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Goran Visnjic Talks 'Extant,' Being TV-Married To Halle Berry, And Of Course, Aliens

The Aliens Are Coming (Eventually) On 'Extant'
CBS

Landing a huge star like Halle Berry for a TV show is one thing, but "Extant" also backs up the big-name casting with some impressive, intriguing promos. Even if sci-fi dramas aren't your thing, you're bound to tune in to CBS/Global's latest summer series, even if it's just to satisfy your curiosity.

As you may already know, "Extant" centres on astronaut Molly (Berry), who's been on a solo mission up in a space station for over a year. She's freshly reunited with her husband, John (Goran Visnjic), and robot son (yes, you read that right) Ethan (Pierce Gagnon), and trying to get her land legs back -- but that's boring. So, naturally, that's when the impossible happens. The astronaut learns from her doctor pal (Camryn Manheim) that she is somehow pregnant because, apparently, Molly is so hot, even sentient life forms can't resist her. What the what?

"Extant," which is brought to us by Steven Spielberg, among others, will likely have you wanting more. HuffPost TV spoke to Visnjic about what we can expect in the future, what the deal is with creepy Ethan, and if there's really a chance of a robot uprising. (Please, no.)

HuffPost TV Canada: Do we know how far in the future the story is told? Because I really want that garbage can thingy. [Laughs]

Goran Visnjic: [Laughs] Yeah, its pretty cool. I like the cars, though. We're going to be having some cars from different car companies that are actually still on a drawing board. Some of the cars are coming up maybe never, maybe they're coming out in the next five, seven, 10 years. But we're actually using them in the show. They look pretty cool.

Are you driving them? I saw you as a passenger in one in the first episode.

We presume that in 40 years from now, that's where this story's happening. Where we have self-driven cars and you can basically switch them on manual, you can have them on automatic, they can drive you but when it comes down to some local roads, you can continue driving.

So basically we're getting lazier?

We like to think that we can do more things in a car. You see all these people texting and emailing while they're driving, I think it's safer to let a computer drive and you do your texting and emailing. Or if you want to enjoy your driving, you can put your phone or tablet down and drive. So we're using this new Tesla SUV that's still not out for sale. We're using it as our family car.

What does "Extant" mean? Something about extinction or what makes us human? I don't know.

No, it means "still in existence." That's the most literal translation of the word. It's still there, it's not extinct.

Tell me, what is John and Molly's marriage like?

They're two people connected through their original jobs. They met while working on the space station. John was one of the creators of Ben, the artificial intelligence on the Seraphim, and Molly was one of the first astronauts on the Seraphim, helping create the space station. So that's how the two of them met. I heard a lot of questions: 'How would you be able to allow your wife to go up there for 13 months on her own while you stay down there?' It's like, look, he knows that she worked all her life to become an astronaut, to do this, that's her life, those are her dreams. So you don't go and mess with that and say, 'Look, Honey, come back in 15 days, don't go up there for 13 months.' They're very respectful of each other's wishes. In a marriage that works and functions there's still a lot of passion, a lot of love and a lot of problems, especially from the moment she comes back. They become exposed to certain problems that are literally out of this world, and their marriage is going to be on a lot of strain.

When does Molly reveal to John that she is pregnant?

I don't want to kill it for the audience. She was up there for 13 months on a solo mission so he knows that. I think he's going to trust her that she didn't do anything bad but she's pregnant, that's a fact, so they're going to try and figure it out and what's going on. And that's all I'm going to tell you.

OK, OK, changing the subject. John works in humanics. Please elaborate.

Well, humanics is one of John's projects. He's into robotics and artificial intelligence. He created this company and he wants to create a robot that's going to be fully identical to humans, that are going to think like a human. He's hoping to jump from artificial intelligence to sentient intelligence by exposing these robots, these perfect intellects into human experience. They're going to be raised like children, they're going to spend exactly the same amount of time that people spend with their kids and they're going to be "thought" things. And he believes once you do that, once you give them all this time and attention, that these AIs are going to be able to actually get it, they're going to be able to behave like humans.

