With the first two episodes of MGM+'s Earth Abides now available, we recently sat down with series leads Alexander Ludwig (Bad Boys For Life; Vikings) and Jessica Frances Dukes (Ozark; Outbreak) to talk about their excellent new sci-fi series and the very interesting dynamic between their characters Ish and Emma.
The series synopsis reads, "Ish, a brilliant but solitary young geologist living a semi-isolated life, awakens from a coma only to find that a global plague has all but wiped out humanity. In the aftermath, Ish is forced to look for what he was so certain he could live without, other people. These last few shattered survivors will be humanity’s second chance, the last hope against the slide into extinction."
In our informative conversation, Ludwig breaks down the challenges of playing his character, who we get to watch mature from a young man across several decades into the leader of the new world, while Dukes talks about her character's infinite optimism even in the darkest of days and finding instant chemistry with Ludwig.
Watch our full video interview with stars Alexander Ludwig ("Ish") and Jessica Frances Dukes ("Emma") below and/or keep scrolling to read the transcription. Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: Alex, we follow Ish from episode one to six, over the course of multiple decades - he's probably the most complete character you're ever played - what kind of preparation did that require to be able to understand him at the different phases in his life?
ALEXANDER: I so appreciate you saying that, Rohan, and I mean it. You're spot on. Michael Wright called me about this, you know, almost eight months ago, and he said, you know, this is going to be the hardest thing you ever do and the most rewarding, and he delivered on both of those promises. It was the most solitary experience I've ever had in my life. It was the most daunting. It was also the most rewarding. And to prepare for something like this, there's only so much you can do, and then you're kind of on the train and you're trying to keep it together. You know, the first episode for me was one of the hardest episodes of television I've ever done, and I was so grateful, and I finally got to work with Jessica, and I felt the same amount of gratitude that Ish must have felt when he finally gets to see Emma, and Jessica has been my rock through this. And I think the main, randomly, I think the main struggle, was actually remembering where I was in the timeline. As you know, Ish goes through a lot of mental traumas, and goes through a lot of physical traumas as well. So, you know, I would move differently after a mountain lion attack, you know, or he would act differently after the birth of his first child, you know, and these are things that we had to just remember, because we were covering such a huge time horizon.
ROHAN: Jessica, unlike many of the characters, who are in dark places when we meet them, Emma remains optimistic throughout the entire series. She also becomes the group's moral compass and is sort of the heart of the show - what would you say kept her positive in the darkest of times?
EMMA: I think when you lose everything that you define yourself by, or all of that you have to find who you are at the core, you know, without all that other stuff, and I think at the core of Emma is hope and survivor, and I think that, at least for me and how I wanted to craft her, there's a reason why she's still here. There's a reason why she's left and there's a reason why she has to go on, and I think she finds that reason in Ish and in her community, and they build what they hope to be, the better, a better future.
ROHAN: When Ish & Emma meet, they assume they're the last people on the planet and we get to watch their friendship blossom into a romantic relationship. What was it like developing that chemistry and discovering you were were as both scene partners and also with your characters becoming a couple?
JESSICA: It was immediate. I think when reading the story at home, and, you know, you're at home for a little bit by yourself, just like absorbing this information, absorbing this writing, absorbing everything in this beautiful world, you're just seeing it in your head. And the minute I met Alex, I was like, it's Ish, like, it's totally him. It's perfect casting. This is great because he had this sort of like just electric energy about him, and also he's, like, this big walking heart that's like, yes and, and as an actor, any actor out there knows what yes and means there is no, like, well, I don't know about that, or no, it's like, yeah, let's do it. 100% let's try it, and it makes you like, let's do it. And, so when you have that sort of open space, then you can just play, and I think we both had a great time just sort of like trusting each other, playing, being there for each other, and we have to go through some pretty deep stuff, and through that, you build a bond, you build a connection, and you just want to work harder. So, that's what I experienced.
ROHAN: Alex, your character Ish gets his worldview challenged quite a bit in the series. He starts off very distrusting with some of the newer people - Ezra, Molly, Charlie - some he eventually grows to like, some he was rightfully cautious of. What is it like playing a character like that and would you say he's distrusting to keep his family safe or is he still coming to terms with his leadership role?
ALEXANDER: It's a great question. So, Ish is such a solitary man at the beginning of this show, and it's one thing to be solitary when you've chosen it. It's another thing to have it forced upon you, and immediately, I think, he realized the only way he is going to survive is not only to find purpose within himself, but to find others to share that purpose with. And, in Emma, he finds that, and they slowly but surely build this incredible little tribe, and it's almost a utopia at times, almost. And then, when other, whether it be external forces, whether it be people or disease or force majeure circumstances affect the possibility of this tribe flourishing and continuing to exist. The trauma of losing his old life ensues again, and not only that, the truth is he's grown to love this life even more than he ever could have loved the old one. So, it is out of protection for the life he has now. It's one thing to lose the love of your life or your life once, but to lose it twice would devastate him forever. So, he protects it at all costs, and sometimes to the detriment of the tribe itself. And, I call them a tribe because that's kind of what it is, you know? They've created this little family.
Ish, a brilliant but solitary young geologist living a semi-isolated life, awakens from a coma only to find that a global plague has all but wiped out humanity. In the aftermath, Ish is forced to look for what he was so certain he could live without, other people. These last few shattered survivors will be humanity’s second chance, the last hope against the slide into extinction.
Earth Abides is now airing on MGM+, with new episodes every Sunday!