She also discussed her time onDeadwoodand how meaningful the experience was.
When this came your way, how much did you know?
Did you have any idea just how deep youd get into that?
Certainly, her core is the same, but her behavior and her personality change.
This womans life is defined by these two moments where she has lost everything.
To me, whats great about the show is we get to see her make both choices.
Image via Fox
And yet, we dont have to apologize for that because thats not all she is.
We get to see all aspects of her, like we all have.
Ive never done anything like this before.
Its a genre that people obviously love because it really works.
At its best, it is this great container for that really deep character work.
Its also fun, its juicy, theres a love triangle, and there are super high stakes.
Image via Fox
Dr. Pierdante Piccioni’s incredible story is the inspiration for this new series.
The show is told in a number of different time frames.
I think thats a fundamental part of the show.
This woman is a brilliant diagnostician.
Thats what shes really good at.
But shes also a mystery to herself, and that, to me, is fun.
Is it a little bit out of body when you know youre filming a scene like that?
PARKER: It was super out of body.
When we shot it, I had laryngitis and I was really sick.
Dr. Amy Larsen, Chief of Internal and Family Medicine at Westside Hospital in Minneapolis, faces a profound challenge after a brain injury erases eight years of her memory. She must rebuild her personal and professional life, relying on her estranged 17-year-old daughter and close friends, while striving to continue practicing medicine despite the significant loss of experience.
At one point, they hung me upside down in front of a green screen in a harness.
It looks really cool.
Thank God for stunt people.
Theres something really beautiful about her getting a chance to make that right.
What was that like to explore?
PARKER: That relationship with her daughter is really interesting.
This woman is doing the best she can, and the best she can do is just not die.
Thats so heavy and horrible, but I think thats true for her.
And so, she just throws herself into her work, and thats the best she can do.
And then, she gets this other moment to reconnect.
She doesnt get to do those things over.
None of us do.
But we can always make changes, going forward.
I think theres also a lot of grief in watching your kids get older.
I have an 18-year-old, and were really close.
We have a great relationship.
But part of me mourns that the little guy is gone.
Hes not that little guy anymore.
Hes six feet tall.
And it makes me so sad sometimes.
I can relate to that, and I think a lot of people can relate to that.
When you have a baby, you think, This is it.
This is the rest of my life.
Its this one era of your life.
Its these 20 years, but then theyre grown.
Theyre still a part of your life, but that keeps changing.
But shes failed her daughter, and thats a truth that they need to confront.
Another really interesting relationship in this show is the one between Amy and Sonya (Anya Banerjee).
What was the episode like to shoot?
PARKER: That was great.
Anya, who plays Sonya, is this wonderful young actor from New Zealand.
She just killed it in that episode.
She did such a great job.
Its a really interesting and tricky dynamic between the two of them.
On the one hand, yes, Amy became not a very nice person.
On the other hand, shes a boss, shes that womans boss, and shes a tough boss.
Its a really serious job.
The job is important, so her expectations of the people who work under her are extremely high.
We get to see Amy growing, and we get to see Sonya growing too.
Parker plays a doctor who forgets the past eight years of her life after a car crash.
When you have a love triangle, its especially compelling when both options are good people.
PARKER: Because, in the end, its not about them.
Their story is about them.
The person whos better for her is gonna depend on who she becomes.
And for some reason, he was able to make that safe for her to do with him.
I think thats gonna be really interesting, going forward.
There are lots of juicy, fun problems there.
The dynamic with Richard stands out because its a one-sided adversarial relationship that she doesnt understand.
PARKER: Hes fighting this ghost, this version of her that doesnt seem to exist anymore.
Hes so full of fear that shell remember who she was and what she knows about him.
We really come to understand why this man did the things that he did, and its tragic.
He makes a mistake, but its always the cover-up that gets you.
And Scott [Wolf] is so good.
There is definitely room for things to continue in another season.
What would you be most interested in exploring next for her?
Do you know what could come next?
Are there things that you specifically want to dig in deeper into?
Thats a part of herself that she really shut down.
She was tragically self-sufficient, which I completely relate to.
Because she doesnt know who she is, she has to listen to everyone else.
They tell her who she became.
She has to trust them.
She has to believe people.
That stuff about identity and how we form our identity is interesting to me.
Typically, by the time one is middle age, your identity is pretty formed.
I think the first couple episodes of the show are wonderful, and theyre very emotional.
Its a lot of setting that scene.
Im into exploring the fun parts of this format.
“Welcome to f**king Deadwood!”
Does that still feel like it was a special experience?
Is that one of those projects that you think will always hold a special place in your heart?
PARKER: Absolutely, and I wish it had been longer.
Its only three seasons.
WhenDeadwoodcame, it was David Milch.
He wrote that whole thing.
It seemed like it came fully formed out of him.
I was just incredibly lucky.
Im proud to have been a part of it.
Docairs on Fox and is available to stream on Hulu.
Check out the trailer:
Watch on Hulu