It's a little bit of an unresearched area and nobody knows what's going to be happening with that so he's the first one. As you've seen in the pilot, there is a lot of resentment towards it. People are not sure, if they actually want this and why would we want this. We're going to be opening Pandora's Box and a lot of philosophical debates on 'Do we actually need somebody like Ethan?' or 'Why create somebody like Ethan?' It's going to be pretty interesting.

John butts head with Femi Dodd [Annie Wersching] in the pilot. Will that be an ongoing thing or will he convince her that his way is the right way?

There's an instant development happening with Mr. Yasumoto [Hiroyuki Sanada] regarding the financing of the project but he's going to continue with his research. Now, is he going to be able to change somebody's mind? We'll see.

What's John's relationship like with Julie? She seems to get on quite well with John, obviously, but Ethan as well.

That's going to be very interesting relationship because you're going to find out through the first season that Ethan was not supposed to be a part of John's family. He's a researcher, he's building this robot and they were actually interviewing families that they would give Ethan to. Because there was always danger if John took Ethan to his home, that maybe it would become too personal. So I'm not sure if Julie was really happy about the fact that John actually decided to take Ethan and basically adopt him, that Ethan was going to become his child. She thinks that's pushing it into the direction that isn't realistic. They work together, they created Ethan together, yes, John is her boss and he is the one who holds the patents but Julie is definitely very, very capable and she's very much involved in creating Ethan.

John and Molly seem to clash about their son's behaviour. Is John of the mind that, 'Well, I've been here with our kid for a year so I think I know what's going on,' or is he in denial about Molly's claim that he has changed?

That's an interesting question and a huge answer because the fact is, we're all changing. So what John is trying to point out to Molly is, while you were out there for 13 months, he actually did change. Now, the fact is that you see that change as something huge and fast and sudden and I see it as a normal change. John wants to give him a real, proper human experience. So if he really treats him and behaves towards him like he is a boy, that's John's downfall. It's a little bit of his lack of realistic judgment because he really sees him as a kid and he almost keeps forgetting that he's actually a robot. As the season progresses, we're going to start telling ourselves, 'Maybe John is right.' It's going to be very interesting, in that respect.

There's mention of a "robot uprising." Is that hitting a little close with John? Does he think Ethan is capable of that?

Well, he doesn't, that's his thing. Put it this way: you see a guy walking with a pit bull and we all think pit bulls, and I'm a huge dog lover, but pit bulls have such a bad reputation. This dog never bit anybody, he's great with kids, he's great with pets and the owner is all, 'He's fine, you can pet him,' but you're kind of like, 'No, that's OK, I'm fine.' It's people's perception, watching these things and thinking about them. A lot of science-fiction books and movies portray robots in a certain light but there is a movie, a beautiful movie, "Bicentennial Man" with Robin Williams, I like to see that kind of future with robots, for example.

Well, there's the scene with Ethan and the other boy at the party, and another with Molly and Ethan in the woods. The little boy looked ... creepy. Pierce Gagnon, he's great. What's it like working with him?

He's a kid, put it that way. He's so extremely well-prepared, memorizes his lines, behaves professionally but as soon as they say 'Cut!,' he turns into a kid, it's really beautiful. You want to see that he's having fun doing this thing but he's still a proper child. Sometimes you see these kid actors, they're already like adults who are living in these small bodies, it's a little bit weird and freaky.

How much of the story is about the pregnancy, how much is about the humanics, and how much do they overlap?

The main protagonist is Molly and it's her life so everything that affects her, that happens to her, it's happening to all of us. All of us are going to be affected. When Molly needs to run away from something, we're going to all run away because we're going to try and be a family. Everything that's happening involves everybody, of course. The story is heavier on Molly's character. The story's going on around her so you're going to have a lot. And there is an alien coming in to the storyline very soon so it's going to be all over the place.

Do you like this short, 13-episodes trend?

The beauty of this summer programming that CBS is doing, we're going to have, I believe, we have 13 episodes and you're going to see them in 12 weeks. There are no reruns and then for the season finale, there are two hours in the same night so it's going to be really fast. And the answers are given. I remember when I was a kid watching "X-Files" and I was like, "Come on, guys, give me some answers, please." Now it's time that I think answers are given a little bit more, I think audiences are a little bit more impatient.

"Extant" premieres Wednesday, July 9 at 9 p.m. ET on Global and CBS.

'Extant'

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