Christopher Larkin on The 100: Season 5 is a fully prepared meal
With Oz Comic-Con headed to Melbourne in June, actors from your favourite films and series will be flocking in from all over the world. It’s your chance to meet your faves from Riverdale, The Flash, and even Deadpool 2! We had a chance to have a chat with Christopher Larkin, most known for his role as Monty Green in The 100, to discuss his music, his acting career, and of course, The 100, before he makes the long trip over here for June 9-10.
Keeping himself busy during the hiatus from The 100, Christopher has immersed himself within the play, Nomad Motel, enjoying the different challenge theatre offers compared to TV. “For me I think it is important to keep changing mediums, just to keep things fresh,” Christopher said. “I think the beautiful thing about TV is you’re shooting something new everyday, which automatically helps you stay inspired and helps keep you on your toes. I look at TV as sprinting – you shoot and then you sit and wait around for hours, and then you have to shoot and then you sit and wait around for hours. Theatre is more like a marathon, it really is an endurance test and it’s a whole different set of muscles.”
A man of many talents, Christopher, has also released his second solo album under the name Carry Hatchet, titled ‘The Happiest Album Ever Made.’ Often remarked on for its expressive nature, the album was released in late 2017. Speaking of his inspiration behind his music, Christopher commented, “I have always been a huge fan of female singer-songwriters somewhere in the folk vein, often entirely acoustic. There is nothing more captivating, to me, than a performer, male or female, solo on stage with nothing but a guitar and a vocal mic.”
Also a founding member of the band, d’Artagnan, Christopher remains modest about his skills within the world of music, preferring to keep things as raw as possible. “I think there is a tendency to overproduce music these days and I always find myself drawn to a low-fi, homemade, rough recordings,” said Larkin. “So I try to capture that as best I can with my very limited knowledge of the music world.”
With his music a constant project, he added, “I feel like I am always writing or at least thinking of writing in some capacity. Motivation comes and goes in waves so when inspiration strikes, it’s important to drop everything and just pick up a guitar and start writing, because it’s not always guaranteed to come back again,” Christopher said. “I am always trying, and usually failing, but I guess that’s the process for any genre and artwork.”
Turning to The 100, a lot has changed since season four, with a six year time jump taking place prior to the start of season five. Comparing the earlier seasons to now, Christopher commented, “When we first meet Monty, he’s 15 years old – I think everyone’s ages were never fully determined, we were just a bunch of teenage, juvenile delinquents, but in my head I decided Monty was 15 in season one. Meaning at this point in time, depending on his birthday, he is now twenty-one, twenty-two. That is a huge change from adolescence into adulthood and a huge change of circumstance, as well.”
Heading into season five, Monty’s circumstances have changed greatly, losing the two most important people in his life while other major events were happening – A.L.I.E and Praimfaya. He has now had time to digest everything and attempt to reconcile the past with the present. However, he has to head back down to earth and face these painful memories again. “I think Monty’s loss of his mother, and of Jasper, are 100 percent the cause of his apprehension [to go back to earth],” Christopher said. “He has been living a very peaceful existence in the vacuum of space for six years with absolutely no threats to him or his friends, and why after having gone through such a nightmarish, hellish scenario would you want to back to the ground?”
Sympathising heavily with Monty, Christopher reiterated, “I think he has had a lot of time to reflect, and a lot of time to heal. Which brings me back to… why would you want to go back down and re-live some of the horrors that they first experienced and I think that is going to be his struggle throughout season five – finding the rationale about going back down.”
Whilst Monty will look to move on from his past, he will also ensure he has Harper by his side. At the beginning of season five, we will see some relationships survive the six-year time jump, while some will not make it. Living for six years with just six other people in space is bound to cause a few problems. “It could have gone two ways, right. Given how little there is, for lack of a better word, space, that they have on the ring, there was a lot of potential to have driven each other absolutely insane and to have broken up long before we see them six years later,” Christopher pointed out.
Attempting to hold on to all they have left, Christopher said, “I feel like Monty and Harper stood the test of time because they were, in my mind, all that each other had. Monty was the only person in Harper’s world left caring about and vice-versa – Harper was the only person in Monty’s world, right after losing Jasper. So, when you forge that kind of connection and choose to live for each other, and only for each other, that is going to forge a bond that is hopefully unbreakable.”
If Monty and Harper weren’t your favourite ship before, we bet they are now!
Keeping tight-lipped on what is to come for season five, Christopher told us we will have to wait until the end of the season for the excitement to go down; “Episode thirteen – it’s the end, it’s always the end and I feel like that’s when everything comes to a head. It’s not so much the boiling point, it is the fully prepared meal. Everything has been boiled and seasoned and plated and a lot of questions will be answered.”
Where can you find Christopher in the future? With a love for TV and theatre, and recognising the value of diversifying his skills, Christopher said, “I think the perfect schedule for me throughout the year would be to have some kind of consistent work in TV and film and then be able to do a play during a hiatus.” And of course, you can find him at Oz Comic-Con June 9-10 in Melbourne – make sure you go and say hi!
OzComicCon is coming to Melbourne June 9-10 #OzComicCon18
Interview by Alyce Christiansen
