Has the mystery surrounding who killed Rosie Larson left you scratching your head? Well, rest assured, you’re not alone. Michelle Forbes, the talented, and if we may be so bold, Emmy-worthy actress, who plays grieving mother Mitch Larson on AMC’s meticulously crafted and beautifully-shot freshman series, THE KILLING, is too. Or at least that’s the distinct impression the affable actress left us with during a recent one-on-one in which Forbes took the time to discuss the year’s most addictive new series, the toll playing television’s most honest portrait of grief takes on a person, and why the resolution of spring’s most talked-about mystery may just leave viewers with more questions than answers! 

Who killed Rosie Larson?!
Michelle Forbes: I have no bloody idea!

On a slightly more serious note, having finished shooting the season would it be safe to assume that you know the answer to that question?
Or not. We’re all sort of in a blur, none of us know.

How integral was it to your performance throughout the first season to — like your character — be kept completely in the dark as to who killed Rosie?
In this particular project I really choose to stay in the dark because Mitch [Forbes' character] was in the dark and there was nothing that I needed to know. If I need to know something to execute the story then I would want to know, but other than that I wanted to stay in the dark because Mitch was in the dark in a sense.

When discussing THE KILLING dark really is the operative word here. Outside of the obvious “it’s your job,” how big of a challenge was it to play a character who is experiencing the pain and anguish that comes with loosing a child?
You know honestly, as you said, as an actor that’s your job to tap into these things and these circumstances. In this one it was a heightened circumstance, that’s just a part of your job and it’s a devastating place to be. Let me tell you, especially to have to stay their for five months, it’s a devastating place to be. But it’s what you have to do to complete your job.

Knowing how emotionally draining an experience like THE KILLING might be, what attracted you to the project initially?
Well I didn’t know! I didn’t know what the structure of the show was going to be or how long it was going to be. I didn’t. I think that in my mind I figured that it would be one crime per season, which I thought that would be good to tap into for one season. What I didn’t understand at that point that it was actually one episode per day. That was only revealed to me much later as we were shooting.

Although “funny” probably isn’t the right word, I can’t help but chuckle as I picture you receiving script after script only to slowly realize how slowly the show would move!
Yeah exactly and then I realized that I didn’t really have the luxury on the show to speed up a few weeks or months into healing and I was quite unaware that it would be five straight months of grief. We would shoot for one week and that was one day, the next week was another day and it was quite gruelling in that regard.

Picking up on something you alluded to earlier — that THE KILLING may not just be one crime per season — is it possible the mystery of who killed Rosie Larson may not be wrapped up by the end of the first season?
Possibly. I have no idea. None of us have any idea.

And knowing full well that actors are usually the last to know, it’s probably safe to assume that you have yet to hear about a second season?
No, nobody’s heard anything. Crazy right?

After a show like THE KILLING should fans expect to see you pop up in a light hearted comedy?
I’m looking for something that is outside of the world of grief without a doubt. I haven’t had so much time to think about thing, but I think it’s time for a comedy. I’ve been dealing with so much grief between THE KILLING and DURHAM COUNTY which was also about the grief of a child. Something like TRUE BLOOD which was in between and totally fun something like that afterward.

According to your imdb profile, you moved to New York at the tender age of 16 to be an actress. Is that true?
Actually that is true, but most of what is on imdb is completely untrue. I believe there is something on there that says I was in Oklahoma in the early 90′s which is completely untrue. I don’t know who prints these things.

Was your plan always to be an actress?
I was at a preforming arts high school in Houston Texas of all places. in a bizarre set of circumstances I wound up in New York where I met my agent in the first two weeks that I was there, so it was sort of an odd-fated trajectory.

What advice would you give to a high schooler with aspirations of being an actor?
Don’t do what I did! It’s just by luck that it turned out well, but I wouldn’t suggest it to anyone. I didn’t go to New York to pursue acting, I went to visit my sister who was living there and over the course of a few weeks, just in happenstance met someone who catapulted me into the world.

