Why Ashley Judd Said Yes to Playing the 'Unapologetic' New Boss on 'Berlin Station' (Exclusive)

By Philiana Ng‍ 2:56 PM PDT, October 2, 2017

Ashley Judd wanted to get back into the acting grind. The actress and political activist had been working off and on for the past several years, with key supporting roles in the Divergent trilogy and the Twin Peaks revival, but she had desires to return in front of the camera in a more significant way. Within three weeks of Judd articulating her wish, Berlin Station came calling.

“I have a really diverse life and I started to have a hankering to work,” the 49-year-old actress and political activist told ET during a recent sit-down in Beverly Hills, California. “My team came to me and said, ‘There’s this amazing show called Berlin Station. It’s a very strong ensemble cast. It films in Germany. The writing is superb. And they want you to play the boss.’” (Get an early first look at Judd's debut above.)

Judd is one of two new additions, alongside Scream Queens’Keke Palmer, joining the CIA thriller’s sophomore season, which kicks off on EPIX later this month. (Fun fact: Producers watched Judd’s TED Talk in January about the online harassment of women, which prompted them to inquire about her interest in the show. “It delighted me!” she said with a smile.) In the series, Judd plays B.B. Yates, Berlin’s tenacious new station chief, who injects a distinct and welcomed energy to the world. Part of the appeal of Berlin Station, Judd noted, was also the importance placed on gender equality in all aspects of production.

“When I spoke with the executives, they expressed to me that they wanted to hire female directors and their goal was gender parity across the board -- in the crew and on camera,” she shared. “They also said that, ‘Look, the world is diverse and our cast needs to be as well. We absolutely have to have a person of color, preferably a woman,’ and Keke Palmer fits that bill; she’s so talented and so spunky. Now, we have generations of women represented exactly as we have generations of women in this very world.”

Judd pointed to Jessica Chastain’s remarks at the Cannes Film Festival in May, when the actress made light of her disappointment over the lack of respectful portrayals of women in the festival’s movie pool, as a recent example of the intensifying spotlight on an area Hollywood can do far better in. “At least we’re having the conversation,” Judd said, conceding that there’s still a lot more work to be done.

As Judd tells it, B.B. represents the modern woman -- a strong female who’s “clever,” “unafraid to piss people off,” especially “the boys’ club,” and accomplished in her own right -- and the actress made it clear, there’s a relief in not having to contextualize or justify her power.

“I love that B.B. is an unapologetic leader, just a leader through and through [and] very ready to suit up and show up and say this is how it is,” Judd said, offering a glimpse into her character’s mindset, whom she modeled after former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “‘I don’t have to play any games in order to try to say, I’m the boss. I’m the woman, so I’m going to do this to make you feel more comfortable with the fact that I am your leader. I’m just your leader.’”

As for why Judd put acting on the backburner in recent years, she cited her work with the Women Deliver Conference, the United Nations and other charitable and humanitarian organizations as fulfilling a personal directive to be a catalyst for change and empowerment.

“I do love it,” Judd said of acting, who has a small part in the upcoming movie, Trafficked (out Oct. 6). “The supporting roles have been suiting me, because I’ve been to India and Jordan and Eastern Ukraine and to Denmark for the Women Deliver Conference. I have all my work with the U.N. and [other non-governmental organizations], but I was ready to do a more sustained piece. Something like Berlin Station really fulfilled my wishes. Really strong actors. Superb writing. Meaningful plot. All of those things are important.”

Berlin Station premieres Sunday, Oct. 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on EPIX.

Der DWDL.de-Podcast
Seriendialoge (36): Wie realistisch sind Spionageserien?


Mal eben kurz die Welt retten und niemand darf davon erfahren - Spione arbeiten im Verborgenen und sind dennoch oft Thema von Serien. Doch wie nah an der Realität ist das eigentlich, was in Serien wie "The Americans", "Deutschland 83" oder "Berlin Station" gezeigt wird? Ein kleiner Einblick in ein geheimes Metier.

von Ulrike Klode
06.10.2017 - 17:17 Uhr

Der Spion, das unbekannte Wesen: Es gibt einige Serien, die sich derzeit mit Agenten und ihrer Arbeit beschäftigen. Hochspannende Aufträge, das Wohl der ganzen Welt steht auf dem Spiel, die Agenten fürchten sich davor, enttarnt zu werden. Wir Zuschauer sitzen gebannt auf dem Sofa und fiebern mit. Doch wie realistisch ist das, was uns da in dramatisierter Form gezeigt wird? Gab es Spione wie Philipp und Elizabeth Jennings in "The Americans", die im Kalten Krieg als sowjetische Agenten undercover in den USA lebten und das Bild einer durchschnittlichen amerikanischen Familie abgaben? Wenn es solche Spione gab: Hatten sie wirklich einen gefährlichen Auftrag nach dem anderen? Und wie kamen sie damit klar, beim "Klassenfeind" leben zu müssen?
Oder wie realitätsnah ist die Geschichte des jungen DDR-Soldaten Martin in "Deutschland 83", der in die Bundeswehr eingeschleust wird und durch seine Spionage den dritten Weltkrieg verhindert? Was hat es mit der Liebesfalle und der Romeo-Methode auf sich?
Oder, um über die Gegenwart zu reden: Ist das Verhältnis von CIA und Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz in Berlin wirklich so ambivalent, wie in "Berlin Station" dargestellt? Unterhält die CIA sichere Wohnungen in Berlin?

Fragen über Fragen, die beim Gucken dieser Serien aufkommen. Und denen ich mit einem Geheimdienst-Experten vom Deutschen Spionagemuseum in dieser Podcast-Folge nachgehe. Ein Gespräch über überraschend realistische Darstellungen und dramatische Übertreibungen. Klicken Sie auf folgenden Audioplayer, um die Folge zu hören.

Unser Gast diesmal: Dr. Christopher Nehring

Dr. Christopher Nehring ist Historiker und leitet die Forschung des Deutschen Spionagemuseums in Berlin. Außerdem schaut er gerne Serien.


Für das Gespräch mit Dr. Christopher Nehring bin ich nach Berlin gefahren. Das Spionagemuseum liegt am Leipziger Platz, ganz in der Nähe des Potsdamer Platzes - weshalb sich die markanten Gebäude des Potsdamer Platzes beim Selfie im Fenster spiegeln.
Weiterführende Informationen zum Gespräch:

Mehr zu Jack Barsky, sowjetischer Spion in den USA: ein "Spiegel Online"-Artikel von 2015 und die Wikipedia-Seite.
Sein Buch: Jack Barsky: "Deep Undercover: My Secret Life and Tangled Allegiance as a KGB Spy in America", im März 2017 erschienen. Auf Deutsch bisher noch nicht verfügbar.

Mehr zu Günter Guillaume, DDR-Spion im Kanzleramt: Die Guillaume-Affäre bei Wikipedia, ein "Spiegel Online"-Rückblick von 2009 auf die Guillaume-Affäre, ein "Spiegel"-Artikel von 1988 über Walter Guillaume.

