Who hasn’t Amy Acker been? The woman is an utter chameleon. Underneath that calm, quiet and sweet interior lays a cunning and ruthless shape shifter. Or, you know, she’s just a really good actress.
Amy Louise Acker, born in Texas, can currently be seen in the thrilling television series Person of Interest, in which she was recently upgraded to a regular series role. The show surrounds the existence of a program simply called ‘the Machine’, which identifies people who are soon to commit serious crimes. The show boasts an impressive cast, Acker included. Her role is named Root, a hacker and a hired killer who acts as a mysterious intermediary for the Machine. Root is impossible to look away from; she burns with an odd sort of intensity, rare for television.
Acker has been a cable regular seen since the late ’90s perhaps, most notably, in several Joss Whedon projects, colloquially referred to as the ‘Whedonverse’. Her character Winnifred "Fred" Burkle in Angel, as a talented and beautiful physicist, stole a lot of hearts back when the series was on air, and since then Joss hasn’t really let her go. She popped up again in Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woodsand, more recently, in Marvel’s Agents of SHEILD. Acker has also enjoyed steady appearances on a variety of different shows, like Once Upon a Time. Did you watch Wishbone when you were a kid? Yeah. She was there. She’s everywhere.
She was also at the Edmonton Expo this September, meeting and greeting fans, signing autographs, and generally being lovely. Her manner is quiet, intelligent and kind, but her sense of humour is far from that of a shrinking violet’s. We were able to discuss with her past projects, her place in fandom, and even a dark comedy that she has lined up (which, frankly, we are all dying to see).
GC: Your face is all over the Whedonverse! Joss likes to work with you, obviously.
AA: I’m very lucky. I’m very happy about that. I hope it stays that way for a long time.
GC: One of the roles we really, really liked you in was Dollhouse, which was an interesting character, of course, but what was it like being on Dollhouse itself? It was so different for being a network TV show, and just completely off-the-charts strange in some cases.
AA: I think that was actually one of my favourite parts that I’ve played. Often I’ll look back, or I’ll see pictures or DVDS [of the show] and I agree with you, it was such a different show. I kind of feel like I want to go back and think about it all over again. There were so many interesting topics that were brought up, and I’m curious to see – it feels like a show that might have longevity, on DVD and stuff, as different technology appears.
GC: Well, Joss does have that thing where he will have a series, and then it becomes a comic, and then it kind of keeps going...
AA: Yes he does!
GC: You’re on Person of Interest right now. What’s it like being on that show, as well as being surrounded by other amazing actors?
AA: I love being on Person of Interest. It’s just a great cast and we have amazing writers. Jonathan Nolan, who created it, is incredible. It’s such a fun show, and I think a lot of people thought that it was a procedural drama on CBS, and it’s really this very interesting sci-fi show that has explored so many different things. I get to work with amazing people, like Michael Emerson and Sarah Shahi. It’s a really fun job and we have a lot of really cool stuff coming up for this year.
GC: Do you have any other projects coming up, beyond the new Person of Interest episodes?
AA: I do have a movie that my husband and a group of friends all produced that Tribeca bought – called Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife – that our friend Scott Foley wrote. That’s a very, very dark comedy. Basically, it’s about... a group of friends who don’t like their friend’s wife!
GC: I think we can all relate to that too.
AA: [Laughing] ... I’m just glad that they didn’t cast me as the wife they killed.
That, hopefully, will never be the case. I think we can all agree that Amy Acker went through enough horror in Cabin in the Woods.
