Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Paradise finale.
While Dan Fogelman’s new Hulu series Paradise has been home to some surprising twists over the last several weeks, perhaps nothing compared to the reveal that finally dropped in this week’s finale, “The Man Who Kept the Secrets.” The mystery of who was really responsible for murdering President Cal Bradford (James Marsden) has been hanging over everything — even the reveal that the citizens of Paradise have actually been living in an underground bunker since a devastating environmental event — but maybe we should have taken series star Sterling K. Brown at his word when he teased that the killer was someone who was right under our noses the entire time.
Alongside the bombshell that the person responsible for killing Cal was someone who tried to off him before, not everyone makes it out of the finale in one piece. Agent Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom) pulls the trigger on Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson), even though the bunker’s primary shot-caller does ultimately survive, while “Trent the Librarian” (Ian Merrigan) literally chooses to fall from the sky rather than answer for his crimes. As Secret Service Agent Xavier Collins (Brown) decides to fly a plane up to the surface and learn the truth about who may have survived for himself, what does that mean for the remaining citizens of Paradise?
Ahead of the finale, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast members about the episode’s biggest turning points — including Krys Marshall, who plays Agent Nicole Robinson. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Marshall discusses how much she knew prior to joining Paradise, what it was like to play a romance in reverse with James Marsden, the experience of filming the powerful Episode 7, the impact of the finale’s reveals on Robinson, and more.
COLLIDER: The first big twist that this show has is at the end of the first episode. How much did you know ahead of time about the premise, what the story really was, where everybody really is?
KRYS MARSHALL: I knew nothing. I knew absolutely nothing. When I got asked to read the material, all I knew was that it took place in and around the White House, that Sterling [K. Brown] was attached, and that it was written by Dan Fogelman. At the time that I came on, James Mardsen hadn’t actually been cast yet, and I don’t think that Julianne [Nicholson] had been attached either. I came in really raw but knew that, obviously, Sterling is one of the greatest actors of our time, and Dan’s a frickin’ genius. So I was like, “Okay, sign me up!” As I was reading Episode 1, it wasn’t until I got to the last three or four pages, and then I was like, “Wait a minute, what’s going on?” As I concluded the episode, my mind was just blown.
When you look back, you can see that there are signs throughout — like we say things like “down here,” or “down there” — but again, they’re just such small little tells until you go back and then rewatch and realize it was there all along, and that’s one of the beautiful things about Dan’s writing is that he does these classic dramatic twists that just take you for a ride, but it’s also still so rooted in really cool, very beautiful, grounded storytelling.
That is a Dan method, slowly spooling out information over time, like you just said. Sometimes, you get those breadcrumbs that are dropped, but they always form the bigger picture. Did you ever find yourself wanting to know more, or going to Dan and begging for answers, or were you good to let the story spool out with every script you received?
MARSHALL: No, I’m not good. I am such a gobbler. If it were up to me, I would read Episodes 101 through 308 right now. I would read all three seasons right now, today, because I like to know what’s going to happen. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury, so there’s so much about our world that is unfolded to me in real-time, and it makes it both hard to play and also really fun to play.
When I read Episode 5, and I saw that Cal finally admits to Robinson, “I love you,” it’s huge. For a woman who is in a relationship with a man who’s married to someone else, with a man who’s in a high position of power, there’s that crazy, uneven scale between the two of them where, yes, her job is to protect him, but she’s also a woman in love with a man who can’t say, “I love you back.” So, in that moment, when he finally admits, “I love you,” when I read that, I thought, “Damn, I wish I had known this Episode 1!” But you don’t. You figure it out as you go along, and that’s sort of the fun thing, is that the cast is on the ride with the audience in the same way.
Krys Marshall Reveals the Unscripted Moment She Asked To Be Included in ‘Paradise’

