The co-stars, who play Sinatra and Dylan, respectively, talk to The Hollywood Reporter about how that AI ending closes one story but opens up another for season three.
Creator Dan Fogelman likes to keep some mystery even among the cast, so the actress didn’t find out that Sinatra was going to sacrifice herself until they started production on season two.revelation was dropped in the season two finale— by revealing that “Alex” is a quantum computer that is designed to play with time.
. When Sinatra meets Doherty’s character — who had been going by the nickname Link until now — she believes that he is her son, who died as a child, and that his existence is proof that Alex works. “You have to believe in the story — and then go get your PhD in quantum physics and it will all make sense,” says Nicholson with a laugh. “But Samantha believes that Link/Dylan is her son, so that’s what I had to hold onto.”‘s Xavier has been tasked with going to find Alex and saving the world, while Nicholson shares how she’s processing that moving goodbye to Sinatra after two seasons: “She kind of breaks my heart.” Now knowing the connection between you two, did you have a chemistry read before Thomas was cast? Julianne, were you involved in his casting? You two look alike. No, we didn’t know that. Dan did the casting. But that’s the feedback we’ve been getting!How much did you know once he was cast about this Link/Dylan role and how it would connect to Sinatra by the end of the season?I don’t think I knew right away. I probably knew two or three episodes in what was coming down the road. But then it was trying to make sense of that.And then try and explain it to you, and it just makes it worse. It’s all quantum physics and mechanics and stuff. , and then we got the breakdown for the character, and it said, “Burly man.” I don’t generally fall into that category or description. But, I was burly enough! It was really, really quick. I auditioned a few times in New York. Then I flew out to L.A. to meet with Dan and John and Glenn , who directed the first two episodes and who are producers as well. Then I got told that. I got the job on a Thursday. By Monday, I had moved to LA. I had a week in L.A. to prepare, but Shailene went into fittings on Wednesday and started shooting on Friday. It was really, really quick.No. You have to go to Dan and be like, “Please tell me!” So he told me. He gave me a general idea of the direction that it was heading, which is amazing and quite rare in television. A lot of the time, they haven’t even written the scripts while you’re filming. So that was really good to know directionally where I was going to go. The beginning of the season did dabble in the time and space realm with those memory flashes. Were you playing that straight in the beginning, where it could be effects from the blast or from radiation, or were you leaning into the Alex of it all? I had no idea. The nose bleeds and all those things were a complete mystery to me. It wasn’t until further into the episodes that it started to make sense in terms of alternate timelines, and when people come into your life — you know, the mind of Dan Fogelman. after the season one finale, and he confirmed you were not dead after that finale and that you would be in season two, but you didn’t know what that was going to look like. He said he threw some big things at you right before our interview. Did he bring up Alex before our chat?Yes. Pretty much. He threw out the idea of Alex but also said, “Don’t say anything” — as I’m reeling and trying to make sense of it myself. was tasked with saving the world, and going to find Alex.In your final move as Sinatra, you task Xavier with saving the world. It seems like Dylan will have a role in that. What excites you about hypothetically teaming up with Sterling K. Brown to go and save the .) But that would be amazing. I didn’t really get a lot of onscreen time with Sterling, and I’d love to love to work more intimately with him. So that would be awesome . And then, hypothetically, with Baby Annie, to play out as well.My very last day was that stuff with Sterling down the hallway when we have our goodbye. We filmed me walking through the ruins a little bit earlier. So the wrap on Sinatra was when she hands him the key and shuts the door and locks herself in. I found it really moving; genuinely moving. You grow to care for your characters. I remember feeling a little bit intimidated — that’s a big ending, and I was wanting to do that justice. I remember feeling like I didn’t know exactly what that was going to look like or feel like. Dan was there and I went over to him, and was like, “Dan, I just need a little help. Tell me something. Why am I saying this to Sterling?” And he said, “Don’t forget: You’re going to go away, but your husband and daughter are still going to be in this world. So you’re asking for help, you need him to help them and keep the world going for them.” That helped me so much to then say goodbye. I also love Sterling. He is so easy to be with, and I really love these two characters together: Sinatra and Xavier. It felt genuinely emotional and deep knowing where they’ve come from to now where they end. Yes, because I haven’t seen him for the whole season until the finale. I think Sinatra was genuinely happy to see him. They’re adversaries, yes, but there’s also a respect and admiration and care there, from her side anyway. Even though he does have a gun to her head — again — she’s happy to see him and relieved he made it back. When you two said goodbye, Sinatra was so confident she’ll see Dylan again. Is there anything in your writers’ conversations that you could share to help make sense of that?It’s back to this idea of different timelines happening at the same time, and the possibilities that opens up. I feel like we also just needed some hope. We needed to hold onto love and hope, and whether that means we’re in the same physical plane together again or you go into the spirits, who knows. It’s more open than anything physical that you can put your finger on, I think. Season one tackled climate issues, and this speaks to our current AI era. What do you hope viewers are thinking about in bigger picture terms, about how we treat and view the world?Much like the first season and the way we treat our environment and the climate crisis, it is a wake-up call. It’s alarm bells: Pay attention. And the whole AI thing is to really pay attention. Maybe ChatGPT helps you get your homework done, but there are bigger questions we need to be asking and holding people accountable to. It’s absolutely petrifying. The climate crisis, and what the government has redacted in terms of policy is even scarier. The AI thing, I’m not smart enough to understand it, so that’s quite terrifying. There is something about this hyper-normalization of everything that’s happening in the world right now, where you become so apathetic because you don’t know what to trust. You don’t know what to believe. It forces you to then say, “Okay, what can I control?” And it’s how you conduct yourself in the world, how you move in the world and how you treat other people. When you can’t trust outside, with all these voices and opinions, it forces you to turn inward and return to yourself, and trust yourself and your gut. I don’t think anything bad can ever come from being more connected to yourself and knowing yourself more. That’s the silver line I can draw. I’m doing a film next, a drama. It takes place in 1989; I play an American who grew up in Berlin. I’d love to do more comedy. It was so fun to break my way into that world.. 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