Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Interview with Lady Mac
By Gustave | Season 1 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.13.2002
I asked Karina about this. I had initially thought that you were all giving these wonderfully restrained, internal performances because of strong direction, but she said that the consistent acting was in the casting…
I strongly agree. It was in the casting. We have generous direction and respected direction. What I mean by that is that when you desire more information, it's given to you freely, but at the same time -- because we are starting to live as these people -- we are given the liberty to go with our own instincts. It's definitely encouraged. I love it when a director knows that I am probably learning this character and knowing her a bit more than anyone else…besides the writers, of course.
What did they tell you about the part when they first contacted you?
There was very little information. And I didn't really ask because as I said before, I didn't really grasp the importance or the excitement of this particular project. I liked these people and I wanted to squeeze in another project while I was doing Citizen Bates, because those were my friends from ER and that was much more exciting. But when I came into town to film 24, I changed my mind completely. I got really excited about this project. And then there was all this public excitement about it and started to look like, "We have a winner here." Now I've been in some very nice shows before, but when the studio is behind you on this it creates a wonderful environment. We had the best cinematographer, the best director, the best actors [laughs]. We had the ingredients for one of the best shows.
What did they tell you about what your character would become? I mean, I know they didn't give you actual plot information, but did you know you were going to turn out to be this bad-ass?
No. Absolutely not. I mean, I gathered that she was strong from the writing. Past that, not a lot of information was given to me about her. For instance, I had no idea that I was keeping this seven-year secret from my husband. No idea whatsoever. When he says to me, "You knew about this the whole time!" It's like, "Well no, I really didn't, but okay." [Laughs.] So then I have to find a way to make that work in my performance. I have to think about how I played certain scenes the week before and figure out a way to make the transition believable.
But I think that's smart of the writers, because they don't know if their pilot is being picked up and they want to be able to go wherever they want to go. They have to see what the hub is. They have to test it. They listen to people, but they do have their own vision. I just pray that they stick to their vision. That is why this show is different than any other show.