Ian Tracey, who plays The Swede's henchman Bolan on AMC's Hell on Wheels, talks to AMCtv.com in this interview about falling horse stunts and actorly advice.

Q: Bolan suffers a lot of physical abuse in Hell on Wheels. Do you do your own stunts?

A: I did some of the fighting and riding and shooting, but there's a great Calgary stunt man... I had a "horse fall" [stunt], and with those you never know if you're going to be the one getting up or not, so [he] took care of that.

Q: So everything went well with the stunts you did handle?

A: It did. Sometimes the horses were finicky because it was muddy a lot of the time and they don't like standing in a bog hole. As long as you can say the dialogue, though, that's okay. It adds a little tension to the scene with the horses moving around agitated.

Q: Did you have to learn how to ride a horse for Hell on Wheels?

A: I grew up on a small farm in British Columbia, and we all had horses of our own. I love horses, and I love being around them, so if I get a chance to work on a western, particularly a period piece like Hell on Wheels, I'm in heaven. Gettin' up early. Smelling horse dung at your feet. Riding and shooting. It's a kid's dream come true.

Q: Bolan is so vulnerable as he dies. Was that an acting choice or was that all in the script?

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Gail Kennedy is the Makeup Supervisor for AMC's Hell on Wheels. In this interview with AMCtv.com, she talks about how she created Lily's arrow wound and realistic-looking blood.

Q: How do you balance authentic grime with making the actors look good?

A: You can create grime in such a way that it actually adds character to the face; it's all in the placement and angle. Depending on who I'm putting the dirt on, we use a different placement and angle and we use different products to portray the lack of bathing that was inherent at the time. And, actually, the actors love looking as grimy as possible. Sometimes it's hard to convince them to look good.

Q: What's one of your favorite ways makeup enhanced a Hell on Wheels character's story?

A: In particular, Lily's arrow wound in Episode 2 and 3. My effects partner Dave Trainor and I created a silicone prosthetic that had a blood-line that covered a large portion of her chest, and it provided a realistic skin for her to stitch up in Episode 2 and for Cullen to perform the field surgery on in Episode 3. It was very visceral for the actors to have something so real to work with.

Q: Who gets more makeup department attention on this show -- the men or the women?

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April Telek, who plays Nell on AMC's Hell on Wheels, talks to AMCtv.com in this exclusive interview about fighting like a man and being the Pamela Anderson of the 1800s.

Q: Did you have any reservations about portraying a prostitute?

A: To be honest, it's not my first whore. [Laughs] I have actually played a few from the 1800s [on The Immortal and in Supernatural]. It's like my forte. I'm good at it. Must be something from another life. 

Q: Nell is a tough, outspoken character. Do you relate to her?

A: I do. Being a blonde, blue-eyed gal growing up and knowing that I wanted to succeed in this business, you have to get pretty tough or you get walked all over. Pretty only goes so far. I knew that the women working in the 1800s in those situations had to be tough. I took on Nell like she has to fight like a man. If she doesn't, she won't get respect.

Q: Did you do any research to prepare for the role?

A: I did a lot. Robin McLeavy, who plays Eva, has this incredible book about the woman her character is based on who went through some hardships, and who ended up finding a safe haven in a whorehouse run by a character named "The Great Western." She was this tall, redheaded, very strong matriarch, and so I sort of took that historical knowledge and ran with it with Nell.

Q: Nell is always spilling out of her dresses. What is your relationship with the wardrobe department like?

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Ty Olsson plays Union soldier Lieutenant Griggs on AMC's Hell on Wheels. In an exclusive interview with AMCtv.com, Olsson talks about what it's like to be decapitated on screen and his struggles to play a "dark and dirty" character.

Q: How complicated is it to play a scene in which you're decapitated?

A: I'm not sure whether it's good fortune or bad, but I've died many times on screen. So I have experience, but this particular death was unique. I had to wear this goofy green-screen Spandex suit so that later on they could do the computer graphics to show the beheading. We had to block everything exactly, like having the sword swing the right way to lop off my head. I was in a full-body suit, and there was a fake head, which after it was cut off was carried around in the next episode.

Q: Was there a lot of morbid humor on set that day?

A: Everyone got a kick out of seeing me in that goofy suit. It's about five sizes too small and there's no hiding anything when you're in that Spandex fluorescent green. It was one of those crazy things you do in show business that make it fun.

Q: What's your favorite scene?

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John Blackie the Production Designer for AMC's Hell on Wheels, talks about breaking a train car into pieces and how he made hardship work in his favor.

Q: What do you do when you first get a script?

A: I basically read the script and try to let the pictures form in my head. The pictures come just from words, really. I look at the general sense that the script gives me. Hell on Wheels was a gritty show right from the beginning. Real dirty, edgy, and dark. Moth to the flame kind-of lighting scheme. I'll think about it for a little while and think about how gritty it wants to be and then talk to the producers and the writers and see where they want to go with it. They usually give me some kind of insight and then I try to start putting the elements together to make that happen.

Q: Was it harder because Hell on Wheels was shot mostly outside?

A: The weather made it more difficult for us shooting and building it. It rained and snowed and was just crazy forever, it seemed, when we were putting it together. We got every vehicle we had in the art department stuck and we were hauling a train out of Longview [in Alberta]. So, it was very difficult, but I think the hardship was very much what the guys of Hell on Wheels would have felt, the dirt and the mud. I think the hardship actually helped the look.

