‘Silo’s Steve Zahn Reveals More About Emotional Off-Script Scenes with Rebecca Ferguson

Silo is a very popular American dystopian series that premiered on May 5, 2023, on Apple TV+. It is based on the eponymous sci-fi series written by Hugh Howey. Currently, the series has two seasons, with the second one still airing. The first season aired from May 5, 2023, to June 30, 2023, while the second season premiered on November 15, 2024, and will air until January 17, 2025.

Both seasons consist of 10 episodes each, which will bring the total tally to 20 when the current airing season ends in January next year. The series stars Rebecca Ferguson as Juliette Nichols. She is joined by several main cast members and a varied cast of secondary and guest roles.

Among the most recent guest appearances is Steve Zahn’s Solo, whose identity was revealed in Episode 3 of Season 2, “Solo,” which aired on November 27, 2024. Steve Zahn recently talked about his role and if you want to know more, please keep reading this article!

If you’ve seen the most recent episode of Silo, you’ll probably know that the mysterious man played by Steve Zahn in the series was introduced to us as Solo.

There is still a lot of mystery surrounding this character and “Solo” seems to be an alias, but in a recent talk with our colleagues from CBR, Steve Zahn opened up about the role and teased some emotional, interesting scenes with Rebecca Ferguson in the upcoming episodes. Here is what he said:

CBR: I mean this in the best way possible, but you play a man with the mind of a child so well. Obviously, the script does a lot of the work, but what was the process of getting into Solo’s headspace?

Steve Zahn: It’ s really interesting to play a character that vulnerable. It’s a hard, long process. I played someone somewhat similar [ in War for the Planet of the Apes called] Bad Ape. The apes are really kind of vulnerable. People like that are interesting to me. 

I had time to grow out my beard and my hair, and I thought that would be great. It would be this opposition to this guy who was really kind of young and inexperienced. It was a tough first day because you just dive in, man. There’s no dipping your toes in the water. You hope taking a big swing works. That’s all it really did.

You worked primarily with Rebecca Ferguson this season. I imagine spending so much time together creates a partnership between you two as actors. Was there a particular moment on set where you knew that this camaraderie between you and Rebecca — and by extension, Juliette and Solo — was going to work?

It was actually before we even started shooting. We were prepping, rehearsing, reading and talking. I mean, think about it. If you were working with someone that you didn’t really dig, it’d be tough. Rebecca is an amazing actor . She’s over prepared. We work very similarly. We over prepare so we can have fun on set. That’s basically it.

She’s really smart, has great opinions and she’s really nerdy. We’re just screwing around constantly. It was so fun. We knew pretty quickly that things were going to click and work. When that happens, when you trust the other person, moments really develop and things happen that aren’t scripted. That’s when it’s really fun. We had the luxury of just working with each other. We felt like we were doing some play, like doing theater.

Do you have a particular example of being on set when you’re going off script, perhaps when a line of dialogue or scene comes naturally to you?

I think there was a great moment later on in Episode 10. There’s a moment when I reveal something, and she goes, “I don’t need that. I already have one.” I remember saying, “Well, why didn’t you use that thing that you had?” We were supposed to keep talking , but we didn’t. It was emotional. We stopped, and we couldn’t even look at each other because we were tearing up. We didn’t say anything, and that’s in the show.

It was great that we got to a point of where we conveyed our lines without talking, which is kind of ideal. It’s kind of where you want to be. Show it, don’t say it. It’s a visual medium, right? And the writing was just great. It was amazing. [Silo showrunner] Graham Yost is a freaking legend, man.

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