Erika Christensen, whom Will Trent followers know finest as Angie Polaski, has been an actress for greater than 25 years now. Her many credit embrace the movies Site visitors (2000), The Banger Sisters (2002) and The Upside of Anger (2005) in addition to the beloved Ron Howard-produced NBC sequence Parenthood, which ran on NBC from 2010 to 2015.
Since Will Trent premiered in 2023, Christensen has breathed advanced life into Angie, a cop who shares Will Trent’s (Ramón Rodríguez) difficult foster care previous. That have trauma bonded the 2 who’ve been linked since adolescence. Angie is continually preventing her many different demons. Struggling sexual abuse as a younger lady fueled her reckless conduct as a younger girl who used alcohol, medication and intercourse to numb her childhood ache.
Final season, she and Will’s would-be fortunately ever ending blew up when Will found that she coated up a younger lady named Crystal killing her sexually abusive stepfather who additionally victimized her. She additionally didn’t disclose that Crystal was behind the killing of different pedophiles. As a result of Will is a straight arrow, he didn’t preserve her secret. He, as an alternative, did the unthinkable and arrested her. Their relationship has not been the identical since. Because the season has progressed, they’ve made their method again to talking phrases however primarily as co-workers.
Angie’s private life has been fairly attention-grabbing. Simply as she was discovering peace with Seth, the enticing physician Scandal and Felicity star Scott Foley portrays, her organic mom Didi Polaski, who started pimping her out as a baby, dies. As an alternative of feeling free, Angie is so emotionally wrecked she begins ingesting once more. After which she will get the shock of her life when she finds out she could also be a mom. That discovery sends shock and panic by each inch of her.
Not like previous seasons, Christensen wasn’t sitting on the sidelines for this one. Along with taking Angie by all these lows and sudden surprises, Christensen made her TV directorial debut with season three’s penultimate episode 17, “Why Good day, Sheriff,” arguably one in all this sequence’ most explosive episodes. In a twist few may see coming, Will finds his organic father throughout an investigation. Caleb, performed by Yul Vazquez from Severance, can be a cop who additionally had completely no thought about Will.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Christensen going into Tuesday night time’s season three finale to debate navigating her TV directorial debut with a lot private drama and if it’s actually the top between Angie and Will.
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How did you get so fortunate for the penultimate episode of season three to be your TV directorial debut?
I did get fortunate. I used to be initially assigned a special episode, after which, due to two huge scheduling components, we needed to swap every little thing round. I ended up getting this one, and I used to be so excited. It pulls no punches. It’s identical to nonstop bombshells all through the entire episode.
How lengthy do you know you wished to direct? What sort of preparation did you do?
I’ve directed brief movies, and I’ve stated beforehand that I wished to direct TV, however I didn’t really feel it as genuinely as I did with this present. As a result of I like this workforce, and I like collaborating with this workforce, and I like feeling like I’m a part of the workforce, directing is simply form of the final word in that feeling of like I’m actually on the workforce. And I actually had been asking for this job, and saying, “Okay, right here we’re.”
I do know the tone of this present. I do know I’m within the trenches right here. I do know these characters, and I do know what we do and I’d be so honored to do it.’ And so then, they stated sure. And as I discussed, I beforehand was scheduled to do a special episode, probably an episode during which I had much less on-screen loopy drama to take care of however I’m very pleased that it turned out this manner, and I actually loved tackling Angie’s storyline in addition to the Will Caleb storyline and the instances and Ormewood’s ongoing well being risk, which, sarcastically, as heavy as that’s, that was the place a lot of the humor got here from on this episode.
How lengthy did it’s important to put together for the episode?
Not lengthy. The writers had been actually below the gun to get the scripts out. And since we needed to shoot the episodes out of order, they needed to write 317 earlier than they had been ready to write down 317 so I didn’t have a lot time. We had simply the traditional I suppose per week or eight days of prep. It was a whirlwind of enjoyable, and naturally, I nonetheless needed to shoot. However the workforce is basically competent and tight and communicative, and so they appreciated what I [had] to take care of. I used to be like, “Cool, you guys preserve prepping this episode. Textual content me while you discover out this and that, and textual content me photographs of this and that, and I gotta go shoot some scenes.”
Did Ramón like directing offer you much more confidence?
There are many actors who direct their very own exhibits. It’s your psychological capability for it, however it’s additionally a logistical subject. And since he usually has far more on-screen [time] to take care of than I do, I used to be like ‘nice, I received this.’ He was directing the season premiere. He simply had the most important grin on his face the entire time.
You alluded to it however Angie’s nonetheless going by loads. It’s not as dramatic because the earlier episode, which was actually loads for Angie in shedding her mother. However now she’s considering whether or not she is usually a mom or not.
