Steve Byers on Playing Williams Bradford in the Upcoming Lifetime Movie, "The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story"

Steve Byers & Brielle Robillard (Screenshot from Lifetime's Official Trailer)

There’s a cautionary tale, a real-life story of a teenage girl who was taken in by, but survived an encounter with a serial killer, coming up on the Lifetime channel this Saturday, September 20, at 8/7c. The Girl Who Survived: The Alina Thompson Story is about a young woman’s experience during the eighties in California. 

Steve Byers, co-lead in the show which also features Sam Trammell, Ashley Jones, and Brielle Robillard, has generously agreed to tell us about his experiences on set and filming. 

Christina Williams: This isn’t your first time cast as a serial killer. What do you have to do to mentally prepare yourself to convincingly portray someone so evil? 

Steve Byers: This one is quite different as we were dealing with a true story and real families that had lost their loved ones. I had to talk with our Producers before we started as I wanted to make sure that the story was not glorifying Bradford in any way or justifying or drawing any doubt to his terrible crimes. He was a monster. I will never pretend that there is a different way to look at him. After that was established, it is really about trusting the script and information that is out there about the picture of the person we were trying to paint. 

CW: Unlike most, if not all of the other roles you’ve played, William Bradford was not a fictional character. Did playing a real person who did something so heinous impact your ability to get into character? 

SB: As I mentioned, knowing that we were creating something that was not putting his deeds or morals on any pedestal and knowing he could never do anything like this again, it was easier to get past that difficult concept. 

CW: Alina Thompson, the woman who lived through the traumatic events portrayed in the movie, was on set part of the time. Did you meet her, and if so, at what point in the filming was that? What was it like for you meeting her, knowing the individual you were portraying tried to murder her?

SB: I met Alina through Facetime initially. I was hoping to get her perspective on Bradford’s demeanor. She was very warm and helpful and beyond that, very brave. Yes, Alina ended up coming to set on multiple occasions and I was astounded by her fortitude and ability to recount some of these events without breaking down. Hopefully this story will be a warning/lesson for even one young person out there to rethink a decision that could ultimately lead to something like this ever happening again. 

CW: Did Alina watch you playing Williams Bradford, and knowing that, did it make it harder for you to stay in character? 

SB: She did but because of her strength and encouragement, it was actually easier to do knowing I had her blessing. 

CW: What do you do to decompress after filming really emotionally intense scenes? 

SB: Eat. 

Steve Byers (Photo from his IMDB Page)

CW: Is it harder to play a despicable individual than a kind one, and if it is, what makes it
so? 

SB: It’s been said before, however, if I’m staying true to the script and we have made sure there is not more damage being done,  my job is to act as best I can with what I’m given. 

CW: Brielle Robillard plays Alina  Thompson in the movie. Sam Trammell and Ashley Jones portray her parents. What was it like working with them?  Have you done projects with them in the past and if so, what were they?

SB: It was a lovely group to work with. Every department on this team worked incredibly hard and I would happily join them again. Brielle and I really bonded during this one and despite the dangerous relationship in the script, we had so many laughs behind the scenes. It definitely takes some of the edge off the subject matter when the offscreen relationships are fun and light. 

CW: What scene was most challenging for you? 

SB: The physical scenes where there is violence at the core are generally the toughest. I’ll leave that there. 

CW: You’ve been in a number of Lifetime movies such as Daddy’s Deadly Secret, Glass Houses, A Christmas Break, Pocket Dial Murder, Deadly Secrets by the Lake, and What Would You Kill For? Is the production process pretty much the same for all of these films, or does it vary wildly? If so, how? And if it was different for this movie, was that because The Alina Thompson Story is based on actual events? 

SB: The Production side of making movies is mostly budget based. Each project changes by virtue of who you’re working with and the amount of money they have to make the show. Money provides comforts and amenities that are more plentiful on some and not on others. The making of movies itself relies on the crew’s abilities and attitudes and ultimately the Director. In this case Michelle Ouellet was a calm and kind Captain of the ship we were sailing on. I’d 100% sail with her again. 

CW: Steve, thank you so much for taking time to share your experience with us. The film sounds like it’s going to send a very powerful cautionary message which, as you stated, will hopefully serve as a warning to young people, showing them potential dangers they might not otherwise have been alerted to. I can't wait to see it!

You can follow Steve Byers on Instagram at @thestevebyers and a trailer of the movie is available here. Join Steve's unofficial group of fans here.  Don’t miss it this Saturday, September 20 at 8/7c Lifetime! 

Far Cry 5, Nick Rye, & Playing Creatively

I know Far Cry 5 has been out since 2018, but not being a gamer myself, I didn't try the game until last weekend.  I'm from the Pac-Man and Dig Dug era.  I'd never held an X-box remote before, much less tried to play a three-dimensional, first-person video game.  In fact, when playing Mario Kart with my kids, I've often been known to fall off of the road, and when playing Kirby, I have a knack for dying by falling in pits...even when I'm playing as Meta Knight who can fly.  My kids don't see how I can die by falling but, well, it happens.  I hit the wrong button and it's curtains. Given all of the above information you may wonder what on earth possessed me to try the game a full six years after it's original release.  It's simple.  My favorite actor, Steve Byers, is the voice of Nick Rye. 

