Cacciatore/trice Soprannaturale
- Group
- Member
- Posts
- 82,679
- Status
- Anonymous
|
|
Exclusive Interview with Robbie Thompson: Nerding Out & Discussing Every Supernatural Episode He Wrote
Nerds and Beyond: And I know I’m not the only one. But yes, at least 2-3. Another one I think that’s is a huge favorite, LARP And The Real Girl.
Robbie: Yes. LARP And The Real Girl was a lot of fun to work on.
Nerds and Beyond: I love it so much.
Robbie: We had talked about bringing Charlie back. At the beginning of the year, like I said, the showrunners have a vision for what they want. And then there’s usually a list of characters like, “Hey, we miss this guy, miss this girl, can’t we bring this person back? Is this person really dead?” There’s always a list, and every time we would revisit that list, Charlie’s name was always on it, and near the top. I think the only regret I have during my time there, is I wish other people had written Charlie. Because I think for some reason it sort of became like, my domain. Which is too bad, because I wish there’d been other people. And I hope, if they bring the character back down the road, that other voices get to explore that character.
Nerds and Beyond: Are you the only writer who wrote Charlie?
Robbie: I wrote all but her last episode. I wrote every single one but that one. So, this episode came from my own personal history, which is I know a lot of LARPers, and I encountered some LARPers in college.
Nerds and Beyond: Do you LARP?
Robbie: I don’t LARP, I only played Dungeons and Dragons for the first time this past year, my wife and I joined my friend’s game and we love it. It’s awesome. But I went to USC, and I cut through a building one time, where a bunch of kids were LARPing. And I didn’t know that they were LARPing, and they didn’t know I was just a civilian, and they kind of jumped out and attacked with their foam swords. They didn’t hit me, because you have to kind of announce what you’re doing, and I dropped my soda and my can of Pringles, and I was like, peeing my pants. They were like, “Oh sorry, buddy. We’re playing a game.” And I was like, “Okay.” And I had never heard of it really. I grew up around Dungeons and Dragons but I didn’t have enough friends that played it. I became fascinated with LARPing because it just seemed like such a great extension of role playing, which now that I’ve done role playing, it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a writer’s room without being in a writer’s room. And I can’t tell you how many writers I’ve worked with for years now, the majority of them will be like, “Oh, I cut my teeth storytelling by playing D&D.” Because it’s very much a give and take relationship, where you’re trying to build something together. So I was always fascinated with it, and then in college I lived with some folks that LARPed, who got really, really into it. I watched this documentary called Darkon at the LA Film Festival, and it was on Netflix for a while. It takes a, I wouldn’t say it’s a critical point of view, but it takes an overview of one game that’s in, I think rural Pennsylvania. And I was fascinated with the way people could escape their lives, through this extension of a universe that they wanted to play in. This was a long time ago, this was before fan fiction had been popularized, like we’re at a convention where cosplay is the norm rather than the exception to the rule. And I just really respected it, and I wanted to do something that was fun, but without making fun of it. And it just felt like it was a way to bring Charlie back. I set the game in Heritage Park, which is a real place. You can visit, it’s in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Every time I’m back in Michigan I try to go visit Moondoor. Though it looks nothing like it’s depicted in the show. Because Vancouver and suburban Detroit are very, very different.
I hadn’t met Felicia in real life at that point, but I knew what she had done with that character, and I knew that we could really push the character even further. It was kind of like a trust fall, and I knew that Felicia could handle more. I love the dynamic that she brings out in both the boys, it’s a sisterly vibe, but there’s also, she’s not afraid to hold her own. The internet sometimes calls Charlie an author insert, but like, I’m nothing like that character. She has some of my dialogue quirks at times. But I would have ran in every single situation. I’m not smart. I’m not a hacker. I have none of the confidence that she has. I aspire to be that, maybe. But I really responded to what Felicia did as an actor, and bringing that character to life. There’s some overlap but, she’s not like that character IRL. So it was great to continue that process of building that character together. It’s always fun when you can bring a character back, but it’s more fun when you can show them growing as a character. That was the most fun of that part of the episode.
http://www.nerdsandbeyond.com/2018/03/19/e...isode-he-wrote/
|
|
.