Yeah. After simply having seen the form of mom she had, now the viewers has all of the context for this resolution. I feel her wrestle will probably be to be current with the choice and divorce it from her personal mom, as a result of she doesn’t need to make the choice to spite her mom, to show her flawed and make it about her. Or she doesn’t need to let the trauma that [her mother] inflicted kind of win and make her too scared to confront this new, probably actually stunning chapter. So, yeah, she has loads to think about. After which there’s Seth who is sort of a very emotionally developed one that’s up for the problem, not solely of parenthood, however of being with Angie.
How was it being in such an emotional place and, additionally, directing? How had been you in a position to handle these two issues? As a result of regardless that Angie’s not doing as a lot as final episode, and lots of what we see being extra inside than exterior, you needed to play right here and, additionally, be liable for a present that has no less than two or three different very intense issues happening on the identical time.
I ended up contemplating it like 5 completely different storylines, as a result of there’s Will’s case, after which his relationship with Caleb, after which the case that they flip up, which is the bioweapon, not the murders, after which Ormewood’s well being, after which Angie’s entire storyline. So, there’s loads happening. You realize the on-screen half is the place I’m comfy as a result of I’ve been doing it my entire life. After we had been taking pictures days the place I had no on-screen time, it was like, “Oh, that is enjoyable. I don’t need to undergo hair and make-up, and I can simply be right here.”
After which on the times the place I used to be working, I went by hair and make-up first, no matter when my scene was within the day, simply so we didn’t need to take a break for me to undergo hair and make-up. That doesn’t imply that I knew precisely what it appeared like, particularly like my very own face. I didn’t know what it was doing, essentially, till I watched it. However I discovered that it didn’t require me watching an entire lot of it for me to know what we received. And, so we’d shoot, after which I’d watch just a little bit and be like ‘nice, okay, yeah, that is okay, after which the following one goes to be tighter in right here, after which, however can it’s like that?’ We’d rapidly work it out, after which I might hop again into the hospital mattress or no matter. It ended up working rather well. It solely added just a little little bit of time for me to need to take these peeks at what we had simply shot. However we accounted for that in scheduling, and it labored out.
So, let’s discuss the way you additionally dealt with and shot Will discovering out who his father was in probably the most you understand Will Trent of how. Within the episode, you had pictures specializing in Will’s jawline, after which over to the daddy, Caleb’s jawline. When the 2 of them first appeared on display collectively, no person’s considering they even appeared alike. Then as soon as this bombshell fact comes out, these pictures are like “oh, wow, sure they do.”
Xmas, who performs Caleb, even discovered some character similarities between Caleb and Will. It’s so nice, since you’re proper, you don’t see it coming in any respect. After which as soon as the reality is there, it’s like, ‘Oh, take a look at these two. That may be a father and son.’ That scene the place Caleb involves Will’s door, I like a lot. Will has a lot defensiveness, however Caleb has a kind of an apologetic sense about him. Despite the fact that he did nothing flawed, he had no thought Will existed; he didn’t abandon him. There was no option to be made, however that second the place they’re first standing there taking a look at one another’s faces, I used to be like, “You guys get pleasure from that. Get pleasure from taking as a lot time as you need to take a look at one another’s faces and acknowledge one another. See, take a look at him. See that. Yeah, that’s your son, and that’s your father.” And Ramón saved going ‘yeah he’s my father.’
Although Will didn’t know his father, they’ve so many related traits. They’re each in the identical line of labor as cops, which is wild, particularly since, once more, they by no means knew one another. What does this imply for Will going ahead?
I feel Will and Caleb have the potential for a a lot more healthy relationship going ahead. They appear to no less than have gained one another’s respect a bit by the top of this episode, so we’ll see the place that in the end goes. However it’s such a beautiful factor to kind of, at this stage of Will’s life, redeem some [good] elements of himself that he [lost] when he assumed that James Ulster was his father, this terrible one that he hates, and didn’t need to know for positive [was his father]. However then Will and Caleb get off on the flawed foot. However, in the end, they’ve the potential to have a wholesome relationship at this stage of Will’s life, which is so fascinating.
Discuss Amanda and her protectiveness, her “Mama Bearness” if you’ll, popping out in her refined however aggressive scene with Caleb regarding Will.
Yeah, I like that. It’s like half risk and half simply the reality. Like, who do you suppose you’re? Caleb’s simply, like ‘I simply received right here. I don’t know. I’m attempting.’ And no person’s prepared for it. Amanda’s not prepared for it. Will’s not prepared for it. Caleb’s not prepared for it.