Mehr zu Hansjoachim Tiedge, dem BRD-Spionageabwehrchef, der sich 1985 in die DDR abgesetzt hat: ein "Spiegel Online"-Rückblick von 2015.

Mehr zu Rainer Rupp, DDR-Spion in der Nato, bekannt unter dem Namen "Topas": ein "Spiegel Online"-Rückblick von 2008 und die Wikipedia-Seite. Außerdem gibt's ein Buch über ihn: Klaus Eichner, Karl Rehbaum: "Deckname Topas: Der Spion Rainer Rupp in Selbstzeugnissen" Verlag: edition ost, im März 2013 erschienen.

Die Website zur Film- und Fernsehberatung der CIA findet sich hier.

Der Film, der mit Unterstützung des BND produziert wurde, heißt "Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod" und ist 1967 entstanden: IMDb-Eintrag.
Die "Süddeutsche Zeitung" hat 2014 einen Artikel darüber geschrieben: "Vier Teile Bourbon, ein Teil Wermut".

Serien, über die wir gesprochen haben:

- "The Americans": Die bisherigen fünf Staffeln gibt's zum Beispiel bei Amazon Video, iTunes oder Maxdome. Netflix hat 3 Staffeln im Angebot.

- "Deutschland 83": Ist bei Amazon (Prime), iTunes oder Maxdome verfügbar.

- "Berlin Station": Die erste Staffel gibt's nur bei Netflix, ab 16. Oktober werden die Folgen der zweiten Staffel dort wöchentlich veröffentlicht.

moose turds‏ @mooseturds

#BerlinStation's @AshleyJudd in the Oct. 16 issue of @people mag

‘Dynasty’ & ‘White Famous’ Review: Move Along, Nothing Glittery Or Special Here
by Dominic Patten
October 11, 2017 5:02pm


There’s a rebooted Dynasty debuting tonight on the CW and the Jamie Foxx-produced White Famous coming to Showtime on October 15. But both series are much more fizzle than fabulous.

Despite having the skilled Elizabeth Gilles in it as Blake Carrington’s daughter Fallon, this Dynasty is not much of an heir apparent to the sharp-nailed original Reagan-era Dynasty, which ran from 1981-89. It isn’t just the lack of Joan Collins as the devious Alexis, first wife of the John Forsythe-portrayed big shot Blake, that is lacking here. As I say in my video review above, this Dynasty’s flaw is that it’s buffed to the point of being lacquered and lacks almost any sense of real fun.

And let’s be honest, we already have a great 21st century version of Dynasty on the small screen. It’s called Empire. The Lee Daniels- and Danny Strong-created Fox series with Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson has been on for going on four seasons and is the better choice to get your soapsuds on tonight.

The stumbling block with the Jay Pharaoh-starring White Famous isn’t its potentially fabulous premise of a rising black comedian navigating the potentially soul-crushing costs of crossover mainstream success. Rather it is the execution, which lacks muscle and definition and goes all Big 4 sitcom for really no good reason for a show on premium cable, or that is on in 2017.

Between intentionally awkward white-guy fist bumps and way more awkward lines referencing Bill Cosby, and with guest spots by Foxx and others, White Famous actually pulls away from a lot of the great timing and talent Pharaoh displayed on nearly half a dozen years on Saturday Night Live – a state of infamy unto itself.

However, there is something debuting on the 15th that is well worth watching, and that is the Season 2 premiere of Berlin Station on Epix. The first season of the sophisticated and often messy spy series starring Richard Armitage, Rhys Ifans, Richard Jenkins, Leland Orser and Michelle Forbes was one of the best new shows of 2016 in my opinion, and one that if you haven’t been watching, you should start Sunday.

With the additional of Ashley Judd and Keke Palmer to the cast, the Bradford Winters-showrun series has lost none of its appeal. Running the risk of being outpaced by real-life events in these geopolitically unstable times and a German election that already has occurred, this season of Berlin Station keeps up its strong long-distance effort. It also reiterates that everything is really not alt-right (to use a poised joke from the show) in Europe or in the American intelligence community right now.

The show also reminds us just how talented and versatile Judd is. Almost from her first appearance in the revised opening credits, the actor — who also was on Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival this year — is a dominating and welcome force to Berlin Station as the new CIA station chief who goes on and off book.

So check out my video review above of why you shouldn’t waste your time on the baubles of the Dynasty reboot and White Famous, and why Berlin Station Season 2 is something that really shines.

Da mag jemand 'Berlin Station':

Exclusive interview: Berlin Station star Leland Orser on being Kirsch, and life imitating art
13th October 2017 by April Neale


Politics and espionage for principle and pay are served up in EPIX‘s excellent spy thriller Berlin Station Season 2.

One of the best actors in the ensemble, Leland Orser, brings his character Robert Kirsch to the forefront with perfectly written dialogue and an energetic ferocity.

In the titular city, a charismatic female leader, Katerina Gerhardt [Natalia Wörner] — more Marine Le Pen than Angela Merkel — has risen in the alt-right ranks. She has a formidable shadow enforcer named Otto Ganz [Thomas Kretschmann] muscling behind the scenes.

The storyline is frighteningly close to real life and we spoke in depth with Orser about how prescient the writers were in picking it up.

Robert Kirsch is the difficult one in the cast. He is the curt, not cuddly and quite precise CIA Deputy Chief of Berlin Station — a perfectly charismatic and profane foil to the newcomer, cool cucumber BB Yates [Ashley Judd].

In our exclusive interview below, Orser shares with us how much this season chillingly parallels the current events, as witnessed by the rise of Austria’s rising star, Sebastian Kurz.

As the world order all around us from Boston to Berlin seems off-kilter, we spoke with Mr. Orser about his exemplary work on Berlin Station and beyond:

Monsters and Critics: There’s a new opening to the show. Energetic. It gets you pumped for whatever lies ahead.

Leland Orser: That’s just the tip of the iceberg, April.

M&C: The series feels like art imitating life. I just read a news story about Sebastian Kurz in Austria, this alt-right young gorgeous guy. This is the real thing, happening…

Leland: You say art imitating life. I got to tell you something, it could be a little bit of the opposite in this case because these guys, Bradford Winters and the writing team, pitched this storyline and these stories and these events that take place in Season 2 before our elections here in the States.

They have to start that far in advance and we were shooting this series with scripts locked and loaded watching the events unfolding across the world of this last year. We had finished filming, the show was in post-production and being edited. We were home with our families.

I was back here in the Hollywood Hills when the German parliamentary elections took place. And we watched them live from here. So it’s really astonishing how kind of ahead of the political curve cycle our writing team was. And when you see the rest of the season, you’re going to go ‘there’s no possible way that they could have written this before it all took place’.

M&C: When you’re on location there and when you were filming, what were your observations of the place and the people who live there?

