Among all the characters that face the end of the world in Stephen King's landmark novel The Stand, two of the most nuanced and morally complicated are Nadine Cross and Larry Underwood, who are portrayed by Amber Heard and Jovan Adepo, respectively, in the CBS All Access adaptation. Nadine infiltrates the survivor community established in Boulder, Colorado, while Larry is a musician caught in Manhattan as the world plunges into the contagion-fueled chaos, scrambling to escape the city and reach Boulder.
In a roundtable interview attended by CBR, Heard and Adepo shared what drew them to portraying their respective characters and how they see them surviving the apocalypse.
As with the original novel, Nadine is not all she seems, with ties to Randall Flagg and the dark forces he has marshaled in Las Vegas revealed over the course of the story. Despite this duplicity inherent in the character, Heard strove to find the truth at the core of Nadine in her performance.
"Nadine is a bit of a double agent," Heard explained. "She has lived enough and is smart enough to know to adapt herself to the expectations of whoever she's talking to and dealing with, and it can be challenging to play a character that is basically functioning with their own motivations and intentions that are not exactly clear. But I protected the integrity of her ability to pull off that disguise and that mission by leaning into the truth of what was compelling her to be in communication with these people in the first place. I leaned into the truth of, for instance, her connection with the character that Jovan plays. She genuinely does care about Larry, genuinely is compelled to him and what he represents, leaning into the truth of what could and does keep her there as a human and that allows her to effectively be the double agent she is in such an effective way; it's real."
For Adepo, he was given quite a bit of creative freedom in developing his portrayal of Larry as the miniseries' depiction of the character features a change in race from King's novel. For the change, Adepo sought to honor the spirit of the literary character while adding his own voice and contemporary influences to the performance.
"I think it really just started with the conversation I had with Josh Boone when he first approached me about playing this character," Adepo said. "I had done my research. I wasn't familiar with the book beforehand so we had quite a lengthy conversation about who this character is and how he fits in this world that Stephen King created -- and he was definitely open to me putting my own spin on things. [...] Larry Underwood is written as a white musician, and I think that Josh was just interested in seeing what I was going to bring to him. I wanted to do my best to keep loyal to the fans in any way that I could because this is such a respected piece of material, but I definitely had my own ideas about influences.
"I would have to say Gary Clark, Jr. was one of them, just as far as his general look, I think. He has a complexion that is close to mine, so he is someone that I really attached to as far as his style, and I just like his whole swagger as an artist and a musician, so I definitely kind of wanted to jack his style a bit. But as far as Larry's personality, attitude, the way he carries himself, his lack of morality, I absolutely wanted to stay true to how he was portrayed in the book, for sure, because I think that's why people have come to like Larry over the years. The journey that he has is ultimately as somebody that may not be the most perfect individual, but he finds his way in a very sincere manner, and that's something that I didn't want to mess with at all."
Heard also complimented Adepo's musical abilities, as he played guitar on set between filming scenes. Heard also compared her co-star to the rockstar talent of his character.
In response to a question from CBR identifying her character as one of the story's most tragic, Heard agreed with the assessment and discussed how she found Nadine's humanity, as she's manipulated by dark forces beyond her control. "I see Nadine as a human," Heard explained. "She was groomed from an early age and the influence that has had, especially if the person doing the grooming is supernatural. I know a lot of strong people, but it would take a whole kind of human to be able to overcome that, and I think that's why she's an important character in the book, because we get a sense [that] she even can't overcome the forces that played on her but that was from the time she was a young child and she has a very, very dark past and even with those influences playing on her.
"She still found it hard to ultimately take those final steps and vacate her stand; she takes her own stand. And it took work to do that, she does feel so hard for these humans that are trying so hard to build something better and build something new. She feels for Larry, she feels for the kid, she is drawn to the people that she has met in the Boulder Free Zone, and it is hard for her to ultimately commit to what she knows she needs to, because that's what she's been trained to do and waiting to do and destined to do, in some ways, since she was a kin.
"So I think what you were saying about her being the ultimate victim and the tragedy, I would agree wholeheartedly but it's the battle to get there, the battle to resist it, that I found so interesting; that's what Nadine does she well: She tries really hard to fulfill her mission but she fights it very hard too and how could she not? She sees the humanity and it is intoxicating in its own way and I think seeing her fight off the light is tragic but it's interesting."
Heard finds it hard to portray characters that are liars, Nadine included, but found the fact that the character was forced to do it to survive compelling as an actor. Heard observed that The Stand is a story that plunges its audience into a harsh world that has them question their own morality and what lengths they themselves would go to survive. Nadine's conflict and stakes make her personify these questions the most, and Heard appreciated the challenge that came with portraying the character, noting, "Who wants to play the good guy?"
In response to a question from CBR, Adepo noted that he enjoyed the nuance that came with portraying Larry, especially as the character found himself trapped in New York City as The Stand's contagion swept across the world, making his escape especially harrowing.
"Playing characters who are imperfect and who have real-life like journeys to go through, I think audiences can relate to that because we're all imperfect beings and it's fun to kind of get to see maybe a bit of yourself when they're going through things like this. And for me, it was fun to play just because the crew, the writers and everyone involved just did an incredible job at creating this world. It's so hard not to spoil things, but as far as Larry doing his best to get through New York and navigate without the technology and things like that, it was exciting to get go into different environments throughout New York being in total darkness and not having anyone to talk to, just trying to make sense of what the hell am I going to do next without having the obvious tools to help you.
"I think it was really fun to get to do that and the writers Ben [Cavell], Taylor [Elmore] and Josh [Boone] were really open about really trying to catch the ugly side of reacting to this for the first time. I think there's ways in television and film where you can glorify certain moments and, even with characters, you can make them seem like they're always prepared for these weird things that happen. But with the characters in this story, you get a lot of WTF moments like, 'I don't know what to do right now! It's pitch black and I can't see anything!' And they take a lot of steps forward and there's learning and growing as characters but then they take steps back sometimes and that was fun to me to get to have this really, really difficult journey of finding Larry's place in this new world. Everyday, it was a treat for me."
One particular challenge was a set piece that had Adepo and co-star Heather Graham attempt to escape Manhattan through the sewers beneath the city. The production used real rats for the sequence, with Adepo recalling that Graham had a rougher time working with the rodents on set to film the sewer scene until eventually acclimating to the conditions.
The Stand stars Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg, Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, James Marsden as Stu Redman, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen, Irene Bedard as Ray Bretner, Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid, Eion Bailey as Weizak, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, Katherine McNamara as Julie Lawry, Fiona Dourif as Ratwoman, Natalie Martinez as Dayna Jurgens, Hamish Linklater as Dr. Jim Ellis, Daniel Sunjata as Cobb and Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman. The Stand premieres on Dec. 17 on CBS All Access.