The Lottery

I have always been fascinated by utopias/dystopias and even took a literature class in high school on both. We read books like 1984 and Brave New World and then watched movies including Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, and The Handmaid's Tale. The class ended with a field trip to one of the more famous utopias: DISNEYLAND!

I knew as soon as I saw the preview that I would want to watch The Lottery. The Lottery takes place in 2025. There is a global fertility crisis and it has been five years since the last child was born. After years of research a fertility specialist, Dr. Lennon, is able to fertilize 100 embryos. Unfortunately the director of the U.S. Fertility Commission, Darius Hayes, takes control of the lab and informs the President of this breakthrough. A national lottery is held to determine which women will carry the prized embryos to term. The Lottery airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on Lifetime.

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I was able to participate in a conference call with actors Athena Karkanis (chief of staff Vanessa Keller) and Yul Vázquez (President Thomas Westwood).

On being a villain Yul said, "No, I think people, at least for me, are behaving in the way that I see fit at this particular time with, you know, with the information that I have... The answer for me is no." Athena agreed, saying, "Yes, I would agree. I think the writers have done a really good job of not writing people who are clearly good or clearly bad because real people aren't clearly good and clearly bad. And – I mean even Darius who's sort of seems like the bad guy, his motivations are -- he thinks he's doing the best thing for the country and for the human race which is facing extinction. So, I think everybody is kind of just doing what they think is best even if that sometimes means that someone is going to lose or someone is going to get hurt. But it's sort of, you know, you kind of weight out the pros and cons, and sometimes you have to make those choices as you do in life."

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On the fact that infertility is a growing issue for many Athena said, "It really is a thing that a lot of women are dealing with. And I think more so these days because people are – women are waiting longer. Women are pursuing careers and waiting longer to have children. And just culturally, I think we've sort of...growing up slower. And...that is also a theme in – of women who had pursued careers and then suddenly this infertility crisis hit and they had no idea that would happen, sort of thought that it would always be there for them. I mean it's certainly more realistic than zombies. But, you know, everyone loves zombies, so yes. I mean I think it's a thing that a lot more people can certainly relate to. But it's also interesting in this time when we're also sort of facing and dealing with issues of overpopulation to kind of think of this, you know. What an interesting way to see our extinction, but suddenly we're just – nobody new is being born and, you know, we're sort of the last."

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The Lottery airs tonight, Sunday at 10 p.m., on Lifetime