PODESWA’S ABILITY TO FACE HIS FEARS BROUGHT SUCCESS
Director has helmed some of TV’s greatest shows
There aren’t many people who epitomize prestige TV as thoroughly as Toronto-born Jeremy Podeswa.
He’s like the television-director version of Woody Allen’s Zelig, popping up in key historical moments in this golden age of television.
He was there for the early sparks, putting his stamp on bellwether shows such as Six Feet Under, Queer as Folk and Carnival.
He’s been at the helm for episodes of cable favourites such as Dexter, Homeland, The Walking Dead, Boardwalk Empire, True Blood, American Horror Story, True Detective and, most recently, The Handmaid’s Tale.
He’s directed ambitious period dramas such as HBO’s Rome, The Borgias and The Pacific.
He’s also been behind the camera for six episodes of the grandaddy of all prestige cable programs, Game of Thrones, including Season 7’s debut and finale.
In short, if there’s been a series that has been discussed around a water cooler, Podeswa probably contributed to making it a success at some point as a go-to, gun-forhire director.
But it wasn’t really planned that way.
The writer-director began his career as an independent filmmaker, overseeing decidedly modest, homegrown features such as Eclipse, The Five Senses and Fugitive Pieces.
“When I started working and making my own films, I very much had a certain lane I was working in,” says Podeswa, who was at the Banff World Media Festival earlier this week to receive the award of excellence.
“Intimate dramas was really my thing. That’s how I started in television, with Queer as Folk and Six Feet Under. That was very much an outgrowth of the kind of independent film work that I have done.
“The great thing in those early days, in the golden age of television, was that they were really looking for new voices and giving people chances to do things they hadn’t done before. Even though I hadn’t really demonstrated that I could do a show like Carnivale or Rome or The Pacific, I was given opportunities to do these things that would stretch me in very interesting ways.”
As many an actor has realized over the past 20 years, television has carved out a place that film used to possess.
As Hollywood becomes more limited to big-budget, tent-pole movies, the small screen seems to be where much of the risk-taking and creativity takes place.
Once a medium dominated by committee thinking, it’s now defined by the distinct visions of people such as Alan Ball (Six Feet Under, True Blood), David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (Game of Thrones), Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story) and Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire.) All of which makes it the perfect medium for an ambitious director these days.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with amazing writers and amazing showrunners who have a very strong point of view and (who are) very auteur-ish in their approach to what they are doing, and working with networks that are allowing them to explore things in a very singular way,” Podeswa says.
“As a creator myself, I’m really attracted to other creators who are original and fresh and sort of unbridled by conventional thinking. That’s very exciting for me, to tap into somebody’s else’s creativity in that way.”
In terms of scope, Podeswa says the projects got bigger incrementally, from the intimacy of Six Feet Under to the epic Second World War scenes in The Pacific and medieval drama of The Borgias, before eventually landing amid the dragons, sword fights, massive family feuds, snowy battle scenes and White Walkers in Game of Thrones.
Podeswa received his third Emmy nomination for directing the polarizing fifth season episode Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken in 2015, which became infamous for including one of the more horrifying rape scenes in television history.
Still, Podeswa points to his time on the HBO series Rome some 10 years earlier as a turning point. At the time it debuted in 2005, it was the most expensive series in television history and required the biggest sets ever built on Italy’s famous Cinecitta studios, which is where Ben Hur and Cleopatra were filmed.
He admits he had a few moments of panic when preparing for the shoot.
“I learned pretty early on that it’s great to say yes to things that scare you,” says Podeswa.
“I never let fear of something prevent me from doing it. (Rome) was really a watershed for me in a way. I thought, ‘If I can do that, I can really do anything.’ The size of the apparatus doesn’t scare me.”
The great thing in those early days, in the golden age of television, was that they were really looking for new voices and giving people chances to do things they hadn’t done before.