Dr. Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) is essentially Ephs right hand partner. A woman of science, shes on the same page with Eph on quarantining the flight survivors, although youll see in episode four she witnesses something she cant stand by. If youve read the books you may already know whats coming, and in episode five we get some insight into her personal life. Maestro sat with me in the hallway of the hotel, and made sure any distracting crowds left us alone so we could concentrate on discussing Nora Martinez.
Shock: After the major events of episode four, was it nice to spend episode five introducing Noras mother?
Maestro: Its nice because in episode five we get to see a bit of Noras personal life and before that we were only able to see her in her everyday work environment in a very specific context. So yeah, episode five is great and its wonderful just to introduce her mom and theres a whole story thats going to develop from that episode.
Shock: So thats significant.
Maestro: Yeah, very much so, like it is in the books.
Shock: I havent read them so this is my introduction to The Strain.
Maestro: Which is also great because we do follow the books but then we also go away from them a little bit. I think the soul of the books are in the TV show but theres going to be a lot of great surprises for people that are big fans of the literature.
Shock: Was it important for you to read it?
Maestro: Yeah, I had a long audition process and a lot of readings with Kevin [Durand] and Corey [Stoll], chemistry reads because the guys were not in town at the same time. They were quite spaced out so I got to read one novel before every meeting I had with Guillermo. It was really, really great.
Shock: So you have scenes coming up with Fet?
Maestro: Yeah, definitely. Eventually Kevin will join us and well just become this group that fights against those monsters.
Shock: Nora has a reaction a lot of people have when she sees what she sees in episode four, which is I dont want any part of this. Is that important to represent that in a world as fantastical as this?
Maestro: I think so. I think what Eph and Nora do is pretty much anchor the fantastic world into reality. It gives you a perspective of what any person would do in a situation like this. When the world is basically turning upside down and you just have no idea whats happening and reality as you know it is changing constantly. I think its just really good to have those anchors of reality in Nora and Ephs reactions to whats happening. What happens to her is Im a doctor, I work for the CDC, Im a virus hunter. My whole life has been committed to help people to live and find a cure and help people survive and defeat illness. We just meet this random person, Setrakian and hes just telling us to behead people and burn the bodies. As a scientist I just cannot do this. Its completely against every cell in my body. So thats her first reaction. Eventually shell rethink that reaction because maybe the reality, she has to start shifting her perspective on things as well because the world has changed. Shock: Is it that outrageous for a doctor, certainly in the CDC, to think? In an outbreak or quarantine they might consider something as drastic as eradicating the population.Maestro: No, no doctor eradicates populations.
Shock: The military might.
Maestro: You quarantine them, but you never kill your patients, especially when you dont know what youre dealing with and you do need the patients in order to investigate. At that moment, she just doesnt know how lethal the contagion is and what are the chances that they have on actually investigating the actual victims and with the people that have been infected. Its pretty much quite an emotional reaction she has. To me its interesting that she didnt have as much that reaction to Redfern but she does have that reaction with the little girl, with Emma. Theres a note that gets touched within herself as a woman. I cannot believe we just decapitated this little girl.
Shock: And Im remembering the movie Outbreak which is not a very realistic movie.
Maestro: Well, its not a very realistic movie but its based on a realistic thing that happened.
Shock: You mean The Hot Zone? They were copying that.
Maestro: Have you read The Hot Zone book? Its fantastic. We actually read it with Corey just to prepare for the show. Reality sometimes, when youre dealing with level four viruses, its very similar to a horror movie. So thats what Nora and Eph are dealing with in the situation and more, because they dont really know what theyre dealing with. Its not just people that are sick. Its people that are actually attacking them.
Shock: So you did a lot of the research for the CDC and medical community?
Maestro: Yeah, we did of course a lot of research for the characters, the type of training that you need, the type of training that you need to wear a hazmat suit and just to get embedded in the life that Nora and the training Nora would have had, because shes a biochemist and works for the CDC.
Shock: Did you go through all the proper procedures to put on the hazmat suit even though it was just acting?
Maestro: Of course we didnt do the decompression showers, but we studied them. We had someone that actually is in charge in Toronto of situations like that, in the event they hit Canada. So he came and had a talk with us and we had him. We can call him at any time or e-mail him at any time just to ask specific questions. It was good for Corey, for myself and also for our prop department just to know what a real person would do in a real situation like that. I dont know if you remember, but Toronto had an anthrax scare years ago. He was giving us a lot of examples from that time, what happened and how they dealt with it and the procedure of things that you need to do.
Shock: Episode five is very fast paced except for Nora. Does she have some fast paced episodes coming up?
Maestro: Yeah, she does. Its a bit of the oasis, the calm before the storm. I think its a more internal time for Nora and just being with her mom. Episode five and six shes a bit in limbo, confused and not knowing what to do, having just lost the connection to her best friend, Eph. Also her boss and someone she respects immensely and someone that shes been working alongside for years. So she is taking a little bit of time to make some decisions. In the story, everything happens very, very quickly. The first season is only nine days, so itll only be a couple days until Nora gets interaction again.
Shock: And she hasnt seen the full extent of things, like Gabriel Bolivar, yet.
Maestro: No. They have no idea whats coming. Theyre really in the dark and the only thing that they know is that Setrakian has a lot more information than they do. Eventually, all paths lead to Setrakian. Hes kind of our only hope because hes the only one that actually called things as they were going to happen and predicted what the future was bringing.
Shock: Which are the best upcoming episodes for Nora?
Maestro: I think episode 8 is a really strong episode. A lot happens. Episode 11 is a huge episode for Nora, and the aftermath of what happens in 11 continues in episode 12. Theres a lot to look forward to.
