Why did you want to take on this role?
Tom Felton: I was sold on the character from the get go. It’s this new world of sort of rock ‘n roll styles of today, really – which are these tech gurus, these computer wizards, really. It was a different world to me, and a very exciting one with the backdrop of San Francisco. That was enough for me to get excited about it, really.

Does having a 10-episode series appeal to you, rather than having to commit to 22 episodes?
Tom: Yes. This is my first experience of this, so 10 episodes seemed like a good chunk, a good body. They’re very reluctant to tell us what happens in the future episodes, so we’re still learning as we go.

How much do you know about the arc of your character, and as the show plays out week by week, is it constantly spinning for the audience?
Tom: It certainly is for us. I picked away at Stephen [Boccho] and Eric [Lodal] to try and get more information, and they’ve remained tight lipped throughout, really. I know just as little now. Each episode is a new education into the characters and the stories, and certainly went different ways than I was expecting, which makes it a little bit nerve wracking at first, but ultimately more exciting I think.

Do you personally think that you are the killer?
Tom: We’ve all speculated. We’ve all pointed fingers. Bess [Rous] especially loves to point the finger. We’ve been through every possible scenario, I think, so I’m sure one of us got it right at some point.

Does not knowing if you are the killer affect how you play the character?
Tom: I think at first it was certainly a bit daunting. I was keen to pry information out of them. I wouldn’t say it’s more handy, but definitely been quite a challenging exercise. With Stephen and Eric steering the ship, it does make you have a lot more faith and trust in knowing that we only need to know one episode at a time for it to be right.

Each of the characters seems to be a bit of a manipulator. Can you talk about manipulation as part of the series and how it affects your character in particular?
Tom: Well, they’re all masters of their craft in one way, shape or form. They’re not always the best people. Certainly not Erich, he has his difficulties interacting with the rest of the normal public. But he’s a real visionary so his mind doesn’t quite think on normal planes and that means he comes across as aggressive or somewhat intolerant at times. But that’s what so nice about all the characters – their all being very, very different, contrasting people, but all very strong and pros in their field.

There’s a lot of talent on this show. Are you guys learning things from each other - with so much different cross-over and different types of experiences?
Tom: I’ve learned a huge amount. This is very different than anything else I’ve done previously. And not just the very talented cast, but the crew as well, and what it takes to get nine, ten, sometimes more pages done a day – and to get them done in the best possible quality. It’s been a real learning experience and a lot of fun at the same time.

Is there a little Mark Zuckerberg somewhere in your character?
Tom: In Erich? For sure. He’s kind of the obvious person to familiarize himself with that kind of world and character. I think he’s the poster boy of that whole world - the whole Silicon Valley. Again, he’s kind of the poster boy for being these modern-day rock stars where 20-30 years ago may be the people who sat behind computers all their childhood weren’t deemed the cool kids. But Mark certainly changed that for a whole generation, and I think Erich is really a follow-on to that, although it’s a slightly more gritty world than I’m sure Mark’s story is. It’s definitely in a similar vein.

With the main cast staying the same each season, and the guest stars only playing for one season, does that make it easier for you to get really talented people because they only have to commit for a short time?
Stephen Bochco: Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think we would have gotten Tom Felton to commit to a television series long-term. But when you say, “Come play with us for four months for 10 episodes and then you’re done,” I think you can attract a level of talent that you might not normally put together for a TV show.

Because we hear in the news about big business, or Silicon Valley, and the real motivation behind these people, how much does that into Tom Felton’s character, Erich Blunt?
Stephen: It’s an examination of entitlement, which I find really interesting. Look at big time sports and all these young men, primarily, who in their twenties have millions of dollars – hundreds of millions of dollars – and they’ve been stars since they were this big. They’ve never heard the word no. So they grow up with a sense of entitlement that sometimes borders on sociopathological behavior because they don’t have to deal with the normal pushback that the rest of us do in life. So it’s really interesting to develop a character like that.

Eric Lodal: I haven’t seen Tom’s character before. I don’t watch everything, but his character in particular was so much fun to work on and to write because of just what Stephen was saying. There’s a genius to him. Hopefully you’re going to love him as much as you hate him. He’s dimensional. He has something to offer to the world of great value, and something that people would line up in stores to buy. But he also has a side to him that’s rooted in a childhood trauma. He was abandoned by his parents. He was left to fight for his own in the foster care system. You know, people like that, often their survival technique manifests itself in narcissism, psychopathy, lack of empathy for others. And so to have a character like that at the center of this, it’s fascinating.