Amber Tamblyn interview

The Unusuals has been described as a modern day M*A*S*H for its mixture of humour and drama Discuss this article

1

© ITP Images

 

• 
• Picture 1 of 2
• 

Amber Tamblyn returns to TV for her first series role since fantasy drama Joan of Arcadia. Now she’s playing Detective Casey Shraeger in The Unusuals, a gritty series exploring both the drama and comic madness of the world of a New York City police detective. She told us about it.

What was it that appealed to you about your character in The Unusuals?
I saw a lot of potential in the idea of this young female cop who’s kind of a smartass and tomboyish. She’s a really good girl and very honest, and it’s a great character to play. I also love that she’s not a clichéd female character. She’s not a stereotype.

What kind of training did you have to go through to realistically play a cop?
It was pretty intense. What was disturbing was seeing pictures of dead bodies, even though you don’t see them in our show – that’s one of the great things about The Unusuals, it’s not about dead bodies, it’s about how things like that affect the characters.

Did you get any tips from real policemen?
I don’t know if this is specifically about New York cops or not – but in the first episode Adam Goldberg says ‘Freeze! Police!’ and they vetoed that right away. That’s a very ‘TV show’ thing. Nobody says that. So that was good to know.

Did they teach you how to shoot a gun for the show?
I used to go to a shooting range out in Los Angeles, so I was already pretty familiar with shooting.

There are and have been a lot of cop shows on TV. What do you think makes this one different?
This is an actual cop show, whereas most things on TV are not cop shows. A cop show is a show about cops, at least in my understanding of it, and I think we are the only show on TV that takes a dark, sarcastic, sardonic yet dramatic look at cops and how they solve cases – how what they go through leaks into their lives.

Is it different being one part of an ensemble instead of the lead of your own show?
The hours are the same, the work’s the same. It’s just great because you’re working with more people. As opposed to you being in the schoolyard with just the ball, you’re in the schoolyard with 50 kids and the ball.

Have you been a fan of any police shows yourself?
I was obsessed with The Wire. There were such great characters and they were so well developed. I think The Unusuals has some of those aspects.

The first season of The Unusuals is shown on Showseries every Saturday at 10pm.