Gregg Sulkin‘s new show The Kollective gave him the opportunity to shock viewers with a surprise twist.
During the show’s first episode, which premiered Tuesday, June 10, Sulkin was introduced as the lead in the role of a journalist named Joshua who was trying to get to the bottom of a dangerous investigation overseas. His research, however, led to his death by the end of the series premiere, which came as a surprise since Sulkin’s name remained in the main credits for the show.
“For me, it was definitely a perk. I’ve never sort of had that opportunity before to sort of mislead the audience,” Sulkin, 33, exclusively told Us Weekly about the Hulu series. “Knowing you’re about to mislead the audience is very fun — and therefore you have a shortened period of time to make an impact.”
Sulkin felt the pressure to make Us care about Joshua in a limited amount of time, adding, “With the help of the director and writer, I think we actually did that and I was thrilled. Obviously, I really liked the cast and I would’ve loved to have spent even more time with them. But to be honest, I am pretty sure I went on to something else straight after, so it kind of worked out perfectly.”
The Kollective picks up after a tragedy that inspires young journalists to expose government corruption and lies through a dangerous investigation. In addition to Sulkin, the show also stars Natascha McElhone, Celine Buckens, Felix Mayr and Grégory Montel.
While Joshua’s death was the catalyst for the rest of the season, Sulkin got to come back for a scene that showed his character’s graphic death. Sulkin, for his part, recalled feeling divided about the challenging scene.
“It’s a weird one. I’m not going to lie. My mom and dad, obviously, you can imagine how devastating [that is to see]. Because my mom and dad always said, ‘No mother or father should ever see that. It should always be the other way around,’” Sulkin explained. “So for me — when I was lying there — in the morgue, it’s a very surreal experience.”
Sulkin experienced a variety of emotions.
“I personally have never had a fear of dying so I’ve just understood that it’s one day going to happen. I hope it’s not going to happen for a very, very long time but I’ve just sort of accepted it,” he noted. “It’s the one thing in life that is certain, sadly. But I think for me, I wasn’t too emotional. But I think for everybody who knows me personally, it’s a very weird thing and very sad thing to see.”
Before filming the scenes where Joshua was dead, Sulkin told his parents “it would be best” if they remained in the hotel instead of on set. The postmortem moments were something new for Sulkin, who found it “harder” than expected to play dead.
“You try not to breathe. And also there’s the pressure of not being able to breathe when Celine, for example, is delivering such a great performance,” he explained. “An actor only has so much in the tank and out of respect, when it’s a close-up, you do not make a mistake on that person’s coverage. Especially when they’re delivering such an emotional performance.”
Sulkin continued: “For me, it was very hard to not breathe for three minutes while she’s sobbing her eyes out. Then at the end, the director just said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We can just literally keep you still in post.’ I was like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me that before? I have been almost having a heart attack.’”
While reflecting on The Kollective, Sulkin expressed gratitude for the show.
“It’s so different. The scripts were really good. The show focuses on something that I think we all can relate to now, which is that there’s a lot of corruption going on in the world,” Sulkin explained to Us. “We are all very interested and intrigued at poking holes to make sure that stories are accurate and fact checked and true.”
Sulkin called The Kollective “a very timely” project, adding, “I knew that with this team it was going to be very well executed and thankfully it was. I’m really actually pumped for people to see it.”
The Kollective is currently streaming on Hulu.
Read the full article here
