Leverage: Redemption sees the fan-favorite band of reformed criminals -- Sophie (Gina Bellman), Eliot (Christian Kane), Parker (Beth Riesgraf), and Alec (Aldis Hodge) -- reunite to take on a new generation of criminals. Although Alec is quickly taken onto a different path, the rest of the group effectively rediscovers the fun synergy that defined the original series. Working alongside some new recruits, the fan-favorite series was revived for IMDb TV in July. Now, the series is launching the second half of its highly beloved revival season.
Ahead of Leverage: Redemption's return to IMDb TV on Oct. 8, CBR sat down for an exclusive interview with Beth Riesgraf and Christian Kane. The series stars discussed what it was like to return to the heist-driven show after so many years away from the characters, and explored how exciting it was to see fresh blood brought into the franchise with two new teammates -- the corporate lawyer Noah and the inexperienced but enthusiastic Breanna.
CBR: Starting off, congratulations on Leverage: Redemption!
Beth Riesgraf: Man, we had a blast, especially in these back eight episodes. I think people are going to have even more fun than they did for the first eight, and that was still a great ride. So we're super excited. There's a lot of action, a lot more shenanigans that we get into, a lot of ass-kicking by Eliot. People are going to be excited.
That shouldn't come as a surprise, considering the fanbase for the show. There's so much love for these characters and their stories, and the reception since their return has been so positive. What was it like stepping back into these roles, knowing that kind of love for these characters was waiting for you?
Christian Kane: I thought I was going to be like riding a bike. It wasn't. We'd all gone off and done other things, had been playing other characters for a while, every single one of us. When we got back, there was this unbelievable feeling of joy and happiness and it took us about two seconds to step back into these shoes. But the reason why is [Executive Producer Dean Devlin] was very smart about this. Dean started off with a scene where all of us were in it and it was a long scene. I know it was deliberate because he gave us time to get back in those shoes, to be like, "Oh, I know these guys." It happened so fast that I didn't even see the switch go off. But when we first started, I'm like, "Wow, this dynamic..." I think that was the comfortableness that came out. But other than that, it was just all hugs and smiles. I had to pinch myself in the middle of that scene because I'm like, "Wow, we're back, and we're doing this, and I've got long hair again."
Riesgraf: Yeah, it was like stepping back into familiar shoes. Everybody jelled instantly as he said. It was just an absolute blast. I mean, Christian summed it up very well.
One of the more entertaining aspects of both halves of this season has been how Noah Wyle's Harry Wilson and Aleyse Hannon's Breanna Casey got to add new dimensions to the group dynamic. What was that like to get this fresh perspective about the Leverage crew, from within the Leverage crew?
Riesgraf: It was amazing. [There's this] great little speech with Parker in the Halloween episode at the end there where Breanna says, "Look, this is the world I've grown up in. I'm ready to take the bull by the horns here and do something about it." I think it's a really great way of showing, just like we go after the bullies, for Breanna's generation, it's a way of saying we can take charge and do something about this. Rather than being handed a total shit show, we're going to take it and do something different with this and use our voices.
I had such a great time directing Aleyse [in "The Great Train Job," from the new batch of episodes] because in the crew, she and Noah are the new faces and I have years of experience of working with everybody else. But with these particular actors, there's so much we haven't seen personally in scene work yet because it's new and it's fresh and it's fun. Watching each of them go, it was like, Aleyse has this ability with her physical comedy to just stand right alongside us and go there, being crazy, not worried about anything. Then when she has an emotional moment to land, she just brings it with this gravity.
In "The Great Train Job," we talk about racism, greenwashing, and sexuality. There's a lot of topics that got covered in that. It was largely focused on Alyese's character and being able to work with her, to hear her voice, to hear her opinion, and then take ideas to the writers. Her passion is as strong as ours for these things, for these moments for her character. So she would come to me and say, "You know what, this dialogue, I just think this..." I said, "Okay, let's jump in the trailer and Zoom the writers really quick at lunch and re-tweak the scene." Her viewpoint as an artist is so strong and certain that she was able to carry that through with Brianna, which I think when it really, really mattered. We were really lucky to have her voice, as well as Noah's.
Kane: I've worked with Noah. I got to spend five years with Noah on The Librarians, working very, very closely with him. So the problem that I and Noah had was, for five years, he played the librarian and I was the apprentice. He was my boss. He'd point me in the direction and I'd go fight that monster. And all of a sudden the roles are reversed... So we had a whole complete dynamic change on where we were. Anybody else, I don't know if we could have done it, but with Noah, he's such a good friend, such a strong actor, that we were able to do that without any real problems. That was the only thing I was worried about. Working with Noah, I know what he does. He's fantastic. It was flawless.
With Aleyse, it was a little different. I kept thinking to myself as Christian Kane, "How am I going to work? How am I going to react to her? What is she to me?" All this stuff. I was like, "I better figure this out, man, because we got some scenes coming up." Then I sit back and I go, "Wait a minute, if I can't figure it out, what makes you think Eliot would know what to do?" So I used that uncomfortableness, and I still to this day don't know exactly... I know Alyese means the world to me but I was like, "I'm going to try to find this. On film, I'm going to try to find out what Breanna means to Eliot."
I had a lot of fun doing that. I had a lot of fun playing with my own emotions and letting them just come too. Does he protect her? Does he get mad at her? Is anyone else going to be mad at him, if he gets mad at her? It ended up, it was so much fun. That was part of my job that I loved this season, was trying to figure out the dynamic between Eliot and her. [Alyese] probably doesn't even know that, but it made coming to work a lot more fun.
Riesgraf: I think so much of the fun, even with us, was because we've known each other as scene partners for all these years. Some of the best moments come when we surprise each other because it's like a game of ping pong. [Alyese] just rolled right into that. It was amazing. There's a moment when she gets to see Eliot fight in front of her for the first time and what Aleyse did with that, she was like air shadowboxing him and getting so excited. It was just this beautiful thing that grew out of that moment organically. There are so many moments, like Noah and Gina, when they get coupled up as a con, they're grifting together, it's my favorite. Noah literally is so present that he'll blush as Harry on camera, it's phenomenal. So I want more all of that because I think we've just scratched the surface.
A revival of the TNT original series, Leverage: Redemption returns on IMDb TV on Oct. 8