Amy Aquino Talks ‘Bosch’ and Strong Female Characters [Exclusive Interview]

Amy Aquino is no stranger to no-nonsense, authoritative roles.

I recently spoke to Aquino about the many sides of Bosch’s complex lieutenant and what is in store for her in Season 3.

Aquino described Bosch as more of a character study than a procedural cop drama.

“It’s all about Bosch’s psyche and the relationship he has with the people around him. It’s his relationship with the crime, with the victims, how his past influences how he reacts to them, and how the people around him who love him deal with him; how he struggles to keep those relationships going given all he has been through.”

Lieutenant Grace Billet is one of those people.

Bosch and Grace are close, having come up through the ranks together. This creates a complicated relationship which becomes even more complicated in the new season.

“She’s fiercely loyal,” Aquino explained. “But, at the same time, because of her position, she has to do a real balancing act. She can’t turn a blind eye to the things he does that are off the reservation.”

“She understands where he’s coming from, and she trusts him. So she has to walk a real tightrope,” she added. 

Aquino disclosed that Bosch Season 3 deals with circumstances where Bosch’s actions cause some concern. She was excited about this development, saying, “it gave us a place to go outside of him having to deal with the other people that care about him and look at him in a different way. It gave us lots more levels.”

We will get more levels to the moody narrative as well as Aquino’s character as the show delves into her past.

“Her past comes into the present in very interesting ways. We get to know a lot more about who she is and what makes her tick,” she said.

It sounds like they will be adding more layers on top of an already rich and well-developed role.

“Right from the beginning, you see all sides of her. The further we go the more we see that. She is a full-fledged, three-dimensional person whose job it is to be authoritative, but who has all these other sides to her,” Aquino stated. “[She] really loves the people that she works with and wants to support them. She is not seen as an enemy; she’s seen as a friend and also a boss.”

This differs from other hard-nosed boss characters she has played.

Aquino compared Grace to her role as Dr. Janet Coburn on ER.

“Before you even met me, [I was] referred to as a bitch. I was the one that came down on Anthony Edwards,” she explained.

“For many years that is the role I played, and it took a very long time before you saw vulnerability, my character’s vulnerabilities, and saw her as a complete person and someone who is more than just the bad guy boss.”

She found that Grace being complex from the get-go was “more fulfilling.” Aquino continued, “[Grace] is so well-defined and well-drawn that it’s not hard to have all these sides and to show all these sides.”

Aquino said she shares some qualities with Grace.

“She really cares about what she is doing. She really hates the politics. She wants to get things done. She kind of stinks at the politics because it’s so disagreeable to her. These are things that she and I have in common,” Aquino laughed. 

“She’s emotionally frail and insecure, on some levels. Again, I saw a lot of myself in her. Very strong, but at the core with her own doubt, throwing herself into this work because she believes in it,” Aquino elaborated.

Although Aquino has a lot in common with Grace, there are some attributes that the character possesses that Aquino admires.

“She’s very comfortable in her skin, which I love, more so than I am,” she said. “Although, the older I get the better I get at that.”

“[Grace] is authoritative without feeling like she has to apologize,” Aquino described, confessing that she finds it difficult to separate the personal from the professional in a managerial capacity. 

“Bosch’s eccentricities aside, she does do that very effortlessly, and I envy that and I’d like to emulate that in my life.”

Along with the lieutenant’s strong personality is a strong appearance. Aquino asked Bosch’s consultants if her character would wear her gun all the time considering she’s at a desk in an office for the most part.

She was informed that the male lieutenants do not wear a gun, but the females do. “They will wear guns. They will wear heels. They will do whatever they need to make it look like they mean business.”

“[The force] is clearly very male dominated. It is about authority and power, and women have to do whatever they can to boost their sense of authority in the eyes of the people around them,” explained Aquino.

When she’s not playing strong women of authority, you can find Aquino on stage or in her garden.

Currently she is appearing in the comedy, The Siegel, at the South Coast Repertory alongside Mamie Gummer and Ben Feldman.

Not only is she exercising those comedic acting chops, but she’s exercising her green thumb, as well.

Aquino is an accomplished gardener and domestic goddess. She grows blackberries at her home in Hollywood and makes a “very mean blackberry jam.”

One year she made 19 quarts of it, and touts that as her “proudest moment.”

“People don’t know that about me. They think I’m just a big bitch.”

Be sure to catch Amy Aquino on Bosch, which returns for Season 3 on Friday, April 21st to Amazon.

*Featured image credit: J Squared Photography

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