The Big Picture

The cast believes that fans will have a strong reaction to the finale of the show, wanting more and eagerly anticipating the next episode. Episodes 9 and 10 are regarded as standout episodes by both the cast and producers of the show. The cast hopes for more exploration and initiative in their characters’ storylines if there is a Season 2, wanting to go beyond searching and finding answers.

In a recent conversation with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, some of the stars of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters sat down to share their experience on the set of the streamer’s colossal new sci-fi series. Anna Sawai, Ren Watabe, and Kiersey Clemons give insight into how the show developed throughout production and what to expect going forward with a potential Season 2.

This trio takes command of Monarch’s current-day narrative when Sawai’s Cate Randa, a survivor of Godzilla’s San Francisco attack, travels to Tokyo to settle her late father’s affairs. Here she discovers her father, Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), was leading a double life and meets her half-brother Kentaro, played by newcomer Watabe, who co-star Kurt Russell recently told Weintraub has “a great future.” Determined to uncover the truth about their father and his involvement with the mysterious Monarch program, they enlist the help of Kentaro’s ex-girlfriend, May (Clemons), who’s tech expertise helps lead them to Kurt and Wyatt Russell’s Lee Shaw.

Check out the full interview below to find out which of the Season 1 episodes are the cast’s favorites, what it’s like talking shop with Kurt Russell, and how the stars are feeling about this Godzilla revival. They also discuss filming on location from Canada to Tokyo, discovering their characters’ storylines while filming, the challenges of pencil shavings and cacti, and their hopes for Season 2. Sawai also shares an update for her other series with FX, Shōgun.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Set after the battle between Godzilla and the Titans, revealing that monsters are real, follows one family’s journey to uncover its buried secrets and a legacy linking them to Monarch. Release Date November 17, 2023 Cast Christopher Heyerdahl , Mari Yamamoto , Kurt Russell , Qyoko Kudo Main Genre Sci-Fi Seasons 1

COLLIDER: First of all, I want to say that I’ve seen the first seven-and-a-half episodes. I’m a big fan of the show. They sent me the finale like two days ago but I’m at CCXP and it kills me because I want to talk to you about the finale, but I couldn’t watch. For fans, when they see it, what do you think their reaction will be when the finale ends?

KIERSEY CLEMONS: “Oh my god.”

ANNA SAWAI: I think they’re gonna be like, “Where’s the next episode?!”

CLEMONS: That’s a good answer.

REN WATABE: It’s a pretty crazy ending.

SAWAI: It’s like, “You can’t show me more?”

Two of the producers said that their favorite episodes were 9 and 10.

SAWAI: I agree. My favorites are 9 and 10.

Of the first of the first season, what’s your ranking of episodes? If you have three or four episodes that were your favorites, which ones are they?

CLEMONS: I liked the one that just came out.

WATABE: Really?

CLEMONS: Yes. I love how you’re hallucinating. The surrealism…I’m just a fan of that shit, though, and your performance was great

WATABE: No, shut up.

CLEMONS: Whatever. I knew that as soon as I was saying it, but it is one of my favorite episodes. And 10. And we had fun filming the San Francisco one.

SAWAI: Yeah, but Tokyo was also fun.

CLEMONS: Tokyo was fun.

SAWAI: But episode-wise, there’s no three or four because [Episodes] 9 and 10 stand out so much. 10 is just so good for me, in my opinion.

Are you trying to say that maybe they spent some money on VFX in that episode?

SAWAI: Probably.

CLEMONS: A little bit.

WATABE: But there’s also the human stuff.

SAWAI: It all makes sense in the end.

Sure. By the way, I love the visual effects and the action, but if you don’t care about the people on screen, the VFX mean nothing.

CLEMONS: It’s just not gonna happen.

So obviously you’re all fans of Kurt Russell like me. How long after meeting him or being on set, whenever it was, was it that you felt comfortable enough to start geeking out about Big Trouble in Little China or Escape from New York or any of his previous awesome roles?

