A Wolk on the wild side
Mad Men alum tells Melissa Hank about his thriller summer series, Zoo.
Zoo Debuts Tuesday, CTV/CBS A walk in the park, it’s not. Zoo, a new TV series, is based on the idea that animals are fed up with humans controlling them. Cue a worldwide revolt.
Inspired by James Patterson’s 2012 novel, Zoo stars Mad Men’s James Wolk as Jackson Oz, a U.S. zoologist who runs safaris in Botswana until he notices strange behaviour in the animals.
Wolk spoke about the 13-episode summer thriller.
Q Is this a cautionary tale, an animal rights tale or something else?
A I think first and foremost the show is like a summer blockbuster movie, but just on your television. It’s entertaining, it’s fun, it’s a big escape each week for the audience. I don’t think it’s trying to make a huge political statement, by any means. But that being said, I think there are some scenarios that could be real. So in that regard, I think it’ll make people think.
Q The series is set mostly in the African savannah and Los Angeles — where did you do the filming?
A We filmed it all in New Orleans. It’s amazing what they can do from a filming perspective there. In the show we globe-trot to Japan, France — all over the world — but we did it from New Orleans.
Q Were the scenes with lions green-screened?
A There is some CGI, but a lot of it is real animals. Depending on the animal and their trainer’s comfort level and the actor’s comfort level, at times we are in the scenes with the animal at the same time. With the lions, they first filmed the lions and then they filmed the actors separately because there’s obviously a healthy respect for what lions are.
Q Which animals did you work directly with?
A There’s an episode later in the season where we deal with brown bears, and we were in scenes with the bears. It was an unbelievable feeling to be that close to such a massive, powerful animal. You feel that fight-or-flight adrenalin kick in.
Q Do you have any pets?
A I actually have a pet lion at home. (Laughs.) No, I have a German shepherd-Rottweiler mixed mutt. She’s eight years old and incredible. What they say about dogs being man’s best friend is true.