The CW had a big presence at the 2014 WonderCon in Anaheim, CA, bringing quite a few cast members from both Star-Crossed and The 100 to the annual gathering of movie, TV, and comic book fans, and showing off new episodes of the sci-fi series as well as conducting Q&As with the fans. Among the cast members who took part in The CW’s Star-Crossed panel were Titus Makin Jr, who plays ‘Lukas,’ and Brina Palencia, who’s happy to actually get to play an alien in season one of the popular series.
Brina Palencia and Titus Makin Jr Interview
What is it like on set?
Brina Palencia: “The sets are beautiful. We got to film on soundstages in New Orleans. Some of it was on location, the Sector is apart from the studio but it’s just like a couple of miles away. The Sector was definitely my favorite.”
Titus Makin Jr: “Yeah. She got to do a lot of filming in the Sector, where they keep all the Atrians…the aliens. It was really cool.”
Brina Palencia: “It looks even cooler in post because they make it even bigger. The first time that I saw it I was like, ‘Oh my god! That’s amazing!'”
Titus Makin Jr: “And then obviously they do cool things like recreate the school, so it’s like everything that looks like an actual school is just like walls with no ceilings. It’s just really cool.”
What was the general appeal of Star-Crossed? Was it because it’s a sci-fi series?
Brina Palencia: “I know for me I’m a huge sci-fi fan…”
Titus Makin Jr: “Me too.”
Brina Palencia: “…so the opportunity to not only be in a sci-fi show but get to play an alien, was so rad.”
Titus Makin Jr: “I’m a fan of Will Smith so my goal was to be sci-fi and something comedic, and they said, ‘Comedic character in a sci-fi,’ – check! I think they’re really capitalizing on the sci-fi aspect. This is like the first year that CW has embraced sci-fi like crazy, and it’s awesome.”
Brina Palencia: “It feels like the other shows have been more fantasy or comic book-based. It’s been a while since we’ve had aliens in the general media so it’s always been vampires or zombies, and so I think it’s really fun to be one of the first shows in this realm. Of course there have been other shows with aliens aside from this realm, but now that it’s coming back I like being part of that new swell.”
Can you explain the tattoo process?
Brina Palencia: “They do have parts of it already made up. They are transfers so like you know when you were a little kid and you had those fake tattoos and you get water on it, they’re like that. Mine took a little bit longer than everyone else’s because mine were all very small individual pieces, because mine were very delicate. I know for Matt [Lanter], the one on his neck is all one big piece and then he has the pieces around his eyes because he’s a dude so more masculine. So, for me, it took a little bit longer. I would be in the makeup chair, since I had the tattoos and I had the wig it was about an hour and a half usually.”
Titus Makin Jr: “And I’d walk in and I’m out in about 10 minutes.”
How do you pass your time in the makeup chair?
Brina Palencia: “I play a lot of Plants versus Zombies on my phone. It’s my favorite game ever.”
Are you normally patient with the people applying the tattoos?
Brina Palencia: “Oh yeah. My best friend is a makeup artist and so she’s told me so many horror stories about diva actors and stuff. I definitely never ever ever want to be affiliated with that so I try and be as patient and kind as possible.”
What’s the feel of the set? Has it turned into one big family?
Brina Palencia: “Definitely. We were just talking about how awesome it was that we just genuinely love everybody on the set. It’s so much. We all get along really well.”
Titus Makin Jr: “It’s rare. We’ve all worked different sets and been with different ‘actors’, but this one everybody has their own agenda. We come together, work, we go off, people have different relationships, aspirations, music, and everything, and we come together and we just hang out. It’s really like a sorority/fraternity thing.”
What can you tease about the upcoming episodes?
Brina Palencia: “Every episode gets even more action scenes. There’s so many and everybody kind of gets pulled in. It sort of starts out with just Roman and Emery as part of the action and then Drake gets pulled in and Teri gets pulled in, and by the end of it all of us are part of the big plot. It’s really exciting.”
Titus Makin Jr: “A lot more romance too.”
