Disney provided us with hotel and transportation to LA for some press events. One of those press events included a screening of Season 3 Premiere of Quantico and an interview with Quantico Executive Producer & Showrunner Michael Seitzman and Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin. It was quite the treat to interview both of these guys as they talked about how amazing the changes in Quantico are and the challenges and joys of bringing in a deaf character to the show. Marlee Matlin has been deaf since she was two and on Quantico she plays a character that worked in the CIA and then a mission went sideways and she lost her hearing.
Quantico airs on Thursday nights at 10/9 Central bringing you a weekly suspense filled show full of surprises. Michael even said that, “The primary goal of the entertainer is to frustrate the audience. The three years are a back story that provides some unknown to the show.” So if you saw the premiere last week, and you’ve been a fan of the show things may not be the way you were hoping they would be. The wrong people are together, or are they? 
QUANTICO- “The Conscience Code” (ABC/Giovanni Rufino) BLAIR UNDERWOOD, MARLEE MATLIN< PRIYANKA CHPRA, JAKE MCLAUGHLIN
“Quantico” stars Priyanka Chopra as Alex Parrish, Jake McLaughlin as Ryan Booth, Johanna Braddy as Shelby Wyatt, Russell Tovey as Harry Doyle, Alan Powell as Mike McQuigg, with Marlee Matlin as Joceylyn Turner and Blair Underwood as Owen Hall. Guest starring are Erik Jensen as Damon Grosch, Amber Skye Noyes as Celine Fox and Vandit Bhatt as Jagdeep “Deep” Patel.
Tonight’s episode is called “Fear and Flesh” and in this episode the characters are tracking down the origin of a deadly strain of tuberculosis threatening Americans. Agent Ryan Booth must go undercover and infiltrate a white supremacist organization – an assignment that threatens the life of another member of the team. Don’t forget that you can stream Quantico or watch on demand. 
Marlee’s character had to prove that she could hold her own and continues to do so as the season goes on. This proved to be challenging on set as well. It’s very different she and Michael said, working with a deaf person on set. People forget to look at her when they are talking. Instead they look at the interpreter. We tend to look at the person speaking, and we forget that she actually is the person speaking. She also has the ability to lip read and she can’t do that if you aren’t looking at her. Marlee did say though, that the actors adapted very quickly which made filming much easier. 
Michael took her disadvantage and made it an advantage. In the Quantico Season 3 premiere you will notice how she is much more observant that the other agents. Or at least she was able to slow them down enough to see things that they didn’t see. When a person loses one of their sense it forces their other senses to get stronger. She was glad and very excited to take this role. She said the director is really good at taking her disability and making it an ability. “I just happen to be deaf but there are positives. So that was great.” 
Michael also spoke about how Quantico is about having the audience participate in the problem solving the team goes through. They do this by taking the audience through the process that is going on in the show. In the Quantico Season 1 premiere when they break down the frames of the ransom video in the scene where the character is being totured. Marley’s character brings you into the story and into the problem solving process.
They both spoke about how letting Marlee sit down with all the writers helped them make her character feel like this could really work. A deaf person could really do these things. Marlee said, “I felt that the writers needed to see me in person to get a feel for who I am. Situations I have been in.”
Quantico Season 3 Episode Spoiler
Pay attention to episode 306, it’s the darkest episode of the season. It is something she has never done in her career. She is going to show us her character’s back story. Remember she’s playing a character that was once able to hear. Someone else will be her voice. She’s so excited at how it turned out. By episode 6, we will know her character very well. We will see how much her character struggles becomming deaf. She said this was one of the most challenging things she had to do because she had to pretend to be able to hear. She hasn’t ever experienced that because she was so young when she lost her hearing.
Remember, Quantico airs Thursday nights 10/9 Central on ABC.
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