Behind the Scenes of Number None
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"Today, we have a special treat for you monster fans. We secured a special, exclusive interview with the assistant director of the breakout cult hit, Number None. Right after this commercial break!"
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"We're back, with Rene DuChat, the assistant director of Number None. For those of you who don't watch late-night TV, Number None is a live-action series about Nemo Elcorbuzier, a faceless minion in an evil army, trying to survive and find happiness. Rene, thanks for coming on the show."
"Glad to be here, Tina."
"So, I think the first question we have to ask is, of course, how did Number None even come to exist? It's a very unconventional concept, bringing, you know, the bad guys to center stage, and not even the major bad guys, but some third-tier footsoldier in a face-concealing mask. You don't see that very often."
"Hah! No, I'd say we're one of a kind. The answer is one of those weird Hollywood stories. The series director, Bob, you may remember had a very successful TV show a few years back that was kind of a modern supernatural thriller. Ancient aztec monsters, werewolves, sorcerors, hearts ripped out on screen, the works. So, while he was at the peak of that wave, the broadcast studio signed a long-term contract with him, where they would get first broadcast rights to the next TV shows he created, but they had to actually air them within a certain amount of time, or the contract would lapse and he'd be a free agent again."
"OK, that seems little unusual, but…"
"Well, it seemed like a good deal for everyone involved, but his next show…did less well. It was sort of a period drama in fantasy warring-states China, but with giant robots and ninjas. The budget overruns are legendary. So, for the next show, it was clear that they weren't going to give Bob anything like the same amount of cash to work with unless they got more control over the production, and he doesn't like giving up creative control, so there was some fighting, and it ended with us having almost no oversight and no budget, and knowing the show would get aired at like 3:00 in the morning and was doomed to fail. So we had to be creative. The state of Jalisco, in Mexico, was offering some tax breaks and grants for shows filming locally, so we jumped on that. Then, we compressed the shooting timeline down pretty far; we shoot each season of the show in roughly three weeks, which, you might know, is pretty fast. And we use a lot of film students as talent; they'll basically work for the experience and a vacation in Mexico. Also a lot of the extras are locals. It's very efficient."
"It's all about being cheap?"
"Well, not everything. But having strong constraints like that really makes you become creative. Jalisco is on the ocean, so, sandy beaches, right? So the show is set in the desert. At night, because that way the beaches are empty when we're filming. Or, it's set inside Las Noches, which is all giant, white rooms and hallways, which are easy to shoot on a soundstage and render later. Actually, Las Noches was supposed to be really colorful and baroque at first, but we ran out of time to fill that in, and the blank white everything became kind of a trademark."
"Well, so you were working on a budget, but where did the ideas for the story come from?"
"I think Bob has always been interested in kind of the dark side of fantasy stories. You see that in the earlier series pitches, and he just went wild with that for Number None. When he told me his idea, he explained it to me as Lord of the Rings, except from the side of the orcs. Like, there was this whole dark, evil army that sort of shows up to do Sauron's bidding. Where did they come from? What were they up to in the months and years before the books, when Sauron wasn't trying to conquer the world yet? What's it even like working for a Ringwraith? So, since we had this huge degree of creative freedom that comes with having no oversight and no chance of success, we decided to run with it. So, that's Number None. This is the lead-up to the big war to take over the world, and Nemo is an orc, trying to survive and not get splattered in passing by the Witch King of Angmar. Or, she's a regular stormtrooper, hoping to get by and avoid being choked by Darth Vader."
"Which is why she's so nondescript in general."
"Yeah. Like, everyone in the show has mask bits; it's a whole thematic thing, showing they're monsters. But the really important people have smaller masks, so you can see their faces. Nemo's mask covers her whole head; she's almost literally faceless and nondescript. She never talks. All that is because she's just another random stormtrooper, and how often does Stormtrooper #14 get speaking lines in Star Wars? Does orc #7 take off his helmet and show you his face? No. She's an interchangeable goon."
"But she talks some, now, doesn't she? She's becoming less faceless."
"Yeah, well, it turns out that when your show keeps getting renewed, things start to shift around on you. So, Nemo eventually got a few lines, and I think we've done a good job of making it a big deal every time she speaks, but it's a drift there. It's still pretty cool, though. People have really bought into the idea that Nemo is this eerie, silent character. Some of the cast got invited to a convention last year, and Stacey showed up in costume, and when she'd start chatting with people, they'd just freak out. Like, people just assume she's really mute or something. She doesn't talk much, though."
"Well, if she's working for the evil horde, are we going to get to see the good guys soon? There's been a few hints at a war about to start, but all the real conflict has been between people on the same side, so far."
