Buzznet Talks to the Cast of MTV’s New Show SKINS (Part 2)

Reblogged from sarahmorrison

You’ve probably seen the billboards, the commercials, and the bus benches. The UK’s hit teen soap opera Skins is on Monday nights at 10 on MTV, with an American cast, a few new characters, and the good old gritty teen drama we know and love from the original series. With the help of Skins creator Bryan Elsley, much of the first season replicates the first UK season. The storylines and character developments stay pretty true to the original. Much like it did overseas, the series will tackle those darker topics, like dysfunctional families, mental illness, sexual identity, sex, substance abuse, and death. And while the sex and language have been toned down quite a bit for 10pm basic cable, this isn’t Gossip Girl, kids. These are regular kids: kids from working class families, kids you can relate to more than the Blairs Waldorfs and Chuck Basses of the world, kids with real teen problems. Sure, the storylines can be tough to stomach at times, but so can being a teenager.

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Buzznet was lucky enough to talk to James Newman (Tony), Rachel Thevenard (Michelle) and Sofia Black-D’Elia (Tea) about the show, the inevitable comparisons to the original series, life on set, and some regular old teenage stuff.

BUZZNET: If you had to pick one character on the show that is most like you in real life who would that be?

Rachel: I’m definitely Daisy

Sophia: Tea and B hybrid

James: Tony with Stanley’s sleeping habits.

BN: Obviously the cast finds themselves in some pretty unusual and vulnerable situations on the show. Has having to shoot some of these scenes helped bring the cast closer together? Did you guys instantly bond? (Was there a) certain scene that was a bonding moment for all of you?

James: I think any time we shot together we just had so much fun, in all those scenes. I mean, I don’t know how much fun the director had trying to get us to be quiet, but we all love shooting together.To be honest there was so much prep work both times, when we shot the pilot. We had a week of rehearsals, then we came back to shoot the season. Then we had a week of rehearsals. I think just that, even that quickly, like right off the bat, by the time those weeks were done of rehearsals we were all really close. And like you were saying, sometimes it’s tough to know what the cast thinks cause we don’t always get along. I think it was easier cause: A. We are all so different, so there was no competition. B. Cause we are all in the same place, we are all very inexperienced. So we all kind of leaned on each other to help each other out.

Rachel: I think Bryan is a genius and he has a very good sense of people and of how they’ll interact. And I think he just had a sense of the chemistry that our cast would have. We all just really got along, immediately.

Sophia: When we started filming the pilot, we were all kind of amazed at how easily we all got along with each other. And we became very good friends by the end of that experience. And by the time we came back to Toronto to film the first season, we were already establishing these really incredible friendships. And through the experience of leaning on each other and using each other as our support system and spending almost everyday together for 4 and a half months, we became a really tight knit family. And we all have each others’ backs. And I feel very very lucky to walk away from this experience with many things, one of them being a group of best friends.

BN: Who is the drama queen in the group?

James: Ron…. (Cast laughs)

BN: Prankster?

Cast: Camille likes to joke around.

BN: Who’s the messiest?

Sophia: James Milo Newman is the messiest person in the Skins cast.

BN: Who is the most vain?

Sophia: For every answer that we have, we would say Ron just to poke fun at him, but the truth is that I don’t think any of us are.

James: And like it’s actually shocking cause with television you have people with that self-image and (who) are very into themselves. But that really has never been a thing on our show. Nobody goes around just being worried about themselves. We are all about the show.

Sophia: I’m firmly aware that I am uncool.