THE GIFTED: Amy Acker talks about Season 1 and reflects on ANGEL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: January 17th, 2018 / 02:00 AM

Stephen Moyer and Amy Acker in THE GIFTED - Season 1 | ©2017 Fox/Ryan Green

THE GIFTED had its two-hour first-season finale this week on Fox, but Marvel mutant fans should not fear, though. Matt Nix’s narrative about a superpowered group resisting an oppressive government has been picked up for a second season.

Amy Acker stars in THE GIFTED as Kate Strucker, a married mother of two whose life has recently been turned upside down. Kate, a nurse, is happily married to Reed (Stephen Moyer), who has prosecuted mutants whose powers have been used for destruction. Then Kate and Reed find that both of their teen children, Lauren (Natalie Alyn Lind) and Andy (Percy Hynes White) are mutants with enormous powers. Desperate for shelter, the Strucker famiy aligns itself with the Mutant Underground.

Texas native Acker is no stranger to genre, but she is more often cast as the person with powers than the normal human, even if it takes her character a while to get that way, as with genius Winifred “Fred” Burkle-turned-ancient-god Illyria on ANGEL, homicidal spy Kelly Peyton on ALIAS, a doctor who is actually a programmed “doll” in DOLLHOUSE and dangerous computer whisperer Root on PERSON OF INTEREST.

ASSIGNMENT X: How does it feel playing one of the few comparatively normal people in the story this time around?

AMY ACKER: You know, Fred was pretty normal in that world …

AX: Are you flashing back to fourteen years ago on ANGEL?

ACKER: A little bit. And you never know. I could wake up a goddess tomorrow. Who knows? [laughs] That’s the fun thing about doing this [THE GIFTED], is that I still feel like they really could write anything and it could make sense. I keep telling them they need to get them to test the mutant drugs on humans, and I’m volunteering, or something like that [laughs].

AX: Matt Nix was saying that his association with you came from you playing the Duck in a production he wrote and directed of PETER AND THE WOLF …

ACKER: Yeah. I think I have that role to thank for getting this part, so …

AX: How did you wind up doing that? Did you think, “This sounds like a fun thing to do of an afternoon”?

ACKER: One of my really good friends, who I went to college with, is a writer and had written with Matt, and I think Matt needed someone to play the Duck in this production, and he said, “You should get my friend Amy.” And so they just asked me, and I was like, “Sure!” So I got to be the stoner Duck.

AX: Have you had to learn how to do anything to play Kate?

ACKER: I’ve had to work on some medical stuff. That’s something I really haven’t done before. My [real-life] husband’s aunt is a nurse, and she was teaching me about it – I was trying to do it as realistically as possible, with the stitches and all of that stuff.

Amy Acker in THE GIFTED - Season 1- "eXodus" | ©2017 Fox/Eliza Morse

AX: And how do you feel your chemistry is with Stephen Moyer?

ACKER: He’s just lovely and we’ve had a great time. Like my fake British love interest Alexis [Denisof, the American actor who played the English Wesley Wyndam-Price on ANGEL; Moyer is English playing American in THE GIFTED] – I feel a natural connection, I think, to those kinds of guys [laughs].

AX: Are you enjoying playing a mom?

ACKER: I am so lucky to have these two guys as my kids. Natalie and Percy are so wonderful and we just have such a great time, and having them as my fake kids, who are a little bit older than my real kids, I feel like I’m getting a taste of what’s coming.

AX: When Lauren and Andy’s powers manifest, it looks unusual. Did you have some anticipation of how the effects would look when they happen, or were you just sort of going, “Okay, the kids are doing something over there,” and then when you see the end result …

ACKER: We were pretty lucky. We had a really great effects team who had actually worked on PERSON OF INTEREST as well, and they actually are able to show us a good amount of what’s going to happen in the moment, so …

AX: They show you with pre-visualization on the computer?

ACKER: Yeah.

AX: Does that help in playing your reaction?

ACKER: I think it’s pretty neat. I haven’t had that experience in the past. Usually, it’s like a giant tennis ball chasing you, so knowing what it’s going to look like, I think it’s really helpful.

AX: Any thoughts about the approximate eighteenth anniversary of ANGEL?

ACKER: I just feel lucky that I still have all those wonderful people in my life, and miss them, and feel like I was so blessed to be a part of that show.

AX: And what would you most like people to know about THE GIFTED?

ACKER: The [season] finale is coming up on January 15. And then it will be back. And we’ll see what happens then.

This interview was conducted during Fox Network’s portion of the January 2018 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour.

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