Smallscreen Features
Ally Walker talks SAMCRO, and thoughts on tonight's Fírinne, and Bainne
By April MacIntyre Nov 9, 2010, 17:44 GMT
Other than Gemma, (Katey Sagal), no other fierce femme dominates like our Agent June Stahl (Ally Walker) who has the steely resolve to stay focused on her end game, destroying SAMCRO and elevating her career in the process.
Other than Gemma, (Katey Sagal), no other fierce femme dominates like our Agent June Stahl (Ally Walker) who has the steely resolve to stay focused on her end game, destroying SAMCRO and elevating her career in the process.
Even a brief sexual fling with the now deceased Deputy Hale was just a time kill, mere exercise. Our cat has moved on to a fellow FBI agent, female.
Stahl's fluidity of conscience and lack of any real emotional connectivity make her Charming's number one sociopath, even trumping our crazy Tig (Kim Coates) and Darby (Mitch Pileggi) who shows glimmers of regret for his hateful ways post Cara Cara fire and Lumpy Feldstein's demise. Georgie Caruso (Tom Arnold) who is still "out there" may be the only one who could give June a run for the "most ruthless" money.
In a Gaelic hail of guns, ammo, torture and explosives, Kurt Sutter's "Sons of Anarchy" has taken us all to Ireland this season three, and we are now down to the wire, as Abel is nearly within Jax's reach, and Gemma has to keep her son focused on his future. The Emerald Isle is wearing our crew out with the lies and secrecy of the IRA and all its internal doings, and the bitterness of being the poorer relation MC arm of SAMCRO in Belfast is bubbling to the surface. Bad blood in the family will be worked out tonight.
Even Tara (Maggie Siff) has grown remarkably bold this season, as the biker's life begins to seep into her orderly world of medicine and structure. Her arc in the episode tonight (November 9) and next week will shock you, as will Margaret's reveal of her past.
The episodes Fírinne and Bainne will keep you glued to the screen, and take your breath away with the action, emotion and crossroads the MC faces both in Charming, and Belfast.
Outstanding performances all around by Charlie Hunnam (Jax) Kim Coates (Tig) Dayton Callie (Chief Unser) William Lucking (Piney, Katey Sagal (Gemma) Paula Malcomson (Maureen) Ron Perlman (Clay) and Titus Welliver (Jimmy O). Ally Walker surfaces in next week's Bainne and as usual, has a riveting turn as she works with SAMCRO to help them with an urgent life or death problem.
In my opinion, next week's Bainne sees Hunnam deliver an Emmy award winning performance as he makes the decision of his life.
Walker, of course, is a delicious villain and has energized the cast and her presence, her fantastic scenes with Sagal, Hurst, Callie and even Hunnam, as they now rely on each other long distance to secure Jimmy O (Titus Welliver) are always riveting.
The big "get" for the FBI agent is Jimmy O, as she strings along everyone with promises of immunity and freedom from incarceration for Gemma, who we know was set up by Stahl in the first place setting in motion the whole Irish mess. You could say Stahl is a bigger villain in this than Jimmy O, who is pretty brutal in this season. Again, next week's Bainne is a showstopper for his character too.
Walker, like so many great actors, learned her craft early in the soaps (Santa Barbara) and made a name for herself on network as Dr. Sam Waters in the 1990s crime drama "Profiler."
My fear is we will lose June this season, as it is revealed that walker was signed to a new agency, and that always means a new deal and opportunity is beckoning our lanky siren packing heat over to Lifetime, the antithesis of FX in programming.
The new Lifetime show, "Exit 19" focuses on Walker's character Gloria Shepherd as she balances being a single mother and her career in the NYPD.
Exit 19 is being produced by Jeff Bell, who has previously worked on V, Harper's Island, Alias and Angel.
Make sure to watch Ally on Sons of Anarchy on FX Tuesday nights at 10pm/9 central. You can find all of our Sons of Anarchy coverage here, Enjoy Monsters and Critics' chat with "June," Ally Walker.
Monsters and Critics: Do you think there's an element of jealousy that “Stahl” feels towards that fraternal, familial bond that Sons of Anarchy have? We don’t know much of her back story but it seems like she’s a bit of a loner.
Ally: Yes, that's a very interesting question. What I was just talking about, people having each other's backs. Obviously, no one ever had my back. I'm talking as “June Stahl” now.
