Touchdown a lead function in a TV collection would appear like a dream state of affairs for an up-and-coming actor. However it will possibly additionally turn out to be a nightmare. Simply ask Maggie Q.
The actor, who acquired her begin in Hong Kong motion movies, scored the title function within the CW’s 2010 spy thriller “Nikita,” the place she was in a position to showcase her athletic prowess whereas turning into one of many few Asian actors to star in a community drama collection.
Though Q was grateful for the expertise, she additionally remembers the challenge as all-consuming and grueling, prompting her to be extra selective about her decisions.
Her inside pink flag went up when she was first approached about starring in “Ballard,” Prime Video’s new present primarily based on a collection of best-selling novels about fictional LAPD detective Renée Ballard by former Los Angeles Instances journalist-turned-author Michael Connelly.
“I get a lot of scripts, and a lot of them I don’t like,” stated Q, whose actual title is Margaret Denise Quigley. “I also wasn’t looking to take on another show. It was like, ‘Is this something I really want to do right now?’ I know what it takes to be No. 1 on a show. It’s a massive output, and it really has to be good enough for me to want to do that again.”
To her shock, she beloved the scripts. After assembly with Connelly and different producers, she stated, “I knew I was in a room with people I wouldn’t mind spending years of my life with.”
Maggie Q wasn’t trying to work on one other TV present, however after studying the scripts and assembly with Michael Connelly, she modified her thoughts.
(Tyler Golden / Prime Video)
Q is now again on the No. 1 slot on the decision sheet in “Ballard,” premiering Wednesday with 10 episodes. The brand new TV collection is a derivative of “Bosch: Legacy,” which wrapped its third and remaining season in March.
Ballard first appeared in Connelly’s 2017 e book “The Late Show,” and she or he has continued to unravel crimes in 5 different novels. The detective joins quirky lawyer Mickey Haller (referred to as the “Lincoln Lawyer”) and world-weary police detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch within the gallery of Connelly’s colourful characters to leap from the bestseller record to the TV display.
Q felt an instantaneous admiration for Ballard’s dedication to her job in addition to her sturdy persona, which regularly places her at odds together with her male colleagues. She was additionally impressed that the character was impressed by real-life investigator Mitzi Roberts, who labored in LAPD’s elite Theft-Murder unit.
Within the collection, the investigator has been newly demoted from Theft-Murder after clashing together with her male associate and has been reassigned to move up the underfunded chilly case unit, supervising a workers of reserves and volunteers. Titus Welliver, who performed Bosch within the eponymous collection and in “Legacy,” will seem periodically in the course of the season.
Connelly has been a longtime fan of Q, whose extra distinguished roles embody the one feminine member of the Unattainable Mission Pressure headed by Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in “Mission Impossible III” and a dogged FBI agent in ABC’s “Designated Survivor.”
“She has a relentless aura about her,” stated Connelly in a telephone interview. He was additionally thrilled that Q and Roberts share similarities: “They both have a confidence and a fierceness in their eyes. They have matching histories — they both grew up in Hawaii and they surf. It’s like it was fated to be.”
Michael Connelly primarily based Renée Ballard on LAPD investigator Mitzi Roberts. “They both have a confidence and a fierceness in their eyes,” he stated.
(Tyler Golden / Prime Video)
“Ballard” is a pointy reversal from Q’s final collection — the 2024 Fox comedy “Pivoting,” about three close-knit ladies who’re making an attempt to deal with the loss of life of one other pal. Q performed a health care provider who decides to make a life change and work in a grocery retailer. The present solely lasted one season.
In a separate interview, Roberts, who’s a consulting producer on the brand new present, stated Q was her first selection among the many actors being thought of to play Ballard.
“She has played so many realistic, strong female characters,” she stated. “When Maggie got the part, I was ecstatic. When we first met to have coffee, it was like we’ve known each other our whole lives. During several days of physical training before production, I thought there might be things that would be hard for her to work on. But it was never an issue. She approached everything so professionally.”
Throughout a video interview from her house in Hawaii, Q mentioned the brand new collection, her uncooked reminiscences of “Nikita” and why she doesn’t go to Hollywood events. The interview has been edited for size and readability.
Had been you aware of Michael Connelly or his books earlier than you turned concerned with the present?
