SPOILER ALERT: This piece accommodates spoilers for My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2.
My Life With the Walter Boys Season 2 finds Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez) returning to Silver Falls, Colorado to offer dwelling with the Walters one other shot after the chaos of final season that despatched her again to New York.
Whereas she asks for area from Cole (Noah LaLonde), and Alex (Ashby Gentry) asks for area from her, Jackie throws herself into schoolwork and extracurricular actions, first pitching a fundraiser to save lots of Silver Falls Excessive Faculty’s canceled Fall Formal after which organizing a university honest for juniors with one-on-one interviews for college kids with reps from faculties all around the nation. By the top of the season, it’s clear that Jackie’s discovered her place within the Colorado city.
“That’s what Season 2’s theme is — Jackie eager to embrace and cement her life in Silver Falls. Season 1 was actually about her wanting to place all the pieces behind her and get to Princeton, [to] bounce over this level in her life,” showrunner Melanie Halsall advised Deadline. “And Season 2 is about her eager to settle on this life, and realizing that Silver Falls is an excellent place to be, which is what we’ve already realized, as a result of it’s so stunning and it’s obtained wonderful-looking boys in it.”
Within the beneath interview, Halsall expands on her transition between Seasons 1 and a pair of and tracing the arcs for each Cole and Alex Walter from Season 2’s opening scene to later episodes.
DEADLINE: Having Season 1 beneath your belt, what did you wish to take into Season 2 that you just discovered?
MELANIE HALSALL: Clearly, Season 1 was an unknown entity. The actors had been pretty new, and filming in Calgary was pretty new, and it’s a brand new story. In Season 2, I spotted what nice chemistry these actors had. We had been so fortunate that the actors all developed such nice chemistry and friendships, not simply the principle trio, however the entire forged are such good buddies. They’re an actual household, which is beautiful to see. I feel you’ll be able to see that on display.
With Season 2, we actually needed to develop that additional and actually present how these relationships have developed over time and the way our actors additionally matured from day considered one of filming to the ultimate day of filming, by means of publicity, by means of launch. We actually needed to mirror that as effectively, and I feel that basically affected the tales we advised and the way we advised them in season two.
From a sensible perspective, you perceive which areas work effectively — we now have this wonderful panorama in Calgary, and we needed to make use of extra of that in Season 2 — and you will note extra of that in Season 2, which I’m actually pleased with. I feel Season 2 seems astonishing.
Ashby Gentry as Alex in ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’
David Brown/Netflix
DEADLINE: How did you method Alex’s glow-up and balancing that with maintaining the points of his persona that make him fascinating to Jackie?
HALSALL: We have now a summer time break between Season 1 and Season 2. So he goes off to rodeo faculty, which he’s going to do on the finish of Season 1. He comes again, and he’s actually discovered and developed and grown in that, at that rodeo camp. He’s turn out to be extra assured by means of doing one thing he’s actually good at and that he actually loves doing, and likewise being exterior and being with horses and all that train, that’s a part of the glow up as effectively. So it’s a bodily factor and a psychological factor he’s discovered.
In fact, he comes again eager to recover from what’s occurred in Season 1. He desires to maneuver on from it, so there’s a particular need from him to have toughened himself up somewhat bit. However in fact, that’s married with the truth that he’s nonetheless the candy, pretty Alex everyone knows and love beneath. We’ll see glimpses of that as we go ahead. He feels fairly defensive when he first comes again in. He’s fairly protecting of himself. However because the season progresses, he opens up extra, after which we see extra of that sweetness and that previous Alex, [who] all of us completely love.
I at all times say to Ashby that Alex didn’t want a glow up, however his glow up is a pure development. Younger males typically go away for a summer time and are available again and so they’re six inches taller and all muscly, and so it’s very pure. But it surely wasn’t as a result of I didn’t assume, or we didn’t assume, that he was worthy of Jackie in Season 1. It’s a pure development for him.
DEADLINE: The opening scene the place Cole picks up Alex after he spent the summer time away actually units up the entire season when it comes to the 2 paths of those brothers and Jackie and the choice Jackie has to make between them. Are you able to discuss by means of the way you needed to weave their tales along with their similarities and variations?
HALSALL: We are saying there’s at all times been a rivalry between Alex and Cole that didn’t begin with Jackie’s arrival. It form of [picks up] with Jackie’s arrival, however they’ve been like this without end, and I feel quite a lot of that’s as a result of they’re fairly comparable, and we do see some moments the place they’re very shut. Though they’re near all their brothers, Cole shares a room with Danny, he’s his twin. Alex shares a room with Nathan, who’s his closest in age, and so they’re very shut in these relationships as effectively, however the two of them are similar to one another. They each love a little bit of hazard and a bit of pleasure. They’re each very loyal, and so they actually love and respect one another, in addition to discovering one another extremely tough to be round typically.
I feel that’s fairly relatable for lots of people who typically have that form of push me pull you scenario with somebody that they’re very near and are similar to. What we needed to point out in Season 2 was that they’ve very totally different pursuits, and so they seem to be very totally different individuals, and so they go down very totally different paths. In fact, there are variations in them. Alex is far more bookish, for instance, though Cole is intelligent and will be tutorial and is on no account some foolish, silly jock or something— however, within the apparent methods — and Cole is extra sporty within the apparent methods. In Season 2, these two paths converge somewhat bit and we see the alternative facet of every brother, making them each somewhat bit extra effectively -ounded
Noah LaLonde as Cole in Season 2 of ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’
Courtesy of Netflix
DEADLINE: May you discuss the way you charted Cole’s arc in order that, after he’s fallen again on previous habits, later within the season, he bounces again and grows? How did you navigate that for it to really feel proper for him to not make such self-destructive selections?
HALSALL: So I’ve at all times stated Cole’s one of the crucial honorable, if not probably the most honorable, character in our present, and if you happen to chart his journey from episode one onwards in Season 1, he by no means throws anyone else beneath the bus. He takes on all these accusations and issues of different individuals, and he’s obtained his personal factor that he’s coping with, however he holds all the pieces inside him, and on the similar time, he will be fairly self-destructive, as you stated.
So he each time Cole feels misplaced, he falls again on his previous habits. That’s what he does. And his previous habits are, as we see in Season 1, drink, medicine — fairly mushy medicine — and women. These are the issues that he loses himself in, and he climbs his method out of these as a result of he desires to be a greater individual, and since he understands that that path of self-destruction solely leads a technique. It’s actually arduous for him to do this, as a result of it’s the simple path, and that’s the one he’s at all times recognized. However in Season 2, he goes to summer time faculty, he begins off the season attempting to enhance himself. He falls off that wagon and it’s a battle to get himself again on it. However that’s what he does. He falls off the wagon, after which his arc is getting again again on it as a result of he desires to be worthy of Jackie’s love, primarily.
DEADLINE: Separate from the boys, Jackie’s arc this season looks like she’s acclimating to Silver Falls and Colorado. Are you able to discuss extra concerning the methods you need viewers to see that as Season 2 unfolds?
Completely, you’ve hit the nail on the top. I’m thrilled that comes throughout so effectively. We actually did wish to present that, which is why, as I stated earlier than, we’re exterior much more. In Season 2, we present much more of the world of the neighborhood of a small city. Plenty of issues that occur in a small city, occasions that you just attend, and that form of factor. We needed her to be actually within the middle of these issues, as a result of that’s what she’s attempting to do on this season. And naturally, then the dilemma she has is upending that once more as her journey ends within the season. That’s her dilemma as a result of she’s labored so arduous to be a part of that world.
Katie Campione contributed to this interview. It has been edited for size and readability.
