Directed by actor Daniel Gillies, Episode 410 of The CW series The Originals, entitled “Phantomesque,” the danger is ramping up to a seemingly insurmountable level, as Rebekah (Claire Holt) and Kol (Nathaniel Buzolic) return at the request of Klaus (Joseph Morgan), so that their family can stand even stronger against the devastating force that is The Hollow. With Elijah (Gillies) currently unable to help, Freya (Riley Voelkel) is working with Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin), and Marcel (Charles Michael Davis) is trying to figure out a plan of his own.

During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Daniel Gillies talked about the difference between directing a movie (he wrote, directed and starred in the feature film Broken Kingdom) versus an episode of television, the challenge of telling your co-stars what to do, being directed by his co-stars in return (Joseph Morgan and Charles Michael Davis have also helmed episodes), and how he hopes to direct again next year, along with the bittersweet departure of showrunner Michael Narducci (for whom Julie Plec will be taking over in Season 5), having a conclusive element to the story for each season, wanting to always be challenged, as an actor, and his character’s true motivations.

Collider: First of all, congrats on the Season 5 pick-up for the show!

DANIEL GILLIES: Thank you!

When you first signed on to do a spin-off series for a character that you started off with on The Vampire Diaries, could you ever have imagined that you’d meet the nearly impossible fete of five seasons, which so few shows get to do anymore?

GILLIES: No, I didn’t. I didn’t think that, at all. In fact, it just feels like a moment ago that I was sitting with Peter Roth in his office over at Warner Bros., discussing the potential of this show. It honestly feels like a year and a half ago, and not five years ago. It’s crazy to me. I can’t even get my head around it. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, I knocked up my wife twice, which seems like an excellent idea, in the middle of mayhem.

How did you come to be directing this episode? Do you just get whichever episode they decide to give you, or do you get any say, at all?

GILLIES: It was an Elijah episode. I actually think that the mentality – or at least what I’m choosing to believe – is that they designated me for this episode because I know Elijah so intimately and they felt that I could guide the character through the terrain that they wanted to explore. It is unlike any other episode, both on the page and on the screen. I did not choose the episode. They chose it for me. I had thrown my hat into the ring. I had been asking to direct. Having directed my own feature film, I was eager to explore directing in television and playing with all of their toys. Also, because Charles Michael Davis, Joseph Morgan and myself are so intimate with this mythology, it’s directing with training wheels, in a sense, because you don’t have to go and subject yourself to the baptism by fire of another environment, another whole show, and another mythology. So, we’re very blessed, in that sense.

Is the celebration of another season a bit bittersweet, knowing that Michael Narducci will be departing the show?

GILLIES: Michael had a lot to do with the success of this episode, and with the show, in general. I’m nervous now that he’s going, to be frank. Of course, we’ll be in the capable hands of Julie [Plec], and with her at the helm, I’m confident. It’s just that he was our dad. A number of people have left, so it’s going to be an interesting and very new ensemble, in terms of our crew and production team. We all thought the ship had sailed. Everybody was surprised, but we’re going to make it the best season of the show it’s ever been.

Does the end of this season feel like there’s a conclusion to things then?

GILLIES: I feel like with every season of The Vampire Diaries or The Originals, there’s been a conclusive element. That’s the writers and creators protecting themselves, and so they should. I would, too. If it was my show, I would totally protect myself because you never know. This business is so unimaginably capricious. You never know when you’re going to be hauled off the air. Sometimes ratings don’t even matter. Sometimes a show can be performing rather well, and it just gets hauled off. If it’s a show that’s doing okay, it can be shocking to see it just get removed from its place. You never know. So, the end of every season ought to feel like a place where you can depart. It’s only fair to the people that love the show to leave it that way.

Having already directed a film, do you have a style that you approach directing with for every project, or is this different because the TV schedule is so different?

GILLIES: It’s a different type of schedule, in that I had less time when I made my film. It was way easier to do this. Making an independent film for $450,000, as opposed to making an episode of television for a couple million dollars, there’s no comparison. I also directed half of my film in Spanish, and it was in a third world environment where my crew was getting mugged. It was terrifying, what I did before. This was nothing compared to that. I feel like I had my baptism by fire. Coming to this environment that I knew so well and had been performing within was a lot safer for me. But, my approach was very similar. I like to concentrate on the performances because it’s the thing that most television directors just don’t care about. It’s the other reason why I really was eager to direct. I just get so sick of hearing about shots. Anyone can make a fucking shot. It’s so tedious. Am I as skilled as certain directors, with the manipulation of the camera and the way it tells a story before an actor even opens their mouth? No, I’m not. I’m 30 or 40 episodes away from having the requisite skills to be able to go toe-to-toe with some of those directors. There is a beautiful simplicity and confidence in certain directorial styles. I went in and played to my strengths, which is that I like to focus on the scene itself and discuss the scene with the actors. Not all of them love to be challenged, every single take, but that’s the way I direct. I was grateful for it, when I got into the cutting room, because I could see the that show was different than it had ever been, in certain cases.

Did you have to work at getting your co-stars to take you seriously as the boss for the week?

GILLIES: I did this time. I don’t know why I thought it would be simpler, but it wasn’t. I was tested because I was testing them. Some of them enjoyed being tested and some of them didn’t, but it doesn’t matter if they did or they didn’t because I knew what I was shooting for. Personally, as an actor, I like to be challenged and I like to be asked to do new things, especially if I feel like it’s in the correct direction. I like something to reach for, in every take. I don’t do many set-ups. Some people put the camera in 55 different directions, and then try to shoot everything and leave that mess for the editors to cut. I like to do less set-ups and just shoot and do more takes, so that the actor can get it correct. If you’ve got the performances in there, your in such a wonderful position. You can do anything with the material, if the performances are good, but you can do nothing, if the performances aren’t there.

