Q: How was your familiarity with the source material — had you read it, and do you remember your experience?

Josh Lucas: I remember loving the movie and then I had read some of John Grisham's work, but actually, oddly, I'd never read "The Firm" and then when I got this script, went back and read the book and then really tried to contemplate what was right about this story in terms of it not being the book or the movie — do you know what I mean? It really set out to try and not be either, like pointedly so, and I felt that was probably the smartest take on it, but I do think that for me, that's why I did it was the source material.

Q: So after you read the book then, how did you feel that the show would complement the story?

Josh Lucas: Because it is really taking off from elements of the book and elements of the movie and cross-referencing the two, but tying it kind of to neither because there's a lot of differences between the book and the movie and the show. And I think it was pointedly so that the writer and John Grisham wanted to do that, that they wanted to make it so it stood alone, so that you could hopefully enjoy it.

And I think it was an attempt to do that from a very clear — the book, basically constantly homaging at the most — do you know what I mean — as opposed to trying to tell the same story, or trying to do it like the movie. I don't think it does at all.

Q: What are you bringing to the role that will make this character new or different from the Tom Cruise version?

Josh Lucas: Well, a lot of it comes down to how much they have changed, how much the family has changed and how much they have only had each other to rely on. So in the book and the movie, they're a young college couple. They have their whole life in front of them and they're in a good space. They're like — yes, something very bad happens.

In this case, because they've been alone in a very dangerous situation as only the four of them and then the daughter, for 10 years, they've only had each other. So they're very different people at this point. I think they're much more paranoid, they're much more — they're angrier. I mean, they're more broken, I think, in many ways because I think the whole thing about "The Firm" originally was the idea of this guy has his whole life in front of him and it's all going to be great. He's coming out of Harvard and everything is wonderful and then that happens.

[Now he's a parent too.] So he's got to protect. And that becomes the thing that I think becomes interesting for audiences to watch is that, look, I'm not lying to my daughter when I say to her "You're never going to run again," but the truth of the matter is, it's a bad thing as a parent to say because you're going to run again. You want to tell your child "You're going to have a happy, perfect life," but it's not the case, and particularly because he puts himself in dangerous situations quite a bit because he's flawed. He's deeply flawed.

Q: What qualities of Mitch's did you appreciate?

Josh Lucas: The thing that I very much like about not just Mitch McDeere, but all of John Grisham's characters, is that particularly his men, they're always very flawed and they have great integrity at the same time and that they have a really deep, personal drive to do the right thing. And even if — and often times, most of his characters are always in situations, even if it's like Julia Roberts in "The Pelican Brief," someone who is alone and small against a huge system, and there's something I respect a lot about that, that's someone is willing to keep fighting for what they think is right against a huge system, even if it puts them in incredible danger.

And in this case, obviously, it put him and his family in just horrible danger, but that his integrity, and you could even say his righteousness, his like relentless sense of "I have to do this, no matter what." I mean, it's an interesting character, an interesting drive, but — and I do have probably elements of that as well, but, well, being, I think, very flawed and also developments in my life and having, I guess, drives or ambitions that are hard to suppress, even if it's the right thing to do.

Q: For your character, it's also very important, family, I mean, his daughter, his wife, and talking about moving and moving and moving, he wants to settle down. Did you connect especially with that part of the character? I mean, if you want to settle down from — like have kids on your own or —?

Josh Lucas: 100 percent. I mean, absolutely, there's a direct correlation between this character and where this character is in his life and where I am in my life in the sense that I did a television series probably because I wanted to settle down, I wanted to not — because, look, the movie life is a nomadic life. You're always in a new place, you're always on a plane, you're always —

Sure, there's great glamour involved in it, but the thing that always you come back to is if you're trying to stay on the treadmill as a working actor and you're doing movies, you're in New Orleans for two months, you're in — you're constantly in this, again, nomadic life that, at a certain point, gets very difficult to maintain a relationship and very difficult to bring a child into that.

And so part of it was that I knew I wanted — first of all, I had — at the point that this show came to me, falling in love, gotten engaged, and that my relationship was more important to me at that point than continuing to bounce her all over the world or give up being with her because she couldn't always come with me. And so there was a direct correlation between it, absolutely.

Q: When you get a film script, it's a finished story. It has the beginning, the middle and the end, and with this series, there is an end for the script but they kind of keep it open. As a film actor, how are you able to build the role from the beginning until the end if you don't know what's in the end?

Josh Lucas: Those are still things — the honest answer is that I'm learning as well, so I don't know if there's an ending. I don't know that they're going to tell us because they don't maybe know either because —

There's — look, there is an evolution to these people's lives. I mean, it is moving forward. We are constantly going into — they are going further and further into their lives and therefore, you are learning a lot about the characters and we are learning a lot about the characters as we do it as well, but I don't know a lot of what is going to come as well, like the audience. That's as the show develops, the way that it's been produced that way.

Q: So how are you able to build your character in that sense?

Josh Lucas: Well, a lot of it is based on obviously the source material as the main thing, right, and then contemplating — and the fun thing that we've had as actors is the ability to get together and say, "Who are they? What would they have gone through?" even if it's not in the script. And a lot of times, honestly, it's not in the script because the script is a procedural, right? So it has to become "Why are they acting the way that they're acting?"

And we've had to put in — so we've had to add things like the paranoia because we've had to say, "Look, these people are not going to be acting very normal in this situation because they have been in witness protection for 10 years. If they see something that scares them, they're going" — again, like in the pilot, the car off in the distance kind of being like, "Wait a second, I thought we were done with this, and am I going to tell my wife? No, because I don't want her to be scared as well," and starting to go through those things that I think the character does go through.

Q: Seeing that your cast mates are like family, can you talk a little bit more about that and how you've connected with them and did you admire their work beforehand?

Josh Lucas: Well, Juliette is one of my favorite actresses on earth, and so when I had first been told that she was considering it, I really kind of begged them to make that happen. Molly, when I had produced a movie and tried to get Molly for the movie, because I also had a tremendous admiration for her work, and Callum's work I knew as well. So I felt like there was a level of integrity to the acting that was fairly uncommon for television and that each of us — but I didn't know them personally.

So what happened in this scenario is that all of us were coming into this and there wasn't — we dealt with no posturing and we dealt with no — no one seemed to have to be feeling each other out. There was like an immediate sense of like we're in this together and we have to make this the best we possibly can and we have to fight as a unit for the integrity of not just the show, but the integrity of our relationships and our characters and the things we believe and think about who we are as actors, right? So that was kind of kind of instantaneous and it was — I think these people also feel —

I think we also feel the characters are kind of alone in the world, right? And so all of us being — Juliette and I being new to television, but all of us being in situations in our lives where none of us are children, and we all have our own families and our own children and lives happening that way. So it really felt like we were together immediately as a unit that was really doing everything just to hopefully make the show as good as we possibly could. It was cool that way. I think it's not a — we're not competitive with each other, that's for sure, and that can be quite common with actors, and if anything, it's quite the opposite. It's like we really enjoy helping each other out.

