The entire first season of Neagley is now streaming on Prime Video! With Maria Sten reprising her role as the titular character, the season focuses on a new case involving a childhood friend.
Of course, a new series means new characters are brought to the forefront, including Keno and Renee, portrayed by Jasper Jones and Adeline Rudolph, respectively. Ahead of the series premiere on Prime Video, I had the opportunity to chat with Jones and Rudolph about their characters and how they fit into Neagley’s world.
The pair told me about exploring their characters, the challenges faced on set, balancing the emotional and physical, and whether they would trust their characters with their lives.
Watch the interview with Adeline Rudolph and Jasper Jones below:
From the moment Renee hits the screen, you can just tell she will be a scene-stealer. Rudolph seemed to know that as well, and told me what her first impressions were of the character when she read the script.
“Ooh, I was like, she’s sassy and I like it. And she’s got, you know, the more I read, of course, more of the episodes, I was like, ‘Oh, she’s got, you know, this very interesting backstory that I’m very excited to dive into,’ and I love that she kind of builds this relationship with with Neagley and with Keno and with Hudson throughout the series. And so she was, yeah, I don’t know – she had an edge to her, which I thought was really fun and interesting, and I love seeing the walls come down as the series goes on.”
Jones’ character gets put through the wringer this season (to put it mildly), so I wondered if there were an moments he found particularly challenging when he was filming.
“Well, I mean, yeah. In some ways, I mean, the jobs I had right before this were, like, shovelling horse manure and waiting tables. So it’s kind of like, you know, I love acting. Sure, there were challenges with the cold. I’m an Austin, Texas boy, so I’m used to the heat. You know, the blinding heat and going to Canada in February, in, like, one of their coldest winters in 50 years. Yeah, that was kind of tough.”
Both of the duo’s characters are new to the world, and the newbies of the group, so to speak. So, I wondered what they thought Renee and Keno brought to the group that no one else does.
“I was going to say inexperience [laughs]. A little bit of messiness. A little bit of learning on the go,” Rudolph joked.
“Yeah, I think what’s interesting about our characters is that you have to watch them. If you want to know what they’re about, you have to watch them. So we kind of get to bring, like, a spontaneity to it in some ways,” Jones said.
“And I was gonna say, I think also, you know, rewatching the series also for this press day, what I love about Keno’s character a lot is I feel like as an audience member. You get to kind of experience all these things with him in real time, right? We have Hudson, we have Neagley, who are so – they’re such veterans when it comes to this line of work. And with Keno, Renee has kind of like somewhat been there, but for with Keno, we really get to see all of this through fresh eyes. I mean, it would be terrifying for any person going through it, but we really get to see first he wears his heart on his sleeve. And so, you get to dive in with him, almost like we’re, you know, if it was a video game, you’re playing the video game, and he’s the character that you get to learn all this information from,” Rudolph added.
Of course, a series like Neagley strikes a nice balance between physical and emotional elements. The actors shared that it was one and the same.
Jones said, “Yeah, I don’t really see it much as balancing the physicality with the emotional. I approach it as more of like the same, a part of one specimen, like one thing. And if you if you do it all in the way where you can kind of settle into that, then it all just comes out, and that’s kind of the the goal, you know?”
Rudolph added, “And I feel like, all you know, the action and the emotions in this season are very organic, right? One builds on top of the other. And so, I feel like as an actor, it’s very easy to kind of dive into each beat and kind of, you know, the emotions are the outcome of the necessity to fight back. So it’s almost like everything ties in together into one. It was less of a balancing act per se, like Jasper says, and more of a building brick by brick these characters into you know where they land.”
Lastly, the stakes in Neagley are high, with a fair few life-or-death scenarios. So, would they trust their own characters with their lives?
“I mean, listen. I trust her more with my life than I trust myself with my life. But I’d say if I had to pick one person, it’d be Neagley. Neagley’s got it. Neagley, help me.” Rudolph joked.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m with you on that. I mean, I would definitely trust Renee more than Keno with my life.” Jones shared.
“Keno has guts, and Renee is getting there. But Keno has guts,” Rudolph added.
“Yeah, but like trust is a very, you know, like trust is a big word. You know, like I want somebody that’s kind of like a bit more thoughtful with things and less instinctual, maybe,” Jones clarified.
“This is why we all have to work as a team on the show because clearly we’re all adding to the pot,” Rudolph laughed.
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