[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 1 finale of Leverage: Redemption, “The Harry Wilson Job.”]
Now that the Leverage crew is back for Leverage: Redemption, in a world where it’s become even easier for the rich to become richer and the powerful to continue to build their power, grifter Sophie Deveraux (Gina Bellman), thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf), hitter Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) and hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge), along with the latest additions of corporate lawyer Harry Wilson (Noah Wyle) and Hardison’s foster sister Breanna (Aleyse Shannon), are taking on jobs that are sure to get them into all sorts of mischief. In the second half of the season, which even includes a Christmas episode, the team is really hitting their stride and figuring out how they work best together while they continue to help those who are being taken advantage of.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Bellman and Shannon talked about first meeting executive producer Dean Devlin and what they love about working with him, finding a balance between what the fans love about Leverage and adding something new to it, what it’s like to be suspended in the air with a harness, getting to go big with their alter egos, being able to do holiday episodes, what Hodge was able to add for the episodes he was able to appear in, and whether they’d be game for future seasons.
Collider: Gina, when did you first meet Dean Devlin, and what were your initial impressions of him? Could you ever have imagined that your career would still include him, all of these years later?
GINA BELLMAN: No. It was so strange because I didn’t even meet him in person. I taped for the role. I was in the UK, and then I got the role and it was just absolute mayhem, at that time, to get my Visa in place, in time to start shooting. They had another actress lined up, in case my papers didn’t come in on that precise day. I flew into Chicago, where we were shooting the pilot, and I went to the set. Dean was in the middle of shooting, and he stopped shooting and he ran across the room and picked me up in his arms and lifted me off the ground, and then he was really embarrassed. He was like, “Oh, my God, I can’t believe I did that. That was so unprofessional, in front of the whole crew and everything.” But it was a labor of love. John Rogers and Dean Devlin had become fans of a British show that I did, called Jekyll, that Steven Moffat wrote, and they had their heart set on me, but it was quite a lot of shuffling. It was quite tricky to actually get me there, on the set. But since then, it’s been a complete joyride.
Aleyse, what was it like for you to join the Dean Devlin party?
ALEYSE SHANNON: I met him in a very different way because of COVID. I met him through Zoom, and he was really sweet with my callback. I was in a bedroom in my mom’s house, filming the callback, and I just knew that’s the kind of guy that you wanna be in front of, and that you wanna be making things with and creating things with. It’s been great, joining that family. He really invited me into a fully-fledged family full of love.
Had you been familiar with this show? Was it a show that you had watched, when it was on previously, or did you need to catch up to learn who this team was?
SHANNON: I did have to catch up. I was definitely worried about middle school and high school, and probably watching MTV or Flava Flav, or something like that. This was probably just a little too good for my taste, is what I’m saying. I don’t have great taste in TV, so I did have to catch up on it. I’m a millennial binge-watcher, so I got through it and it’s brilliant. I couldn’t believe what I was about to embark upon. It was fantastic.
How was it to have Dean Devlin on set, as a director? When you’re being guided by someone who knows the project as well as he does, is there an immediate sense of comfort, in knowing you’ll be steered in the right direction?
SHANNON: Yes. If I had any question, Dean said, at any point, he’d sit with me and walk me through it. You couldn’t ask for more, as an actor, having the creator of a show be directing the show, and also just be in your ear and around in the environment, and looking after you and taking care of you.
BELLMAN: He’s a very nurturing person. We’ve had the same crew, the same cameraman, the same DP, the same costume designer, and the same set designer. There are so many people that have been involved, since day one, and I’ve never experienced that before, in my whole career. So, not only is it a family on screen, and Aleyse was coming in to join an on-screen family, but it’s definitely a family off screen as well, and that’s all Dean.
One of the things I love about this show being back is that it feels very much like the Leverage that we all know and love, but there’s still something fresh and new about it because there are those new faces there. Gina, what was it like for you to find this character again, but then also find who she is, at a very different place in her life?
BELLMAN: That’s the work you do, as an actor. On any job that you approach, you look at where the character is emotionally, and you look at their backstory, what’s going on, and what they’re moving towards. I really loved working on Sophie’s journey this season. There were some nerves about coming back together, rhythmically, with everyone, after such a long hiatus. And then, there were nerves about new energies coming in. But as soon as we hit the read-through, just hearing everybody’s rhythms, and then getting on set with Aleyse and Noah [Wyle], what I love about bringing new characters in is that you get to discover the existing characters through their eyes, and that really helps to tell the story.
I loved that we had that lens, otherwise I think you have to work a bit harder to be your character. But if there’s someone new and new energy is coming in, they do all that hard work for you. There are just certain things about being in the Leverage family that are unique. We have each other. There’s a lot of eye contact. We know each other’s moods. We know each other’s energies. We know if a gag is working for one character, or if it might be better for another character. I know that Aleyse needs to have a lot of snacks. We know each other’s energy levels. That all came together really, really quickly, and that’s when I knew that everything was gonna be fine
By the time that we get to the end of the season, would you say that Sophie is more at peace with everything than she was, at the beginning of the season?
