The MGM+ drama American Hostage is loaded with talent, both in front of and behind the camera. The series is co-created by The Night Agent‘s Shawn Ryan with Eileen Myers, while multihyphenate Adam Arkin directs and appears in a supporting role as lawyer John Ruckelshaus. Together, they’ve put together an unforgettable crime drama.

Shawn, Eileen and Adam joined TVBrittanyF.com to discuss how they found the perfect tone for American Hostage. They also spoke about creating the show’s unique visual style, and how Adam ended up cast in the series. Plus, learn about some of their favorite moments that viewers should be looking forward to.

Brittany Frederick: The first impressive thing about American Hostage is the tone—the show’s immediate ability to be funny without being flippant. How did you settle on that particular tone, and how did you maintain it?

Shawn Ryan: That was an evolution. I would say the first thing we were aware of was the seriousness of the crime itself. But as we did more and more research, we found more absurdities and sort of weirdness around what happened. And those were the nuggets that allowed us to develop into the tone that you’re talking about.

Eileen was really instrumental in that—finding those little moments of humor and absurdity. Jerry is one of my favorite characters; him as a station manager, I just find so funny. And the ’70s were just a looser time. People weren’t as buttoned down. There was a lot of individuality, and we just embraced that, and started to find that humor in the scripts.

In casting, we found actors that could really play these things, and then leaned into that into the rewrites. And Adam’s a guy who’s capable of great drama and great comedy, both as an actor and director. We would talk about embracing that, and then just found it in the editing room.

Eileen, there’s so much good dialogue in the show. Do you have a particular favorite line or moment that you loved?

Eileen Myers: I do love everything that Ruckelshaus does, but I love when Tony is looking for his car and the cop says, “What color is it?” That always makes me laugh, and pretty much anything anything Jerry says, I think, is hilarious.

I also have to credit [producer] Sharon Hoffman who, she and I love petty infighting. And when she did find out that, in fact, in Indianapolis, John Ruckelshaus and the other lawyers actually hated the cops, we thought this is going to be gold. Because to me, there’s nothing funnier than a bunch of grown men sniping at each other.

Adam, speaking of Ruckelshaus, it was a pleasure to see you in front of the camera as well. Did you see something in the character that made him interesting to you, or how did you end up playing the part?

Adam Arkin: I try never to use my position as a director on something as a way of drumming up acting work, but it’s come full circle. A lot of the early directing [experience] I got was on shows that I was involved with as an actor. And now it’s not uncommon for a producer, when I’ve been around for a while directing, to say hey, why don’t we throw you in there? Eileen, in this case, pitched the idea and I thought I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, why not jump in?

Directing-wise, the visual style of American Hostage really complements the narrative, particularly the choice to use split-screen. How did you land on that idea and use it without making the show feel cluttered?

Arkin: That was something that Eileen really championed, based on how we were shooting it.

Myers: Adam had a very clear vision for how he wanted it to look. We wanted to capture the visceral sort of documentary nature, especially in the pilot, of Tony taking [Dick Hall] hostage. In terms of the split-screens, it really happened because we were shooting those two scenes simultaneously.

Those phone calls were being shot at the same time, and so we were all sitting at the monitors looking at it—and it was so compelling seeing [them] at the same time. I thought this is how I want to see it on the screen. And it’s a nod to ’70s cinema and late ’60s cinema, where they were using split-screen quite a bit. It’s very effective if you have something static like phone calls; it makes it much more dynamic.

Without giving anything away, what are the parts of American Hostage that stood out to you? What do you love about the show?

Ryan: There’s a great relationship between the two wives in this show that begins in Episode 3. Mirelle Enos plays Jon Hamm’s wife, and and Kat Cunning plays Kristoffer Polaha’s wife, I really love, [over] the course of the season, how their relationship evolves. You see the basics of this story—one man takes another man hostage and wants to talk to a third man at a radio station—and think that’s really the story. But there’s really a wonderful story here between these these two women that I’m particularly proud of.

Myers: For me, Episode 6 wound up being a really fun surprise because we go back in time, and get to meet these characters in their lives outside of the crisis. And one of the stories that I find the most touching is between the two siblings, Tony and his sibling Jimmy, and what it’s like to be a sibling who you love your brother, but they might struggle with mental illness. I feel like that was captured in a really touching way, and their performances together were beautiful. So it’s one of my favorite parts of the show.

Arkin: There’s a sequence in which Fred starts talking with Tony about a tragedy in his own life. He’s making a real offering to Tony at a moment of Tony’s desperation, and in doing that, he ends up betraying an agreement that he has with his wife. To see the effect that’s happening on all three of these characters in their different orbits was just great. It was great writing, and the actors really just crushed it. I’m very proud of that sequence.

American Hostage airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of MGM+.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.