Having gotten your big break on GUIDING LIGHT, what’s been your reaction to the slow death of the soap opera genre?
It’s a strange thing. I mean everything has its cycle. For me it was a strange torch to carry because I remember being very frustrated. I was working on the job there was a lot of stuff that you couldn’t touch on just due to the schedule. The amount of work you had to do in such a short amount of time. At the same time it also taught me that I could be a marathon runner and handle enormous rewrites at the last minute and enormous amounts of dialogue.

And finally, if given the chance to revisit one of your many iconic roles, which character’s shoes would you like to step into again.
Probably IN TREATMENT or TRUE BLOOD. And I bring those up only because the people I was working with and what beautiful memories I have from those two shows.

THE KILLING airs Sunday nights at 10PM on AMC. Catch up with the entire series for free courtesy of AMC by clicking here.

Direct from Toronto’s Polaris Convention and just in time for this evening’s return of TRUE BLOOD, HBO’s deliciously addictive vampire series (that as it turns out, is a about a whole lot more than just blood suckers) comes this TV Addict’s new interview with Michelle Forbes, who plays the mysterious Maryann Forrester.

The TV Addict: Earlier in your career, it was widely reported that you turned down a series regular role on STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE because you didn’t wish to commit to a series regular role on television at that point in your career. Why the change of heart with TRUE BLOOD?
Michelle Forbes: Alan Ball [TRUE BLOOD's creator]. He’s such a wonderful man to work for and I don’t think I’ve ever run into anyone who is not a fan of his. And, after DURHAM COUNTY and IN TREATMENT, I really wanted to do something light and fun. And while TRUE BLOOD is a very technically difficult show and there is a lot of depth to it, it’s illegal how much fun we’re having on the show. Which for me, was really important, to go and do something that was fun for a bloody change as supposed to being tortured all the time. Even though I was tortured on the show by having to face a few fears.

Would one of those fears have been TRUE BLOOD’s penchant for onscreen nudity?
Not really. I actually think we [as a culture] need to stop being so prudish about nudity and start being more european because it’s just nudity. For me what’s so great about being part of the TRUE BLOOD company, and I mean the entire company, the writers, the production team and definitely the actors is that it is the most fearless group of people that you will ever work with. Everybody’s just game for anything, everyone’s looking for that next challenge and when you’re surrounded by such courage, boldness and fearlessness, if you don’t join in, well… you just look like a stick in the mud. And I don’t think I’m spoiling anything when I say there are quite a few orgies on the show, and once you’re in the middle of the woods with a sea of naked people, it really becomes… just drinking coffee and chatting with the actors. Really no big deal.

Although we’re slowly learning what exactly Maryann is, we’re still waiting to find out what brings her to Bon Temps? Care to elaborate?
Is that not good television? When we don’t know quite yet! It’s really revealed over the season, as is so much about the show. If last year we were introduced to this very interesting and fascinating little town in Louisiana, this second year, the story blows open and sort of spins off into these little hurricane stories where Bill and Sookie go off to Dallas, you’ve got the Fellowship of the Sun story-line and then we have what’s still happening in Bon Temps with Maryanne and the crowd at Merlotte’s. It gets very insane this year [laughs]. 

There has been a lot of speculation online with regards to your character’s statue, can you elaborate as to its meaning?
The statue actually has enormous meaning as the season goes on. There has been a lot of interest about that statue and the Brooklyn Museum (which is where they [the creative team] found that statue and replicated it) have been inundated with people wanting to know about the statue, the history of it. So it’s really wonderful in a show that seems to be about vampires and what have you has now garnered this conversation about Greek mythology, ancient art and thoughts of injustice. That statue has a lot of meaning as we head like a train on fire throughout the rest of the season.

Do you have a theory as to why TRUE BLOOD seems to have made its way into the cultural zeitgeist?
My theory is that we’ve (America) been through eight years of nonsense and hell with the Bush administration — when our economy is just in utter chaos, people are out of work, and we’re stuck still in the middle of an endless war — there is something refreshing about being able to watch something that is fun and escapist. Plus, because it’s Allan Ball and our wonderful writers, the show still serves as a beautiful place for social commentary looking at injustice and compassion. Like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, it’s never preachy about it, the show doesn’t tell you how to feel — rather it raises the questions and it does so in a small sleepy Louisiana town that is very diverse.

Plus: Lots of sexy people running around with no clothes on. Can’t beat that right?