Talking With The Cast Of Sleepy Hollow! Zachary Appleman! Lyndie Greenwood! Nikki Reed! Jessica Camacho! And More!

Sleepy Hollow, which was a huge hit out of the gate for Fox, is now wrapping up it’s third season. I got to speak with some of the cast and executive producer Raven Metzner at the 2016 Wondercon Convention.

I first spoke with Zachary Appleman and Lyndie Greenwood who play Joe Corbin and Jenny Mills. I had to comment to to Zack just how much he looks like Clancy Brown and asked if that was part of the casting process. He said his agent called with the audition saying that he was a dead ringer for the character’s son and he wondered if it was Clancy Brown because he’s been told a lot that he resembles him. He had never seen the show before so he looked it up on IMDB and sure enough it was Clancy. When asked about the relationship between Joe and Jenny, Lyndie said the relationship has been “one of her favorites and the most rewarding. I’ve really come to love Jenny and it’s been fun to watch her blossom and allow herself to experience love outside her sister”.

Zack added “that Jenny has had such a tough life. It’s nice to suddenly see some positive good things happening”. Regarding the Jenny and her father relationship, Lyndie said she loves her own father so much that she loves the whole dad story line and that it’s also interesting to see dad/daughters of color – you don’t get to see that too often so she hopes it ends up positive.

When dealing with the supernatural story lines, Zack said “as an actor you find the thing they can latch onto at the beginning and it’s hard to latch onto something in the supernatural”. But what he could connect with was the fact that his character came into the show having just lost his dad. That was his way to identify as a person to come into an actor in an established show. “A young man trying to process the loss of a parent is the starting point”. Lyndie agrees that if the supernatural element were gone, Jenny would not know what to do. It’s been her purpose in life for so long that she would be lost. Zack added that for a genre show that is typically watched by men it’s great to have a show that has dominant strong female characters at the center. Lyndie added that it’s great to see “two really strong women who come together for a common purpose and are nice to each other and don’t fight over petty things”.

In regards to it being a somewhat historically based show, given that Jenny and Joe do more the present day artifact hunting, they don’t have to do major background research on history like Tom Mison would would have to do for his role. Zack said he hasn’t had enough opportunities with the show to do historical background more than he’d like.

Next I was able to speak with Nikki Reed and Jessica Camacho who play Betsy Ross and Agent Sophie Foster.

When asked, what can one do to get ready for Betsy Ross, Nikki said, “you approach it like any actor would approach any historical figure you do as much research as you can”. “Then you step into Sleepy hollow and realize it’s all worthless”. She added that the writers are going to create a character they want to create, so she’s far from the woman sitting in a rocking chair stitching a flag. But, they do make those historical pieces work and fit into the show. That’s one of the fun things about working on Sleepy hollow, she said. You do the research and somehow it works.

Jessica was asked what it was like to come into an already established show. She said, just as Agent Foster was brought into the Sleepy Hollow world she could relate as she was nervous about it, so was she has an actor. “You still have to prove yourself you still have a job to do,” she said. “I had to discover her strengths and weaknesses and I get to follow her progress throughout the episodes and see what she learns.” Jessica added that it was really “cool” to learn about her character’s supernatural connection. “That’s really what drives her into this world and why she’s able to take part in it and wants to stay.”

Lastly, we spoke with executive producer Raven Metzner. When asked about the massive changes to the story lines over the past three seasons, he said the evolution of this new story arc was created early on, even during the pilot. They had discussed working in a second tribulation with a demonic spin long ago in season one. They landed on the idea of The Hidden One, a god which evolved into a god and a relationship with that god. They now have a very strong, creative show runner and over the seasons they’ve had different creative input. “People throw out big ideas and they discuss and talk about them have a great collaboration between the creatives on their side and the network”. Regarding the new shift to monsters this season, he said the monsters are taken from some really cool, other cultures. “They do take it very seriously and like to dig deep and use real myths”.

Regarding the season finale and unknown status of a season four, he said they will try to wrap some things up and answer some questions, but they are keeping fingers crossed for a fourth season. They want to leave people wanting more. “That’s the real challenge of any show.”