'Bates Motel': Freddie Highmore and Carlton Cuse Tease Finale Twists
Freddie Highmore has been earning raves for his role on Bates Motel, A&E's highest-rated drama in history. This coming Monday is the second season finale, and Highmore and executive producer/co-creator Carlton Cuse (best known from his similar role on ABC's Lost) took part in a conference call to discuss some of the momentous changes that are coming to the status quo of the creepy, riveting drama. So what can we expect from the upcoming season finale? Read on as Highmore and Cuse get into the details, along with how the story of the series has grown and evolved over the past two years.
Credit: A&E
On how his acting style has evolved, and how he's managed to avoid the pitfalls of other young actors:
Freddie Highmore: I guess I terms of the last thing I've always remained, I guess, relatively distant from film while growing up whenever I wasn't doing one myself. And so I carried on sort of going to normal school and, right now, I'm just a couple of weeks away from doing my final exams at the university. And so having always combined acting with my studies ... I think that's given me a kind of nice sense of distance in terms of not falling into the pitfalls that you mentioned.
In terms of evolution, I guess you become more aware as you get older of how lucky you've been to sort of be on these fantastic sets. And also aware of, I guess, the learning process that goes on subconsciously just by being on the set from a young age and learning from actors. Having never been to acting school myself, I guess you become more aware of the things that you learn, and traits, and other actors that you see to sort of replicate, or ways that they've approached certain scripts or material that you find inspiring. ... You know, as you get older you start to play all the characters and so I wouldn't say I'm kind of doing anything different now than I did before, it just seemed natural to me.
On whether they were fans of the movie, and if that affected how the series developed:
Carlton Cuse: Oh yes ... I was a huge fan of the movie. I think it's kind of in the pantheon of nearly perfect movies.
And so I was actually, you know, very afraid about making a show that would fall too heavily in the shadow of that. And so, right from the get-go, when [co-creator/EP] Kerry Ehrin ... and I started working on it, the very first and most important decision that we made was to do the show as a contemporary sequel which I think put the show in a different place than the movie.
I think if we had done it as a period show it would always be kind of in the oppressive shadow of this amazing master work that Hitchcock made. And, you know, for us, what we really wanted to do is just take these characters, like Tom Stoppard took Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, and bring them to life, like these two minor characters from Shakespeare, and give them their own existence. We took these two major characters from this Hitchcock movie and we sort of just placed them into a different time and gave them their own existence. And I think one of the things that's been really rewarding as the show has gone to a second season is that I think people are really beginning to see that Bates Motel is really its own thing.
It was inspired by the Hitchcock movie but it's really an original show taking some elements from the original Hitchcock movie, but our goal is to tell a wholly new story.
Freddie Highmore: I think I saw Psycho for the first time when I was 14 and then saw it one more time or a couple more times before finally doing Bates Motel and starting the first season.
I haven't sort have returned to it since, I guess as Carlton said, he said he was slightly sad in terms of taking it on. I guess he did a great job, both Carlton and Kerry, in making us all feel free to bring our own ideas, and to not feel tied at all to this original material which I think is so key to the show. I guess whilst there are certain aspects of Anthony Perkins' classic performance that people sort of see that you might have sought to replicate, there was never a sense of mimicking him. It was more sort of seeing him in the original film as an inspiration.
Credit: A&E
On how the second season finale compares to the first season finale:
Freddie Highmore: I think the whole arc of the second season has been fantastic for Norman and there's always time that you need in terms of establishing a character and seeing them as they are before they start off on this journey. And I think towards the end of this season we certainly see Norman, in the tenth episode -- especially and perhaps number eight that we've already seen -- we start to see this small manipulative side to Norman that starts to question our allegiance to him ... which has been great fun as an actor to play because you play against the sense of what people think Norman should be like.
But then there comes a point where I think, "To what extent can you continue to support his actions?" And with Norman's kind of growing realization of who he is, and who he might become, and what he's capable of comes this sense of power for him. And what I think is great about the tenth episode is ... by the end of the episode, are we still with him or not?
