PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Aftershock is a new scripted thriller podcast from iHeartRadio. Aftershock stars and was created, directed, and produced by Sarah Wayne Callies. David Harbour and Jeffrey Dean Morgan both star and serve as Executive Producers. The rest of the cast includes Tati Gabrielle, Janel Parrish, Russell Hornsby, Rockmond Dunbar, Tovah Feldshuh, Bethany Joy Lenz, Michael O’Neill, Austin Amelio, and EJ Bonilla. I was lucky enough to chat with prolific actor, Michael O’Neill, about his amazing career, how acting and filmmaking have changed over the years, details about his character on Aftershock, and much more! https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-aftershock-83996090/
PopHorror – Hi Michael. It’s an honor to chat with you. How is 2021 treating you so far?
Michael O’Neill – Tori, the pleasure is mine. 2021 is looking so much more promising. I’m fully vaccinated so moving through the world is a great deal less stressful. Work is beginning to return with the precautions you’d expect and hope for.
PopHorror – Same here. You’ve had quite an amazing career. What inspired you to become an actor?
Michael O’Neill – I’ve been very fortunate in this life. Any actor worth their salt will tell you “good luck” is a key ingredient in any long career. Mine started early, I had no experience as an actor. None. I’d never done a play in high school or college when I landed in California and found Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon and Ellen Geer to teach me. But I think I may have been inspired by resentment. People kept telling me, “try it…you won’t make it.” I heard that a lot. And, I kept thinking, “You don’t know me well enough to tell me whether I can make it or not”.
PopHorror – Turns out you would become a fantastic actor! How has acting or the filmmaking business changed since you first started to now?
Michael O’Neill – Our business has changed almost unfathomably since I started. For one. Hollywood doesn’t own Hollywood anymore. It’s owned by international conglomerates. I can remember a day when you could just walk onto the studio lots and peddle your resume to someone’s secretary and hope for the best. We needed someone else’s permission to work in film or television. Now young actors don’t have to ask, they can make their own films. And they have a distribution platform via the internet.
PopHorror – This is very true! Out of all the projects you’ve done, what has been your favorite?
Michael O’Neill – My favorite project…that’s a tough question. I’ve worked with some of the best writers and directors in the business. Unbelievable storytellers. Aaron Sorkin, Shonda Rimes, David Kelly, Stephen King, Joan Rater, Tony Phelan, Gary Ross, Clint Eastwood, Paul Greengrass, Ray McKinnon, Michael Bay. Jean-Marc Vallee, just to name a few. But if I’m cornered in television it’s the character of Larry in “Council of Dads” (I’d waited 25 years for that role), and in film, it’s Pollard in “Seabiscuit”( the closest to me I’ve ever played).
PopHorror – Both fantastic roles! You’re now involved with a new scripted thriller podcast called Aftershock. Is this your first time doing a podcast?
Michael O’Neill – I had done a podcast with Hrishikesh Hirway and Joshua Malina called “The West Wing Weekly” but it was a discussion of the WW episodes. This is the first dramatic podcast I’ve ever done, and I have to give all the credit to Sarah Wayne Callies for the writing and directing. I listened to a lot of radio as a kid, and I remember the dramas. You were suspended in another world parallel to the world you lived in. That’s what she did with this podcast, she created a parallel and prescient world. An earthquake, a VIRUS-long before the pandemic with living with now. I love radio. I get chills every time I listen to “After Shock”.
PopHorror – That’s exciting and makes me really want to check it out. Aftershock has some amazing talent behind it including yourself. How did you get involved with it?
Michael O’Neill – Sarah Wayne Callies was the lead in “Council fo Dads”, so we worked together for the first time. That collaboration led to her invitation to do “Aftershock” I hope it’s the beginning of about 100 more projects.
PopHorror – I hope so too! Can you tell the readers what the podcast is about?
Michael O’Neill – I don’t want to give too much away on the podcast’s storyline, but a horrific earthquake decimates the California/Oregon coast and Los Angeles along with it. We’re immediately dealing with a survival story for those left in the rubble. In the quake’s aftermath, an Island rises up out of the Pacific that offers some refuge to those who can reach it. What lies in wait on that island is far from a refuge. It’s a nightmare.
PopHorror – That’s terrifying! Can you tell us anything about your character?
Michael O’Neill – My character, John Tibbs, is a rancher from Oregon, who’s been anticipating just such an event. He’s prepared for it since he lost his wife and has accumulated what he needs for him and his son to survive the apocalypse. All he needs is a peaceful place to set up his new world in. He’s motivated by his son’s involvement in a Right-Wing extremist group to start fresh in a new community.
PopHorror – Sounds fun. How does a podcast like this work? Are you altogether when you do the podcast or is it something you can do at your house?
Michael O’Neill – Tori, I wish we could have all been together to make this podcast. It’s just so much fun when your other actors are there with you. And so much information passes in the air between you. But the pandemic had other ideas. Our producers did a great job of getting us in studios in various parts of the country and letting us have at it. Just the sound of Tati Gabrielle’s voice gave me everything I needed to work with.
PopHorror – I figured as much. Has this been a pretty fun project thus far?
Michael O’Neill – Yes, it has been a lot of fun both making and listening. My wife has been driving down the Eastern Seaboard, and our companion has been “AfterShock”.
PopHorror – That’s good to hear! Any other upcoming projects?
Michael O’Neill – I’m starting a new project this week for Netflix.
PopHorror – Thanks again for chatting with me, Michael. I look forward to everything that you do and I’m definitely going to check out Aftershock soon! For all those reading this interview, you can check out Aftershock by going – HERE!
