Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: countdown
Countdown Cast Has "Disgusting Amount of Chemistry": Jensen Ackles
Jensen Ackles (The Boys, Supernatural) on how Countdown lets viewers get to know the team individually and the cast's off-set chemistry.
While a whole lot of Jensen Ackles (The Boys, Supernatural) fans have their sights set on the June 25th premiere of Prime Video and Showrunner/EP Derek Haas' Countdown, the upcoming streaming series has a stacked cast of amazing talent standing alongside Ackles' Mark Meachum: Eric Dane, Jessica Camacho, Elliot Knight, Violett Beane, and Uli Latukefu. Speaking with TV Insider in support of the series, Ackles makes it clear that even though there's a lot of action that involves them working as a team, viewers will get a chance to know the team members as individuals.
"You really get a sense of who these people are. Not just together as the team, but individually. That lets the audience invest in the characters and not just the story." As for what we can expect from the team members when they come together to save millions before time runs out, Ackles added that the chemistry that the cast formed away from the cameras carries over to what made it to the screen. "There was a disgusting amount of chemistry that was formed very quickly, off-set that lends itself to on-set chemistry," he added.
Countdown: A Look at Prime Video's Jensen Ackles-Starring Series
When an officer with the Department of Homeland Security is murdered in broad daylight, LAPD detective Mark Meachum (Ackles) is recruited to a secret task force, alongside undercover agents from all branches of law enforcement, to investigate. But the hunt for the killer soon uncovers a plot far more sinister than anyone could have imagined, kicking off a race against time to save a city of millions. Ackles's Mark Meachum is described as a rogue L.A. detective, wrong-side-of-the-tracks kind of guy who takes risks that most people wouldn't take. That could make things difficult when Meachum finds himself part of an elite team that also includes Nathan Blythe (Dane), Amber Oliveras (Camacho), Keyonte Bell (Knight), Evan Shepherd (Beane), and Lucas Finau (Latukefu).
Speaking exclusively this week with EW, Haas noted that the show's drama won't just be about big action scenes, with Meachum involved in some romantic entanglements. "It's not going to be just one," Haas added about the potential romantic dynamics at play. "I love the triangle. It's my favorite shape. And we're going to have a few of those." In addition, Ackles discussed what it was like working with the ensemble cast, how Supernatural fans might find similarities between Meachum and Dean Winchester, and how the series made him feel a bit like Tom Cruise:
Ackles on Working with the "Countdown" Cast: "It's like every ingredient for a perfect dish. Everybody blends well together. Everybody's so giving and happy to do whatever it takes for the team."
Ackles on Fans Finding Similarities Between Mark Meachum & Dean Winchester: "There's probably going to be some familiarity from that fandom with this guy. It's not like I'm going so opposite spectrum with this character. He's going to be a familiar taste, which is good. I like doing that. I mean, I played Dean for 15 years. I loved playing that kind of a character. And I think this guy is in the vein of that, just with a completely different set of circumstances."
Ackles on Getting "Getting My Tom Cruise On" with "Countdown": "I actually just did some ADR the other day for an action sequence. I was watching it and I was like, 'Oh, I'm getting my Tom Cruise on here. This is some full-on action stuff.'"
