Julian Bailey shines as Peter Morrow, an artist and Three Pines resident in the 8-episode mystery smash hit series Three Pines.
Adapted from Louise Penny’s New York Times best-selling Chief Inspector Gamache series, Three Pines follows Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Alfred Molina) as he investigates cases that happen beneath the idyllic surface of the Quebec village of Three Pines, finding long-buried secrets, and facing a few of his own ghosts.
The empathetic and astute Chief Inspector Gamache is tasked with solving a number of mysterious and perplexing murders in the strange-but-beguiling village of Three Pines. Assisted by his trusted team—the combative and troubled Sergeant Jean-Guy Beauvoir (Rossif Sutherland), the intelligent Indigenous working mother Sergeant Isabelle Lacoste (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), and the accident-prone rookie Agent Yvette Nichol (Sarah Booth)—Gamache and his group are initially treated suspiciously by the village’s residents. Yet despite the cool welcome, Gamache can’t help but find himself oddly drawn to this unusual place and its eccentric residents, including the owners of the bistro, Gabri (Pierre Simpson) and Olivier (Frédéric-Antoine Guimond), artists Peter (Julian Bailey) and Clara (Anna Tierney), bookshop-owner-cum-psychologist Myrna (Tamara Brown), gallery owner Bea (Tantoo Cardinal), and the irascible poet Ruth (Clare Coulter). The deeper Gamache delves into the secret lives of these people who have found sanctuary from the outside world in Three Pines, the more it affects him.
Check out our interview with Julian:
So, “Three Pines.” I was able to watch the entire series, actually, I binge watched it over the weekend. I absolutely loved it. I didn’t realize that it was a book series before watching the show. Did you know that going into filming it?
Julian: Well, I knew it was a book series because it was mentioned in the breakdown for the project and the role. So yes, I was aware.
Had you read the books prior to filming or have you read them since?
Julian: I did not read the books prior to filming because I was cast quite late in the process. I just wouldn’t have had time, even if I did, I’m not exactly a super fast reader. So, despite having at least a week or two before we started filming, after I was cast, I didn’t choose to spend that time and energy on reading the books because I had scripts and I thought it would be primarily important for me to immerse myself in the scripts, rather than the books. But since we’ve finished, I have read a little more than I had before, because once we started rolling, I was sort of poking around in the books a bit. But since we finished, I’ve gotten a little bit more into them. So yeah, they’re great. I think they’re really nice books.
This book series has a huge following. So I was wondering, now that you’re getting further along in the books, how closely does it follow the books, especially regarding your character, Peter?
Julian: Well, I won’t say I’m necessarily super deep into the books yet, but hopefully I’ll get there. Especially if we end up getting a second season, it’d be nice to have more of the books under my belt. But I would say that right off the bat the TV producers decided to make Peter and Clara a little bit younger than they are portrayed in the books. A couple of style points are different, which was at the discretion of the series director, Sam Donovan, and possibly other producers. Like they wanted me to have longer hair, my hair was already quite long when I was cast and then they wanted me to keep that length. I had a beard too, so when I was cast, initially, I was told not to shave the beard but then once we had our first meeting, they said to take the beard down so I ended up with about a five o’clock shadow. Now in “Still Life,” which I understand is the first book in the series, my character is described as always wearing glasses and always being clean shaven, so, I wasn’t 100% clean shaven and obviously I wasn’t wearing glasses in the show. Right in the beginning stages of filming, I was looking through “Still Life” and I saw the part about the glasses, but we had already begun shooting so I talked to some people about it and I was reminded that this was an adaptation, not necessarily a carbon copy sort of translation from ink to screen as it were.
Yeah, that definitely makes sense. What I thought was cool about the show was that it was laid out basically as four, two episode mysteries and you and your family are featured in the murder stone. So, what was it like getting to dive deeper into Peter and kind of where he came from for those two episodes?
Julian: Yeah, that was great. I don’t know if release is the right word, but I was definitely grateful to have the opportunity to portray those moments the way that we were afforded to because I think the impression, at least from what I’ve heard from various people who started watching the show, the impression that my character gives off is that he’s sort of jealous, insecure, kind of a jerk and things like that. And I think having had the opportunity to, for the audience to see where he’s coming from and some of the reasons why he might be insecure, for example, or come across as a bit of a control freak and things of that nature enables people to hopefully have a little more grace for Peter and understand that he’s just like any of us. The way that he is due to his upbringing, his background, the way he was raised, and just the world that he comes from. It was nice to have a chance to stretch my legs a little more creatively and have a little bit more to do, of course, as you can probably recall, he’s a suspect more than once during the season, and episodes five and six are no exception, but it was really nice and I enjoyed that. I thought the family was cast really, really well and I enjoyed it.
