Catching Up With The Strain Actor Drew Nelson

Every Sunday night your Twitter feed most likely gets infected with a little beast known as #TheStrain (or, if you’re tweeting with @BlackGirlNerds, #DatStrain). The new show from FX may appear to center around the ever-popular vampire plot, but with director Guillermo del Toro—and writers who were clearly fans of the original comics—The Strain offers a new and nuanced spin on the old, blood-sucking favorites. And clearly, the unique, character-based approach is working, because the show was just recently renewed for a second season.

Last week, we learned just how important the characters on the show have become, when Drew Nelson’s character—Matt Sayles, new boyfriend to the main character’s estranged wife—became the target of some serious social media (and YouTube) vitriol. It’s a testament to his performance that he could inspire so much, well, hateration. Paste caught up with Nelson earlier in the season to talk about working with one of the greats, and facing off with Corey Stoll.

Paste Magazine: You’ve worked with some great folks over the years. How does Guillermo del Toro stand out for you, among the other directors you’ve worked with?
Drew Nelson: He’s just so amazing at what he does. He’s a brilliant technician and builder of worlds. When you’re working with such a genius like that, you just put all of your trust into him—trust that he’s set this foundation for you. So it’s just about you showing up, and doing your best work.

As a director, he’s incredibly collaborative too. As much as he has his ideas set in stone for what he wants, he’s also very open to collaborating with his actors. It was really an incredible experience. And he’s a great guy to be around—so warm and open—always cracking jokes. He’s just a really easy guy to work with.

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Paste: Were there any scenes in particular where you were able to give some feedback?
Nelson: In the pilot episode there’s the dinner table scene that I have with Natalie Brown—who plays Kelly—and Ben Hyland. We were just trying to figure out how to get that scene going. So I suggested that maybe I’d sort of be eating, and I’d have the momentum as if I’d already been talking. He was open to it, and it ended up going real well with the shot that he had set up. So there were small things like that.

Paste: I’m a big fan of Canadian directors like Denis Villeneuve and Philippe Falardeau. In your work, have you found major differences in Canadian media and American media?
Nelson: I’ve had the great fortune of working with a lot of great American and Canadian directors. I think the American directors are a little bit better at that back-and-forth collaboration process. When I’m on a Canadian set I feel like they just let me do my thing for the most part, and don’t have too much input to give—which I assume is because they like what I’m doing. As far as American directors go, I feel like I always develop a really nice rapport with them as people. And as directors I feel like they’re always open to trying stuff out, and going the distance on a take, if they need to, or dialing it down.

I hate to say this, but with the Canadian industry, everything is played a little too safely at times. Something happens in the editing room where the tension in a scene or the suspension just isn’t there in Canadian television, the way it is in American television. I don’t know if any of that makes sense.

Paste: It does! I asked because I’ve interviewed a few Canadian directors and actors, and I’m always curious about the little—or big— cultural differences.
Nelson: The bottom line is, you know you’re working with a good director—whether they be Canadian or American—when they just know what they’re doing, and you can just put your trust in them. And that was very much the experience I had with Guillermo.

Paste: The Strain is one of my favorite shows right now—truly. I love the scenes between your character and Corey Stoll’s. Will there be more of you two facing off in the coming episodes?
Nelson: Yes. I can’t say too much, but yes there’s more of that. And Corey was incredible to work with. He’s a brilliant actor.

Paste: The show is as much about the physical trauma of an outbreak—which in this case, is a strain of vampire blood—as it is about the emotional trauma family life can bring about. That was a pleasant surprise for me. Were you surprised by anything in particular when you first got a hold of the script?
Nelson: What makes it really special, and what people are latching onto, is the fact that The Strain really delves into the biological change that happens when a person gets infected. It moves away from the horror aspect of things, and takes it into an almost scientific realm. They went into great detail in the books, and I feel like they’re doing it justice with the show in terms of the specificity. That sets it apart from any old horror show.

I was also surprised that it wasn’t an all-out gore-fest. Guillermo has the most incredible imagination, and I thought for sure that there would be a Pan’s Labyrinth aspect to it, but it’s really a nice slow-burn so far. And I feel like the character development is really important to the story. Some viewers may not be into that so far, but when they get the payoff towards the end of the season, they’re going to understand why it was happening in the beginning. There are a lot of surprises.

If we can satisfy the fans of the book—because they are the die-hard fans, and they’ve been anticipating this show for a long time—then that’s all that really matters (laughs).

Paste: For sure. Now, I saw that you have something in the works called Lost Ones. Can you tell me a little more about the project?
Nelson: It’s something that I’ve been developing for the last five or six years. I’ve been collaborating with a co-writer. In Canada we have the privilege and the opportunity to go for government grants that award us with a good chunk of money. So we put in a bunch of applications, and if they go through we’ll be making a short film to get the concept on screen, and from there we’ll be developing it into a feature film.

It’s an urban fantasy film in the vein of a very popular British film, Attack the Block. Or even a film like Pan’s Labyrinth—which changed my life when I saw it, so this whole experience of being on the show has been very much like a worlds colliding situation (laughs). I’ve dreamed of being able to work with Guillermo at different points in my life, because I’ve been developing this project for so long. Before it had a title we called it The Untitled Urban Pan’s Labyrinth Project
Paste: (laughs) That’s amazing!
Nelson: It’s just nuts that all of this is coming together.
Paste: We’re excited for more of your work—thanks so much for this.
Nelson: Thank you.

Shannon M. Houston is Assistant TV Editor at Paste, and a New York-based freelance writer with probably more babies than you. You can follow her on Twitter.