BELLMAN: Yeah, I think she definitely has. What I loved about how the season opened is that there’s not too much reflection about what just happened and her grief. None of the characters are really reflecting on that. It’s all about what’s happening now and in the future. She’s very much on a journey. She meets Mr. Wilson and he’s very much on a journey, so they become kindred spirits around a trajectory. As she becomes more and more comfortable and she gains in confidence, she’s looking for purpose. I definitely think that, in the second half of the season, we see her walking towards her destiny, in a way, as a strong woman. That felt really great to play.
Aleyse, what was the experience of being suspended in the air with a harness like? Is that fun? Does it hurt? Do you feel like you’re prepared to be a superhero now?
SHANNON: Nothing that’s just holding your body up by straps is gonna be comfortable. I’m just gonna say that. Beth [Riesgraf] is a rock star for doing that, and so is the whole stunt team that put their bodies through all of that stuff. It was cool. I’m an adrenaline junkie, so I’ve been bungee jumping before. It was nice to be up there. I wouldn’t wanna do a whole scene like that. It’s a trip. I think everybody should try it.
Depending on what type of con they’re running, sometimes the roles that they’re playing can be a bit over the top or a bit exaggerated. How much fun is it to just totally be able to overact intentionally sometimes, with some of these jobs?
BELLMAN: I think the phrase "too much" has never been spoken on the set of Leverage. We layer it on. Also, we’re professional, so we try stuff with each other, but we know if we’re going too far. I like to really go big or go home, when it comes to playing my alter egos. I’s great to have license to do that.
I love a great holiday episode. I’ve been known to watch holiday episodes of shows that I don’t even normally watch, just because I love holiday episodes so much. And you guys got a Halloween episode in the first half of the season and you have a Christmas episode in the second half of the season. What do you most enjoy about doing a holiday episode and how much fun was it to have a Christmas episode with LeVar Burton?
BELLMAN: We’ve always done a holiday episode, which is amazing. It’s really special. It’s a bit like our traditional thing that we do a holiday episode. It was Christmas, just showing up to work that day and meeting such an icon as LeVar. That was like five Christmases rolled into one. We had a lot of fun in the Halloween episode too. We improvised a lot in that episode.
SHANNON: Those days, when you walk onto set, because the art department has done their thing, construction has done their thing, and set dec has done their thing, it literally changes your vibe. You walk onto set and there are Christmas decorations everywhere, and it’s so pretty and beautiful. Or for Halloween, they put little spiderwebs of hot glue all over, and stuff like that. That invites you to play. You almost can’t ignore it. It’s time to set it off.
It’s sad that Hardison couldn’t be with the team for every episode, but I think the show makes great use of the time that he is there and keeping him present throughout the season. What was the set like for the days that Aldis Hodge was there? How does he change the vibe when he’s around?
SHANNON: He walks in like the chiseled God that he is. Gina obviously has a vastly deeper time and experiences and memories with Aldis, but for me, I can count the days I’ve acted with him on one hand. But the days that he comes in, he’s so loved and he’s so giving. Every time he steps on set, it’s fresh and open and new and there’s no ego. He sets you up with the energy that you need to do the next three episodes. So, when he comes on, he feeds the energy in such a beautiful way.
BELLMAN: There’s never been massive amounts of stuff written for me and Aldis to do together, but it’s been these little vignettes and they’ve all ended up being really special to me. We have these tiny little moments together, that are these little moments of comedy, and they’re always my favorite moments. There’s a scene we do together in Episode 2, “The Panamanian Monkey Job,” where we’re playing MI-5 agents. It’s just a very brief scene, but it’s one of my favorite scenes that we’ve shot on Leverage: Redemption. He’s an actor that you can completely trust in the moment because he’s so inventive that he can fill in any gap with his own invention and he always judges it just right. The thing about missing him, it’s more a case of celebrating him when he’s there, rather than missing him when he’s not there. As an actor, you’re used to working in so many different scenarios with so many different people, and obviously we had these two new wonderful cast members join us. It wasn’t so much that we missed him when he wasn’t there, but when he was there, we really made the most of it and really celebrated it.
Now that you have found a groove with this new team dynamic, are you hoping to get the band back together again? Have you had any conversations about what a Season 2 could be?
BELLMAN: I don’t think we’re privy to those conversations yet. I think we would all absolutely, a hundred percent be ready to pack our bags tonight, if we got the call saying that we’re good to go. I’m sure there are backstage conversations going on about storylines and scripts and things. Hopefully, the fans will enjoy it. They made their voices known to get us here this time, on Leverage: Redemption. It’s all down to the fans that we’re here, and hopefully they love the show and we’ll be back for Seasons 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Leverage: Redemption is available to stream at IMDbTV via Prime Video.