Posted in: TNT, TV | Tagged: The Librarians, The Librarians: The Next Chapter

The Librarians: The Next Chapter: McGowan & Robinson on Cast Bonding

The Librarians: The Next Chapter stars Callum McGowan and Bluey Robinson on how the cast bonded, having Christian Kane aboard, and more.

Just as The Librarians: The Next Chapter stars Callum McGowan and Bluey Robinson anticipate audience reaction to the latest incarnation of the Dean Devlin, there's no rest for the weary as they're already on their next leg of their journey filming season two. McGowan plays Vikram Chamberlain, a Librarian from 1847 who finds himself in the present day with only six months to fix the mess he's gotten into, but he's not alone. Helping him along the way are Guardian, Charlie Cornwall (Jessica Green), scientist Lysa Pascal (Olivia Morris), and historian Connor Green (Robinson) as they battle supernatural threats along the way. McGowan and Robinson spoke to Bleeding Cool about any prep work they had to do, how McGowan compares each member of the team, what it means to have original The Librarians star Christian Kane back in the fold to bridge the shows, and enduring the grind.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter Stars McGowan & Robinson on How the Cast's Enduring Bond Helps with the Long Days

Bleeding Cool: How does a project like 'The Librarians: The Next Chapter' differ in terms of prep from what you've done before, like physically?

McGowan: It's the most demanding job I've ever done, and that's because as librarians, we're in nearly every scene in every kind of drive of the story, we're there. You're learning lines in a way that you never thought you could. Your energy depletes, it goes up, and that's when it's important you surround yourself with an amazing cast who lifts you up when you're struggling. It is the most physically and mentally demanding job I think I will ever do.

Robinson: Yeah, our schedules are jam-packed, because there were only four of us, like the main lead. There are only so many pages. My character's not going to make an appearance in most of the episodes, and we say a lot of stuff that is fast and a lot of words. We probably have never said before in accents we don't usually use, at least my character and Jess [Green]. It's great fun, man, and like Cal was saying, you learn. That you're capable of more than what you thought you were.

What's it like working with Olivia and Jessica?

McGowan: Awful, just terrible. I don't know how those two people are still employed. I mean, I've complained to…no, they are a joy. I kind of analyze it like this: Jess is the heart of the show. Liv is the brain. Blue is the…Fuck! I've forgotten what you were. [Robinson laughs]. Blue is…what are you again? I had this analogy down the other day.

Robinson: Was I not the heart?

McGowan: That's it. You are the heart of the show. Jess is the soul of the show, and Liv is the brain, and I am the left toenail of the big toe. [Robinson laughs]. I mean Jess and Liv, and Blue are three very special people, not only because of what they do on screen, but what they do off screen. It's a pleasure and a privilege to call them "My friends," and long may that continue.

Robinson: Yeah, honestly, it's like the hours that are spent not filming are the ones that make us be able to do our job better, do the best job we can. If we hated each other, if they were annoying, had some crazy egos, or anything like that, it would make things a lot harder, but luckily, we found a great group of weirdos to work with.

What did it mean to have Christian Kane around to bridge the shows and join your band?

Robinson: [Christian] gave us a bit of reassurance. He's like a bit of a safety net, knowing that he was part of the OG series, and he's passing on the, we'd say, "Library torch" to us. That made us feel like, "Okay, hopefully fans of the original will be open to this new cast," because people are used to what they know, and they're like, "I don't know if I'm going to give it a try or not." The fact that Christian's there and he gave us permission to say, "This is your shot, do your thing." It was great, and he can also give us so much key information about the original series, and things like going through the magic door. Just things we need to know as librarians that we wouldn't necessarily know from playing the characters.

What was the most difficult aspect of production? Have you run into any environmental issues?

Robinson: Schedule, I'd say.

McGowan: Sleep, that was it.

Robinson: Each episode in seven days last year, and now we're doing season two. I look at some of the episodes, and I go, "We did this in a week, how?" It's crazy, the amount of stuff we do in that time.

McGowan: It's that thing about anything worth doing is never meant to be easy, so it's a great thing that it's hard, and then when we see the fruits of our labors, it's all worth it. It's never an aggressive regret. It's not at all.

Robinson: Even when it is hard, it's like, "You're tired, moody, or whatever." It's when you look back, you usually only remember the happy moments, the silly moments, the times when your friends on set made you laugh, did some silly dancing, or we played paper ball. This was a game where we threw a paper in the air and we must keep throwing it, throwing it, trying to get to 20 to 30 so our energy can stay up. If you had someone in your crew in a scene who was not giving you the right energy, those times will be a lot more difficult.

New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air Mondays on TNT.

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