Related: Paris Barclay on the Final Three 'Sons' Episodes: 'We're Going to Find Out Who the Rat Is' But my experience as a good/bad cop was rewarding to me as a woman and an actor, but especially as a woman. It was a brief moment in the scope of the show's seven years. I've wrapped up my role of Sherriff Althea Jarry on SoA. These characters are the most real reflections of us as human beings.Īs Sutter and the whole company of writers and directors at Sons of Anarchy have shown, along with the talented actors, it is the gray and gritty areas, the in-between dirty cops and remorseful criminals, the mixed up soup of sex and love and violence - this is where the most interesting meat and marrow of drama is found. As an actress, I relished the opportunity to play a character confused by her own warring compulsions and needs.Īnnabeth Gish and Tommy Flanagan on the set of 'Sons of Anarchy'Īn irony about acting I have learned is that playing out the conflicts and contradictions of fiercely flawed and not always likable characters is liberating and empowering. A cop who craves connection, even if with an outlaw, she is willing to play both sides to get what she wants as a sexual woman and as a professional with her own ambitions. The moment I stepped into my wardrobe, I felt stronger, more powerful, and curiously dangerous.Īlthea Jarry, like most of the female characters on Sons, is a woman of moral ambiguity. "Command presence" was the phrase I learned when talking to the real women Los Angeles sheriffs I worked with to prepare for the role. As Sheriff Jarry, I stood differently, held my body more erect - solid with my feet firmly grounded, weight low, and body ready. To put on a uniform of authority and the accompanying tactical gear obviously has an empowering effect. Related: 'Sons of Anarchy' Recap: Jax Knows. When I finished watching, I jumped fast and hard at the invitation to join this massive feast of a show. It was addictive and urgent, and I couldn't catch up fast enough. In late May of this year, when I got the offer to play the role of Sheriff Althea Jarry, I binge-watched Seasons 5 and 6 of SoA. Life kept getting in the way, but I'd like to say that the show came back to me to make me live up to my promise. Katey Sagal, Charlie Hunnam, and Maggie Siff in 'Sons of Anarchy'īut in the shock and wonderment and mind-numbing sleeplessness of having my own sons early in the Sons of Anarchy's run, I fell behind in all things Charming. I pushed pause, agreeing to revisit the show and analyze later all that complexity and contradiction. Such extreme violence, such avid and obvious masculine themes like motorcycles, guns, prostitutes, and vengeance played out in dark and disturbing ways: a vicious and controlling matriarch whose ever-so-slightly sexualized love and obsession for her son was a central axis of the show deceit everywhere infected the actions of each tortured character in his or her own way women as "old ladies" and "crow-eaters" scantily clad and willing to offer sex as recreation and entertainment. It was not a show typical to my sensibilities, and as I watched, I couldn't disregard my own conflicts as a woman - alert to and aware of sticky words like "objectification" and "sexualization" and the all-pervasive "male gaze." As a viewer, those were precarious and potentially compromising concepts. I became oddly invested in the world of SAMCRO and Charming and the motley crew of unusually dangerous, formidable characters. The combustible writing of creator Kurt Sutter and the world of mayhem he began to build was compelling to me in the strangest of ways. Always a fan of Katey Sagal (whom I'd worked with in 1999 in the very different context of a Lifetime TV movie), I was intrigued to watch the fierce and seldom friendly colors of her character, Gemma Teller. I remember back in 2008 watching the early episodes, surprised by the drama about a motorcycle-club culture with which I was not personally familiar. When I was first asked to audition for a new female character on the final season of Sons of Anarchy, I wasn't exactly caught up on all six previous seasons. Sheriff Althea Jarry in 'Sons of Anarchy'
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