How 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' pulled off Poseidon and Sally's emotional diner chat

Virginia Kull and Toby Stephens talk astir shooting section 7's pivotal scene.

Percy Jackson and nan Olympians is a rollicking imagination adventure, complete pinch frightening monsters, high-stakes battles, and gods pulled consecutive from Greek mythology. So it whitethorn travel arsenic a astonishment that 1 of nan show's champion — and astir talked-about — scenes is simply a quiet chat betwixt 2 parents.

Of course, these aren't normal parents. One is nan Greek deity Poseidon (Toby Stephens). The different is mortal Sally Jackson (Virginia Kull), who has spent nan past 12 years preparing her boy Percy (Walker Scobell) for his heroic destiny — and protecting him from nan world of nan Olympians.

Like galore stories from ancient legends, Sally and Poseidon's narration is simply a tragic romance. Separated by circumstances of virtually mythic proportion, incapable to raise Percy together because Olympian rule dictates that Poseidon shouldn't moreover person a child, their communicative has nary clear solution. Sally carries nan load of nan truth astir Percy's parentage, while Poseidon is incapable to thief without endangering some his boy and nan female he loves. It's a reliable move to understand solely done Percy's eyes, but successful section 7, "We Find Out nan Truth, Sort Of," Percy Jackson and nan Olympians offers america a bigger model into Sally and Poseidon's connection, successful each its achy messiness and astonishing beauty.

"We Find Out nan Truth, Sort Of" marks our first preamble to Poseidon and what his narration pinch Sally really looks like. Because of this, our first glimpse of Poseidon successful nan soma is not immoderate bombastic show of godly power, but of a man and a female simply talking successful a diner astir nan difficulties Sally faces successful raising Percy alone.

"It was a really clever measurement to present their narration and present Poseidon, because it makes them very human," Stephens said of nan segment successful a video telephone pinch Mashable. "It's a home segment betwixt a mother and father, and astatine nan bosom of it there's this pain. It's a yearning betwixt 2 group to beryllium connected who can't be, but Poseidon is besides yearning to beryllium connected pinch his boy but can't because he's protecting him."

The diner segment was nan first segment Stephens changeable for nan series, yet nan chemistry and history betwixt Poseidon and Sally were already good wrong scope for nan actors. "I really liked moving pinch Virginia, and she's a really awesome actress," said Stephens. "We recovered that very quickly. The segment conscionable had a very friendly feel."

Percy Jackson and nan Olympians began creating that consciousness of intimacy betwixt Sally and Poseidon correct from nan very first episode, pinch a segment that sees Sally sitting connected her occurrence escape, taking successful nan rain.

Kull was incredibly excited to spot nan occurrence flight segment erstwhile she first publication nan script. "In television, you typically don't person clip for things for illustration quiet, mean moments. And this seems for illustration a humdrum moment, but I deliberation it tells specified a immense story," Kull said. "It's not conscionable Sally sitting successful nan rainfall connected nan occurrence flight — she's sitting successful nan rainfall communing pinch nan awesome emotion of her life and nan begetter of her kid, and this is nan measurement that she feels adjacent to him."

The diner series feels for illustration a earthy progression from that occurrence flight moment. Sally and Poseidon are connecting successful both, but there's still a region betwixt them. On nan occurrence escape, Poseidon isn't really present. But moreover erstwhile he's adjacent to Sally successful nan diner, there's a tragic disagreement betwixt them. They're close, but still acold apart.

Director Anders Engström achieved this paradoxical nearness by telling Kull and Stephens to play nan full segment without ever looking astatine each other. For Kull, that became a cardinal to unlocking nan powerfulness of nan diner scene.

"What that did to america arsenic actors was that each of nan feelings of, 'I request to spot really this is affecting nan personification that I'm speaking to, I want to cognize what he thinks astir what I'm saying,' we couldn't enactment on," Kull explained. "Therefore, nan desire to beryllium heard, to beryllium understood, and to link was truthful heightened and truthful charged, it was electric. It meant that immoderate bad impulse to 'perform' went away, and I was conscionable desperately listening to and clinging to what he was saying. Even nan silences were powerful."

In these silences, wherever Sally and Poseidon beryllium shoulder-to-shoulder yet ne'er look astatine 1 another, Percy Jackson and nan Olympians builds an full world of a narration that, up to this point, we haven't afloat understood.

"Because Poseidon has been absent for nan full show, nan assemblage is going, 'What a jerk, this feline is this absentee father.' And past erstwhile you meet him, you go, 'Right, I get it. It's overmuch much complicated, and really he really does care,'" Stephens said. "This segment is not successful nan book, but I deliberation it's needed successful nan TV version, because it gives you overmuch much context."

Percy Jackson and nan Olympians is now streaming connected Disney+.

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