Blindspot follows “Jane Doe”, a beautiful woman found naked in New York City’s Times Square with her memory erased and her body covered in coded tattoos. The more Jane and the FBI work to solve the puzzle of her tattoos, the deeper they dive into a well of deceit and conspiracy. Once Jane’s true identity, and the identity of those that left her in Times Square is revealed, Jane and the FBI must work against time to stop their adversary’s devious plans. Blindspot stars Jamie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton.
Alexander was born in South Carolina, the only girl in a family of five children. She entered acting almost by accident, substituting for a friend with a scouting agency. From there moved to Los Angeles and eventually broke through the Hollywood barrier in 2003 in the award-winning, low budget production The Other Side. She became a household name when Marvel cast her as Lady Sif in Thor in 2011. She’d reprise that role several times before snagging the lead in Blindspot.
Stapleton began acting at the ripe old age of 6 when his aunt, with the permission of his parents, signed him up with an acting and modeling agency. Deemed “gifted” by his first director, Stapleton would go on to star in numerous films and television series. His performance in the Academy Award nominated film Animal Kingdom and his turn as Themistokles in 300: Rise of an Empire propelled him to the “it” list and led to his portraying Kurt Weller in the NBC series.
Screen Rant: So guys, we’re here with Sullivan Stapleton and Jamie Alexander from Blindspot. We’re here at New York Comic Con. Last season ended in quite a doozy.
Screen Rant: Remy.
Jamie Alexander: Yes, that’s a great word to describe it.
Sullivan Stapleton: Someone got shot.
Jamie Alexander: Someone did get shot, and someone woke up as, you know, her evil self.
Screen Rant: First of all, actually I have a question for you. Kurt did get shot. He’s going to be dealing with the ramifications that when we wakes up, when we’re back in next season, season 4. What are challenges he’s going to face this season?
Jamie Alexander: Remy is back. Yes.
Sullivan Stapleton: So yeah, I just got married to two women.
Screen Rant: Let’s talk about Remy for a second. Is she going to be the villain of this season?
Sullivan Stapleton: Well, the challenge of you know, you’ve got to work at relationships. And then this one you really, really have to work at. I think, sort of the downfall of that relationship that he thought it he was in, Remy shows up again and you know, that’s a real struggle. I mean, he’s really, he’s in love with this woman. She’s reverted back to her old self and yeah, that doesn’t go well.
Screen Rant: Yeah. I kinda want to talk about that for a second. Mainly the team dynamic now because she doesn’t know she can’t trust people. Remy, I mean. Talk to me about the dynamic of how she’s going to be with the team because it’s completely –
Jamie Alexander: I can say she’s going to be one of the villains this season. She definitely mess some things up for her FBI comrades. You know, it’s interesting. At one point we have this great scene where he walks in and I’m watching the wedding video and I’m mimicking how Jane says things. And I turn it around because he says, ‘what are you doing?’ And I turned it around and I just say “I’m afraid I’m gonna forget all these memories” because she’s sick. So she really toys with people and kind of uses the “I’m sick card”, you know? She’s very manipulative. So it really throws everybody for a loop.
Screen Rant: Well, this, obviously with her reverting back, are we going to see the format of the story to be told differently with more flashbacks or anything like that?
Jamie Alexander: Well, she’s playing Jane. I mean, she’s definitely playing Jane, but I think somebody who sees the cracks a little earlier is Rich Dot Com. But he didn’t know Jane as well as the rest of the team, so he just thinks that she’s just weird. But yeah, she definitely uses each person against the other and manipulates them to do bad things for her even though they think they’re doing the good thing.
Jamie Alexander: This season we’re using not so much flashbacks, but we’re using the cameras a lot to sort of tell when she’s switching into Remy from Jane. It’s this crazy close-up that they do to both of us actually, which is really interesting. It’s just to help the audience understand what’s going on and what exactly she is doing to, make sure everyone thinks she’s someone she’s not.
Screen Rant: That’s very interesting. Also, it seems like there’s going to be - the budget’s bigger. It seems more grander in scale. Can you guys speak to that because it seems like, are you guys on location a lot more now this season? Season 4?
Screen Rant: Yeah, it’s amazing. I mean, just seeing what you guys had been doing is great. Can we talk about Roman for a second? Just out of curiosity, who has he been on the phone with?
Sullivan Stapleton: Well we’ve definitely gone bigger internationally this year and we start off or, you know, they start off in Tokyo and then one of the characters goes to London, Paris, Peru, so far. I don’t know where we’re going to end. Hopefully in Australia. I mean that’s like, I think, a huge thank you to international fans. We’re not shooting the streets in New York anymore to show that we’re saying Tokyo. We’re in Tokyo. I just love that. It is our great production values.
Screen Rant: Really?
Jamie Alexander: Oh, I think I can answer that. Himself.
Screen Rant: Now talk to me about shooting this season for you guys. Obviously the fans love the show. Just talk to me about the process of shooting the season and, without giving away any surprises, if you can summarize the season in a hashtag, what would that hashtag be?
Jamie Alexander: Yeah, it’s very weird. I can just say that. I think the thing with the zip poisoning is there’s a lot of hallucinations and a lot of things like voices you hear, you hallucinate people and it really messes you up because you can’t tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not. So Remy goes through that, but he definitely did towards the end. So, it’s interesting. I did not think that that would be the answer. And then when they said that it was pretty amazing. So I was like, “oh wow, well how are they going to do that?” You know, that is amazing.
Screen Rant: They definitely all are. And just as a fan, from your perspective, which character are you most interested to really see their story kind of play out?
Sullivan Stapelton: Give me a moment on the Hashtag, This season, the best part about this season is we actually delve deeper into the characters and the fracture of the team, of Kurt and Jane’s relationship. We’ve got a great writing team and they constantly surprise me with their talent, where they take us, what they do, how they give us challenges as an actor to make it enjoyable to go to work. So the hashtag? Fractured relationships.
Jamie Alexander: Yeah, that’s a good one that I would say across the board for all the characters, they’re all going through something.
Screen Rant: It’s amazing. How about you? Which character, as a fan, are you excited to kind of dive into the season or see the fans dive into the season?
Jamie Alexander: Well, I’m kind of interested in the dynamic between Rich Dot Com and Patterson, because now he’s a regular so we get to explore that more. I mean he’s just so funny. I ruin every take because I start laughing, and then our camera guys will start laughing, and the camera just moves up and down and they’re like ‘sorry, we got to start over’. He’s just so wild. And Him and Ashley have the best chemistry. They’re just so funny together.
Screen Rant: I read something and I don’t know if it’s true or not. Is there a time jump at all this season?
Sullivan Stapleton: Well, mine would be probably Zapata. Like where she ends up, why she’s doing what she’s doing, who she ends up with. That’s definitely one story line where I’m like “alright, where are they going to take this to? And then, you know, Jane and Kurt’s relationship, and the second bit, how is this going mend?
Screen Rant: Okay. So not a huge time jump then. I’m so excited for the show. I can’t wait for it. It does come back October 12th?
Sullivan Stapleton: A couple of couple of months.
Jamie Alexander: A little bit, yeah, just a little bit. Not too much like, I think two or three months.
Screen Rant: So, be sure to check it out guys. Thank you guys so much for joining us here on Screen Rant. You guys are awesome. Thanks for watching.
Jamie Alexander: Yes.
