Marking The CW's first foray into fantasy, The Outpost is also one of the rare shows in the genre that isn't based on any preexisting material. Created by Jason Faller and Kynan Griffin, it's an original story set in a medieval world and centers on Talon, who as a child witnessed the extermination of her entire race, the Blackwoods. She embarks on a quest for vengeance that brings her to the outpost, a settlement on the border of the civilized world. Think of it as a cross between Deadwood and Lord of the Rings, only for network television.
Talon makes a few allies once she arrives at the outpost, including the enigmatic barkeep Janzo, whose abilities as an alchemist have manifested over the course of the first six episodes, helping to make him one of the show's most provocative characters.
CBR recently spoke with The Outpost's breakout star Anand Desai-Barochia about what initially attracted him to the role of Janzo, and what it's like working on his first genre project.
CBR: How did the audition process unfold? How did Janzo cross your desk?
Anand Desai-Barochia: It’s really interesting. I haven’t really mentioned it in other interviews yet, but I was originally meant to go up for the role of Garret. And so that’s what my audition came through, and I was reading the pilot, I was like, wait, I really like this character instead. I love Janzo. And so I called my reps and I was like, "Hey, can I go in for Janzo instead?" And they were like, "We’re not sure, uh, let’s see what casting say," and casting said, "Yeah, sure, we really want to see him as Garret, but if he wants to go in for Janzo, that’s fine." And so I did, and then I ended up booking Janzo, and I’m so glad that I made that initial call to my manager to say, “Hey, can I go in for this one instead?”
What made him spark for you?
That he was the underdog, that he was the conventional “oddball,” if you want to say, but he’s so interesting. There’s so many layers to him. And I just found him to be so much fun to play, as well. There’s so much character work that goes into it and that’s what I love to do. I love to do character-heavy roles, and that’s why when I was reading the pilot and I saw the role of Janzo instead, I said, I want to go for that.
Is this your first genre project?
Totally, it is! I‘d done comedy before, I’d done straight before, but this is the first journey into sci-fi fantasy. And it’s been quite a wild ride just because of the fan interaction.
Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Discovering%20The%20Outpost%27s%20Fledgling%20Fandom']
And you were at Comic-Con International?
Yup, and it was absolutely crazy -- 300,000 people there. It was crazy, 300,000 people, and our second episode literally just aired a couple of days before, and so we we did the panel and we were surprised, really pleasantly and gratefully surprised, that there was a line out the door over an hour long for autographs and meet and greets. It was really humbling actually to see that in just two episodes. I've never been a part of a show that has a fandom, so when I’m on Twitter and we’re live-tweeting and stuff it’s just insane to see all of these live tweets just continuing on as the show’s going on. It’s so crazy!
Have you experienced the flip side of that kind of attention? Has there been much trolling?
Up until this point there hasn’t been a single piece I’ve read on Twitter as far as the fans are concerned in regard to any of the trolling or anything like that. They’re really warming to the character he is. And I think that’s one of the things about being one of the introverted characters -- that, and especially in this genre of sci-fi fantasy, is that a lot of people relate to it ... people can relate to the more quieter guy that just gets on with life. However, that being said, there are so many sides to Janzo [and] he is quite the power within the outpost.
So he has hidden depths -- anybody associated with alchemy or magic on a show like this I feel is harboring some kind of hidden power ...
True, and especially his relationships with Talon, he’s absolutely head over heels in love with Talon, but then there’s Garret, who’s this captain who’s everything that Janzo will never be. He’s got the looks, the muscles, the uniform, everything that Janzo doesn’t have. But what Janzo doesn’t have in physicality he more than makes up for in brains, so it’s a nice dynamic that Janzo and Garret have as well because it’s this brotherly, bickering, jealousy type thing. And in a commercial, conventional world, Garret’s the one who’ll always get the girl, but that being said, we’re in sci-fi fantasy, so who knows what’s gonna happen?
Do you still want to play more mainstream characters?
It’s interesting you say that because that’s what my reps were saying at first when I asked to go in for Janzo instead of Garret. “Well, Garret’s the leading man!," and I was like, “Yeah, but for me this is a character that I want to work with much more." And I think that’s what I want to continue doing. I really want to work on character work. There’s people like Johnny Depp and Eddie Redmayne, or say Hillary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, as I look at these characters, they’re real roles that you can really get your teeth into.
And how does the fact that it's original content inform your performance?
I was fortunate in that it wasn’t from a book or anything like that so I had such freedom to play with this character. I wasn’t trying to manage anyone’s expectations but my own. As we were on set every single day every single scene every take was something different because nothing goes wrong because I was creating this character from scratch. And so no one could tell me, “No, this isn’t how he really was.” No one knows that! So that was such a really liberating feeling for myself, so let’s just play and see what works.
Airing Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, The Outpost stars Jessica Green, Jake Stormoen, Imogen Waterhouse, Anand Desai-Barochia, Andrew Howard, Robyn Malcolm and Kevin McNally.