When Will speaks to Angie and learns that her mother died, his remark, “Some individuals aren’t meant to be moms,” with out realizing Angie’s situation and the choice she’s wrestling with, stings. You would simply really feel Angie’s harm and ache. Will, once more, has no clue, however the viewers is aware of, and so does Angie.
Yeah, it’s such a painful assertion. It’s insightful, and he’s so justified in having stated it as a result of she didn’t inform him that she’s pregnant. He clearly wouldn’t have stated that had she shared with him the reality, however she’s attempting to have this personal second the place she will course of and attempt to make a decision of what her life would possibly seem like going ahead. It’s such an enormous resolution, you understand? And thank goodness Seth just isn’t pushing her to decide. It’s her resolution to make. She’s attempting to make it for herself and for this individual that she can be probably bringing into the world, not for her mom, not for Seth, not for Will, not for anyone else.
How do you suppose Will discovering his father could complicate one thing extra inside Angie, particularly since she’s nervous about inheriting the worst traits of her mom at this attempting time? And what does this imply for many who nonetheless maintain out hope that Will and Angie can nonetheless be a factor, particularly since we haven’t seen Will’s love curiosity shortly.
I don’t know. I like that they’ve one another in the best way that household does, in the best way that you simply simply don’t lose one another and also you’re simply nonetheless there.
Religion and Angie don’t work together as a lot, so to see Religion with Angie throughout one in all Angie’s most susceptible moments is a particular factor. We don’t usually see them be tender with one another, and Religion is basically sort and understanding with Angie within the lavatory scene.
Religion has the only strategy to handle what Angie may make very difficult, and she or he’s the one one who can converse on the topic with any authority as a result of she is aware of as a result of she is a mom. So I feel Angie will discover Religion to be very useful as a buddy, to attach with on a a lot deeper degree than they’ve ever had the chance to earlier than.
With Angie’s new relationship with Seth, performed by Scott Foley, what makes them work?
He’s simply such an emotionally developed particular person, the best way that he takes it in stride when Angie falls off the wagon and, he says, ‘that occurs.’ He doesn’t place blame, and he doesn’t scream and name her names the best way that Angie nearly hopes he would, in order that she may have a cause to hate him as an alternative of hating herself. He simply asks basically what occurred. And he or she then has the chance to look at what occurred and provides him just a little little bit of the reality of her mother having handed, however no context.
He’s such a secure, loving individual that it simply looks like he can deal with her. He is aware of who Angie is. He doesn’t need to change her. He doesn’t need to repair her. He doesn’t hope that she’s going to develop into another person. He sees her and he loves her, and he’s not triggered by her, and she or he’s not triggered by him. They only have that freshness, and he has all the depth of understanding together with his personal sobriety and struggles to deliver additionally to the connection. So I undoubtedly suppose they’ve hope for a future collectively.
Her mother’s ashes are someplace within the sewer and she or he’s speaking to her in that rest room, however she’s beating herself up as a result of she nonetheless loves her mother, she nonetheless needs her mother, and she or he doesn’t really feel like she ought to.
She doesn’t really feel like she ought to nonetheless love somebody that wasn’t good to her, that she ought to search the approval of somebody who doesn’t should have their opinion to account for something as a result of she was, in Angie’s personal phrases, an terrible mom. And so it’s onerous to reconcile that kind of inherent love and identical to starstruckness. It’s considerably of a well-known phenomenon we’ve seen in some tales the place the mom is so undeserving of this adoration, and the kid simply nonetheless sees them for all of their good qualities.
They’re simply overwhelmed with love and there’s nothing flawed with loving somebody however attempting to please them, or attempting to emulate them, or attempting to do something that aligns you with all of their unhealthy qualities is the issue. And Angie, I feel, is [realizing] “I’ve to stay my life for myself, and I’m nonetheless dwelling it for her. She’s not even round, and if she had been round, she’d be terrible.” [Angie is] simply attempting to actually stay her personal life.
It exhibits the burden that trauma has on us. Lastly, discuss Angie and Ormewood’s relationship and, how, with a lot on her plate, if Angie may even be there for Ormewood throughout this scary interval of his life together with his well being.
They’re like siblings to me. They each have towards one another kind of a tricky love intuition, the place they don’t need to admit how a lot they care, however they actually deeply care about one another. They’ve come to be actually shut, however I undoubtedly consider them as siblings. And I feel, regardless of no matter she has coming down the pike for her, she’s going to be there for him for no matter he has to endure. And actually, I don’t know the place that storyline goes, however I do know that they’re basically brother and sister.
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Will Trent’s season three finale airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC, streaming subsequent day on Hulu.