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IAN SPELLING
NYT Syndicate
After 30 years in show business, Miranda Otto knows one thing for sure: There's no predicting what movies and television shows will turn out to be quality entertainment and which simply won't fly.
"I think I have gotten better at that," the Australian actress said,"but sometimes you can go into something that's got the best pedigree and it doesn't happen, it just doesn't come together.
"I always think of pilots I've made," she continued."I hear of certain pilots and who's involved. I'm happy to read the script, and then you ask afterward, 'Oh, wow, is that one going ahead?' They tell you, 'No,' and you're like, 'But that had everybody on it. It was a great script.'
"So there's a part of this business that's just chemistry, which is unpredictable, because it's a group effort," she said."Then there are the other parts that you can predict, if you know going in that the script is good, the director knows what they're doing and the cast is strong. You have to bank on those things, I think, going into something.
"Even then, it's out of your hands," Otto admitted."So I try to focus on the work, the experience, and then hope for the best in terms of everything else."
Otto's latest project is '24: Legacy', Fox's spinoff of its popular, long-running '24'. The show, which debuted on February 5, follows Eric Carter (Corey Hawkins), a former Army Ranger whose elite team brought down the world's most-wanted terrorist. Now Carter's team is being killed one by one, and Carter goes on the run, determined to protect himself and his wife, Nicole (Anna Diop), and to figure out who is behind the murders.
Otto plays Rebecca Ingram, former head of the Counter Terrorism Unit and wife of Sen John Donovan (Jimmy Smits), a presidential candidate. He put his aspirations on hold during her CTU days, and now it's his turn to shine ” or it is until Carter calls Ingram, seeking her help.
Historically spinoffs are no more likely to succeed than originals. Some duplicate or even exceed the original show's success, but most pale next to the original and fizzle out. What did Otto see in '24: Legacy' that made her think it might be in that first category?
"First off, I was a big fan of the original show," she said, speaking by telephone from a hotel in Pasadena, California, during the recent Television Critics Association gathering."I loved the real-time format. For me it was like the beginning of binge-watching television, because you'd just keep wanting to watch another one.
"Then there was (producer) Howard Gordon, who was involved in the old '24' and this '24,' and whom I'd worked with on 'Homeland' in 2015," she said."He's built some wonderful shows.
"Then, when they told me they were casting Corey, I thought that was great, because I'd watched 'Straight Out of Compton' (2015) not long before that and was really struck by him," Otto said."As a young actor, he had a real stillness and confidence and truthfulness that made him pop in a certain way to me.
"I guess it's a mix of all those things, plus I was interested in playing someone in the intelligence world again," Otto continued."I enjoyed being a woman in that world on 'Homeland,' and this was a very different character, with a different experience, but back in the intelligence world."
The clock starts ticking on 'Legacy' the moment Carter reaches Ingram on her cellphone. Current CTU head Keith Mullins (Teddy Sears), who previously answered to Ingram, surely won't be thrilled that she's back in play. Her old ally, CTU communications analyst Andy Shalowitz (Dan Bucatinsky), butts heads with the young, upstart analyst Mariana Stiles (Coral Pena). And, as befits any '24' saga, there's a troublesome leak within the CTU.
Carter is the main character and, accordingly, much of the drama and action centre on him. The political intrigue falls mainly to Ingram, who must carefully navigate the chaos at the CTU, determine the leaker's identity and orchestrate the effort to save Carter. On a personal level, Ingram is forced to forego standing by her husband's side in order to deal with matters at the CTU.
"Rebecca and John are a very strong couple," Otto said."They understand each other's worlds, or they think they do. She's in the middle of going through a transition from a very typically male environment, in the intelligence community, though there are a lot of females, to possibly being the first lady, which is sort of the most iconic female role in the country.
"On this day she's back at CTU because she's the only one Carter trusts," Otto said."He and the other Rangers were in the witness-protection programme and, since she's the only one he trusts, she has to come back in and try to protect any of the Rangers that are still alive and basically take control of the situation.
"But, in the meantime, she's meant to be at a fundraiser for her husband," the actress continued."Though they've been married for more than 10 years, there are still parts of each other that they don't quite know or understand. A lot is going to be revealed over the season about their ideologies and their past, and that'll be difficult and challenging for them as a couple."
The show will feature many characters each episode and, like the '24' outings before it, will move quickly. The challenge for Otto and her co-stars is to pack as much emotion as possible into each moment.
"As an actor, it's ... gymnastical," she said,"because you have to really jump big distances within a scene, and you don't necessarily get a long time to take in information or explain yourself. But I think they're very clever at writing it in a condensed form.
"Also, when people are in a crisis, you see their essence in ways you don't in day-to-day life," Otto went on."People in day-to-day life have time to put up their facades. There's room to pretend, I think. When you're in a crisis situation, and '24' is basically a one-day crisis or a series of many crises, I think you get to the nitty gritty of who people are a lot faster in those circumstances."
The 49-year-old actress made her stage debut in 1986, in the Sydney Theatre Company's production of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant. That same year she starred in the film Emma's War. Since then she's amassed dozens of film and television credits, among them What Lies Beneath (2000), the second and third instalments of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings (2002-2003), playing the heroic Eowyn, Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds (2005), Blessed (2009), Homeland and the upcoming Annabelle 2.
Growing up in Brisbane and Newcastle, Australia, Otto didn't immediately gravitate toward acting ” despite the fact that her parents, Barry and Lindsay Otto, were both actors.
"For awhile there I was going to be a doctor," Otto recalled."I got into med school, then I deferred it, and so I decided to try the acting thing. I wanted to be a dancer at one stage too.
"I'm going through various ideas of things I could've been," she said,"but being an actor lets you touch on a lot of different worlds. There's that 'jack of all trades, master of none' element, obviously, but acting certainly gives you an incredible variety of experiences.
"I've met some amazing people out of this job that I wouldn't have met if I had concentrated on one particular career."
Otto laughed and stumbled momentarily when asked if she'd ever played a doctor or a dancer. She wracked her brain trying to recall if she'd done so or not.
After a moment she came up with her next film, Dance Academy: The Movie, which will be released in Australia in a few weeks.
"There was a show called 'Dance Academy' (2010-2013) that ran for three years, was very successful in Australia and showed all around the world," Otto explained."It's a young-adult show. After three seasons they ran out of funding in Australia, but then they decided, a couple years later, to make a film about what happened to all the dancers on that show.
"I was not on the show originally, but my husband (actor Peter O'Brien) was on the show and my dad was on the show," she said."Anyway, I came in for this film to play an ex-dancer, the artistic director of a company.
"So I did get to fulfill a bit of my dancer side there," Otto concluded."But ... doctor? I'm trying to think if I've played a doctor.
"I may still have to get around to that."