Q: Preparing a character, how do you feel about the 10 years where Mitch is under the protection?

Josh Lucas: I think one of the things, to go back to your question as well, is how much — if you think about why the show is very different from the movie or the book, in the movie and the book, he and his wife were fresh. They were like — they had the whole world at their fingertips in the sense like he's just come out of college and he is getting great paying jobs all over the place.

He's done wonderfully at Harvard. Life is good, and then what happens, happens, but then I think over those next 10 years, it was tremendously difficult for them. They were so alone and they were so scared and at any given moment, they're worried that someone is going to shoot their daughter in the head. Do you know what I mean?

And that life, I can't even imagine such a terrifying — but the amount of stress and pressure that puts on you is just overwhelming and so that by the time this story starts, I think he's desperate to just be normal and just live a normal life. And so that's, I think, the whole — where the story hopefully has a lot of what you see in the first eight episodes is him leading a normal life, going to that something else is about to happen again and how much that is even worse the second time because it's like anything. It's like once you're damaged, then it's not fresh, it's not new. It's even more scary.

And also, I think that's what drives him so much in terms of his paranoia and his distrust for the government, for the system and constantly why he's so driven to fight against it because of those last 10 years.

Q: Tell us about Mitch's relationship with his brother.

Josh Lucas: One of the things — well, that gets into the good back story of the relationship between them that does come from the book, which is obviously that they were kind of best friends, but also because Ray's character is definitely, I think, in the book as well, he's five to 10 years older. His personality is just as driven as Mitch McDeere, except for it's driven in a much more dangerous way, a much more possibly a volatile, violent way.

So because of it, there's actually some very good scenes later on in the story which even explore that more so about why Ray went one direction and Mitch went the other and Mitch ended up bringing Ray back in a sense of not saving him, but definitely helping him get his life back in line.

Honestly — and this is to me the thing that I am most happy with with this whole experience — is that I love this cast. It's family to me and that's where I have found is one of the huge differences of doing television is that your relationships are — you're together for much longer periods of time. In film, it's very easy to dislike someone, not even care about it because it's over with.

The third episode, we get into a pretty serious fight, which is — and it's earned. It's really about the difference — it's cool because it's about the difference between their personalities and then there are episodes where we're really just good buddies and we're hanging out. And it goes through what I think — I have a brother and he's my best friend in real life and we have terrible fights and we're also always hanging out and having a good time, and that's part of the whole thing about their relationship that I think builds up through the show.

I mean, the thing that — and again, that goes back to the source material is that there's obviously a deep respect and a deep sense of connection between these two and it really develops in the show. It's written about a lot. There's a pretty serious conversation about it in the third episode and him and I end up getting in a very serious fight because of our differences and also because of the fact that we do care about each other so much.

And so we - not that we spend tons of time outside of work because there isn't a lot of time outside of work, but in work, we were just constantly talking about how do we make these people not only look and seem like brothers and sisters and wives and husbands and everyone, but that they have only had each other too. And luckily, incredibly luckily, I adore them and I mean, that's not the common thing that — and particularly — and I think for me and Callum, a lot of our stuff becomes the thing of how they're so different, but how they just care about each other so much, which I think is actually quite true of me and Callum too, I'd say.

Q: Did you have to do any research at all for the role of Mitch?

Josh Lucas: I did because one of the main reasons I did this show was — what happened was I had done "Lincoln Lawyer" and in order to prepare for "Lincoln Lawyer," I live near the courtroom, both the federal and state courtroom in New York City, which are right around the corner from my house, so I went down and started watching trials all the time.

And I really found it fascinating. I found it like better than any television I've ever seen because it was just hardcore, real, and people often times fighting for their lives, and being in situations where you saw drama sometimes that was just massive. A lot of times, it was boring; a lot of times, it was very technical; a lot of times, it was very tedious; it was very time-consuming, but sometimes, you would have moments where you were like, oh, my God, the drama was just insane, huge.

So obviously, that led into "Lincoln Lawyer," but then I had been called for jury duty for years and years and years and I kept missing it, so finally, they issued a warrant for my arrest for missing jury duty, and so I went to them and said, "Look, please, I want to do jury duty. I just haven't been available, but can I do it before I do this movie, so I can do it as research?" And they're like "Absolutely not. You will come on November 13 and you'll start." And so I was like, "Okay." "And if you don't show up on November 13, we'll arrest you."

So I literally had finished "Lincoln Lawyer" and the next day I flew to New York and went to jury duty and I sat there for two days and nothing happened and on the third day, I got called to a jury, walked in, and I was chosen — me, with 12 other people because it's always one alternate — to be on an absolutely terrifying, severe, long case that was the most — some of the most shocking things I've ever seen in my life. And it made me so fascinated by the law. It made me so fascinated by the whole experience of what this is, that that's one of the reasons why I was like "That could be a cool show."

Q: Did you have any court or legal training?

Josh Lucas: By no means am I a lawyer, but I've definitely spent a lot of time in courtrooms to get ready for partly "The Lincoln Lawyer" and partly this show, but also I got — weirdly enough, I got jury duty and was put on a jury that was a huge case and ended up being — we were on the jury for a long time. In New York. And we were — and it fascinated me about the law and it just made me — and because I live right near the courtroom in New York, I would — it's like television. It's the best television on earth. Just go down and sit down and watch people fight for their lives. It's an amazing reality and a lot of it's very boring, a lot of it's very technical, but there are moments that are the highest stakes I've ever seen in humanity, and it's a remarkable place of drama. So that's what my fascination with it became and honestly, even before I did this show, I started just going to hang out down there. That's why I did the show, because I wanted to help create something (inaudible).

Q: Has your opinion of the way the law works maybe changed, having had some close encounters within your job and —

Josh Lucas: I have more and more — maybe a little bit like Mitch McDeere — more and more fear of it, I want to say, more and more fear of how "manipulate-able" it is and also how it does often times support wealth and corporations and that's like a really troubling thing to discover. It's built to protect the wealthy and corporations and when you start to see that, you start to understand it and you start to see why it happened and even down to some of the cases we deal with in the show, talk about that whole concept. That's been really ugly to be a part of it to see that that's the way it's built. It's scary.

Q: In the first episode, Mitch says he will first do the law or the things that matter in his life. Do you kind of apply the same philosophy to your acting career and your life?

Josh Lucas: A hundred percent. However, I will say that there's a huge difference, I think, these days between things that you think matter and what people want. So I think this show is an interesting hopefully mix of the two, but that was one of the things I found very difficult in the film world these days is you do these very beautiful movies that have a lot of depth and importance, but there's no market for them at all anymore. That's the thing we tried to, I think, a little bit touch on with this show. So, yes, that's very important to me.

Q: With TV shows being as competitive as they are, what does "The Firm" have, or what does it need to have, in order to stay afloat or to keep going?

Josh Lucas: It has to be thrilling. I mean, and that's the thing that — if it's not thrilling, and the inherent thing about John Grisham's work is you're a page-turner, right, that you really want to know what happens next. It's pulpy, it's fun to read and that's — if we don't maintain that, then to me — and honestly, I'm not terribly interested in doing a normal legal procedural either because that doesn't — it's just I don't find that interesting.

I mean, I know that they're often times successful, but I think the reasons why procedurals are successful is because people want to know what happens next, right? But they also know that there's an inherent structure that they get comfortable with. I think with our show, because it's John Grisham, right, it's the whole concept of him, but the thriller of John Grisham is that if we don't maintain that, then I don't think we can be competitive.

Q: One of the iconic moments in the movie "The Film" was Tom Cruise running and in the pilot, the premiere opens with you running. So did you work — how hard do you work on the running?

Josh Lucas: I work on running more than I — someone said, "What do you — you just run every day," because there was a period for the first seven episodes where at least every week, one or two times a week, I would spend half the day just running around with a briefcase, and often times, not even knowing what I was running from or to or where I was going or if there was someone chasing me or not. So, no, it was kind of — and I think the sense of the character is that's the iconic element of the character is a man running with a briefcase, right? So that's, I think, very much what they wanted to — just continuing have that be the theme.

Q: So this is the closest you do the action, the most action stuff you've done in this show?

Josh Lucas: No, there's quite — well, there's the stuff you saw in the pilot, which is probably the most active, but there's a bunch of great stuff. Some of the stuff I've had the most fun with is what happens after that, which isn't giving anything away, but that I end up being arrested for that when that guy kills himself, but they arrest me for that and they arrest me for murder.

And the action then goes into more psychological in terms of the almost madness that happens to the character when he's in prison because he didn't do this, and now suddenly, he's in jail. And those are the things I've had the most fun with and I would say it's more like psychological action in a way.

Q: Is this is your first TV series?

Josh Lucas: I did one when I was young when I was in Australia and I did a couple of different sections of arcs on shows, but I've never done something like this.

Q: What made you decide to do a TV show?

Josh Lucas: I had done, in the last number of years, a number of movies, some of which I felt were the best movies I had ever done that even got incredible reviews, but not only did nobody see, but that they got no distribution. So they didn't even get — I mean, nothing. I mean, they got put out on DVD, but because they had nothing, no support underneath them, no press, no nothing underneath them, I felt like artistically very deeply sad about that.

There was like 10 of them literally.And there are tons of them, one of them actually, I think, in Canada called "Daydream Nation," which is just a movie I really liked. One of them is a movie called "The Year in Mooring." One of them is a movie called "Little Murder." One of them is a movie called "Telltale." I mean, these are movies that still on the shelves somewhere because they're just — the distribution systems are so troubled these days as you saw from this weekend's box office, right? The system is — and the difference obviously with television is that it inherently has corporate support underneath it, so it can find an audience if it's supported and if it's good.

And I felt like the movie industry was in such upheaval right now that consistently, people are saying and finding that some of the very best writing and some of the best — better than movies often times right now is television. So that was my hope, definitely.

Q: Making a commitment to a TV series and if it's successful, will it take longer — do you have space for continuing to make movies?

Josh Lucas: I don't really, honestly. I wish I did more. I mean, 22 episodes is a huge undertaking and yes, you get a summer break, but it's like eight weeks. And, yes, do I want slam a movie into period of time? I don't think I will. I think I'll — I'm tired already, honestly. I've been stunned by how huge the commitment is. It's massive. It's the biggest work commitment I've ever undertaken by far, way bigger than even the most difficult movies I've ever done because just the amount of material on a daily basis is just a mountain, and to do 22 episodes in 10 months, it's a huge, huge undertaking.

So I don't think I'll want to and I think, for me, that's okay because what I would love to do is do this series for a period of time and then go back and make some movies that no one sees.

Q: Did you really move 30 times when you were a child? So in the show, your family is facing that similar situation again, right?

Josh Lucas: Totally. Well, there's a direct connection between that and what these characters are going through and I would say elements of my life and knowing that we were never in witness protection as a family, but we did live a little bit — we did live in fear of the government. There's no doubt my parents, they were hardcore anti-nuclear activists and they were arrested a lot for trespassing and for building these large protests. So there was often times a black car, the FBI or the CIA, outside of our door just that would watch us and monitor us.

And so it was a strange way to grow up, but it did play into some of the things that I understood about what I thought this family had gone through and how they lived in just constant paranoia. They lived in a constant sense of fear alone, and which my family felt — we felt alone together, which is what I think these characters build on is that they only have each other. They don't — they do not trust anybody else and there was a little of that in my family. So it played into it, that's for sure.

It [the experience] very much helped because it very much was like an understanding of what that life is when you're moving that much and also, when you're moving — I was a child when I was going through it. So contemplating what my parents had put me through, but also what then as a parent, you're putting your child through because of how terrible that is to be uprooted from a school, and every time you have friends, boom, it's over with, you're in a new place. I didn't have the — I lived more in hiding so I got to keep in contact with friends if I wanted to, but that — it very much helped me understand this character and the situation they'd been through, definitely.

Q: Do you have some your parents' activism, political activism?

Josh Lucas: I do. I don't at the level that they did. I have a great — I'm incredibly proud of what they did, but I guess mine has been more to try and do it a little bit quieter, I guess is what it is, because partly because we suffered as kids because of how loud their activism was. I have great pride for people that do that and I find it very, very honorable. I guess I just, for me, have needed to do it much more quiet, much more through — so that it's private in a way. It just feels better for me to do it that way.

Q: What do you enjoy about the whole David and Goliath themes?

Josh Lucas: I mean, it's always that way. It's just like sport, right? I mean, to me, it's — I just am always — I am that person who roots for the underdog in every situation and I believe that's also the sense of when — particular in Mitch McDeere's case, but also anytime an individual is going up against a corporation or against the government or against something that is bigger and more bureaucratic and more capable of using money to destroy you, and your job is to be smarter and more creative to beat them, it's a really fascinating job. It really is and that to me is something that I appreciate. I respect it a lot.

