![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/11\/AmazonCanadaAmazonPrimeVideoandLeftBankPicturesBeginPr-a35bfba.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Molina admits he wasn\u2019t familiar with the books before the project came his way, but the enthusiastic reception of a producer he was working with to the prospect of him taking the role was enough assurance he needed.<\/p>\n
Molina says: \u201cI just happened to mention Louise Penny to the producer that I was working with. And she just went off, like, \u2018Oh my gosh, she\u2019s fantastic, I\u2019ve read all her books, I\u2019m a big fan!\u2019 Really, I mean, just thrilled with the notion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then she said, \u2018What part are they thinking of you for?\u2019 and I said, \u2018Well, they\u2019re thinking of me for Gamache,\u2019 and then she just literally screamed in my face. \u2018You\u2019ve got to do it! You\u2019ve got to do it!\u2019 And this is a woman whose taste and whose opinion I really respect, so I thought, \u2018Well, I better take this seriously.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This led Molina on a quest to discover what all the fuss was about, and although he started with one of Penny\u2019s novels from the middle of the series (the novels are sequential, with references following on from previous stories), he was hooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI caught the fifth or sixth book in the sequence without really knowing it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut I read it and I read enough to really get a sense of the character and what was involved and what kind of world we were going to try and create and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/11\/Tp25161YanTf-18e6063.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Molina was almost on board. However, there was one additional request he had before agreeing to take the lead in what could potentially become a long-form series.<\/p>\n
He explains: \u201cI thought, \u2018Well, if this runs into a second season or third season, possibly even a fourth season, if I\u2019m going to be that invested, I want to be involved in a much more molecular level.\u2019 So I said, \u2018Well, would they consider me coming on as an executive producer?’\u201d<\/p>\n
Molina is quick to point out this wasn\u2019t just as a \u201cvanity credit\u201d \u2013 he wanted to be fully involved in the creative side of the production, only drawing the line at casting (\u201cas I was going to be acting in the show, it seemed inappropriate\u201d).<\/p>\n
He continues: \u201cSo I made my contribution in the writers room, working with the writers and hashing out stuff and saying, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s this bit in the book that I think we should keep\u2019 and \u2018I love this thing that he says here,\u2019 and \u2018Let\u2019s not do that, because that doesn\u2019t sound like him.\u2019 That kind of thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was a very, very productive, very challenging but very satisfying experience. I was saying to someone the other day, I finally got to see how the sausage gets made.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/Tp7009p-1-0cfe9cf.jpg?quality=90&resize=618%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>It\u2019s been a long time coming \u2013 Molina\u2019s career has been long and varied, ever since he first appeared on screen in 1978\u2019s The Losers. He has since appeared in iconic films such as Raiders of the Lost Arc<\/a> and Boogie Nights, and been nominated for three BAFTAs, two Emmys and a Golden Globe.<\/p>\n He has played characters including Robert Aldrich in Feud, Bishop Aringarosa in The Da Vinci Code and even Superman\u2019s father Jor-El in this summer\u2019s DC League of Super Pets<\/a>. So what made Armand Gamache stack up?<\/p>\n \u201cMy 16-year-old granddaughter asked me, \u2018Well, what\u2019s his superpower?\u2019 And I said, I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but his superpower is empathy. Not just his willingness to empathise, but his desire to empathise, his need to understand and see a point of view that may not be his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s what makes him kind of special as a detective, he has a moral standard about he won\u2019t carry a gun, even though it\u2019s standard issue for Canadian police. So there was, not a moral compass exactly, but just an understanding of self, knowing that this is who he is and he can\u2019t be anything else. And this desire to discover why things happen, rather than just how it happened, and who\u2019s responsible.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there are lots of little strands in the books which are very consistent about him trying to do good and trying to seem good. I think at one point, one of the characters says, \u2018You always seem to look for the good in people\u2019 and he says, \u2018Yeah, and sometimes I even find it.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI thought those moments were like, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s a really interesting clue to the character.\u2019 And because it\u2019s very consistent through the books, we felt it was important to make it a feature of our version of Gamache as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The series is shot in Canada, and the setting plays a big role in establishing the tone, as well as important elements of story and character.<\/p>\n Molina notes that \u201cin the books, Three Pines itself becomes like a character almost in its own right\u201d.<\/p>\n He says: \u201cWe wanted to establish where we were, hence the rather luxurious use of drones to get those beautiful rising landscape shots, so hopefully the audience really gets a sense of where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n This Canadian locale also meant there was a choice to be made when it came to Gamache\u2019s accent<\/a>. In the books, Penny suggests that, because of his education at Cambridge, the detective speaks with an English accent. But the team went for a different choice, giving the character a mid-Atlantic accent instead.<\/p>\n Molina explains: \u201cWe went through all kinds of thoughts about it. I felt that I didn\u2019t want to try and do an accent that was completely foreign to me. I thought there\u2019s no point doing a French Canadian accent. A, it\u2019s a very hard one to achieve, but also it would suddenly become a\u00a0thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we were kind of doing the bartering between, \u2018How do we turn the book into a piece of television without losing too much of the book?\u2019, I think the decision was a very practical one.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was, \u2018Let\u2019s give him a kind of mid-Atlantic accent that\u2019s going to fall easily on the ear and it\u2019s not going to make people kind of go, \u201cWhere does he come from?