Q: Fans are asking if the steam train is real. How much of the set was created specifically for the show?

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Linda Cohen is the Music Supervisor for Hell on Wheels. In an exclusive interview with AMCtv.com, she talks about using music to create a sense of authenticity and what musical subtleties you might have missed during Season 1.

Q: Do you do most of your work before, during or after the filming of the series?

A: It starts during because, while they're shooting, sometimes there is on-camera music that you have to think about, and then when you get into post-production, we're putting music against picture too. So it's all throughout. It starts in the writer's room, actually -- if there are things written into the script, we start looking at it there.

Q: How do you decide when to use original vs. pre-existing music?

A: We have a lot of music that's written for us that is "period-sounding" music. In that time period, there was a lot of fiddle and banjo playing and Irish music that was all very organic to the time period, the culture, and the types of people that were there in Hell on Wheels. Some of that stuff that is pre-existing we put in, but I also commissioned some people to write music in the style of our show so we'd have more variety to choose from.

When we use song, we're very deliberate about only using songs that fit the show organically. Even if they're contemporary, they have that edgy and raw feel to it. We did, on a couple of occasions, have artists record music for the episode.

Q: "Timshel" is the name of an episode but also the name of a Mumford & Sons song in that episode's opening scene... How did that work out?

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Costume Designer Wendy Partridge created Kate Beckinsale's Underworld cape and Selma Blair's Hellboy catsuit. Now she explores a different world as the woman behind the clothes of AMC's Hell on Wheels. AMCtv.com spoke with Partridge about mud, blood and Season 1.

Q: Were you born sewing?

A: No, but I've loved clothes every since I was a little girl. I started doing costumes for a little amateur theater during high school, and through that, I got a job doing a children's drama with the BBC in Edmonton. And I just went, "Wow, how cool is this?!" I'd been sewing and doing design for a number of years, but that opportunity made it seem like designing for film and television was a really cool way to make a living.

Q: The costumes in Hell on Wheels have so much grime. How do you do that?

A: We start at the very beginning, taking hundreds of items of clothing and weighing them down with rocks, and tying them up so all the knees and elbows get stretched out and wrinkled like people have slept in them. We wet them up and dry them that way, and then we make them dirty -- they're clean in reality, but we cover them in fairly permanent "fake dirt." That process takes a really long time, and it's a constant upkeep because we have to wash the clothes for the actors, and then start all over again.

Q: The actors are frequently bloody. Does that require them to have multiple versions of each costume?

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AMCtv.com talks to John Shiban, the Hell on Wheels executive producer who wrote and directed Episode 9, "Timshel." Shiban dishes on the origins of the show's beheading and turning an attack scene into a music video.

Q: You wrote and directed Episode 9. Which do you prefer, writing or directing?

A: I really enjoy directing a lot. It's probably one of the most stressful things you can do, but it's so rewarding when things go well. At the same time, when I write, I'm kind of directing in my head at the same time, so in a way it's kind of the same job.

Q: When you wrote Episode 9, did you include anything for yourself as a director?

A: I always attack stories visually, whether I'm writing or directing so I'm always looking for ways to bring the story to life with compelling and interesting pictures. When you know you're directing, you try to find really cool set pieces to do. For the attack scene I wanted to find a way to do Indian attacks in a way that I hadn't seen before. We pitched out the idea of almost making it like a music video.

Q: Tell me about the beheading scene and how that came about...

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This week Robin McLeavy, who plays Eva on AMC's Hell on Wheels, dishes on the challenges of putting on her character's face tattoo and why she agreed to play a working girl on the show.

Q: What's the makeup process like for that tattoo?

A: It was quite tortuous at the beginning, because it was a three-phase process initially. We started out with a transfer, which would get messed up -- so when I had it I wouldn't want to speak to anybody on set so as not to ruin that tattoo! Everyone thought I was being snobby because I couldn't talk to anybody! It was not a good start. By the second week we had a stencil, that we would do one piece at a time. And then by the third week we just had a proper face cut, kind of like a Hannibal Lecter mask so we could just spray through the stencil and it happened in a minute. 

Q: Do you ever go out on town and leave it on just to mess with people?

A: Not in public -- sometimes on the drive home the driver would ask about it! But the reason that Eva had the tattoo is pretty interesting.

Q: Your character is based on Olive Oatman, a real historical figure...

Continue reading "Q&A - Robin McLeavy (Eva)" »

Hell on Wheels creators Tony and Joe Gayton talk to AMCtv.com about what drew them to Anson Mount and Common, and what to expect in Season 2.

Q: How did you come up with the concept for Hell on Wheels?

Tony: It was something I filed away for several years after I saw this American Experience documentary about the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. I thought it was an incredibly epic American story and, in doing research, found that it had never been told before.

Q: What made you decide Anson Mount was right to play Cullen Bohannon?

Joe: I think we had seen probably 50 people before we saw him. We got an audition tape from the office in New York, and as soon as I saw it I called Tony. It was on a Saturday night, and I said, "I think we found the guy." There's something about him, the way he looks, and he had this sort of taciturn delivery, which we liked. He was Southern, which was great. We'd seen a lot of non-Southerners -- we'd seen Australians -- and the idea of putting a real Southerner in this role was very appealing.

Q: How did Common get involved with the show?

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