On whether the success of Bates Motel will inspire other networks exploring the backgrounds of famous characters:
Carlton Cuse: I mean, I think it's already happening in some sense. I mean, obviously, Hannibal is a sort of parallel example of where I think [creator/EP] Bryan Fuller has done a really great job of sort of reinventing that character in a different context. I mean, honestly, as writers, Kerry and I really don't think too much about what other people are doing, we're just kind of worried about our own show.
And, you know, I think for us, what distinguishes our show is we've tried to make the show very kind of heartfelt, and it has a lot of humor and emotion. And I think it operates on kind of a level that you don't expect from a show that's ostensibly about a guy who's a serial killer, and I think that's one of the things that's sort of surprising about it. So, you know, we just kind of focus on trying to make the best version of our show.
I personally think that the season finale is better because I think it moves the overall narrative a big step forward, and I don't want to spoil that too much, but I think that it's pretty evident as we've moved downstream here that there are these really significant looming questions. One is, you know, what is Norman's ultimate culpability in the murder of Ms. Watson, and secondly, how aware is Norman of what it is that he's done or is capable of doing.
To us those, are really important questions because the character's self-knowledge is a huge factor in how he moves forward. And, you know, we're going to jump right into the heart of those questions in the finale. It's really satisfying as a writer to have a chance to take those kinds of questions on, and Kerry and I sort of loved writing that stuff.
And it was just made all the better by how well Freddie executed it. ... I think the finale is my favorite episode of the season and a lot of that has to do with just how great the performances are by Freddie, Vera [Farmiga] and also Max Thieriot.
Credit: A&E
On whether we'll get an answer by the end of the season as to who killed Ms. Watson, and whether Freddie faced difficulty in making the audience constantly question the Norman/Norma relationship:
Freddie Highmore: I guess, yes, there will be something onto that question before the end of the season. I think it's tricky in terms of not wanting to spoil too much, but yes, they're toying with the audience. The relationship between Norma and Norman has likened in the past to this sense of an elastic band and it's kind of stretched out but then ultimately it returns to its original shape. And you kind of stretch it and you think it's going to break but it never quite does.
Norma and Norman always seem to get over whatever challenges they've had previously up until now. And I think that with the tenth episodes, it's inconclusive as to whether that bond has been snapped, and whether Norma and Norman can kind of continue along the path that they were going before or whether they can't ignore such key facts about each other any longer.
Credit: A&E
On whether Norman and Norma's relationship will continue to be strained due to her keeping Norman's blackout a secret, or if there will be a reconciliation in the cards:
Carlton Cuse: Norma and Norman's relationship is at the very heart of the show and so that, I don't think, ever will change.
That's what makes the show wonderful, is this incredible dynamic that exists between these two characters as portrayed by these two actors. I mean, that's the very heart and center of the show. The nature of that relationship, however, will evolve over time and I think, what's really interesting is that, you know, Norman is going from being sort of a boy to being a man. That's part of his journey over the course of the show. And I think that as he becomes more of a man, that has cumulative consequences in terms of how he and his mother relate to each other. Kerry and I certainly don't see that relationship as being static but we definitely see it as always being very close and very intense.
Credit: A&E
On whether there's any sense of what shape Season 3 will take, given what was covered in Season 2:
Carlton Cuse: Look, our goal is to continue to write the show on a high level and make Season 3 hopefully even better than Season 2. I mean, you know, our expectations are that high and we -- Kerry Ehrin and I -- have actually spent a fair amount of time talking about it, and we do have a preliminary game plan that we're very excited about. I mean, it's tough to say too much about it because a lot of it is driven by events that are in the finale that I don't want to spoil on this phone conference.
But I feel very confident that we can make a really engaging Season 3. We do have a plan and in fact we're already hard at work in terms of just sort of laying out the architecture of the new season. And I think it's going to be great, I'm really excited about it.
On how Hitchock's larger body of work has influenced the show:
Carlton Cuse: Oh I mean, you know, Hitchcock is one of my favorite filmmakers, in his ability to find suspense in very human moments and connect them to characters.
