Rectify: J. Smith-Cameron and Abigail Spencer Talk Unspoken Dialogue, New Journeys in Season 3 [Exclusive Interview]

Prepare yourselves! Rectify returns this week for Season 3, and picks up where Season 2 ended, with Daniel accepting a plea deal that would mean he’d have to leave his home forever – and admit to a crime that he may or may not have actually committed.

At the ATX Television Festival earlier this summer, fans attended a screening of that premiere along with a panel that included executive producer Mark Johnson and three members of the cast: Abigail Spencer (Amantha Holden), J. Smith-Cameron (Janet Talbot), and Aden Young (Daniel Holden).

Panelists answered several questions, with one of the most interesting being whether or not they believe Daniel actually killed Hannah. From Johnson’s standpoint, the answer is that it doesn’t matter, and that is the beauty of it. Smith-Cameron stated that Janet wonders whether or not he did, but she loves him regardless, with the unconditional and unwavering love a mother should have.

The panelists also talked about what makes this series special, and the fact that it often focuses on silent moments and unspoken dialogue as opposed to flashy explosions or car crashes. Those poignant moments, by the way, are especially significant in the Season 3 premiere.

Following the panel, I sat down with both J. Smith-Cameron and Abigail Spencer to talk about their experiences on the show, as well as what we can look forward to in Season 3. Mild spoilers below.

Tell-Tale TV: Something you both mentioned in the panel was the silence of the show — the pacing, the power of the emotion, and the unspoken dialogue. How do you portray that?

Smith-Cameron: I think it’s kind of like any acting assignment, only you don’t say it aloud. You have to fully invest in it and think through it, and then you just hold back, as you do in life. You hold your tongue a lot. You have to edit yourself the way people do in real life. Those things that are unspoken, once you realize they’re there, they are rehearsed and planned in your head like beats.

Abigail Spencer: Yeah, I think you have to give yourself over fully. It’s a whole body experience. It’s whole body acting. I can speak more maybe from being in a scene with J. I see her whole body getting ignited. I mean really all I’m thinking about, is how can I be a safe container for whatever she’s doing? What am I trying to figure out or notice? And we do a lot of takes, so we get a lot of exploring. I don’t go into a scene thinking it’s an emotional scene or that I will be emotional… ever.

Smith-Cameron: It overtakes.

Spencer: All of sudden you’re there, and so it’s very interesting. I think a lot of Ray [McKinnon]’s job, our creator, is to monitor and calibrate.

Smith-Cameron: We try to lose ourselves in it.

Spencer: Yeah.

Smith-Cameron: We try to be un-self-conscious. If that’s not too much of an oxymoron being an actor and telling a story.

Spencer: Sometimes I just think, where can I leave my vanity? Where is a way to be less vein in this moment? And that’s really scary, because you’re giving over to the experience. Rectify is very stripping. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. People are extremely empathic toward Amantha, I will say. It’s been very surprising. It’s really nice that people notice that and feel it. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am very grateful. This is what I want in my life. I want to have that experience when I’m acting.

TTTV: Do you tap into anything personal to help get yourself into character?

Smith-Cameron: Always. You’re not always aware of it – okay I’m going to use this memory, but yes, you do. I always think of being an actor is like being reincarnated many times. The more roles you play, you sort of add more little grooves into your soul. After a while, your compassion grows.

Spencer: Acting is just an opportunity to be totally empathic to something or someone I would never have the opportunity otherwise. So, it’s a really high calling I think.

Smith-Cameron: And just the idea that you can tell a story where you have the opportunity to help people feel for a character they think they wouldn’t approve of. Like Clayne [Crawford], who plays Teddy, who started out in Season 1 as being this gum-chewing, khaki-wearing, good ol’ boy type of character, — and he gets buffeted around by the story so much. I think it’s impossible not to have rethought Teddy a dozen times by now in this story.

TTTV: You have both worked on several different projects. How is this experience different? 

Smith-Cameron: A lot of TV acting is sort of like hit and run acting. Show up and say your lines, and it’s sort of routine. This is a little bit like a play I think. It’s very investigative.

Spencer: It feels like one long theater piece that we happen to be filming. As far as different characters, that’s part of the job. And what a joy. I think you have to bring the same depth of humanity. That’s the key. No matter what it is, are you willing to bring total humanity, total depth, and total empathy? No matter what the tone.

Smith-Cameron: And not judge the project, which is sometimes really hard if it feels like a procedural, one of many kinds of shows you’ve seen. And be able to not judge it and not judge a character. This season I went right from Rectify and I played another mom in a film by Antonio Campos called Christine.

Spencer: With Rebecca Hall.

Smith-Cameron: With Rebecca Hall, who plays Christine. I played her mother. And this mother was like a hippie – really laid back. She has a child in danger too. A child who is psychological weighted down and troubled. But she is just elementally different. I finished shooting Rectify on Friday and starting shooting Christine on Monday. I still feel a little traumatized by it.

