Torchwood: Miracle Day Cast at 2011 Comic-Con - July 23

By Tracey L. Brown Jul 24, 2011, 5:46 GMT

Torchwood Miracle Day panel, Photo ©M&C

A lovely day in a San Diego brought together the stars from Torchwood: Miracle Day, for this year’s Comic Con to discuss the 4th season, which is now playing on the Starz premium network.

The current season, which was primarily filmed in the US (as well as Wales), has a new, mostly American cast and not surprisingly, it has a more American feel to it. 

Cast members, John Barrowman (Capt. Jack Harkness), Eve Myles (Gwen Cooper), Bill Pullman (Oswald Danes), Mekhi Phifer (Rex Matheson) and Alexa Havins (Esther Drummand) answered questions about their characters and any repercussions the investigation the “miracle” has on them.

Torchwood Miracle Day panel, Photo ©M&C

It was sweet to see how excited Eve Myles was to be at her first Comic Con and her excitement at having filming Torchwood on the Warner Brothers lot, which she described as being “absurdly fabulous”.

Asked about the changes in Gwen Cooper from the last time we saw her, Eve Myles said she originally thought it out of character and unusual for Gwen to go from “someone saving the children of the earth to someone who digs up potatoes.”  She said that Gwen will go through changes this year, because she has to, now that she’s a mom who has to protect her family. 

On Gwen being more “kick-ass” this year, Myles said, “She is a lioness with a cub.  If you get in Gwen’s way, she’ll shoot you, punch you or both!  She will get from A to B however she can she can, but she will get there. She comes across a lot more baddies this year- in the form of humans.  She’s got to be strong with it and is more than capable of looking after herself. She’s got to or she’ll be killed.” 

Regarding the scene on the plane where she fights to save Jack, “Gwen’s direct and takes charge because (Jack) is her baby as well and she’s trying to protect him and doesn’t want him to get hurt.”  Adding, “Gwen has to take control, she’s got to be quick, she’s got to be snappy, and she’s got to frighten people into doing things and that’s the only way she’s going to get things done, because she’s a little Welsh woman with a gap in her teeth and no one is going to listen to her.”

Myles ads that Gwen will have to make decisions this year that are “massive” and that may be wrong, but she will have to make them. She will do things this year that Gwen would not even have considered doing in the past and they are “heartbreaking” decisions.

John Barrowman explained that the reason that Jack is more subdued the first few episodes, is because regaining his mortality frightens him.  But he said that Jack will become more himself as the series goes on.  He revealed that during the season, we will see Jack in a serious relationship (that takes place in the past) and that it will show another side of him we haven’t seen before.  He also mentioned that we will find out more about the depth of Jack and Gwen’s relationship and it “won’t be what you think.”  Regarding the possibility of Jack having a relationship with a sexy alien in the future, he said he’d love that, but he’d tell Russell T. Davies that he’d want to design what the alien looked like. 

Mekhi Phifer said what he enjoyed about playing Rex was, that he is complex and not a “one note” character.  He enjoyed playing the character arc throughout the season, from a tough skinned CIA agent to “peeling back the layers” of the character to see what “makes him tick and what makes him as hard as he is.”

Regarding Rex pushing aside thinking about what might happen to him if the Torchwood team is successful and finds a “cure” to the miracle, “That is what is so interesting about this character, is that on one side he want to save the world and figure out what the hell is going on, but on the other side, if I do fix this miracle, do I just fall out and die?  That’s the juxtaposed energy of all of that – coming to terms with if I solve this I might die.”  He promised this conflict will be forced to come to terms with the consequences as the series progresses.

On filming in Wales and the UK for the first time, “We had a really good time, but it was really cold, but we couldn’t play cold, so it wasn’t like we were in overcoats, we had to act like it was 70 degrees out.  It was fun when they yelled ‘Action’ it was fun, but when they said ‘cut’, it was ‘bring in the coats, bring in the heat lamps’, that’s when the fun stopped! But during the action, it was always fun.”

Alexa Havins became a fan of Torchwood through her husband, who is a huge fan, so when the opportunity came around, her husband joked he’d file for divorce if she didn’t’ take the job. 

Mekhi Phifer and Alexa Havins confirmed that Esther has a crush on Rex and has more than just a feeling of friendship for her CIA colleague.  Per Phifer, “Rex thinks of her as just an assistant – for now.”  Alexa said, “She wants some lovin’!  She’s knocking at that door and he’s not answering. She does have a crush- that work crush that is forbidden and I think (she finds) it sexy him being out in the field.”  But Rex’s accident breaks down his “shield” and brings them closer together.

Bill Pullman, the best known actor of the new cast members, plays child molester/murderer, Oswald Davis.  Asked if he thinks Danes wants to be redeemed, Pullman replied, “I think he is still at a more primitive level.  What does he want?  What do people want of him? How much of him is what is projected on him now?” He added, “Sometimes I would push back with Russell about (questioning) a couple of things – some of the scariest moments of my life – but that was a curious thing, (I) never needed an answer.”

About being on Television, “I’m dead meat now, because this was such a good experience, I’ll say yes to the next thing and I’ll be the worst thing.”

Pullman was asked if the part of Oswald Danes was written for him and if so, how did he feel about being asked to play someone so creepy?   He never got a straight answer, but Julie Gardner did tell him they cast him because, “We just thought it would be nice to take America’s Sweetheart and surprise everyone.”  And indeed it has!

Comic Con attendees were also treated to a special trailer, with a lot of new footage that teases about what will be happening in upcoming episodes.  And it looks bigger, darker and crazier.

New series trailer for CCI:  http://www.starz.com/originals/Torchwood/screeningroom#/comic-con