Read this if you’re as obsessed with Mozart in the Jungle as we are.

Spoilers ahead! If you’re not on the Golden Globe-winning MITJ bandwagon yet, binge seasons one and two on STAN immediately before season 3 drops December 10.

What can we expect from season three of Mozart in the Jungle?

A lot of opera; there’s a lot of opera. I think the show knows what it is a little bit more than it has before, like, I don’t know. It’s definitely… I feel like the characters are much more fleshed out, and in saying that, it’s still funny and charming and off-beat, whimsical and all that.

And when you worked on the first season, did you hope that Hailey’s relationship with Rodrigo would go somewhere, or where you rooting for Alex?

I’m really glad that the writers delayed that relationship for the [sake of the] show. And I think that it’s much more interesting to me to see Hailey and Rodrigo be about a kind of creative relationship - a mentorship - and about a romantic one. I think there’s a lot of other shows or movies where you couldn’t tell [that kind of] story.

I find the relationship kind of interesting because, in a way, it’s both liberating and controlling. How do you see it?

What do you mean by controlling?

Well it seems like, at the end of season two, it’s maybe something that Hailey wants but then is a bit unsure about, or she feels like it might put her in an uncomfortable position?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think that that’s the kind of trick of it all, is how does she continue to grow as an artist and continue to evolve professionally, but also have a relationship. I think there’s also the sense that if that relationship were to pan it that it probably wouldn’t be the end all be all; it would have its own set of complications. So, her options… I don’t think that fulfilling that relationship is the best option for her.

One of the great parts of season two was going to Mexico City where we learnt more about Rodrigo’s history. Will we get to delve a little deeper into Hailey’s past soon?

You get to delve a little bit into that, but not so much. I hope that, you know, that’s something that will become more visible at one point, but there is a tiny flash of that.

And I read that in the beginning you shadowed an oboist to prepare for the role. So, three seasons in, has it become easier to jump back into the character when you start working again? Like, how did you prepare this time?

Um, yeah. At this point, I’ve been able to work with a couple of oboists internationally actually because there was a different oboist every time that we moved. So I worked with an oboist in Mexico, and an oboist in Italy, two oboists in Italy, and then a few, actually, in New York now. And, I mean the oboe continues to mystify me. It’s definitely an instrument that you need to have a long relationship with to even begin to understand how to play with any kind of… grittiness, you know?. But it’s… getting back into the character is easier, but there’s also the thing… I don’t know, I mean, it’s just an interesting thing to return to a character every year, it’s a luxury, and it’s also a challenge as an actor to, like, remember who this person is in the off-season. And I feel very fortunate because Hailey’s trajectory and my own have a similarity - that is a young person in a creative world - that and trying to understand how to be in that world, and how much you want from that world, and I’ve always felt like it’s a coincidence, or maybe it’s not a coincidence, getting to play this character.

What is it about TV at the moment that’s so appealing to an actor?

I mean, I think, at least what’s appealing about, you know, TV on the internet, I don’t really know if you can call it TV if it’s not on a television anymore, but that Netflix, Amazon, Hulu model is that there’s a lot more creative control. I mean, I myself, really I don’t get any of the notes from faceless studio executives about what my body should look like or how I should read that line, and so I feel empowered as an actor. I think that the scripts are also a reflection of meeting peoples, like the director’s and the writer’s, goal. I think that’s what’s really appealing about this new wave of television, is that it’s just another, instead of it being the kind of, like, cheaper version of cinema, it’s its own art form now.

And I guess it’d be pretty great having come on early and started working with Amazon considering how well they’re doing.

Yeah, they’ve done pretty well for themselves.

Was there any expectation early on that the show would be as successful as it has been?

Um… I mean, I think that, knowing who was involved, Gael [Garcia Bernal] and Jason Schwartzman and Roman [Coppola] and Jeff Bezos; they’re really interesting people who have made really great stuff, so that was exciting. But to be honest, when I read the tagline of the show before I auditioned, I was like ‘what seedy underbelly of the classical music world? What story are we telling here?’ I’m just happy that the subject has been gripping and people enjoy the show, and it’s certainly exciting to me in lots of ways, but yeah, it was a little bit like ‘what is this show about?’.

Yeah, I guess it’s pretty difficult to come up with an original concept for something these days, and this is definitely, like, when I first watched it I was thinking ‘this cannot be real’…

[Laughs] Yeah, definitely original.

So in the show, is everyone in the orchestra an actor, or are there some actual real musicians?

Most of the orchestra that you see on the show are an actual orchestra. The only actors are the people who speak. Everyone else is real, a real-life musician.

So in the scene where, for example, Hailey goes and plays oboe in the park, and Alex is dancing, helping her busk, are you actually standing in the park while strangers are watching you pretend to play oboe? Are you making any sound while that’s happening?

I was not making any sound in that scene, but there was, like, a track making sound over me, but sometimes they just put the music in a little earwig, or just a little, like, speaker that goes in my ear, so I’m the only one that can hear it. I look truly, truly crazy to anyone who’s not aware that that’s what’s going on.

Do you ever hear from classically trained people who know that you’re faking it? Like, do they ever kind of write in or make a comment?

Actually, I’ve only got really positive things from people in the classical music world about my oboe… my faking the oboe. A lot of people ask me if I’m an oboist and that’s why I got the role, so I wonder if that means I’m a better oboist than I am an actor.

You’re a very convincing oboist.

Do you play the oboe?

No! Oh my god, no. I’m so musically inept.

So you think it looks like I can play the oboe?

Yes, definitely. Everyone’s very convincing. Take that back to the team. Did you appreciate classical music before the show?