Following last night's devastating installments of MGM+'s excellent sci-fi series Earth Abides, we were able to catch up with star Aaron Tveit (Graceland; Schmigadoon!) to break down the arrival of his mysterious new character Charlie, who has his sights set on something far more horrific than the noble Ish (Alexander Ludwig).
While we do our best to steer clear of spoilers, we do get into what it was like for Tveit to play such a dark character and how this character ends up changing everything for the group upon his arrival. Plus, he also tells me about going toe-to-toe with Ludwig's lead character and what his character ultimately thought about his foil.
Watch our full video interview with actor Aaron Tveit ("Charlie") below and/or keep scrolling to read the transcription. Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: By all accounts, you seem like a very nice guy. So, as a performer, what kind of challenge does it present when you’re playing a darker character like Charlie?
AARON: Yeah, it is a challenge, and I really enjoy it. I think that there's something too about, you know, kind of tricking the audience in a way to get to like these people right until the moment that obviously they can't. And, I think that that was very clear with this story in particular, because, you know, we meet Charlie at a time where Ish and our heroes are struggling a little bit, you know, they're desperate for water, and they're going through some things. So, we meet this new group of people that could be the answer, right? So Todd, the showrunner, and I talked a lot about that. He wanted it to seem like at the outset, we meet Charlie, maybe this guy's the answer. Maybe this guy's the leader that they've been looking for. Maybe he can offer so much to the group, so that was a great place to start from. And then, of course, you get to see the real core and the real things he's after, which are horrible.
ROHAN: When you're playing a character like this, does it ever feel like you're playing two different characters? Or, does it feel more like you're withholding something?
AARON: Yeah, I think it's more that you're withholding. For something like this, I think you have to connect to that dark place, and what that is, and why that is, and where he comes from. And for something, as you mentioned, like I jump in at episode four, you know, I think it's like seventeen years after the event, where we've watched our other heroes survive through goodness and kindness and love, and then, we meet Charlie and his crew, and we quickly realized that they probably survived a very different way. And, so there's a lot of fun as an actor, to imagine what that time frame looked like, what that seventeen years was, and then, once you do that, then you can look what's on the script, and listen, I got to teach the kids an Oasis song. Like, this guy's fun. He's kind of like, the fun, terrible uncle, right? Like when you first meet him, you're like, he's great, and maybe he's a little brash or this, but then you get to kind of pull the rug out when it starts to go really bad.
ROHAN: Did you think about who your character was prior to the event? Or did you just try to focus on who he was in the present?
AARON: No, I thought a lot about who he was before. And again, Todd, the showrunner, is so collaborative, and he asked a lot of questions and shares his ideas and wants to hear yours, and the thing we talked about was that Charlie was probably a guy, you know, not from a not from a good upbringing, not from a nice neighborhood, but kind of got by on his charm and charisma and doing what he needed to do, and kind of the fact that his moral compass was probably a little off center anyway, beforehand. And then, of course, this event happens, and he's thrust into a situation where he needs to survive, and quickly learns that he has a unique skill set based on what he was doing before that allows him to take advantage of people. So, I think, yeah, we talked a lot about, you know, I don't think Charlie was like a nice guy, and then all of a sudden broke bad when this all happened. I think this was all building. I think traumatic situations, people turn more into themselves, right? And so, I think that he just, you know, it unleashed this sociopath, megalomaniac, narcissist that was inside a little bit.
ROHAN: Charlie and Ish have completely different leadership styles and once Charlie reveals his true nature, he's actually quite brazen about his actions. What do you think he saw in Ish? Did he consider him an adversary or a victim?
AARON: Yeah, I thought that Charlie and his people probably came up against people all the time, and just basically use them and left them by the wayside, right, and took advantage of them. And, with Ish, I have a great line, something like, you know, I basically say, I like you Ish, and I didn't think that was going to happen, right? So, I think that the difference between this crew is, I think that at the outset, I think that Charlie actually really admires Ish and admires Emma and admires what they've done. He's still going to use them, still going to take advantage of them, but he's a little taken back, and surprised with how well they've done and how much he likes these people. So, it was really fun to kind of bounce up against Alex, and Alex was so gracious to me and wonderful to work with, you know, because again, I started maybe three or so weeks after they had been filming, and sometimes, it's hard to step onto a set that's already going, but they really let me come in and and just and play this guy that was needed to kind of bulldoze them a little bit at some moments, and I have to give Alex and Jess and the rest of the cast credit, because they, you know, people don't always let you do that, and they were so gracious to me. So, it was awesome.
ROHAN: We get to see the aftermath of this global catastrophe in the series. When you were filming, was there anything that surprised you about how everything transpired?
AARON: Yeah, we were shooting in this really wonderful little cul-de-sac that they had closed in, where their kind of compound is, but it was up on this hill, and you could actually kind of see down into - there's like a lake and down in the valley, but it was very, very quiet in Vancouver, where we were shooting, especially at night, and I really thought, I imagined being in a place like that, fifteen or twenty years after everyone was gone, but like, all the houses are still going to be there, and all these those - it was a very wonderful setting, right? We weren't, at least, what I shot, the show was barely on a stage, like it was all locations. So, you know, whenever that is possible and happens, I think it creates a reality in what you're doing that you can lean into. And, a lot of the times, at night, I would just go outside and kind of look around, and it was very easy to imagine that nobody was around because it was so quiet where we were shooting up on up on this beautiful hill.
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!