It's like I don’t think anyone ever had “June's” back. I see a very disturbed background with a very bad childhood, who suddenly had to fend for themselves and kind of turn and become chameleon-like, and whatever face that needed to be put on was put on to take care of themselves. So yes, I think this person was man-made.
No, I think she's very jealous of that. I think she doesn’t like it at all. I think she's out to destroy it. I think in the beginning it was less personal with her, but I think it has become over the years extremely personal with her.
M&C: Obviously, “Otto” is in jail but he may be paroled. What does “June Stahl” fear more? “Otto” or “Opie,” as far as a retaliation?
Ally I don’t think “June” fears either one of those guys. I think “Opie” would be the—because “Opie's” out. But “Opie” kind of let me go and so because he let me go, I have no respect for him. So I don’t really fear “Opie” anymore in sort of my twisted mind. “Otto,” I don’t think that I would allow him to get to me. I think I would be able to keep tabs and watch out.
I think what “June Stahl” fears is that she missed a step in her, in her trickery. I think that's what scares “June,” that she didn’t cover all her bases, and she's not quite— If she ever feels doubtful about having screwed anyone, that's what will scare her. She can't slip up. I think it's more of a mental thing for her. She fears people who are smart, I think, and what she doesn’t see coming. But of course, her ego is so out of control I don’t think she sees a lot coming.
M&C: She didn’t really mourn “Hale's” death too much, did she?
Ally Not at all. She didn’t have a feeling for him. I don’t think she cared for him. She thought he was an idiot. I mean really, if you look at the character, there's only those who can do for “June” and those who can't.
M&C You have a lot of tense scenes between “Gemma” and “Jackson” and also you’ve had a few tense scenes with …. How does it all seem to actually translate off the page? Is there ever anything that needs to be changed in order to improve or make the scene work better? Could you give an example of the process, how it goes from the script into the actual scene when you're actually acting?
Ally The thing of Kurt Sutter is he's really a wonderful writer. There's not a lot of changing with Kurt. He likes us actors to really adhere to the script, which I respect. He's a very good writer. He has really sort of thought everything through. I try to gather as much information and just kind of bathe in it before I shoot and just kind of— Then on the set, new things will come. You pick up things and subtleties in an actor's performance that will change your reaction. It's all kind of listening and reacting, and we have this history now.
For example, we did a scene—Charlie and I—this year and it became very interesting. I never thought—you'll see it in a few shows—I never thought we'd do a scene like that. It was very seductive and kind of creepy. Charlie and I at the end of the scene were like, "Whoa, what was that?" But it played beautifully and Kurt was really happy. None of us could have seen that coming. It was kind of this intimate little dance of threatening each other that was really kind of sexual—there's like a lot of sexual undertones, which is really weird, but it was fun to play.
Those kinds of things seep in because people's essence—for lack of a better word—their persona kind of comes in and it changes everything. It's really interesting. The older I've gotten as an actress, I do my preparation but I don’t think so much anymore. I tend to just go, and it's gotten a lot more fun for me. I go, "Okay, the water's— I'm on a diving board. I'm going to get up to the diving board. I'm going to walk to the end of the diving board, and the water's going to be deep enough to catch me and," but that jump— I don’t plan it. I don’t know what's going to happen in that jump, but I jump. It has made it very fun for me. I hope it works. Most of the time I think it does, but there's always a swing and a miss going on. But it's really fun to see what happens on the set. It's really fun. I don’t know if that answers your question, but—
M&C I noticed that you did Universal Soldier back in the 80s and 90s. I'm just wondering what was that whole experience like. You're working with Van Damme...
Ally Oh, that was a great experience for me. I sort of came off a television series and was— It's funny because I was asked to do, I auditioned for it like every other— There were a lot of girls and they had wanted bigger names than me. It was very flattering, Roland Emmerich—I was doing a lot of comedy at the time and I was doing some work with the … and I'd take comedic stuff if I could. Roland Emmerich picked me because I was funny, because I made the scenes funny. It was a great experience because Roland would go, "I would just ad lib something and make it funny." It was really fun. I had a wonderful time on that film. I loved the guys. I'm a tomboy. I always get along well with boys. I love Jean Claude. Loved Dalt. Loved everybody. It was really a very fun experience for me.
