PITTSBURGH — Mason Alexander Park has told the story of how they were selected to play Desire in Netflix's "The Sandman" ad nauseam at this point. And yet, it still hasn't gotten old.
The 27-year-old Point Park University graduate — who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns — was quite familiar with Neil Gaiman's long-running comic book series about the Lord of Dreams (Tom Sturridge) rebuilding his kingdom after years of captivity. Park was working on another project in New Zealand when, in a fit of late-night bravery, they asked Gaiman via Twitter about whether the role of Desire, Dream's conniving sibling, had been cast yet.
That initial tweet kick-started a conversation that led to Park being cast as Desire in Netflix's television adaptation of "The Sandman," which premieres Friday. Park recently told the Post-Gazette that their first post-tweet interaction with Gaiman was over Zoom, and Gaiman immediately identified this particular anecdote as the one they would both quickly get tired of telling on the show's press tour. Still, Park recognizes the novelty of how they ended up on "The Sandman."
"What a cool world that we live in in where everyone is so interconnected, for better or worse, where little interactions like this can lead to real-world friendships and relationships that I never in a million years could've imagined," Park said.
Park is a devout fan of fantasy and sci-fi who credited classics like "Star Wars," Jurassic Park" and "Alien" for what "got me interested in the industry to begin with." They've already become a staple in the sci-fi/fantasy space with small but pivotal roles as Desire in "The Sandman," Gren in Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" adaptation and Ian in NBC's upcoming "Quantum Leap" reboot. This kind of work "is everything I could've ever wanted" when Park was a kid.
Before any of that, though, the Fairfax, Virginia, native spent three years at Point Park honing their craft in classes and on Pittsburgh stages via the Pittsburgh CLO. Park recalled living in the Penn Garrison Lofts Downtown and savoring that proximity to the many arts spaces based in the Cultural District.
"Nothing beats doing the job" as far as Park is concerned. While in school, Park landed roles in CLO productions like 2015's "Altar Boyz" at the Greer Cabaret Theater and 2016's "South Pacific" at the Benedum Center. The day after finishing their Point Park senior showcase in New York City, Park auditioned for and ended up earning a spot on the national tour of the musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."
"I think that a lot of my theater training and discipline that comes with being a stage actor has been really helpful in the television world," Park said. "It's a different way of preparing for things and performing a piece. It's given me the gift of being able to come into these roles, very quickly learn a lot of material, and do my best with it and then leave."
Prior to being cast in "The Sandman," Park's most prominent on-screen role was as Gren in "Cowboy Bebop," which Netflix canceled in December after only one season. Like the rest of the show's cast, Park wishes both Netflix and fans of the original anime had given "Cowboy Bebop" more of a chance. They said "we had a lot of very cool things planned" and was looking forward to bringing more notable moments from the anime to life.
"A lot of people are sad when things come to an end," Park said. "You put so much of yourself and your DNA into these things. It's an aspect of you and your history and a moment in your life. 'Bebop' was a big moment of my life that I will cherish and miss dearly."
Playing Gren on "Cowboy Bebop" allowed Park to experience what it's like to reimagine a character in a way that some fans may have not been expecting. Park knows their flamboyant and explicitly nonbinary versions of both Gren and Desire in "The Sandman" may not be what everyone envisioned while reading the original source material. In terms of Desire, all Park can promise is that they were able to embody "what I had in my head" for that character all along.
While a lot of the more fantastical locations in "The Sandman" were brought to life via computer-generated images, Park said the production employed more practical sets than viewers may realize. For example, designers put together Lucifer's (Gwendoline Christie) throne and Desire's aggressively red threshold to make their respective realms feel more "tangible and accessible," Park said.
Season 1 mostly focuses on exploring who Dream is and setting up his relationship with fellow Endless like Desire and Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Desire may have seen relatively little screen time in Season 1, but Park saw it as a ""great springboard" for showing how "deeply important to the mythos" of "The Sandman" Desire truly is.
"I think the comics do a remarkable job of setting up Desire as a possible antagonist throughout Dream's life, as a foil to Dream's existence and the sibling rivalry that comes with it," Parks said. "The animosity and grudges that come with their relationship are so fun to imagine expanding over a millennium."
Park may have to balance a potential Season 2 of "The Sandman" with their "Quantum Leap" duties if both shows become hits. They're still trying to figure out the "right balance of living life and work at the same time," but Park also understands what a privilege it has been to find so many juicy roles in the genre they love so early in their career.
"What a great problem to have, to be a part of so many really exciting franchises and beloved, existing works of art," Parks said. "I really think I've found some sort of sci-fi/fantasy niche that younger me would've been — and is — so psyched about."
