EXCLUSIVE: Dimitri Leonidas and Gabriella Pession Talk ‘Those About to Die’ at SDCC
Dimitri Leonidas and Gabriella Pession sat down with BB and other members of the press to talk about their new series, Those About to Die, at San Diego Comic-Con. During our chat, they talked this being their first Comic-Con, their characters, diving into the world of ancient Rome, and so much more. Check out what they had to say below.
On attending their first Comic-Con:
Dimitri Leonidas: “I haven’t had a whole lot of time to go and explore really. It’s been a morning of press and stuff, but I guess it all fits under sci-fi and fantasy. Obviously ancient Rome is historical, but I think because it’s so different from today, there is a fantasy element to it because you’re dealing with emperors and a world that’s quite different to ours. I guess it does fit in and I mean, I’d love to go and explore. It’s my first time here and it seems amazing. It’s a great vibe.”
Gabriella Pession: “Yes, it’s my first time in, not in San Diego, but at the Comic-Con. I didn’t expect this. It’s amazing. I have a ten-year-old who’s running around with his dad and having a lot of fun. It’s fantastic. I didn’t expect to see a mini Circus Maximus at the entrance of the Comic-Con. That was something else, so I was a charioteer for a day as well, which I really enjoyed. But seeing the show, creating all this, we met on set. We do our work and then this work translates into something like this. It’s pretty epic and it’s a lot of fun. I mean, I share the set and everything to really amazing actors, but also humans. I think sharing all this with them, it’s just a very happy moment in life.”
On if there is anything they’ve been surprised to learn about themselves as actors as they continue to explore their characters:
Gabriella Pession: “For me, it allowed me to be distinctive in the choices I made to play Antonia. What surprised me was that I think after 20 years of career, I think all those little seeds of experience land into a place where I felt comfortable. Also, because I was directed by Roland [Emmerich] to try to push the character in areas that they were not specifically written like that. Try to make the role a bit more mad.
But moving forward I think is interesting to see. Obviously there’s many male roles in ancient Rome, so having just few women in the show, I think it’s fundamental to really give also voices to the women back then. They were very powerful. There’s a gallery of very powerful women like Livia Drusilla, Agrippina Minore, Poppaea, Messalina. I’m Italian so I studied all this at school as well. I think bringing to life this character that can be a sums of all these amazing characters and controversial is something very interesting that I don’t think has ever been done before. I liked the idea of playing in an ancient Roman woman, but she’s very modern in a way, so I think that was a challenge. Then I would like to continue this in the second season if we make one, which I wish.”
On what has been their favorite part of the reaction from fans to the show so far:
Gabriella Pession: “Well, it’s a world that they’ve never experienced like this. Obviously Ben-Hur was a masterpiece, but a lot of young people, unfortunately, they didn’t see the original Ben-Hur, that it was a masterpiece. I think a lot of people were amazed by the world, by the scale of the show and really living Rome like they never did it before. I think that was the big impact for them is the size of a Game of Thrones show, but actually making Rome so entertaining, so visceral and alive and vibrant. I think the audience felt that, the audience are very intrigued and they start to be very intrigued about the storyline of characters. They like to follow if they fall in love, if they survive. I think when you’re hooked into characters, besides the scale of the set, which is amazing, you need also human stories, and I think the show has that as well. I think hopefully it’s a good combination.
On if there is a Season 2 what they would like to see for both their characters:
Dimitri Leonidas: “Scorpus’ in Mount Olympus now, so I guess if we go up there, we might pay a visit to him. He’ll be with his horses. I don’t know. I guess it’s more a question for you.”
Gabriella Pession: “Because Scorpus dies in the ninth episode, and I like the relationship that she established with Cala towards the end of the season. I think you can see two very different women, but in a way similar by being different. It’s like a yin and yang, black and white, and mirroring each other in a way that the opposite can attract and can conflicts in a way. I think what’s interesting for me, I would love to see these two women interacting more in the second season. I think that’s really up to the writers. But I honestly think that the show had so many potential to develop amazing storylines and story art to really tell how real Roman history unfolds. Really, the mission really existed, the titles really existed. So follow a bit of historical traits, but also take it to an extent. We’re not a documentary, so we’re making a fiction. I think it’s nice to have those two elements coexisting.”
On what it was like diving into the world of Ancient Rome:
Dimitri Leonidas: “Obviously any element of it is someone’s interpretation. You’re bringing up 2000 years ago, a past that we can only assume, and obviously there’s historical text and references, but there’s a large element that you can’t know and so it is the creative on this show. Obviously it’s Roland and Robert Rodat who wrote it. The elements that they fill in. I think Roland very much wanted to make it about sports drama with the politics surrounding that. I think there’s so much space in when you’re going that far back into our shared past that you have to imbue it and animate it with a certain fantasy element, I guess. I think that’s what we’ve done.”
On if either were inspired by other historical figures when it came to their performance:
Dimitri Leonidas: “Scorpus was a real person, so there’s not a whole lot of stuff about him. There was a poem by the Roman poet Marshall where he references Scorpus a few times, and there’s a few really beautiful lines about the Gods must have mistaken Scorpus as an old man judging by the number of races that he won.
When we were in Rome filming, I went and visited Circus Maximus, the real space, and stood there and thought 2000 years ago, this very spot he would’ve been here racing. That was really weird, you know what I mean. 2000 years is an incomprehensible amount of time, and yet I’m on a spot where I know for certain he would’ve been here. I used him, but again, like you were saying, it’s my imagination of Scorpus from what they’ve written, trying to bring that to life. Then in the quiet moments at home, when you’re going through the script, you do try and think about what he would think of it or something. But that’s totally in my head, this Scorpius that I’ve made up.”
Gabriella Pession: “For me, no. As I said, I took some inspiration from real women in the Roman Empire, but there are parts of, we don’t have a lot of element enough about these women. It’s just like Livia Drusilla was Ottaviano’s wife. She was driven and she was really clever in a political way. Messalina was the most promiscuous, controversial figure in Roman history. You have a lot of different women. What I did for Antonia, I read a lot about them, but also to see how they lived. For example, they were not allowed in the Senate. Women did not have any political power or saying, so they were really…
In Greece, for example, the women could do the same. They had a similar power in the society, but in Rome, no. That gave me the element when I read Antonia, Antonia is like a bomb about to explode. She is basically a politician. She can’t be for the time she lived in so what I took from there is how they lived really, the patricians especially. But then I had to throw behind my back and really work with my instinct, I guess, to try to create a role that was originally in a way, a version of those women. But she did not really exist in a real history. Scorpus did, but Antonia’s invented.”
Those About to Die is now streaming in full on Peacock.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity