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Eli is one of those characters you love to hate,

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but he's got a lot more going on beneath the surface

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than meets the eye. This is director

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Jenni Curtis. Here's an excerpt of when creator

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Chris Porter, executive producer Bill Curtis

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and I sat down with actor Colin Ford

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to talk about the twists and turns of Semtech

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mission specialist Eli Wright.

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Everybody goes through ups and downs. And I wrote this

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particular part of the show during a

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down period because of the pandemic and everything.

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And my family lives 3000 miles

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away in Maryland. I

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don't remember exactly what circumstance it was like probably

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around my birthday or something where like we were

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zooming in, like I couldn't go out and I live alone with

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just a cat that was down. So like a lot of the stuff

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that Eli does say about like I

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missed at a time plays with their stupid bread. A lot

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of that was coming from me in

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that particular moment.

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I was clouds. I

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miss grass, I miss cocktails

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and friends and even that Italian place with

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their stupid bread and stupid butter. And I

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miss you. And I think

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a lot of the time we take things for granted, like the little

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moments, the little things that we do all the time, whether

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it's going to the grocery store with your loved

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one or your family member, and picking out your food

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for the week and then getting to go eat at a restaurant

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and then ordering food at that restaurant and being

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like, Oh crap, this isn't what I want and this isn't

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any good until you literally

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don't have those options anymore. You can't do that.

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And it's been a long period of time since you

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did anything remotely that you enjoyed. In

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that moment. You start to realize, Wow, I

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was overlooking all of the things that

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are really special, the little moments in life that

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kind of make life what it is, beautiful

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and kind of just remembering those things

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and recollecting that while, okay,

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I was I was being selfish in that moment or

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I should have taken the time to enjoy this

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more.

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I don't even know for me if it's like I should have

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taken the time to enjoy it more, but it's what

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it means to actually be cared about is

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small. It doesn't have to be big

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gestures. But I think what stands out to me

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most in the monologue is the dark liquor cocktail.

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You knew I always wanted to drink

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the dark liquor cocktails, but it would make me

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feel worse the next morning. So you'd

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let me order what I thought I wanted, and then

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you'd order what I actually wanted. And

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then you just let me switch into. I'd

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made a bad choice.

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And like that. Is someone

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truly paying attention and truly caring

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and so small and so beautiful

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that that always makes me feel all mushy

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inside.

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You So pulled off the idea that

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Eli is young, has a

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lack of respect for authority. Certainly.

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And then all of a sudden this monologue comes

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and, you know, you find out that he's got

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depth. The reason why I mentioned

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this part is because all of a

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sudden, about a third of the way through the monologue,

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you're like, Oh, actually,

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Eli is whole. There is

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a lot to him. And the way Colin

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pulled that off was really

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amazing. I think it's one of those times

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during this show where it made me stop and

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change my mind about a character.

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Snaps for Colin.

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Stop it.

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I could debate with you about when you

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see people's humanity because we hear his conversation

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with Wren before this where he's just

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destroyed. And I see so much

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humanity in that when someone's just shut

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down and angry and you can see

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how broken he is because

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everybody in his life has disappointed

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him, except for Wil, whose message

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he deletes. So after he deletes the message,

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he makes a new message to Alison.

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And we get the big reveal that Alison,

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who is the CEO of Semtech,

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is in fact, Eli's mom.

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Parent of the year over here. Yeah.

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I mean, it's it's definitely something that had been

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planted in episode six when you're reading up Ali.

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She's just like my mother crying to 11.

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Oh, it's your mother.

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It's not in your files.

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Oh.

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Awesome. So like, that had been wiped

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from the system for some reason. And obviously

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it happened because she was the CEO of some tech.

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You would never program to know who my mother is. So

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correct.

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That information was not provided to

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me.

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Expunged from her record from the get go.

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Nice. And it just raises all

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sorts of questions. How much of this mission did she

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know was going to happen? Right. And

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how willing was she to sacrifice her

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son?

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Yeah, I think those are kind of the things that Eli starts

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to unpack in episode nine. He starts

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to realize, like, Mom, you've left me up here with

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no support. I thought, I think Eli probably

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in the back of his mind, thought, Oh, well,

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you know, despite me not having all the answers

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upfront, I have a resource at home that I can

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depend on. And kind of the same thing with

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not wanting to contact will, not wanting

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to lean on anything back home. I think it took a while,

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took a lot for Eli to get to that breaking point

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to go, Mom, I need your help. And when

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there's no answer, it's

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very lonely and depressing.

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Oh, God. It breaks my heart all over again.

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No, it wasn't Eli. So I

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had Mom.

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Please respond. Mask.

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Please provide some instructions and answers.

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So we had we had one rehearsal,

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I think. Right. So it was like a zoom call

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that we hopped on and we kind of talked through the script.

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It wasn't even officially a rehearsal rehearsal,

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but we kind of talked through like where

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Eli is mentally in each of these

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scenes, and he is all over the

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map and he, you know, he's panicking

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because he doesn't want to die, but also he's

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on a whole bunch of happy pills from Jessa.

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And there's a lot for you to be

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juggling as a performer.

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And I would love to hear about

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how you juggle that or what your process

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was.

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Well, I have to say that you both were

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a major help and guidance,

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and especially being in the room and kind of going through all

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these things with me. But I think it was

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just taking these things step by step. Is

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he like normal Eli now? Is he hopped

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up on these happy pills now? So kind of just taking

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those little things and injecting them a little

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by little into Eli was helpful and me

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kind of creating the overall character

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from beginning to end. We see Eli changing

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kind of different ways, but still, deep down, he's

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the same person. I almost feel like as

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things get worse and things progress on

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the ship. Eli starts to kind of unpack

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his bags from home and unpack the things he left behind

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and everything starts to pour out.

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Eli panics a lot, like

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the moment things go wrong, he panics you

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as an actor, I felt bad for you watching

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you do those moments because I was like, Oh,

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no. He is putting himself in emotional

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distress for this moment. Can you talk

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about how you got into those mindsets?

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Yeah, I think I just tried to place myself

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in that environment. I tried to be like if I was

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literally at the edge of the earth or

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in space and I had no resources,

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nothing left to do, how would I act?

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And a lot of people either handle

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pressure really well and can kind of stay

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with a clear mind. And personally, I do

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not even call and I do not I

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tend to panic and I kind of just put

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myself in his shoes and go, Oh my gosh,

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if I literally had nothing left,

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no resources whatsoever, how would

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I act? And I probably would embarrass myself

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because I would be panicking like

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a baby. And that's how I

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saw Eli do it as well.

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Can you count down in four

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languages?

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No, I can't. Eli can,

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you know, you know, was a wren

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who only learned Russian in science

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terms. Yeah. So I think Eli, I learned

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all the Russian. So. Yeah,

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just to show off. Just to show off as hell.

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And that's the thing. He's too smart for his own

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good, like I said earlier. But when

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push comes to shove and he gets put in these trying

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situations, his age really shines through.

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You see the lack of maturity

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and the innocence in being

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young.

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And there's

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a lot more to hear about our dear Eli.

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Be sure to check out the full conversation on the solar

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panel available only on our Apple Podcasts

7:52

Premium Channel.