Interview: Steven Strait Talks Season 5 Of ‘The Expanse’, Holden’s Character Arc & His Role As Warren Peace
Amazon Prime’s critically acclaimed sci-fi series The Expanse starring Steven Strait, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Frankie Adams, Cas Anvar, Cara Gee, and Shohreh Aghdashloo has returned for returns its fifth season.
All I can say is, it’s so damn good! Leading up to the premiere, I had the chance to sit down with some of the cast and crew of the series. Check out my review here.
My first interview was with Holden himself, Steven Strait. During our interview, Strait spoke about being with the character for over five years and how it has been the greatest joy of his life. Strait also spoke about where Holden is mentally when we see him at the start of the fifth season. He also spoke about how shooting was different this season since the gang was separated. Lastly, I couldn’t let him go without talking Sky High!
Check out the written and video version of the interview below:
Firstly, thank you for sitting down with me! Loving the show and this season. So, what has it been like just to be with this character for six years now?
Strait: It’s been amazing man. It’s truly been the most gratifying creative experience of my career. I was a fan of the books before I knew it was being adapted. So I came in as a fan, and to play the evolution that is so big for this character. You know, we plotted it from the very beginning, that idealistic young man, through all of these messy and hard experiences arrive in this season as, as a leader who’s confident in his abilities, in a very realistic way, every step of the way has been earned. You know, for an actor, that’s the greatest joy you could possibly ask for. I mean, it’s so rare that you get that opportunity. So it’s been, it’s been amazing.
It’s been an amazing to see your character go on that hero’s journey he’s been going through this hero’s journey. And now that he’s kind of dealt with the events of at the end of last season, can you tell us where he’s at at the beginning of this current season?
Strait: I think we find Holden with his feet on the ground. He’s seen the rise and fall of civilizations, he’s been witness to genocides, he’s gone through all kinds of horrible stuff over the last couple of years. That’s nearly broken him but through that he’s become really kind of rock solid as a as a leader. However, his family unit, which has been his rock, and his anchor, through art, all of this splits apart and the beginning of the season. You know, Amos is on Earth, Naomi goes after her son, Alex is on Mars. So he’s left alone with this journey for the first time really. And with Miller gone, he’s really the only one left concerned with what he knows is in those gates and what kind of danger humanity is in using them.
There things that killed a much more advanced civilization off in the blink of an eye, that people just refuse to pay attention to, because they are so busy fighting with each other. And Holden is really the only one who everyone speaks to. So he finds himself in this middle place of trying to convince everybody to just put the weapons down for a second and look at the train that’s coming for everybody. But he’s on his own, you know, so I think there’s the mirroring of that storyline, and also trying to get back to his family. While all this craziness is going on, and I think he’s deeply afraid of this fear that he won’t be able to find them.
Since the team has been separated, what was the filming process been being apart since you guys were so close last season?
Like the Rossi crew, we have become a family, you know, that really mirrors what we’ve been doing, we’ve had the same crew, a lot of the same actors, most of the same directors from the very beginning. And I’ve always said this show feels more like a theatre company than it does a TV show. Like, we’re very collaborative. We rehearse all weekend, we’ve never missed one since the first episode of the first season, we’ve really poured our heart and soul into this show. You know, so we, we all rehearse with each other on the weekends. And then this past season, we’ll go and shoot separately which was strange.
But, you know, again, it speaks to the confidence in the writing you know, it’s very rare that you see the writer shake up a structural dynamics five seasons in when things are working, when things are successful, it’s a lot of creative risk, and they had a lot of confidence in themselves and us to be able to pull that off. And, you know, for us, it’s, we love a challenge. We love being able to push ourselves to make it a little better every year. And you know, the challenge is the joy right? That’s kind of where we’re always at and and this season was no different. The journey to get back to each other search to get back to each other is always there and we desperately care about each other so that that rings true even in the silent moments in this season.
I’m getting the wrap up sign. I do want to ask one more question. So, Sky High was one of my childhood movies. I still watch it to this day. Would you be down to reprise her role as Warren Peace for on a Disney+ series or something like that?
Strait: I loved making that movie and I would certainly consider it! It was my first film right out of high school. I was 18 years old. I loved that experience, and they’re awesome people.
The Expanse is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
