Mireille Enos & Dermot Mulroney Interview: Hanna | Screen Rant
Upon its premiere on Amazon last year, the first season of Hanna used Joe Wright’s 2013 film as a starting point and expanded the story of the young assassin and the evil government program. Along with Hanna’s discoveries about herself, the second season sees some characters materially changing and others being added to the mix altogether.
Mireille Enos, who plays Hanna’s enemy-turned-ally Marissa Wiegler, must throw the CIA off her scent when the show returns in July. This will be an especially difficult task with newcomer John Carmichael (Dermot Mulroney) sniffing around. The two actors sat down with Screen Rant to share their impressions about the dynamics at play and the journey they take in the second season.
Dermot, your character's new to the season. Chat me up about John Carmichael and all of the sinister stuff that he's up to.
Dermot Mulroney: Yeah, John Carmichael is right in the middle of his masterwork, and he is found at the very beginning of season two actually doing a little international cleanup work.
Marissa has come in, but he's based in rural England, where he's running a spy assassin - all-female, wolf DNA-enhanced, spy assassin training program. Really, what I'm saying is right out of the gate in season two, you get to see how deep the tendrils of the UTRAX program run, and who's on the ground in charge. That's the part I play: John Carmichael.
Mireille, can you talk to me about the relationship between Carmichael and Wiegler, especially this season? Because it's an interesting cat and mouse game that the two play throughout?
Mireille Enos: Yeah, they have history. Carmichael was one of her trainers when she was just starting out in the program. So, they knew each other a long time ago. And then Marissa has risen in the ranks, and she's had a really powerful career. Here they are, and of course Marissa's suspicion is that Carmichael has been brought in because nobody really believes the version of the story that I tell about how season one wrapped up.
So, my job is to play real nice and to give all the right answers, and to make sure to keep the truth away from him.
Both of your characters have fantastic scenes throughout this, where you could just see the manipulation working. You also were the previous nemesis to Hanna last season. Can you talk to me about how the relationship between Wiegler and Hanna has evolved, and what we should expect from Wiegler now?
Mireille Enos: Well, she's decided to save this girl. It's the one positive choice she's ever made in her life, and come hell or high water, she's just gonna make it happen. And Hanna makes it very challenging. Hanna has some deep trust issues.
Dermot Mulroney: Unruly teenager.
Mireille Enos: She tends to run away from the people trying to help her, so I take some lumps.
Dermot, you are in control of UTRAX's operation, which will be explored a lot in season two. What's the major motivating factor for Carmichael?
Dermot Mulroney: Carmichael is a company man. You can picture him living with his family, suburban DC, worked at the CIA for 35 years, brought up a family. However you want to fill in that blank, what you're looking at is a normal American guy who wants to sustain the status quo as it is - where normal American guys are in control. By designing a complex program and seeing it through for really more than a decade. 15-16 years ago, I think is when Hanna emerged from the woods?
No, that's now. That's when Hanna was born and the others were dispatched by Marissa Wiegler. So, he finds himself - he's been in the middle of this story the whole time; he just didn't know about Carmichael yet. So, he's a normal guy doing a heinous thing.
In what way is John more menacing as a rival for Hanna this season?
Dermot Mulroney: Interesting. Some of Hanna one and Hanna two - can I be honest - it really still eludes me. But I do know that I need Hanna at the Meadows so that I can reclaim her as an asset. Hanna, of course, has different ideas in mind, and so does Marissa. Those are just the three points that are in conflict with one another.
But for me, the most interesting days of shooting too - which is phenomenal - are the scenes where I'm with both of them, or at least one. I'll settle for either Hanna or Marissa Wiegler in any scene any day. Really exciting in the storyline too. when these points of friction come in contact with each other. They don't seem like a very fractious type of scene, but what you detect too, there's so many undercurrents at play in each of these meetings that it propels the story.
Mireille Enos: Can I speak to that question? Because Carmichael has the power of the whole program behind him. And Marissa, even last season, was so off on her own sneaky business because nobody was supposed to know that Hanna existed. So, she's always trying to get it done on our own.
Dermot Mulroney; Yeah, if Hanna's the heart of the show, believe me, Wiegler is the backbone and the engine driver. And she's at it again, even though maybe her motivations have - if not altered - actually switched.
The one thing I love about Marissa, honestly, is that even as a fan and a viewer, it takes me a while to trust her. And even now, I still don't know if I trust her. Can you talk to me about the most surprising development for your character that you were genuinely shocked by in season two?
Mireille Enos: To be totally honest, before I took this part, David sat down and talked me through two seasons. So, it wasn't a surprise. I knew where we were going, which allowed me in season one - I had this whole other life in season one; I had a lover and a stepchild. And so, because I knew where Marissa was going - she was going to become the protector of Hanna - I was able to start laying in in season one, this desire for happiness. That longing, which didn't work in season one in that context, but now can play out in season two.
Dermot Mulroney: She kept that picture, though, didn't she?
Mireille Enos: I did, I did.
There's also new additions to the cast this season, with Jules and [Clara]. Can you talk to me about the interactions with them and how Carmichael might feel about them?
Dermot Mulroney: Yeah, these are students and trainees; agents of the future that Carmichael's very proud of. I mean, it's genuine. He feels like he's created something that's going to be useful. You do learn why it's going to be useful to him... In other words, he's trying to save the future by a few key moves in the present.
So, he's really a forward thinker. He's looking to protect the status quo, where the white middle-aged guy in the CIA is in charge. The government [where] the G-man behind the wheel is at the control. So, that's how he's been trained and brought up, and that's how his culture has trained him. He's a man of morals, they're just not the same as somebody who has good morals.