CLEMONS: No, no, no, we didn’t at first. It’s when he tells a story, and he just will be like, “And then Quentin…” and he’ll just keep talking and you’re like, “Quentin Tarantino? You’re at his house and what happened?” He’ll say stuff like that. That’s when I kind of – we don’t geek out, but you have a reaction because who the fuck knows Quentin Tarantino? [Laughs]

We did a Monarch event in LA and I got to hang out with him and Wyatt for like 20 minutes and just pepper him with questions, and it was amazing. I’m a huge fan and it’s Kurt Russell.

CLEMONS: I feel like if you’re a Kurt Russell fan and you got to sit down with him for 20 minutes, you would be very satisfied. He is very sweet and funny and has great stories.

SAWAI: He loves sharing.

This Is Just the Beginning for Godzilla’s Golden Age
Image via Apple TV+

I’m a big fan of Godzilla and this is a great time to be a fan of Godzilla. You have Godzilla Minus One, which is an incredible movie. It doesn’t make sense how good it is. It’s one of the best films of the year. I don’t understand how good it is. You have your show, which is fantastic, and then you have the Godzilla X Kong movie coming out next year. Do you think that this is too much Godzilla or do you think that each thing is its own thing?

CLEMONS: Is it too much Taylor Swift? The answer is yes. Is there too much Beyonce? No. That had nothing to do with anything. Godzilla is having a moment, and I think that it makes everything more exciting versus just having… I don’t know, I feel like it’s less, “Oh, I love Monarch or I love that more,” or whatever it may be. I feel like it’s more exciting.

SAWAI: I feel like it is a little bit of a separate thing, like the Japanese version and our version is quite different, I think.

WATABE: Totally.

SAWAI: But I think it’s kind of like the beginning right now. It’s gonna start growing even more. Don’t you think?

[To Watabe] You have not done a lot of acting prior to this, at least on TV or movies as far as I’m aware.

WATABE: I did a Japanese movie with, like, two lines.

That’s my point, so what is it like actually booking a role like this because it’s a really big deal?

WATABE: Honestly, just everything happened so quick, so I honestly didn’t know what i was doing, but now to see everything come together, I feel more gratitude. Yeah, just really, really grateful and lucky. I don’t know what else to say.

What to Expect in ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2
Image via Apple TV+

Obviously Apple is hoping, and I’m hoping, that you’re going to get more than one season. I see that it’s number one on Apple TV in Brazil. I see it’s doing very well. For the three of you, and I don’t know who survived, I don’t know anything about the finale, but what do you hope will be in the future if you get to make a Season 2? What do you hope for your characters and for the show?

WATABE: Hopefully something that hasn’t been explored yet. I don’t know too much about the original material, but I think there’s a lot more that hasn’t been explored yet. I don’t want to say too much, but I think jumping into new terrain is always exciting.

CLEMONS: I do really agree with the last thing he said.

SAWAI: I feel like in the first season we were kind of searching for answers a lot of the time, kind of lost. We’re not really doing too much but finding, going to search for things, so I kind of want us to start something. That would be exciting.

CLEMONS: Right. Like, we’re not searching.

SAWAI: We want to do something. It’s hard to explain, but have a little bit more initiative in what we want to do.

WATABE: You’re the audience, right, and you’re familiar with the stuff. What is it that you want to see?

I’ll tell you, the problem is I have not seen the finale. I know it’s gonna be a big finale with effects and monsters and all that, so I don’t know how it’s gonna end. Obviously there’s different time periods in this. Anyway, the point is I just want to see more. I don’t know how much is set up in the world, and then the other thing is you have movies that take place after Godzilla, so you can only go so far.

CLEMONS: But it’s kind of like what Ren was saying, that it really does end up in a place where we could go anywhere. The show could kind of do anything which is so exciting for an actor. I kept bringing up potential, and I feel like that’s what I was thinking of when you were saying we’re not searching. I’ve been saying that I feel like everyone in the show is trying to find a purpose and fulfill their potential in some way, so I would love to see us actually find our purpose and see the conflict and tackle the conflict in that. I want everyone to change a lot. I always want that, though.

SAWAI: Me too!

Related ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Producer Discusses the Possibility of Season 2 “Well, it wasn’t designed as a limited series.”

So during the shoot, I would imagine you had some tough days. What day or days did you have circled in terms of, “I cannot wait to film this,” or, “Oh my god, I can’t believe we have to film this?”

SAWAI: This came afterwards. I didn’t know that it was gonna be that tough to shoot in a desert. There were so much cacti, and we had to go on the ground and roll in it, and they’re trying to take the cacti away, but it’s there. You dig and there’s so much more, and so that was so tough.

CLEMONS: Oh, it was miserable.

WATABE: I had to go in a pool of pencil shavings once. That didn’t make it.

CLEMONS: I forgot about that!

WATABE: I don’t wanna disrespect the set guys who made it, but there was so much dust from the pencil shavings I got fucked up. I got vertigo. I got all this shit. That was the toughest.

The thing that I think a lot of people at home don’t realize is making a movie is tough, but making a TV show is tougher.

CLEMONS: Oh my god, absolutely.

People don’t understand the hours it takes. You’re trying to do an eight-day shoot or whatever it is, trying to get all this material done in no time.

CLEMONS: I feel like you have to love it to do it and continue to do it because, really, there’s no other way. Not to be a big baby, but I feel like we’re kind of looked down on in terms of, “Maybe they’re not really working,” and meanwhile [laughs] we’re picking cactus out of our skin and crying and all have sinus infections, and he’s gonna pass out and has vertigo, and that’s with everyone trying their best.

I will say, though, there’s a difference between television and doing a sitcom or something like NCIS where you’re standing in rooms versus a big budget sci-fi show for Apple TV, where you’re around the planet shooting in remote locations.

CLEMONS: Yeah, I don’t know if I expected it to take such a toll on me physically. I don’t think I realized that. But the places that we got to go, even with those elements, I mean, I would have never ended up going to Harrison Lake. Had the best time. Never would have gone there.

Filming on Location for ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’
Image via Apple TV+

I am curious, because you guys got to film at different locations, if you could go back to one of the locations you filmed but not to film, just to have fun, which is the place you would go to?

CLEMONS: I’m gonna go to Tokyo and hang out with them.

SAWAI: Aww! I mean, we didn’t take a lot of time.

CLEMONS: No, not at all.

SAWAI: I would go to Harrison Lake just because I loved how we had time to bond at the beach after going on the glacier and going home in a helicopter. It was so much.

WATABE: That was the Airbnb in Kamloops.

CLEMONS: You loved it! We shared a little Airbnb. They put us in a hotel, but we were like, “No, we’re going to stay together.” The three of us.

WATABE: I cooked burgers.

SAWAI: You did! It was so good.

Who rented the Airbnb between the three of you?

CLEMONS: I don’t remember. I must have put it on my account or something.

That’s hysterical. First, it’s great, but second of all, I know that not every group of actors gets along like this. Clearly, you guys became friends.

CLEMONS: I forced myself on them, though. I don’t think we would have gotten close if I hadn’t.

SAWAI: Really?

CLEMONS: I feel like I was like, “I’m coming in hot.”

SAWAI: But I would have eased in.

‘Monarch’ Found the Story Throughout Filming

So you sign on, obviously you’re signing on because it’s a cool show, but how much did they tell you about the arc of the season, the arc of your characters? And how much was it, “I just trust Matt and Chris and the people making this because they’re really good people?”

SAWAI: Well, I knew what happened to Cate and how the story was going to start, but when I asked about the ending, they were like, “We want to get to know the actors before we write the ending. We kind of have an idea that throughout the whole show, not just Season 1, she might end up doing this.” That’s all I knew, but we don’t see that in Season 1, and I definitely didn’t know where she was going in the last few episodes, so it was kind of hard. But also, when you’re living life, you don’t know where you’re going anyway. So, yeah, it works.

