Janet McTeer Interview: ‘Ozark’

“Yeah, it’s not something I do on a daily basis,” actress Janet McTeer says about getting waterboarded, which is how “Ozark” finds her as it opens its third season. Watch our exclusive video interview above. This new season of the crime drama that Netflix recently released in its entirety fleshes out McTeer’s cartel lawyer Helen Pierce by moving her daughter to the eponymous setting and increasing Helen’s involvement in the business of the leads played by Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. She adds, “It’s not fun to be tortured.”

SPOILERS AHEAD IN THE ARTICLE AND VIDEO

Six months have passed in “Ozark” when the third season begins, so McTeer says about what has kept Helen occupied since the second season, “She went back to her home in Chicago [yet] she’s been monitoring how the Byrdes have been handling the whole situation and the fact that they are trying to actually [open a casino] — she’s really impressed by that, so she decides to go back to the Ozarks and make it happen.”

Six months have passed in “Ozark” when the third season begins, so McTeer says about what has kept Helen occupied since the second season, “She went back to her home in Chicago [yet] she’s been monitoring how the Byrdes have been handling the whole situation and the fact that they are trying to actually [open a casino] — she’s really impressed by that, so she decides to go back to the Ozarks and make it happen.”

McTeer is a main cast member in the third season, having joined the show in the second season as a recurring guest star. McTeer recounts, “I was being asked to play a really interesting, fun character that I hadn’t played before,” all the more impressive in light of McTeer’s pedigree as a Tony and Golden Globe winner, who has also been nominated for an Emmy and two Oscars. She elaborates, “I’d never played a lawyer for a drug cartel; I’ve never played somebody who was embroiled in that world before. I’d never played somebody who regularly kills people for a living — orders it. I’ve never played somebody who is okay with that and that was really challenging. I had no idea where to start!”

McTeer is also eligible in Best Drama Supporting Actress for her returning role on “Sorry for Your Loss,” which Facebook cancelled after two seasons. She recently began filming an “intense” pilot for Showtime: “The President is Missing,” adapted from the novel by Bill Clinton and James Patterson.