Freeform’s supernatural series Siren is gearing up for its second season. But before its premiere, OMFGTV hopped on the phone with one of its stars, international award-winning actress Rena Owen, to discuss the inaugural season and who she credits for the success of the mermaid drama.
“It has been a roller coaster ride in the best possible way,” Owen tells us about Season 1. “None of us knew where every episode would go and that included us as actors when we shot it. It kept every body intrigued, and most of the ingredients that kind of hook people is that if you got this interesting scenario, which we do; our leading lady, Ryn, is a gorgeious, beautiful, hilghly intelligent mermaid, but she’s also a top-level predator. So that keeps it at an edge and gives it danger.”
Speaking of Ryn, Owen says that the mermaid’s portrayer, Eline Powell, is a big reason why the show works. “I will forever take my hat off to young Eline,” she says with high praise. “To me what defines a brilliant performance is you can’t see anyone else in the role. I cannot see anyone else being Ryn. That’s how good Eline Powell is. She is the template for future mermaids and it’s a very high bar and she’s just dynamic and the way she captured that kind of being animalistic but slowly becoming human.
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“She’s just stunning and a joy to work with and stunning to watch her work and the craft goes a long way,” Owen continues.
“She’s very well trained and she’s very studious and she does her homework and she preps and she’s so intelligent. It wouldn’t work if she didn’t work. If we didn’t believe her and buy into her, it just wouldn’t work. So I tip my hat to Eline.”
The New Zealand-born actress is also very quick to thank the fans for investing their time to watching the show week after week. “We kept them intrigued, we kept them guessing,” she says of the show’s audience. “I’m proud to be a part of Siren and I couldn’t say enough thank yous to our fans because without an audience, none of us have a job.
“I’m grateful to our audience,” she adds. “I’m grateful that they just jumped on this ride with us and they’ve been loving it. I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of their comments and I’ve enjoyed their conspiracy theories. There’s a lot of passion out there. I’m just happy that Season 1 delivered and it’s delivered to the point that we get to do Season 2.”
Finally, Rena Owen admits bottom line, this all wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the network. “I take my hat off to Freeform,” she says. “We certainly fulfilled their brand and their essence of the company, which is ‘A Little Forward.’ Siren is definitely a little forward and we’re going to continue to move it forward in ways that are unique and original.”
Siren Season 2 premieres Thursday at 8pm on Freeform.
Rowell was born and raised on Maui, Hawai’i, and now lives in the almost-as-green Pacific Northwest. He’s obsessed with Cirque du Soleil, loves teen dramas (especially those with a supernatural element) and horror movies, and is addicted to sushi. Prior to PopWire, he created individual fan sites for the shows Friends, Hellcats, Nikita and others, which led to creating and working on OMFGTV.