I always — I mean, that's why I think Occupy is so interesting is because it's this teeny little movement which has grown. I mean, it's happening all over the world, these little individual movements that are David versus Goliath. We're in the ultimate time of it right now. The Arab Spring is happening all over the world. It's happening in America.

Q: Following up on all the running you do in the series, do you like any activities/sport perhaps in particular?

Josh Lucas: I love watching the NFL, but I've played soccer for much of my life, so I play on a league in New York, but I haven't been able to here.

Q: Do you watch soccer?

Josh Lucas: I do a bit, yes. I like it, definitely. I grew up playing soccer — I was always on a team, always.

Q: What made you decide to take this role?

Juliette Lewis: It was a real trip because I didn't necessarily see myself doing a series now, but the job came to me and I took it as a sign. It came really easy and it was just offered to me and I thought that it has more pros than cons, this thing. Is this universal in every language? More positives than negatives, so if you wrote it down and you're making a life-changing decision and you write down the negative, I have to — I don't live at home, I'm away from my family and friends. The positive, it's an incredible cast, it's really rich material.

I don't know; it was the timing. I was ready for this change and this discovery and honestly, it was the strength of the script or the story and I liked that it's an ensemble. I actually wouldn't have taken it if I was the lead because the lead never sleeps. The lead barely gets any time off, so I like that it's an ensemble. I work about half a week and I really enjoy my cast.

Q: What research did you do for the part, if any at all?

Juliette Lewis: My research for any part is I talk a great deal with the creator to see what his objective is, what he wants. In the television medium, that's similar to a director and so at the end of the day, when I'm an actress, I work for my director and I help tell the story they want to tell, and then he allows me — he hires me because he thinks I'm going to play this part and do it justice.

So I guess I just wanted to understand the material. I understand it very well and then I add my own — all the things I mentioned. Like she's the type of girl who does her hair and her makeup and puts her heels on. This is a certain kind of — it lends itself to a certain kind of behavior in the way you hold yourself and things like this. And usually, how I prepare for any part is I look around at my environment and I'll be like, "Oh, there she is, there she is," and I just sort of absorb types of people that I think are like my character.

Q: How did you develop your character? Did John Grisham's original story and Holly Hunter's performance in the film influence your portrayal?

Juliette Lewis: So John Grisham wrote a book. He's just hiring who he would think would play the part and so I got offered this job, and then you talk to the director. I just sort of — my whole thing when you're an actor is I'm helping to tell the director's story, so in the medium of television, the show runner is like your director. He's the creator. It's a very strange medium, the way it's set up, because the director just executes the creator's idea. Anyway, so we were on the same page and I know that Holly Hunter played the film version, which is perfect, because I relate to her as an actress.

I'm sort of like the lightest element of the story in that Mitch is solving cases and all this, and I sort of bring the comedic sense to the piece, but generally, I really like complicated people that are full of contradiction because that's what people are. And I also like to play characters that aren't often given a voice, so they may be people that are on the outskirts of society. I love this idea.

What's interesting, and I talked to the show runner, Lukas Reiter, about this, that all us actors have some sensibility. We have something that's similar to the character. So Callum Keith Rennie has this strength and a danger maybe that you don't know what's underneath the surface and that's what Ray has. Tammy, for me, has — she's somebody that you could put anywhere in the world and she would make it and she would survive, but she would do it with a sense of joy, and that's sort of my idea of Tammy. She sort of rolls with the punches and she really loves what she does.

I mean, so that's what's hilarious is she's doing this sort of detective. She's a secretary of a lawyer, Mitch McDeere, and she gets involved in cases and she loves it, she loves it, for the sense of drama. So she's the character that has a real sparkly diversity compared to the other cast. She's sort of the more — she's strange. You can't peg her down.

It's always your interpretation, so some other actress may be different in her skin. With Tammy, I tried to exude a sense of confidence, but she's very much a girl that likes to put her face on in the morning, which means she gets dolled up. This is opposite of me. I don't think Tammy leaves the house without her nails done and her lipstick on and I like this idea of her. This is just what she knows. It's different, but yes, there's these things about Tammy that I really like that are very playful and at the end of the day, I love characters. I love people that are never just one thing. They're a contradiction; they're many things.

Q: In which way is your acting different from Holly Hunter's portrayal?

Juliette Lewis: Well, I find a lot of — there's a few actors I relate to very much in their style and — I mean, a few actresses, and she's one of them, so I actually connect with her very much. You could say we're distant cousins in the acting tree, but of course, she is her and I am myself, so I can't say, but obviously, she has that accent she has and Tammy doesn't have a Memphis accent. This was a decision that the show runner and I decided and she's more neutral and talks like me or something.

So I don't know, I guess everybody will have to decide how they like their Tammy. I just know that she's kind of funny and she's really confident and she brings a sense of — she brings a spirit to the case-cracking storylines every week. We're always solving a case and Tammy brings this kind of fun attitude.

Q: Can you tell us about Ray's and Tammy's relationship?

Juliette Lewis: Yes. So Ray is Mitch McDeere's (played by Josh Lucas) his brother, and Ray is an ex-convict. He was in prison. He came out. He and Tammy are not married. She wants to get married; he doesn't. And they belong to each other and together and they have a deep love, but she has a lot of traditional aspects and he doesn't. So this will throw out — the story line in the future, will Tammy and Ray get married or won't they? We don't know. Maybe if Tammy bullies him enough, he'll finally ask her. I think actually, this question may get answered in mid-season.

Q: How do you personally feel about "the girl that wants to be asked for marriage" and how do you relate with that matter? She's always pushing her boyfriend.

Juliette Lewis: Yes. I think for her, it just means a lot because I think you'll see in other episodes the concept of family because she feels the McDeeres are so close that the only way she'll feel a sense of belonging is if she is married and is one of them, and it's sort of — all that stuff usually comes from the individual and what they're feeling. And I think for Tammy, maybe she was always an outsider and didn't quite fit in, so at the very least, she wants that sense of unity. She thinks a marriage will bring her that with Ray, but her and Ray will always be together. Whether they're married or not, they'll always be together.

I think it has that kind of thing, but as far as if you're asking me, I'm very traditional in lots of ways, but I didn't raise up — I wasn't grown with the concept of dreaming of a marriage in a fantasy way. I have other illusions.

As for kids? I love kids, but I don't think — I'm not — I'm kind of a realist, so my dreams come out of a partnership with a person. I don't just — I mean, I don't just dream of something for the sake of it, like marriage and kids for some — I have lots of friends. I'm a realist, so I understand what that means, what kids mean, to your life because I'm an aunt and all those things and I have a sister and a lot of my friends have kids.