Image via Hulu

I’m glad you brought up their relationship, because one of the details that gets revealed about Robinson early on is that the two of them were having this secret romance. Did you ever find yourself trying to fill in the blanks in your head about how these two got together? Did you talk with Dan about it?
MARSHALL: I knew that they worked together, but I didn’t know in what capacity, I didn’t know what day they met and what that was like. Then, getting to read Episode 7 was such a treat because we see that Robinson actually has not been on his detail for many years the way that Xavier has. She literally is meeting them in this walk and talk in the hallway in the midst of Operation Versailles and says, “I’m Agent Robinson. I’m here in charge of this escape mission.” So, we literally get to see the very first time these two people meet, and it was a small thing, but as I read Episode 7, I thought, we know that, historically, Cal is this kind of good old boy from Kentucky. He even says to Xavier, “Yeah, I want a Black guy sitting next to me at every event that I have.” He’s definitely uncouth in a lot of ways. So, to see Robinson, who’s such a tough but short woman… how does this woman end up with this guy? He may be the president, but he’s sort of a nincompoop in some ways.
When I read Episode 7, I saw that he has that turn, where instead of just doing this BS speech to the American people, he goes back in and does the right thing and says, “This is essentially our last day on Earth. Go and be with the people you love.” I talked to Dan, and I talked to our directors, John [Requa] and Glenn [Ficarra], and I said, “It’s an unscripted moment, but I would just love if you guys could do a moment with me where you just allow me to take in the speech, because I think it might be cool for our audience to see the shift in Robinson of seeing him as just this manchild puppet president to somebody made of more.” It was a small moment, but I love that, and I love working with Dan, who is a true collaborator and is down to allow ideas to come from every direction, whether it’s from hair and makeup or it’s from the cast. He really does believe that the cream rises to the top with great ideas.
To be honest, it feels like it would be easy to fall in love with James Marsden, but because the two of you do have to be plunged into this relationship at arguably its most emotional place in the hours leading up to his death, did you and James do anything to find that weight and significance, since you’re having to do everything in reverse?
MARSHALL: It’s true. It’s like you have to fall in love and mourn this person’s death, really, before you’ve met them. James and I’s first scene together wasn’t until Episode 3, even though I am mourning his loss so much so that he is on the slab in the mortician’s office, and I’m throwing up because I’m so upset. I think that’s Episode 2, before Marsden and I even got a chance to work together.
To answer your question, what helped build that is we had talked in the makeup trailer, like, “How would you feel about doing a rehearsal with the two of us where we could meet with the intimacy coordinator, sit with our director, and just spend some time together?” So, we spent a few hours in this rehearsal. James was in, like, sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and I was in the same, and we just talked and got to know each other. Then, through that, we also moved through the mechanics of the dream sequence scene where he’s touching me, and it’s this sexy moment, and we’re kissing. Then, of course, I imagine his head gashed with blood. So, we worked through that scene.
That day was the first time we really got to spend time together, which is very intimate work, intense work, and really understanding who each other is as actors, as artists. Then, in addition to all that, Marsden is just so easy to be around, looking that good, you can imagine him being not nice. You don’t have to be nice when you look that handsome, and he is just a doll, and made it really easy to fall in love with him.
Robinson and Xavier are both very strong personalities, and they start the season off being at odds, but then they really forge this partnership as the season goes on. What does Robinson see in Xavier that allows her to let down her guard with him and trust his mission?
MARSHALL: It’s tough to be at odds with Sterling because he’s just such a little gem. Even though he plays a serious, austere character, once the camera calls cut, he is so funny and so full of life. Behind the scenes, he and I love to cut up and just laugh and joke. But yeah, from the start, the early interactions between Robinson and Xavier are tense at best. Literally, she walks into his intimidation, and he’s like, “Where is Robinson?” And she’s like, “I’m right here.” So, we know he doesn’t like her. We know that throughout the beginning of Episode 1, he’s saying, “If I call this in and Robinson gets hold of this, she’s not going to let me near the scene.” We know that these two people really can’t stand each other. I think that often happens in workplaces where you have two really strong personalities, two alpha personalities. She’s his superior, she’s a woman, she’s also his boss, and they’re also jockeying for the favor of the president.
I was so excited to see the two of them come together as the season goes on, and I think it makes perfect sense. Robinson doesn’t have anybody else in this bunker. Xavier got to bring his kids and was allowed to bring his wife—wasn’t able to—but then some others had to come on their own. Robinson came on her own. We have to imagine she had a life with loved ones, with family, with relationships that mattered to her, and she gave it all up to serve her country and do the right thing. So, when Cal is gone, and she can’t trust Sinatra, and Billy’s been murdered, I think Robinson realizes very quickly that they have to become unlikely bedfellows because of the circumstances.

Related

“If It Does Continue, I’d Go Full ‘Dead to Me’ and Be a Twin Again”: James Marsden Would Love To Do Another Season of ‘Paradise’

Marsden also talks about what a dream it was to work with Sterling K. Brown and how easy it was to connect with him in their scenes.

