Tony Award-winner Aaron Tveit says he wanted to star in Earth Abides because the new streaming series is more realistic than many other end-of-the-world stories being told today.

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"I think we're so trained to think what that [post-apocalyptic genre] is and what that's going to be. We encounter these worlds that are really dark and really wrought and there's a zombie that shows up or some big baddie or an alien," Tveit, 41, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.

"instead, I was met with a script [for Earth Abides] that was so human and so rooted in human behavior and human relationships and I was really, really moved by it."

Tveit was also intrigued by the wonderful questions the show asks.

"Namely, if this happened, if we had to start over, could we do it again? Could we do it better? Could we do it in a way that we love and accept each other and love our environment, instead of just taking from our environment," the actor said. "I've not seen that before. So, I was very, very interested in it because of that."

Wrapping up its first season on Sunday on MGM+, the adaptation of George Stewart's classic novel follows the few survivors of a global pandemic. It co-stars Alexander Ludwig and Jessica Frances Dukes.

Broadway star Tveit said experiencing the real-life coronavirus pandemic -- which shut down theaters for more than a year in 2020-21 -- informed his performance in Earth Abides.

"That taught me how much we need the people around us. Not being able to be around your loved ones and family and friends is something that maybe we took for granted a little bit before we saw what happens when you can't be around them," said the actor, who is famous for his performances in Broadway shows like Moulin Rouge, Catch Me If You Can and Sweeney Todd.

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"That really changed a lot for me, and I think that I operated from a place that, 'Everything was going to be OK,' and all of this. And then something like that happens, and you realize: 'Wow, life can change in an instant. Life can end in an instant.' I think it gives a lot of perspective to how you want to go forward and how you want to make sure that every day is special, important. I learned so much from that."

Earth Abides reflects these lessons, he added.

"It's a band of people that have to come together and have to trust each other and love each other to survive," Tveit said. "it's beautiful."

The actor didn't have any reservations about dramatically exploring these themes of rebuilding and moving on, so soon after an actual pandemic.

"I thought the writing was so great and I admired the actors that were involved and then, when I got to set, that was just reiterated," Tveit said.

"Everyone took care of this world," he added. "All the actors, all the people on the crew, the producers, the writers, the directors? They really love this story, and they wanted to get it right. And I think that doesn't always happen that way. And it was really amazing. People were so accepting and welcoming to me when I kind of joined a few weeks [into production]. It was a wonderful project to be part of."

Tveit described his character Charlie as "not the best guy," someone who before the pandemic didn't have a healthy family upbringing and always did what he needed to survive, including committing small-time crimes.

"He's thrust into a circumstance like this and then quickly realizes he has a very unique skill set to take advantage of people and move forward and operate in a very different way than what we're seeing our other group of people operate from," Tveit said.

"He's kind of representing something we see far too much of in our society: people that are narcissists and megalomaniacs and sociopaths and that kind of bulldoze their way across and through people around them to get what they want," the actor said. "I thought that it was very interesting to portray up against this group of people that are leading with love."