Evan Williams on The Way Home: “Prepare for All of Your Expectations to be Flipped Upside Down”

We’re solely two episodes into Hallmark’s new household drama with a fantasy factor, The Way Home, however we’re already keen for extra.

We had the possibility to meet up with Evan Williams, who performs the grownup model of Elliot Augustine, a long-time household buddy of the Landry household.

Elliot is part of the household’s material and acts as Alice’s tether as she navigates the previous and current of his and her household’s lives.

What are you most having fun with about taking part in Elliot Augustine?

That’s a very good one. I feel Elliot is a very multifaceted character, which at all times fires my creativeness.

What’s actually cool about this character is I get to play one dynamic with Alice, which is type of the mentor, just like the older era in confiding knowledge and path, and on the identical time, a special dynamic with Kat, who’s Alice’s mom, which is, hopefully, extra of a romantic, a peer making an attempt to work his approach out of the buddy zone.

So it is good to play that stress between having a lot authority with one particular person after which actually struggling to attempt to discover a stage floor with the opposite particular person. It’s particularly attention-grabbing when these two dynamics flip, and he is having hassle establishing authority the least bit.

Something I discover actually attention-grabbing about his dynamic with each of them is that he has managed to hold that secret about Alice for all of these years. How do you suppose he managed to try this?

Well, I feel Elliot is a man who cares. He cares deeply in regards to the Landrys, and in addition I take into consideration actuality. And as quickly as you are coping with something time journey associated, you begin to acknowledge how precarious the space-time continuum is.

And Elliot is a brilliant man, and I do not suppose he needs to tear a gap in actuality and have the complete experiment go up in flames. So I feel he noticed it as crucial to hold the key so he might hold the variables underneath management.

Now, I’m making an attempt to think about younger Elliot, who, of course, you aren’t taking part in, however you’re the elder Elliot. And when Jacob disappeared, do you suppose it dawned on him that perhaps he went by the pond?

I imply, that looks like a seminal second to me the place I can not think about how anyone couldn’t need to attempt to rip that gap if it meant getting a baby again.

Yeah. I feel Elliot is a scientist, and so I’m certain he is examined each potential permutation of what might need occurred. But he is additionally not the type of man who’s going to run with theories.

He wants to be in a position to show issues. And the truth that the pond is, as we have established, an unreliable mechanism, which means that generally it really works, generally it does not, I feel that there is nothing Elliot might do with any of that data as a result of he had to hold it secret.

So no matter his theories are, I’m certain he is received years and years of writing about it. You may even inform by the way in which he acts when he lastly meets Alice. It’s all occurring. It’s all like he is now on the opposite facet.

And so perhaps some of the mysteries he is been harboring internally and alone for all these years, he lastly goes to have an opportunity to get some solutions to. So I feel that is actually thrilling for Elliot.

Have you given him some backstory into what it should have been like for these two occasions in his life to abruptly be in existence?

Yeah, undoubtedly. It’s basic to having the ability to play a personality like that, to be in a position to fill within the strains. And for me, crucial was what had been the years in between.

Right.

And in a approach, he is type of been given a prophecy, and I’m certain within the interceding years, he had a number of alternatives to both attempt to check that prophecy or attempt to reverse it or any quantity of issues.

And so I had to make some choices about what the state of Elliot we see at first of our present is and the way it in contrast to the younger Elliot so fantastically and pointedly performed by younger David Webster, a very gifted Canadian actor who I liked getting to work alongside.

We by no means actually received to be in the identical scene collectively, clearly, as a result of that might break every thing, however we did get some alternative to put our heads collectively and develop some backstory and mannerisms and issues that we might use to unite our two performances.

I used to be going to ask that as a result of I seen an actual similarity between the time that younger Elliot realizes that he isn’t Alice’s father and the time that you’re reacting to Kat when she places her head on your shoulder. There was an actual longing on each of your faces at the moment.

Well, that is actually gratifying to hear that it made it by the airwaves and into your eye holes, so thanks for watching.

[laughs] Yes, sure, it did. What’s he feeling now that Kat’s again in his life as he is coping with all of these items from the previous that’s coming collectively? I imply, you possibly can see the hope on his face that he nonetheless harbors feeling for her. So yeah, he does need to get out of the buddy zone, as you talked about.

Yeah. Well, I feel Kat and Alice signify to Elliot a possibility to lastly be free of the prophecy of dwelling inside an outlined actuality, which he is been doing endlessly since he was 16 years previous. So I feel it is thrilling and scary.

And I additionally suppose there’s one thing to anyone who resides or figures out how to dwell comfortably inside one modality, for instance, as quickly because it’s challenged, or there’s the likelihood that every thing might change, all of a sudden the query turns into, nicely, do I need it to change? And am I prepared for it to change?

And so I feel Elliot’s simply working actually arduous to listen and, as at all times, see if he can be of service. Because yeah, he loves not solely Kat however this entire household. They’re so central to his total life in ways in which they do not even know, or most of them do not even know at this level.

So yeah, it is like all of a sudden, there is a cost, and it feels just like the wattage is amping up for Elliot, and he is studying how to take care of the brand new present.

So I’m curious, if somebody confirmed you a magical pond after which you possibly can go someplace, would you bounce in?

Absolutely. Without hesitation. Well, I imply, the query is when, proper? When would I need to land?

Right. Do while you would need to land?

Well, I imply, it is a powerful one. It’s powerful to resolve when as a result of you don’t need to get in hassle for the issues . So yeah, perhaps one thing like 20 years.

Twenty years would be good as a result of it isn’t to date again that you are going to be accused of being a heretic, and you are not going to change into a snack for a Tyrannosaurus Rex or one thing like that.

So it could be actually fascinating to be in a position to witness your self making essential decisions. And I additionally suppose it could be actually troublesome not to need to get entangled.

Right. And since we all know that the pond has a thoughts of its personal, I do know the place you’d need to go about 20 years. Where do you suppose it could take you?

Wherever I used to be wanted, in all probability.

That’s a very good one. Yeah. I might think about it could take me someplace actually awkward that I did not really need to go. Like my punishment for leaping in. [laughs]

Yeah. Or if there was one thing, like perhaps in a dream, if there was some expertise that I took to coronary heart and had the chance to witness from the facet and acknowledge the lesson that I had discovered or the way it modified me.

I got here away with it considering one factor, however [through the pond] I used to be in a position to discover some reflexivity and see it from a special angle and perhaps forgive myself or have some extra empathy.

Because it is arduous to develop up. It’s arduous to be alive. So I feel it is a want success factor to be in a position to return and be taught extra, figuring out what we now know.

Which leads me to this query, when you might give Elliot recommendation, each younger and previous, what wouldn’t it be?

Oh, grasp in there. And additionally, you matter. Your coronary heart issues, and the way you’re feeling issues. I feel Elliot’s a helper, and generally helpers overlook to assist themselves.

And my final query for you is, how would you tease the remaining of the season?

It simply will get a lot extra thrilling and complicated and rewarding from right here on out. Now that we have arrange the present, we all know who the characters are and what they need. Prepare for all of your expectations to be flipped the wrong way up.

And I feel people are going to fall in love with these characters much more and hopefully see a little bit bit of themselves.

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The Way Home airs Sundays at 9/8c on Hallmark Channel.

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