KO: For Widow’s Bay, Matthew, Stephen, and I talked about playing the comedy for real and that was the main anchor for us. There were particular lines where it felt like the acting equivalent of golf. You’ve got one shot to just not fudge the line and you’ve got you’ve got to meet the joke and serve it as well as you can. There was a certain focus required sometimes to hit it right. You have to be subtle to be able to do that with deadpan. With Everyone Else Burns, too, Fiona is a character who I could clearly see on the page. I also don’t like getting too technical when I’m doing comedy. It’s not a cerebral thing. I like following my instincts instead of thinking it into existence.
AVC: Episode four of Widow’s Bay digs into Patricia’s backstory. Did knowing about it help you prepare to play her in any way?
KO: I had done two tapes for the show, and I was about to meet Hiro and Katie on Zoom when I was sent that episode. It was just the most exciting thing to me to read. They had told me about an episode where you’ll know what Patricia’s deal is because in the first three, they’re placing her right where you have to ask, “What’s going on with her?” She’s quieter and in the background, but when you see episode four and find out about her history, she starts to make sense. There’s so much in it both emotionally and physically.
AVC: Was one more challenging to do one over the other?
KO: I find the physical things easier to do because it’s pure expression, whether it’s dancing or running. I find it freeing. Emotionally, I just reread the scripts so often because I think it was important for me not to shy away from the pain that Patricia feels. There’s a horror of a different kind, which is the social anxiety of going into a room where you don’t know anyone or the people that you do know, you know they aren’t gonna be kind or warm to you. How do you navigate that? Patricia’s got a great quality wherein she’s always trying. She’s never not going for it. She gets it wrong and misjudges people, but there’s a gutsiness to her that I was excited to explore in episode four. Also the fact that it’s a self-help book that she gets tricked with because she wants to improve herself and to get people to like her, there’s a horror in that as well.
AVC: You have almost two decades worth of theater experience. Do you think that lends itself well to this show and character?
KO: I think it does. I’ve been doing stage work for about 15 years. There’s something about getting opportunities to play big parts on stage where you get to work with the director over a period of rehearsal to create an arc and finding different tones to someone. Theater lends itself to that because you have to do it over and over again and you’re always trying to find something new. So it adds to the toolbox when you’re doing a Widow’s Bay. I was nervous because I didn’t want to mess it up, but I also knew I had enough experience to believe I could figure my way around it with the help of an incredibly creative team. The great thing about doing a series as opposed to stage is that you can give options. And the final take is what’s alive in the moment, so the pressure’s off.
AVC: Episode four is bookended with Patricia staring at a group of friends from the distance, and then her joining Tom and Wyck. How does this found family shape the rest of the season?
KO: The shot at the beginning and the end of her story in this episode is very much our director Sam Donovan’s idea. He wanted to show her when she’s on her own, and later when she’s found her people. Yes, she finds her tribe, and it’s an unlikely bunch of people who don’t hang out together. But they’re all outsiders who have their own loss and pain to deal with. So eventually, there’s an acceptance of each other in a way that’s unspoken and they now become the three unlikely amigos. I genuinely loved working with Matthew and Stephen and to be part of this team where the three of them are now trying to figure out the mysteries of this island and save it. Again, there was an unspoken alchemy between the three of us that wasn’t overthought or overwrought at all.
AVC: What was the process of figuring out and working on Patricia’s specific New England accent?
KO: It wasn’t very long from me taping for the show to getting the part and going out for the table read. I hadn’t been to America for years and years, so honestly, that was the biggest challenge for me. I personally hate it as an audience member if I hear something that doesn’t fit right. It just takes you out of it. As an actor, I know that it sucks to get stuck in a tune of an accent and not being able to be present with what these amazing actors are giving you. Matthew goes in and out of the Welsh and the American accent so well, he just ping-pongs around. I was just like, “Well, I better try and copy him.” Both of us talked a bit about how the R’s are particularly hard, and he had to say Bar Harbor a lot, which just sounds like a dog barking. [Laughs]. A lot of our actors and writers are brilliant at and have a background in improv, so throwing in lines and trying to deliver them in an accent was the biggest thing for me. I’m pleased with how it turned out.
AVC: Was there something you were able to improv in or have any favorite scenes from the episode?
KO: It was a late addition, but I loved this bit in episode one where she’s talking to Shep in the hospital room, and Tom walks in and says something about them being able to listen to you when they’re in a coma, so Patricia responds by saying, “I apologize for wasting his time.” That was a last minute throw-in line. There’s also a scene at the start of episode seven that we have to play it straight, but it was impossible to get through for me.
In episode four, I loved the physical stuff, like the final scene on the beach where they’re all walking into the water. It looked spectacular in person. I felt like a kid in the playground pretending to save everybody. The kid in me loved filming that.
I wouldn’t say it was enjoyable, but I liked the part of her going into the party thinking she’s been invited and then very quickly realizing that she wasn’t. It’s awkward. I’m not method by any means, but I felt the loneliness that Patricia experiences in those moments, and that was useful.
AVC: When you were studying at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and just starting out in your career, were there any types of projects you envisioned being part of? How does Widow’s Bay fit in?
KO: When I was starting out, there were no streaming platforms, of course. And it seemed almost impossible to get into commercial television. Working with Mike Leigh in Happy-Go-Lucky was one of my first gigs, and I’ve just come back full circle because I got to work with him again on his latest film. It was a big thing for me to get to work with Mike at that time. And my journey since then has been in theater and writing. It’s how I discovered what my personal taste was. It’s useful to see writers and their process, you gain a new respect for it and for what it takes to get a play or develop a scene.
AVC: How would you classify your taste as it’s developed over time?
KF: I like worlds that are adjacent to ours that I can escape into and where everybody has an interesting face that I can remember.
AVC: There’s often talk about how TV comedies aren’t all that funny anymore, but Widow’s Bay, despite the horrors, gets the humor right. How do you see it fitting into this landscape?
KF: To me, humor and horror are often one and the same. It’s a release. When I’m scared or anxious, I tend to laugh manically. So horror fits into the comedy landscape well. And what Katie and the writers have done with the jokes and scares is layered. There are things you’ll miss, and you’ll be rewarded if you rewatch the show. [The lines for Dale Dickey’s character, Rosemary] are hilarious, but even more so when you know what the full context is having watched it all. We have a brilliant ensemble, and any one of them could and hopefully will have a story. Everyone wants to know who Rosemary is and what her backstory is, you know? It’s exciting to be part of a TV show and a world that manages to hold a story together, even as it goes off in different directions.
Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.
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