On Apple TVs “Silo” season 3We go back 352 years to the Before the times to see how the largest engineering project in the history of the world began… and would end.
Taking center stage in this dark sci-fi drama are ambitious Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick), the pre-apocalypse duo we were first introduced to in the season 2 finale.
In that scene, the beautiful couple met on a first date at a Washington, DC restaurant after a dirty bomb had irradiated the city.
Daniel and Helen play pivotal roles in “Shiloh’s” elaborate conspiracy to save humanity, helping to orchestrate a colossal project in Georgia to build a controlled network of survival bunkers that will last centuries until Earth is somehow habitable again after a mysterious calamity. Wait, that sounds familiar…
Zukerman and Henwick create a completely believable relationship as they find themselves reluctantly dragged into this mind-bending plot to save the human race. We connected with them to get the lowdown on how to cultivate their chemistry and intimacy on the show.
“It’s nothing we worked to generate; it was actually there from the beginning,” Zukerman tells Space. “We went out together, and we certainly didn’t do it with the purpose of developing that chemistry. I think we were very lucky to find a teammate that we could do that with.”
“We share the same tastes and work ethic,” explains Zuckerman. “When you go on such a big journey with someone and we filmed every day for four months together, we always supported each other and there was an immense amount of unconditional respect and emotion. I’m not the kind of actor who could fake it.”
Henwick discussed the complexities of her witty character and her expanded role in season 3 by exploring what she drew from to compose a layered Helen.
“It was my memory of working on the school newspaper when I was 14,” he explains. “And also my natural inclination towards the ‘Spanish Inquisition’. I feel a great affinity with journalists. I always love asking questions and I want to know why and understand things. I’m very curious about the world. I didn’t feel like I had to generate much for Helen. In fact, I felt like she was very close to me.”
The stunning set design of “Silo” certainly helped the cast immerse themselves in the apocalyptic world of author Hugh Howey’s dystopian novels and in this lavish Apple TV adaptation.
“I’m a terrible guest on sets, especially if I’m part of the production,” Zukerman adds. “I have to remember to sit in awe for a second at the scale of the operation. Usually I just try to live as the characters live. Then I’m very grateful that you can actually live in a real space, especially a science fiction one, which is not our real world.
“When the drawers open and when you look at something, you’re not looking at a blue screen or a green screen, you can actually experience life as close as possible within this alternate reality.”
Look
Likewise, Henwick absorbed the immense scope and scale of “Silo” from the beginning.
“I’ve done a lot of fantasy and sci-fi where I’m stuck in front of a green screen, or there’s a tennis ball on a stick, and you have to follow it, and that’s the spaceship,” she shares. “It was nice to be on a show where a lot of it was done hands-on. I remember the first day I went to visit the stairs and it blew me away. It’s a huge set, one of the biggest I’ve ever been on.”
Executive produced by Graham Yost, the third season of “Silo” is now streaming on Apple TV.
