The Ark: Stacey Read and Ryan Adams discuss being the newbies on the series

Every show has a couple of characters who are new to everything. Stacey Read and Ryan Adams play those characters on The Ark. They are also newer to acting on a TV show compared to everyone else.

Set 100 years in the future, The Ark focuses on planetary colonization in an attempt to preserve the human race. There are different Ark missions, with Ark One being the one we’re focused on. An incident in space leads to the entire leadership being killed.

Everyone is thrown into the deep end of survival. For Stacey Read’s Alicia Nevins and Ryan Adams’s Angus Medford, that’s a little scarier. They’re newbies on the ship, going in with wide eyes and hopeful stances, but they know nothing.

It turns out both Read and Adams are newer to the acting field. It came up in the interview for The Ark as I wondered whether it helped putting personal experience into the series.

Surrounded by more veteran actors in The Ark

You may not have heard of Read or Adams yet, but they will be names to look out for in the future. They are newer to the acting world, but they were surrounded by those who had plenty of advice and support. In a way, it was a good thing as they could use their experience in real life for their characters.

Adams jumped straight in with a response:

"“100%. Every time I get asked the question of how did you prepare for Angus, a lot of it I brought myself to it…He’s super anxious, super nervous energy and I had that on set….Lucky enough, I didn’t have to play a confident character.”"

Read shared a little more with how she felt as an actress and how she used it for her character.

"“You pretty much take what you’re experiencing yourself and put that into the character. I was pretty fortunate in the sense I thought ‘I hope I’m doing a good job’ that’s essentially what Alicia’s feeling…With me, I was the same as Ryan.”"

The two were nervous on the first episode, but their confidence grew as they got on with the series. It’s something we see with their characters. They start off young, naive, and just wanting to help any way they can to finding their place on the ship.

Being drawn into the new series

Like so many others on the series, it was all about the genre that drew Adams in. Who can say no to a chance to do a space series, especially when you have Dean Devlin behind it all?

"“The fact that it was sci-fi, and I’m a big sci-fi fan…When I got the audition, I was like ‘this is exactly what I want to be doing.'”"

Read said the exact same thing. It turns out that she’s a Whovian at heart, so getting the chance to do a sci-fi series was a big deal.

"“I grew up on Doctor Who, so suddenly I get an audition where I get to be this genius character on a spaceship, I was like ‘yes!'”"

Take a look at the full interview with Stacy Read and Ryan Adams below:

The Ark premieres on Wednesday, Feb. 1 on SYFY. Catch up the following day on Peacock.