Yeah, it was really nice to kind of see where Peter came from and why he does some of the things that he does. And you got to work with some pretty stellar castmates and in more of an ensemble kind of environment. What was that like, and then, especially getting to work with Anna who played your wife Clara?
Julian: Yeah, it was. It was a great honor and a privilege. Working with Alfred Molina for example was, I mean, it was like a dream. I would count him among the top actors in Hollywood working today and I think his body of work speaks for itself. And I was happy to find that he’s just such a lovely, pleasant person. He’s really a kind and down to earth man. It was amazing working with Anna too, because we just had a very natural rapport early on. We had really not met in person before I was cast, we sort of “met” in the Zoom call back, but that’s sort of a high pressure situation where they’re trying to gauge chemistry, you know, insofar as you can gauge chemistry over a zoom audition. So, shortly after I found out I was cast, and I’ll say this too, she was cast much earlier than I was, but shortly after I was cast, we had a week or two to sort of do some prep before we started shooting. She and I hung out a little bit and we went to an art gallery together and tried to get to know each other a little bit and talk about our characters and our backstory and our relationship and that kind of thing. So, it was great working with someone like her, and I mean everybody in the cast, it was a real kind of family environment, but I’m glad I had the chance to work with someone who is so interested in the work and in connecting on a very human and personal level. It was really a joy.
That’s awesome. Yeah, going to an art gallery is kind of perfect considering both of your characters are artists.
Julian: Exactly. Yeah, it was a perfect sort of backdrop for us to get acquainted.
So, this show is ultimately a murder mystery, whodunit type of show. What do you think makes this show stand out from other whodunits?
Julian: First of all, it’s based on a very popular, very beloved novel series, of course by Louise Penny. So, in that sense, it already stands out by virtue of it being based on some very popular novels. Not that there aren’t other great series that are based on novels that are great also, but other ways that it stands out- well, it’s set in a probably lesser known but very beautiful part of the world which is southeastern Quebec, also known as the Eastern Townships which, of course, is true to the books. And that’s just a really beautiful, beautiful part of the country and the world. Of course, a lot of things are shot in Canada, but usually Canada is used as a sort of a stand-in as it were for New York or Ohio. They’ll use Canada because it’s cheaper to shoot up here. But, in this case, it’s not only shot in Canada, but it’s portraying this part of Canada. So it was very true in terms of location to the books. I also think there’s just a really nice balance of plot and story intrigue, as well as character development and intrigue. I think there’s a nice balance of both story and character. And I don’t think either one or the other, you know, draws or takes away from each other.
Yeah, because we really get to know the people of Three Pines and then when the mystery happens, and it’s like, ‘oh, but we know these people, I don’t want any of you to be the murderer.’
Julian: Right, exactly!
You mentioned this at the beginning of the interview about season two, I just wanted to clarify that you haven’t heard anything about that yet, right?
Julian: Yeah, we haven’t gotten any official word yet on the second season. But we are raring to go. We’re looking forward to the opportunity, should we be so fortunate. And, you know, they have first right of refusal, as it were, so they can take a bit of time to decide because we signed contracts. The ball’s in their court, that’s what I’m trying to say. Yeah. So we’re hoping and we’re super grateful and happy for what this first season was and the reception we received. I think we were number one in five countries for about three weeks, including the US, the UK, Australia, Ireland and Canada. So, in that sense, we’re just really grateful for how well people have been responding to the show and I believe that if we can keep going, people will have something that will be worth waiting for.
I am definitely rooting for season two because you all left on a cliffhanger with Molina’s character, and I just need to know more!
Julian: I feel the same way. I think there’s so many great stories to be told. And as far as I know, I think Louise has 18 books out. I could be off by one book, but I think it’s 18 because she just released another book recently and it immediately was like number one on the New York Times bestseller list. So, I mean, the fan base is there and the numbers have been pretty good, so we have our fingers crossed, and we’re just grateful for whatever opportunities we’re given and we’ll do everything we can to deliver top rate entertainment for our new Amazon Prime subscribers.
Yeah, I am definitely going to keep a close eye out for that announcement. Before I let you go, is there anything else that you’d like to add about “Three Pines” season one?
Julian: It was just a great experience and I’m very thankful to everyone who’s been so supportive and we look forward to being able to continue to keep people on the edges of their seats.