My first publicity had been these first six or seven scripts, which I learn on a aircraft to New Zealand. I used to be conscious of Michael Connelly, however solely peripherally. I’m an avid reader and I want I had extra time to learn fiction, however I don’t. So I wasn’t schooled on Mike’s large success. After I learn the scripts and appreciated them, I then dove into who Michael was and located it actually attention-grabbing that he parlayed being a journalist into this wildly profitable fiction profession.
How necessary was it while you discovered that Renée was primarily based on an actual detective?
After I lastly met Mitzi, we acquired on in a manner that was very unpredictable. She felt like a sister. She ended her profession in chilly instances, and it was there that she was actually in a position to join the DNA in crimes that had been utterly unrelated.
Though you’ve achieved so many sorts of initiatives, this nonetheless strikes me as an unlikely Maggie Q car.
I agree. I’ve to really feel one thing; there must be an emotion that resonates down the road. I have to really feel longevity with it. A whole lot of consultants engaged on this present had been or are people who find themselves retired. I can see and really feel of their tales and the lives they stay now that they nonetheless haven’t let go of instances they weren’t in a position to shut. The peace they haven’t been in a position to carry to a sure household nonetheless bothers them. The standard of those individuals is extraordinary. I felt it was an honor to inform their tales.
Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer are very dynamic. Renée is much more reserved and closed off. She doesn’t join simply with others. Was {that a} problem to make her really feel alive?
By way of Renée, being in Theft-Murder was her dream job. She needed to get the unhealthy guys. To be demoted the best way that she was — there’s a specific amount of bottling up that comes with that. She then has to show herself in a division that she doesn’t wish to be in and by no means requested for. In doing that, possibly they’ll once more see in her the detective that she was and produce her again to the job she beloved a lot.
“In terms of Renée, being in Robbery-Homicide was her dream job. She wanted to get the bad guys. To be demoted the way that she was — there’s a certain amount of bottling up that comes with that,” Maggie Q stated on her character.
(Greg Gayne / Prime Video)
This present is a pointy pivot out of your final TV collection, “Pivoting.” It was jarring to see you in a comedy.
That present was a dream job. It was an enormous departure for me, and that was what was enjoyable about it. No one anticipated me in that function. It was a present to me. The present didn’t carry out like we hoped. Fox supplied to avoid wasting the collection by transferring it to a different nation, and I used to be not keen to do this.
I’m very inquisitive about your ordeal with “Nikita.” You as soon as described it as an expertise that just about killed you.
It actually did. As much as that time, I had achieved solely movies. I had by no means achieved a TV present, and I used to be very naive. I keep in mind going into it with optimistic vitality. David Solomon, one of many producers within the first season, took me to lunch. He had been on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” for seven years and watched how Sarah Michelle Gellar killed herself being the title character. “Maggie,” he stated, “do you know what it will take to lead this show?” I stated, “No, but I work really hard.” He stated, “I appreciate that, but can you even conceptualize the output you will need on this show? I watched Sarah Michelle suffer for seven years. Everything was on her shoulders.”
I’ve by no means been so incorrect about what it will take to do a present like that. I’m fairly optimistic, however nothing in my bag of tips was working after I was on that present. It’s not simply in regards to the job. It’s a must to take care of individuals’s personalities, writers, schedules. And I used to be in Canada alone, with no assist, main a present that I believed I might be capable to maintain for 10 months in the course of the 12 months due to my work ethic. I’ve by no means been so incorrect. As a result of I had achieved motion motion pictures, there was a stage I needed to succeed in that individuals had by no means seen earlier than. I used to be doing my very own stunts, working with choreographers on the prime of their sport. I’m actually happy with the extent of motion we did carry to the small display.
Folks could discover it shocking that you just stay in Hawaii. I do know you had been born and raised there.
My husband and I stay in a few completely different locations, however we spend loads of time right here as a result of there’s peace right here. There’s no site visitors, it’s low crime, the air is clear. For lots of Hollywood actors, they do the work after which wish to get as distant from the business as potential. I work within the business however have by no means immersed myself in it. I don’t go to events; I don’t hang around. I do my job and go house, and that’s the best way I prefer it. I by no means thought being seen had any actual worth. I simply wish to be at house, be with my canines and be in nature. That’s what grounds me. Then after I’m again in Hollywood and on the clock, I’ve a peace that nobody can take away.
