‘The Detour’ takes actress Zea to the director’s chair

Natalie Zea has been a working actress for almost 21⁄2 decades, starring on such dramas as “Passions,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Justified,” as well as comedies including “White Famous” and “The Detour.” But for the first time, she has sat down in the director’s chair to helm an episode of television.

“Actresses, if they’re smart, are hyperaware of their having an expiration date, and I want to stay in the business,” Zea says. “And the only real way to guarantee-ish that is to get behind the camera. We’re not all Helen Mirren.”

When she booked the role of Robin Parker in “The Detour” three years ago, she saw a chance. “I didn’t ask for anything in the first two seasons,” she says, planning to ask to direct in year three. “This is a good way to start because nobody’s going to just hand me an episode to direct.”

Ahead of the broadcast of her directorial debut, she talked to Variety. The following is an edited transcript. fairly early on. I didn’t know anybody’s name (on the new crew).

A: There’s a lot of faking it! There’s a lot of being asked questions that you don’t even know what the question is, and you’re like, “Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure, that’s that.”

David Duchovny is an actor and a director, and he’s a friend and he always encouraged me to direct, and I asked him — “Look, I’m going to do this because you said I should, but do you absolutely have to know what you’re doing?” And he said, “The only rule I have is never say, ‘I don’t know.’ ”

And I really took that to heart. It could be a nobrainer, but the willpower it took for me not to say “I don’t know” was continuous — because sometimes I actually didn’t know what they were talking about or I just didn’t care, it wasn’t important to me in the moment. So it was a very sage piece of advice.

A: I recently had a meeting where I was told there was going to be a target on my back because I’m also an actress, and I guess some people could perceive that as, “Oh she’s an actress who’s dabbling in directing and taking jobs away from people who are busting their (butt) for their first gig” — which I get.

But I feel like the Lake Bells and the Zoe ListerJoneses and the Greta Gerwigs of the world are proving that you don’t have to choose one as a primary in order to be taken seriously. Just because I want to continue on being an actress, that doesn’t mean I would take directing jobs any less seriously or that it was a mere hobby. I think we’re getting to a place where we can do both or even other things and not have it be just a side hustle.

It’s hard. But women are great multitaskers and have done much harder things.