Leland: So, it’s an amazing city, first of all. It’s a beautiful city. Last year we shot there during the winter. This year we had the wonderful opportunity to be there during the Spring and Summer where the city just comes to life. There’s green in the city, which there isn’t during the winter, and flowers and wildlife, and everybody’s out on the streets and the cafes are bustling and the bars put tables out on the streets.

It’s an extraordinary time to be there. The city has just blown up. There are construction cranes absolutely everywhere. The price of apartments is going up every single day. The art scene, the food scene, the music scene, the club scene, there’s a huge reawakening happening in that city right now.

That being said, everywhere you go, west, east, doesn’t matter where. You are never that far from something that reminds you of the past. Of the good things and the bad things that happened in the past, that happened there specifically in Berlin, and it being the capital of Germany. There are memorials, there are plaques, there are remnants of the Wall, the Berlin Wall.

Where the Wall is no longer they have marked in cobblestones in two lines, the full length of it across the city. So you can look down, depending on where you are in the city, and know in what part of old Berlin you are standing.

The people that we work with, our crew is predominantly almost 100 per cent German. We live and work with these wonderful people every day and they all have family, and generations behind them, and their own stories of the city and their own stories of German history, that we get to share with them that brings our idea of Berlin and of Germany.

It humanizes that and what we know from the history books, what we know from school and what we’ve read and were taught actually takes on a whole different light.

M&C: Dovetailing off of what you just said, the villain in Season 2, the baddie behind Katerina Gerhardt, Otto Ganz, he’s tired of being sorry for the past. Did you ever get a sense of that, with anybody that you met there, that there’s a segment of the population that’s tired of apologizing?

Leland: A hundred per cent. And that’s one way of looking at it. I don’t feel personally that’s a constructive way of looking at it. We have a memorial in Oklahoma City, we have a memorial in downtown Manhattan.

Memorials are there for a reason. They’re to remind us, because if we forget…while we were in Berlin the events in Charlottesville took place. While we were in Berlin, neo-Nazi white supremacists, not carrying swastikas because that’s against the law, but every single thing else, marching freely through the streets of…I think was either Hamburg, or a city that was not Berlin. Astonishing. Astonishing.

Unbelievable in this day and age that you could ever imagine that happening again. So lest we forget.

M&C: Right. Your character Robert is just a genuine suffer-no-fools, get-it-done fellow. You have a brush up with the ambassador, Richard, he doesn’t like you. And you don’t like him.

Leland: That’s the first of many, by the way.

M&C: Yet Frost has a cordial relationship with him. It seems like the ambassador is trying to end run you with sort of a super secret spy organization there in Berlin, outside of your realm. Is that something you can talk about?

Leland: Guilty until proven innocent. It’s sort of Robert Kirsch’s motto and he feels that way about Ashley Judd’s character as well. Like, who are you? What do you want? What do you stand for? What’s your motive?

And that’s his approach to people in life in general. To begin suspicious. To begin confrontationally. He has no filter. He speaks the truth from his heart, from his mind. As you said beautifully, he does not suffer fools, he expects nothing less than 110 per cent from everybody. He is a perfectionist. He is a workaholic and his personal life is a disaster.

M&C: Well, since you mentioned that, your son Noah has come back, in Episode 3, which I’ve not seen so I’m shooting a question blindly. Can you tell me about your son and your relationship and why is he coming to Berlin?

Leland: It’s a big part of the season. It’s a day of reckoning for Robert Kirsch. Let’s just put it that way. He chose his work over his marriage, over his family. And he lives very far away from them, he’s separated for big long chunks of time from this boy. And this boy, Noah, played by Brandon Spink, is coming of age.

He has questions that only his father can answer. Questions about himself and questions about his father. Who are you? Why are you here? Why aren’t you home with me? What do you do? And the last question is the most important of all of them because if you work for the CIA you take an oath from day one to never reveal what it is that you do. And how do you deal with that as a parent?

It’s a coming of age season for Noah. It’s a coming together and a journey back to fatherhood and finding each other for the two of them. It’s really beautiful.

M&C: Do you think Noah will want to follow in your character’s footsteps?

Leland: He’s a really good liar. I hope not. I’m speaking as Robert Kirsch. You know we always want a better life for our children, but god knows if that’s what he chose to do it would make the character Robert Kirsch extremely proud but also probably very scared.

M&C: So there’s this complex history and relationship between Daniel [Richard Armitage] and Hector [Rhys Ifans]. How do you interact with them?

Leland: So Rhys, Hector, is Robert’s protégé. Robert hired him. Robert runs him as an agent. He was in charge of him. And for Robert’s money, Hector betrayed the station and him personally and as the season ends and Hector goes walking off into the sunset, good riddance. And I think Robert would believe that Hector should be locked up and the key should be thrown away.

And Hector’s appearance on the show is somewhat of a tease and a surprise that comes at the end of the first episode so…I think we were asked not to reveal that, but you, since you asked…so that’s how it starts between the two of them. It’s almost a case of the student becomes the teacher. The student, or that’s what it appears at times to be in this season.

Anyway, I love Rhys, love him to bits. We have such a great time together. And there is possibly nobody on the planet who can make me laugh as hard as he does.

M&C: Let’s talk about your arch-villain here. I keep calling him the Steve Bannon of Berlin Station. But Otto Ganz is a cult-like leader and do you get a handle on this guy?

Leland: You know he’s a thug. He’s a bad guy. It’s my job to do away with the bad guys. In whatever form that takes. Daniel goes undercover and actually enters his world. And in an alter, in disguise. So I run the operation, I send Daniel into that operation. I monitor it and I call the shots of it together with BB played by Ashley.

M&C: But your character did not send Daniel to Hector when he goes to Spain? It feels like Daniel bucked you on that.

Leland: Correct. Correct, I had no idea he was going to do that and I’m furious that he did.

M&C: Who would you say your character Robert is most closely aligned to in this cast of characters? In mind and mission?

Leland: Richard Jenkins’ character, Steven Frost, comes back this season as well and he doesn’t work for the CIA so I think that audiences will be very interested to see how his storyline is woven into the fabric of our world. We interact closely.

I interact closely with my son, Noah. When I stop to take a breath, there he is staring at me and needing a snack or needing to talk or needing a ride to school, or a ride anywhere. I interact closely with him.

I interact very closely with Ashley Judd’s character BB Yates. She’s the new chief of the station and we work closely throughout the season together. I work closely with KeKe Palmer’s character. She’s the new recruit, [April]. Again, guilty until proven otherwise is my take on her, but I watch her and I clock her and I think I sort of see myself as a young recruit in her.

M&C: Are you and Valerie [Michelle Forbes] playing nicer together this season?

Leland: Yes, I think Robert realizes that she’s still in shock, suffering from the events of last season and he definitely takes it easy on her. He overcompensates for her. I think he’s very worried about her.

