Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Impulse’s Sarah Desjardins, Enuka Okuma, and Daniel Maslany

Last year, YouTube Premium debuted the sci-fi drama Impulse. The series became an instant hit among fans and critics, receiving praise from publications, including The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, and Forbes, and has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With raw, vulnerable, and Emmy-worthy performances, Impulse tells the story of Henrietta “Henry” Coles, a young woman who discovers she has the ability to teleport after narrowly escaping an attempted sexual assault by another character. Now in its second season, Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of chatting with series stars Sarah Desjardins, Enuka Okuma, and Daniel Maslany.

PC: Season 2 picks up at the aftermath of Bill Boone’s death. How will that affect each of your characters? How will that affect your character’s relationship with Henry?
Enuka: Well for Anna, she realizes that things aren’t adding up. She doesn’t know what it is, but she knows that something isn’t quite right. Her relationship with Henry grows a little bit. Henry’s not sure whether she can trust Anna. Is Anna an ally or enemy? We get to explore that, and Anna tries to get to the bottom of everything. Is she successful? You have to tune in.

Daniel: For Townes, the biggest thing is this hacker has gotten onto his computer. That’s the cliffhanger for him. Then because Henry’s going through so much, inevitably the darkness and the reality of her world ends up spreading to him. He has to take that in. This superhero fantasy that he thought he was going to have is not actually that way.

Sarah: In terms of the Bill aftermath, you’ll have to watch Season 2! [laughs] Henry has to decide whether she’s going to tell us about it or not. Like Daniel was saying, Jenna is also involved in the hacker situation. Jenna is very conscious of Henry and how she’s feeling and how she’s processing things. At the same time, Jenna is trying to focus on herself too. In Season 2, we delve deeper into Jenna’s quest for her identity and who she is. She’s got a bit going on. Who knows what that’s going to accumulate to in the season.

PC: You teased this a bit during Comic-Con, but it seems like this season each of the characters is going to be pushed to their limits and tested. What’s the biggest obstacle each of your characters is facing?
Daniel: For Townes, he has a very systematic way of living. He has an order and routine he loves to follow. Being a sidekick is an unpredictable lifestyle. Superheroes don’t have a daily schedule. He really has to balance that, his personal relationships, his family, his work, and school.

Sarah: I feel like for Jenna, she needs to come to terms with herself and what that means. She’s very concerned about how it might affect other people in her life and what it would do to her life. That’s something she has to confront. She wants to take care of the people she loves and make life easier for them. It’s a good quality, and it’s something that I wrestle with too, but it catches up to her this season.

Enuka: Without giving too much away, as Anna pursues the truth, she’ll face obstacles in the form of the town being against her, her family being against what she’s decided to do, and not having a lot of allies, and people not believing her. I don’t know what to say without giving too much away.

Sarah: You’re killing it right now.

Enuka: She faces a lot of obstacles as she tries to find answers. She’s met with a lot of “you’re not allowed to do that.”

PC: Daniel, you’ve said in previous interviews that there’s a lot of room for you all to create and be vulnerable, which you haven’t experienced on this scale before in the past. How much do you contribute that to the rise of streaming platforms like YouTube Premium?
Daniel: Yeah! I think they’re able to tell a story that you wouldn’t somewhere else. There’s a lot of flexibility even with the duration of an episode. It’s not a TV hour. You don’t have to write for commercial breaks, so it flows seamlessly. With superhero films or shows, they move fast, and it’s on to the next explosion.

With Impulse, there’s an emotional stakes to everything that happens and a consequence to everything that happens. It takes its time in a way that I think is really satisfying for viewers. It allows them to be invested rather than just…

Enuka: Fireworks.

Daniel: Exactly! You’re along for the ride because I think you’re going to connect with the characters, first and foremost. It’s also shot so intimately. I’m in my bedroom for most of this season, and you can’t help but feel a little vulnerable, like a kid in high school. You have people filming with big gear and stuff like that. It’s impossible not to sort of feel like the character in that.

