IR Interview: Melissa Roxburgh For "The Hunting Party" [NBC]

The Inside Reel

Actress Melissa Roxburgh talks to The Inside Reel about psychology, approach and mindset in regards to her new thriller series for NBC: "The Hunting Party".

Transcript

00:00You're always looking for new approaches, new psychology, and Bex is nothing if not

00:24that in so many ways.

00:27Could you talk about that and that approach both physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually,

00:33you know, just all through?

00:35Yeah, I mean, I kind of like to joke that Rebecca Henderson, Rebecca Henderson, geez,

00:44is Michaela Stone, grown up and promoted and just a couple years later.

00:49So Rebecca Henderson, she plays this tenacious, strong willed FBI profiler who has been tasked

00:57with retrieving the world's worst serial killers from this explosion at The Pit, a secret government

01:03prison and now they've all gone out into the world and they're all roaming free and she

01:07has to go get them back.

01:11So you know, it's super fun playing this character because every episode you're getting into

01:17the psychology of a different serial killer and I'm pretty fascinated by these killers

01:25who like, the way that they operate in life is so foreign to a normal brain, so.

01:30A nuclear missile complex is one of the most covert and secure locations on the planet,

01:34which is why for the last 30 years, this one has been home to a classified prison.

01:39Wait, did you say prison?

01:43It's called The Pit.

01:47It's home to the most violent and dangerous criminals the world has ever known, or at

01:51least it was until the blast hit.

01:54The explosion shook the whole valley.

01:56The blast wave hit the prison and completely collapsed the central structure.

01:59Only a handful of personnel recovered alive, including the warden, who's still in surgery.

02:04We don't anticipate many more survivors.

02:06Even with the people you're working with, you're always, your character's always looking

02:10for that tell.

02:11She's profiling them as she's doing that, and that's a really interesting way to do

02:15it, especially if you're talking about Hassani or, you know, the army officer or even Garcia,

02:21you know, that, the way she does it.

02:24Could you sort of talk about looking at that because you have to see everything that's

02:28going on in the room and the way you're reacting to one character might be completely different

02:32to another character.

02:34For sure, I mean, it is a team of people trying to get these killers back, but everyone brings

02:40something different, you know.

02:42Josh McKenzie's character is a lot of the muscle.

02:45He's, you know, the military guy.

02:48Jacob Hassani is the CIA, so he's intelligence.

02:52And Rebecca Henderson, she's the one looking these people in the eye, wondering why their

02:58eye looked that way or wondering why their body language said this or wondering why they

03:02phrased it like this but not like that.

03:04And, you know, me as a person, I just think that stuff is so fascinating because I do

03:10think that we do all have tells when we're, you know, trying to be something or trying

03:14to hide something.

03:15And so it's super interesting to me.

03:18When you were building her, because obviously the way she's put together, did you, was

03:23that part of it?

03:24You know, when you came to the script, you're like, okay, you did the research, but then

03:28building her look, building her, the way she moves, all these things, did that come sort

03:33of as you did it or was that completely taken care of in pre-production for you?

03:39I think that the showrunners had an idea of what they wanted her to dress like and be

03:43like a little bit.

03:44And so I had, I had a little bit of input there, but I mean, for the most part, there's

03:51a lot of me in there too.

03:52I'm not going to lie.

03:53So I wouldn't say that I did any animal work or anything for the role.

04:01You ever wonder why the number of prolific serial killers has dropped so significantly

04:05in the past few decades?

04:06No Ted Bundy's, no Zodiac killers.

04:08I don't know.

04:09Good police work.

04:10Because we catch them before they become Ted Bundy.

04:12Everything we understand about psychopaths, all of the theories you FBI profilers use

04:16to catch serials comes from the work done at the pit.

04:19You mean the experiments done at the pit.

04:21The work has made our country safer.

04:24Right.

04:26Look, I understand your frustration.

04:28There are some things I just can't tell you.

04:30That place has done a lot more good than bad.

04:32Some of the inmates have actually gotten better.

04:35And the rest?

04:36And the rest?

04:41Congratulations.

04:42You've done the impossible and made the world's worst serial killers even more dangerous.

04:46Because you have different killers each week.

04:48It's interesting that you have to sort of break it down.

04:51So do you do you look at a script or do you think about, you know, because it's obviously

04:56so many things are based on can be based on real life versus not.

