Leland Orser Previews ‘Berlin Station’ Season 3 [Exclusive Interview]

The modern-day spy thriller Berlin Station is returning for its third season, with yet another timely arc that will leave you on the edge of your seat. 

I recently spoke with star Leland Orser, who plays Deputy Director Robert Kirsch, about his experiences working on the show and what we can expect from the third season.

If one thing is clear from our conversation, we have a lot to look forward to from Berlin Station Season 3.

Orser has a lot of love for Berlin Station and what he’s learned from working on the series.

“It’s a great show. It’s an exciting show, and it deals with themes that are topical right now. I love that. I’ve loved learning about the intelligence world in order to give a better performance. I loved working with Olen Steinhauer, who was the novelist who originally penned the pilot script for Season 1. [And] Bradford Winters, who went on to lead the writing team for Season 2, and now we have this terrific Jason Horwitch, who came to us from House of Cards. He was a creator of a show called Rubicon. He’s taken what those two guys laid down for the first two seasons and really made it his own and invested it with so many wonderful new ideas, and stories, and energy,” Orser said.

“The excitement and the energy of what we’ve got in these ten episodes is equal to the way we felt in the first season.”

The first two seasons of Berlin Station turned out to be very timely with real-world events, and the upcoming season will be no different.

“They wrote last season a year before it aired, and the German elections actually turned out exactly the way they turned out on the show,” Orser noted. “Strangely enough, the headlines that we’re reading today, yesterday, the day before are eerily familiar to the story that we’re going to be telling over the next ten episodes starting on Sunday.”

“You know, the CIA director is in the news this morning. The naval clash between Russia and the Ukraine was in the news two days ago. Marshal law being imposed in the Ukraine — these are scenes and events that we filmed half a year ago. Let’s hope that the story turns out better in real life than it does on the show,” he continued.

“There’s a line in the trailer: ‘big wars start in small places.’ The deal that the NATO countries all have with each other under Article 5 to come to each other’s defense is also a big factor and theme of this show this season. That line in and of itself, ‘big wars start in small places,’ it can be metaphorical for everything that’s happening today in politics.”

The Season 3 premiere of Berlin Station is powerful, and Orser noted some of the reasons he thinks it’s such a strong episode and also explained how it will set up the full season.

“It really catches you. It really sucks you in. [There are] so many reasons for that — the writing, the characters. The season takes place over eleven days. We pick up four, five, six months after the end of last season. The camera is definitely a character this season. It’s much more visual, much more a part of the action. Much more up in the character’s business. You’re going to feel that from the get-go,” Orser stated.

He also said the audience should “buckle up” and brace themselves as they get ready for the new season.

“The lovely sequence that we have at the fourth of July party on the terrace at the beginning of the first episode is really the calm before the storm. You can feel it. You can feel the tension. There’s a new composer this year. The music is a part of it. The editing is a part of it. The pace is faster. All of those factors will play into, I think, drawing people in immediately. You want to know what the hell’s going to happen next.”

“That nice little toast we make to America on the balcony in the first scene is kind of the quietest and nicest and lightest that the show will be. That begins a descent into a high-octane, high-energy, dark shit.”

For the character of Robert specifically, a quick mission to Tallinn, Estonia is the beginning of much more. 

“He doesn’t really ever come out of the field for the rest of the season. Robert is in the thick of it — in the middle of it and as things turn south, go bad, he’s right at the tip of the spear as it’s happening. He makes some decisions and some choices this season that don’t turn out the way that he wanted them to. He has to live with the repercussions of those decisions,” Orser hinted.

“It’s a really, really tough eleven days for him. It’s a tough season for him. I think he comes to second guess himself, to doubt his own mental fitness. It’s a very dark place that he goes to this season, which was really challenging and exciting to play.”

Orser discussed what he loves about Robert and what his character has been through, as well as some of his motivations.

“He’s a beautiful guy and he speaks the truth always, which isn’t the greatest quality for being a spy. He wears his heart on his sleeve. He has no filter. He can’t fucking help himself from saying what he’s thinking. I absolutely love that,” Orser enthused.

“My first word of the season is “fuck.” He uses the word “fuck” like other people inhale. He has integrity. He has heart. He really believes in what he does. He really believes that he has been put on the planet in this particular lifetime to make a difference. I find that to be the case with all the people that I’ve met who work for the CIA. They do it because they believe they have to. It’s their duty to. That’s easy to play.”

“Last season was wonderful to find out who he was personally. I think he’s emotionally detached himself from, released himself, given himself permission to be the best spy that he can be. To be the best employee in intelligence business that he can be. The guilt is still there and you can never bury things all the way. Those emotions surface throughout the season,” he continued.

Orser discussed his character’s interactions with his son, Noah, from Season 2 and what those interactions revealed about Robert as well.

“I think as the season starts out, he’s not at peace, but he’s come to terms with his station in life. And that is that he’s a better spy than he is anything else. He’s not a great parent, although he comes to an understanding and a place of bonding with his son at the end of last season, where he confides in his son what it is that he does and explains to him why he has been the way he has been as a parent. I think that’s actually a beautiful gift that he gives to his son. He shows him what he does and why he does it. I think, ultimately, that for a young man it is a great example that he sets. Even though he’s a shitty father, he shows him that he has a calling and that he’s answered that calling and that he will give everything including his personal life, his family life to answer that calling.”

Playing the role of a father is something Orser said he could relate to on a personal level, and those scenes with his son on the show made quite an impact.

“It was beautiful. I have a teenage son myself, and all of us give up a lot by going over and shooting this show in Europe. My son is in school. I have to leave him and my wife for big stretches of time. I could relate to what they were writing,” he admitted. “I could relate to being absent. I could relate to the feelings of regret and guilt and missing out and living on Skype. Those emotions were very easy for me to tap into. I have a beautiful 16-year-old son who is thriving here at home. He has to live for big chunks of time with me being away. That’s one of the challenges of the job.”

In addition to Berlin Station, we can look forward to seeing Orser in the upcoming TNT mini-series, I am the Night.

“That’s a mini-series on TNT that Patty Jenkins directed, who directed Wonder Woman, and Sam Sheridan wrote. And numerous other talented writers and directors are involved. Chris Pine is in it. It’s a great noir, detective, journalist story not like anything you’ve ever seen on TV before,” he explained. “That comes out at the end of January.”

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Berlin Station returns for Season 3 this Sunday, December 2nd at 9/8c on EPIX. Here’s a look at the trailer as well as a sneak peek clip:

You can also sign up for a free trial of EPIX and watch the entire first episode of Berlin Station, Season 3 before it airs! Learn more here: https://www.epix.com/freetrial/epix-rolling-q4-2018

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