ALL RISE’s Simone Missick: ‘This is Not Just Your Typical Legal Drama’

After spending two years in the Marvel/Netflix universe playing Misty Knight in LUKE CAGE, IRON FIST, and THE DEFENDERS, Simone Missick is taking on a new challenge: Judge Lola Carmichael on the new CBS legal drama ALL RISE.

But for Missick, one of the appeals of the new series was that it isn’t just a law series. “This is not just your typical legal drama,” she says. “We’re definitely comedic; we have those comedic elements. We have that heart, we have you feeling like you want to cry in one minute and laugh in the next. For me as an actor, that’s the greatest gift to play.”

Playing Lola, who is just starting her time as a judge in the first episode, has also been appealing. “To play this woman who is so strong and capable, but then flawed and vulnerable is a gift,” she says. “I’ve gotten to play some very tough women. And Lola is a little bit on the softer side. She is definitely the heart of the show.”

The shift wasn’t a premeditated choice for Missick. After the Marvel/Netflix shows went away, Missick jumped into the second season of ALTERED CARBON. “I didn’t have time to take a moment to think about what my next step was going to be,” she says. “I was literally working and enjoying my work. And I knew that I wanted to get back to LA, but I didn’t know how or when that was going to happen. So when the script [for ALL RISE] presented itself, it was really the script that blew me away. It was the character that drew me in. And I said, if I can be a part of the show, I absolutely want to and I would hope that it gets picked up.”

In addition to the character’s vulnerabilities—”You get to literally see her fall down and pick herself back up,” Missick enthuses—the actress was also intrigued by the relationship between Lola and her longtime friend Mark (Wilson Bethel). The two were longtime colleagues as district attorneys pre-series, but they will have to adjust to the shift in power dynamics now that she’s a judge and he’s remaining a DA.

And there’s also the fact that Lola and Mark are truly just friends. “Wilson brought up a really good point, which is that we don’t often get to see men and women just be friends and no chance of a relationship blossoming,” Missick says. “A show that was highly successful for years, FRIENDS, was a revolving door of who’s sleeping with who. We get some love shows like GREY’S ANATOMY, where literally, everybody is sleeping with everybody. And in this situation, you just see two people who have known each other since college, who have always rooted for each other, and they are truly there for each other as extended family. And so it’s great to be able to do that. And to see it with a black woman and a young white guy, which we also don’t see. I love that this is the story that we’re telling and presenting this friendship for people to identify with.”

The first episode teases a little bit of Lola’s home life—including a mention of her Idris-like husband—viewers will have to wait a little bit to learn more about that element of her world. In the meantime, “we’re going to get to see her continue to fight within the system, and go up against a lot of walls that have been built for a really long time,” Simone Missick previews. “And [there’s a fun] friendship and that camaraderie that she has with Marg Helgenberger’s character [Supervisory Judge Lisa Benner], you get to see that develop.”

ALL RISE, Series Premiere, Monday, September 23, 9/8c, CBS

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