ABC’s Resurrection left viewers wanting more, ending its short season one run with the arrival of more deceased citizens of Arcadia, Missouri and leaving fans of the series to wonder what the real story is behind the resurrection of so many of the dead. And while series star Frances Fisher was careful not to give away any spoilers during our interview at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, she did reveal that another one of her character’s family members will be back in season two.
Frances Fisher Resurrection Interview
What can you tell us about the new season?
Frances Fisher: “I can tell you a little bit, as much as what we talked about this morning, because I don’t know how much we’re supposed to give away. There will be other people coming back, more come back, and one is Henry’s mother who comes back and has an agenda. We don’t even know what it is but I know that there’s something going on there. I don’t quite know what and I don’t trust her.”
How would you feel if somebody came back?
Frances Fisher: “Well, it would depend on who it was.”
Who would you like to come back?
Frances Fisher: “Well, obviously, I think we all would like our parents to come back, our siblings, family members. I have friends I’ve lost that it’d be great to see them again. I think that’s why the show resonates so much for people because we all have that experience of losing somebody and wanting to talk to them again or ask them the questions we never asked.”
Have you read the novel?
Frances Fisher: “Yeah, but not before I got the job. I just read the script and fell in love with it, fell in love with Lucille. Then when I was cast, they said, ‘You can read the book, The Returned by Jason Mott but the story as it’s told in television terms is not exactly the same as the book,’ because it’s a worldwide phenomenon in The Returned and they wanted to start it out really small. One family, one small town, and then grow it hopefully over seven or eight seasons – if we get lucky.”
How did you, as an actress, figure out what your character did to cope in all those years after the death of your son?
Frances Fisher: “Well, you kind of look at your own life and how I’ve coped with the death of my mother when I was 15 in different ways, in different stages in your life you cope differently. We had talked earlier with Aaron [Zelman], our creator, we had talked about how important was it for us to fill in the history. And he said, ‘You’ll get it as we write it. You’ll learn more history.’
But for myself, I like to write a character history so I wrote an elaborate character history of myself. I didn’t share it with anybody because it might be completely different from what anybody else thinks or it might not jibe with Henry’s history, but it was good for myself to have that in my bag of tricks. And also, both Kurtwood [Smith] and I read books on parents dealing with losing their children and that gave us a real visceral knowledge of what other parents have actually gone through since, thank God, I’ve not experienced that.”
How do you and Kurtwood make it feel like a real marriage?
Frances Fisher: “I guess it’s just because both Kurtwood and I are veteran actors at this point in our lives. We, first of all, like each other as people which helps. We get along and it just seems like they cast us really well together because there’s no oil and water feeling. It’s like there’s a very symbiotic feeling between us and I even buy when I look on the screen that these two people have been married together and they’ve been through things. As you know in real life, because you’ve gone through something doesn’t mean you wear it on your sleeve either. You can have it all inside and you still function in the everyday world.”
What’s your take on death and the belief that we continue?
Frances Fisher: “Well, I believe the spirit continues. I’m a student of A Course in Miracles and the way the Course explains it, that birth is not the beginning of life and death is not the end of life. It’s just as if you drop a suit of clothes and you come in, in spirit, embody this body and you drop the body when it’s no longer needed and you go on. Your spirit, the essence of you, the energy of you continues on. Where? Who knows?”
Is that a form of reincarnation?
Frances Fisher: “I think reincarnation is something else. I think that’s where you actually, you’re a spirit in a different body. People say, ‘I think we knew each other in a past life.’ I don’t know about that. I’ve always thought, and I’ve always thought this since I was very young, that whatever you can conceive and you believe in, that’s what your experience is. So I think that, I mean, there are 7 billion people on this planet alone. Think about all the other lifeforms in this vast universe. Who knows what’s possible? I’m spiritual, not religious.”