How do you feel about being directed by your co-stars?

GILLIES: Well, I thought I was much more willing, but then maybe I wasn’t. I loved it. I went in with an open heart, just because I know how delicate the situation was. When I approached Joseph directing me or Charles directing, I just wanted to be an open vessel for them and try whatever the hell they suggested. It’s tricky because we do have these other relationships. We do joke together, we’re friends together and we love each other, and that working environment is incredibly intimate because you’re constantly vulnerable around each other, as actors. But when that dynamic shifts, it’s undeniable, no matter how much you want to joke about it or toss it aside, and sometimes it’s threatening, and it needn’t be and ought to not be.

Do you personally prefer to explore the storylines when Elijah and the Mikaelsons are under threat, or when they’re the ones that are doing the threatening?

GILLIES: That’s an interesting question. I’ve never been asked that. I don’t mind either. I just like to be challenged, as long as I’m doing something within a scene that I’ve never seen before or that I haven’t done before. The problem with the writing staff is that sometimes they see you doing a thing and they like that thing, and then they want to write it into every scene rather than break new ground or explore new possibilities. If you take a handkerchief out of your pocket elegantly, or you shove a werewolf through a wall with one hand in a vamp move, and they like the look of it, unfortunately you’re going to be vulnerable to that repetition in the writing. That’s hard, especially when you’ve done a hundred plus episodes as this character, which I have. To try to introduce new elements becomes a little bit of a war.

It’s cool to get to see everybody interacting with an older version of Hope, this season. How has that been for you guys, as actors, to have Summer Fontana to work with?

GILLIES: It’s good. I don’t envy her position. We’ve got a peculiar set of circumstances. You have this little girl and she’s got this confluence of all of these different forces with all of these powers, so she’s this incredibly formidable and potent creature, but because we’re on The CW and because she’s a child, whenever push comes to shove and violence erupts, which is inevitably does in our show because our show is so gratuitously violent, all the time, now you have the obstacle of having this young girl who we’re trying to protect from seeing all of the violence. At least, that’s the premise, but it’s censorship. It’s us saying that we don’t want to show a little girl, on screen, being around violence. We brought her into this kingdom as this incredible weapon, so it just makes no sense to me. For example, there was a scene in the episode that I directed, where I had to basically have her rescue her mother from a really, really terrible foe. It’s a beautiful scene, but it took some real figuring out, as to how she rescued her mother without seeing any of the mayhem that was happening to her mother or any of the carnage. We don’t want her to see anything bad, but we know that she’s this terrifying force. That seems ridiculous to me. I don’t know why we created something that we can’t use.

Seeing as how all of the Original family have done some pretty horrible things, both to their own family and to their enemies, why do you think people tend to feel more sympathy for Elijah than they do Klaus, or at least seem to be more willing to forgive him?

GILLIES: I didn’t realize that that was the case. You’re surprising me with that information. I haven’t watched the show this season, but they tell me that there was an incredible outpour when Elijah slit the throats of three young teenage witch acolytes, in order to force the hand of Vincent, played by the marvelous Yusuf Gatewood. I heard there was incredible rage at that, to which I delighted. I love that. The more I find that people are outraged by something that I did, the more I’m like, “Oh, cool, they’re actually feeling something.” My character’s decisions don’t belong to me. Those decisions belong to the writers. I just try to fulfill them, as best as possible. But I have, in the past, received rage for a lot of the things I’ve done. To be honest with you, there are times that I go into an episode and think, “Why is he suddenly doing this?,” and there’s an incredulity or outrage, or both, towards a certain decision, and I’ll confront the writers about that and ask why we’re doing it. The fans always have the same kind of reaction, but that’s not my decision to make. That’s the kingdom of the writers, and I have to defer to that. I’m happy to do that because, whether I like it or not, they’re designing our universe.

Aside from family, especially this season, do you think Elijah has any personal motivations for his actions and for the decisions that he makes, or does it always come down to family?

GILLIES: I don’t know how much he cares about family. I don’t think he cares that much about family. I don’t think he gives a shit about family. I really don’t. He doesn’t give a shit, if Kol is in a box, or if Finn was in a box for centuries. He can’t talk about family. It’s one of the big things I have with the writers. As many times as I possibly can, I have erased or removed lines about family, and I’ve bullied my way out of hundreds of occasions where he’s talked about family first because he doesn’t mean it and he doesn’t believe it. He loves his brother, and in a strange way, the whole show is about this bizarre love between these brothers that cannot be together, but cannot be apart. The whole show is predicated on that strange love, and that’s all there is to it. He says family, but he means Klaus, above all, and he means himself, above all. He made some kind of pact with himself, from the outset of their curse, and that was to serve his brother. Everybody else can go to hell. He loves Rebekah, but even Rebekah can flee and he won’t care. He’s always going to be where his brother is, or try to serve his brother and to serve the two of them. I feel like they’re one soul, and two different aspects of one soul. I’ve always felt that way, and it’s something that I still steadfastly believe.

Now that you know you’ll be have another season of the show, will you be throwing your hat into the directing ring again?

GILLIES: Of course! I would have to. I enjoyed it too much. I think it was an incredible privilege to be able to do, and I’d be foolish not to give it another lap. I’d like to try it again. I don’t know how many episodes we’ll be doing, but it will probably be a shorter season of 13. I’d love to do it again. It would be a great honor. I hope Joseph gets to do it again and that Charles gets to do it again because they’re both magnificent.

The Originals airs on Friday nights on The CW.