Only the final part of this characteristic incorporates well-marked spoilers.
For 15 years, Eve Harlow has let no grass develop beneath her ft, biking by roles on collection resembling Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The 100, The Killing, Canada’s The Guard, Titans and the “evil AI” thriller NEXT.
And then The Night Agent gave her a hoop.
Adapted by Shawn Ryan (The Shield, S.W.A.T.) from Matthew Quirk’s novel of the identical title, the Netflix hit — which was renewed simply six days after its launch — follows Peter Sutherland (performed by Gabriel Basso), a low-level FBI Agent who works within the basement of the White House, manning a telephone that by no means rings… till the evening that it does.
That frantic name, from Luciane Buchanan’s Rose Larkin, propels each Peter and Rose right into a conspiracy that leads all the way in which to the Oval Office. And Harlow’s enigmatic Ellen is there to canine the heroes each rattling step of the way in which, as one half of a crew of lovebird assassins. (The Heights‘ Phoenix Raei plays Dale, Ellen’s associate in each love and doling out demise.)
In the Night Agent novel, that relentless murderer is an older Russian male who works alone. But showrunner Shawn Ryan has spoken of his desire to sic on the great guys a duo that might converse with one another, and thus let viewers perceive their psyches.
“When Shawn and I first met,” Harlow tells TVLine, “he said that he had this idea in his head for a couple that are assassins, but he wanted to present them in a human way, and not the way that you traditionally see assassins — completely coldhearted and without any desires besides killing.”
As Harlow observes, “It’s a mistake to look at any character as being one-dimensional because no human being is one-dimensional.” For instance, Ellen at one level considers the dream of life in American suburbia, and perhaps even a household. “I mean, obviously these are very disturbed people — I’m not shying away from that,” says her portrayer. “But at the same time, there’s this desire for connection and fitting in, to a certain extent, because it gets lonely being someone like that in the world, completely on the outside of it at all times.”
Ellen’s propensity to “wig” out, in the meantime, was Harlow’s personal flourish.
“The idea for the wigs was actually my idea,” she shares with a chuckle. “I pitched it to Shawn and he was like, ‘OK, cool. I’ll see what everybody else thinks.’”
In retrospect, “The fact that everybody went along with it is kind of astounding,” Harlow notes, “because I feel like a lot of times actors have ideas and we get told ‘Yeah,’ but then it’s never mentioned again.” But on this occasion, hair division head Caroline Dehner “had this amazing array of wigs that I felt helped me with the character and added to the crazy,” Harlow effuses. “The wigs were f–king epic, man.”
As considered one of a number of malevolent forces that hunts the heroes throughout the 10-episode season, Ellen is a serious Night Agent character. She is also arguably some of the lively and dynamic roles Harlow has ever performed, and on an unqualified megahit. But Harlow retains the feat in perspective.
“I think it’s really hard to gauge what anything will be when you’re doing it,” Harlow permits, “so the way in which that I’ve approached each half is to only take what you will get from it within the second.
“Like, obviously I understand that [The Night Agent] is ‘No. 1 in 93 countries around the world’ — as the Internet keeps telling me!” she provides. “But the truth is that there have been other shows that I’ve been a part of that have been incredibly important to me on a personal level, where I’ve met people who have become very good friends.”
Surveying the a lot greater image, “I’m just very grateful to be an actor who’s working,” Harlow shares, earlier than permitting a glimpse into her upbringing. “My family immigrated from Russia to Israel to Canada, and there were, like, five of us sleeping on the floor of a one-bedroom. That is where I come from, so the fact that I get to pay my bills by acting is a dream come true. That in itself is a victory for me.”
Now, let’s speak about the place Ellen-the-assassin wound up as The Night Agent barreled to its conclusion….
FULL THE NIGHT AGENT SPOILERS AHEAD… FULL THE NIGHT AGENT SPOILERS AHEAD…
Again flashing again to her preliminary assembly with Shawn Ryan, Harlow says that as a result of the gig was for less than eight out of 10 episodes, she had requested the showrunner up entrance, “So I die, right?” When Ryan confirmed as a lot, it took Harlow simply two tries to accurately guess the way of her demise!
“I was like, ‘Do I get shot in the head?’ And he said no,” she remembers. “So I said, ‘Do I get pushed off of a tall building?’ And he was like, ‘How did you know?!’”
Harlow’s response: “Because I’m a supervillain, I need to die in an epic way. And the most epic ways to die are a shot to the head, or you get pushed off a tall building.”
Reflecting on Ellen’s intense, action-packed sendoff, Harlow raves, “Oh my God, it was so much fun. And it’s wild, because it’s like three seconds in the finished product, but it takes so much time to film and there are so many elements, and so many people involved to make it all come together, and then it ends up looking f–king rad.”
That rad look included a particular wardrobe alternative that was a nod to one of many aforementioned “very good friends” Harlow has made in her travels: NEXT co-star Fernanda Andrade.
“Fun fact: The shirt that Ellen dies in is for Fernanda’s husband’s band, Stick to Your Guns, because I was like, ‘Ellen should be in band T-shirts, but I don’t want fake, cheesy band T-shirts. It has to be a real band, and I want it to be cool.’ So I was like, ‘Josh [James], can I see what shirts your band has?’ And he was like, ‘Sure!’”
“It’s stuff like that that makes me feel like life and jobs are a domino effect,” Harlow provides. “It’s not just like one thing comes along and changes it all. No, they all help each other.”
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