Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010

Q&A: Rose Byrne of Damages

Rose Byrne of 'Damages' finds acting 'pretty silly,' but revels in her role on the FX legal thriller.

DAVID MARTINDALE

Special to dfw.com

Rose Byrne plays a whip smart attorney in Damages, FX’s addictive legal thriller, now in its third season. But in real life, if the Australian actress were dropped off at a big-city courtroom and pressed to pose as a real lawyer, she wouldn’t last more than a few minutes before being found out as a complete phony. “Oh, goodness, no,” Byrne says at the thought. “I went to university, but I didn’t study law. I could never do what they do.” There are times on the set when she also feels like a fraud, especially given that last year she spent a day in the New York District Attorney’s office observing her real-life counterparts in action. Compared to the work that they do, she muses, “Acting is a pretty silly job. It’s slightly ridiculous.” Yet she’s so good at it, worthy of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 2009. In previous seasons, Byrne’s character, Ellen Parsons, found herself entangled in cases that were bloody messes, literally. In Season 3, Ellen has left her soul-crushing job at Hewes & Associates, but she is still destined to get mixed up in a gruesome death. This time, as we learned in the season premiere, it’s Tate Donovan’s Tom Shayes who is fated to die. Damages airs 9 p.m. CT Mondays on FX.

The show, which jumps back and forth between two time frames six months apart, vividly illustrates how dramatically life can change in a very short period of time. If you look back at where your character was, and also where you were as an actress, do you marvel at the huge changes? “Absolutely. Ellen was really a child in the first season, a teenager in the second, and I think she’s really a woman now when we meet her in the third season. It has been a real evolution. Every season has been kind of like playing a new person in a lot of ways, which is exciting, because it’s always different. I was also at an [in-between] age when I started on the show. I wasn’t in my early 20s any more and I wasn’t into my 30s yet either. I was at a funny age for an actor and the character was exactly that age too. So we had a lot of similarities.”

What was your day with real-life D.A.s like? And what did you learn that we see in your character? “I went down to the District Attorney’s office in New York and met with some great young women down there, who are working for the D.A. They took me around with two of the other writers and we spent a half a day wandering around and asking lots of questions in their office. They were extremely helpful and it was fascinating to see the world down there in a different light, compared to something like Hewes & Associates, which is very glamorous and prestigious. The D.A.’s office is a completely different work environment. And the people coming in and out, there are all sorts. Part of the fun of being an actor is the research. And it was interesting: These women, they had time for a life outside the office, compared to working as an associate for someone like Patty Hewes [played by Glenn Close], when you really have no life at all. That difference was very imperative to Ellen’s story this season when we first meet her again.”

What attracted you to this show in the first place? “I came in late in the casting process. I had said to my agent — I guess three years ago now — I had been watching a lot of series, Rescue Me and The Sopranos and whatnot, and I said if there’s anything good like that out there, I would love to audition. They sent me Damages and Glenn Close was attached. I was immediately intrigued.”

What is Ellen’s love life going to be like this season? “Tim Olyphant [who played love interest Wes Krulik in season two] has his own show now. He was a hit with FX and got his own show. [Justified premieres on FX in March.] So Ellen does have somewhat of a personal life, but it’s very much about her work this season than anything else.”

Have you gotten to work alongside many of the new big-name cast members yet? “So far I haven’t. I’ve had just one scene with Martin Short. And I had one scene with Campbell Scott. That’s it. In the second half of the season, I think I might be interacting with them more. I would like to. I love Lily Tomlin. I’m such a fan.”

Your character seems to be better off when she’s not in Patty’s world. Too bad for her, but good for the show, that it can’t last, right? “Just time away from Patty and from Hewes & Associates and getting her life together piece by piece, I would say she’d just been putting one foot in front of another, really. When we started Season 3, Ellen is in a much more contented place in a way and has really quite truly moved on. When they do get back together, it’s much more on Ellen’s terms. She has to have distance from Patty, because otherwise she’ll get consumed by her again. She’s very much a different person when we meet her in the third season compared to the drama and the trauma of Season 2.”

So what keeps Ellen going back into Patty’s world? Why can’t she make a clean break? “It’s very complicated. They’ve been through so much together. Patty can understand Ellen in a way that nobody else does in her life. And I think it’s vice-versa too. Patty has revealed so many sides to Ellen that she probably hasn’t to the closest people in her life.”

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