Q: In the pilot we see her smoking a lot. What are your thoughts on her smoking habits?

Juliette Lewis: I was like, first of all, oh, my God, it's shocking. It was radical. I actually was into it for that reason, that it's so — I'm into anything politically incorrect. Anyway, that's what the writer wrote, but for me, I hate smoking at work. And they're fake cigarettes; they're not real. They're horrible. They're worse than cigarettes, so I'm not for it. They don't have nicotine, so somehow, they're legal, but they kill your throat. They're not cloves. They taste like a forest fire. I want to see her quit smoking because I hate it, but as far as like what's politically incorrect, yes, she loves her cigarettes and I know smokers who love their cigarettes, so she's a real addict in that sense. It reminded me of my mom, though. She gets really pissed off if there's no smoking. She loves her cigarettes, my mom. It's so silly because she's so healthy in other ways.

Q: Will you pitch to the writers that she would quit smoking in one of the episodes?

Juliette Lewis: They already — they are going to have her quit and she doesn't smoke in every episode. That was just her bit. That was like her gimmick in the pilot.

Q: Do you get a different kind of artistic sense actually from working on a TV show where you can work with the same character over one, two, three seasons versus doing film?

Juliette Lewis: Yes. This is a fascinating medium for me and my first series since 1989. I think the medium of television is probably the most exciting and most risk-taking of all the mediums today because of the economy and whatnot because films, you either have these giant comic book superhero movies. It's very few artistic little Indies are getting made anymore, so you sort of see this new combination of things in television.

So to do a mainstream television show, all these things appealed to me, the Grisham brand, the fact that it came from a movie. It comes from a really exciting book and my other actors, the cast. So this is thrilling, but yes, the aspect that every new episode, I don't know what's going to happen next.

When I first took the job, I talked to the show runner and I said, "I better be prepared for anything because two years down the line, if we're still going, they could say I put a child up for adoption when I was 15. That could be a new story plot and I have to just roll with it." But I'm very much that kind of actor anyway in that I can go with the unknown and unpredictable, but you have to have a grounded — the character is rooted in the Grisham book and portrayed by Holly Hunter, which is really what excited me, but the medium is absolutely challenging.

I did a play and that was another challenge because I was taking the same material, trying to make it fresh night after night for four months. So this is a different challenge and I'm still working through it. It's been four months.

Q: Were you a fan of legal shows before this?

Juliette Lewis: No. We were sold on the fact to do this show that it was something more than just legal cases and I think it is, and again, I go back to the John Grisham brand, the fact that he approves all the scripts and he's the executive producer and his characters are usually very strong and unique. And that was the appeal, but no, I'm not really into legal. I guess I like some cop — like solving cases and the whodunit kind of genre, but — oh, I like documentary type shows.

Q: Where do you get all the energy to play a character like this?

Juliette Lewis: That's just me, I don't know. It's sort of my job. It's what I've done for 20 years. So I really enjoy the process of film. I like the crew. I like that they set the stage for you and the lights and I like my other actors so much and we make each other laugh and then — and I just show up and make it happen and know my lines and be prepared, and then give the magic that can't be described or defined. I don't know where it comes from.

Q: Tell us about the relationship off-screen with the cast members.

Juliette Lewis: Molly Parker is my best friend, the actress Molly Parker, and you wouldn't believe this, but all of us — I can't believe there's any other cast that gets along better than us. There's no egos in all of us actors together.

Q: Tell us about any outside acting projects you have coming up.

Juliette Lewis: I don't know if it's released yet. It's called "The Days of Mary." It's something — it's a dream and I hope it really happens because I was up for three independent movies before this series that all fell apart because this is the age we're living in. Very unique, special independent movies are harder and harder to get made, so series television is sort of a little bit more job security. But anyway, this movie is inspired by a Fellini movie called "Nights of Cabiria" that I always wanted to get made.

Ten years ago, I had a producer with me and we tried to secure the rights and we couldn't, and then here this movie came along and it's pretty much very, very similar to that — the same. He had to get the rights from the foundation, the Fellini Foundation. I'm really excited. It's the lead role in this movie.

Q: Tell us about your music career.

Juliette Lewis: With music, it's weird because I only know one way with music and it's independent. I don't know this other way. I don't know how the pop stars do it. Basically, all the pop stars and everybody on radio, they represent huge corporations. They have giant PR machines and that's not saying some of them aren't talented, because some of them are, but a lot of it is just — it's people's investments.

I, on the other hand, and a lot of artists I know that I toured with, made our own records. You make them with friends. Omar Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta produced my last record. We made the record in his studio in Mexico and then for me, my entire future is based on my relationship with my audience and how good my live show is or was.

So there's something really gratifying in that, to put together a really awesome rock-and-roll show and have people sell the club out because they bought tickets. So it's really organic, but I learned what keeps you alive as a touring musician was selling t-shirts and your CDs at shows. I don't know about selling records on the radio — you know what I mean — because I'm not from the radio.

I miss touring so much that it makes my heart hurt. So I knew when I took this job, I'm no longer going to tour the way I once did, which was I'd be out on the road for a year and a half, maybe a week off here or there, but when you promote a record, you release the record and then you're on tour for a year and a half, sometimes two. So I will now make music during my downtime.

Like I'll finish recording some stuff during the holidays and then I will release — I may do a record or a couple of EPs as a package and make some beautiful — I'm going to get more into the visual art like with videos and then play some shows. I just won't be touring as much. So it'll be more condensed because I'm also going to do a movie.

Q: Do you find the social network is an asset too for you?

Juliette Lewis: Absolutely — oh, my God, 1,000 percent. The point is you have to love it. In any artistic medium, you have to be in love with it like an obsession because that's what's going to get you off. It's not the dollars in that sense.

Q: If you have to choose, would you vote for your musical career or acting career?

Juliette Lewis: This is a funny question many people ask and I always tell them music is everything. It's drama, it's emotion, it's songwriting, it's performance art. It's anything I ever want it to be and you have electric guitar and drums and bass, so I don't have that in acting. Acting, I work for my director and somebody else's story and I very much love this collaboration, but music is all of me. It's all my creative energy, so yes, that's where I would remain. I would pick that. I just started music late because it was more personal and I just answered this on Twitter. I'm on Twitter, but somebody — I was doing little questions with everybody and they asked and I said, "In acting, I hide. In music, I expose. I'm me."

Q: What drew you to take on this role? What spoke to you?

Callum Keith Rennie: The pedigree of John Grisham's writing, The Firm, that it was made into a movie that also, you know, the ending point of the film, I'm surprised this wasn't made into a TV show earlier. And then the cast that Lukas was trying to assemble, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to work.

