Pablo Schreiber is headlining the upcoming series Halo, based on the hit video game of the same title. Halo features the actor as Master Chief. The series is backed by Steven Spielberg, among other producers. The series also stars veteran Indian actress Shabana Azmi. Ahead of its premiere, Pablo sat down for a candid interview with News18.
During the virtual chat, the actor opened up about the backlash over the decision to have the Master Chief remove his helmet for the show — in the game, the Master Chief hasn’t removed his helmet — the heavyweight costume, working with Shabana Azmi and Steven Spielberg, and his future projects. Excerpts from our chat below:
Was this role more challenging than others given that there is already a huge fandom associated with the game?
I wouldn’t say that it was a challenge, to me it was part of the appeal. When you come to the table with a massive fanbase already, you have a huge head start on having an audience, having an interest in a project, all of those things. A large fanbase that has a lot of different opinions about what should be done presents challenges but we respect every opinion that’s out there. We always knew there are as many opinions in the Halo universe as there are Halo fans. We knew we weren’t going to please everybody in one fell swoop but making sure the universe felt familiar and at the same time fresh and could bring in people who are new to the Halo universe and capture their interest but still doing great service to the people who’ve been following it for the past 20 years.
There has been backlash over the decision to remove your helmet. Did you anticipate it?
We didn’t prepare for a backlash. We know there are so many different opinions that are not, you can’t really follow the chatter. The chatter isn’t something that you can get into. You have to make a decisive decision on what you feel it’s best for storytelling purposes and especially for long-form storytelling purposes because we plan to tell this story for multiple seasons. It’s something that we want to be able to hold an audience’s interest over the long term. It felt incredibly important that that was a step that had to be made in order to pull in the audience and bring them along for the long haul. So it’s just something we had to deal with.
You mentioned in an interview that the suit was challenging to manipulate. How did you manage to take breaks between scenes?
The costume is a challenge but it’s also such an honour to get to wear it. It’s so amazing when you put it on, how it makes you feel is pretty darn cool. As far as breaks between takes and whatnot (are concerned), we actually had these massive camping chairs that were 10 times the size of a normal camping chair that would fold out and that was the only kind of chair that would fit us as Spartans. We have a number of really great pictures of the Spartans lounging in these massive camp chairs cause it was the only way you could take a break unless you have to lay on the ground but then there’s the challenge of getting up. (laughs).
How long would it take suit up?
I believe we had about an hour to an hour and a half from beginning to end. But it was a multi-stage process. You never quite knew exactly what time they were going to need you on sets so when I would show up in the morning, there’s obviously hair and make-up first then we’d have about half an hour to get into the under armor elements of the costumes and then they’d need about 45 minutes to put all the exterior on when we were close to shooting.
The show also stars Shabana Azmi. Although your scenes directly with her are limited in the first two episodes, did you get a chance to interact with her off-camera?
I love Shabana, she brings so much to the show. Admiral Margaret Parangosky (Shabana’s character on the show) is a very important role. Her interactions with Dr Catherine Halsey (Natascha McElhone) are crucial to the political intrigue of the show and the behind-the-scenes so Shabana was coming in and out, she was travelling from India to work with us when it was her time so unfortunately, we didn’t get enough time offsets but I know she’s in LA next week for the premiere (the interview was taken on March 18) and I’m really excited to see her because she is a real treasure for me. I was really honoured to get to work with her and I told her that on a number of occasions. Most of all when she finished, I remember sort of getting down and kissing her feet, telling her how proud I was that she was here. She was completely blown away by that and we had a good giggle.
Did you get any advice or feedback from Steven Spielberg?
Obviously, it is a huge honour and pleasure to work with Mr. Spielberg and to have his name associated with the show. It is one of the greatest votes of confidence we could have in taking this thing out to the world. He’s been an incredible mover and shaker behind-the-scenes. I’ve been honoured to hear his reactions to the show and how’s he’s been feeling about everything. He’s definitely checked in and kept us on course.
Your 2020 show Defending Jacob ended with things still up in the air. Fans of the show are still wondering if there’d be a second season. Are you guys coming back?
Not that I know of! I believe Defending Jacob was a mini-series, a one-off. I don’t think there are any plans in the works to do anymore Defending Jacob. It was always meant to be a one-season thing. I just finished a new, similar, true crime mini-series for Hulu called Candy that will come out in May. That’s a similar thing, just meant to be a single season (show).
If given a chance, would you be open to projects in India or Asia for that matter?
Of course, I am open to doing it. I’m always looking for great collaborations with great artists and there are no barriers for me as far as the country is concerned. Anyone who is making interesting art, I would love to talk to them and try to collaborate.
Halo will be available to stream on Voot Select from March 24 onwards.
