Sophia Soto
Best known for his work on Pretty Little Liars, Ian Harding is back on our TV screens with his latest role in Ripple. The emotional series tackles heavy themes while reminding viewers to remain hopeful, no matter what life throws their way. Naturally, that balance is extremely difficult to master, but thanks to the writing and incredible performances from the cast, the show manages to do just that.
“The way it plays out, and I think what is really resonating with people, is that every character is grappling with something relatively huge. I mean, my character specifically, Nate: cancer, pending divorce, business is struggling, sort of a loss of identity. He’s in the middle of his life, and he’s like, ‘I don’t really know where I’m going,’ and then, they’re like, ‘Hey, by the way, here’s some cancer while we’re at it.’ It’s enough to kind of break anybody or break most people, but I think what is resonating with people is the fact that the characters take this, what they’re given, and there’s a resilience in them,” he expressed. “There is moving through it and also finding connection and growth through these people that they meet. I wonder if people are kind of just starved for that, starved for this idea of the importance of community, found community and friendship that goes beyond just the trivial.”
The connection that Harding is referring to is between Nate, Walter (Frankie Faison), Kris (Julia Chan), and Aria (Sydney Agudong), four total strangers who are unexpectedly brought together due to a ripple effect caused by their actions and small decisions. For example, Nate only finds out that he has stage two lung cancer after Aria accidentally drops a rock, which falls on his head and sends him to the hospital.
“Hopefully, if there’s a season two, we’re going to see him experience experimental treatment, and we’re going to suss that out, and find him after that,” the actor shared. “I was worried of especially it’s such an important topic, and I didn’t want to do it a disservice while also understanding that we live in the TV world and that can always be a little bit heightened, like, yes, he’s going through pretty heavy treatment and yet I also have hair and makeup teams, and so, how do we tell that story as truthfully as we can within the context of the show? It was very helpful to have Julia there, because Julia, and she’s talked about this before and she’s been expressing it more and more is that she went through chemotherapy the year before and her experience was a brutal one, but didn’t really have the same sort of physical effects. And so, I was trying to kind of go off that, that somebody can look unwell, but still somewhat normal and that there’s a wide spectrum of experience for folks that are undergoing cancer treatment.”
Watch Awards Radar’s full video interview with Harding below, where we talked about which chance encounter changed his own life, portraying mental health positively, loss, his complex character arc, and more.
All episodes of Ripple’s first season are now streaming on Netflix, and this conversation will include major spoilers!
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