05:00And this is about, you know, obviously a supermax about the pit, you know, at the beginning.

05:04Could you talk about looking at, you know, because these kinds of stories, they have

05:09to make sense.

05:10They have to show a progression.

05:12You have to see how she's breaking it down through an episode.

05:15Can you talk about looking at sort of that logic, you know, and building the character

05:20as she looks at it?

05:22Yeah, I mean, she did used to do this job before we meet her at the casino where she's

05:28profiling drunk gamblers.

05:30And so she does have a history like not none of it's brand brand new to her.

05:35But we do see her kind of thrust into the worst of the worst.

05:38And so as the episodes go on, she becomes a little bit more resilient, a little stronger,

05:44a little less shocked when some of these things are happening.

05:48But for me as Melissa, it was super fun figuring out each week how to differentiate between

05:57the killers in terms of talking to them.

05:59Because she does get to have conversations with a lot of them and figuring out how to

06:04talk to this killer versus that killer was fun because it was trying to get into their

06:09minds and everyone's going to be different.

06:14I spent a decade chasing terrorists and traffickers.

06:17I know how to deal with evil.

06:18I've been up close to it.

06:21But that was...

06:22Overseas.

06:25This is where our kids live.

06:29Speaking of your career.

06:33You weren't made to be on the sidelines, Bex.

06:37I spoke to the AG.

06:38There are going to be some more inmates to find.

06:41How many?

06:43A lot.

06:47You wanted back in.

06:50This is back in.

06:59You did this obviously very well in Manifest as well is that you're showing the humanity

07:04but also reflecting the stakes because you going in and speaking to these different people,

07:08there's such an empathy to her.

07:10But she also knows, oh, this might be BS, you know, so it's sort of interesting to sort

07:14of walk that line.

07:15Even when you went like in the first episode, when you go into the diner and talk to the

07:18waitress, there's a very specific thing like you're asking a question, but you're trying

07:22to get her to bring her guard down.

07:24And that's almost something that's not.

07:26That's something that's sort of like inferred.

07:29It's not necessarily in the dialogue.

07:31You know, can you talk about those in-betweens?

07:35I mean, you catch more bees with honey.

07:38I would say that if she came in military style and was, you know, get down on the ground

07:46kind of approach, she probably wouldn't get too far with these killers.

07:49They'd probably just try to kill her.

07:51But there is a person with desires and wants and needs underneath the psychopathology.

07:58And so, you know, I think she starts slowly to figure out what each character is looking

08:07for and how she can get through to them.

08:10So there is a lot of like kid gloves with these killers, which is which is so interesting.

08:16So I do think she has some empathy.

08:17I think she's got a lot of empathy.

08:20So I do think she has some empathy.

08:21I think she does genuinely want to understand why they are the way that they are.

08:26Obviously, when push comes to shove, she's not gonna let them kill again.

08:29So that's where things get messy.

08:33You okay?

08:34I should have had him.

08:37Well, you saved Corinne.

08:40Yeah, and now he has exactly what he needs to torture the next one.

08:50And my last question.

09:05This is the you know, and we've talked about this before about perspective and perception.

09:09And it's interesting.

09:10That's almost a thematic here, because even like when you're talking to Hassani, for example,

09:15you you say, well, we're hunting people on domestic soil.

09:18This is an international.

09:19This is a different country.

09:20So there's a sort of differentiation on perspective.

09:24And her perspective is so interesting.

09:26But she's almost able to see the perception coming back.

09:29Can you talk about the balance of perspective and perception in this character?

09:34And then I'll let you go.

09:36I think, you know, every character in a show represents something different.

09:39I think if I were to take a guess, she would be representative of just the people

09:44like, you know, American citizens.

09:47And I think she's not looking at it like how can we keep massive organization

09:53secrets at bay or and she's not looking at it like I just want to be a rebellious

09:58teenager getting the bad guys.

10:00She's kind of in this middle area of I want what's best for everyone.

10:04I'm not afraid to say it.

10:05I'm not afraid to stand up for that.

10:07I won't let you cross lines and I won't let you cross lines.

10:10She's kind of the mediator of different groups of people.

10:14So and I think she's able to do that because she spends so long psychoanalyzing

10:20everyone that she knows how to navigate situations a little bit better.

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