Spencer: Have you seen her in Margaret? She’s unbelievable.

TTTV: No, I haven’t! Would you tell us about that?

Smith-Cameron: It’s a film that was released in 2011. It took us a long time to get financing for the film. Then we shot it, and there were some legal hold-ups. It never had its proper release, but after it had come and gone, it got sort of rescued by a Twitter campaign. Critics who were reading it on people’s top-ten lists, and going, “how come I didn’t see it?” So there was #TeamMargaret, and they were demanding more screenings. It’s really having a burgeoning audience still, now that we live in a digital age.

Spencer: It’s J. and Anna Paquin who star in it, and J. gives the performance of her life.

TTTV: In Rectify, you’re playing these difficult roles where you’re struggling. Can you talk about the dynamics off-screen? 

Spencer: It was just kind of magical. I think everyone came into it with the same work ethic, the same desire, and the same gratitude. I think the cast are people who have been working for a long time, but nobody really knew of our work outside the industry level. So everyone could see our characters totally fresh and new without associations.

Smith-Cameron: I was just reading Tim Goodman’s piece about looking back on Mad Men, and [about] casting Jon Hamm. Even though he had been in some series, he hadn’t made his big splash yet. And how important that was to Matthew Weiner to have – he just was the character. And really the whole cast, they were experienced actors, but they weren’t associated with anything [specific].

Spencer: So, I think we just know what we have, because we’ve experienced a lot of the other. We’re all very willing. We want everyone to be great. We’re very respectful of everyone else’s process. There’s enough knowingness of what it means to be an artist, so there’s just a lot of space to fail. That’s what safety is to me. Can I like, be terrible, and you still love me and accept me [laughs].

Smith-Cameron: We’re all just very fond of each other, which is just pure luck.

Spencer: I have crushes on everybody. I just find everyone very fascinating. What’s interesting about doing press or doing the panel today is really hearing J. and Aden [Young] speak about their experiences. I learn from them. I get to take it into my own experience. I’m just in awe. And with Luke Kirby, who plays Jon Stern – he is totally an artist. He can’t get away from it. He’s funny, and we just get a kick out of each other. And Clayne [Crawford] is totally unique.

Smith-Cameron: In Season 3 we finally have a scene that is just he and I. And we were so terrified we’d crack up. Because we were sort of the cut-ups. For some weird reason we would always get really silly. We were scared, and I think the fear of it made us rise to the occasion in a good way [laughs]. There’s usually a lot of dissecting. There’s a lot of coming in and dissecting it and taking it all the way in the opposite direction and taking it all back. So now you can go back to doing nothing, but now it’s full of all of this emotion, because we want this full range.

Spencer: It’s tricky because in episode 6 of Season 3, Ted Jr. and Amantha finally have a scene together. We haven’t had a scene together since Season 1. So we finally have a scene together – it can be a little unsatisfying if you don’t do a lot of takes, [but] we didn’t have to. It was just there. And that’s kind of a lovely place to be. Where it’s just there, and it can just be simple in its complexity.

Smith-Cameron: Ray [McKinnon] is a brilliant guy, he’s a great actor, a great writer, and great director.

Spencer: A good human.

Smith-Cameron: A good human. He’s also a true oddball. But then this entire cast are sort of loveable oddballs.

Spencer: I feel like I found my home. You kind of go into people’s worlds and you’re like, ‘oh, that was a nice visit, but I think I’ll go back.’ I’ve gotten to visit on a lot of great shows, and I love visiting. But this is probably the first time where I was like oh, this is home. I want to be able to be as weird as I need to be. And that’s safety to me.

Smith-Cameron: Abigail was saying in the panel today, from Season 1 on, whenever we get a scene together, we call that “Jamantha.” Like when you ship people, as my thirteen-year-old would say. You ship Janet and Amantha and you get “Jamantha.”

Spencer: We didn’t have as many this season.

Smith-Cameron: We didn’t have as many Jamanthas, but I have hopes.

TTTV: What else can you share about the upcoming season?

Spencer: I just think it’s going to be exploring memory. That’s going to be a big theme this season. You will learn more about details of the case, whether they’re true or not. We’re going to explore that more. I call it the rise of Janet.

Smith-Cameron: I feel like my character started out being frozen, ossified, panicked, and passive. And she begins to let her hair down a little bit.

Spencer: Amantha’s going to go on her own journey, because she’s trying to figure out who she is outside of Daniel. Even though, as you saw on episode 1, he’s moving in for an unforeseen amount of time. So, I think that’s really interesting to put two people in the same environment, and yet have different journeys. You’ll explore Jon and Amantha’s continuing unravelling, if there’s hope there.

Smith-Cameron: It’s almost like in the wake of Daniel’s inevitable steps of whatever happens in the wake of the plea deal that has a ripple effect on the family with all the relationships.

*Edited for space and content.

Rectify returns Thursday, July 9^th at 10/9c on SundanceTV.