The Gifted‘s Blair Redford hints at the drama and details of this week’s daring mission — and the consequences for mutants and humans alike.
Redford plays John Proudstar (a.k.a. Thunderbird) on Fox’s compelling new X-Men series, and the actor promises that this week’s episode will play directly to his character’s strengths. After three episodes of building tension, Proudstar prepares to lead the mutant underground on a rescue mission that already feels like it can’t come a moment too soon.
Related: The Gifted review: This X hits the spot
But the task of rescuing Lorna (a.k.a. Polaris, Emma Dumont) and stalwart anti-mutant prosecutor turned “My kids are mutants and I regret everything” dad Reed Strucker (Stephen Moyer) will challenge the group in ways they can’t even imagine. Monday night’s episode may be titled “eXit strategy,” but as Redford suggests, freedom for mutants never comes easily.
Interview with ‘The Gifted’ actor Blair Redford
What can you tell us about John Proudfoot’s role in “eXit strategy”?
I think for my character, for John… one interesting thing you get to see is, he’s had this build where it shows how his leadership surfaces in the group in a big way in this coming episode. It’s the first time you see him really sit down and plan out a tactical operation, I kind of feel like episodes 1-3 you’ve had [the Mutants] on their heels a lot. They’ve just been trying to gain a neutral balance, from all of these incidents that have been happening ever since Lorna was taken, and the Strucker kids fell in their laps, and all of that stuff.
So it is kind of cool, I think it’s the first time you see the mutant underground go on the offensive, which is really fun. So for John in particular, I think that’s a specialty for him. He’s the only character that has military background, so he really shines and flourishes in a moment like this.
How deep into John’s personal life will we dive this week?
They don’t really touch on that too much in [episode] 4. He does talk a little bit about his past, starting this branch of the Mutant underground. He discusses how him and Polaris were the first two people to begin the operation in Atlanta, so that’s kind of interesting. But we don’t really delve too much into his personal life, like the years before and family stuff or any of that yet.
What would you say is John’s main challenge in this episode?
The way I looked at it back when we were shooting it, and I was actively involved in it, I remember looking at it from John’s perspective where, I think he’s really facing a moment in [episode] 4 where the decisions he makes, and like I said, going on the offensive, you start to get to a place where people could die. And you’re making these choices to go rescue people that are in captivity, and if that goes bad, then was it worth it? Because you lose other members of the team.
So I think it’s just that it’s a heavy responsibility weighing out what the right decisions are. Him going with his instincts, but at the same time, his best friend Eclipse (Sean Teale) he’s probably not thinking as clear, because all he wants to do is get Polaris back, and she’s got his baby, so he’s gung-ho on doing whatever it takes to get them back. And I think John has to be the more level-headed one when facing these decisions.
The Gifted‘s relationships got a lot more complicated last week, when Dreamer planted a romantic memory of John into Blink’s mind. Where will we see that go in this week’s episode?
The relationship with Blink (Jamie Chung) and Thunderbird, that’s been really fun to play. [Episode] 4, I think, is really interesting because you’ve just come out of that moment where the memory was planted into Blink’s head, so you’ve got Thunderbird figuring out how to navigate around that. Dealing with a girl that now has feelings for him, but he probably wonders if they’re partly natural, or if they’re only there because of the memory that was planted by Dreamer. So yeah, it’s kind of interesting to see a tough military guy have to dance around this 20-year-old, green-eyed creature who has a crush on him.
Can you tease how the dynamics of the mutants and Struckers may shift over this daring rescue attempt?
Hmm. Like I said, we get together to go on the offensive, which is a big thing that the audience hasn’t seen before. So I think in a way, too, no matter what happens with the operation, it sort of strengthens the group as a whole. Even the kids, who just a few weeks ago were just high school kids, now all of a sudden you’ve got them taking part in battle operations, and everyone’s risking their lives together and they’re fighting for each other, essentially. So I think you’ll come out of it and see that they’re stronger as a group after things like this take place. It’s pretty fun!
And what can we expect the well-meaning, semi-useful Strucker kids to get up to?
Something that I’ve really liked that’s in the writing, something that I’ve seen the Strucker kids do, is that they’re kind of gung-ho to help. It’s believable to me when you see a high school kid who all of a sudden has powers, they actually want to get involved, and they haven’t digested the risk that they’re going to be accepting when they’re taking part in the operations that we’re a part of, and stuff like that.
So I think it’s a cool thing in [episode] 4 where you see these gung-ho new mutants chomping at the bit to get a piece of the action. But at the same time, you realize they’re kids, and they realize that themselves at some point, too. So it’s kind of a fun push-and-pull there.
Looking at The Gifted overall, how does it feel to be a part of taking the X-Men to television?
It’s amazing. The X-Men have been a pretty popular thing for a while, and [it’s] kind of like the golden age of comics and entertainment right now. But I grew up as a huge X-Men fan, and I have dozens of memories of spending my weekends surrounded by comics on my bedroom floor, listening to music. So to be a part of it now, and be a part of the first live-action X-Men related series, it’s kind of a dream role for me. So I’m just trying to live up every moment of it and have fun.
If you could perform one superheroic action as John, what would it be?
You know, that’s a good question. There’s a lot, believe me. I’ve kind of fantasized in my own mind about a lot of things he can do. But I think in the comics he, and the fans have mentioned this a lot, but he died after, I think, two issues of the X-Men comics.
That’s a bummer!
[laughs] Well, we’re following a different path obviously, so hopefully we’ll stick to that! But he went through a jet to bring down their opponent. So I don’t know, maybe if like, [in] the seventh season, last episode, they want to kill me I’d be game for that! Maybe jumping through one of Blink’s portals, coming out another portal straight into a jet to save the day. That’s something I’ve thought of a few times.
The Gifted 1×04, “eXit strategy,” airs on Monday, Nov. 23 at 9 p.m.
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