Returning as a series regular for the AMC drama's sophomore year, the actress speaks from the set in Vancouver.
When AMC’s The Killing star Jamie Anne Allman – who plays Mitch’s (Michelle Forbes) party girl sister, Terry – saw the fan uproar over Season 1’s finale, she wasn’t surprised.
“I knew that [the first season’s finale] would probably frustrate some fans,” Allman tells from Vancouver where she’s currently shooting the drama’s sophomore season.
The first season ended with Linden (Mireille Enos) boarding a plane to California to join her fiancé before learning that her partner, Holder (Joel Kinnaman), fabricated evidence involving their prime suspect in the case, Councilman Richmond (Billy Campbell). So, many fans were shocked when their screens went to black and Rosie’s killer wasn’t revealed.
“I’m excited, because the second season is really digging into the characters even more,” the actress says. “And they’re definitely going to find out who the killer is. So, I hope the viewers hang in there, so they can find out what’s going on with this journey and adventure.”
Allman describes where we’ll find her character when the second season picks up next spring, what she knows at a given time about the show’s story line, and explains how she maintains some levity on-set while shooting the dark series.
Where do we find Terry when Season 2 begins?
Allman: She’s just trying to hold the family together. And she has a lot of guilt and she’s just trying to do the best she can. I think she’s ridden with a lot of guilt over the participation that she had with Rosie and the online escort service. For the second season, there’s more explanation on the story line with Michael Ames [played by Barclay Hope, he’s Rosie's ex-boyfriend Jasper's wealthy, jet-setting father and a major player on Mercer Island]. He’s that guy that we kind of have an awkward moment at the funeral – he comes up at the funeral and he’s looking at me, and it’s like I’m excited to see him and he’s really cold and doesn’t really acknowledge me. And then Terry gets really upset and goes and smokes a joint, has some wine and cries by herself. Well, it gets more into what’s going on there.
How much of your story line do you know in advance? For example, do you know who killed Rosie?
Allman: They’ve given me a little bit of direction as to the scenes I’m going to be doing for Season 2, but in general I don’t know much. No one knows who the killer is -- information is pretty much released script to script, you know? I know as much as anyone else who’s watching it, pretty much as the plot is going along.
Have you been developing your own theories as to who the killer is?
Allman: Because of all the red herrings and the way a scene is written, I would think, ‘Oh it’s this person.’ Yeah, I would think what everybody else was thinking. But, I still don’t know. I have my speculations still. Honestly, I hope that I’m the killer. I know that’s bad to say when you’re thinking if this really did happen and that this really does happen to people, but just from an acting standpoint that could be really fun.
Last season, the setting was very much defined by the rain. In many scenes, it’s like another character. What was it like to shoot in that kind of downpour?
Allman: Yeah, a lot of that was fake. If you watch it, there’s no way that the raindrops can be real, because they need to have a lot of it to show up on camera. And it’s like the rain is pouring down like drenching you in those shots where it’s raining a lot. So, yeah it hasn’t really rained that hard here I don’t think.
With such a dark premise to the show, what’s the general mood behind the scenes?
Allman: Oh, my gosh. Because it was so dramatic and it’s so heavy, I worked a lot with Michelle Forbes and I think she’s an amazing actress and we just laughed a lot. And I got to mess around with the boys and I cut up and goof around as much as I possibly can without getting in trouble. But during the funeral scene last year when we’re getting ready to go into the church, me and her and the boys were in the car making up musicals and stuff like that, singing and cutting up and acting silly, it was fun. So, yeah, we try to add some happy moments in between when we can.
The Killing is set to return in the spring to AMC. Allman can also be seen in the film The Last Rites of Joe May starring Dennis Farina and later this year in Any Day Now co-starring Alan Cumming.