You know, there's just so many ways in which I've been influenced by him in terms of what he does as a filmmaker. I'm just kind of thinking in my mind of working on the show and just thinking about Rope or Vertigo or North by Northwest. And just, you know, he's just such an amazingly talented filmmaker in terms of his ability to tell these sorts of stories that were deeply suspenseful but also deeply psychological at the same time. And he had this incredible ability to both really put characters in really tense and dynamic, perilous situations.
But also, really, get you inside their psyches and really make you feel the way in which he connected his characters to the psychological and physical dilemmas of storytelling. It's something that was a huge influence on me.
On how Freddie Highmore came to mind for the role of Norman Bates:
Carlton Cuse: You know, I have to give great credit to April Webster, our casting director, who is a genius at what she does. She put Kerry Ehrin and I on a Skype call with Freddie very early on and we were just immediately charmed and captivated. We , along with the network and studio, sort of did our due diligence and we read a whole bunch of other actors. But it was just kind of one of those things where we were just spoiled right out the gate.
I mean, once we had talked to Freddie and kind of reviewed his work, it was just so clear that he was the guy and no one else even came close. So this is one of those things that I think is always what's so interesting about television. Whatever your intentions are,however good a script you write, there's this outcome that has to occur. Like, we had to get lucky enough to find Freddie, to get Freddie to do the show. I can't imagine the show working or existing or being half as good without him. ... It was to our great fortune and, you know, I'll take it.
On how Freddie's chemistry evolved with Vera Farmiga:
Freddie Highmore: I mean, obviously it evolves over time, but the joys of being on a TV show is that the relationship I have with the stars is obviously completely sort of different relationships than I have right now with Vera. Having grown incredibly close to her, and then her husband and children, and having spent time at their house. I guess they've been sort of my family away from home and, thankfully, spending evenings over there and sleeping over in their spare bedroom. They've just been absolutely wonderful and they're certainly, you know, my very best friends. So I'm just incredibly lucky on a personal level to have met them
And then as an actress, I think there's just always something going on. Every single take she's alive and trying something new and I think, especially with the TV show, because you spend so long with each other and you spend so much time shooting different scenes with each other, that there could be a tendency to kind of think beforehand, "Oh, we know how the scene will go because it's another scene with Norma and Norman."
And I think part of it is due to the quality of the writing, in keeping everything different. There's never been any moment that we thought to be kind of repetitious in any way. ... I think you could, as I'm sure Carlton and Kerry have wanted to do many times, you could shoot an entire scene just on Vera because she carries the motions, not only when she's speaking but when she's listening to the entire scene. It's just a joy to work with her.
Credit: A&E
On how many seasons were planned for the story of Bates Motel:
Carlton Cuse: Kerry and I have a plan, and we're having discussions with A&E and Universal Studios about just how many episodes, you know, we're going to do to finish the show. I mean it's definitely a show that has a beginning, middle and end, and I think we're kind of getting to the point where we need to sort of define that with the studio and the network, and kind of figure out exactly how many more total episodes we're going to do. And I'm hoping that we'll be able to work that out. Because we do know where we're going to end.
On whether Cuse has ever felt he and writing partner Kerry have ever gone too far with a story:
Carlton Cuse: Well, I mean ,I think that we certainly haven't crossed the line and had Norman and Norma having sex. You know, that would cross the line, so we haven't done that. I think the show is this very intentional cocktail of very pulpy storytelling and very nuanced character work, and that's what we're trying to accomplish week to week as writers. And I think that one of the great things, in terms of the kind of the feedback from the audience is that [they are] at least sort of getting our intentions. I think it's hard when you start out and you're making something that's under the cycle monitor, and everybody's got their expectations and, you know, kind of thinking about the original movie and stuff. And I think now that we're in the second season, and we're a long way from that origin, I think people are beginning to understand sort of what we are trying to do as storytellers. And so, we try to make the stories very pulpy and larger than life.
The Bates Motel Season 2 finale airs Mondays at 10/9c on A&E.