Q: How did this show get to you? Did you go to a casting or they offered the role to you?

Callum Keith Rennie: I was actually in Toronto. I don't think I was working. I'd gone to Toronto and was going to do a talk on being an actor for some reason. I was in Toronto. Weird, right? And the script had come, I'd read the script a couple of weeks before and then the show, Reiter said he wanted to Skype me, Lukas Reiter. And so we had a Skype conversation and discussed what he was thinking about the project, went to The Firm, saw The Firm, got the book on tape and they were at the point where they said we'll talk to you in a bit.

And of course talking through my management and everyone was oh, okay, see what happens there. But he seemed very positive and Josh hadn't been put in place yet. Juliette wasn't either and so they had just talked to me. And it was like wow, I guess you'll talk to me later when other things come together for you. Which so a month and a half later, they called and said come down and do a test for NBC, which I came down and did. Met with them all and did my thing.

Q: Which is your main challenge with this character?

Callum Keith Rennie: Every role has its own, right? So this particular one, I don't know, it's finding the tone and trying to honor the book, honor the movie and what Grisham was trying to put out. So I mean, that's a hard one. I don't know how to - because normally I'd say it's learning the lines. It's a schedule that's hard, it's an ongoing thing that I go shoot on Monday and it's keeping rested enough to do a great job, staying on top of it.

Q: Will we see more episodes for Ray or his story?

Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah. It moves around sort of - I don't want to say amorphously, but then all of the sudden there'll be a huge back story of Tammy and Ray and what they're trying to do with their lives and them trying to get together and how they're going to have their future. And I've got almost from the early setup, I have a commitment issue; I have problems with all of that. And how we try to manage some of that with things that are occurring around us. And a lot of that stuff I don't know, I just learn as we go along. I read the next script and go oh, that's what we're doing or this is where we're going. And it's quite nice.

Q: The characters in the film were very different and not as developed as your character is with Juliette Lewis' character in the series. Can you tell us about this?

Callum Keith Rennie: Yes, I think that's cool. I think it's a nice contrast between that couple [in the film] and us because we're kind of a bit of outsiders and don't play by the rules and don't kind of fit in and but we have a thing for each other and trying to — having gotten caught up in the family dynamics, you have to go into witness protection and do all that and then come out of it, and try to participate like a small island, trying to, okay, how do we do this? And it sort of interesting.

If I don't answer any questions completely clearly, just ask me again because my sentences sometimes are off the cliff to the bottom; they die there.

Q: Had you read Grisham's novel? Had you seen the movie?

Callum Keith Rennie: Yes, yes. I hadn't — to be honest, I hadn't read them before doing the show because — and coming into doing it, of course, I picked them up and went through it and he's got a great style and reading it fast and, yes, now I am.

Yes, I saw "The Firm" and that was a great movie. I thought that was a super movie and it was odd that at the end of it, I went "How come they haven't" — you would have thought at the end of that movie, why hadn't they turned it into a TV show a lot earlier because it was sort of a perfect setup.

Q: What is it like working opposite Juliette and her unique energy?

Callum Keith Rennie: Yes, she's fantastic. It started like — she comes and she's a completely unique person, so much energy, so many ideas and it's just like, whoa, you get either pulled into it or blown back from it, but it's always something and it's always interesting. She's great.

Q: Ray is romantically involved with Tammy. What's the dynamic between you and Juliette Lewis?

Callum Keith Rennie: On a personal level? What's the dynamic? It's like the married couple. It's like two crazy people; it's supportive and insane at the same time. She's a super-creative, super-fantastic, super - as I look over my shoulder. She's got such great energy and we bounce lots of stuff off each other and participate and keep each other on track. I think it's great.

Q: Juliette was saying you guys were all bonded because you were all stuck in Toronto. As a Canadian do you have anything to say in defense of that?

Callum Keith Rennie: Juliette doesn't like the cold. But I've worked in Toronto. I shot an episode of La Femme Nikita and it was -30 and we were shooting at 4 in the morning and the trailer heat had all gone out, the generator for it and so you could warm it up only from the gas stove that was inside. So you're just sitting there just going okay. That's a Canadian shooting. This is stuff she doesn't know. It'll be funny, because it'll get colder.

I shot a thing in Winnipeg where it was so cold they drove us up in a van, like our marks were over here to do the scene, the camera's already set, we had to jump out, do as much of the scene until someone's teeth started to chatter and then we'd cut and then jump back in. And then warm up and go okay, everybody warm enough? And then we'd do the pick up from there. We'd jump out and continue the scene until someone's teeth started to chatter. It was awesome! It was terrible.

Q: What are the best and worst parts about playing this character or joining this show?

Callum Keith Rennie: Best and worst parts? That's a trick question. There's only good parts. I mean, there's a place to go every day. They feed me. People pretend to like me. Those are all the good parts. There's the good and bad in everything. You never know what you're stepping into, you never know how it's going to go, you never know the workload, you don't know if everyone's going to get along, if it's going to be super fun and it's the first year, so things always have a push and pull and experimental aspect of it. Are we going the right direction?

So, I mean there's pressure. Maybe that's the part I don't particularly enjoy sometimes is the pressure of it. But the actual work itself, there's more mind chatter about do this or that or the next thing and it's really on a day to day I have a good time, I have a great time. I like to go to work.

Q: How physically challenging is this role? You don't do a lot of stunts in this role?

Callum Keith Rennie: I've done some, but not tons. I've done more in other ones. But that's not a guarantee that a whole bunch isn't coming, because depending on where we get into it. I know that there'll probably be chunks of time where it falls away but then it'll go into a huge action episode.

Q: Were you a fan of legal dramas before this series? Are you interested in being more involved with the legal aspect of the show?

Callum Keith Rennie: No. That's not my thing. If I was to be on this show and I was having to wear a suit and participate in the legal world in that way and be a lawyer, I would never — I wouldn't be here because it wouldn't be up my alley. There's certain things you pick because you go, "Oh, I think I can contribute something to that," but for me to have many, many bloopers trying to play — speaking legalese and having that kind of brain would be different. My hat goes off to Josh all the time because of the type of material that he works with, that's he's really great at, that I go, "I can't do that." So you find your — the milieu of work that works for you and this is it for me, but to watch a legal drama? I've watched them, but I don't — I never get hooked into them.

Q: You're doing a lot of thrillers and serious police dramas recently, so are you afraid of being typecast in a certain type of role like a dark type of role, serious role?

Callum Keith Rennie: I've been typecast for like years. But maybe your examples, because The Killing, it was more I was outside of that complete drama. I was really just a guy trying to get married. Californication, just a romantic figure. A romantic figure - tragic romantic figure. But you know, like when you're going on guest roles on television, most times you're like an evil person; CSI: Miami, 24. That's the way it is. That's how that works.

