"Fear Is the Engine": Jesse Alexander on Tales from Nowhere
| Publication | Entertainment Weekly |
| Date | February 28, 2019 |
| Interviewer | Sarah Chen |
| Subject | Jesse Alexander |
| Occasion | Series Premiere |
Introduction
Jesse Alexander has built a career on ambitious television. From his early work on Alias to his Emmy-winning transmedia innovations on Heroes to his time in the writers' room on Hannibal, he's developed a reputation for shows that challenge audiences while rewarding their investment. His latest project, Tales from Nowhere, represents something new: a supernatural thriller set in one of the most unusual real places in America. I sat down with Alexander a week before the premiere to discuss fear, folklore, and why running away from the modern world might wake up something ancient.
"I'd Never Been One for Scary Stories"
EW: Let's start with something that might surprise people. You've worked on some dark material—Hannibal, for instance. But you've said you weren't naturally drawn to horror.
Jesse Alexander: I'd never been one for scary stories, which sounds weird because I worked on Hannibal, a show about serial killers. I could write it, but watching the violence and gore was tough for me. Then I worked on a horror project with a celebrated director who absolutely loved the genre. To get up to speed, I basically did a deep dive. I watched everything spooky. Universal Monsters. Italian Giallo. Slasher films. Haunted house movies. Alien terror. Psychological mysteries. Body horror. All of it.
EW: That's quite an education.
Alexander: It completely flipped how I think about the genre and the human relationship with being afraid. I started to understand that horror isn't about monsters or gore—not really. It's about the fundamental experience of fear and what that does to us as people. How it shapes us. How it can destroy us or make us stronger.
Fear as the Engine of Humanity
EW: That sounds like it became central to what Tales from Nowhere is about.
Alexander: Absolutely. Our survival as a species depends on fear—it's how we recognize and avoid deadly threats. But here's what fascinated me: existential fears have inspired modern civilization itself. Fear of a life without meaning led to our myths and religions. Fear of going hungry led to the development of agriculture. Fear of disease led to sanitation, hospitals, and medicine. Fear can be the engine of humanity's success.
EW: But there's a flip side.
Alexander: There's always a flip side. Fear's dark side generates conflict. Fear of the unknown inspires xenophobia and discrimination. Fear of immigrants and minorities leads to oppression and even genocide. The same impulse that makes us build hospitals can make us build walls. The same instinct that creates communities can tear them apart.
EW: So the show is exploring that duality?
Alexander: I wanted a playground to explore the human relationship with fear. A place where characters could be overwhelmed by it and give in to the darkness—or be brave, gear up for a good fight, and overcome. That desire lined up perfectly with an amazing real-life place I discovered.
Discovering the Quiet Zone
EW: The National Radio Quiet Zone. It's a real place?
Alexander: Completely real, and stranger than anything I could have invented. There's a town in West Virginia—population 247—surrounded by 13,000 square miles of wilderness where most electronic devices are outlawed so they don't interfere with the world's largest radio telescope.
EW: That's the "Big Ear" in the show.
Alexander: Right. And the real telescope is extraordinary. It's so sensitive it can detect a snowflake hitting the ground on the opposite side of the Earth. Or theoretically, a cell phone ringing on Jupiter. The science alone is fascinating, but it's what surrounds it that captured my imagination.
WiFi Refugees
EW: You mentioned "wifi refugees" in some of your earlier interviews.
Alexander: That's a term I encountered in my research. I learned that frightened people are actually moving to these Quiet Zones to escape what they see as the techno threats and synthetic toxins of the modern world. These wifi refugees give up their computers, phones, Netflix, and all the other conveniences we can't live without. They're running away to this remote, retro community that embraces a life of anachronistic nostalgia.
EW: That's essentially Abigail's situation at the start of the show.
Alexander: Exactly. She's fleeing something—her electromagnetic hypersensitivity, her failed career, a world that's become physically painful for her. She thinks she's found refuge. But what if exiting the modern world has unintended consequences?
