Actress Lili Taylor comes straight from the heart of the Chicago suburbs being born in Glencoe, Illinois and raised at New Trier High School in Winnekta.
She studied at the Piven Theater Workshop and worked in the drama program at DePaul University to hone her craft. After moving to New York she was immediately cast on a off-Broadway show that led to indie movies such as Mystic Pizza and Say Anything, where she stood out in the ensembles. She has played a lesbian in several projects, including I Shot Andy Warhol and Ready to Wear ( Pret-a-Porter ), and then frightened audiences in horror films like The Haunting and, most recently, The Conjuring.
Taylor had a recurring role in HBO's Six Feet Under, guest-starred in The Good Wife and now returns to television in the sci-fi Fox hit Almost Human, playing Captain Maldonado.
Windy City talked with Taylor about the part and how she developed it from scratch.
Windy City Times: Hi, Lili. I'm calling from your hometown—Chicago! How did you become involved in Almost Human in the first place?
Lili Taylor: Well, for me it was kind of interesting because Maldonado was originally written as a man, and my manager suggested, "What if you thought of Maldonado as a woman and what if it was Lili?" They were open to that, and I went in and read. I thought it felt really like an interesting way to go for everybody. I was interested because of J.J. Abrams and Joel Wyman. They are very creative and have a lot of creative autonomy as well, so all that combined made it interesting for me to join up.
WCT: Since the character was originally written for a man, how did you research the part?
LT: I watched—I'd already seen but I rewatched—a lot of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren, the original BBC one, and that helped a lot. Of course, Aliens and anytime anything that had a woman in charge in that sort of patriarchal context was interesting to me. I went back and looked at all of the old Lethal Weapons and you know some of those classic cop buddy shows.
The Wire, of course, helped a lot. I love The Wire. It's one of my favorite shows, but I love it because that show has a level of veracity that was so strong that that helped a lot, just in terms of the humanity and just kind of the messiness of it.
I had to remember that Maldonado is a human being and not this kind of this person in charge who is just one dimensional but has a lot of dimensions. I also just tried to bring the qualities of kind of a more receptive leader as opposed to an aggressive, you know—I don't know what the opposite of receptive is, but just more of a listener and a collaborator instead of a sergeant.
WCT: Your character seems to have Detective John Kennex's back. Why is that?
LT: Well, I think one thing that's specific to Maldonado and Kennex is that they share a bond because they went through a tragedy together. I think Maldonado really appreciates the way Kennex thinks outside the box. It's frustrating but it's also what makes him special because he's sort of the renegade, a maverick, intuitive, and a risk taker. That's also his blessing and his curse, but especially these days with the robotic nature of things that the more kind of someone who's a little bit like unpredictable for me is important.
WCT: The Kennex and Dorian characters are dealing with a tough situation. What does your character do during that time?
LT: Well, I'm the captain so I'm at the precinct, and I'm sort of overseeing the whole situation at base camp. So it's a very tense situation. I have to control a lot of elements. I've got my men and women who are out there in harm's way. The background is that we suffered a tremendous loss. I lost over 13 of my men and women so I think it's almost like Maldonado is having a little PTSD. It's very intense but she has to stay in control and get through it. So that's what my point of view is in that situation.
WCT: Has your perception of a cop changed?
LT: I'm a captain so I think the experience is more boring than I thought because I'm always in the precinct, and I don't get to go out much. I'm dealing more on like an administrative, political level, and I'd love to be able to get out and do stuff, but the realities of a captain is they just don't get to have as much fun, that's a light word, but excitement, adventure and danger.
WCT: What else can we expect of your character this season?
LT: Well, here's the thing: It's the first season and so the focus really has to go on Kennex and Dorian. I think if the show gets picked up and does well then more supporting characters' stuff is going to come out in a second season. Overall, for me what's it's been is just like more just watching the development of the relationship between Kennex and Dorian and how that has become much more poignant. They push each other's buttons and what comes out of it is this friction but this poignancy that I haven't really seen.
I didn't know it was going to be to that extent but I've seen it happen as the episodes have gone on. That's been one of the main things that I think people are going to find interesting as they view the shows.
WCT: What do you like or dislike about working in the sci-fi genre?
LT: It's more interesting for me when it's grounded in relationships. I'm a little sci-fi illiterate, actually, so I need to like educate myself on that for sure. If it's not connected somewhere in the characters or in the relationship then the context doesn't really resonate for me. What I'm finding interesting about this is it feels character driven and so then the context becomes interesting to me because it has meaning. It's not just sort of props and cool gadgets and stuff like that or techno speak. It's all sort of coming from some deeper place, and that's why it's working for me.
WCT: When stories are fiction, how does that impact your acting?
LT: In a way it's great because it really lets the imagination go, and I think it's the same thing with horror. The thing that you can't see is that which is really scary because your imagination is going on. Imagination is usually much stronger than the actual thing. It's the imagination I think that is sort of one of the fuels for an actor. In a way it's great because we can find them a lot freer in attaching whatever I want and finding my own meaning with the scene.
I also have a freedom because nobody can say, "Well, that's not how it is," because it hasn't happened yet. For example I'm trying to use pencils as much as I can in the show or any kind of objects that we are using presently today. I imagine someone saying, "I don't think there's going to be pencils in 2050." How do you know? There might still be pencils. I feel like it's an open playing field, and I really love it. It gives me a lot of freedom and permission.
Almost Human airs on Fox every Monday.
