The actress talks to Dave Itzkoff about playing a female detective, never getting to curse on “Deadwood” and what she thinks happened to Skyler after the end of “Breaking Bad.”
Your new Fox crime drama, “Gracepoint,” is adapted from last year’s BBC series “Broadchurch.” Is it too soon for a remake? I didn’t even question that we would make our version that would stand on its own. But I know that for true-blue, die-hard fans of the original, they’re thinking, Why are you doing that? Hopefully they’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Did you do any fieldwork to prepare to play your “Gracepoint” character, Detective Ellie Miller? One of our producers led me to one of the female cops who helped solve the Jaycee Dugard captivity case. She’s an amazing human being. I specifically wanted to know what it was like to be a woman in the job and to be a mother. How does one balance that? I remember she said you have to go against a basic human instinct, which is to run away from something that’s scary, and you have to train yourself instead to run toward it. It’s like an imperative.
Is that the kind of impulse that first led you to acting? I was just so intrigued with good stories from the time I was a little girl. When my parents would take us out to dinner, I would bring a book along. And they were perfectly happy with that.
Does your family still support your creative interests? All the things I’ve been in lately have been quite murderous. My dad has said: “Are you going to do a light comedy again? You’re very funny, Anna, and you don’t want people thinking you’re just all serious all the time.” Which is a very sweet, parental thing to say.
Was it frustrating that your breakthrough role on the HBO western “Deadwood” was cut short by the demise of that show? The creator, David Milch, wanted “Deadwood” to be a slow burn. And unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to let that story really come to fruition. I was the one character in the show who was quite Victorian and proper and buttoned up. And I never got to say any of those really fun swear words. I was so disappointed!
Did playing Skyler, the long-suffering wife of the drug kingpin Walter White on “Breaking Bad,” take an emotional toll? It took me a couple seasons to really understand Skyler. I wanted her to be tougher at times. I wanted her to be more expressive. I wanted her to really take Walt to the mat. If you’re a strong human being and you’re playing a person who’s paralyzed, it really takes you on a painful journey. But I finally understood that you were not meant to know Skyler in private moments, really. It took a while to get there, but boy, is it satisfying when you’ve held on to all that stuff for four seasons and then, pssshh, you get to explode.
Do you wish that the “Breaking Bad” finale had provided endings for characters like Skyler and her sister, Marie, that were as conclusive as the endings for their husbands? I felt that way when I first read it. Skyler was a broken, devastated ghost of a human being in her last scene with Walt. And I think that probably lasts for a while. Now I like to think she and Marie ended up making peace with each other, and went off to a tropical island and opened a beach hotel.
Did you suggest this to the “Breaking Bad” creator, Vince Gilligan? When you presented Vince with an idea that he really didn’t think was great, he’d say, “Huh, I like the way you’re thinkin’.” And that would mean: No.
You have two young daughters. Have you been able to share much of your work with them yet? I don’t necessarily do the kinds of projects at this point that I can let them watch. They’re always saying, “But we wanna watch you, Mom.” And I say, “I know, this one isn’t really quite appropriate, not quite yet.” They would come to the “Breaking Bad” set, but I had to choose very carefully the days that they came. My 13-year-old is pining to see me in something.
Maybe by Season 5 of “Gracepoint” she’ll be old enough to watch. By that time she’ll be, like: “I don’t want to watch you on TV. I’m going out.” Which would make me very pleased and proud. Go do your own thing.