NYCC 2016: Finn Jones & Jessica Stroup Talk Marvel’s Iron FistPosted by Wilson Morales
October 10, 2016
During the 2016 New York Comic Con, fans finally got a chance to see and meet the cast of Netflix & Marvel’s next comic book TV series, Iron Fist, which will debut on March 17, 2017 at 12:01am PT in all territories where Netflix is available.
For the TV series, Marvel’s Iron Fist follows Danny Rand (Finn Jones), who returns to New York City after being missing for years. He fights against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his incredible kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the fiery Iron Fist. The cast also includes Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing, David Wenham as Harold Meachum, Jessica Stroup as Joy Meachum, and Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum.
Iron Fist is the fourth of the epic live-action adventure series (Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Marvel’s Luke Cage which are now streaming, all leading up to the teaming of the main characters in Marvel’s The Defenders) to premiere only on Netflix.
Prior to its panel discussion, Blackfilm.com participated in a roundtable discussion with Finn Jones who plays Danny Rand/ Iron Fist and Jessica Stroup, who plays Joy Meachum.
The children of Harold Meachum (Wenham), Joy and Ward have spent their lives building Rand Enterprises to its current standing in the world, only to have all their work put in jeopardy when Danny returns to claim his birthright. They are childhood acquaintances of Danny Rand’s who now play an important role in Rand Enterprises.
Jones is best known for his role as Loras Tyrell on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” while Stroup starred on the CW’s “90210” reboot, plus Fox’s Kevin Bacon series “The Following.”
Before we lose track of time, talk to me about how did the roles come about for both of you? Did you get a call, did you audition for it?
Jessica Stroup: I had finished up a show, The Following, on Fox, and when pilot season came around I just was putting it out there that I wanted to get on different platform, like I wanted to work on a Netflix, on a Hulu on an Amazon, but my main goal was Netflix. My team knew that, they were funneling scripts and things to me and I saw this, and the best thing about auditioning for a Marvel show is that you don’t know anything, you’re not given any information, right, even the sides that I auditioned with.
I mean it’s like, I don’t know who this character was. For me it was just, it happened very fast, I tested with Tom (Pelphrey) and then got the show basically the next day and was out here. I’ve now caught up reading the comic books, constant questions, constantly trying to follow with the showrunners, the writers, see what they’re going to do with the characters. My character is a fun and a complex one, so I enjoyed it.
Finn Jones: It’s funny actually, I was on the last day of Thrones, and I was in the airport on the way back home, and I was thinking, “Fuck. I’ve just had a job for six years, I’m now unemployed,” I had no, I was scared. I was scared. I was an unemployed actor. This audition comes through and I’m checking my email and I’m like, “Whoa,” it’s got this code name, I’m not allowed to say the code name. It’s got this code name, I’m like, “What the hell is this?” I was like, “Is this a football show? What’s going on?” I opened it and I’m like, “Oh, it’s a Marvel, Netflix show,” and I, similar, I wanted to work on a Netflix show after Thrones, I think it’s one of the best platforms at the moment for bringing television shows to the people. Yeah, and so I sent off a self-tape back in London, and that was in November.
Basically this audition came through as I was in the airport, leaving Game of Thrones. It’s funny how things just like flow into each other, like it was always meant to happen, like it was a kind of destiny thing, very strange. Then I sent of this self-tape and I didn’t hear anything until after Christmas, and I was in LA. Then they called me into audition in the room, and I went through a couple of series of screen tests, and then eventually I got the part after like a two week of grueling endless back and forths of kind of going and meet studio heads and testing with various actors. Yeah, and then I found out in February.
Jessica Stroup: Then immediately you went into training, right?
Finn Jones: Yeah, then afterwards I went immediately to training for like a month and a half I think it was. I was training for like five, six hours a day, I was doing three hours of martial arts and about one and a half, two hours of weight training, as well as getting to grips with all the mythology of the show, and Buddhist philosophy, I really wanted to get into the head of that character. Yeah, it’s kind of been non-stop since February.
Danny is an outsider pretty much from two worlds, so he’s an outsider to New York, but he’s also an outside in K’un-Lun as well.
Finn Jones: To himself, he’s an outsider to himself.
And to himself. How was that to play as a character?
Finn Jones: It’s fantastic, it’s so great. The best thing about Danny Rand is that he has these huge massive contradictions. One half of him is this super centered, trying to be a super centered martial artist and warrior, and the other half of him is a live-wire, suffering from trauma, riddling with PTSD. You’ve got those two contradictions that are constantly battling each other, and the other contradiction is that he’s spent some time in the East, but then he’s from a westernized family.
Bringing those two together, especially when he comes back to New York and starts getting involved with Rand, there’s a lot of corporate questions, corporate ethics quite a lot because he sees through things, and he’s not, he’s innocent and he’s pure. He hasn’t been brought up in this very materialist, dog-eat-dog world, which then suddenly he finds himself in. There’s lots of contradictions to play with, and it’s a lot of fun as an actor to kind of get into that.
In the comics, Danny leaves K’un-Lun for revenge, and that seems to be contradictory to the, his character almost in a way, because he’s so centered and so that way. In the show is he going to leave for a similar motivation? Can you tease that?
Finn Jones: I can’t really say much because Marvel will shoot me dead on the spot, but I will say is, yeah, you’re right, there are contradictions to the character, and that’s what makes him really grounded and really fun to play.
Jessica Stroup: I like the way the show and if you’re watching the whole thing how it reveals itself more and more as it goes along why he left.
Finn Jones: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s a complete enigma, you start the show and you’re like, “Who the fuck is this guy?” Also Danny doesn’t who himself is as well. He’s a lost soul. He lost his parents when he was ten years-old. He was living in a monastery in very harsh conditions for fifteen years, and he’s troubled.
He’s a really troubled character, and he’s asking questions that every twenty-five year-old asks, “Who am I? What is my reason here?” He’s the Iron Fist as well, so he’s got even more responsibility that he’s trying to grapple with. Most of the show is Danny trying to figure out what his place is in the world, who he is, where does he fit in and who does he identify with.
Jessica Stroup: “I like the questions and the challenges that your character bring up as the show goes on, because I think it really is, I mean it plays out in real life, where you got corporations who are polluting environments, and got, there’s stuff even in my home city in North Carolina, there was some, Duke Power Plant was having big issues. The idea of a character coming in who is so pure at heart and does have this-
Finn Jones: Questions that.
Jessica Stroup: Yeah, and he pushes the boundaries of like, “Well, let’s change the way the status quo has always been.” It’s pretty, it’s very rich.
Finn Jones: It’s very right on, it’s very current, what we’re doing.
People have always associated Iron Fist with Power Man aka Luke Cage, and you mentioned you were brushing up on your comics, so how much of the comic book genre were you a fan of? Who did you love reading? Now that we’re getting obviously a lot of Marvel characters on TV and in films, have you been following up all of that stuff?
Finn Jones: I, yeah. I’m from the UK and to be honest we don’t really, comic books aren’t as big in the UK as they are in the US, especially as it’s been. I never read comic books as a kid, as I got older I read a lot of graphic novels, I love Akira, I love a lot of Japanese anime. I read a lot of graphic novels. Yeah, comic books? No, I’m not as, it kind of passed me by.
