Coroner “Quick or Dead” Preview + Morwyn Brebner and Adrienne Mitchell Talk Casting

Monday night on Coroner, in the finale of a two-part arc, Jenny is pushed to the breaking point over the course of a very long day. [Updated 8/4/20: Beginning 8/5/20, Coroner will air Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on The CW in the U.S.]

[Warning: General spoilers ahead.]

She’s desperate to find Amanda (Kiana Madeira) while Dylan and Storm escalate their violence into a full-blown spree. At home, Ross’s curiosity gets the better of him and Liam proves his mettle.

It’s a nailbiter episode that finds Jenny, Mac, and the detectives one step behind the boys, and catches up with Amanda, who does what she can to surreptitiously ask for help. Fan favorite Nigel Bennett is also introduced as senior pathologist Bryan Da Silva. Adrienne Mitchell directs a script by Wendy MOTION Brathwaite and Morwyn Brebner.

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In the final part of our interview with series creators and executive producers Mitchell and Brebner, they chat about casting Serinda Swan, Roger Cross, and Nicholas Campbell.

“I knew Serinda through our awesome casting director Lisa Parasyn. We were considering her from Bellevue as Annie and then Anna Paquin came into the picture. We always loved her and [sought] her out to come in and test for this,” shares Mitchell.

“She was a little hesitant initially because she didn’t want to do a regular procedural and we told her [Coroner] wasn’t that. We gave her the bible with the images and the look book and the scripts and she really connected to it.”

“We did the test option and there was something there — a hunger, a fierceness, and incredible intelligence. She does physical humor very well. You can see her vulnerability in a way that you lean into it. You don’t feel like she’s going to slit her wrists, which we loved because we didn’t want that moroseness to the character.”

Coroner

“And you want to know what the hell she is going to do next. There’s something about how she thinks that draws you in and she lights the screen up.”

“[We loved] Serinda’s sparkling intelligence,” explains Brebner. “We saw a lot of amazing actors [for Mac]. When you watch Roger, you knew he was the man. We felt he was right.”

“They were great foils for each other,” adds Mitchell. “As people, they have such different energy and they bring that to their characters. He’s so grounded and has this natural warmth and watchful intelligence.”

“He’s an amazing actor. They’re wonderful to watch together. We filled out around them,” says Brebner. “It was a really interesting casting process. In every part, we have an incredibly special actor who could really be the lead of their own show, which is really lucky.”

Coroner

Both women are grateful to have Da Vinci’s Inquest namesake Campbell on board to play Jenny’s Dad, Gordon.

“Serinda and Nick met in the really early days and seeing the two of them talk to each other … we thought, ‘Oh my God, the father/daughter dynamic is going to just explode,’” recalls Mitchell. “They had such a great dynamic with each other. It really shows in the series. We feel very honored to have him on the show.”

“He’s a brilliant actor,” adds Brebner. “It’s really incredible to have him. We feel very, very lucky to have him.”

Coroner airs Monday night at 9 pm ET/9:30 NT on CBC and streams online on CBC Gem. [Updated 8/4/20: Beginning 8/5/20, Coroner will air Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on The CW in the U.S.]

Here’s a sneak peek.

 

 

Photos and Video Courtesy of CBC

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