An Interview with Stacey Read & Ryan Adams from ‘The Ark’

THE ARK -- “Everybody Wins” Episode 112 -- Pictured: (l-r) Stacey Michelle Read as Alicia Nevins, Ryan Adams as Angus Medford -- (Photo by: Aleksandar Letic/Ark TV Holdings, Inc./SYFY)

If there is one big question that was hanging over the season one finale of the hit SYFY series, The Ark, it would have to be… what became of Angus and Alicia? Because our favorite nerdy couple were separated and in dire straits thanks to what happened to Ark One. But thankfully, night’s season two premiere of the show informed us, they’re okay and Angus is on the mend, and now that the secret is out that they survived disaster aboard Ark One, we sat down with Stacey Read and Ryan Adams, who play Alicia and Angus, to talk about season two of The Ark, and more.
 
John Betancourt: Since it's our first chance to talk, and since I'm such a fan of this show, I am curious to know what it was that attracted you each to this project and your characters in the first place.
 
Ryan Adams: Oh my gosh. I think, like, Stacey, we both hadn't really done much work before this. So, yeah, getting presented with an audition of scale like this, you know, Dean Devlin and Jonathan Glassner, it was immediately like, “Oh, my God, I need this.” Put everything into the audition as always. And, yeah, was just really, really, really lucky and really excited to get started. And, yeah, I think immediately presented with Angus. It was, it was so, I mean, I think I said this before, but he was originally written as a completely different guy, like, he was, like, overweight and had, like, just different morals and everything. So, reading that for the first time, I was like, “I'm quite skinny. I don't know how I can play this guy (Laughs),” but, yeah, like, Dean fantastically changed it for me, which was nice.
 
Stacey Read: Very similarly, like getting through an audition, like it was, The Ark, it was incredible. But also, I'm a big science fiction nerd. I think Ryan's a big science fiction nerd as well. So that is really cool. Like to be able to do a show where we're at a spaceship in space, like… a dream come true, really.
 
John Betancourt: I do kind of want to expand upon that a little further, because I would not have ever known, judging from your performances, that this was relatively one of the bigger roles that you've had so far in your careers, because you're both so good at it, and there's such depth to it. And I'm very curious to know how you as actors created that amazing depth and that amazing individuality for both of your characters.
 
Ryan Adams: Oh, wow. I think, what was great about season one and coming onto this show was the fact that… I know me and Stace relate to this and have the same thoughts. Our characters were so much like us, in the sense of, like Angus and Alicia, like, stepping foot onto a spaceship, super like, “Oh my god, I'm really nervous. I'm really scared. This is a big deal. I don't want to mess it up,” kind of thing. Literally, the same thoughts that we had about the show, you know, coming onto this as actors, you know, big show, don't want to mess it up. So, yeah, we related to our characters so much in that way. And luckily, they were nervous, like, well, I can only speak for myself, luckily, Angus was a bit of a nervous wreck, so I could really channel that. And “No, I'm not nervous, guys. It's just Angus, I promise.” So yeah, that was really nice to sort of start with that. It was cool.
 
Stacey Read: I was a nervous wreck too. Don't worry.
 
Ryan Adams: Okay, cool, more than just me, thank god!
 
Stacey Read: It was also really nice to be able to, like, have the characters parallel, you know, our real lives, but also, like, we would get the episodes as we were shooting. So, it's not like we knew what our character was like, or like how it was going to end. So, it was really nice being able to build on that. You know, every time we got a new episode and you're like, “Okay, so this is the character. Oh, I'll do this with Cat. Oh, she's a bit like this.” So, yeah, we just got to mold them to how we wanted them, which was really cool.
 
John Betancourt: Now, getting into kind of season two gear as it is. One thing I love about the show is it does have a lot of underlying parallels to our world and some good discussions about, you know, us finding a better way together. I'm curious what you kind of hope from a message standpoint, audiences take away in season two.
 
Ryan Adams: I mean, the main driving point that we try and hit home in this show is that it’s about hope. Um, you know, Ark One’s objective and mission with the state of their ship in season one is really quite impossible, like it's, it's a really impossible task, and they are constantly set back all the time. And it's the same with season two, but I think the thing that we love is like we just never give up hope. You know, even when you're at the darkest, darkest, darkest moment of your life. I mean, I'm thinking about Angus waking up in season two and just thinking, “How am I alive? Oh, the only reason I'm alive is because I have my worst enemy's blood flowing through my veins, cool,” and I use the imagery of “trying to get out my own skin,” kind of thing a lot this season. Um, yeah, so he's not great physically, and obviously, when that mends with the blood, his mental state doesn't mend at all. And he's really gotta live with that and just keep pushing and carrying on. I mean, let's not forget, he's got a big job on the ship. Everyone does. So yeah, sometimes working whilst having a bad mental state is, is really taxing. It's really hard. But yeah, I think what, what the crew of Ark One have to remember, is we’re not doing it really just for us, not doing it for us. We're doing it for the world. We're doing it for humanity and for our families.
 
Stacey Read: I would just like to say, like, there's a lot to take away from this show, but I think what's really lovely about this show is, it's not just the action, adventures, but the heart of it, like Ryan was saying, there is hope. And not just with that, with season two, there's, you know, conflict, and how can you resolve certain conflicts? Is there redemption? And I think it's really as humans, you know, humanity is a very complex thing, and I think when you look at the state of the world today, with the conflicts going around in the world today, it would be nice if people could just find a way to resolve things in a better way. And I think The Ark does touch on that, like, how can we resolve certain things without causing more problems?
 
John Betancourt: The last question that I have for each of you today, what has it meant to you on a personal level when it comes to just the enormous fan response because the show's a hit, people are all about it, and you guys are beloved characters. What does that mean to both of you?
 
Ryan Adams: It means a lot, man, it means, it means so much. I mean working on season one, like, with it being a completely new show, not attached to anything else, like we had no idea what the fan reception was going to be like. We didn't have fans at that point, you know. We had no idea what the audience reception was going to be. So, yeah, to get that, like warm feeling from and to have such a nice, loyal fan base as well, from season one, was so nice, and to have that in the back of our minds whilst making this season was so nice. You know, thinking, we're making this show for, like, people that really, really care about it. It's really, really nice.
 
Stacey Read: it's really heartwarming. Like, even as season one was coming out, I'd love to go on Twitter and just see all the, like, fans’ theories and everything. And then, you know, I get really lovely messages from fans as well. People make fan art. I love the names that the fans have come up with as well, “The Arkaholics.” I'm just like, cool we've got, like, a cool name going, like, yeah, it's really heartwarming knowing that you touched so many people.
 
Ryan Adams: I think even the fact that we got a season two, in itself was like, a nice like, “Oh, amazing. We did well, we did good. We have support” kind of thing.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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