Comic-Con Exclusive: Interview with the cast of 'Bates Motel'

For a show that is based off of one of the most iconic Hitchcock movies of all time, Bates Motel has grown into a series that has entranced fans with its dramatic telling of the back story of the infamous characters of Psycho. Just ending its fourth season on the A&E network, Bates Motel ended on an extremely surprising and intense note which left fans of the show reeling with anticipation for the fifth and last season of the series, coming out next year.

This past weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, we were able to sit down with the cast and executive producers of the show. They discussed what we can expect from the fifth and final season and how the surprise death of this past season will affect the rest of the show. It was also confirmed that superstar and singer Rihanna would be joining the cast in the famous role of Marion Crane.

Vera Farmiga, who plays the role of Norma Bates, was first up. She is the tragic, yet sometimes crazy mother of Norman Bates. After her surprising death last season, fans were uncertain how her character would still be incorporated into the show's plot. When asked how it was for her to film her death scene, Farmiga had a sense of peace about her characters death.

"I loved it. I had been emoting so much for years; and I couldn't wait for serenity; and to be honest with you I was psyched to just relax and just fall asleep. For me it was a chance to just sit back and fall asleep and just hover on it," said Farmiga. "However this one really hit hard for me (as an actor)."

Since Bates Motel is the longest running show she's been part of, we asked Farmiga how she felt about being a series that has had multiple seasons, and what it was like to actually be an executive producer on the show.

"I love this role; I love my collaborators. I have such close friends now, and you can see that chemistry on screen, it just comes across. That is a cool thing for me to experience," said Farmiga. "I am always very vocal about my ideas too. I am on set every day. I make sure tonally everyone is on the same page. I am always bossing people around, and in that respect that is where you see me as executive producer, almost like a backup director."

Bates Motel S04E06 Norma
Screenshot courtesy of YouTube

We ended up discussing how Farmiga felt about having more intimate and direct scenes with Freddie Highmore (Norman) this upcoming season, since after her death last season, Norma only lives within Norman's head now.

"I have no idea what's in store. I don't even know how I am going to approach Mother. I haven't seen a single page of season five. I am only imaging that they have no rules anymore ... they chose to push her out that season four window and she's fallen twelves stories high and now Norman has got to pick up all of these pieces. I have no idea what's in store."

Freddie Highmore, the talented young actor who takes on the role of serial killer Norman Bates, was up next. After last season we really saw Norman's character truly become the menacing killer that we know from the Psycho movie. We asked him how it felt to be the only person that gets to interact with Norma, since she will only live in his head now.

"I wonder how that will work. In many ways this whole turn of events will mean I will get to have many more scenes with Vera then I've had before, and obviously that's a brilliant opportunity and I love her and love working with her," said Highmore. "I certainly think you will be descending into madness; I mean given the fact that Vera is going to be such a huge part of the show. We know she is dead, but Norman thinks otherwise. It is based around Norman's subjective reality rather than anything objective. He will be going a little madder as time goes by."

Many were wondering as well whether Highmore took any influence from the original Pyscho movie and actor Anthony Perkins or if he was excited to have shaped this character for himself.

"I think that bringing it into the contemporary setting and this season deciding to intersect the Bates Motel story line with Psycho, but not necessarily retelling it, that's left us free to come up with our own version of the characters. I think I've tried to come up with a happy medium where I've taken inspirations from Anthony Perkins' performance but it's never felt like I've had to mimic anything," said Highmore.

Freddie Highmore
Credit: Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com

 

On interacting with his fans and the fans of the show Highmore said, "It's lovely to come to Comic-Con and the panel earlier and give that certain amount of interactive. I don't have Twitter or Instagram or PokemonGo and so I don't have that day to day interaction, so it's nice to have that at Comic-Con."

Finally, we asked whether or not Highmore believes Norman's evilness to be a product of nurture or nature and if he did any scientific research into Norman's psychotic behavior.

"I think it's the mix. I think what this season has shown is that it's not necessarily Norman's fault, it's not Norma's fault, it's not Romero's fault; none of them are really to blame. I don't think that Norman tried to manipulate the outcome (when Norman tried to kill both himself and Norma). I believe it was really this act of love, of trying to send them off to a better place, in his sort of deluded way. It's the ultimate mixture," said Highmore.

The next star of the show we sat down with was Nestor Carbonell, who plays Alex Romero, the sheriff and love interest of Norma. Carbonell's Romero had a larger role this season than any previous season. The burning question for him was how he and his character came to the terms that his love, Norma was killed off this season.

