Good Omens hits New York Comic Con with David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, and Neil Gaiman! Check out all the panel highlights and trailer!
Welcome to the end times!
The panel kicked off Saturday’s NYCC along with Miranda Richardson, who plays Madame Tracy, and director Douglas Mackinnon. Fans were treated to a lively discussion of the world building that went into taking the story of Good Omens (footnotes and all) from the page to the screen.
As if there was any doubt that Aziraphale (Sheen) and Crowley (Tennant) are the most highly anticipated duo to hit our screens in 2019.
Good Omens does not let up. As Gaiman says, “it just keeps going.” That is a testament not just to the fact the crew spent no more than two days on a location. There are 240 speaking parts, hundreds of locations, and the toughest thing is making it the best thing it could be.
Douglas Mackinnon, director of all six episodes, says, “as a director you couldn’t turn it down.”
How did everyone else come into the project? Michael Sheen kicks off his response saying, “Really I should be over there, not here, because I was a fan.” David Tennant, on the other hand, mentions that he first met the material by reading the script. He goes on to say, “I thought, ‘This is delicious, this is a double act.'”
Jon Hamm wants you to know, “I did this for money. Amazon paid me so much money, that I was like ‘sure!'” But Hamm followed that saying, “I was a fan of the book and was a fan of Neil’s for some time.” The role came to him via email without any detail other than that the character was not in the book. He wrote back yes, without a second thought.
The production meant that the cast and crew were huddled together in caravans for long stretches of time. Each cast member on stage commented that spending time together during those long shoots brought them so much joy. And it translates to the screen and the stage at Comic Con.
Douglas Mackinnon notes that, “When you see David and Michael together they almost create a third person… they meld together.” There can be no Aziraphale without Crowley. There can be no Crowley without Aziraphale.
At the first table read, Michael Sheen remembers feeling the duo coming together. He explains it saying, “Oh right, [David] you’re in your dance space and I’m in my dance space. We would bump up against each other but ultimately we started moving together to the rhythm.”
David says, “We trusted the script and gave into it. And this world emerges… These two [Aziraphale and Crowley] are in the middle of madness going ‘we’ve got each other, hang on.’ And we did that as actors.”
What makes these characters bounce off of each other so well? Gaiman points fans back to a line in the book that also makes it into the series: The great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people. Caused by people being fundamentally people.
Whoopi Goldberg, who hosted the panel, asks Hamm if he was “okay with being the big second banana to God?” Hamm said that yes, who wouldn’t want that job? “My take on him is that he is that boss that you don’t like. He is so certain of his rectitude and correctness, but he is so wrong,” says Hamm.
While that may remind you of someone more current, Hamm hopes that you find Gabriel in this context funny. And I don’t doubt that you will, after watching a clip featuring Hamm and Paul Chahidi, who plays Sandalphon, escorting Gabriel through a small human interaction. And they are acting incredibly normal. So normal. In the clip Hamm is delightfully hilarious in the role of Gabriel.
Miranda Richardson says that playing Madame Tracy was a bit greedy because she got to play so many roles. “There’s a séance scene during which I have many manifestations, and I have to say, it was fun. I hope it doesn’t look like hard work, it was a great day.”
Speaking to the direction and laying it all on the line for each scene, Richardson said, “I don’t think there was ever too much.”
Good Omens arrives on Amazon Prime in 2019.
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