I wasn’t even going to bring up Episode 7, but we’ve touched on it so much that I have to ask about the filming process. Behind the scenes, did you all really try to film it as urgently as possible? It looks like a lot of those scenes are one take.
MARSHALL: Those days were beautiful and exhausting in the way that running, I would imagine, a marathon—I’ve never run a marathon—is, that is just so taxing but so fulfilling. You’re 100% right. We had probably 150 background actors who were all White House staff going this way, going that way. We’ve got Special Forces who are coming in. We’ve got the speaking actors from Sterling and Marsden, all the way down to our lovely actor who played the custodian and our actor who played the White House chef. There’s just this enormous cast of very talented people, and in every scene, all 170 of us are on the hook for this scene at the exact same time. So, we didn’t get to do it in bits and pieces. It’s like, “Everybody back to your places,” and then the gun goes off, and everyone hauls ass. Now you’re walking and talking, and you’re moving, and you’re grabbing the guns, and you’re shooting down the hallway.
When the material is this well written, you kind of don’t have to do any acting. You’re just there, and you’re moving, and it feels very alive. It feels, also, very frightening. The moment when our president is coming down the hallway, and we’re trying to rush him into the evacuation tunnel, and then he catches a glimpse of the janitor, who’s still holding his post—that moment, all of us felt like we were on the verge of tears because we’re all thinking about what it must be like to dedicate your life to this, what can be considered menial labor working in the White House, but this man takes so much pride in it, and he’s loved it. He’s been here for seven administrations, and he’s not going to leave his post. He’s going to continue to clean, and he’s seen it all. Just the way that that actor held the space and the interaction between him and James was just beautiful. Then, it’s right back to business all over again. Once we shot the scenes out on the White House South Lawn, there must have been four or 500 people there. I mean, it was an enormous day. We had real helicopters—that’s not CGI—and wind going and guns. It was a lot of fun. A lot of work but a lot of fun.
Krys Marshall on That ‘Paradise’ Finale Reveal and What’s Next for Robinson

Jumping ahead to the finale, Sterling already teased that whoever killed the president is someone we’ve already met. The episode reveals that it is Trent the librarian, and the reason that his DNA didn’t match anyone in the bunker is because he assumed someone’s place. Robinson is someone who helps uncover that, so what’s going through her mind when the truth finally comes to light? Is she going to be more on her guard now about whether everybody is who they say they are moving forward? What does this do to her ability to trust people?
MARSHALL: You know what, Carly? You should be in the writers’ room, because that is exactly it. One of the paramount mottos of Paradise is trust no one. What I loved about the finale are the theories of, “Is it his wife? Was it Xavier all along? Is it his kid? Is it his father? Who could it have been?” Then you realize it’s the most obvious person—the person who tried to kill him in the beginning is the person who killed him in the end. No! I did not see that coming! Literally, in Episode 1, we’re told that someone tried to kill him in the very beginning. So, I loved that callback.
Ian Merrigan, who plays the librarian, is a dear friend. He and I have known each other for ages, and I thought that he just played that role so spectacularly, both from an emotional standpoint but also from a physical standpoint. He had, I want to say, seven or eight different wigs. In some of the scenes he wore padding to look larger, then he lost weight to play a smaller version of himself. The version of him incarcerated is totally different than the version of him at the library. Episode 8 feels like a capsule episode in itself of a totally different show in many ways, and I just think that Ian did a brilliant job.
But as a reminder, we really can’t trust anyone. This lowly, humble librarian, all along, is a serial killer, essentially. He’s killed numerous people in our world. So then I think it just opens up the veil of, “What else don’t we know?” We thought that life on Earth was nuclear winter, complete fallout, and now we know that there may not be that case. We see that Xavier is going to go up to the surface to figure it out themselves. We don’t know who else is in the bunker that’s not supposed to be there. We don’t know how many people have survived on Earth. What I love about the way that Season 1 concludes is that we come away with a solid answer to one question and then begin Season 2 with a million more questions.
Talking about Season 2, this show has been very flashback-heavy. We get a lot of context for who some of these characters are, but we haven’t really met Robinson beyond that day in the White House when the disaster happens. Is it safe to say that there will be more about her past revealed in Season 2?
MARSHALL: I hope so, because each kernel that I find out about Robinson, I feel like it’s water to a thirsty person, it’s food to a hungry person. These little morsels that I gather about her — even in Episode 5, where I say, “I’m not holding a gun. I just miss the weight of it,” we discover this is a woman who’s very comfortable with a weapon in her hands. So, we got to explore a deep background with Billy Pace in Episode 4 to see what his childhood was like, what his time in prison was like; I would love to learn more about Robinson, selfishly, because I like the show, and I’m just curious about it, but also from a performance standpoint, it’s also informative, each bit you learn. Was she brought up in a big family or was she an only child? Was she raised in an orphanage? Did she change her identity? I have no idea. I’ve concocted some versions of that story, but I also allow myself to just play the story with the words in front of me and allow the rest to be revealed.
All episodes of Paradise are now available to stream on Hulu.

Paradise

Release Date

January 26, 2025

Network

Hulu

Directors

Gandja Monteiro

Writers

Jason Wilborn