Nina Bloomgarden and Gabriela Cartol Preview a Mysterious, Genre-Bending Stay at ‘The Resort’ [Interview]

The Resort is the latest streaming show to appeal to true crime fans, but its string of mysterious disappearances is far from your typical cold case.

The genre-bending Peacock series also showcases notes of comedy, drama, and action. That bloated concept is a daunting task this cast was eager to tackle under the guise of the show’s tropical oasis.

At San Diego Comic-Con, I had the opportunity to speak with Nina Bloomgarden, who plays missing teen Violet, and Gabriela Cartol, who plays mysterious hotel worker Luna, about the cast’s friendship and working with so many genres.

The Resort operates in two different periods, 2007 and the present day. While this means some characters go the entire season without interacting, Bloomgarden and Cartol revealed they didn’t let that stop them from bonding off-screen.

“Skyler [Gisondo] and I were in scenes 99% of the time together. So the fact that we got this close with our cast, having not really been on set with them a lot, I think really says something special about this group of people,” Bloomgarden explained.

“I went home to New York briefly, and I was going through my old journals, and I was reading fifteen-year-old Nina having a hard time at school, having a hard time socially. And I had written, ‘I just want to be on a TV show with a TV family. That’s all I want.’ And I was reading it like ‘I have that’ — It was very surreal.”

Watch the full interview with Nina Bloomgarden and Gabriela Cartol:

Those looking to immerse themselves in The Resort‘s polarizing world may embrace that genuine comradery. After all, it was a love for a famous TV family that compelled Cartol to share a similar connection with her cast members one day.

“We became a family. I always wanted an acting family, and I couldn’t believe I was getting one,” the actress reminisced.

“Watching Friends and then ten years later seeing what they’ve done as a cast and as a family, I remember wishing I had that because I acted solo. I come from the independent film world and it was always on my own — so this is my Friends cast.”

The Resort is not set on being one thing, bulldozing through comedic banter, sweeping drama, and bone-chilling mysteries in its first episode. But, for the cast, that genre-whiplash was like nothing they had seen before on screen.

“It is so unique. I’ve never seen or read anything like that. I couldn’t even picture it completely in my head, how we were going to do this crazy thing given how it was written,” Cartol said. “It was wild, but I had to trust it because of the people behind it.”

After all, showrunner Andy Siara won many over with his screenplay for Palm Springs, a bubbly vacation film that witnessed elements of comedy, romance, and sci-fi clash seamlessly. The Resort could be a victory lap for his polarizing storytelling.

“It is wild to be able to see it now. But, reading the script, I laughed out loud so many times. And I would cry randomly because there would be sentences where the emotion would just hit me. I think it’s rare to have that within so many genres,” Bloomgarden added.

A project of this ambition needs a strong ensemble, and thankfully The Resort also has a stellar cast of comedic actors from William Jackson Harper to Cristin Milioti to Nick Offerman.

It’s a roster Cartol was “really excited” to meet after months of secrecy. “The casting process was such a solo, mysterious process. So it felt like they were only auditioning me. When I finally got to know who the rest of the cast was, I thought, ‘This is so good!'”

That secrecy extends to the plot, with the show taking a page from Executive Producer Sam Esmail’s plot twist handbook. “Whatever people are thinking when they see the trailer, it’s the exact opposite. You’re going to be surprised at every turn,” Bloomgarden ensured.

As for drawing comparisons, “It’s The Twilight Zone meets Jurassic Park. A very Charlie Kaufman vibe,” Bloomgarden described. Cartol agreed before adding, “Titanic with a Twin Peaks tone.”

Yes, The Resort is shaping up to be an exciting show indeed.

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The first three episodes of The Resort are streaming now on Peacock.

And check out all of our coverage of San Diego Comic-Con right here.

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