5 Questions For 'Tomorrow' Person Peyton
Yesterday is about to become incredibly important to The Tomorrow People's present day storyline as tonight's all-new episode introduces the show's first flashback-heavy episode. Girl, Interrupted revolves around Cara and illuminates many of the details that were only hinted at in the first two episodes.
ETonline sat down with Peyton List to talk about this character-building backstory, what it means for The Tomorrow People moving forward and what she really makes of the show's growing love triangle.
ETonline: What was your first reaction to finding out Cara would be the subject of TTP's first flashback episode?
Peyton List: At first I was a bit nervous. Robbie [Amell] read it before I did and couldn't contain himself. He was like, "You won't believe what happens!" I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. So I was nervous before I read it, but even that couldn't prepare me for everything that happens in it. It's the first time we really explore her backstory and open the door to the fact we'll be doing flashbacks throughout the season, and filling out gaps in the characters' history which help explain why they're making decisions in the present day. It's exciting because it makes characters more than "good guy" or "bad guy" -- it also lets you decide which characters you really like and don't.
ETonline: John mentioned that Cara had to leave her family behind in last week's episode, is that what we're going to be seeing tonight?
List: It is. The majority of the episode is about when she "broke out" and showing what that was like for her. We've only seen Stephen's break out so far, but all The Tomorrow People went through the same thing, but unlike Stephen, didn't know anyone else who had gone through this. It's a very private, very scary thing that happened to all of them and tonight we see how it thrust Cara into this world. We have five years to explain how she got where she is now and the cool thing is that who Cara was is not who she is today.
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ETonline: How much of Cara's backstory did you know before reading this script?
List: I didn't know about 95 percent of it [laughs]. A lot of it might not have been locked when we shot the pilot; the writers might have had an idea, but everything that's been shot all ties together really brilliantly. And now that we've introduced flashbacks, we don't even know what time period each new script will take place in -- but that makes working on this show so exciting.
ETonline: Since you guys don't know what's coming next, how are you approaching the Stephen-Cara-John love triangle?
List: We do know that John and Cara have history; they've known each other for a while, and there is a strength to their relationship because they've lived very similar lives. The Stephen dynamic is so different; he's dealt with completely different circumstances, which is refreshing to her. They have a connection that isn't shared by John. It's a personality connection, an emotional connection and it's not ideal -- obviously [laughs]. It's something she's trying to navigate. She doesn't have all the answers but the most important thing for them is to work together and not let their dynamic affect the fact they need to stay together as a group because that’s their best chance at survival.
ETonline: John and Stephen have both made it clear what their ideal end result to this Ultra conflict is. What does Cara want?
List: What we know of The Tomorrow People is that they've been hiding for two years. When they first went down there it was all about survival. So when we meet them, they're at the point where they need to be more proactive and figure out a better way, whether that's finding Stephen's father or being completely away from Ultra. We know John's opinion of the best way to get there, and Cara is very supportive of John. Obviously because of her connection to Stephen, she's more concerned about putting him in jeopardy than John is. She's sort of the go-between in figuring out how they can move forward as safely as possible while still trying to get something more than being tucked away.
The Tomorrow People airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.