JOAN ALLEN
‘Room’ clears way for ‘Family’
“The irony of getting those parts, one after the other, was surprising,” says Joan Allen, who again plays a character who faces the disappearance of a loved one.
In last year’s acclaimed film Room, Joan Allen played a woman whose daughter — portrayed by Oscar winner Brie Larson — was abducted, held captive and abused for years. In the new ABC drama The Family (Thursday, 9 p.m. ET/PT, then Sundays at 9), Allen is a small-town politician and mother of three whose younger son suffers a similar ordeal for a decade, then reappears at 19 after having been presumed dead.
“The irony of getting those parts, one after the other, was surprising,” Allen says, noting that she completed Room “right before Christmas in 2014, then got the pilot for The Family around January (2015), and shot it last March.”
Chatting at a favorite diner near her Upper West Side home, the veteran actress, 59, expresses compassion for her Family character, Claire Warren, who hardly comes across as warm and fuzzy.
“I saw her as very driven,” Allen says of the former stay-at-home mom who’s mayor of fictional Red Pines, Maine. “I think before getting into politics she was president of the PTA. She had a natural ability to organize and get things done, and she waded into the city council and mayorship. But I think some of that was a response to the grief and trauma she went through. Some people in situations like that become alcoholics; some become activists.” Allen was impressed by how
Family executive producer Jenna
Bans ( Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) flipped gender stereotypes in developing Claire and her husband, John, played by Rupert Graves. “Rupert’s character has done more of what you’d expect a woman to do, in going to group sessions, talking and writing books about loss and grief.”
In researching the role, Allen watched footage of Hillary Clinton and kept in mind another female politician whose background and views are quite different: Sarah Palin. “Hillary’s a groomed politician; she went to law school, was always interested in policy and highly educated. Not that Claire isn’t, but her political abilities are more instinctual.”
Claire shares something else in common with Palin: “When Jenna approached me, she said, ‘I think Claire should be a Republican.’ I encouraged that direction, because I thought it would be more fun to play — even if some of my friends may not talk to me now.”
Playing a woman who juggles motherhood with a busy career was certainly no stretch for Allen, who has a 22-year-old daughter. A Tony Award-winning stage actress who launched her career with Chicago’s celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company, she has appeared only once on Broadway, and once at Steppenwolf, since becoming a parent.
“Some of that was connected with not wanting to miss my daughter’s bedtime,” Allen says. But “I’m not as interested now in doing the same thing over and over again, particularly if it’s really emotionally demanding.”
Television, in contrast — which Allen has embraced in recent years with recurring roles on AMC’s The Killing and HBO’s
Luck — is attractive for its episodic nature. “With every episode, I learn more about the character,” Allen says. “I think you’ll see, as the episodes unfold, Claire’s mama-bear qualities become even more clear. You’ll see.”