Halo TV Show Interview: Bokeem Woodbine Talks About Finally Starring in a Sci-Fi Series

The first season of Halo is still in the process of releasing on Paramount+ every Thursday. This week’s seventh episode was one that focused solely on the protagonists Kwan Ha and Soren and the ongoing struggle on the planet Madrigal. 

To coincide with this episode, we were recently able to sit down with Halo actor Bokeem Woodbine, who plays Soren in the series. During our conversation, Woodbine opened up about what it has been like to play Soren in Halo and talked about the process of filming the show’s intense fight scenes. He also touched on how Halo has been a project that he has dreamed of working on for a prolonged period of time. 

Personal Experience With Halo

CB: How familiar were you with the Halo franchise prior to joining the cast of the TV series? Have you ever played any of the previous video games?

Bokeem Woodbine: I have a lot of fond memories of hanging out with friends and watching them play Halo. I used to hang out with a lot of Halo heads as I call them, but I never really played myself. I used to just dig watching them play. It was like watching a movie to me.

CB: So what did all of your friends think when you did tell them that you were going to be in the Halo show?

BW: You know that emoji where the dude’s head explodes and his brain pops out? It was like that.

Recreating Soren

CB: Your character in Halo, Soren, is someone that appears in the lore and history of the franchise, but he doesn’t have a backstory that is as fleshed out as a number of other characters. As such, did you try to do a lot of research into Soren’s history in other Halo media, or did you really try to distance yourself from that material to bring your own spin to the character? 

BW: Otto Bathhurst and Steve Kane were diligent about giving me instruction and information regarding Soren’s origin story and his place in the expanded lore and canon of Halo. And I felt very informed about where he started in his life and where he comes from. I also wanted to bring him to life using my own sensibilities after interpreting this information and this history that was given to me. I wanted to digest it and reflect it in my own way.

Having Fun in a Science Fiction Series

CB: The one thing that has really come across to me with your performance as Soren in Halo is that you’re just having a blast playing around in this world and portraying this character. What has this entire experience been like for you?

BW: This series is so much fun to be a part of. Soren is a blast to personify. And personally, I have a longstanding love of the genre of science fiction. And to be honest with you, for many, many moons, I assumed I would never get a chance to participate in a sci-fi, not to this extent. And it was just like a dream coming true for me to be in sci-fi and have a character with this much prominence in the overall story. It still is to me like a dream come true.

Experience With Fight Scenes

CB: You have been involved with a number of pretty big fight scenes so far in Halo. Can you tell me what it has been like to film those sequences? And how many of your own stunts do you do? 

BW: I don’t do anything with vehicles, but everything else, me. A few things they won’t let me do, but they’re not necessarily in the fight scenes. One time, they wouldn’t let me jump off of something because it was just a little bit too high. But everything else was me.

And the armor presents a real challenge physically because it’s so restrictive. You literally have probably about 50, maybe 60% of your normal mobility. So that’s a real, real challenge, but I was so grateful to even have the opportunity to struggle through the action and give it 100%, even given the restrictive nature of the wardrobe.

CB: I know you have a pretty extensive background in martial arts. Is that anything that helped you when shooting the fight scenes? Or did the armor really impede your movement in such a way that it was hard to replicate anything that you can normally do?

BW: I think there’ll be a time in the future when maybe we’ll be able to expand that a little bit. And who knows what’ll happen? I think that we’re also focusing on the type of movement Soren himself would have in a practical sense, because he’s a guy who at any given moment might have to dispatch multiple attackers. And so that brings a certain type of physicality that’s different than what you might see in another scenario per se. But I feel proud of what we are able to pull off. And who knows what the future will bring?

Soren’s Personal Motivations

CB: One of the most interesting things about Soren in Episode 7 of Halo, to me, is that he felt compelled to keep his promise to watch over Kwan Ha even though he didn’t really have to. Can you maybe speak more about why you think Soren responded in this manner?

BW: I think it’s a combination of a couple of things. I think he has a close relationship with his wife. They’re a couple that’s close. So she kind of holds up a mirror to him and gives him an opportunity to see himself and judge if that’s who he wants to be when he has to make the decision of whether to turn his back on Kwan or not. So she holds a mirror up to him. 

And then he gave John his word. Early in Soren’s formation of his free psyche and newly found free will, he glommed onto the idea of keeping your word and doing what you say you’re going to do. And the notion of keeping his word has codified itself into his psyche. And it’s like when you imprint on something, like when a new chick imprints. He imprinted onto the idea with newly found free will, of honoring your word. And so now it’s just an integral part of his nature. So the combination of his wife’s influence and his natural code compelled him to go attempt to rescue Kwan.

Looking Ahead for Soren

CB: Episode 7 ends in such a way that Soren seems to have potentially been written out of Halo, at least for the time being. Can you give me any teases about when we might see this character again? 

BW: Soren’s tricky. I’m certain you’ll see him again. But where, and when, I have no idea.