\u201d\u2018 That was one less obstacle to place in front of the audience and its willingness to suspend disbelief.\u201d<\/p>\n The setting also plays a big part when it comes to the season\u2019s over-arching storyline. While each two episodes adapt one of Penny\u2019s books and tell a stand-alone \u2018murder of the week\u2019 story, there is also an arc across the eight episodes as Gamache searches for missing indigenous girls and women, including the 18-year-old Blue Two-Rivers.<\/p>\n Molina explains the inclusion of this storyline, noting that it was an important element of Canadian cultural life to recognise.<\/p>\n He says: \u201cIf you\u2019re going to do a police series in Canada, there\u2019s no way you can avoid it. To avoid it I think would be insulting, not least to the indigenous population.<\/p>\n \u201cBut in order to tell that story, we didn\u2019t want to be in a position where we were coming in as kind of like the white saviours to solve everyone\u2019s problems. We felt that if we\u2019re going to have those stories told then they have to be told by the people to whom the stories happened.\u201d<\/p>\n This meant casting indigenous actors was \u201cabsolutely essential\u201d, while episodes are also directed by a Mohawk, indigenous director, Tracy Deer.<\/p>\n Molina continues: \u201cShe directed the two episodes that deal most closely with the indigenous issue and those plot lines. Because it was important that that community got to tell its own story, rather than have us kind of do it from some other patronising point of view.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we had indigenous consultants working on the scripts to ensure that everything was as authentic and as realistic as possible. And there\u2019s great use of indigenous musicians in the soundtracks and a lot of indigenous art that gets very prominent placing in the episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n So, what of the show\u2019s future? Well, Molina is quick to point out that this season has only just scratched the surface of Penny\u2019s book series.<\/p>\n He says that for season 1, \u201cWe looked at the first three books plus a book that kind of stands alone. She wrote a novella called The Hangman, and it\u2019s got all the same characters but it\u2019s not part of the sequence of books. She wrote it as a fundraiser for a literary charity that she\u2019s involved with, but it\u2019s got such good material in there that we thought, \u2018Well this can definitely stand up as a plot for an episode.’\u201d<\/p>\n I point out that Gamache also appears in a small role in State of Terror, a book Penny wrote with former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know that! I\u2019m going to have to read it,\u201d Molina says. \u201cI just assumed because Hillary Clinton was a co-writer that maybe she\u2019d gone off piste or was doing a whole other political thriller or something like that. So I\u2019m gonna have to read it.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it seems there will be no shortage of stories to tell. \u201cEven without that book, there\u2019s 18 or 19 Three Pines novels,\u201d Molina explains. \u201cI mean, there\u2019s a lot of material there.\u201d<\/p>\n But what of Molina\u2019s other upcoming projects? I, of course, can\u2019t end our conversation without asking about perhaps the star\u2019s most famous role \u2013 Doctor Octopus in the Spider-Man film series.<\/p>\n Molina first appeared in the role back in 2004\u2019s Spider-Man 2, but made a surprise re-appearance as the character in last year\u2019s Spider-Man: No Way Home, entering the MCU<\/a> proper and sparring with Tom Holland\u2019s web-slinger.<\/p>\n The end of that film seemingly saw his character\u2019s story closed off, with Doc Ock returning to his original universe. But with more multiversal shenanigans on the cards for future Marvel films, could Molina still return to the role for a future project?<\/p>\n \u201cI can neither confirm or deny,\u201d<\/a> he says teasingly. \u201cThat\u2019s the official line. I got into a bit of trouble over the last iteration because I happened to let the cat out of the bag quite innocently. Just accidentally, I was talking to a journalist who said, \u2018So, you know, how\u2019s the Spider Man movie going?\u2019 And I went, \u2018Oh, great thanks.\u2019<\/p> \u201cThe next day, literally the next day, Variety was like \u2018Alfred Molina reveals Doc Ock returns\u2019. And I got into such trouble. I was getting phone calls from Amy Pascal, Kevin Feige was on the red carpet somewhere and somebody asked him about some Marvel movie and apparently he got a bit snippy and turned around and said, \u2018Ask Alfred Molina.\u2019 So I got into a little bit of hot water.<\/p>\n \u201cSo that\u2019s the official line. I can neither confirm nor deny.\u201d<\/p>\n Three Pines episodes 1 and 2 are available now on Amazon Prime Video, with two new episodes dropping each Friday <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0you can sign up now for a free 30-day Prime Video trial<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for something else to watch in the meantime, check out our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a>, or visit our dedicated\u00a0Drama<\/a>\u00a0hub.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door.\u00a0<\/strong>For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the<\/strong>\u00a0Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By James Hibbs Published: Friday, 02 December 2022 at 12:00 am Speaking with Alfred Molina, it seems almost implausible that it\u2019s taken this long for him to star in a detective series. Sure, he\u2019s had previous roles as detectives \u2013 he even once played arguably the most famous mystery-solver of them all, Hercule Poirot, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":26524,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/12\/alfred-molina-on-his-three-pines-detective-his-superpower-is-empathy.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By James Hibbs Published: Friday, 02 December 2022 at 12:00 am Speaking with Alfred Molina, it seems almost implausible that it\u2019s taken this long for him to star in a detective series. Sure, he\u2019s had previous roles as detectives \u2013 he even once played arguably the most famous mystery-solver of them all, Hercule Poirot, in…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/26523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/Tp17569f-2478537.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/Tp25228YanTf-9e5720b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/Tp23030f1-fc6fd8b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/12\/doctor-octopus-spiderman-no-way-home-4k-wallpaper-uhdpaper.com-3331e-172a62b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"