Image of Nick Rye from Steve Byers' IMDB page Steve Byers' IMDB page.

So, why the long wait?  There were several reasons.  First and foremost, I didn't own any type of electronic device capable of playing the game, one of my kids told me they thought I'd hate it because it's so violent, and at least three more of my kids told me it was going to be very challenging for me to play based upon what they'd seen of my video gaming skills up to that point.  (Author's note:  I have six kids.)

At this point, I've already watched practically all of the stuff Steve Byers has starred in and a good deal of shows in which he had a smaller role.  Therefore, I decided it was time to take the plunge into the video gaming world!  

Additionally, I was spurred on by an online acquaintance who, having played the game himself, but having most likely no idea of my sub-par gaming skills, assured me, "You'll be great at it...just have fun with it!"  And if you are reading this, and you know who you are, thank you for the words of encouragement.  They were most welcome and appreciated!

Unlike my situation of not having a way to play the game back in 2018, there's now a community gaming area where I live.  They were greatly amused when I called about "Far Cry 5" because, though I'd gone there many times to take my kids to play games over the past four years since they opened, I'd never once done any gaming myself.  Additionally, I'm considerably older than most gamers, so I think they were tickled by that.  

Many things in life are more fun when done to the extreme so I headed to my local thrift store, found a blue t-shirt the same shade as Nick Rye's and also purchased a red and black flannel button-up shirt, from which I removed the sleeves.  I paired these with some light jeans and boots.  Then I traded the baseball cap for a bandana tied it in my hair (I have braids so baseball caps don't work well) and off I went.

Now, I'm terrible at the game...but that's okay! I had a really hard time getting the controls straight.  Nonetheless, I had a blast!  I played for seven hours over two days.  After about three and a half hours someone walked by, excited to see what I was playing.  I invited him to take over for 40 minutes and that was a fantastic decision!  He explained a lot of stuff about the controls that I had not understood and since he was so much more proficient at the game, he actually got me to where Steve Byers' character was located.   This was significant progress.  I got "greeted" by Nick Rye in the game and then went off to clear the area and try to find his plane.  

Back on my own again you can imagine how that went--I wrecked a large number of vehicles in-game and died a lot.  Eventually it was 11:00 p.m. and I had to go as I work very early in the mornings before Sunday worship service. Undeterred, and much to the amusement of my family, I retuned to gaming the next night.  

While the game is fun, I believe that I already stated that I'm not generally a gamer.  Somehow, and I have no idea how, I got off of the mission of finding Nick Rye's plane.  I eventually completed what was apparently a side mission of saving the Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival, and I had hoped the game would tell me what to do to find that plane so I could see more of Steve Byer's character, Nick Rye.  Nope.  The game didn't do as I had hoped.  

I was beginning to wonder if I'd have more luck standing in a random square or park in Toronto, Canada and hoping to accidentally run into the real Steve Byers than finding the character in the game.  Then it occurred to me-- this is a really, really well-programmed game.  Could I treat it like a real search and rescue mission?  Or like the holodeck on some of the new Enterprise models in Star Trek?  

When you are looking for a missing person, you start where they were last seen, so I decided to go back to where I had last seen Nick Rye.  Would the NPC be just "hanging out" where I'd left him last time before clearing the area?   Being terrible at driving and sick of being shot at (yes, it's a shooting game but I was tired of shooting--LOL) I decided to follow the map and walk through the forest.  For me, this was a very sound choice.  I encountered some wild animals but I can shoot at a bear.  It's several people at once coming at me that causes me issues!  

Eventually I made it back to Rye and Sons Aviation and sure enough, Nick Rye was right where I had seen him before! I hit the "talk" button enough times to hear all of Steve Byers' lines from that location and then I decided I had to try to get the game to put me back on the mission to find the plane so that hopefully I could interact more with Nick.  A quick Reddit search indicated where Nick Rye's plane was supposed to be on the game map.   So I walked off merrily (again ignoring all the available vehicles) tromping through the forest.  It's kind of relaxing when no one is shooting at you.  Almost like a nature walk.

When I got near the river, characters found me and started shooting again. The game reminded me that I was supposed to take these guys out, but I'd decided to play the game on my own terms.  I jumped in the water and swam, staying submerged as long as possible.  I got shot at a lot, but didn't get hit and made it to the location where the plane was being kept.  Success!

Okay, partial success.  I got myself back on the mission I wanted, so that's a win.  I died twice tying to liberate the plane, but I'll do better at that next time!  (Probably this evening.)

All in all, I had a great time playing Far Cry 5 and I'm so glad I tried it.  No, this is NOT for children.  It's extremely violent and full of language kids should not be exposed to, but for an adult who wants a  game to play, it's a great deal of fun!  Hopefully I'll liberate the plane soon and get to interact more with Steve's character, Nick.