Imagine if one day, a terrible tragedy occurred that left you as President of the United States- despite having no desire to be President or any prior knowledge or experience in such a capacity. I don’t know about you but the thought of an entire country being dependent on me scares me- especially since I can barely run a family of four! Well, in Tom Kirkman’s case, that situation became a reality- and he is not only surviving as president, but now in season two, he’s starting to show that he can absolutely do the job!
Last week during the #PixarCocoEvent, we had the chance to chat with Co-Executive Producer and Writer Jessica Grasl and we even got to chat via satellite with Italia Ricci, who plays Emily Rhodes, Tom Kirkman’s chief of staff, on the show. Read on to find out how the storyboarding process works, the crazy coincidence that keeps happening, and more!
What does your storyboarding process look like? Is it whiteboards, is it sticky notes; what is that creative process about?
Jessica Grasl: It changes for every show, but for Designated Survivor, it involves a ton of whiteboards, and a copious amount of markers and cleaner fluid. We start by writing things up on whiteboards and then once you get down to the nitty gritty we put things on big index cards and you do it by story.
So for example, if we’re doing Emily’s story, Emily would probably have her own color so you can look at the board and track it- if we haven’t seen blue in a while, or there’s a ton of green, so we need to break that up. Then the part of the process that I’m at with my episode is you take these parts down off the board, and you have a big stack of them, and then you try to make it make sense on an actual document- which is the really hard part.
I’ve also worked on shows where you have magnets, which is really cool, so you can move the magnets around and shift things around as opposed to erasing and rewriting. So every show has a little bit of a different process but all involve a lot of writing, and erasing, and rewriting.
How hard is it to keep those stories cohesive because each episode has its own storyline, but it all has to fit in under your own part?
Jessica Grasl: Yeah, I mean, I’m off doing my prep right now, but the train is moving forward on somebody else’s episode. So just on my way over here, one of the writers was texting me and was like, “Wait, so in your episode, where do we leave off with this character, and do we establish this?” And I’m like, “No, we don’t. I think we’re setting that up in the next episode.”
It’s a puzzle, and the challenge is that if something changes in episode fourteen, it affects what’s happening in episode fifteen and sixteen. And that happens a lot, where you’re like, “Oh wait, I thought that you were killing off this character,” and it’s like, “Actually…”
That’s the fun of a serialized show is you’re not just like, doing the beginning, middle, end in every episode- these things are continuing. You’ve gotta be flexible because it’s all gonna change. Sometimes it’s right before it starts shooting.
How did you know what to write? It’s like you are right there in the White House.
Jessica Grasl: We have really good consultants. We always have somebody on our staff who used to work in the White House, and so I knock on his door all the time, and I’m like, “What do you call this?”Or, “What would you do about this?”
On the episode that I wrote, which was last week, it took place on a Navy ship. I know nothing about the Navy. You can go to Wikipedia, and grab a lot of books, and there a lot of really boring books on my desk about ships. But I also got to spend a bunch of time on the phone with an admiral and he’s a contributor on CNN- and I was bragging to my dad like, “I’m friends with that guy!”
I mean, that’s really fun about a show like this, is that because it’s the White House, you’re not just solving crime every week; you’re not just dealing with political or law stories every week- every week it’s like a new sandbox that you’re gonna have to play in. Sometimes it’s NATO and sometimes there’s war brewing. The topics are endless.
It’s challenging because you’re never gonna feel like an expert. I’m never gonna be like, “Nailed it! I know all there is to know about the government.” But every episode, you have to dive into this whole new world and become an expert, and then you have to be expert enough to not sound like an idiot before forty-four minutes of television, which is where our consultants help us not look like idiots.
So the showrunners make a huge, beautiful story for you {Italia}, and they work like you like crazy. How much time do you receive before you actually go and film the episode?
Jessica Grasl: If we’re lucky, we’ll get the script maybe three days before we search to the end, but there will be more days that I have to learn ten minutes before I work.
