Emma Bell was a new addition to Dallas for Season 2 as Emma, the long-missing daughter of Brenda Strong’s Ann Ryland Ewing. Interestingly enough, the character was named Emma before the actress who shares her name even auditioned!
In just one season, Emma has already become a part of the Dallas tapestry, bringing drug problems, infidelity, and some good old fashioned family drama along with her…. and it seems to be a role Emma Bell is very happy to play. We caught up with her recently at an anniversary party for the TNT network.
“It’s fantastic,” she enthuses. “I love being able to play a character that has so many facets to her personality. All of the characters I usually play are like the very blonde ‘damsel in distress,’ which is great, and I really appreciate it, and all of the roles I’ve ever done I’ve loved, but it was lovely to be able to play a character [where] not all of her intentions are very pure.”
To fans of the original Dallas series, the Emma character might remind them a bit of the old show’s Lucy Ewing, played by Charlene Tilton. Might we see Emma and Lucy teaming up at some point? “That would be cool, I think. I’ve sat next to her in the hair and makeup trailer before. She’s really lovely,” Bell says, before pointing out that Emma isn’t exactly like what we had seen before. “John Ross is like J.R., and now Pamela is sort of like a Sue Ellen, but everyone has their own individual personalities. So I think I’m a little Lucy; I think a lot of it has to do with how I look, because we’re both kind of similar, but I think that Emma’s very much her own character as well,” she says.
Being a first-year character on an established show might be tough, but Emma Bell was lucky to have such great actors as Brenda Strong and Mitch Pileggi to play her parents. What was it like to work with them? “Ugh, it’s awful,” Bell jokes. “They’re legends, you know. Mitch I’ve been watching since X-Files. Brenda, of course, I was an avid Desperate Housewives fan; and then Patrick, and Linda… it’s a dream. It’s a total dream. And on top of all of that, they’re all so nice, which is crazy! You go in bracing yourself, waiting for that Hollywood thing to happen where these icons of the industry have no time for you, and all of them have been such amazing people. I mean, I hang out with Brenda and Mitch and Patrick probably more than I hang out with anybody else, actually!” For Season 3, we might actually see Emma finally becoming closer with her mother, too…. though it won’t be without complications. “I think we’re going to have some fights. I think there’s going to be some pulling… it’s going to be an exhale, inhale type thing. Once there is a mother/daughter bond, you can’t break it,” she says.
One other thing is for sure when it comes to Dallas Season 3: Julie Gonzalo’s Pamela Rebecca is not going to be happy if and when she learns what Emma has been doing with John Ross. “I think Emma’s going to have to buy some guns,” Bell jokes, before Brenda Strong adds her two cents into this interview.
“I think Ann needs to put a lock on her gun closet, now that they’re all living at Southfork!” she jokes.
Dallas Season 3 starts in early 2014 on TNT. Read some of our other Dallas interviews!
