Since the end of her time on The O.C. as the amazing Taylor Townsend, Autumn Reeser has been plenty busy with roles in series like Entourage, No Ordinary Family and Hawaii Five-0. Now she’s part of IGN’s favorite new fall TV series, Last Resort, playing Washington D.C. power player Kylie Sinclair – who finds her life turned upside down, after the submarine being used to test her new stealth technology becomes the focal point of a far-reaching conspiracy.
During my recent visit to the set of Last Resort in Hawaii, I spoke to Reeser about her new role and the dangers that Kylie faces as she moves forward.
IGN TV: You’re a few episodes into production now. What have you been learning about your character?
Autumn Reeser: Oh my goodness, I love Kylie. Kylie has this great inner conflict with wanting to do what she’s always done, which is be self-serving and serve the money, basically. That’s been her god for years. She’s ambitious, and that’s all she’s really had to worry about. She’s been good at business, and all of the sudden she’s finding herself with a moral center -- and it’s very confusing to her. She’s trying to make the right choices, and that’s such a fun conflict to play because sometimes she wants to and sometimes she doesn’t. She’s a good guy and a bad guy; she’s a little of both.
IGN: It’s a nice duality that I think the pilot establishes well, because you have that first scene with her, with her so excited about what’s happening with her tech, but then she has that switch when she goes to the Admiral and she thinks that he attacked his own daughter's sub and is so horrified. You see that she’s definitely not 100 percent coldblooded.
Reeser: Right, exactly. I think that’s what I love about that scene, is that it surprises her. Her emotions surprise her. She hasn’t needed to be moved by much in life, and all of the sudden the world is on the brink of World War III, and she’s finding it to be a distressful, uncomfortable feeling. I think the majority of us would say, “No s**t!” But Kylie hasn’t been affected by much. There’s a line where a character says to Kylie, “Nothing touches you,” and that’s been true for most of her life. Now, all of the sudden, life is dangerous for her. People around her are dying, and she’s not safe.
Autumn Reeser in a scene from this week's new Last Resort:
IGN: Yeah, I would imagine that she’s putting herself in some pretty direct harm by digging into this conspiracy.
Reeser: Yeah, there are people who are very invested in keeping the reasons that we nuked Pakistan secret.
IGN: At this point, who are you working with? This show has a very large cast, but people are in very different places.
Reeser: [I’m working with] a lot of our guest star cast. There are a couple recurring people, Darri [Ingolfsson] from the pilot and Bruce Davison. I got to work with my friend Assaf [Cohen], who came over; it was a nice treat to work with a friend. I don’t want to say who else, because I don’t want to spoil it.
IGN: At the TCA press your this summer, I think it was Shawn [Ryan] who said that you guys in D.C. will get to the island eventually. Are you hoping it’ll be your turn soon?
Reeser: Yeah, I’ve been thinking about ways that Kylie could get over there. My guess is that it wouldn’t be until Season 2 -- knock on wood. I have my theories about how she would end up over there...
IGN: Is it funny for you that you’re here on set with your co-stars, but you don’t actually have scenes with them?
Reeser: Yeah, it can be kind of strange. I can feel on the outside sometimes, but certainly the cast is so warm and wonderful. I try to see them as often as possible. Daisy [Betts] also has a young son, so we try and get them together. Jessy [Schram] and I also see quite a bit of each other.
IGN: Have your character and Jessy’s character had any interaction together?
Reeser: I don’t know what I’m allowed to say on this. I will say we do both live in the D.C. area, so that wouldn’t be out of the question…
IGN: Are Shawn [Ryan] and Karl [Gajdusek] giving you any hints as to what’s to come?
Reeser: I have a general idea of Kylie’s character arc throughout the season. I know where I wanted Kylie to start, because I have an idea of where she’s going to end this season. But it is still a surprise to me on a week-to-week basis. I’m waiting on episode 106 right now. Literally every time I get [a new script], I read the whole thing on my phone because I can’t wait until I get home to read it on my computer. People are like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “Shh, I’m reading episode 105 -- in tiny, tiny print, but I can’t wait.” It’s exciting. They continue to keep you on the edge of your seat.
IGN: The response to the pilot has been very strong. I’m sure you knew it was high quality, but it must be nice to see that people are responding to it.
Reeser: It’s really gratifying because things don’t always end up on the screen how you imagine them in your head and how you see them on the pages. It’s amazing that anything ever does because there are so many people involved in making a film or a television show. It’s nice to see it reflected as a lot of us see it in our head.
IGN: The show has such a big, gripping concept. The only thing people wonder is, “Wow, that’s so huge! How do you sustain that in the long run?”
Reeser: Right, right. Exactly, and I wondered the same thing. I had to do some press for the show before I had read any of the other episodes [past the pilot], and I found it really difficult because people were asking me these in-depth, provoking questions and I couldn’t answer. They’d be like, “What will see on a weekly basis?” I literally answered, “I don’t know,” because I hadn’t read any of the scripts. I had wondered the same thing that a lot of the critics and audience wondered, which is how do you sustain this? What happens in the next episode? And I think the best way to think about it, now that I’ve read six episodes, is the world’s on the brink of World War III. There are a lot of stories that can come out of that. That is a very provocative position that we find ourselves in in the fabric of the show after the pilot. There you go. That’s rich soil to build a story in.
IGN: As you continue to be in contact, what does Bruce Davison's character, Admiral Shepard, make of you? He’s also trying to figure out what’s going on, and his daughter’s life is at the center of it.
Reeser: I think the Admiral and Kylie are constantly in a dance of, are you friend or foe? Are we on the same team? Are you lying? That’s the world that Kylie and the Admiral are living in. They don’t know who to trust. Nobody in this show knows who to trust, especially the people in Washington, where people in very powerful positions are very invested in keeping all of this behind closed doors. So anything or anyone that’s a threat to that finds themselves in danger.
IGN: Is it as awesome to work here in Hawaii as we all imagine it to be?
Reeser: Yes. You may now be jealous. [Laughs] No, we are completely spoiled. I wake up every day, and I am so grateful to be here. I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I don’t take it for granted. This is my dream job. It’s amazing. I love living here, I love it. It can be hard after you’ve lived here for awhile, I’ve heard. But so far -- and maybe it’s just the time in my life with having a small child -- it was a good time for me to leave LA, and I feel like I’m only just now processing all of these monumental changes that I’ve been through in the last three or four years - getting married, having a child. I think my life in LA is so busy and so hectic.
I’m so used to, just when I think I’ve got my feet under, something else [coming up] - You know, “I’m going to go to Vancouver for the month. Okay, great!” There’s just never any time to process. And here, there has been. I’m reading again. I don’t have cable. I feel like my mind has some breathing room, and it’s a really good thing because having a small child can be so all-consuming that you don’t have a lot of processing or thinking time. Because I have no nightlife here, I have more processing and thinking time, you know? I’ve worked it out that way. I’m an hour outside of Honolulu. Not only am I on a remote island, I’m in a remote part of the remote island -- and I like it that way! It’s good. It’s letting me focus on this job and the personal questions that this character is bringing up for me. I hope we’re on for years so that you guys can come out and visit again and again!
Last Resort airs Thursdays at 8pm ET/PT on ABC.
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