Pop-Culturalist.com

Skyler Gisondo and Nina Bloomgarden are two of the stars of the must-see new series, The Resort.

The Resort is a multi-generational, coming-of-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time. An anniversary trip puts a marriage to the test when the couple finds themselves embroiled in one of the Yucatan’s most bizarre unsolved mysteries that took place fifteen years prior.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Skyler and Nina about their characters, what attracted them to this project, how they built their connection, and more!

PC: Could you each introduce us to your characters in this series and what attracted you to this project? Nina, do you want to kick us off?
Nina: Violet is adventurous. She’s going through grief right now as she’s lost her mom. That’s what brings her to this vacation spot with her dad. Sam and Violet are meeting for the first time, and she gets swooped off her feet. It messes with their plans. Their relationship blooms from there.

What Violet was going through mirrored a lot of what was happening in my life recently, so it came at a really great time. I just dealt with my own father passing, so it really came very organically. I was stoked to get to grieve through Violet, and Violet got to grieve through me.

Skyler: “I was stoked to get to grieve.” I don’t think we’ve ever heard that. [laughs] It was a combination of things. I was really a fan of a lot of the people involved, like Andy Siara (writer). I thought Palm Springs was fantastic. I recently watched that for the first time. I was a big Ben Sinclair (director) fan as well, back when High Maintenance became a web series. I love Dave. There were so many great people behind it. Andy sent me an outline of the themes of the season, what he hoped to explore, and how he planned to do that. It seemed like an all-around awesome thing to be a part of.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, there’s a chemistry that forms between Sam and Violet. How did the two of you build that bond that we’re going to see unfold throughout the first season?
Nina: We were lucky. I didn’t know Skyler before, so we were meeting for the first time. We started with the scene where Sam and Violet meet. We didn’t really shoot that out of order, which was really nice because we luckily had clicked already. Skyler’s incredible to work with. He’s super easy to get along with, which was really nice. We already had that banter. Building our relationship in real life happened organically, and that was happening on screen too. It worked out well.

Skyler: That’s huge. 99% of all the scenes we’re each in, we’re in together, especially after the first couple of episodes. You’re like, “Man, I hope we get along.” Thankfully, Nina’s incredible. From the beginning, we were laughing—on and off camera. It was great from the beginning. That’s everything when you’re working with one person for the next three months.

PC: Comedic murder mysteries have grown in popularity. What is it about this blending of genres that excites you as creatives?
Skyler: When you’re approaching the project, you’re not really aware of the genre, but as we were filming that part of it continued to hit me. You would see the comedy and what’s happening emotionally. Once we got to the locations, which were epic in scale, you got a sense of the mystery and thriller aspects and how big everything is visually. That’s really exciting because it almost makes the comedy easier when you’re always in motion and going through things. That’s all Andy. That’s what’s on the page. I had never been a part of anything like this. It was great.

Nina: He nailed it. There’s a certain weirdness to the script as well. That’s what people are attracted to as well for this murder mystery/comedy. There’s always a little bit of weirdness. Andy’s mind can go very weird, which was so fun to work with and add to as well. The directors really let that happen.

Make sure to follow Nina (Twitter/Instagram) and Skyler (Twitter/Instagram). Watch The Resort on Peacock today.