Q: So that doesn't concern you?

Callum Keith Rennie: No. And what's nice about this is it's a guy with a history who is holding onto an idea of redemption about some of it and trying to make an atonement or do right and try to contain his natural tendencies.

Q: You've done cable. Is it very different to work in a cable show than in a network show? It seems like in network, for example, you have more pressure because of the ratings.

Callum Keith Rennie: This is I think my first network show. It's awesome! There's a bit of that [pressure]. There's a bit more awareness of that kind of stuff. I am at this thing for the first time in my life, which I've never heard of until two weeks ago. So I guess this thing is a thing, right? So this is a thing that happens and I'm at it. So that means there's a whole different world. But maybe depending on where you are in the show, like there's different setups for how things are created.

So this is my first experience in how a network show is created, how it's promoted, so I'm on a learning curve here. And being up in Canada, like E1, I've worked for that company before, so I know how they kind of operate and I'm friends with some of them. So it has a family feel to me, it doesn't have a network feel. It has like people I've worked with before feel. That's how I look at it.

Q: Are we going to see you in the second season of The Killing or do you know?

Callum Keith Rennie: If they talk nice to me. Of course, we had discussed it a bit with them before I came onto The Firm and nothing was finalized and then The Firm came and they said well we'd like you back. I may be lost, but I mean, if there was a way to - because I really respected working on that show and they're very good people and would be happy if there was a piece of time to go and close that out or if we're done and they're still shooting, to go and finish off - tie up that character for them on the show, I'd be happy to do that.

Q: Other than Josh and Juliette, there are a lot of movie actors in TV these days. So do you feel like the TV scene is being crowded by film actors?

Callum Keith Rennie: No, but it makes sense, because as we did the panel today with Josh, he was talking about how like the voice of television is seemingly far more - like television is at a great point where it's super creative and it's great shows. You know, like when I worked on Californication it was better - that experience was as good as any movie experience I'd ever been on. Like just for the quality of work, the kind of freedom you had, the kind of stories you were telling and how risqué it was.

And so TV is all sorts of levels, much like cinema is. At this moment movies, like it's hard because you make so many small movies that they never get seen and you know, coming from Canada it's even smaller than the US. You're making movies that are just - you know, and you put your heart and soul in them. It's nice to work and have your stuff seen.

Q: Do you agree that we are in some kind of golden era of the television?

Callum Keith Rennie: Yeah, I think so. But I think it's also because of the changing of the media, how you're able to view things is very different so you can pick things up here, pick things up there, you know. When was the last time you sat down and watched a series every day, an ongoing, made a permanent date to watch a show from the start to the finish of the season? Because you say you know, I'm gonna buy it later. You watch three of them and go no, I'll buy that later at the end of the season because I'm watching this other one now. And then I'll buy that one at the end of the season.

Q: Do you tend to watch a lot of TV yourself to catch up on what's going on?

Callum Keith Rennie: No. I watch a little. I get caught on some things. I watch a lot of the Golf Channel. And I watch a lot of hockey, but I mean, the last time I was truly hooked into something was The Shield, the first season of The Shield and that was a must-see, go home to watch on TV. And I guess I moved around a lot over the last couple of years and I'm never in a place where you have a normal schedule. I've got a copy of all The Wire. Someone gave me like the full thing. It's still in its thing. I haven't looked at it yet. I'll get to it.

Q: Have you thought much about that, Abby's situation, what happened for her for the last 10 years?

Molly Parker: Well, I mean, I think it's speculation, but I think that they moved a lot. I think they moved in 10 years probably five or six times. I think that they had different names. I think that she probably taught school as a substitute sometimes. I think that Mitch worked maybe as a lawyer or maybe a paralegal or did things that were really under the radar that brought no attention, and I think they just got by. I think they didn't have hardly any money.

I think that they lived in fear and, yes, but I also think that in this sort of us versus them theme that we're talking about that it probably offered this sense of togetherness, this sense of like we can survive anything. We have to survive and so I think they're very, very close.

Q: You have worked different genres on TV and movies. How do you feel now working from material that was previously a film? Did you take something from the movie or how do you develop your character?

Molly Parker: Yes. So obviously, this is a story based on John Grisham's book and the film and the writers — but it's not a remake. So this is 10 years later and this story is moving on from what happens to these people 10 years after. So usually as an actor, you have a back story that is in the text, or something you create with the writers, or something you talk about with the director. And a lot of times, as actors, we made these things up and nobody really knows all the details of it, but it's for our own [knowledge].

Most people probably at some point saw the movie and maybe read the book, and so it's there. So in some ways, it's a really — in some ways, it's great because there's a knowledge base that's there about these characters. You don't have to explain everything from the beginning and also, for me, we can go back all the time. We did an episode recently about her relationship with her parents and we can go back and look at what happened originally and the writers use some of it and then they tweak some of it. It's helpful.

I certainly don't feel any pressure to recreate anything and particularly because, as I said, it's not like we're remaking the movie. This is its own story and for me, what was story-wise most interesting about this was this idea of what happened afterwards, and in fact, these 10 years of living in hiding and what does that do to a family, a marriage? What does that do to this woman? Who does she become after 10 years of living like that? To me, that's part of what was interesting about this particular project.

Q: What do you think defines her strength — and what is it about her that makes her follow Mitch?

Molly Parker: Well, I think that by the time they were in the situation in which Witness Protection was their only option, there was no choice to be made anymore. I think that she loved him and she married him and he fell into the situation in the book and the movie and I've spent most of my career trying to avoid playing the wife — the wife. Well, my perspective is that she's much more than the wife in this case and certainly, as the storylines go on, she's involved. This is a woman — she's like this incredibly moral, fiercely intelligent woman, really strong, really grounded, and she loves this man, but she also has, I think, this sense of fairness.

I'm sure that Abby would like to have a quiet, nice life with her family, but she has this sense of fairness. She can't see people being victimized without feeling the need to do something. So in that, her and Mitch are united. Certainly, they have differences and there's conflict and that's part of, to me, what's interesting about the show and this couple.

So I see it much less as like this woman following this man for love. I think she takes responsibility for her life with him and that's part of — you come to find that it really was a lot of her that, despite the danger, has pushed the situation that they re-enter the world, even though it may be dangerous, that she wants to reclaim their life.

Q: What was your familiarity with the source material?

Molly Parker: I had seen the movie and I hadn't read the book, so I read it around the time that I read the script, so that was it. It's a great read; it's a page-turner.

Q: How's the chemistry between everyone in the cast?

