[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoiler for Found Season 2 Episode 17 “Missing While Manipulated.”]
Thank you, Margaret vision!
Margaret (Kelli Williams) realizes, when she and Trent (Brett Dalton) run into Heather (Danielle Savre) outside the prison after visiting Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), that his lawyer is really his sister, Lena! Gosselaar directed this episode, and below, he reveals how he changed that moment and teases what’s ahead now that the secret is out.
We have that major reveal with Margaret realizing that Heather’s Sir’s sister and then we see that scene again of when she realizes it and that was so good. But what did you want to show to tease that coming during that initial scene of them meeting outside the prison? There are hints…
Mark-Paul Gosselaar: Originally in the script it was at that point Margaret goes into a flashback, and when I read the script, I thought, well, that will take our audience completely out of this episode once they know that, because it’s been such a buildup to this point of who is Sir’s accomplice, just these loose ends. And I had pitched if we could film it where, in my cut, if I could actually have it at the very end where Margaret is downloading to Gabi [Shanola Hampton] about her day and why she was acting this way. I had this conversation with NK [showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll] and she said, “Put in your cut. Let me see what you think.” And it just turned out the way it did, which I think is much better because, again, I just felt like during that moment, if we made it, it was only really the second scene, and we already know this information about Heather … I wanted the audience to stay with us until the very end to find that reveal. So I’m glad that sometimes you pitch these things and they don’t go your way. But that was a win, I think, for me as well as the show. And the writers, sometimes they’re so in it and I get it as an actor, so in it as well, that sometimes when you can just kind of say, “Hey, look from this angle, what do you think?” And it ended up working. So I was very happy with that.
Matt Miller / NBC
And I was actually really, really happy to work with McKinley Belcher because he and I had worked on The Passage and I’ve always been a fan of his and he’s just a fantastic actor. And for that particular role, I wanted somebody who was a heavyweight, and McKinley’s background is stage acting and I knew that he’d come prepared every single day to match Shanola’s energy as well as her preparedness and her work ethic. When Shanola comes on set, there is really no rehearsing trying to find the pieces. She’s ready to go. She wants to put it all on film and not waste anything. And I knew McKinley could match that and for him to be able to have that strong presence on screen but then break down and for you to be on his side, it took a heavy hitter like him with a very delicate hand. It was a real dance. And so I was so happy that he was available and that we could get him.
Talk about directing the scenes in the prison when Margaret then Trent, then Margaret again visits Sir because there’s always such a push and pull whenever anyone is interacting with your character.
Yeah, you sort of have to rely on the script supervisor and the writer and the DP and just making sure that the scenes that you’re in, that things are covered. Performance-wise, I think we’re at a point now where we know our characters pretty well and so there’s not many notes you can give to the actors. There might be little beats here and there to hit. But yeah, I’m working with professional actors so when we’re on set, we’re ready to go. All I had to do was set up the shot and listen to the people behind me.
There’s a moment where I had in my head, we hear Heavy Boots [Sir’s nickname for Trent] before we actually see him, and I just thought that that was a funny little take. And I had in my head how I wanted to shoot it, but our producing director, Nikhil [Paniz], was able to just say, “Hey, try it this way. I think it’ll be better,” and it was. It’s a collaboration. It’s a collaboration whenever you’re an actor or a director. I feel pretty much every position on our set is a collaboration. So I was very, very happy with the outcome and just thankful for the people we have working behind us.
So you’ve spent almost probably more than anyone time in that basement set because it was all you and Shanola Season 1 in there, and then you got to showcase it as a director. Was there anything about that set that surprised you looking at it from that standpoint?
No, because I did live in there all last year. There was just one moment where I wanted it to be a throwback to the many scenes that we did, but this time Karan [Oberoi]‘s character, Dhan, was in my position. And it’s just a very iconic shot of Gabi talking to a male figure in the basement and it’s a 50-50 shot of the two of them standing there. For me, visually, I was like, oh, that just brings back so many memories.
Now that we know who Heather is, what can you say about Sir and Lena’s dynamic now? How is it different from what we saw with Sir and Christian (Michael Cassidy)?
I don’t think it’s going to be too much different, just that she has a little bit more spine. She has a different love for Sir, and we will see that in upcoming episodes, how much he groomed her as well. She was very young. He protected her. Yeah, we’ll go into more details of their relationship and how much Sir was their parental figure in their lives and was a patriarch to them and how that dynamic still sort of flows through in today’s episodes.
What does it mean for Sir and Gabi’s dynamic and the next scenes together with that out there now?
Well, I think it ratchets up the danger that will sort of blanket all of the characters in M&A and in our world. You’ll start to see Heather, because of her strong backbone, sort of make choices without Sir either knowing or giving his blessing. And that’s a dangerous combination. We just do a really good job of, okay, we found out what’s going to happen now and then the throttle gets pressed even harder. Instead of just letting up, it’s going to continue to move forward.
It’s such a testament to our writers and our showrunner, how they’re able to — 22 episodes is a very long season without any breaks. I think we had a two-week break during the summer, but to continuously give us scripts that can deliver and even our bottle episodes don’t feel like bottle episodes is a real testament to the talent that we have working behind us.
There’s been this rotating list of visitors for Sir now in prison. Besides Gabi, who’s his favorite visitor?
I don’t think anyone. I honestly just think anyone who comes to visit him, he just has no time for. No, really, he just waits for Gabrielle to visit him. I’ve played [it like] everyone is dispensable, and in an upcoming episode, there is a line and you’ll see him say that pretty much everyone around him is dispensable.
Found, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC