EXCLUSIVE Iwan Rheon & Sara Martins Talk ‘Those About to Die’ at SDCC

Peacock’s Those About to Die took over San Diego Comic-Con yesterday, July 26. During the takeover, we sat down with two of the stars of the series, Iwan Rheon and Sara Martins.

During the chat, we talked their characters, returning to Comic-Con, if they relate to their characters, playing villains, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.

On being back at Comic-Con:

Iwan Rheon: “It’s great. It’s happening. Yeah, it’s cool.”

On what they admire most about their characters:

Sara Martins: “I admire everything about my character. She’s really strong. She never complains, never settle, never kneels. She always… For the next solution. She’s a force of nature, and that’s it.”

Iwan Rheon: “I think Tan X’s ability to handle crisis quite well and not panic. If something goes wrong, he’s who you want to be around.”

On if they relate to their characters:

Iwan Rheon: “I’m pretty good in a crisis. Just not to lose your head and stay calm.”

Sara Martins: “No, I’m not that strong. I wish, I wish, but no, I can’t say that I’m as strong as Canna, but I speak many languages as she does.”

On if they were surprised to learn something about themselves as actors as they continued to delve into their characters:

Iwan Rheon: “I always look at the character, so I never go into the character, if you know what I mean, it’s a very separate thing. So I never really take too much of it into my own personality, which is probably a good thing in some of the parts that I’ve played. I try to be very separate.”

Sara Martins: “For me it was being a mother myself, obviously you tap into that feeling like where would I go to save my children? And then I had to think of having big children, not toddlers, and what is the best job to do? Is that to protect them or to teach them how to behave in that such a violent society? I love the way she tells her son, ‘Fight.’ I’m struggling telling my son not to fight personally, but this woman, she’s like, ‘You fight.’ And she finds the words and the gesture to make him go into the arena.”

On what they would like to see happen if the show gets renewed for a Season 2:

Sara Martins: “He wants to be an emperor, come on.”

Iwan Rheon: “Yeah. I think that. It’s just going to be interesting to see how he navigates the decisions that he’s made and the monster that he’s created and how he’s then going to be able to manage that situation. And will Kal and Tan X be able to put their differences behind them. And what happens then? Will they live happily ever after?”

Sara Martins: “Or fighting each other?”

Iwan Rheon: “She’s going to betray me.”

On how they approach playing villains:

Iwan Rheon: “It’s the same as any part. It’s just reading… Getting everything you can out of the script, and then finding out it’s the truth of that character, I know it sounds a bit wanky, sorry, but yeah, it’s telling the truth of that person. And I think that’s what acting actually is. And I’m going to sound really wanky now, but yeah… Because I think acting is actually telling the truth, it’s not lying. People always say, ‘Oh you must be a brilliant liar.'”

Sara Martins: “Yes you are.”

Iwan Rheon: “No, I’m not. I’m a terrible liar. I’m the worst liar in the world. But yeah, so it’s that I guess. So you just find the truth, you don’t judge them, and you play them as truth and then hopefully then the audience will believe that you are that person.”

On how they created the chemistry that we see on the screen:

Sara Martins: “I think in the same process as Tan X and Kal-El, we didn’t meet before the show and we basically met the first day on set, no, I ran into you at the hotel, ‘Hey, you’re going to play Tan X. Oh, Kal-El, nice…'”

Iwan Rheon: “See you tomorrow.”

Sara Martins: “‘…See you tomorrow on set.’ Done. And then, luckily for us, we had to shoot all our scenes in the first two weeks.”

Iwan Rheon: “They have 10 art departments.”

Sara Martins: “We spent all that time together and we in kind of, not continuity but kind of. So first scenes… The first scene was actually the first scene when they met, so we were shy in front of each other like, ‘Who are you, who are you?’ And then we discover each other through the process, just like the characters.”

On if Rheon will make a return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Iwan Rheon: “Well, yeah, don’t ask me. I’m absolutely game. That’s out of my hands, but I think I feel very sorry for Maximus, he’s still on the moon. Just on his own. He’s definitely gone mad by now, so maybe he’s mad enough to come back.”

On what it was like working in the volume and if they had worked with something like that before:

Sara Martins: “No, I’ve never experienced something that scale, but it really helped me because my character is just coming into Rome, which is such this big city and I didn’t have to fake that. You arrive in this huge set, there’s 200 extras in costume and everything. So every time I was in awe like my character was.”

Iwan Rheon: “Compared to working with green screen, it’s so much better because for me it was like the light, the light, you feel the atmosphere of where you’re going to be. And Roland wanted to have it all in a particular magic hour kind of lighting and that really helps you feel that you’re there. Obviously you know you’re not, but it is kind of weird, because if you’re walking towards the screen and when the camera moves, the screen moves, then you feel a little like you get…”

Sara Martins: “Seasick.”

Iwan Rheon: “First of all, you think you’ve gone mad, and then you start feeling seasick. But it’s great. It’s definitely better than green screen. It’s so cool.”

*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.