ROGUE: Thandie Newton on Exploring Grace’s Journey Post-Grief

Thandie Newton’s Grace is in a different headspace when ROGUE returns for a second season tonight: after spending the first season solving the murder of her son, the new year finds her in a new job (as an FBI handler), trying to figure out what her life is like post-tragedy.

“With the first season, because she is the central character around which everything orbits, I felt like it [was] about her relationship with herself; that’s what the first season was for me, from my perspective,” Newton explained to reporters on the show’s Vancouver set. “We’re seeing someone who [was] obviously going through a massive change in their lives. And now, with Grace having resolved that episode, having grieved and gotten a degree of closure, she is now free to discover who she is. Any kind of massive watershed like that introduces you to yourself in a whole new way. In the second season, it’s so lucky to be able to follow that authentic psychological journey post-grief. What next? What next, really? That experience is so desperately shattering. For us — for the writers, for me — there is a sense of liberation now, where Grace goes forward, professionally, and personally, aside from being defined by grief. And it’s been fantastic…for Grace, what a great journey, to be able to strike back against everybody’s advice and to go on instinct and find out the truth about something, and have that kind of elevation at the end. To do that for herself, her child, her family.”

“We’re at a completely different scenario now, but leading from where we left off,” she continued. “She’s no longer with her husband; there’s still the family unit to consider. The storyline of family is as prominent as her work environment again. And it’s largely dealing with her relationship with her daughter, but also her mother, who comes into the storyline, played by the extraordinary Clare Higgins (Vivian)…And Grace has now taken time out from going undercover. She’s a handler, doing a job she resented, which is an interesting step for her. Her as a handler, is she well-suited in that role? I’m not sure, because I think she has such powerful gut instincts…it’s interesting for Grace this season, because she may have thought, and the audience may have thought, and everyone may have thought that the reason she tore into this crime and intrigue because of her son, and of course that was largely [it], but it’s just an instinct she has. And that’s something that’s going to build throughout ROGUE’s timeline.”

More immediately, Grace finds herself in a bit of a bind when the agent she’s helping ends up in trouble.

“What’s happening now is she’s handling this young woman, a fantastic actress, Aleksa [Pallandino (Sarah)]…[her character] goes missing, and Grace feels it’s her responsibility to handle it,” Newton explained. “It’s definitely not a maternal relationship. It’s much more Grace sees herself in this young woman…and she also has an instinct that there is stuff going on that she’s not being informed of…so she does go undercover, but this time she’s going undercover in a legitimate way. She’s no longer a victim, she’s no longer looking over her shoulder. She’s no longer in a place of guilt or shame, that she’s doing something she shouldn’t be doing. She’s legitimate, she’s validated. That empowerment comes through, and it’s lovely for me to give Grace a lot of dignity. It’s not that she didn’t have dignity in the past, it was just that every character was saying, ‘You’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong.’ If ten people tell you to lie down, you end up lying down. But this time, there’s a sense of entitlement to Grace I’m just loving playing.”

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ROGUE premieres tonight at 8 PM on DirecTV.

Related:

ROGUE: Cole Hauser on Season 2 and What Drew Him to the DirecTV Series

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