Alfred Molina on ‘The Boroughs’ Spoilers, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “The Boroughs,” now streaming on Netflix.

Alfred Molina turns 73 years-old this weekend, but like his character on Netflix’s “The Boroughs,” he’s showing no signs of slowing down. This year alone, the “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” actor — among his many credits — has already starred in the indie dramedy “When We Get There” and voiced the octopus Marcellus in Netflix’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” Now, he leads “The Boroughs,” a Netflix original series, which dropped all eight episodes on May 21. 

Created by Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews, and executive produced by Matt and Ross Duffer of “Stranger Things” fame, “The Boroughs” follows Sam Cooper (Molina), a fiercely independent, retired engineer, who reluctantly moves into the titular senior living community shortly after losing his wife. Cooper quickly meets his eclectic elderly neighbors—composed of an all-star senior cast of Geena Davis, Bill Pullman, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Denis O’Hare—but before he can get comfortable, ghostly apparitions and mysterious disappearances tip Cooper off that something isn’t quite right in his new home.

The sight of a monster eating one of his neighbor’s faces at the end of Episode 1 is more than enough to confirm Cooper’s suspicions, and with the help of his new friends, they investigate the sinister, paranormal practices going on within The Boroughs. By the finale, they uncover the truth: The Boroughs’ longtime owners (Seth Numrich and Alice Kremelberg) have been draining the life from their elderly patrons to achieve immortality through the energy of an unwitting, magical matriarch, known as Mother.

In the finale, Sam and his friends break into The Boroughs’ headquarters, kidnap Mother, and take her back to the desert cave where her powers took root. Along the way, they combat orderlies, managers, monsters and more to destroy the cave, relieve Mother of her suffering and rid the community of its curse. Molina’s Sam is at the center of achieving all of this.

Despite Sam’s success, the season ends with the characters still living in The Boroughs, now with the knowledge of its supernatural undercurrents. A final pan over the town to an eerie musical motif suggests that some threats might still be waiting in the wings. 

Variety caught up with Molina ahead of “The Boroughs” premiere to talk about his time playing Sam, the potential future of the show and some of the other roles that he’s graced the screen with recently, from Spider-Man’s Doctor Octopus to a literal octopus.

Tell us how you ended up playing Sam on “The Boroughs.”

It was the usual route. I got a call from my reps and the first conversation was that Netflix would like to gauge your interest in getting involved in a long-form TV project. I said to my agent, “I’d love to, but are they aware that I’ve never done a TV show that’s lasted more than one season?” My agent said, “I wouldn’t open with that if I were you.” So I didn’t. I then had a chat with the showrunners on Zoom, and they kind of gave me the basic outline of the story, where it was going to go and what they were hoping for in the tone and everything. It sounded really, really interesting and then I met Will Matthews in person. I was doing a play in New York at the time and he came to see it with a Netflix executive, so I figured, “Oh, this could be serious. They’re not mucking about.” 

So I started reading the scripts they sent me, and they were really good. I’ve always fancied myself as being able to decide whether a script is good or not, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become less trusting of my ins and outs. Luckily, I’m married to a writer [Jennifer Lee] whose instincts I trust impeccably. I gave it to her and said, “Have a read and tell me what you think.” She literally got 12 pages into it and just said, “Oh yeah, you got to do this. ” And she was serious about it. She actually explained it as a writer would, talking about structure and format and thrust and the arcs and acts. Actors don’t often talk like that about scripts. To us, it’s all about feel, whereas she was looking at it as a writer, interpreting how the story could withstand scrutiny. By that time, I had fallen a bit in love with Sam, so I just said yes wholeheartedly.

Were the Duffer Brothers involved by the time you were on board? Were you a fan of “Stranger Things” before joining “The Boroughs”?

I think they were involved early on with Will and Jeff, and it gave the whole project a real sheen of respectability. You look at what the Duffer brothers have done, and you go, “Yeah, these guys know what they’re doing.” This is a genre that they love and really understand. And they’re part of a generation that grew up with all these classic kinds of films like “E.T.” and “The Goonies,” and all that stuff. With both “Stranger Things” and “The Boroughs,” they’ve created a world where it’s multigenerational in terms of appeal. These stories are timeless, so from the start, the whole thing felt very classy, and we were eager to get started on it. 

Can you talk about working with this incredible ensemble of older actors? It’s not often that you have this many seniors in leading TV roles.

It was fantastic. Apart from the fact that there seems to have been a kind of slight rise in shows that have older casts, I think what was really appealing about it to me was that with this particular group of actors, all of whom I’ve admired and some of whom I’ve worked with before, there were lots of interconnecting relationships. Geena and Alfre did a series on TV back in the ‘80s. I worked with Clarke Peters on a British cop show back in the mid-to-late ‘80s. I’ve worked with Bill Pullman a couple of times. I’ve worked with Alfre on a movie. Clarke and Alfre did a movie together. 

None of us were strangers to each other, so when we all came together, it was a bit like a reunion. There was no awkwardness or shyness. It was like “Oh my God, we’re all here!” So it created a wonderful energy, and that was lovely. Also, because we’re all in our 60s and 70s, we come from a generation where when we were young actors working on films and TV shows, in between shots, we didn’t have mobile phones, so we talked to each other. We’ve got a history of understanding and a kind of connection with each other. I’ve worked on sets more recently with younger actors and, in between takes, everyone just gets on their phones. No one talks and it’s kind of weird, because this job that we do is all about staying connected with each other. Because we were all of a certain generation, we fell into a working pattern that felt very familiar, very supportive, and as a consequence, regardless of the fact that it was great material to work on, it was great to work with these people. We were all looking forward to the next day and to get back to it, even when we were doing tough night shoots. We were all there for each other and it was a lot of fun, a lot of laughs. It was almost the perfect gig. 

