, there's, there's a ton of people we'd love to have. I, I will say that the first person
15:26who came to mind, uh, right away was Kevin Corrigan from episode four. He was just like
15:32this force of nature on set. And obviously I've seen him in a million things and I've, I've,
15:37I love how wonderfully bizarre he can be. And he brings that to the role that we have him,
15:43him in, in episode four. And he ad libbed a good amount and we kept a lot of it. It was,
15:50it was pretty brilliant stuff and terrifying and wonderful at the same time.
15:56I think we were both kind of like stunned because we were sitting there and we're like, wait,
16:01what's happening in this scene right now? Because we have not written this, like it is now taking
16:06its own path, but he was so locked in that it was, it was, you know, beautiful. I would say
16:12for me, David Ramsey, uh, I worked with him for years on Arrow and that was a character
16:19that was just, you know, a strong, like it was Diggle. It was just like this tough,
16:25badass guy. And the, the character that he embodies in this, in, in our episode five is so
16:33different from anything that, that I saw on Arrow really than anything he's done before.
16:39And so it was really fun just because he's such a great guy and I've known forever to see him
16:43kind of embrace something that feels sort of the antithesis of what he's known for.
16:47Yeah. This is a very intense episode of television and I would imagine there's a
16:52lot of room for like frights on a show like this. Having done these 10 episodes now, is,
16:58is there a agreed upon episode that is the scariest or most intense?
17:05I have my scariest.
17:07Yeah. I'm curious.
17:09Um, it's episode nine. It just feels like an extra layer of sludge on it of like,
17:16and like in the beginning, that beginning stuff, I'm like, oh, like I, I can still picture.
17:22Cause they showed us, you know, like we didn't get to work with the killers a lot.
17:26They did their thing and then we caught them. Um, and, uh, this killer, they were shooting a scene
17:32where, you know, he's doing his thing and they showed us the take and I was like,
17:36oh, that's disgusting. Like it's, I can see it. It's stuck in my head now.
17:40I think I would agree with, yeah. Nine and Jay, I'm trying to remember the actor's name,
17:44Jay Paulson. Yeah. He's fantastic. And there, without giving away anything that happens in
17:49the episode that there was like an audio component to it and we had to record something
17:53and he's recording this soundbite with, uh, this other actress. And I couldn't watch,
17:58like I was there while he was doing it, but he was, I was like, I had to look away because he
18:02was so locked in as this really creepy, scary guy. And I was like, oh my God, I can't, I can't
18:08is this really creepy, scary killer who would basically record his conversations with his
18:13victims. That was sort of his trophy. So, but yeah, I'd agree nine. Wait, I think I'm mixing
18:19it up now. I think I meant, I think I meant seven. That's no nine, nine, nine, nine. Yes.
18:27No, I don't know. I will say. Yeah. I mean, each, each episode has different pieces of it
18:34that kind of stick with you, you know, where you feel like you've really kind of found
18:38the scariest version of something. So it's pretty spread out. I would say,
18:44have you discussed just how many murders could have escaped from this explosion? Yes.
18:53Do you want to give me a ballpark?
18:55I mean, you see the pit. Yeah, it's huge. So that's sort of, that's the, those are the cards
19:02we're dealing. Okay. You know what I'm saying? I mean, I think it's, it's three digits, not two
19:07digits. Okay. Well, it's a big, so that's a lot of episodes. A lot of seasons, a lot of seasons.
19:16Yeah. Are there any like double up episodes? Have you thought about that yet? I don't want to ask
19:27a spoilery questions. I don't want to like know what happens, but I am curious how you think
19:30about that. I mean, I would say that for a first season show, you're kind of, to a certain extent,
19:38you're learning how to make the show while you make the show. Yeah. Right. So there were a lot
19:43of things that we were trying, but we were also trying to stay within the realm of kind of like
19:47the fundamentals of the show. Once we sort of established the formula, then we can break the
19:50formula. But we did not, we did not try and come up with an episode that was completely different
19:56from what we imagined the show to be because we were really learning what the show was as we went.
20:01Well, I already asked Melissa this, so I'll ask you guys. What did you,
20:05what was like the biggest lesson from, from start to finish in this? Like what's,
20:09how did it change for you? I don't know if it was necessarily the biggest lesson,
20:13but how funny our cast was, was like surprising to me. And I don't know if it's, it's,
20:22but I don't know if it's a function of working on sort of like dark material, but in between
20:27takes and stuff, there was, it was such a fun time to just watch them be humans with each other. It
20:32was, it was great, but then also finding ways to sort of infuse that into stories and have these
20:37funny moments between the characters that, you know, we didn't necessarily lift from the real
20:42people, but sort of like getting a sense of their vibe as humans and sort of starting to write to
20:47that. I think you told us to stop at one point, because I think I was, I was profiling someone
20:52and you're like, this isn't like, it's still, someone died. I'm like, oh yeah, there are times.
20:58So you're not method, you're not carrying this to craft services.
21:03No, that's good. That's good for your health.
21:06My managers like that as well.
21:10Um, I guess before we wrap things up, I'm, I'm really curious, any non-spoilery way,
21:16um, like in one sentence, how would each one of you tease out the rest of this first season?
21:26I didn't mean to like limit you. You can have, it can be two or three sentences. You can say
21:30what you want. I really liked the way it comes together at the end. Um, so like the killers are
21:38all very unique and creative, but the hit mystery comes to a really cool head at the end, um, that
21:44I'm very excited about. The good guys might not be the good guys. The bad guys might not be the
21:50bad guys. You don't know. Yeah. I think similarly, I think the, um, the question I think a lot of
21:57people are going to be asking is what's going on down there. And, you know, so it's not really a
22:02spoiler. I think you're all asking the question, but it's, it's the idea of what the pit was really
22:06for and about, I think is something that's going to be fun for an audience to learn.
22:11And I, I would agree. I think the, the, the ever expanding understanding of what was happening
22:18in that pit and the things that they were doing, uh, the more we kind of unfolded,
22:25I think the more shocking it is. And so that for us is what we're constantly building towards.
22:31I think Nick knows, and that's why he's not on this stage right now.
22:36Uh, well, thank you guys so much for doing this. Congratulations.
22:40Fantastic first episode and, um, best of luck this season.