CLEMONS: I think mine was the opposite. I knew my character arc and I feel like we had a pretty good idea of what was happening in the show even though it is a series. You don’t know how it’s gonna end and what not, but they gave me just enough that they were still trying to figure out even for me to at least tap into to be able to do my job. I didn’t feel like I was abandoned. And we were constantly, I feel like, talking about it and annoying Matt Fraction, and it was great.

WATABE: Similar to Anna, I didn’t know where exactly my character was heading. I think I was doing everything day by day because everything was new to me and I was actually struggling a lot with myself, and so I was doing everything just day by day. I wasn’t really thinking about where my character was going or anything.

SAWAI: Living in the moment.

WATABE: I was just living in the moment. Reacting.

It’s interesting because sometimes I speak to actors who want to know the entire arc so they can play it a certain way, but then other people are like, “It’s a TV show. My character doesn’t know beyond where I’m standing right now so I actually don’t want to know more information because I’m not gonna play that because I don’t know it.”

SAWAI: For me, I came off a different show and then went straight into this the day after I wrapped the other one. I knew everything about how the character was gonna end and everything, so it was new, so I had to kind of adjust myself. Now that this has happened, and I see how it can help play the character, I don’t mind it as much, but in the beginning I was like, “Oh, I wish I did know because that would definitely change the way she’s acting here.”

CLEMONS: It also helps when you become Cate, once you’ve done a few episodes, and you’re like, “Okay, I think I don’t need to know more, to be honest. I got it.”

SAWAI: Yeah. Do you have a preference of knowing or not knowing how it’s gonna end?

CLEMONS: I don’t think I have a preference. I think at that point I would just trust the director and if they want me to do it that way, then alright, let’s give it a go. I don’t know if you’re gonna get what you wanted, but I guess it also depends on the project. I think I would have liked to know more, without specifics, something with me, but they were also figuring it out, so what are you gonna do about that? There’s nothing you can do.

Well, it’s very rare, also, for all 10 scripts to be done by the time you’re filming. Game of Thrones does it. They have those scripts done, but some shows have all their scripts done and you can read them all…

CLEMONS: Yeah, it’s a script but, I mean, there’s still work to do.

Also, things change all the time.

CLEMONS: Oh my god, all the time. All the time.

FX’s ‘Shōgun’ Series Looks “Cinematic”
Image via FX

You booked Shōgun, which is a huge FX series which I can’t wait to see, and you also booked Monarch. What’s it like to book two huge gigs back to back, and what can you tease about Shōgun?

SAWAI: Oh. Shōgun was really tough. It went on for 10 months, and we were in Vancouver. We were in Vancouver shooting Monarch, too, but we were out on location in the rain wearing kimonos and everything, so it was really tough. So, when I finished that, I was like, “I wanna do something fun,” and then they were like, “What about monsters?” And I’m like, “Yes.” So for me, it’s big and it’s great and blah, blah, blah, but it was just being able to do totally different things back to back. That was a lot of fun for me, and I actually had fun on this. Shōgun wasn’t fun, it was very tough, but I’m so proud of everything that we did. But this was like, I got to enjoy being on set and laughing with them. The whole experience was great. I don’t know how big it is, really, because I haven’t really talked to the audience.

Are you talking about Monarch or Shōgun?

SAWAI: No, both of them. I haven’t met people who have seen it and heard from their point of view, so I don’t know. I really don’t know how big… I don’t think I actually grasped how. I’m just like, “I don’t know how big it is, but this is the story, I’m just going to do this.”

I know people that worked on Shōgun and everyone told me that it’s going to look incredible, that the sets were incredible, and they’ve also said it was a tough shoot but that it’s going to look amazing when it’s done.

SAWAI: I hope so.

CLEMONS: Oh my god, it looks so good. It looks cinematic. It doesn’t look like Monarch because they’re two entirely different shows, but it looks like a movie.

SAWAI: Yeah, I want to see it on the big screen.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is available to stream on Apple TV+.

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