Mia Maestro was among the stars of FX’s riveting new supernatural thriller The Strain to make the trip to San Diego for the 2014 Comic Con. And, according to Maestro, she’s enjoying her time promoting this particular series. “That’s the one thing that we love about the show – it’s just so wonderful to do press. There’s so much to talk about. We love the story so much and our characters and our coworkers. Our crew from Canada is the best. The cast is the best. Guillermo [del Toro’s] the best, so it’s really a pleasure doing press.”
In the series based on the books by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, Maestro plays Dr. Nora Martinez, second in command of the Centers for Disease Control’s Canary Project. Nora and her CDC team leader Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll) quickly discover that it’s not any recognizable virus that killed a planeload of people.
Mia Maestro The Strain Interview:
What can you tell us about your character’s arc this season?
Mia Maestro: “Nora will go through a lot. At the beginning, they just don’t know what they’re encountering, what’s going on. And she’s seeing everything with a very scientific point of view because she’s a doctor and she’s part of the CDC. Little by little that is going to be shifting and the magic is just going to start creeping in. Then we’ll see how Nora reacts but she has to deal with a lot of personal stuff as well. When she realizes the threat that they’re against, of course she would want to have her loved ones close by so Nora’s mom is going to come into the picture.”
What discussions did you have with Guillermo about Nora?
Mia Maestro: “Guillermo’s super specific in his directing and it’s really a treat to work with him. He has incredible attention to detail so the notes that he gives you from take to take are very detailed as well. Sometimes they’re very practical notes. ‘Okay, right now, there’s a hook and I want you to touch it but you need to caress it and imagine if the hook suddenly becomes alive and in a very subtle way you’re extremely scared.’ ‘Okay, come on. Do it.’ You’re like, ‘Okay. I thought I was talking to Corey.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, just go straight to the hook.’ ‘Okay.’ And then when you see it all together, oh my God, it makes total sense. He’s such a master of the genre, and also he knows the characters so well. He wrote three novels with Chuck Hogan so whatever Guillermo says, he’s God.”
Your character has real problems with killing innocents.
Mia Maestro: “Yeah, well, she’s a doctor.”
Is she going to get over that?
Mia Maestro: “I don’t want to give any spoilers, but of course, Nora at the beginning of the season is totally reluctant about killing her patients. She’s a CDC doctor, she’s a biochemist, she works for people to be alive and healthy. It’s her job. She also has a public job. She’s hired by the government to take care of humanity basically for the CDC. But little by little, she realizes that whatever they’re dealing with is something she has no idea about. A lot of things are going to happen to her that are going to change and shift her perspective for sure.”
Were you familiar with the books?
Mia Maestro: “I was not, no. I was called into meet Guillermo and just read for him. I really connected with the characters and the scenes right away. They just felt very natural to me and it felt like I was the character. Then I had a chemistry read with Corey and then another one with Kevin [Durand], because I don’t know if you guys read the books, but in the books Nora and Fet [Durand] have a really interesting relationship as well. Then the guys were not in town, Corey and Kevin, so our reads were spread over a whole month. I got to read the books in between the meetings and it was a great process even though it just felt like I was preparing to play Nora for like 25 days or so. It was really nice.”
