Quantcast
Published On: Wed, Apr 15th, 2015

‘Bates Motel’ season 3: Freddie Highmore discusses Norman’s ‘transformation’ and snap

Bates Motel fans have been waiting for since the show premiered for the moment that Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) would snap or hint at the future depicted in Psycho. Now, in the wake of Monday’s episode Norman is seen wearing Mother’s clothes, imitating her, Highmore confesses what if felt like.

“Excitement! I think that’s what everyone’s feeling was in reading episode six in general. There’s so much brilliant material for everybody—the writing, Kerry [Ehrin] just did such a marvelous job on this. Vera [Farmiga] had so many tricky, emotionally challenging scenes, and as you see, she just plays them brilliantly, as did everyone else. I think it wasn’t purely this sense of what a brilliant scene I get to do, but how amazing the episode is in its entirety and how it’s just this string of scene after scene that lands with such a blow and pushes the story forward so much.”

EW noted that during the new episode of A&E’s thriller, motel manager Norman snapped and saw his mother storming out of the house last week. Here, Norman has slowly crumbled from the abandonment, plagued by visions of darkness and his taxidermy coming to life.

Freddie Highmore as Norman Bates A&E photoFinally, Norman’s well-meaning brother Dylan (Max Thieriot) discovers Norman in the dead of night, wearing Norma’s bathrobe and scuttling around the kitchen, voice high and light as he encourages Dylan to call Norman down to the table for breakfast.

So what does this mean for Norman: “I think it’s the beginning of the end. I’ve always seen season 3 as the real turning point where, by the end of it, Norman is much closer to the Norman Bates of Psycho than to the Norman that we set up at the beginning of Bates Motel,” Highmore tells EW.

“I think this episode is potentially pivotal in showing us how Norman will start to live much more in fiction as opposed to reality. Whether that’s good or bad…I mean, he’s quite happy to wander around the kitchen and pop blackberries into his mouth. But he’s very much living in his fantasy world, and similarly in the basement where he imagines his taxidermy coming to life. More than anything, it’s the start of that [fantasy] for Norman.

Highmore praises the writers, his co-star, reflecting on his input into scenes and before addressing the bold title for the finale – “The Psycho.”

“I wasn’t aware of it as we were shooting, the weight in which this episode carried that title. If this episode itself isn’t the turning point, by the end of the tenth episode, it’s undeniable that Norman is very much further towards the point of being Psycho than towards the little innocent boy that he once was. I think implicit in the sense of “being psycho” is also this question of knowledge about whether Norman is truly innocent and unaware of all the things that he is doing, or whether he’s started to assume this position as being psycho, and slightly toy with it, and use it against others for his own personal gain and fulfillment.”

Check out the full interview Here

On the DISPATCH: Headlines  Local  Opinion

Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter

* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd ) [ALL INFO CONFIDENTIAL]

About the Author

- Stephen is a contributor and writer on The Dispatch. Stephen is the founder and editor for the Steven Spielberg Fan Club website and contributes to pop culture stories on The Dispatch, especially upcoming movie news. Beginning in 2016, Stephen took the role of Managing Editor for the Tampa Dispatch.

Leave a comment

XHTML: You can use these html tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

like_us_on_facebook

 

The Global Dispatch Facebook page- click here

Movie News Facebook page - click here

Television News Facebook page - click here

Weird News Facebook page - click here 

DISPATCH RADIO

dispatch_radio

THE BRANDON JONES SHOW

brandon_jones_show-logo

Archives