12 Monkeys Star Amanda Schull Reveals the Differences Between the Film and the Series

For as long as she can remember Amanda Schull knew that she had to perform. “I always had that itch in me and my mom indulged it,” says Schull. When she was around 3, her mother put her in dance classes. “We had to run around and make weird shapes with our bodies. I hated that we had to be quiet,” she recalls. “But I loved the performance element.” She can picture holding her family captive as she performed in the living room doing all kinds of skits, musical theater and dance. “I occasionally charged a penny for admission,” Schull says.

She ultimately became a professional ballerina and joined the company of the San Francisco Ballet. Even then she had a sense that acting, in addition to dancing, was her calling. “I always got roles that required more acting and taking the most risks. I was comfortable allowing acting to drive my dancing,” says Schull, who continues to take ballet classes several times a week. “I came alive on stage with lights, a live orchestra and beautiful costumes.” By the time she was 20, she made her motion picture debut playing ballerina Jody Sawyer in the hit film Center Stage. She has been acting ever since.

These days Schull stars as genius time-traveling virologist Dr. Cassandra Railly in the hit Syfy series, 12 Monkeys. The show was inspired by the 1995 film with Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Madeleine Stowe. “The writers and creator keep giving me jewels with the storytelling,” she says. The eclectic actress also plays Katrina Bennett in USA’s Suits and just last week she made her debut as Assistant Attorney General Melissa Danson  in Murder In The First.

Schull recently talked to Parade.

If you could time travel, what period would you visit? 

In 12 Monkeys we get to dip into different worlds, which is a lot of fun. Sometimes I want to go back and watch Martin Luther King’s, “I Have a Dream” speech. Or I  want to see the Declaration of Independence getting signed. But then I’ve thought that I would want to watch dinosaurs roam the world. There’s so many different things I would love to witness firsthand.

What do you love about Cassie in 12 Monkeys?
Cassie is complicated and multifaceted and not cut and dry. She was always that way and she’s gotten even more like that. It’s such a gift to be flawed and have strength—to be human. My acting coach always says, ‘we’re so lucky to do what we do because we show what humanity looks like.’ I realize that on a science fiction time travel show we’re not exactly showing what humanity looks like. But the characters are real.

What did you think of the film 12 Monkeys?

After we shot the pilot I re-watched the film. It’s so good. I had seen it many years ago and made the decision not to watch it again before we shot the pilot. I didn’t want it to inform any of my decisions with Cassie. The characters are different. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t imitating Madeleine Stowe. She’s beautiful and perfect in what she did. I would never want to try to emulate that in any way. I wouldn’t be able to do that and made a conscious decision not to try. When we were doing press for our first season we said, ‘We’re not a cover band. We’re not trying to imitate them. We want to respect and honor the film.’ Throughout each season we give little breadcrumbs, teasing and hinting the film. But we never try to duplicate it.

This season Cassie got to be a lot tougher.

Cassie has strengthened me. I did weapons and martial arts training. There was a period of time where I thought I was just as tough as my character. I felt this overblown sense of security walking down the street thinking that I could really take people on. My husband said, “you need to just cool your jets there for a second.”

The series has also opened up my mind about science fiction. Before I started working on the show, I didn’t understand it very well. It’s such a liberating genre to work in and made me a fan. A lot of what we do is with a green screen. We don’t necessarily have all the elements in place. It can be challenging. You don’t realize how well they’re doing it because they’re so seamless.

I know you can’t say what’s happening next, but what would you like to happen to Cassie?

Throughout the entire second season there’s a lack of time. Cassie doesn’t have time for herself. She’s constantly trying to correct the plague and everything that follows in its wake—the Red Forests and the collapse of time. I would love for her to be happy, to have a moment to enjoy and reap the benefits of all her hard work.

As it airs and as we shoot, the show is like a runaway train. You just have to get on. And when you watch it, you can’t really look away or you might miss something with each episode. I would love for all the characters to have a second to breathe. Not because I want to be lazy, but I feel the characters now have earned it. Cassie is not much of a vacationer. In the pilot episode, she and her then-fiancé, Aaron Marker, talked about maybe going up to a cabin. I don’t think that she would ever feel comfortable totally taking herself off the grid or relaxing.

And how about Cassie and Cole? 

There is an undercurrent of a love affair between them. It would be really neat to see. They only exist on the same timeline because of this horrible reality which makes them so complicated and so frustrated with one another and the circumstances. But it also draws them closer. Nobody understands the other person’s plight as well as the other one. It’s really interesting to play at that push and pull. But if a threat were taken away, what would be their lives? Would the two of them have a life together?

Learn more about 12 Monkeys at www.syfy.com/12monkeys, and follow Amanda on Twitter.