Waking the Old Fears
EW: That's where the supernatural elements come in.
Alexander: What if pushing away new knowledge means reviving forgotten fears? Maybe the isolated people living in these off-grid places are staring into the darkness, wondering what's out there. That weird light. That blood-curdling howl. That impossibly large shape in the shadows.
EW: And in your show, those fears are literally real.
Alexander: Maybe their fears are waking up the denizens of fairy tales, myths, legends, and superstitions that mankind thought it had left behind. What if something ancient and powerful fed on those fears? What if it was amplifying them?
EW: The Wendigo.
Alexander: The Wendigo is the embodiment of that idea—a creature that literally feeds on fear and grows stronger the more afraid you are. But it's also a metaphor for how fear itself can consume us if we let it. The residents of Nowhere have to face not just a monster, but their own relationship with being afraid.
EW: Each episode features a different cryptid from American folklore. How did you select them?
Alexander: We wanted creatures that represented different types of fear. The Mothman is about dread of the unknown, of warnings we can't understand. The Hidebehind is about paranoia, the feeling that something's watching. The Pukwudgie represents old grievances, the way historical wrongs can haunt the present. Each creature is tied to a specific emotional or psychological terrain.
And we were very conscious of treating indigenous folklore respectfully. These aren't just monsters to us—they're part of living cultural traditions. We consulted extensively to make sure we were honoring those traditions rather than exploiting them.
Extending the Story
EW: You've got quite an ambitious transmedia program launching alongside the show. Digital comics, interactive portals, an ARG. This feels familiar from your Heroes days.
Alexander: [Laughs] I may have learned a few things. But the technology has evolved so much since then. What we could only dream about in 2007, we can actually execute now. The Quiet Zone portal will let fans experience what it's like to be a resident of Nowhere. They'll get voicemails from characters, text messages during episodes, emails from fictional organizations. We're even doing live phone calls during key moments.
EW: That sounds incredibly complex.
Alexander: It is, but it's also incredibly rewarding when it works. The key is that every piece adds something unique. The Nowhere Files comics tell stories we can't tell on screen—backstories, mythology, parallel events. The ARG will let fans investigate mysteries that the characters on the show don't have time to pursue. It's all additive. You can enjoy the show by itself, but if you engage with the other platforms, you get a richer experience.
The Choice We All Face
EW: The show's tagline references a quote about fear having two meanings. Can you talk about that?
Alexander: There's this idea that fear gives you two options: Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise. That's the choice every character in Nowhere has to make. Do they let their fears control them? Do they run away—which is what brought most of them to this town in the first place? Or do they turn around and face what's chasing them?
EW: And Abigail represents that choice?
Alexander: Abigail is someone who started out running. She ran from her career, from technology, from a world that was hurting her. But over the course of the season, she's going to have to decide whether to keep running or to stand and fight. Not just against monsters, but against her own fears. And I think that's something everyone can relate to, whether or not they believe in the Wendigo.
Looking Ahead
EW: Without spoiling too much, what can viewers expect from the first season?
Alexander: Ten episodes, each with its own creature and its own emotional territory to explore. But there's a larger arc building—about Abigail's connection to Nowhere, about the town's history, about what the Beaumont family has been hiding for generations. By the finale, viewers will understand what Nowhere really is and what's at stake if the Wendigo wins.
EW: And beyond Season 1?
Alexander: [Smiles] I have plans. Let's just say that what happens in the finale opens doors we've barely glimpsed. The mythology goes deeper than anyone expects. But first, let's see if people connect with what we're doing. The audience will tell us what they want to explore next.
EW: Any final thoughts for viewers tuning in for the premiere?
Alexander: Keep the lights on. Pay attention to the details. And remember: the things that scare us don't always have to destroy us. Sometimes they can make us stronger—if we're brave enough to face them.
Tales from Nowhere premieres Sunday at 9pm. The Quiet Zone portal and first Nowhere Files chapter will be available the same night.