M&C: Switching gears. You’ve done so much work, your acting CV is so impressive. Can you tell me what one of your favorite moments in film, not TV but film, are? That you’re really proud of?

Leland: I mean, it was really fun to have an alien burst out of my chest. In the Alien series…I’d always loved that franchise and then holy smokes there I was walking on to a sound stage and a part of it myself. That’s was incredible. Sci-fi is incredible and always wonderful.

Also, I was outside of London shooting the crashed glider scene. I was the glider pilot in Saving Private Ryan and it was 100 degrees out and I was dressed in a World War II uniform, my head was shaved, I was covered in dirt.

There were hundreds of extras around playing prisoners of war and wounded soldiers and displaced persons and I looked around and I had a sense, just a brief sense — I have four brothers of my own — I had a brief sense of, oh my God, I have the tiniest inkling of an idea of what it must have been like on that day. To not know where anybody was, what was happening, was anybody you knew still alive…

Every job that I’ve ever done has an incredible memory for me. I enmesh myself fully in everything I do and I miss them when they’re gone.

The New York Times

What’s on TV Sunday: ‘Berlin Station’ and ‘Good Behavior’

By ANDREW R. CHOWOCT. 15, 2017


BERLIN STATION 9 p.m. on Epix. In an era when real-life politics has unfolded like the juiciest soap opera, some shows have turned away from the topic rather than try to compete. But not Olen Steinhauer’s “Berlin Station,” a moody, tense thriller set in the Berlin branch of the C.I.A.; the show deals with damaging leaks, whistle-blowers, terrorism and more. Two weeks after Germany’s far-right party broke into the Parliament for the first time in decades, the season premiere on Sunday deals directly with the nationalist tide sweeping Germany and Europe. The C.I.A. team, led by a new station chief (Ashley Judd), embarks on an unsanctioned operation to uncover a possible alt-right terrorist attack on the eve of the country’s election.

FEAR THE WALKING DEAD 9 p.m. on AMC. Those zombies aren’t going anywhere: Despite underwhelming ratings and reviews, this spinoff of “The Walking Dead” has been renewed for a fourth season, and a crossover with the original has been announced. In this two-part Season 3 finale, the core survivors have dwindled and split up on their own missions. Strand’s motives are made clear when Nick discovers a new threat descending on the dam; Madison faces a horrifying revelation.

GOOD BEHAVIOR 10 p.m. on TNT. We’re not at Downton Abbey anymore. On “Good Behavior,” Michelle Dockery (formerly the regal Lady Mary) plays Letty Dobesh, who steals, cons, ingests, seduces and threatens. She turns on her paramour, Javier (Juan Diego Botto), and then the F.B.I. with blinding speed. As the second season begins, Letty has gained custody of her son, Jacob, and settled with him and Javier, a rakish hit man, in a remote beach town. But when Javier bungles a job, Letty is forced to face the consequences of being in a relationship with a killer, as well as her own self-destructive habits.

WHITE FAMOUS 10 p.m. on Showtime. After his somewhat acrimonious departure from “Saturday Night Live,” Jay Pharoah stars as a comedian hoping to reach a broader audience while facing the indignities and injustices of Hollywood. The story is based on the early career of Jamie Foxx as he struggled to break out; he serves as an executive producer for the show.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM 10 p.m. on HBO. Larry turns to a writer for advice, puts on a fake mustache once again and runs into trouble when he beeps at a cop car.

THE MAGIC SCHOOL BUS RIDES AGAIN on Netflix. Scholastic’s educational and wildly entertaining ’90s science show helped the medicine go down with a spoonful of zany psychedelia. This reboot modernizes its predecessor’s cartoon style and replaces Lily Tomlin’s Ms. Frizzle with her equally brilliant, scattershot sister, played by the always rambunctious Kate McKinnon. Ms. Frizzle takes her class into coral reefs of Hawaii, outer space, glaciers and the human body. And that familiar voice belting the theme song? It’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s.

A version of this schedule appears in print on October 15, 2017, on Page SP10 of the New York edition with the headline: What’s on Sunday.

Pop-Culturalist Chats with Brandon Spink

There’s a lot of buzz surrounding Brandon Spink and rightfully so. The up-and-coming actor is making a name for himself with an impressive body of work that includes credits in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Mother’s Day, NBC’s Game of Silence, and ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Next, he’ll star opposite Leland Orser in the second season of Epix’s breakout hit, Berlin Station. Pop-Culturalist had the pleasure of chatting with Brandon about his role, what it was like working with Leland, and when he realized he wanted to be an actor.

P-C: Tell us about Berlin Station and how you got involved with the project.
Brandon: Berlin Station is an American espionage drama TV series on EPIX. I auditioned for the project this past March, and found out a week later that I booked the role of Robert Kirsch’s son, Noah.

P-C: Were you familiar with the series before you auditioned?
Brandon: I was not familiar with the series, but was very familiar with the actors involved.

P-C: What should fans know about your character, Noah?
Brandon: He is a little sarcastic, funny, and lives by his own rules! His focus on the show is the relationship with his dad.

P-C: What can fans expect this season?
Brandon: The series is a character drama set in present-day Berlin. Season two is fast paced and action-packed!

P-C: What is it like joining a show that already has a season under its belt?
Brandon: Well, it was nice to work with actors that had been with the show since the beginning. They really helped me get into my character.

P-C: How did you and Leland Orser build your father-son relationship?
Brandon: Leland is so amazing! He took me under his wing and made me feel so comfortable that I was able to really establish the father-son relationship.

P-C: What is it like working with this incredible cast? Did they share any words of wisdom?
Brandon: It was so fantastic to work with so many talented actors. Leland always had great advice. He would tell me to just really focus on understanding the character and that it will help create each scene you film.

P-C: When did you realize you wanted to pursue acting?
Brandon: When I was six years old. I auditioned for my first play, Peter Pan, and booked the role as Mr. Smee. I knew after that moment that this is want I wanted to do.

P-C: What is your dream role?
Brandon: To play a lead superhero in a feature film.

P-C: Who is someone you’d love to work with in the future?
Brandon: Leonardo DiCaprio


Pop-Culturalist Speed Round

P-C: Guilty pleasure TV show?
Brandon: The Flash

P-C: Guilty pleasure movie?
Brandon: Step Brothers

P-C: Favorite book?
Brandon: To Kill a Mockingbird

P-C: Favorite social media platform?
Brandon: Snapchat

P-C: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Brandon: Tupac

Favorite play or musical?
Brandon: Wicked

P-C: Hidden talent?
Brandon: Memorization

Make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and don’t forget to check out season two of Berlin Station on Epix, this Sunday, October 15th!

TV Review


Actresses added to 'Berlin Station' thrilled to take part

Oct 14, 2017 at 5:00 AM

By Rick Bentley

The second season of the contemporary spy series “Berlin Station” will feature some new faces within the story of Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), an undercover agent who has just arrived at the CIA station in Germany.