"We're headed for the big war with the good guys. It's true, they've been off camera so far, but there's only so long we can drag it out before the war starts. You've got a lot of hints about what the Death Gods are like, though, because we've put a few of them on camera."
"Fans have commented on how the three at the top of the pyramid don't have masks. So they're really different?"
"They're rebels from the good guys. And that side is sort of the mirror image of Nemo's side; the bad guys are all very physical, very aggressive and combatative. They swagger around with swords and throw fireballs. The other side is more into being mysterious wizards. They aren't as good at punching people in the face, but they can do all kinds of crazy stuff. Aizen, Tousen, and Gin are three wizards who went rogue and decided to build up an army to come fight the other wizards.
"So, what about the rest of the cast? What can you tell us about them?"
"It's a great bunch of people, especially when you consider that they were almost all unknowns when we found them. Larry, who does Grimmjow, is probably everyone's favorite person on the set. He's just a nice guy, and hilarious when you talk to him. He actually used to do stand-up comedy. Um, Liz (who played Esmerelda) was also easy to work with, although now she's gotten a role on one of the Law & Order shows, and we had to write her out, but she was great. Tino, who plays Dordoni, was actually a tour guide here locally, and helped show us around, and then he showed up as one of the casting calls to be an extra, and just blew us away, so we actually hired him to have a bigger role. And then, there's Lucille…"
"Lucille Perez plays Cirucci Sanderwicci, right?"
"Lucille basically IS Cirucci Sanderwicci. Like, she has wanted to be a supervillain for her entire life. When we were casting, she had just gotten finished with a run on a telenovella, after her character was eaten by a whale. And at that point, Cirucci was just this minor character who was going to show up briefly to give Nemo some orders in one episode, then we probably never see her again. And she's good, so we give her the role. And then, she really sinks her teeth into it. Like, we had no budget for costumes, so she was in this kind of generic dress, and she hated it. And she spent a week before shooting time badgering the costumer for a better dress. It was crazy. Everybody got dragged into the costume drama. It got so out of hand that the script writers actually made it the focus of her episode; the first storyboard had her sending Nemo out to spy on some wizards, but instead they wrote her sending Nemo to secure a better uniform for her. And, well, somehow it worked. Lucille is a very forceful personality."
"She's very popular in the fandom."
"Honestly, she's put her mark on the show in so many places. Like, one of the things we explicitly laid out in the initial setting bible was that this was the evil empire's military, and they were very serious, deadly professionals. And the costume ideas reflected that; they're all loose trousers and flowing jackets, kind of inspired by martial arts uniforms. Like competitive karate gear, but more martial, right? And it was specifically a thing that the men and women would be dressed very practical, not cheesecake. And then, here's Lucille, on the set, demanding a shorter skirt and opera gloves. We're all trying to make this army look grim and imposing, and Lucille reads the character description, and the first thing she says is that Cirucci should have a whip for her weapon. And we're all opposed to it, because she's an out-of-favor soldier, not some kind of dominatrix. You see how that turned out. Cirucci has thigh-boots and a whip sword, and somehow Lucille makes that work. And it caused a general revolt in the cast. Larry showed up for the next filming session with no shirt and his jacket hanging open to show off his abs, and what were supposed to say? And then everybody else started customizing their uniforms, and it became a whole thing for this show. The costumes got totally out of control; we finally had to reign things in a bit after Tier Halibel was introduced. Every time she appears on camera, it takes about three rolls of double-stick tape to keep things in place."
"You said Cirucci was going to be a minor character?"
"Right, she was literally only going to be in one episode. She was this washed up general, who got replaced by the new leadership, and she was all bitter and vain. But then, the writers needed someone to offer Nemo sanctuary at the end of the first season, so they wrote in Cirucci for the cliffhanger. No one thought a lot about it, because we all assumed the show would get cancelled, but then it was renewed, and we had to come up with a second season. So that turned into Nemo being Cirucci's minion, spying on the higher ups. And she was a hit with the fans, so I have to go to the fight choreographer and tell him to figure out how to have a cool action sequence with a frisbee-whip."
"Cirucci's got her own episodes now."
"Yeah, last season, when it came time to film, Stacey was pregnant, so she was pretty limited in how much action she could do, and the costumes didn't fit. There was a lot of talk of just recasting her for one season, since you can't see her face anyhow, but at the end, we threw her in jail so that we'd only have to film her from the chest up for a while, and it became the Cirucci show. Back to Nemo next season, though. Big changes for Nemo…"
