Omar Epps Discusses ‘Resurrection’

Omar Epps Resurrection interview
Omar Epps stars in ‘Resurrection’ (Photo © 2014 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.)

Omar Epps made his first trip to the San Diego Comic-Con as part of the cast of ABC’s Resurrection, the new drama that debuted in March 2014 and had an eight-episode run that left off with an incredibly intense cliffhanger. Season two will premiere in September 2014 and at Comic-Con, Epps explained (without giving away any spoilers) what we can expect to see happening to his character. He also talked about the initial appeal of the show and what it is he latched onto about ‘Martin Bellamy.’

Omar Epps Resurrection Interview

How was it preparing for this role as the series’ lead?

Omar Epps: “I don’t approach it any different, in terms of my preparation, in terms of how seriously I take what I do. It’s not more work creatively; it’s more work in the business part, the marketing, and stuff. But for me, that’s fun, and that’s what I love to do. I love to get out there and talk with you guys, and get a bead on how things are going in terms of how people are responding to this trailer or having questions about this. I’m able to take all that information…or at least I’m able to do my part and come back and say, ‘This is translating. What do you think about this?’ In terms of carrying the show, I feel we’re all carrying the show.”

What is your personal take on the afterlife?

Omar Epps: “My personal take is simple it’s that energy is forever, and whatever that means to you, that’s what it is. For me, energy lives forever. So I don’t knock anyone else’s belief. I just think whatever you believe, that’s the central thing.”

What was it about Martin that resonated with you?

Omar Epps: “Because I couldn’t put my finger on him. My approach to a character doesn’t start with a character, it starts with the overall story. And if that resonates with me, then I go back a second time, and then I look through the eyes of the character. I just felt like with Bellamy, he was a witness, you know what I mean? I was like, ‘This is really interesting.’ It’s like he’s in the audience watching this all unfold because he’s the odd man out. He believes, but he’s speculative. He’s all of these things that I just couldn’t put my finger on. That got my creative juices flowing because I wanted to figure out who this guy was.”

Do you think he’s the stand-in for the audience?

Omar Epps: “Yeah. I think in the first season, he was definitely that. I always called him the eyes of the audience, like he’s sitting there with you on the couch watching this stuff happen even though he was there. But, the way that psychologically I tried to construct the character was being a balance between emotion and logic, so for him to neither be here nor there – he was always in the grey area – and on top of that, he was reactive the whole first season. When we go into season two, he’s becoming active, so now I get a chance to act different layers of the colors. He’s got skin in the game, so he’s not witnessing now. Now he’s off and running and in the story himself.”

Can you give an example of how that’s going to play out?

Omar Epps: “So you ended season one with the question that Bellamy is possibly a returned. So what’s cool about going forward is what does that mean if he is the returned. Did he know that? And if he knew that, what does that mean? What does the whole first season mean? And if he didn’t know that, then what does that mean? But either way, season two he’s exploring himself. He’s investigating himself because he’s trying to figure out if this is real and if so, how did this come to pass.

And in those things, those are all active things that he’s going to have to do. He’s not just sitting back waiting for things to happen. He has to be proactive about it all. And, also, the stakes are so ramped up because it’s out of his hands now in terms of this phenomenon being available to the public. We start out in the beginning that they’re trying to go away from that, but think about if this would have really happened and get out on social media and those types of thing. How would he try to protect Jacob, protect the family, and do those things – it’s all active. It’s all active situations he has to put himself into.”