Did you have a favorite sequence to film over the course of the season?

I can’t think of one favorite scene or sequence. There were a lot of episodes that were more challenging or demanding than others, but that kind of made it exciting to do. The moments that I remember have less to do with the work and more to do with how we looked after each other while we were working. It was a long shoot, and we’re not youngsters. For most of the last episode, I had bronchitis. My voice went, and then it came back very high-pitched and squeaky. I was acting in scenes where that was the only voice I had, so I knew we would have to do some ADR at some point. We just carried on, but no one laughed at me. We took care of each other, and I remember moments like that very fondly. 

One of the more memorable scenes is when you sing Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” as a diversion in the penultimate episode. You’re of course an accomplished musical actor. Sam, however, is a pretty reserved guy with a modest voice. What was it like singing as Sam?

You’re flattering the quality of my voice. I regard myself as an actor who can hold a tune rather than a singer. To call yourself a singer, you need a certain quality to the pipes that I don’t have. I can hold a tune, but the actual quality of my voice is severely limited, but there are lots of musicals where they just need actors who can hold a tune. So when I came to singing in “The Boroughs” as Sam Cooper, it was an easy transition, because I discovered that Sam Cooper’s limited vocal range happens to match Alfred Molina’s. So I thought, “That’s a happy accident. He sings just as badly as I do. That’s brilliant!” Under normal circumstances when you’re singing professionally, you would spend more time warming up. You’d get your voice into some sort of shape, but this time, I thought, “Well, Sam’s not a singer, so he wouldn’t do that.” He wouldn’t suddenly go, “I’m going to do some karaoke, I better warm up.” So I didn’t warm up, and I just went there and sang and what came out came out. 

Let’s talk about the final scene with Mother in the cave. Where did you film it, and how much of the sequence was CGI versus practical?

The production designers did a fantastic job. They built these really intricate tunnels over a couple of sound stages. In that final scene where Seth Numrich and I have the big fight and Mother blows up, it was on a set of this wonderful cave that production built.  It was a gorgeous set to work on, because it was so evocative, and it just felt very real. They did a fantastic job on it. Whenever you’ve got that kind of detailed step, it kind of tells its own story and it’s very easy to play with. 

So when we did the scene, we were kind of in this fantastic environment that just helped us along the way. There was no green screen in that particular sequence. It was all a complete set. We used a lot of blue screen to create the effects of The Boroughs being way out in the desert, just showing the skyline. We had to use blue and green screen for that kind of stuff, to create the landscape, but most of the sets were actually built.

The series ends with some suggestion of more to come.  Even though Mother is dead, Sam and his friends are still in The Boroughs, now with the knowledge that monsters exist. Do you think there will be a Season 2?

I don’t know yet. We haven’t been told, but if you’re asking me what I would like, I would love to carry this on. I would love for this to be ongoing. I think the writers have said that it was always their intention to do three seasons. That’s their aim, because they felt that’s a perfect arc in terms of telling the whole story. Who knows? TV can be fickle, but it can also give you incredible opportunities. We’ve got a wonderful cast. We’ve got a great premise. The sets are all there. I’d love to do more.

Looking to the future, there is a new Spider-Man movie coming out this summer. Because you reprised your role as Doc Ock from “Spider-Man 2” in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021, are you looking forward to seeing “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in theaters?

Yeah. I love those movies. I honestly don’t know too much about the new one. I’m not even sure who the villain is.

Do you think that there is more Doc Ock in your future? Marvel keeps bringing actors and characters back.

Who knows? When I did “Spider-Man 2” for Sam Raimi back in 2004, I remember at the time they had me on a three movie option. The contract said that should they choose to renew that option, they had the right to bring me back. When I shot the scene where Octavius dies and sacrifices himself, I said to the producers, “Well, I guess my option is null and void.” But Avi Arad, who was running Marvel at the time, said, “Well, no one really dies in this universe.” So I thought, “Oh, OK,” but I didn’t think it would be 17 years before I did it again. Then when they asked me to come back, I remember saying to Amy Pascal, “I’ve got crow’s feet. I’ve got a double chin. I’m not a youngster anymore” and the director, Jon Watts, said, “Don’t worry, we can fix all of that with technology.” So I jumped in, and “No Way Home” was great fun. Now if it comes up, I don’t know what the future holds. I think we might have to just leave Doc Ock in a nice prominent place in the rogue’s gallery of villains, but honestly, if they came knocking on my door and said we’d love you to do it again, I would do it again, no doubt. I doubt if it’ll happen, though.

Lastly, speaking of octopuses, you recently voiced Marcellus, the octopus-narrator in Netflix’s “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” If Marcellus’ tank were in The Boroughs, how do you think he would help Sam and his friends?

I think he’d have a similar role that he has in “Remarkably Bright Creatures.” I think he would be very observant, he would see all the foibles and fooleries that humans get up to, and he’d have the same kind of sardonic view of it all. It’s an interesting idea. If there was a big aquarium in The Boroughs, would there be a great big octopus in there? I don’t know. 

Maybe I’ll suggest it to the showrunners for a possible addition to the cast next season. I’ll tell them that the show needs an octopus. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.