Ashley Judd and Keke Palmer join the cast as a New World Order has taken root and is steadily deepening. Judd plays the new chief of station, BB Yates, and Palmer plays young case officer April Lewis.

Judd was excited about joining the series because of the strong women who are already a part of the show.

“I loved that BB Yates is such a leader. I really feel like my character is the type of woman that the world needs now, and to have the station chief of the CIA in Germany, a great ally of the United States, obviously since the end of the Second World War, was a wonderful opportunity — and having that person be female is way overdue,” Judd said.

In addition," she noted, "the cast is populated with the likes of Keke and Michelle Forbes, who is a fantastic actor and an experienced agent on the show. And then you saw (Esther Krug), and she plays the head of German intelligence. So you have the four of us giving, through entertainment, a real look at what the world should actually be like in the 21st century.”

In “Berlin Station," Judd's character will face a world in which Germany finds itself on the precipice of a pivotal election as the far-right tide sweeps Europe. Miller’s mission is to determine the identity of a now-famous whistleblower masquerading as “Thomas Shaw.” Miller learns to contend with the world of the field officer as he dives deeper into the mystery and uncovers the threads of a conspiracy that leads to Washington.

The series, written and created by Olen Steinhauer, whose spy fiction novels include “The Tourist,” unfolds in a world that’s more of a cloak-and-dagger approach than the high-tech spying of today.

Executive producer Bradford Winters praised EPIX for embracing the more traditional spy story.

“The fact that they wanted to go with a very character-leading spy drama, I think is a big testament to them,” he said. “In season one, we sort of happily surprised ourselves about halfway through the season when we found ourselves sort of taking a turn for a bit of a thriller in the middle of the journey, and at that point it was great because we found ourselves with a leg in each subgenre — spy drama and spy thriller.

“It really opened up the show creatively going forward to move back and forth between the two and to stand, just sort of straddle that divide in a way that it seems hard for shows and movies to sometimes do that."

Either way satisfies Palmer, 24, an Illinois native who has been acting since she was 9. She views her involvement in “Berlin Station” as a major career leap, as the singer/actor generally is cast in lighter film roles (“Akeelah and the Bee”) and TV productions ("Grease: Live").

“It’s completely different because it’s like this thriller, adventure, political type of connection, and it’s nothing like anything I’ve done before, and that’s exactly why I wanted to do it," she said. "I was really excited about getting involved in that conversation as a growing person looking at the world around me, really excited about tackling something through entertainment that is topical to what’s going on today."

The action element, too, appealed to her, Palmer said.

"April is an agent, so she’s on the ground. She’s doing things that I would love to do. So it’s cool to live through her.”

Guide to Season 2 BERLIN STATION: Q&A w/ Ashley Judd, Keke Palmer, Bradford Winters + Episode Guide
Maj Canton - October 15, 2017

EPIX premieres Season 2 of BERLIN STATION on Sunday, October 15, 2017 from 9-11pm with a two-episode season opener. The action-packed second season opens in the thick of a New World Order that has taken root and is steadily deepening. In the wake of the Far Right tide sweeping across continental Europe, Germany finds itself on the precipice of a pivotal election. The agents of the CIA station find themselves in the midst of the election campaigns in Germany. The so-called PfD, an alt-right party vowing for votes in the upcoming election, has managed to build a very solid following and is threatening to overthrow the current government. When the CIA station learns about intelligence of an upcoming terrorist attack that might be connected to the PfD, they are on high–alert.

This past August at the Television Critics Association (TCA) Summer Press Tour, EPIX presented a panel which included new cast members Ashley Judd, who plays station chief BB Yates; and Keke Palmer, new recruit April Lewis; as well as Executive Producer/Showrunner Bradford Winters. Here are a few highlights (edited for clarity and readability) from that panel.

Question: Keke, this is a different kind of role for you, and you play someone who is also new. Do you feel like the character? And to what extent is this really a different world?

Keke Palmer: It’s completely different because it’s like this thriller, adventure, political type of connection and it’s nothing like I’ve done before. That’s exactly why I wanted to do it. I was really excited about tackling something through entertainment that is topical to what’s going on today. Also, the action element. April is doing things that I would love to do. It’s cool to live through her.

Question: Is espionage a comparable genre to horror at all, or is this a completely different arena?

Keke Palmer: It’s completely different. That’s what I love. I’m always looking for a challenge. I enjoy doing horror but I enjoy doing espionage work, too.

Question: Ashley, you’re a very political person. What appealed to you about being involved in a political show?

Ashley Judd: I really feel like my character is the type of woman that the world needs now. Having the station chief of the CIA in Germany be a female is way overdue. And the cast is populated with the likes of Keke, and Michelle Forbes, and Nina, so you have the four of us giving a real look at what the world should actually be like in the 21st Century.

Question: Talk to us about being a badass. Have you always been that way and why do you like it so much?

Ashley Judd: Thank you. It’s fun. It is a little scary because there are plenty of people who would like to squelch the general badassery of strong women everywhere. And I love working with EPIX, they’re incredibly supportive. I’m delighted when the executives come to set. I think that the trouble is misogyny so we’re just responding to it in empowered ways. It’s wonderful to be wanted for exactly who and what I am.

Question: Have you heard from anyone in German intelligence about your show?

Bradford Winters: I have not heard directly from anyone in German intelligence, but our entire crew is German and we have had a very affirmative response from them. And the ideas for the second season started forming sometime after that attack in Germany at the Christmas market. And it was clear it wouldn’t take a lot more of that kind of incident to really tip things in Germany’s electoral cycle. I was deeply concerned to try and get it right. One of the most satisfying experiences are just members of the crew, of the production office, of different departments, coming up to me and saying how much they loved the scripts, how true they feel to what’s happening there.

Question: Of those great spy movies from the ‘60s, what influenced you?

Bradford Winters: What appealed to me from the get-go about this project is the fact that in the contemporary landscape of spy entertainment, it had a very neoclassical feel, and it reminded me of the novels I read growing up. It’s one of the things that really does set the show apart, it seems to come from a tradition and is also fitted for a contemporary audience and world and issues.

Question: Have you had any help from the CIA or a reaction from them?

Bradford Winters: We have a consultant who used to work in the CIA. Nobody from the institution. I would imagine they try to very much keep to themselves.

Keke Palmer: He’s keeping my secret. Actually, it’s me. I’m a CIA agent posed as an actor acting as a CIA agent.

Question: What do you think it says about EPIX that they’re responsive to the type of show you’re trying to make (i.e. unlike Jason Bourne or Mission Impossible)?

Bradford Winters: I think it speaks volumes that EPIX would take this on board. It’s a genre that demands a more pyrotechnical approach these days. So the fact that they wanted to go with a very character-leading spy drama I think is a big testament to them. We sort of happily surprised ourselves taking a turn of a thriller in the middle of the journey. It was great because we found ourselves with a leg in each sub-genre, spy drama and spy thriller, and it really opened up the show creatively. We really entered the second season with that fluidity in mind.

Question: At the end of Season 1, the surviving characters were scattered to the forewinds. Are you bringing people back together?

Bradford Winters: We are bringing people back and it was difficult. That was also the exciting challenge of it – how to disrupt Berlin Station at the end of Season 1, how do we pick up the pieces at the start of Season 2 and continue to move on with an ensemble. I think there will be fun surprises into how that gets pulled off. The idea behind the second season is the station taking power into its own hands.

SEASON 2 EPISODE GUIDE

If you want to know nothing about the episodes at all, skip this section. Provided by EPIX, this episode guide includes general episode descriptions and specific plot details.


Episode 201: "Everything’s Gonna Be Alt-Right"
Sunday, October 15 at 9pm ET
Under the direction of new Chief of Staff BB Yates (Ashley Judd), Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage), Robert Kirsch (Leland Orser), Valerie Edwards (Michelle Forbes) and the rest of Berlin Station embark on an unsanctioned operation to uncover a possible Far Right terrorist attack.

Episode 202: "Right Here, Right Now"
Sunday, October 15 at 10pm ET
In an episode set completely in Spain over an intense 24-hour period, Daniel (Richard Armitage) enlists the help of an unexpected ally to further his mission with Otto Ganz (Thomas Kretschmann).

Episode 203: "Right to the Heart"
Sunday, October 22 at 9pm ET
Valerie (Michelle Forbes) works to obtain intel on the Far Right while Robert’s (Leland Orser) teenage son Noah (Brandon Spink) arrives in Berlin and asks questions. Meanwhile, Frost (Richard Jenkins) agrees to the Ambassador’s request to spy on Berlin Station.

Episode 204: "Do the Right Thing"
Sunday, October 29 at 9pm ET
BB Yates’s (Ashley Judd) past is revealed while she juggles keeping Berlin Station’s Far Right operation covert or revealing it to Ambassador Hanes; Daniel (Richard Armitage) discovers a lack of trust between Otto Ganz (Thomas Kretschmann) and his daughter.

Episode 205: "Right of Way"
Sunday, November 5 at 9pm ET
The Station’s sting operation to catch the Far Right in an arms deal goes horribly awry, with Otto Ganz (Thomas Kretschmann) escaping. Meanwhile, Robert (Leland Orser) and Frost (Richard Jenkins) make plans to investigate the money trail behind the PfD’s nefarious dealings.

Episode 206: "The Right Hook"
Sunday, November 12 at 9pm ET
Robert (Leland Orser) and Frost (Richard Jenkins) travel to Norway to investigate the illegal money trail leading to PfD. BB (Ashley Judd) and Valerie (Michelle Forbes) devise a new plan involving a member of the Far Right while Daniel (Richard Armitage) deals with the psychological consequences of his mission.

Episode 207: "Right and Wrong"
Sunday, November 19 at 9pm ET
April (Keke Palmer) weighs telling Robert (Leland Orser) about Hector’s (Rhys Ifans) assassination plot; Daniel (Richard Armitage) tries to arrange safe passage out of Berlin for Hector with help from Esther (Mina Tander).

Episode 208: "The Righteous One"
Sunday, November 26 at 9pm ET
Hector (Rhys Ifans) is wanted by German authorities for the assassination of Katerina Gerhardt, but Berlin Station begins to discover there is more at play than a jaded ex-CIA officer.

Episode 209: "Winners Right the History Books"
Sunday, December 3 at 9pm ET
Berlin Station continues to search for the truth behind Katerina Gerhardt’s assassination and Nick Fischer’s (Scott Winters) role in it, as a protest outside the US Embassy and calls to turn Hector (Rhys Ifans) over escalate.

PRODUCTION NOTES

Season 2 of BERLIN STATION opens in the thick of a New World Order that has taken root and is steadily deepening. In the wake of the Far Right tide sweeping across continental Europe, Germany finds itself on the precipice of a pivotal election. As Bradford Winters explains it, “Knowing that the writing, the shooting, and the airing of the second season would coincide with the electoral cycle in Europe at large, it seemed like a ripe opportunity to not only explore what was happening in Europe, but use that to address what was happening in America at the same time.” Richard Armitage, as he is going undercover into the hard core of right-wing extremism, has his own perspective: “One of the subjects that we're dealing with this season is when politics swings too far to either side. Intelligence services are faced with a difficult situation because they have to maintain their position as an institution while politics is kind of running away from them.”


In the CIA, there is an iron rule that a deputy chief of station can never succeed to a leaving chief. So, after Steven Frost’s departure, there was not only an opening. It was also clear that the show in Season 2 needed a strong new chief. The producers found her in Ashley Judd. Her arrival as the new head of station holds more than the usual old boss – new boss scheme. BB Yates comes in determined to change the culture of Berlin Station. Another new face is April Lewis, a rookies fresh out of Langley, played by Keke Palmer.


Michelle Forbes has also been seeking to expand her role since Season 1: “I went to Bradford [Winters] and I was like, ‘Brad, please get me out from behind this desk. All my co- stars are going to these beautiful locations. They're on Museum Island and these cafes, and I am stuck behind this desk." Her intervention did not fall on deaf ears: “Sending Valerie out into the field became a top priority this season, “ says Brad Winters, “She carries such an amazing presence in the workplace, there was a great desire to let Valerie, and Michelle, sort of spread wings.“


So with BB Yates as station chief and Valerie Edwards leading the rookie April Lewis audiences can also look forward to new female dynamic in the show.


BERLIN STATION shot Season 1 in the city of Berlin in winter. For Season 2, the production team made a major decision: That season, as it is taking place about six months after the events of Season 1, were to happen in summer. Bradford Winters explains: “Most of us come to the spy genre the stereotypical grey, Baltic winter in mind. Which is what I think made the Season 1 so true to form in kind of a neoclassical way. For Season 2 we really wanted to subvert that and have opportunity to show what's it like to come in on a spy genre set in Berlin when it's blue skies and trees are flowering.”

Brandon Spink‏@brandonsspink

Please tune in this morning @ 11am on @11alive Atlanta & Company, where I will be discussing my role on the series #BerlinStation Season 2.

Brandon Spink Talks Season 2 Of ‘Berlin Station’
October 13, 2017 by TDS

We caught up with Berlin Station star, Brandon Spink, to get the inside scoop on the upcoming season! The actor, who is quickly making a name for himself with buzz-worthy roles in television and film, dished on what to expect from new episodes, behind-the-scenes moments, and more! Read the exclusive interview below and don’t forget to tune into season 2 of Berlin Station this Sunday, October 15th, at 9:00pm on Epix!

Created by Olen Steinhauer, the contemporary spy drama takes a look at the activity of a CIA office on a global stage in the midst of an investigation into a now-famous whistleblower.

______________________________________________________________

Let’s talk about Berlin Station! Can you tell us a bit about your character, Noah? What initially drew you to the role?
Noah is the son of Robert Kirsch (Leland Orser) and has recently moved back to Berlin to live with him. What initially drew me to the role was that Berlin Station is a spy thriller and I have always loved dramatic shows. I also really wanted to work with the actors involved.

With the second season coming up, what would you say fans can be expecting from those episodes?
The writing is so great this season, and we also have a really talented group of actors. It’s action packed and tackles current issues facing the world today. This season is really going to be amazing!

Are there any memorable behind-the-scenes moments from set that you can share with us?
I got to celebrate becoming a teenager with the cast and crew in Berlin, Germany. They surprised me on set with an awesome cake!

What’s something about the show or set that fans would be surprised to know?
The show actually films in Berlin, Germany, as well as the other countries mentioned in the show.

If you could have anyone guest-star on the show, who would it be and what kind of role would they have?
That’s a tough one, but I’d say Matt Damon because he was so great in the Bourne film franchise.

When you think of career goals, which actor(s) do you take inspiration from? When you’re not busy on set, what are you usually up to?
I get inspiration from Leonardo DiCaprio. When I am not busy on set, I play travel baseball. My position is pitcher, but I also play centerfield and shortstop.

What’s something you’re hoping to cross off of your bucket list this year?
I really want to Skydive.

What’s been the highlight of your year so far?
Working on Berlin Station because I got to work with such an amazingly talented cast.

What are some of your current obsessions?
I enjoy watching the following television: Stranger Things, The Flash, 13 Reasons Why, Riverdale, and of course season one of Berlin Station.

Any special message for your fans/viewers?
Thank you for the support! It’s always so cool seeing all the positive messages!

BERLIN STATION: Showrunner Bradford Winters talks Season 2 – Exclusive Interview
The executive producer talks about the new season of Epix's spy drama

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: October 15th, 2017 / 07:35 PM


By the end of the first season of Epix’s crackling espionage drama BERLIN STATION, the C.I.A. office of the title was in chaos. Top spy Daniel Miller (Richard Armitage) had been shot and badly wounded, station chief Steven Frost (Richard Jenkins) had been jailed (though later released) and fired, and operative Hector DeJean (Rhys Ifans) turned out to be leaking information to the press and was on the run.

At the start of BERLIN STATION’s second season, beginning Sunday, October 15, one of the big questions would seem to be how all of those characters can find their ways back into the story. Executive producer Bradford Winters, who bears a striking resemblance to his actor brother Dean Winters, debriefs us on the characters, and much more.

ASSIGNMENT X: Was the BERLIN STATION Season 1 finale written with the expectation that there would be a Season 2, or did you find that you had to write yourselves out of any corners?

BRADFORD WINTERS: It was made in the hopes that things would go on, but at the same time, I think we gave Season 1 a kind of an ending where if it had gone that way [and been the end of the series], and thankfully it didn’t, it would have felt like a satisfying close. So we tried to end Season 1 in a way that would give it that sense of closure, but also keep the door open for a season to come.

AX: How are you bringing back characters who are no longer with the station, some of whom seem to be in hiding, and yet need to be in reach of the station if they’re going to be in the show at all?

WINTERS: Well, that very question was what was sort of our own leading questions. I mean, I can’t give away details, but we have worked hard to make everything fold naturally into the season, even against odds of, “Where’s this person and can that person be working in the station anymore?” Things like that. We are bringing people back, and it was difficult, but that was also the exciting challenge of it, how to disrupt BERLIN STATION at the end of Season 1, do some dismantling of the ranks, and then how do we pick up the pieces, pick up where we left off at the start of Season 2, and continue to move forward with an ensemble.

So I think there will be some fun surprises as to how that gets pulled off, but also, it is the show that it was, and the station that it was. It’s really a matter of picking up those pieces, and the idea behind the second season in some ways is the station taking power into its own hands, having been the subject of forces beyond its control [in Season 1]. So there is very much a flipping of the tables M.O. creatively in this season.

AX: What is the rundown this year behind the scenes at BERLIN STATION? Series creator Olen Steinhauer was very involved in Season 1. Is he back again this year?

WINTERS: I was show runner Season 1, and now on Season 2 again. So I’ve been the show runner both seasons. Olen created the show and was with us on the writing staff for Season 1, but has been busy working on a novel this season.

AX: You’re adding some major cast members this season. Who does Ashley Judd play?

WINTERS: Ashley Judd plays B.B. Yates, who’s the new chief of station, replacing Steven Frost. She is somebody who has experience at different stations, and she’s preceded by the nickname of the Station Whisperer, meaning she has been dispatched to stations like Berlin that are in various states of disrepair, or moral or institutional brokenness, and she comes in to help get that back on their feet. But what we learn about B.B. early on is that, at the same time, she plays a bit of a maverick role and is not simply a company yes woman, there to do the bidding of Langley [C.I.A.’s headquarters in Virginia]. She’s there as much to empower the station itself.

AX: Was Ashley Judd a fan of BERLIN STATION, or did you reach out to her based on her TED talk, or …?

WINTERS: Her name came into the mix, and we reached out to her, and apparently she had really enjoyed the first season and was very keen on the first two scripts for the second season, and embraced the role of B.B. Yates, and it really spoke to her and appealed to her, and off we went.

AX: You’ve also added Keke Palmer this season as April Lewis. Is April an agent or an asset?

WINTERS: Well, those are slippery terms. Actually, “agent” and “asset” are both the same term, meaning somebody, a civilian, who is functioning as an adjunct source of intelligence to the C.I.A. So our spies are spies or case officers. April is a case officer and a spy. So the assets are the non-C.I.A. people outside of Berlin station, who are feeding intelligence and information to the C.I.A.

AX: When you were conceiving the basics of the B.B. Yates and April Lewis characters, were you thinking they should be women?

WINTERS: Yes.

AX: Just to balance out the gender in the cast?

WINTERS: Yeah, to balance out the gender, and to do something different. In the wake of the fall of Steven Frost in Season 1, we just knew instinctually that our new chief of station for Season 2 should be a woman, and that was sort of an immediate idea. And then bringing in some younger blood in the form of Keke Palmer playing April Lewis, similarly, we knew at the bottom of the ranks it would also be good to bring in a female character, so at the top and the bottom to balance things out and mix it up.

AX: Can you tease any other major cast members who are new to the season?

WINTERS: We started out thinking that maybe there would be another additional character or two. I mean, of course there’s John Doman, who’s playing our ambassador – I would be remiss to not mention John Doman, who we’re so excited to have. But that’s it. It’s already a substantially-sized ensemble, and we’ve made it even a bit bigger.

AX: Are you shooting on location in Berlin again this year?

WINTERS: Oh, yeah.

AX: And are you shooting anywhere else?

WINTERS: Yes. We have some exciting location shoots this season. We’ve been elsewhere in Europe and outside of Europe. I don’t know if I’m allowed to reveal those or not, but we do take it outside in Berlin.

AX: Since the creation of Season 1, the real world has changed in ways that no sane person could have anticipated. In Season 1, we didn’t see the C.I. A. station have that much direct interaction with the mainstream American government. Does that continue, or are there any references to Washington, D.C. now?

WINTERS: The administration is a presence this season, just because of the shift in the political landscape in the real world between the two seasons. So we have an ambassador character, when we didn’t in Season 1. We deal with it, because it’s a reality, and it is something the C.I.A. does have to deal with, and we all know lots of the drama that has gone down between the administration and the C.I.A. since January of 2017. So it’s there. It’s not front and center in this show, but it’s there. And in certain moments, it does become front and center, and then it recedes.

AX: Was there a discussion amongst the creative staff as to “how much do we steer into/away from the governmental craziness?”

WINTERS: Yes, definitely. The idea for this season was hatched before the election, so obviously, it’s not like we saw which way the election was going to go, but given the way it went, the onus became a bigger one to actually deal with the new world order, coming off the heels of the election. So yes, it was a question of navigation, every step of the way.

AX: Have you gotten any responses about BERLIN STATION from anybody in the intelligence community?

WINTERS: No. We have been asked that question a couple of times today, and no, have not heard [laughs] – my phone has not rung with somebody from Langley calling to give their opinion on the show. So I couldn’t speak to their feelings about the show one way or another.

AX: What were you happiest about in first season? Was there a moment or a scene or a thread where you went, “We really nailed that one”?

WINTERS: Yeah. I think for me the moments where the characters popped most as professional colleagues and as friends and acquaintances with personal histories outside of the workplace. And it’s a show that sort of bounces in and out of the station, the workplace, between that and the field. While I’m so happy with some of the big, exciting sequences we shot out in the field, I think the show also had some of its standout moments right there in the office place, in the throes of attempting to plan an operation, and all the stress and pressure that the job brings, and where the relationships really became most crystallized in those crucible moments for me are where I think the show popped most.

AX: And was there anything where you thought, “Maybe we should handle that differently in Season 2”?

WINTERS: Given the size of the cast, and the complexity of various interwoven storylines in Season 1, in Season 2, we thought it would be really helpful to give the station one central mission, and then to see how the different characters spoke into it, into that hub, in different capacities. Because it is a big show. It’s a big cast, it’s a big ensemble, it takes on large, complex storylines. And so how to stay true to that, but at the same time, make sure that nothing is lost on the audience, is something that we discussed internally a lot going into the second season. And the show seems to be at its best when they’re working together toward a common goal.

AX: Do you have any notion of how many seasons you’d like to see BERLIN STATION run?

WINTERS: Oh, boy. You always want a show to go as long as it can and remain as good as it can. I think this is a show that certainly has several more seasons of life in it. But to put a number on that, I wouldn’t know.

AX: And what would you most like people to know about BERLIN STATION Season 2?

WINTERS: That it is a show that would speak a lot to the current political climate in America by shifting its lens to what’s happening in Europe at the moment, and there’s a great dialogue to be had, I think, between the show’s second season and what America has just been through politically, and what it continues to go through. There’s a real dialectic there that, wrapped in an entertaining package, will be very appealing to many an American viewer.

This interview was conducted during Epix’s portion of the Summer 2017 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

‘Berlin Station’ Producer on the Eerie Relevance of His Alt-Right Thriller
By Anne Easton 10/19/17 4:00pm


When the creative team behind the political thriller Berlin Station set out to tell a story about the rise of the far-right, they had no idea how apropos this narrative would actually become.

“The idea was wholly baked before the 2016 Presidential election,” reveals series creator and executive producer Brad Winters.

Set in Germany, Berlin Station is a fictional account of Alt-Right party leader Katerina Gerhardt, who attempts to sway disillusioned voters fed up with the status quo in the midst of a pivotal election.

CIA operatives working at the station must infiltrate the far-right group, after it’s revealed members are plotting a terrorist attack that would be blamed on refugees—an attempt to drive voters to elect a new anti-migrant nationalist party into power.

When he came up with this story, Winters didn’t realize how relevant it would seem upon its release. This was before the nationalist Alternative for Germany party won enough votes in the September 2017 election to enter German parliament for the first time, and prior to this summer’s white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“I hatched the idea right around 2016. Given where we were in the U.S. and with what was happening in Germany, I thought it would be interesting to do a story about the rise of the far right in Europe and use it to transpose some of the issues that America was struggling with,” said Winters.

Winters admitted that when he presented the idea to network executives in October 2016, they had an intriguing reaction. “There was a degree of ‘oh this is interesting but, you know, we’re going to have a Democratic president.’ Then, just a few days later, the election went the way it did and it was like, ‘oh wow, now this is far more pertinent than we thought it would be.’”

But at that time there was still uncertainty about the political situation in Germany, which directly affected the project, said Winters. “We shot the entire season before the Germany elections. So, all along there was a low level quite concern of, ‘what if we get this totally wrong? What if the elections happen and we’re completely off the mark of what just happened?’ It was a weird position in not wanting the election to go the way we were positing in the season but at the same time not wanting to be off the mark.”

At a certain point, the team behind the series just had to accept that the narrative of the series is actually just fiction, explained Winters. “We’re not telling the actual story of the 2017 parliamentary elections, we’re telling a larger story about the rise of the far-right and how American geopolitical interests interface with that.”

Now, Winters and his team feel a bit shocked that the crafted storyline is so close to what’s transpired in real life, saying, “What happened in Germany is eerily exactly what this season’s storyline advances, to the decimal point. It turns out that what we were working towards is the reality after all.”

In this political climate, Winters is well aware that there will be a segment of viewers who might shy away from this narrative, feeling that they’re already over saturated with highly charged news headlines. To this he says, “I hope everyone might be curious enough to look at this from a dramatic perspective as opposed to a politicized and partisan perspective. What is it like to potentially relate to the concerns and grievances in that arena? We’re trying to break down the ‘good guys versus bad guys’ that dominates the thinking on both sides.”

He went on to say “This is an issue that’s ensconced in extreme shades of black and white on both sides of this huge divide. My whole approach to this was to gray it all up through character and story. I wanted to really subvert stereotypes and really put character in place of what’s become a caricature.”

Digging even deeper into this tangent, Winters said, “The driving principle here is that you can’t judge a person by his or her party affiliation or his or her political identity. We’re subverting default things that we bring to the identification game of nationality and political affiliation. That’s the heart of this season—our characters are going in with certain understanding and coming out with those personal ideals shaken.”

As a final thought, Winters wanted to make sure that viewers know, “you hear about a show doing a storyline about the far-right and one would automatically assume maybe there’s a left-wing agenda driving that show. This isn’t that. It’s really more about getting past some of the barriers that have defined the debate in our news cycle. And, no matter what your affiliation, it’s pretty clear that everyone can get behind the desire to understand the bigger picture.”

Berlin Station airs on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. e/p on Epix.