PASADENA, California 鈥� What would happen if the heroine of a story were stricken by a calamity and blessed with a miracle at the same time? YouTubeRed鈥檚 new thriller, Impulse, starts off with that shocking premise. Its heroine is assaulted by the golden boy on campus in the back of a truck. At the same time she experiences a strange seizure and realizes she can teleport.
The ability, it turns out, is both a blessing and a curse as her defences inadvertently paralyze her attacker.
Actor Maddie Hasson plays the 16-year-old Henry (for Henrietta) in Impulse, which begins streaming on Wednesday. 鈥淚 think Henry is an ordinary person faced with an extraordinary situation,鈥� says Hasson, 23.
鈥淚 think she鈥檚 a strong and capable young woman who very much knows herself, but she doesn鈥檛 want anybody else to 鈥� which I think is common with everyone 鈥� not just teenagers. I think it鈥檚 hard. People are mean. People can be bullies. I think she鈥檚 sensitive and artistic and thoughtful. But she hides all of those things because she doesn鈥檛 want to be rejected or abandoned. And she just so happens to be able to teleport ...鈥�
Both series showrunner Lauren LeFranc and the series star insisted the assault scene be accurate and graphic.
鈥淚 wanted to make it more visceral and more real because my vision for the show, moving forward, was very much an exploration of what it鈥檚 like for a young woman to go through that, and to really ground it,鈥� says LeFranc.
鈥淚 think what we鈥檝e been striving for in Impulse is to make it very honest and very real, despite the genre elements that we have 鈥� Every single episode in the series very much so delves into Henry鈥檚 journey with what this experience has been like for her ... That鈥檚 why I thought it was important to link teleportation with the sexual assault, because those two events happened in the same moment.鈥�
It was not just a sci-fi fantasy for LeFranc; she researched the subject of sexual assault. 鈥淚 spoke to various survivors and asked them what their experiences were. Obviously it鈥檚 very different for everybody, and I asked them what they have seen depicted before that bothered them, and what they didn鈥檛 want to see. And two things stood out: One was, 鈥楶lease don鈥檛 let this be a journey that launches a male character and we just follow him.鈥� And 鈥楶lease don鈥檛 make it neat and tidy and suddenly have her experience go away, or she鈥檚 鈥渆volved鈥� away from that.鈥� 鈥�
Hasson pursued her own research for the role. 鈥淚 met with an assault counsellor and spoke to her at length about what it鈥檚 like to be assaulted. I really went over the assault scene because I wanted to know how something like that feels,鈥� she says.
鈥淎nd something interesting to me that she said was that, often it鈥檚 not, not often, but for some people 鈥� because everyone is different 鈥� you disassociate when something like that is happening to you. And you float kind of above yourself, and you鈥檙e watching it happen to you. And I thought that was interesting because teleporting is also a way of, for Henry, disassociating. So in a way, that鈥檚 linked in a clever way, I think.鈥�
Before each scene where her character had to encounter the rapist (played by Tanner Stine), Hasson says she would text the therapist. I would say, 鈥業鈥檓 thinking about this. Is this going to be right?鈥� 鈥�
She also consulted friends whom she knew had undergone such an ordeal. 鈥淚t鈥檚, I think, really important for this to be a realistic story,鈥� she says. 鈥淓ven though it is fiction, and it does have that veil of science fiction, it鈥檚 very much about people and real experiences and awful things that so many people have to experience.鈥�
鈥淚 think it was very important to all of us to get it right, and to give these people who are victims of something so horrible, what they feel like is a voice or maybe to feel understood or like they鈥檙e less alone.鈥�
The series is based on a book by Steven Gould and a film by producer-director Doug Liman (the Bourne Identity series, Suits, Covert Affairs). Liman explains, 鈥淭his was a world I had previously explored with the film 鈥橨umper,鈥� and I wanted another shot at it because 鈥� of all my films 鈥� it was the one I was least happy with,鈥� he says.
鈥淚鈥檝e always sought to create honesty within franchise ideas. And when it came to working on 鈥橧mpulse,鈥� I really thought that it wasn鈥檛 like we were going to copy YouTube and make it look like it was shot on a cellphone. Because that鈥檚 not the spirit of YouTube(Red). The spirit is honesty. And I think, with this amazing team, we鈥檝e taken a big high-concept idea of teleportation, and we鈥檝e grounded it in a world that鈥檚 going to speak to our core audience in a way that I don鈥檛 think they鈥檝e seen before.鈥�
