Patrick Somerville is the creator of Station Eleven, an HBO show based on Emily St. John Mandel's novel of the same name. Somerville also served as an executive producer on the series and is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for "Unbroken Circle," Station Eleven's series finale. The show takes place over two timelines, one in the present day as an unnamed pandemic wipes out most of the world's population, and another several years later as the Traveling Symphony travels around and puts on shows for survivors of the pandemic.
At the center of it all are Kirsten (played as a young girl by Matilda Lawler and as an adult by Mackenzie Davis) and Jeevan (portrayed by Himesh Patel), two people connected by time. Station Eleven tracks their journey together and then apart as they traverse the landscape of a new world and work towards something resembling hope. In addition to being nominated for writing, Patel also received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor, while Hiro Murai earned a nod for directing the episode "Wheel of Fire."
Screen Rant sat down with Somerville to discuss all things Station Eleven, including how he found out he was nominated, the episode he's most proud of beyond the one he's nominated for, and more.
Screen Rant: First of all, congratulations on the Emmy nomination. It's very well deserved for you and the whole team. What was your reaction when you found out? How did you find out?
Patrick Somerville: I was dropping my daughter off at camp. I was stuck in the middle line of cars and I heard about Himesh first. That was the one that just made me so happy for him, so excited. I didn't have super high expectations, but I knew what morning it was. And we got a bunch of recognition from the Television Academy, so I'm just really proud of our crew and everyone who didn't get nominations. Everybody gave a lot of heart to this show.
It's rare that an adaptation feels just as strong as the source material while altering it. I was a fan of the book prior to the show and I know a lot of people who have read the book, and everybody that I've talked to has loved it. How does it feel to just have that glowing reception from fans?
Patrick Somerville: I was a huge fan of the book also, and am still, and I think we just knew we needed to do some rather large things to make the TV version work. But Emily [St. John Mandel, author] was in full support and gave her blessing. I just believe in, if you're going to adapt, do what you need to do, and in terms of how it felt to see the show in the world, we started in a time when there was no pandemic, and, and delivered a show to a different world than we started making it in. And I think it very easily could have just gone away. Because people... it was just too much to deal with.
But I think there were just enough people, and we were just deep enough into our own experience that there was enough audience willing to be like, "Okay, let's do it. Let's do the deep dive into the pandemic show." And I think that we were okay, ultimately, because the show isn't really about the downward spiral of despair, but it's about rebuilding and healing. And I think that's what we need anyway after a couple of years of this.
One of the most genius and obvious changes is the relationship between Jeevan and Kirsten. In that first episode with Matilda and Himesh, both of those performances were brilliant. What inspired that change? And what made you want to have Jeevan be that through line there?
Patrick Somerville: Well, Jeevan's just a very interesting character in the book right away. And my experience with the book was sort of like, "Hey, where'd that guy go?" because I bonded with him really early in that whole story. And even Emily, in the novel, went back to him a little bit. So, we knew we wanted to make Jeevan's character and role bigger.
In terms of his relationship with Kirsten, it was just a pitch from one of our writers in the writer's room. It was Nick Cuse, and at the end of one day he was like, "What if Kirsten ends up in that apartment?" And that's all it took to start imagining the spine of the story that spans 20 years, in terms of like these two people who've lost each other, and both kind of don't know why, or how. So, we got a mystery out of it, as well as a lot of emotion.
What was Emily's initial response to these changes, and what was your collaborative relationship with her like?
Patrick Somerville: Well, she was not a part of the writer's room, but she was sort of cheering us on and supportive. And every time I showed her what we were cooking up, she just [said] go for it, [she was] trusting and just a great collaborator in that way. She was busy writing Sea of Tranquility and doing her own thing. She was a great partner, and hopefully, we'll get to work with her more going forward.
I did see reports that you were potentially adapting Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility.
Patrick Somerville: We'll see if there's the right time, but Glass Hotel is really exciting. Especially imagining Miranda [Danielle Deadwyler] from Station Eleven playing a bigger role in the TV version than she does in the book.
Danielle Deadwyler is just phenomenal.
Patrick Somerville: She's unbelievable. She really is another actor who made Station Eleven make sense by bringing what she brought and making Miranda real.
You're nominated for the finale, "Unbroken Circle", which is a great episode. Every episode is so good. Was there a standout episode or scene for you that you're particularly proud of other than "Unbroken Circle"?
Patrick Somerville: Oh, man. So many moments. When you're making a show, they become memories of working with your friends, rather than the experience of the show. So I think there's something really special about episode seven [Goodbye My Damaged Home]. I'll go with that.
And in particular, Nabhaan [Rizwan]'s rap of "Excursions", which he did on the day, immaculately, and it was just moving. It was early in our shoot, and we were a long ways from home and everyone was sort of beaten down by the pandemic already. Whatever Frank does for those two in the apartment, Nabhaan did for us standing on set, if that makes sense. So that's just one memory of hundreds that I'll take with me for the rest of my life.
Speaking of, how did you guys come together to make sure that hopefulness in the show came out on set?
Patrick Somerville: Well, I mean, we weren't allowed to in a lot of ways because of protocols. And so what ended up happening I think, is that everything everyone had inside of them poured out into the scenes. We didn't have those little kind of escape hatches and valves to chat and hang out and kind of let off steam. It all kind of poured into the show, for better or for worse. And I think that was incredibly challenging for every actor and every member of the crew, but I think we stuck together in the end and I think you can feel it sort of watching the show, that's everything that we had when the camera was rolling.
That all came through, it was so beautiful. I'm going to rewatch before the Emmys.
Patrick Somerville: What was your favorite scene not in [episode] 10?
The entirety of episode 7, watching Mackenzie's Kirsten as she's watching the younger Kirsten and that unfolding of all those events. I loved the way the show played with time and moved through it. Actually, I loved The Leftovers so much, which you've worked on as well, and it reminded me of that.
Patrick Somerville: I love that show, yeah. What's amazing about Mackenzie's performance in episode 7 is those are her first 10 days working on Station [Eleven]. In those days of episode 7, it was the first thing we shot in Canada. And she wasn't with us yet in Chicago. After a year and a half of build-up, she showed up, and we had episode 7 in our hands two weeks into our shoot, and she knew who Kirsten was.
Station Eleven Synopsis
A post apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines, telling the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what's been lost.
Station Eleven is currently available to stream on HBO Max.