"This little jerk ruins it all," joked Carbonell. "It's awful. Even knowing it was coming, you try to stay in the moment as much as you can. I remember Vera and I tried to keep it light, keep it hopeful. You have to stay hopeful through the whole process, but it was so devastating, I didn't know it was going to hit me as hard as it did. We've grown so attached to these characters, as messed up as they are, so when one of them dies, it almost feels real."

When asked about no longer working with Farmiga, Carbonell told the panel, "I mean, unless my character starts hallucinating, I can't imagine they do (interact)," said Carbonell. "I knew going into it, that after episode nine, that's it. Unfortunately, Freddie hogs him all to herself next season."

Carbonell also discussed his directorial debut in next year's final season and it was clear he couldn't be anymore excited.

"I never thought in a million years I would get that opportunity and it's really thanks to Vera. Vera is the one who encouraged me. I am thankfully surrounded by an amazing cast and equally impressive crew and I learned so much and I continue to learn as much as I can. I will be directing the fifth episode; I can't exactly say what is going to happen, but it'll be a good one for sure, even though they are all good, this is a particularly good one," said Carbonell.

The vibe from Carbonell definitely went from comedic to emotional when he was asked about how he felt that this season will be his last.

"I really try not to go there. It's even sad knowing that this is the last Comic-Con. We live apart from each other, so this is a time we really enjoy to get together and talk about the show with our fans and catch up personally. We will stay in touch though, these are friends I know will be life long friends."

Next we sat down with Max Thieriot, who plays Dylan, Norma's son. Thieriot's main point of excitement for next season was that he announced he would get the chance to direct on of the episodes for season five.

"I am really looking forward to it. I've wanted to be a director since I've started acting. I've always been so inquisitive and curious about how things worked, even at a young age. I am super excited and grateful that they are giving me the opportunity to do it. I also think it is a great place for me to start because I am so familiar with the characters and the writing and how the show looks. I already feel at home, " said Thieriot.

Thieriot then talked about what it's been like knowing that this season is the last goodbye.

"It's weird and it's honestly really sad. It's been such a fun journey. I kind of judged different parts of my life based off of projects I do. This show has become such a huge part of my life and so many things happened during it. It is really going to feel like an end of an era. I mean I got married, I had a kid, there were so many things that happened in my own personal life over the course of shooting. You also make such great friends with these people, that it's really weird to say goodbye," said Thieriot.

As for what he is going to do next after Bates Motel ends, Thieriot talked about wanting to stay in the TV world.

"I want to do something else in television. It's been a lot of fun and it's been really cool doing the TV show thing. Now that I have a family, a consistent schedule is also really nice. If I could find the right thing in the TV world, I will continue doing TV."

Last but not least, we sat down with the executive producers of the show, Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin to discuss their motivations for going  in certain directions, as well as what we can expect from the final season.

They offered a great teaser when asked about Rihanna's new role on the show as Marion Crane. Carlton said, "We are not doing a remake of Psycho. The danger of having Marion Crane on the show is that people think they will know what the story is going to be. We are using that character but I think that character and the casting of Rihanna should signal that we are doing a very different version of Marion Crane. We are doing our own version. We are doing a 2017 version of Marion Crane and so there will be some points of connection with the original movie, but the way she traverses through the narrative will be fresh."

With just five seasons, we asked if they know all along that it would only last this long before they decided to end it.

"We always felt right that it was supposed to be this long, " said Ehrin. "We always felt that telling more than 50 hours of a story about Norman Bates would almost be deluded and it wouldn't be good. We live in an environment now where if your show isn't good, then don't make it. There are 420 different shows out there; nobody is interested in mediocre television. So we really felt our show would be its best and strongest if we had a five year journey that allowed us to map out what we wanted to do."

We then asked Ehrin and Cuse whether they had always known they were going to kill off Norma so early on, and whether or not that would effect the tone of the show.

"Yeah, we did. We wanted to have room in the last season to tell the story of Norman Bates," said Ehrin. "I would say the incident was dark, but the tone of the show is the tone of the show and I think that is fairly consistent. We always try to write from character and that's not going to change."

As for their main character Norman, the producers talked about how much more in depth they would get in showing Norman's madness evolve.

"He was pretty gone by the end of the last season. We are just going to follow him down the rabbit hole. The dynamic [between Norma and Norman] will be a huge part of the story now with those two beings," said Ehrin. "We know what we want to accomplish."

Talking with the cast during comic-con gave huge insight and feelings to how much impact the show will have in its fifth and final season next year and it sounds like fans of the show are in for a huge treat.

 

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