At the end of The Hardy Boys Season 2, Frank Hardy (Rohan Campbell) found himself in something of a sticky situation when his dead grandfather George (Philip Craig) found a way to inhabit his grandson's body, forcing Frank's spirit out. Now with Frank in limbo and George out on the loose in Bridgeport, things are about to get a lot more complicated for Frank's friends and family.
In this one-on-one on-set interview from December 2022 with Collider's Arezou Amin, Campbell talks about the "beautifully confusing" challenge of playing both Frank Hardy and his grandfather George Estabrook. He also dives into what it was like bringing the story to a close after three seasons and shares his experience working on last year's Halloween Ends.
Okay, so this season you are pulling a bit of double duty. You are both Frank and George. What has that experience been like?
ROHAN CAMPBELL: Great. Beautifully confusing. It's been like a really fun challenge to show up every day and yeah, it's been great. It's been a bit of a beautiful challenge just trying to track two people's consciousness at the same time. I think it was such a huge cliffhanger at Season 2, and the way it plays out is a lot of fun and relies a lot on the friend group, and the friendships in the show. It's cool to see how they sort of come to save the day with Frank.
Has that duality been the biggest challenge of the season, or has it just been a good time all the way through?
CAMPBELL: It's definitely been the challenge of the season, but it's still a ton of fun. I mean, it's different wardrobe, it's playing a lot with like, “How much behavior of an 80-year-old man can you put inside of a 16-year-old boy before somebody notices?” So there's a lot of variation in takes, and it's really fun to play with the silliness of the situation, but the gravity of the stakes. That's such a fun sort of layering dynamic to play with Jason [Stone] directing it. There's a lot of different versions you can do with it. It's a ton of fun.
With Frank's journey, specifically, what can you tease us about that? Because as far as we know, last we saw he’s stuck in that crystal? Is it too spoilery to talk about his journey and sort of what he's going through?
CAMPBELL: All of a sudden, I feel like I'm in a minefield. What can I say? Man. Frank's journey in this season. Yeah, I mean, it's funny because what happens in the first two episodes, I don't want to spoil, and it's hard to get into the latter of the season without spoiling that piece of information.
Alright, fair enough. So for the show as a whole, what are you going to miss the most about it?
CAMPBELL: The friendships. I'm going to miss the cast like crazy, the crew. I mean, this is four years of my life, which will forever be one of the most special parts of my life. I grew up with these kids. I watched them grow up, and I'm going to miss seeing them, and I'm going to miss looking forward to seeing them.
I'm going to miss going to work every day. That's a cool thing. I always find working on sets is a lot like going to camp, you know? Like, you live this sort of intense friendship and intense experience for like four or five months at a time, and then you all say goodbye to each other. And the goodbyes are never as bittersweet when you know you're coming back. So it's been an emotional closing out, and I’m just really excited to deliver this season. I think I'm gonna miss everybody that I've met through this the most, to be honest.
So what do you hope that fans take away from this last season of The Hardy Boys?
CAMPBELL: I think, at the end of the day, this season’s a lot about the friend group, the core, and the core of that friend group helping each other out. I think this season shows a lot of everybody leaning on each other, and I think if I can have people take one thing out of this show, it's just how much friendships can be valuable. And to sort of have that family structure. How important that is, especially when you get your consciousness downloaded into your crystal and your grandfather takes over your body. I mean, if your friends aren’t gonna save you, who else will?
That universal experience, right? So, I have to ask you about Halloween Ends. What was that experience going into that, coming back to this like?
CAMPBELL: Man, that was really, really special, as well. I mean, I’d just spoken about how it sort of feels like a bit of a family, and a bit of like a summer camp thing. I think David [Gordon Green] said, as well. David has used the same crew since university. So those are all his close friends, as well. So I think some similarities were like having our family built here, and then stepping into his family, not only his family, but stepping into the legacy of Halloween, you know, Jamie Lee's [Curtis] 44 years in the making, her send off, her final goodbye and big bow. So it was scary in its own right. Then, to make something new with David, and make something exciting and a new chapter of that franchise was, you know, just an honor and just really special and something I'll remember forever, as well.
Coming back to this, it's funny when you're on another set, and you have something coming up. You're trying to focus on this one thing, but, again, I was excited to come back up here and make this new season and sort of tie it off in a beautiful way and say goodbye. But yeah, really special experience on Halloween.
Last thing. One thing that I asked everybody that I want to get from you is Frank's theme song. If you had to describe Frank in a song, what would it be?
Tears for Fears… has to be Tears for Fears, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." The first day Alex and I ever stood in-front of a camera together our director put this song on, and we just danced together. Soon enough we start to notice the whole crew is dancing along in their own way. It became a theme song not just for Frank but for the whole show and 4 years of my life… whenever I’m getting into Frank mode I can just throw this song on. Whenever I miss everyone I just throw that song on.
The Hardy Boys Season 3 begins streaming on July 26.
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