Interview With Maggie Siff: From ‘Mad’ Woman To ‘Anarchy’

By Julie Zied
Fancast.com

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering where Maggie Siff came from, the answer shouldn’t come as such a surprise: the theater. The award-winning thespian has been building a TV career since getting her start with bit part on Third Watch in 2004. Over the past two years Siff has created a name for herself by demonstrating serious acting chops in TV’s critical darling Mad Men as Rachel Menken, a woman whose subtle magnetic powers and sobering seriousness were almost enough to pull dapper Don away from his fabricated fairy tale, and most recently in FX’s biker drama Sons of Anarchy as Tara Knowles, a complex and troubled doctor drawn back to a rough and tumble world she’s worked all-too-hard to distance herself from. I had a chance to speak with Maggie about these intense roles, and the lighter things, like what it’s like to ride on the back of Charlie Hunnam’s bike.

Lucky you, you’ve been able to work opposite two of the biggest TV sex symbols of the year – Jon Hamm and Charlie Hunnam. How did that happen?!

[Laughing] I really don’t know! I’m not your biggest girly girl. I’ve been lucky and people have been interested in casting me. As a theater actor I always wondered Is there a place for me in Hollywood? It’s a sort of strange thing to say. I’ve always sort of prided myself as an actress who prided herself and values intelligence and has verbal facility and acuity of mind. That’s the way I’ve always been cast. I’ve been really lucky in both of these parts in that I’ve been able to play women who are focused and directed in their lives, but also romantic, vulnerable, and sensitive, and open to relationships with the opposite sex. Whatever reason I’ve been lucky to be cast, because I don’t think its typical.

What was the casting process like for Sons of Anarchy?

I was called in by the casting director, Wendy O’Brien. I went in and met her, along with Alan Coulter who was working on the pilot, or the first version of the pilot. And then Kurt Sutter…

Katey’s husband…

Yeah. She’s so wonderful. I’m unbelievably lucky to be able to work with her. She plays such a badass, but she is such a mother hen, such a nurturing presence. I love her.

Which is such a drastic difference to the way you guys play onscreen.

I know, when I first started I was like Katey, I don’t know about this, I like you too much! I don’t know how I’m going to shoot daggers at you every day. But we managed.

So back to the casting process…

So I went in for Kurt and Alan and I really liked the script. It felt really different to me than other television scripts I’d read. I think having had my experience with Mad Men I was like That’s the thing to look for. I was really interested in working more on a cable show. The creators have more creativity and people are really trying to think outside of the box. I was excited at the prospect of that and of seeing a world that we hadn’t seen before. I wasn’t sure that they’d cast me. Kurt told me later on that he’d initially – although I’d given a wonderful audition – said that he wasn’t going to call me back because he was a huge fan of Mad Men and thought that I was too kind of, I don’t know, sort of like Did you believe that this girl had come from this rough and tumble world. Then he said he couldn’t stop thinking about me in the role. Something about someone who had pulled herself out of that world and then gone so far from it in terms of how she’d been able to grow herself. The reality of her coming back to the world is more interesting. That’s kind of what I thought and why I was so excited at the prospect of the part, being able to play a character who’s done so much work on her life and transformed herself so much, and then going back to that old world. And, you know, the incredible inner conflict that that would create.

What kind of research, if any, did you have to do for the part? Did you ride a motorcycle beforehand? Have you learned to ride since?

No, I only ride on the back of Charlie’s motorcycle. I did not have to learn how to ride.

Have you wanted to since starting on the show?

You know, I’m content to ride on the back of Charlie’s bike. I feel nervous about all the boys. We had a lovely man who worked in wardrobe named Ray Ray who had a terrible bike accident maybe the second or third week of shooting, and passed away. I think I fall into the camp of people who don’t feel safe about motorcycles. Although I understand the culture and why people would want to be riding them. Charlie is a very good rider.

Looking back, is there any specific scene or episode that was particularly challenging? Or your favorite to have done?

There was a long scene in either episode 8 or 9 where the agent who’s stalking me tries to rape me and I end up shooting him. Then Jax coming in and shoots him in the head and it’s all very twisted. When I read the script it read like an act in a play. It was like an eight page scene which is a very long scene for television. I was working with the guy who played Dutch on The Shield. It was a very challenging and brutal scene to execute. It was a totally fascinating challenge. It was really exciting to work on. It felt like the scene itself had this incredibly long and complicated place of where it started and where it ended up. It was hard to be in that sort of state of mind for that long but we quickly developed a flow of dynamics and exchange and play which kind of reminded me of being onstage on a play. And everyone around us did their best to make it a comfortable and safe environment.

What can we expect to see of Tara in the season finale and from the stuff you’ve done for next season?

I think the big question for the character is whether she’s going to stay or whether she’s going to go. A lot of conflict for Tara has been that question. I think the finale sort of answers that question. Then the second season is that…playing itself out! [Laughing] I don’t know that much about what happens next season. I don’t know what else I can say without giving stuff away. I think I need to stop!

The season finale of Sons of Anarchy airs tonight on FX at 10 PM ET. Want more SOA? Catch up on the past season and watch full episodes here. Read our interview with Katey Sagal here. Replay our live chat with Charlie Hunnam and Kurt Sutter here.