Diego Peralta
The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians has come to an end, showing how the titular character played by Walker Scobell went through a complicated journey to clear his name from the accusations made against him. But there was always one character in the series who knew Percy exactly for who he was.
Awards Radar had the opportunity to interview Viriginia Kull, who played Sally Jackson in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. By stepping into the shoes of Percy’s mother, Kull allowed the world to see the kind person who always supported Percy throughout the course of his life. Sally had to accept her fate in the grand scheme of things by allowing Percy to continue with his journey on his own.
Kull was really happy about the huge impact the show’s been having on its audience ever since it premiered: “I’m really excited about it. I’m proud about it. I’m getting lots of messages from friends with pictures of their children bundled up watching the show. It’s bizarre, and happy and exciting that so many people are excited about (Percy Jackson and the Olympians).”
When asked about her inspiration for her portrayal, the actress had nothing but praise for the source material.:”I just had a wealth of source material from the books. Rick (Riordan) infused Sally with such life force. The fact that Percy’s mortal mother is, in my opinion, what makes him make the choice to save the world and to save the Olympus. I didn’t really have to go to elsewhere, because I had such great stuff to draw from.”
Virginia Kull had plenty of positive things to say about Toby Stephens, who plays Poseidon in the series: “I had no idea that I was gonna have a scene like that to play. It’s nowhere in the books. It was a complete surprise when I read the script. A delightful surprise, I will add. I’ve been a huge fan of Toby’s for years. I think he’s a tremendously gifted actor and he’s a friend and a long-time collaborator of Jon Steinberg, who I trust implicitly. I knew going into it that it would be a great experience.”
When asked about the action sequences in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Kull admitted she had a hard time: “You’ll be proud of me. I get very motion sick very easily, and I didn’t vomit. Although I came close many times. They had the Canadian version of Dramamine within easy distance. So I popped a lot of those throughout the filming of it. Aryan and Walker had endless energy. We did take, after take, after take, after take. And they kept me laughing the whole time. It was very dizzying, hard, wet and cold. But every time I thought about how I was in wet blue jeans, uncomfortable, about to go again in the rain. I thought “Oh my Gosh, I’m getting paid to pretend that I’m about to fight a minotaur (laughs)””.
Sally Jackson gets turned into a statue at some point in the series. When asked about that creative process, Kull revealed:”That is an interesting question. I really wanted to just be physically in the scene because Jay Duplass is one of my favorite artists alive. When I found out I was going to be a statue, I was disappointed. But they did a full body scan. They wanted me to go to Vancouver to do it. But I’ve got kids and a life in L.A. and I thought: “I live in Los Angeles. Surely we can do it here somewhere.” And they arranged for me to do it in L.A. I drove to some random studio to Jennifer Lopez’s trailer where she was body scanned for some movie. (Laughs).”
This interview was edited for length and clarity purposes.
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