Psych set visit, part three: Spotlight on Maggie Lawson

(Be sure to check out part one and part two of the Psych set visit)

It’s only fitting that I release Maggie and Tim’s interviews together (Tim’s coming later today), considering Maggie referenced him as her on-set partner. As the first star we interviewed before 11 AM, Maggie served as the sacrificial lamb to our energy, rapid-fire questions, tape recorders, and notebooks. Luckily, the office building Psych used to shoot Franka Potente’s office scenes for this week’s season finale had an unused third floor board room, which the media organizers set us up in to interview Maggie, Tim, and Dulé. Despite the conference table setting, they established a roundtable environment by placing each actor at the table’s middle to foster a discussion-style format, where we all had the opportunity to ask questions. This allowed the actors to easily respond and make eye contact with each of us during their half-hour interview spots. It worked and it definitely established an intimate setting.

While talking to Maggie at the height of our nervousness/energy, I sensed a similar sentiment within her and it made me realize that “stars were people, too.” However, as the interview progressed, the room’s early-morning energy dissipated and we all partially relaxed.

While some actors are instinctive or don’t think about their character, it sounded as though Maggie definitely thought about Juliet. She admitted that talking about Juliet in the third person seemed odd considering she spent most of her time inhabiting that character. As I noted earlier, each group member had a characteristic. Out of the bunch we interviewed, she definitely seemed the most introspective.

Here are a couple things I discovered about the actress herself:

• She has a great sense of humor which she revealed as time rolled on:
  • She stated she wouldn’t mind doing a show with Juliet in a prostitution ring. Then, realizing how we might portray it out of context, laughed: “Juliet wants to be a slut. Sorry. Now you’re going to write that.”
  • When she started listing guest stars from this season that they had the opportunity to hang out with, she stopped herself, laughingly: “what if they read this? Turn the tape recorders off!” In all honesty, it seemed as if they hung out with almost all the guest stars.
  • Mocked that the number of Juliet’s brothers varies from four to five (Maggie has two in real life).
  • She felt that Juliet earned to have her season finale moment with Lassiter, her partner, over Shawn, her love interest.
  • She referenced the dark hair color the show gave her to reflect Juliet’s darker nature.
  • Feels Juliet’s really fun to play, particularly when she’s less cop-like.
  • Had the most fun with Scary Sherry (which Tim also mentioned) and the ax fight and acting as a sorority girl (I totally forgot to ask about the big pink binder, which I loved).
  • Is humble. When asked about her desire for directing, felt others before her on Psych deserved that opportunity first, but wouldn’t mind doing it eventually.

For words from the actress’ mouth clack on to the next page –

Clacked by An Nicholson
on Sep 08, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT