MARGO MARTINDALE
The Americans and Justified star, 71, reprises her role as Senator Elizabeth Guthrie, the mother of the deceased wife of Michael Desiato (Bryan Cranston), a formerly respected judge who is released from jail, in the second season of Your Honor (Jan. 13 on Showtime). Season 2 picks up after the shocking death of Michael’s son in the Season 1 finale and continues to address the question: How far would you be willing to go to protect what matters most to you?
Talk a little bit about the path that Elizabeth’s going to take this season. She seems to be one of the few people who continues to have a relationship with Michael. Well, I believe that she is not very open to him, but it’s hard to turn a person away who’s been a part of your life. I think that most people, when it’s family, your heart is open, or tries to be open to them as best you can, and maybe each day will bring healing.
You are in the new anthology crime series Accused (Jan. 22 on FOX). What is your episode about and who do you play? I play a conspiracy theorist, which was very, very hard. I’ll be curious to see what it looks like because each story is just one episode. I can’t say that it was fun, but it will be interesting to see.
You also have The Watcher on Netflix, which is a very popular show. What attracted you to it? I was attracted to it because of Ryan Murphy, and I love a haunted story. It has a bit of chuckle underneath it, which I think is fun.
Then there’s Cocaine Bear, which is also based on a real-life story. That was with my old [The Americans] buddies, Keri [Russell] and Matthew [Rhys]; we were all together in Ireland. And Elizabeth Banks, who I love. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who
I just adore, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., so I knew a lot of people there, too, and it was a real fun, fun, fun job. When you look back over your career, do you see that at this point TV is in such a better place? The medium has changed. And I have gotten older and they seem to respect older women more than they used to. It’s been a great place for me because the parts have gotten juicier and juicier. I’m starting a new show in March in
Canada called The Sticky; it’s a true story about a maple syrup heist. It’s going to be a wild ride, I’m excited about it.
When you read a script, does a character immediately stand out for you? I try to choose something that I’ve never done before. It’s very hard at this point, but it’s fun to stretch yourself maybe with somebody that has a very different background than you, somebody who has a different sound than you, somebody who has a different look than you.
It’s fun to really become someone else, and that’s what I look for.
So often actors say, “Oh, they just keep offering me the same thing I just played,” and they don’t want to repeat themselves. That hasn’t been the way it’s worked for me, which I’m glad about. In the beginning, of course, I was always the neighbor, the good-natured person. Then somebody saw that I could kill people and since then it’s been something else.