In ZOS: Zone of Separation, Even Peace Is Hell - Page 2

So what else attracted the actors to the script? "I never read the script," Colantoni answers. "I only read the description of Speedo Boy. That's all I needed to do."

I assume he's joking, but MacRury interjects: "It's sad but true."

"There are eight parts! I'm not going to read all eight parts," Colantoni exclaims as the rest of us laugh. "So it's about Speedo Boy, right?" More seriously, he calls his character "a spice throughout the eight episodes. You're reminded of the absurdity of it. Here's a character that embraces the irony of it all."

MacRury chooses to find it flattering that the busy actor (Colantoni also stars in Flashpoint) was instantly drawn to the role and the series, even without reading the script. "He signed up just on the basis of the one-liner, because it sounded like something different."

Roberts, on the other hand, was attracted to the cohesive story full of characters each with their own fascinating arcs. "I read all eight parts — it's just a different approach," he deadpans. He compares ZOS to Rome: "It's a modern version of that kind of amoral chaos, and how violence comes to play in that world."

Expecting unrelenting bleakness, I was surprised by the humour of the series, though found my squeamish self fast forwarding through scenes of torture and brutal violence. "I think if you don't go there you're not telling the story," MacRury defends the dark corners of the pay cable show. "You're not being honest with what you were going to do. You were going to tell a story about the absurdity and the complications of trying to do this job in a war zone — how do you tell that without being violent, without having disturbing sex, without having black comedy?"

Roberts, thinking one scene of a market square explosion had been heightened for television, was set straight by a photojournalist. "All the terrible things that happen on the show don't even measure up to the actual thing," he says.

Article Author: Diane Kristine Wild

Diane writes about boring things by day, pop culture things by night. She also runs the TV, Eh? website, a compilation of news about Canadian television. Follow her on Twitter @deekayw for more random thoughts.

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