Photo credit: Courtesy of AMC
“I found the transition into this role relatively smooth,” Heather Lind told Hollywood on the Potomac about her acting in TURN: Washington Spies, AMC’s spy series that launched its second season appropriately at the International Spy Museum with cast and director in tow. A layered spy thriller, TURN is the untold true story of America’s first spy ring whose members turn against King and family to fight for freedom. Based on the book Washington’s Spies by Alexander Rose, TURN introduces us to The Culper Ring, a group of childhood friends who become George Washington’s secret weapon in turning the tide of the war and, in the process, revolutionize the art of espionage.
Heather plays Anna Strong, a kind of unlikely heroine. Lind delves into how it felt to be her from costumes to thoughts. “I sort of understood what a corset does to my mentality,” she said of her period costumes and the mentality of women at that time. “I understood the expectation socially of what a woman could and couldn’t do in that particular period. I’m not a method actor, but I sort of read as much primary source material as I could. I looked at paintings of the period and I read some Alexander Pope poetry and I read Alex Rose’s book Washington’s Spies. I wanted to gather as much information as I could. Once I got to the set and put all the costumes on I did what I know how to do which is just be that person and feeling that period. It starts to feel really immediate and comfortable. What I love about period pieces is you realize how universal the human experience is in many different time periods.”
Burn Gorman as Major Hewlett and Meegan Warner as Mary Woodhull
“The corset took some getting used to,” she added. “Every time I put it on it feels tighter than the last time. It definitely effects how I stand. I think the biggest thing I noticed was how it effected my breath. This show demands a lot of energy and especially when there’s physical things I have to do like my chores around the house or just running or walking up stairs. It’s incredible how I have to grasp for breath a lot. It disappointed me in the beginning because I really wanted Anna to feel grounded and to feel strong. I wanted her to be on an intellectual playing field with everybody else in the show. I didn’t want her to feel in some way victimized or self pitying. Actually it was hard to reconcile that choice I wanted to make with how I felt in the costume. I felt, in the beginning of the series, I felt short of breath, I felt weak. My voice didn’t come out in the way I wanted it to. That took a little bit of getting used to. I would say in the end those challenges really became a blessing to me because I could get a sense of how hard this woman had to work to stand on her own feet, you know? It gave me a new respect for the determination women must have had at that time.”
Seth Numrich as Ben Tallmadge and Ian Kahn as General
“I think the biggest thing that’s changed from that time period to now is the fears in which women are allowed to be. If this were written now, Anna would be treated much like the men in the piece. They would be held accountable, they would be in a battle with their adversaries. In a way, because of the period, Anna had an ability to sneak around more because the expectation was that women weren’t interested in politics or involved in current events. They were really just expected to take care of the house. I think part of Anna’s power in this story is that people so underestimated her. Also all the women in the film. I think that feels like the biggest different, in terms of if I were back then as Heather trying to figure it out, I would probably be a little more indignant, a little more defensive. I don’t know that that would have helped me in her situation. I think in a way, her stoic ability to be underhanded is really what carries her through the story.”
Jamie Bell plays Abraham Woodhull, a spy for the Culper Ring
So, let’s get to the infidelities……….”Of course,” she answered, “infidelity. What’s fascinating about that story line to me is that great stories always have romance, so I’m happy to help with that. I think there are all these expectations and rules about a time period and people just, no matter how “good” or “moralistic” they are, find life is more complicated than that. It can’t be boxed in. I think Anna and Abe’s relationship is something I think many people can understand, this thing that sort of exists outside the bounds of what’s right and wrong. Ultimately, it comes from a deep respect for each other. I don’t know how that respect works in terms of Mary (Abe’s wife) but people are messy and make mistakes, and sometimes they can’t help it. I think that’s why this show is so great, it really shows people in a real light. It doesn’t try to romanticize their lives.”
Heather had never been to the Spy Museum so we asked her for her take and if she could ever be a spy – after all, she played one quite successfully in the TURN. “What an amazing place! They let us into some of the back rooms and it’s just an amazing experience. It’s nice to see a whole museum contribute to defy the espionage in our country. We’re just learning about George Washington and what he was going through in that time period and how we all imagine these people to be so upright, and actually they were doing what our government does. They were telling lies, they were telling secrets, hopefully for the good of the country. In some ways I think this show begs the question of how necessary that is to the nation and their success as a nation. They lead us into this back room, I forget what they called it, I think it was like a Spy Experience. You can go into a hallway and you get a clue and then you have to find your way out and kind of interrogate people. It seems like a choose your own adventure spy game.We were just walking through the hallways looking around. I’d love to go back, I really need to go back and check it out.”
“I think I’d be a terrible spy actually! I’m not really that good at lying,” she remarked. “I find in some ways as a person I find rules sort of comforting. I don’t know that I’d be the first person to try to bend some rules or break some rules. I was watching the first episode, the 2 hour episode that premiered on Monday, and I was looking at what Jamie has to do in some of those scenes. I just feel like my guilt – everyone would see right through me. I think I’d probably crack under the pressure unfortunately. I both admire and I’m sort of afraid of people who are good at lying. I think you never know if you can trust them. I mean in general I think you can expect – we have several new characters who are doing really interesting things – that real people who existed and did these things, is fascinating. You just see all the characters get in more and more trouble. I mean they just keep digging themselves into a hole. It’s at the point in the war where I think everyone was wondering if we were going to win, I mean really wondering if General Washington had it in him. I think you can expect to see a lot of assumptions you had about the war or about the people involved to be turned on their head in the series. Everybody gets challenged in really interesting ways. There’s lots of historical events that they try to keep true to those historical events as they can; you’ll see everything happen in time.”
AMC’s TURN airs on AMC TV. Follow the link.
