In season three of Leverage: Redemption, which recently premiered on Prime Video, the team faces high-stakes cons as the crew take on new corrupt targets, including a mayor who also stands as both judge and jury of a town, an international extortionist, an industrialist exploiting child labor, and much more, as they are met by old friends as well as dodge past enemies. They must fight for justice against powerful adversaries all while proving their greatest leverage of all is their humanity.

Recently, stars Beth Riesgraf, who plays the thief of the crew, Parker, and Aleyse Shannon, who plays tech master and hacker Breanna Casey, spoke with SciFi Vision about working on season three, their favorite costumes and identities of the new season, the stunts this time around, and more.

Watch the interview and read the transcript below. Leverage: Redemption is now streaming on Prime Video.




***edited for clarity and length***

SCIFI VISION:   I very much enjoyed this season. I'm glad they sent it all this time! So, to start out, why don't you both just sort of tease for people who haven't seen it, what can we expect for your characters?

BETH RIESGRAF:   Okay. Yes, I'm so excited you got to see all the episodes. And thanks again for hanging out with us.

I think people can expect to see a lot of new genre-bending episodes. We're doing some new things stylistically, which are super cool. We are dealing a lot with change and the consequences of change, you know, emotionally for the characters, personally, and then as a team and as an overall mission, like, where is this going for us?

You know, I think the writers did a really great job of giving everyone a little something to grapple with and kind of decide like, okay, I have to make a decision about which way this is going to go, and then looping in the theme of justice and redemption and all those elements that we all love showing up for.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   Yeah, I think a lot of characters are dealing with a change in responsibility too. I mean, it's like, rise to the occasion time, there's more responsibility on, you know, Hardison’s plate, on Parker's plate, on Sophie's plate, and Brianna is finally standing on her own two feet. She's not proving herself anymore. It's now, what do you do when this is what you do? How do you tackle this? How do you keep the stamina? How do you evolve with these villains and these systems that are also evolving and trying to break into that stride, for sure.

SCIFI VISION:   Now, Beth, you mentioned the genre-bending, and there is quite a lot of sort of, I'd say, themed episodes, I guess is the best way to describe it. Which one was your favorite and why?

BETH RIESGRAF:   Oh, it's so hard. It's like picking a favorite child or something. I can't.

I know I really enjoyed the noir, because stylistically it's just so dang fun. I always have a soft spot for the ones I direct. So, the corrupt mayor with Cedric Yarbrough was a favorite. We were out on location quite a bit. So, just, you know, like scheduling and logistics-wise, I had a lot of fun with that. Then I think, gosh, anytime we get to play characters characters that are just wild and crazy, like the summer camp one, I mean, that was a hoot. That was a lot of fun.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   Yeah, you know, if you look me up, I've been a little scream queen before, and it was nice to take a walk down memory lane and run through the woods as I've done before. And, you know, the blood packs and the kind of jump scares of it, all that that was really fun.

I enjoyed your episode too, Beth. I mean, Beth was amazing. She was a rock star.

She was directing huge vehicles, bicycles, motorcycles, actual fire. You know, that's always fun. I love the kind of action-y ones.

SCIFI VISION:   Quite a lot of bicycles! [laughs]

BETH RIESGRAF:   A lot of bicycles, fire trucks, all of it. And, you know, it was my favorite. I did something different with Elliot's fight for the first time. I changed the formula up on the way we do the fights, and I'm really excited about the sequence that we pulled off. It's one of my favorite things I've directed on the show.

SCIFI VISION:   How do you guys, I guess, come up with all the different versions of the identities and not get them mixed up and make them different. Because there's so many, I don't know how you would keep them straight in your head, but you must somehow, because at least to a viewer, they all seem different.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   I think there's a quick check. It's like, “wait, have I done that before?” You know, “are you about to do this? Because if you do that, I'm gonna do the other,” you know, and we kind of all brainstorm. I mean, it's a lovely - Dean always compares it to jazz and kind of like letting different instrumentalists take over, but just like jazz, every piece is going to be different when you're really improving. There's no way you can strike the same note twice, and I think everybody on this set is a master improver. I mean, I'm lucky I get to play with [you all].

BETH RIESGRAF:   Well said that was fun.

SCIFI VISION:   I was going to say, do you feel the same way, or do you have trouble keeping them separate or anything?

BETH RIESGRAF:   I do. I have fun every single time, you know, we go into a wardrobe fitting. I always feel like it's sparked something new, because Nadine Haders, our costume designer, she comes up with [something]. It could be a small, like a little pin on a vest or, you know, gluing feathers on something like, when she starts adding - it becomes this collaboration, and then the voice, and then the walk, and how does the costume feel? You know, all of it informs the choices for the characters.

SCIFI VISION:   Speaking of that, what are each of your favorite costume?