Molly Parker: We all really like each other actually and all these — Josh and Callum and Juliette were all cast when they offered me the part, so this cast was a huge part of my consideration of doing this show, and all three of them are people that I have really respected. Callum is a friend of mine for 20 years. We've done six or seven projects together over the years. He and I actually sat and talked about whether or not we would do the show.

Juliette - I think she's one of the most interesting, magical actresses of mine and her generation. I watched her all the time through the ‘90s when we were coming up and doing independent films and she was doing all the great things that she did. She is so exciting to work with. I don't know if you guys saw the pilot — people will love her in this show. She is funny and she's one of the most intuitive actors I've ever worked with. Even when she does something totally off the wall, you can't stop watching it. She's really magnetic.

And Josh - I'd liked the things that I'd seen him in and I thought he would be great at this part and he is. So all of that to say we work really hard. We work long hours. We work together in the cold and we're into our sort of fourth month now and we're really close, and it's turned out these are characters — this is their family. Those four people, they're all they have, and this girl, Natasha, who you guys won't meet here, but she's amazing and she is from my hometown in BC and she plays my daughter and she's amazing. So anyway, we're having a pretty good time.

Q: Will your character have more active participation in the story?

Molly Parker: Absolutely. I mean, that seems to be the writer's intention, that she's a partner. She's his partner. They talk about the firm as "our firm, our clients." She's involved in making decisions, so beyond that being, I think, appropriate to what a partnership between a married couple looks like now, it also is interesting to me because I get to be part of the drama of the show and not just sort of the emotional — the typical sort of clichéd like emotional support of the wife.

Q: What are the similarities and differences that you have with Abby?

Molly Parker: I am also a mother. I have a five-year-old son. I don't know, it's hard for me to say. It starts to become — after you do it for a while, you infuse the character with parts of yourself or your way of understanding the world, but she's not that like me, I have to say. Abby is — well, I hope I'm like her. I mean, I hope I'm moral. I hope I'm fair, intelligent. I think she — yes, I don't know.

Q: What do you think would tempt Abby, for example? What would challenge her, what would tip her over the edge, do you think?

Molly Parker: Well, I do think that she is a person who, for whatever reason, is good in a crisis. I think that this is a woman who — here's what's interesting to me about her. What's interesting to me — one of the reasons I wanted to do this show is I'm interested in what happens to people, a family, a marriage, a woman who have to hide for 10 years. I mean, this woman had a child in Witness Protection. Her child has never been in the world with her real name.

She has had to — and for good reasons — maintain a level of secrecy and it's a really heavy thing to make a child do, to keep secrets. The girl can't tell her friends who they really are and what they — so I'm interested in that. I think it's really rich territory to explore as an actor. I don't know how I would have dealt with that situation. I think that it's quite — I think there's a part of Abby that has to not think about what that probably has done to her child because it's been the reality and in order to keep her family safe, she's had to live like this.

I suspect — and it's one of the things that I think we're starting to explore in the show — that Abby doesn't really have any friends. I think that she has Tammy and they are like sisters, but they're very different people. She doesn't have friends. She has Mitch, she has the four of them, and so I'm interested in what that does to a person also.

Q: What's it been like — have you had fun being in Toronto shooting?

Molly Parker: Yes, I really am happy to be here. It was part of — I knew they were shooting here when I took the job and it was certainly part of the consideration of doing it. I have a friend here who called me up when she heard I was doing it and she's like, "You manifested this," because I had been saying to her last year, "I want to do a show in Canada." I have a five-year-old boy. I wanted him to come and spend some time here and I'm not from Toronto, but I lived here 15 years ago and so it was definitely part of the big idea of the thing and now it's really cold and I'm not so sure it's a great idea after all.

Q: Are you afraid that with playing the same role for 22 episodes you'll get bored?

Molly Parker: The TV that I have done has been a show for HBO where we did 13 episodes this season and I did a season of a show for CBS in which we also made 13 episodes. I've never done television where you make 22 episodes and certainly, from the perspective of the making of it, it's really hard work because it goes on a long time. What I like about — what I have come to enjoy about TV is that it's constant character development. When you don't know what is coming, it starts to evolve like a life.

I read the scripts and I find out what's going to happen to this woman, just like the audience watches and they find out what's happening to these people, and so there is some pleasure in having it be revealed and not being able to make decisions exactly about how I want to play the beginning, middle and the end. The focus for me then becomes very much about character and development of character over a long period of time.

When you're making 22 episodes of television, you just have a lot more plot to go through and this is a show that is a legal thriller and that's meant to be suspenseful and it's meant to be entertaining on that kind of level. So it sort of is trying to marry this serialized "The Firm" brand that comes through every episode with a weekly legal drama, with a case every week.

Q: A question — you're a mother and you're playing the mother. So how is it because you're a mother, does that play with your mind a little bit?

Molly Parker: Because I am a woman and an actor, now I play mothers quite often — but not all mothers are the same, certainly, and this mother is in really specific circumstances which were part of what was interesting to me about doing it. I mean, she has raised her daughter in hiding. She has had to, for the right reasons, set up a dynamic with her child in which their family keeps secrets from the world.

These to me are interesting things to explore in the show and we do. So her experience is pretty different than mine, but certainly, there's a familiarity I have with at least five-year-old boys that may or may not help in what I'm doing here. Teenagers are a whole other thing I don't know anything about yet.

Q: Before the show were you a fan of legal shows and legal dramas?

Molly Parker: I like "The Good Wife" a lot. I think it's a great show. I think she's fantastic and the writing is great and all of the acting is good on it. So I'm certainly a fan of that show.

I've become more interested in television than I was certainly, than I was before I was involved in making it. What else have I been watching? I like the show "A Gifted Man." I like "Sons of Anarchy" quite a bit.

Q: You mentioned that you're interested in the people who are in the Witness Protection Program in hiding. Have you met somebody who is in the program?

Molly Parker: No. It's not so much that I'm interested in Witness Protection, but I am interested in the idea of what happens to a family who is put through that kind of situation.

Q: What do you attribute the strength of the John Grisham brand and has the cast had any contact with him as an executive producer yet?

Molly Parker: I don't know about the rest of the cast. I haven't met him. I know that he works — he and Lucas, our creator, talk about storylines and character stuff and I have not met him. I think that, yes, I don't know what brand, but I guess that these characters in particular — and maybe this is true of John Graham's characters, I don't know — but seem to appeal to a lot of people.

Abby is a pretty conservative woman, I think, and in fact, I think there's — I might misquote it — but I think there's a line in the movie where when they first go to Memphis and she's not sure about them, and he says, "Well, they're all really conservative" and she says, "Conservative, I like. It's weird I don't like" or "It's weird that I'm having a hard time with."