Tall and lanky, as if he was born with Wranglers, Mike Faist makes quite a striking figure in the Amazon Prime series ” Panic “: His character, Dodge Mason, is a rodeo dude wearing Stetson who smashes untamed horses, then looks them in the eye with emotion.
However, it’s not at all how the character was written in Lauren Oliver’s young adult novel that inspired the series, which debuts on Friday, in which Dodge and a dozen other teenagers from a small town face off in a series of deadly challenges – Think of a naturalistic “Hunger Games” with more class warfare.
After filming a pilot in 2018 in upstate New York (where the book is set), production restarted completely in Austin, Texas a year later, and Dodge’s story was changed. to better adapt to the new place. Suddenly, the school wimp who cared about cards and magic had turned into a Western archetype: the strong, upright loner who doesn’t say much. Faist went with the flow.
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“Ciphers can be really boring,” said Oliver, who also wrote the screenplay, “but it manages to capture the power that comes with a certain level of invisibility. “
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Dodge is quite a departure for Faist, who is best known for his Tony nominated performance like the tormented and cynical Connor Murphy in the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen”. With a slender charisma and a bone structure that seems to have been sculpted with a scythe, the actor, now 29 years old, could easily have embarked on “Panic”. But his sensitivity is closer to that of leading men as atypical as Adam Driver, and he modernizes a potentially versatile piece.
“Mike really didn’t want to be a caricature, but I don’t think he could ever be,” said Jessica Sula, who plays Natalie, Dodge’s love interest in “Panic.” She recalled that when filming resumed in Texas after a break imposed by Covid-19, Faist chose to live in a trailer on a lot with his rescue dog, Austin.
“He’s so ridiculously ridiculous and wonderful,” she said of Faist, laughing fondly.
Faist’s own course has been ascending since he dropped out of drama school at age 18, and his role as plum in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated « West Side Story » because Jets frontman Riff is expected to put him on Hollywood’s speed dial when he debuts in December. (Filming ended in September 2019.)
And yet, the actor has spent much of a recent conversation frankly admitting the ambivalence and uncertainty. He spent some of the year spent traveling the country with Austin and writing a screenplay. He turned down offers and is now selling his apartment in Brooklyn and moving back to Ohio.
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Faist was warm and laid back on a recent sunny morning at Park Slope, and he laughed a lot at what seemed like protective self-mockery as he pondered his future, professional or otherwise. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
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