BETH RIESGRAF:   Oh, wow. I think there were a lot. I had a lot of favorites. I really did love the noir costumes, because they were all built from scratch for me, and there's something so special about that art form and talent and skill that goes into that, and it was just such a thoughtful process. So, I really loved that.

SCIFI VISION:   What about for you?

ALEYSE SHANNON:   Ah, Brianna doesn't really get off the truck all too often just as a general thing, but I did on the Christmas Carol drop. I did get to step into some Amelia Earhart pants and a jacket and a hat and some goggles. And that was fun to be able to - I mean, I even think I did my stunt in that, and I was like, “Oh, this is how you guys feel all the time.” I like my little t-shirt and my cargoes, but that was my favorite costume.

SCIFI VISION:   I was going to say, I almost felt like that's Christmas, but it was also like a Halloween episode. Almost. There were so many crazy costumes.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   A little bit, yeah.

SCIFI VISION:   That’s what I felt like, and it's going to air in April. So, who knows?

I was going to ask your favorite identities this season, but, Beth, for you, I'm guessing it was probably from the film noir, same thing as the costume?

BETH RIESGRAF:   Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I would say the episode - Dean directed the action-y Parker one with the Marie Antoinette costumes. I think the physicality of that one was a lot of fun for me too, the action, and seeing Parker doing what she does. I liked that too, but the noir was, yeah, I think that was probably my favorite.

SCIFI VISION:   I was going to say, you usually play yourself. Let's say, what was your favorite presentation [laughs] since you're usually the one that's doing the presentation?

ALEYSE SHANNON:   You know, surprisingly. Yeah, I have, I have an identity and slash a presentation, which is Frank. I mean, Brianna makes Frankenstein, and she says, “I call him Frank,” and she gets to do kind of like this mocap thing. And that actor, Cristoph [Sanders] is a great guy. And we had a lot of fun, like really nailing down. I'm like, “Okay, finger up here, arm up here, over to the side, magic box.” We really got that down to a science. I wish they almost would have split the screen to show it, because I was like, I did my work on that one. But that probably has to be my favorite, that Frankenstein episode, not my favorite costume, but identity, I guess.

SCIFI VISION:   Did any of them ever freak you guys out though? Because I know there was a lot with AI and deep fakes and all that. And I mean, it makes it in a fun way, but does any of it ever freak you guys out when you're delving into it, I guess?

BETH RIESGRAF:   Yeah, for sure. As an artist, it's like the fact that you can be replicated, you know, or not exactly, but I mean, it's terrifying. Yeah. I mean, it's scary.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   I try to learn the tricks. They're like, “watch the fingers, because AI can't do fingers” or something like that.

BETH RIESGRAF:   Yeah. I mean, I think in general, the taking away humanity and like the artistry of being a human being, and for artists in particular, it's scary. It takes away your livelihood. If they start replacing [us] with using voices, they can sample our voices now and just put it in ADR. And I don't want that. I want to do my work and have it come from me always.

[SCIFI VISION:] That makes sense. Aleyse, you did more action this time. I know you fell on a table and you're learning how to fall and things like that. Do you enjoy that part of it? You're getting a lot more this season I feel like.

ALEYSE SHANNON:   Yeah. I mean, it's harder than it looks. I mean, I don't know how Bethy gets in those vents and gets on those cables and jumps off those walls the way she does, but yeah, it's fun. I was surprised to know how long it can take to shoot a stunt.

And I have a great stunt double. Her name's Jazzy. She's amazing. She helped me with all the running through the woods and hopping off of a porch and stuff like that, but yeah, it's a truly fun time. It's part of what makes this job very exciting and worthwhile, but that's hard work. Jamie, like that's hard work. I'm sore from my job, and I didn't expect that! So, I'm not surprised.

SCIFI VISION:   I know Beth that you really enjoy it, but I was going to say, you got to hang in the air for a while there. I don't know how fun that was, if it was fun or not.

BETH RIESGRAF:   You know what? They took really good care of me. Yeah, my stunt performer, Brooklyn, she did the heavy lifting on, on it, but the way that you're harnessed in, they make it pretty - you know, it's not so uncomfortable. And then they always keep me safe. It's like, a lot of it is time restraint too. It's like, what time do I have to be on set the next morning? So, what is the minimum we can show her and then swap them out, so we can get out of there?

There're all these factors that go into how much you actually do as well outside of the safety aspect. But I got to hang in the air and do the dances, and Nadine Haders made this dress have a pocket. And I was like, “Can I have a sandwich put in there?” Because Parker just loves hanging. So, at one point I pulled out a sandwich and started eating it. [laughs] It's all those little moments. So, that was a lot of fun. I was up there for probably a few minutes longer than I needed to be, but I was just having fun. I couldn't help it.