PC: Enuka, you teased at Comic-Con that we’re going to learn more about Anna’s past this season. How much of that did you know in Season 1 or did you have to create that back story yourself?
Enuka: It was hinted to a bit in Season 1. Our showrunner, Lauren LeFranc, shares little bits. She shares as much as you need to know to tell the story at hand. I knew that something happened back in New York and the NYPD that brought me to Reston, but I didn’t know exactly what it was. It starts to unfurl as the season progresses. What that did to Anna starts the emotional spin of Season 2 for me. It’s been great.

PC: Sarah, you touched upon this earlier, but will we see Jenna put herself first this season? How will she find that balance?
Sarah: I think a big part of Season 2 for Jenna is what that means and trying to find that balance. So definitely yes. She’s really trying to put herself first, and let’s figure out what that does and how that affects everybody around her.

PC: Something that I love about the show is Henry’s relationship with Townes and Jenna, and their contrasting views on Henry’s abilities and the situation they’re in. Sarah and Daniel, how similar are your views with your characters?
Daniel: I’m as enthusiastic about being a sidekick to Maddie [Hasson] or Henry in both versions. [laughs] But I have an opposite perspective because Townes wants it to become a big, flashy superhero thing. I really love our intimate small-town drama.

Sarah: I also love our intimate small-town drama. I’m also a Maddie [Hasson] fan. I think I even posted something on Instagram the other day like how beautiful is my fake sister who I wish was my real sister. Yeah, I love her, and I love working with her. But in terms of Jenna, yeah, like she’s been quoted as like being the sensible one. These are very dire circumstances. I guess, yes, I would say I share the same view as her. I’m very much a realist and wanting to keep us all grounded in reality.

PC: The show tackles a lot of serious subject matter. As a cast, how do you decompress after a day of filming?
Sarah: Food is great. I like food. We were just talking about this earlier. We all really love each other. We’re always there for one another. And we’re very comfortable with each other. When we’re filming those harsher moments, there’s a level of understanding. I feel like we all go our separate ways on those days. I also like a good bath.

Enuka: Oddly enough, I do like a lot of television. [laughs] Funny that I’m in this business.

Sarah: Watch some of The Office.

Daniel: Food for me, for sure. There’s so much love on set. Everybody’s coming at the story with so much love. I feel like if there was any drama or tension off camera, it wouldn’t allow us to be as vulnerable or open to the darkness.

PC: The show has so many great relationships. Which is your favorite?
Sarah: Something that jumps to mind for me right away is I really enjoy Lucas as a character. Craig Arnold is an incredible actor, and he brings him to life in such a strong way. In Season 1, he, like Jenna, just wants to do the right thing. He think he’s doing the right thing. It’s so painful to watch when he discovers that people lie to him. People don’t treat him with the respect that he should have. So maybe his relationship with his dad and brother? I also find the relationship between him and Missi Pyle’s character, Cleo, interesting. Lucas’ relationship with his actual mom is very strained. We get into that a bit in Season 2.

Daniel: I really like the episode where Henry ends up at the house with Dippy, played by Lois Smith. It’s a great, self-contained story, and Henry learns so much from this total stranger. I feel like we’ve hinted that because she’s a teleporter, she might be explored more in upcoming seasons.

Enuka: What I think is so great about this show is that you have the world of the teenagers, and you have the world of the adults. Both worlds are handled with equal amount of respect to the storytelling and to the characters. One of my favorite aspects on our show is the relationship between Cleo and Thomas. These are two people who are just struggling to try and make things the best that they can for their blended family. Missi Pyle and Matt Gordon have a real natural chemistry. They feel believable as a couple who is in love and struggling to figure it all out. I love the way that Lauren writes that.

PC: If you have to summarize Season 2 in one sentence, what would it be?
Daniel: Everyone deciding to cross the line.

Sarah: Oh my gosh! One sentence?

Enuka: I think spiraling deeper into the web.

Sarah: I would say superheroes and super-villains.

Daniel: Oh, I like that!

Enuka: That’s good!

Make sure to follow Sarah (Twitter/Instagram), Enuka (Twitter/Instagram), and Daniel (Twitter/Instagram) on social media, and catch Season 2 of Impulse on YouTube Premium today!

Photo Credit: Farrah Aviva (Sarah Desjardins), Bryan Kowalsky (Daniel Maslany)