How do you feel working in this environment like that when there are tweaks; when there are changes all the time? Do you love doing it, or is it a little big stressful?
Italia Ricci: My literal worst nightmare. But you develop this muscle that is fear and panic and it’s great because it keeps you on your toes, and the writing is usually for the better, so it’s great in that aspect. But your performance- you feel like you haven’t really been given the time to prepare, so you feel like, if only I had a couple more days, but it happens like that on every show.
That’s the struggle on television is that all has to happen so quickly. One person on set could have a change to a line, and then by the time all the phone calls are made, it’s changed- the scene, or the ending of a scene that somebody’s spent so long working on, and you just sort of hold your breath and say, let’s do it.
I love that you play the Chief of Staff and you’re in a position of power as a woman. So what does that mean to you, what do you want to share with other women and girls who watch?
Italia Ricci: Well, I hope that she is able to portray that women are just as smart, just as strong, and just as tough and present, and capable as a man in that world, if not better. I think I’m a better Chief of Staff than Aaron was, but you know, I’m a little biased. I like the idea of saying, hey, “We can do it, too, and we can wear killer heels while we do it,” so I really enjoy being able to have that sort of- and especially since she didn’t think she was ready for it- and then to push your own limits and really see what potential you don’t even know that you have. So I’ve really enjoyed that part about Emily.
After working such long hours on set, do you ever have your own internal dialog with your character when you’re at home?
Italia Ricci: In my character, it’s all a very political storyline except for with my dad and the occasional sort of romantic stuff. It’s all very business oriented and I’m Canadian, and politically completely inept. So you should see my text with Kal. It’s just, ‘What does this mean? How do I pronounce this? Do I say the letters or pronounce the word?” I feel like why on Earth did they pick me? I’m the least qualified for this job.
So in writing a political drama, how do you balance the politics in the drama without making it too political?
Jessica Grasl: The Kirkman White House lives in a different universe. Obviously it started from a very unique place which our actual U.S. history has never experienced- the destruction of the entire seat of government. So I think it’s been really exciting to sort of live in a space that feels so different from real world. Regardless of who’s in the White House, it’s very different from Tom Kirkman being in the White House. I think we’ve really gotten to explore a lot this year because we’ve sort moved past the crisis point and the rubble, if you will, and now it’s about Kirkman and his team, and he’s in administration moving the country forward into Kirkman’s vision. And so really, as writers, that’s the world that we live in.
Obviously, we all read the newspapers, and we follow the news, and sometimes we pull stories from things that are happening, like last week, it was based on the thing that actually happened.
Italia Ricci: What is so weird has happened five times- we will shoot an episode, and while we’re shooting it, it will actually happen. We were shooting an episode about the statue-that whole rally happened. We were shooting an episode about the ship- the ship happened. I can’t go on farther, I’ll be spoiling it, but things just keep happening, and I was like, who would write an episode where Emily wins a million dollars?!
Jessica Grasl: It is freaky and sometimes that’s awesome because you’re like, “Oh, that’s great, we’re really sort of tapping into something that people are living through”, and sometimes it’s really complicated. You want to be sensitive so it’s a fine line that we walk as writers. But I just get really excited that I get to go to work every day and live in Kirkman’s world and his vision for America and be a part of that. Escapism is maybe not a place you wanna live in all the time, but we’re artists; it’s a nice Camelot to get to live in, five days a week at least.
Last week, we also had the opportunity to screen tonight’s brand new episode- “Family Ties”! I can’t give away any spoilers but I will say that it’s a great episode with a twist that made the whole room let out one big gasp! Check out the clip below for a sneak peek!
When a Turkish activist ignites protests in the U.S., Turkey’s president demands his extradition while the first family unknowingly finds themselves in the center of a battle that could threaten Leo’s future, on ABC’s “Designated Survivor,” airing WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15 (10:00—11:00 p.m. EST).
