Standing strong
Simone Missick gets over being Misty with All Rise.
SIMONE Missick was happy with the history-making work she was doing on the Netflix series Luke Cage, Iron Fist and The Defenders as TV’S first black female Marvel superhero, Misty Knight. She was looking forward to returning to the role for a third season of Luke Cage until it was announced it and all of the other Marvel offerings on Netflix had been cancelled.
“We even thought there would be a Daughters Of The Dragon spinoff,” Missick says. “Unfortunately, we will never know if that was even given any consideration.”
That ended Missick’s work as a superhero, but it opened up her ability to take on other projects, such as the new legal drama, All Rise. The series follows the wild lives of the judges, prosecutors, public defenders, bailiffs, clerks and cops dealing with the legal process in Los Angeles. The newly appointed Judge Lola Carmichael (Missick) was a highly regarded deputy district attorney who plans to use her new role to make changes.
Missick goes from a series with a lot of heavy action sequences to one with more talking and an occasional pratfall. She wasn’t looking for anything particular to be her next project, but Missick knew she wanted to be part of All Rise as soon as she read the script.
“Lola Carmichael is a woman that we have not seen on TV in this kind of role. When we see judges, they’re normally in the back of our legal system. I’ve had the fortune of playing very strong women, and I’ve been blessed to play characters that are capable and intelligent. But this woman is all of those things and still has a very soft side to her that I think I’m excited for the world to see,” Missick says.
All Rise won’t just be the case of the week, but will look at what it means when a judge makes a decision. The series will examine how other judges respond to Carmichael’s efforts to make changes. Ramifications of her decisions could result in some lawyers refusing to present their cases in front of her. Missick describes how the series looks at the law as a domino effect, where one decision can make ripples through the entire system.
Executive producer Greg Spottiswood (King) says the scripts will be inspired by real stories.
“We’re constantly in the writers’ room combing newspapers. We have lawyers on staff. We have lawyers that we talk to. But we’re bringing our own special spin to it,” Spottiswood says. “So it’s not torn from the headlines stuff that we’re doing. Inspired by the headlines on occasion. But, really, we’re driven by character, what releases our characters in terms of narratives and who these clients are and what makes them interesting and compelling.”
Missick’s previous credits include Wayward Pines, Ray Donovan, Scandal, Voicemail, Altered Carbon and Jinn. But playing a judge is a good fit for Missick. She explains that when she’s not in front of a camera, it always falls to her to be the peacemaker in her family as the youngest of three.
“I would see the other two siblings fighting and I would be the one who would say ‘Hey guys. Can’t we all just get along?’ I am the level-headed person in my family and with my husband, I am the first one to say ‘sorry’ in order to get the ball rolling and the conversation can get to the heart of the matter,” Missick says. “This is the perfect role for me because Lola is the kind of person I aspire to be.
“She’s someone who looks at the justice system and asks how she can change it and how she can make it better. She’s a very smart and capable woman who is also flawed.”