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‘The Ark’ stars open up about how they formed a ‘Fellowship of the Ring’ while filming SYFY series
SYFY WIRE talked with The Ark stars Christie Burke, Reece Ritchie, and Richard Fleeshman about filming the sci-fi space thriller.
The Ark, the new SYFY show from Dean Devlin and Stargate SG-1 creator Jonathan Glassner, centers around a group of survivors trying to stay alive on a damaged spaceship still a year out from its planetary destination. Those left alive are in close quarters with each other (it’s hard to find a place to be alone, after all, even on a relatively large ship), and while there’s more than a little bit of tension between them, some of them also form tight bonds with each other.
It turns out that the actors playing those survivors, especially the three highest ranking crew members played by Christie Burke (“Lt. Sharon Garnet”), Richard Fleeshman (“Lt. James Brice”) and Reece Ritchie (“Lt. Spencer Lane”), formed some tight bonds of their own when they shot the first season in Eastern Europe. SYFY WIRE had the chance to talk with Burke, Fleeshman, and Ritchie before the first season premiere, where they shared how they became so close so quickly.
“The three of us very early on formed a really tight unit,” Fleeshman told SYFY WIRE. “In fact, we had a bit of a meeting in my apartment the first week when we were all kind of strangers in the middle of Eastern Europe. And we were like, ‘We've got four months, we've got to lead this thing, and we were only going to do it if we were fully united and together.’ And we kind of formed a Fellowship of the Ring.”
That Fellowship continued throughout the course of the shoot, with the three pulling the rest of the cast together to do live run-throughs of episodes every time a script was released. “We knew for this project everybody had to be on their lines, explained Ritchie, referencing the production’s fast filming pace. “I remember when we met we were saying this is such a rapid feat.”
“And I think because of that, because we formed such a tight unit and we became like family, — the whole cast did, but the three of us definitely felt like we were these pillars that needed to do it,” added Fleeshman. “And within that, of course … we also spent our free time together and stuff, so those four months could be four years — it just feels like that, and we have such a great connection.”
You can see the three actors’ great connection when The Ark airs new episodes every Wednesday night at 10 pm ET on SYFY. Episodes stream next-day on Peacock.
