Warning! The following may contain spoilers for the Snowpiercer Season 2 episode "Our Answer For Everything." Read at your own risk!
Snowpiercer star Rowan Blanchard thankfully became a major player in Season 2, and her role as Melanie's long-lost daughter Alex has made the actress stand out in this star-studded ensemble. It does help that most of her scenes are either with the always great Sean Bean and Jennifer Connelly, yet having those screen partners is perhaps surprisingly not what excited Blanchard the most about filming scenes in Season 2.
I got a chance to speak with Rowan Blanchard ahead of the Season 2 premiere, and like several other Snowpiercer actors I've spoken with in the past, Blanchard had much to say about the dark drama's unique sets and production design. Specifically, Blanchard talked about the large group scenes she filmed during the season, and the beauty of being able to take part in those when she could.
There's definitely a lot of people in the train sets sometimes, which is kind of fun. I quite enjoy the scenes where we're all together. They take the longest to film, but it's fun just to have all these characters interacting. Especially because I feel like everybody on Snowpiercer, because there's so many different parts of the train and so many different roles, we don't all see each other. So like, any time we're all in one set, I found those scenes really exciting to film.
Group scenes on Snowpiercer can certainly be chaotic, thanks in small part to the fact everyone is crammed into spaces the size of large train cars, but not always "large enough" train cars. As Rowan Blanchard said, though, the way the series sets up so many moving pieces and storylines means there may only be a few times a season where two particular actors are meant to be on the same set filming with each other.
It isn't hard to see why Rowan Blanchard relished those scenes, especially considering how many she spent just at the helm of Big Alice. As mentioned, though, she's also probably gotten more scenes with Mr. Wilford actor Sean Bean than any other character to this point, so there are some advantages to playing a character who doesn't go out into crowds all that often.
Alex is perhaps in the most precarious position of anyone on Snowpiercer, as she's torn between her allegiance to Melanie and to her mentor Wilford. Lately, with Miss Audrey commanding a lot of Wilford's attention, Alex even seems to be growing a twinge of jealousy, so there are a lot of complex feelings at play here just among a handful of characters.
Wherever Alex falls on her decision-making, there's no denying Season 2 is positioning her to be a key part in Wilford's possible success in taking total command of Snowpiercer and Big Alice as its leader, tying into whether Layton and his revolution can survive and co-exist alongside Wilford's domain. She definitely looks to be erring more on the side of anti-Wilford than pro, but I thought the same of Miss Audrey before she seemingly went turncoat on her companions. Only the coming weeks will show audiences where Alex ends up for sure!
Snowpiercer airs on TNT Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET. For more some of Season 2's finer points, read up on what Daveed Diggs loved about Josie's surprise return.
