THAT AFTERMATH ATTITUDE
Canadian actor Meaden finds his inner badass in new sci-fi series
Levi Meaden is at ease discussing the deeper themes that course beneath the tonguein-cheek tone of the new sci-fi show Aftermath. It’s actually quite impressive. The Calgary-raised actor has long been a fan of sci-fi stories, particularly those with dystopian leanings. So he can eloquently discuss why he thinks these end-of-times tales are so popular, suggesting a certain cynicism in the modern world had made hitting the “reset button” for our civilization an appealing notion for many. He can talk intelligently about the mishmash of cultural myths that float through the series and how it adopts Joseph Campbell’s idea of comparative religion. He can talk about how normal people being pressed into survival mode and reverting to a more primal version of themselves always makes for great drama.
But one gets the impression that all of this may be secondary when it came to the actor’s attraction to playing Matt Copeland,
the eldest son of a family suddenly forced to face off against the strange horrors unleashed at the end of the world.
Ultimately, it was really a chance for him to go to Vancouver and be an action hero for the summer, playing a character who “slowly becomes a badass,” he says.
“I grew up with the Bruce Willis movies, the Kurt Russell movies, the Clint Eastwood movies,” says Meaden, on the line from his adopted home of Los Angeles. “So what dude doesn’t want to do that? But what I like about this one is that it also offers a chance to have a sense of humour about things too. I don’t have to be Tom Hardy — I can have little more fun.”
It’s true. Unlike, say, The Walking Dead, Aftermath unfolds with significantly less gravitas than one might expect from a show dealing with civilization’s collapse. Anne Heche plays Karen Copeland, a mom with some formidable badass skills of her own thanks to her background as a U.S. air force pilot. She is married to Joshua — played by James Tupper, Heche’s co-star on ABC’s comedy-drama Men in Trees — who has a more academic approach to the apocalypse thanks to his background as a world cultures professor.
Matt is the older brother to sisters Dana and Brianna Copeland (Julia Sarah Stone and Taylor Hickson), twins who are very different from each other.
In Tuesday’s opener, the world has been beset by a curious number of natural disasters. As the episode progresses, the family begins to notice that many of those around them also appear to be turning into rage-filled beings with superhuman strength. After one such creature takes off with Brianna, the remaining Copelands cram into the family RV to rescue her and search for a military-guarded safe zone. Things do not go as planned.
“Matt discovers a lot of things about himself that he was trying to hide from,” Meaden says. “A lot of things come to the surface, a lot of the fight and grit that he wishes he could abandon and be more like his father. He learns how to become his own man and starts making choices about what really matters and what doesn’t.”
Born in Saskatchewan and raised in Calgary, Meaden went to the Prague Film School after graduating from high school with an eye on becoming a writerdirector. But he was eventually convinced to give acting a go, quickly landing guest spots on series such as The 100 and Almost Human. He then landed a key role in the final season of The Killing opposite Joan Allen, playing an arrogant student leader in a military school mixed up in a bunch of brutal murders. He has a lead role in the Calgary-shot sci-fi film Incontrol.
He’s also landed a role in the sequel to 2013’s Pacific Rim, playing a character Variety calls “an irreverent and offbeat cadet” in the continuing war against monsters rising from the Pacific Ocean. The mega-budgeted film also stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Scott Eastwood.
Which means that, for the time being at least, Meaden has put earlier ambitions to become a writer-director on hold to concentrate on being an actor. And action hero. And badass.
“I’ve been having a lot of fun and I’m enjoying it,” says Meaden. “There’s something funny about the filmmaking world. A lot of people who end up in the jobs they have never intended to be there. They kind of fell into it and it worked really well. I guess that kind of happened for me too.”