Touring Toronto: On the Set of 'The Strain' and Inside the Show's Season 2 Headquarters
Another day, another apocalypse in Toronto.
After visiting a future devastated by a mysterious plague in 12 Monkeys and the small town of Between where all the adults have suddenly died, it was time to check out an Earth threatened by a vampire pandemic.
FX's The Strain has returned to Toronto to shoot a second season of its particular brand of horror, one whose creatures of the night have more in common with the zombies of The Walking Dead than they do the cool, sexy undead of Twilight or The Vampire Diaries. They aren't a band of brooding, conflicted twentysomethings; they're a growing horde of hungry monsters spreading through a mysterious illness.
So what is it about Toronto and mysterious illnesses? How come a dense, bustling metropolis keeps standing in for the end of the world?
"There were a number of times we had to postpone a scene because someone just couldn't be outside," answers Corey Stoll, whose character's name, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, certainly does not describe the conditions they shot Season 1 under. The infamous "polar vortex" plunged Toronto into an especially frigid winter, and as a show with plenty of outdoor scenes, it made for some "miserable" moments.
"We stuck it out, though," he says. "And I think it adds to the show, too, because it doesn't look easy. People look like they're suffering, because, in fact, they were."
Maybe not the best slogan for Tourism Toronto, but perhaps a decent explanation for the recent strain of plague shows finding a home north of the border. It's tougher to make Los Angeles look like a hellscape.
Despite that weighty subject matter, one of the strengths of The Strain, which returns this summer, is that it holds on to a sense of fun and adventure. It's not as intensely serious as The Walking Dead and isn't afraid to be a little campy.
Related: 'The Strain' Season 1 Finale Review: Just Another Episode
That energy is apparent on set, where the cast seems happy to be getting the gang back together, so to speak. "Coming back for Season 2 is really exciting," says Kevin Durand, who plays rat catcher-turned-vampire killer Vasiliy Fet. "You have the whole off-season to watch the fruits of thy labor, and then have the amazing opportunity and privilege to build upon that and hopefully take it to another level."
As Season 1 evolved, the show's cast, initially spread across several separate storylines, gradually began to overlap. By the final stretch of episodes, many of the characters had joined forces as a ragtag team of "full-fledged vampire hunters," in Stoll's words. The group has scientists, a hacker, the aforementioned rat catcher, a young boy, and a Holocaust survivor who's been battling vampires for decades. It's a strange variety of personalities, but it does work, and the show improved when it brought them together.
"I think we all developed an affinity for each other, personally and creatively," Durand says. "It's really exciting to get back on the stage and play those instruments again, harmonize and make vampire music."
Season 1 had a lot of legwork to do in terms of setting up the show's premise and explaining both the historical background of the vampires and the biology of the plague that causes them to spread, which tended to drag it down. With that out of the way, Stoll says they can really hit the ground running when they return this summer. "Sometimes it was very expositional, but now we know what we're dealing with and we're mid-fight. So that's a fun place to start from."
One of the changes from Season 1 is the team's makeshift headquarters. They've moved from the basement of Abraham Setrakian's pawn shop to Fet's roomier digs, which is laid out like a spacious loft apartment — if that spacious loft apartment was built in a sewer and filled with strange plants and chemicals. (Take a tour by clicking on the photo at the top of the post.)
Whether spending more time near the sewers means more rats running around remains to be seen, but Durand would certainly welcome the idea. "When I worked with them, they took direction better than some actors I've worked with over the years," he says. "We even worked out a song and dance number, but that got cut out. Maybe on the DVDs."
Rat dances or no rat dances, Durand seems particularly thrilled about the new season.
"Everything is growing in scope, which is exciting," he says. "If we get the opportunity to continue and tell this story to completion, I can't imagine how cool it would be."
Need a refresher on The Strain? Watch the video below:
