{"id":6683,"date":"2016-09-21T09:31:15","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/exclusive-interview-jon-bokenkamp-talks-the-blacklist\/"},"modified":"2016-10-06T16:54:23","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T20:54:23","slug":"exclusive-interview-jon-bokenkamp-talks-the-blacklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/exclusive-interview-jon-bokenkamp-talks-the-blacklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Bokenkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"7-Jon-Bokenkamp\"<\/a>The Blacklist<\/em> was a breakout hit when it premiered on NBC in 2013 and has remained one of the highest-rated shows on the network. Creator and executive producer Jon Bokenkamp has crafted a unique hybrid of a procedural and a serialized show that focuses on Raymond \u201cRed\u201d Reddington, played by James Spader, a criminal mastermind and a former government agent who collaborates with the FBI to help them catch the most nefarious outlaws, but insists on working only with agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone. The series blends fast-paced action with insightful analysis of flawed characters, constantly leading viewers to ask what is right and what is wrong.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What is your process for breaking stories?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> It\u2019s an evolving process, because we\u2019re still figuring out how to write the show. I know you\u2019re not supposed to have an \u201cend\u201d in television\u2014it\u2019s never supposed to end\u2014but we are working toward an endgame and an ultimate truth in the show, and that is our guidepost as far as how much we dole out each season. For example, in season three, we knew that we were starting with Elizabeth Keen on the run, we knew that we were going to have to exonerate her and then [provide] another turn toward the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Typically we land on the three or four signposts of what we\u2019re going to do, so we know where we\u2019re starting, we know what our fall cliff-hanger will be, we know there will be a big turn in the back half of the season, and we know what the end of the season will be. Then we map out as much of the season as we can and fill in the blanks. It\u2019s a little bit like looking at the map and figuring out how you\u2019re going to get from New York to Los Angeles using only highways, and picking five or six towns that you\u2019re going to stop in on the way\u2014and then throwing away the map and finding your way to those signposts along the way. It\u2019s an evolving process, but we do work backward from knowing where we\u2019re going to end in a season, and then ultimately with the series, to gauge where our storytelling should be.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> When Megan Boone told you she was pregnant, you had a choice between writing the pregnancy into the show or shooting around it. How was the decision made to keep the pregnancy in the show?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> Well, babies in shows are supposed to be kind of show-killers, and there was legitimate concern from the studio and the network. [So we had to decide] if we wanted to embrace that, or have her carry around plotted plants and stand behind furniture! It didn\u2019t take long for John [Eisendrath, executive producer] and me to decide that we had to embrace it. It\u2019s a show about a woman who is trying to understand who she is, and she wanted nothing more than to have a baby in the pilot of the series, and now she has a baby! How do we [back] away from that? It was great to land on the fact even though it scared us a little bit. It was the right thing to do to just embrace the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> What has James Spader brought to the character of Red?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> James says that he saw this in the original script when he first read it. I\u2019ve always felt like he\u2019s brought more humor to the role than I imagined. If it were just me working in a vacuum, it would probably be a pretty boring show with far too much seriousness. He has a very strange, weird sense of humor that makes me laugh almost daily, and we\u2019ve learned to write to that. We\u2019ve learned to write to all the actors in a different way. James puts a lot of thought into, What would really happen? Who would Red be?<\/p>\n

At the beginning of season three, he and Elizabeth Keen had escaped\u2014they were in this secret apartment, and we didn\u2019t know where they were, and we find out that they\u2019re in a shipping container, and that was a thought that James had. He said, \u201cYou know, I feel like Red would probably have a shipping container somewhere that is decked out and has electricity and food and wine, and if he ever just needs to disappear, he could just go live in a shipping container for two months.\u201d It\u2019s absurd, but it\u2019s awesome! That episode is one of my favorites of last season because it\u2019s super emotional and quirky, and it\u2019s fun and different. You don\u2019t get to see people living in shipping containers on most cop shows! James gets inside that character and has a perspective about him, but is incredibly fair and generous and a real collaborator.<\/p>\n

I have no experience on television outside of The Blacklist,<\/em> but I can only imagine there are a number of shows where the leads only care how they look or how they come off or how they sound. The only thing that matters to James is, ultimately, the script, and making sure that the story is right. He doesn\u2019t care if he looks ridiculous or if we\u2019re poking fun at Red\u2014he\u2019s up for that, and I think that is a real testament to how important he is to the show. He\u2019s willing to go anywhere for it.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Red is unquestionably a criminal, but there are so many times that we see a side of him that is totally human. How do you strike that balance, not only with Red but with a lot of the other characters, that nobody is entirely good nor entirely bad?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> Well, that is part of the show, and it\u2019s part of my worldview. The world is a very gray place and the characters are flawed in very real ways and are struggling with real problems like all of us are. Some of the strongest moments in the show have been where you see that Reddington, who is an incredibly violent and dangerous man, has real wounds and he\u2019s scared. One of the most interesting questions, for me, is, What scares Raymond Reddington? What is he afraid of? Those moments now and then, where we see\u2014and James plays it so well\u2014the heartbreak that his character has endured and is enduring, those are some of my favorite stories. So, yes, it is a real balancing act. But again, that\u2019s one of the things he brings to the show\u2014humor. In the first season, he poured vodka all over a guy and was going to light him on fire using his cigar, and said, \u201cAh! The suspense is killing me!\u201d and shot him instead! But it\u2019s so easy to like this very dangerous and horrible man who has humanity and his own moral code. That\u2019s what\u2019s interesting, and that\u2019s where we go to when we\u2019re on that very fine line. What is Red\u2019s moral code? He has a very specific set of beliefs that is sometimes very difficult to wrestle down, but that is usually our guidepost.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Are the Blacklisters based on any real-life people, or are they amalgams of different kinds of people?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> The Blacklisters come from all over the place. There was a real \u201cStewmaker\u201d who got rid of bodies for a drug cartel\u2014just the idea of that was an inspiration. There have been other pieces that are grafted together; things that we read in the newspaper or find online. We\u2019re not a \u201cripped from the headlines\u201d show, but the things that are happening in the world [do influence us]. I often feel like the stuff that\u2019s happening in the real world is far stranger than anything that we could come up with in the writers\u2019 room. So we pick stuff and then try to weird it up a little bit and heighten it, but truthfully we have a room of incredibly talented writers who are always kicking around ideas, and trying to land on unique and special Blacklisters.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> Do you believe that a Cabal-like organization does exist in real life?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> I guess the short answer is yes. I\u2019m far too cynical to believe that the American political system, or any political system, for that matter, is what it appears. I drive through Hollywood and I see old buildings being torn down and giant buildings being put up, and you see how capitalism drives far more than just politics\u2014I think it is a very murky world. There\u2019s a lot of back-scratching that goes on that bothers me, so, yeah, I think there\u2019s a lot of truth to it. I wish there weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> How did The Blacklist: Redemption<\/em> come about? Did NBC ask for another show, or do you have more story to tell?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> It\u2019s definitely about having more story to tell. We talked for a while about what a spin-off of the show would be. I didn\u2019t want it to be a duplicate of The Blacklist<\/em>. If we did something it would need to stand on its own, be its own world, populated with its own people who are distinct and different from The Blacklist<\/em>. It\u2019s a little bit of an older template of a spinoff, [like] The Jeffersons<\/em> or Maude<\/em>, where one of the characters leaves that world and takes us into another one, rather than doing The Blacklist: Chicago. <\/em>We\u2019re smart enough to know that James Spader does his very specific thing\u2014we\u2019re not trying to duplicate that. I think Famke [Janssen, who plays Susan \u201cScottie\u201d Hargrave] is incredibly talented and unique in her own way, and Ryan [Eggold, who plays Tom Keen], same thing; we\u2019ve got a great cast. It will feel and smell like The Blacklist<\/em>, and I think the things that audiences like about The Blacklist<\/em>\u2014the pace and the tone\u2014may be similar. But I also think it\u2019s going be a little sexier and a little more fun, and a little more of a spy show versus The Blacklist, <\/em>which is really a crime drama.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong> So you envision viewers who might step into the show who haven\u2019t seen The Blacklist<\/em> and still will be able to enjoy it?
\nBOKENKAMP:<\/strong> Oh, 100 percent. I think that\u2019s critical to it being of any interest. I hope the Blacklist <\/em>audience will be interested, because they know some of these characters, but to me it is completely its own show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Blacklist creator talks about blending high-paced action with a keen analysis of flawed characters, constantly leading viewers to ask what is right and what is wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":289,"featured_media":6684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[158,159],"class_list":["post-6683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","tag-jon-bokenkamp","tag-the-blacklist","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nJon Bokenkamp - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/exclusive-interview-jon-bokenkamp-talks-the-blacklist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jon Bokenkamp - 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