SLEEPY HOLLOW: John Noble Previews the ‘Astonishingly Good’ Season Finale

It’s only appropriate that after a season of absolute insanity, SLEEPY HOLLOW would conclude with an absolutely crazy-good season finale…and it does. At the risk of sounding like I’m overselling it, this is absolutely something you’re going to want to watch tonight and not have spoiled for you.

But in the meantime, we still have a little bit of time before the SLEEPY HOLLOW finale airs. So to get a proper tease of what’s going down, I spoke with John Noble (Henry) about his time on the show so far, the very big season finale, and more…

When you spoke with reporters after you filmed your first episode of SLEEPY HOLLOW, you seemed pretty thrilled with the experience. Now that you’ve completed season 1, what has your time on the show been like so far?
John Noble: It’s going to sound like the thing I should say, Marisa, but it’s actually genuine: to start with, there’s an incredible sense of wonder and excitement in the production of SLEEPY HOLLOW. Because the subject matter is so broad and rich and open-ended because of the historical content — open to pretty much any play the writers want to put in — it means that the storylines are, to me, utterly fascinating.

And also, in particular, [with the writers] having created a character as unique Ichabod Crane, there’s nothing like him. He’s the most wonderful character and Abbie is the perfect foil for him. So it’s been quite a wondrous experience, and the cast and crew are quite terrific.

So far, the material that I have been given has kind of been what [SLEEPY HOLLOW co-creator] Alex [Kurtzman] said I would be given when we first talked about the role, and it’s been wonderful.

That’s fantastic. What can you tease about the two-hour season finale?
JN: At the time that we started this, I wasn’t aware it was a two hour [finale]. And I thought when I read it, this is an amazing episode, “The Indispensable Man” episode. This is astonishing. And it was, and it was amazing to film.

And then we read the finale, which of course has that massive, massive twist in it — which I think will come to a surprise to a lot of people. At least we hope so; we’ve been terribly careful to [keep it quiet]. If you were to look back, you would see there are clues all over the place.

Each of the episodes by themselves I thought were astonishingly good. But then you put them into a two hour [block]…I personally can’t wait to see it. You have seen it! You know.

It’s a great ride for fans, for sure. Ari Margolis, who did those great FRINGE trailers and special videos, whipped up a great SLEEPY HOLLOW finale movie trailer which showed a bit of how action-packed the episodes were. How was that for you to film?
JN: I saw it! Ari sent it to me, I thought it was beautiful. I still keep in contact with Ari, he’s a very special talent.

The thing about filming things the scope of SLEEPY HOLLOW is that production standards are so high — and people expect them to be high — and it’s a real race against time to do episodes of this size. There’s no question about that. And of course you have to get all the post-production stuff done, too.

I’m kind of used to it, because we were under that pressure with FRINGE a lot, doing big episodes that you really shouldn’t be able to do in the time allowed. But everyone’s on their game and seems to get things done and the crews work at a breakneck pace. It’s one of those miracles, and sometimes I think it’s a miracle that these extraordinary episodes are turned out in the time they are, but it’s what’s expected in television these days.

Yes, that’s true. Was SLEEPY HOLLOW your first time filming in Wilmington?
JN: Yes, absolutely. I wasn’t really aware where Wilmington was. There’s another Wilmington; I knew there was a place in my home state [of South Australia] called Wilmington. I had to look it up!

What do you feel that Wilmington brought to the SLEEPY HOLLOW experience for you?
JN: One of the things that’s a little bit hidden is that it’s quite a small film community there. And I think that bond, that understanding they have with each other, is a huge advantage as we’re doing something as demanding as we’re doing. They have a lot of interesting people who are personally invested in it; there’s none of this, “Oh, I’m just doing this for the money.” They really are invested in the product. And I think that helps enormously when you’re doing something of this scope. That may be an obvious one, but that, for me, I think is the main thing that separates it from if it had been [filmed] in a bigger city, perhaps. It’s just a thought.

We obviously have a good sound stage…but all in all, the strength of it might be the crew, who has worked a lot over the years, they’ve done a lot together, and they know each other, and they’re all personally invested. You know when no one wants to let anyone down? That’s the sense I get from these people.

That’s great. You have worked on a lot of projects with really passionate fandoms, but what has your experience been like with the SLEEPY HOLLOW fans so far?
JN: I haven’t at this stage had any contact with the fans! I’ve seen what’s been posted, but a lot of that is carryover from the other projects. “Oh, John’s back” or “We’re glad John’s back in another show.” And this [past] weekend being the anniversary of FRINGE’s [series finale], there was a lot of crossover there. But in terms of facing people, I don’t know! It will be really interesting [to see the fan reaction post-finale].

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SLEEPY HOLLOW’s two hour finale airs tonight at 8 PM on Fox. And be sure to come back to Give Me My Remote after the episode is over for some special interviews…

Related:

SLEEPY HOLLOW: Nicole Beharie and Orlando Jones Tease the Season Finale
SLEEPY HOLLOW Season 1 Finale: ‘The Indispensable Man’/’Bad Blood’ Photo Preview
SLEEPY HOLLOW: ‘The Vessel’ Photo Preview

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