Last week, we visited the Burbank sets of the new CBS series Stalker, which comes from the mind of Kevin Williamson (The Following, Scream) and stars Maggie Q (Nikita) and Dylan McDermott (The Practice) as two characters who have a lot more going on than what you might initially see on the surface.
“They both have pasts,” McDermott said about both his character of Jack Larsen and Maggie’s character, Beth Davis, and cited that as a reason he was attracted to the show. “A lot of these procedural shows, you don’t really know much about the characters, and I think the great thing about this show is that there’s a lot of meat on the bone, and certainly Beth’s character has mystery to her character, and I think that Jack certainly does, too, and the unraveling and the unveiling of that through hopefully many seasons, we’ll hopefully get to know them a lot more,” he says.
For Maggie Q, it’s an interesting transition from the very action-oriented Nikita to a very different kind of show. Does she miss all of the action? “It’s weird. They’re filling that void with just work,” she laughs. “This show has really long hours, but so was Nikita. If I did a twelve-hour day, I felt like I hadn’t done anything. It was just a really long day. We were doing 14-17 hour days on Nikita, and we worked a lot of six-day weeks. And in addition to everything else we were doing, there was action, and there was big action. So that was all packed in, and I thought I was gonna die on that show. So on this, it’s like a steady fatigue. It’s really long hours as well, but there’s so much to do in these episodes! So there’s so much dialogue, so much to actually kind of… it’s weird. It’s the same hours, but it’s mental fatigue,” she laughs. “That one was mental and physical fatigue, and this one is just pure mental fatigue, really. It’s funny, but it’s true.”
Does Maggie feel this new role is more adult than the one she had on Nikita? “I totally do. I actually feel my age coming into play in this role, and exploring a sense of strength that’s different than kicking ass and doing all of that stuff. There’s something very internally strong about Beth, because her circumstance has been rough. We’ll find that out later. I like that. I just like that. I think that strength is also – if it’s real, it’s deep. It’s innate. It’s something you feel when someone walks into a room. It’s something you feel when somebody opens their mouth. You know it. You just know it. You know you don’t mess with certain people. You know that certain people have a depth of experience and knowledge, and that’s very, very much her. So I’m enjoying that, because I think that is a true example of a strong woman.”
Stalker premieres next week (October 1) at 10PM on CBS. Take a look at video of our interview below. Our apologies for the incredibly awkward camera angle, but hey, it goes with the tone of the show, right?
