Anne-Marie Johnson on ‘The InBetween’ and Fighting For Diversity in Hollywood [Exclusive Interview]

Anne-Marie Johnson’s newest role feels a bit like divine intervention. 

You might recognize Johnson from her roles on such shows as Imposters and For the People. Next up, she’s starring as Lieutenant Elizabeth Swanstrom on NBC’s upcoming supernatural procedural drama The InBetween. 

I recently spoke with Johnson about her personal connections to the new role, how her character challenges her, and her fight to increase diversity in Hollywood throughout her 34-year career as a union actor in the industry. 

The InBetween is a sci-fi drama that follows Cassie Bedford (Harriet Dyer), a bartender who doubles as a physic medium. She has all the abilities. She can see and speak to the dead and receives messages about how they were killed.

This is convenient for Cassie’s father, Detective Tom Hackett (Paul Blackthorne) of the Seattle Police Force, as she’s more than willing to tell him what she sees to help him solve murders.

Johnson plays Tom’s boss, Luitenent Swanstrom, and like I said, if it’s not fate, I don’t know what is.

First of all, Johnson went in to audition for a recurring guest star role and landed a series regular part that she hadn’t read for. “This is the second time I’ve ever been offered a series regular role, a role that I did not have to audition [for]. I audition all the time,” Johnson said. “And when this took place, my husband and I just cried.”

Johnson said that being an African American woman of a certain age, she was well aware of what a unique offer this was. “So there was no contemplation — there was ‘yes, what time do you need me?'”

She didn’t even read the entire script before accepting the role. Her father was a sergeant in the LAPD and as Johnson said, “Being a cop’s kid…it’s in your DNA.” Following that logic, perhaps Elizabeth Swanstrom is in Johnson’s bones. 

The Lieutenant is a direct boss, who investigates by the book. So she has no reason to interact with Cassie at the start of the season. She wants justice for the victims, and most of the time that means focusing on living suspects, not the dead. 

Still, there are supernatural occurrences all over the scripts, so I had to ask Johnson about her own beliefs. 

“Some people have a religious basis in this thought and some people just have more of a spiritual basis in the thought — but regardless of what it’s based, in I believe that we are still visited by those who have passed on, and I still communicate with my mom and dad and brother on a regular basis,” she said.

“Obviously, it’s a television show and it pushes the envelope. And it’s scary and a little more mystical than what I interpret with my own personal experiences. But I definitely believe that we can communicate and that those who have passed on communicate with us.”

The audience learns personal details about Cassie, Tom, and Tom’s new partner former FBI agent Damien Asante (Justin Cornwell) on the pilot episode of the show. But aside from her traditional ways, Lieutenant Swanstrom is a mystery, and so are her beliefs about intuitive abilities. Johnson wants to maintain the element of mystery that surrounds her character.  

“I believe there needs to be a specific fourth wall between the procedural aspect and specifically my character — and everybody else. Because there has to be a semblance of grounded reality, at least in the first few seasons, I think Lieutenant Swanstrom…she is a cop through and through.”

As familiar as Johnson is with what it means to be a cop, playing Elizabeth Swanstrom is challenging for her.

“Well, I’m a gregarious kind of loud person,” Johnson said when I asked her why. “And she’s an African American woman who oversees a squad of detectives and a squad room and a police department. And as you know, we women have to be impossibly perfect in a male world. And that is a lot of pressure.”

“I really respect her,” she added.

Johnson had been combining her industry skills, passion for advocacy, and her “cop’s kid” pride for years before she got this role, directing and producing public service announcements for the LAPD. While working on those, she spent a lot of time with police officers of every level, from P1 all the way up to Captain. 

She said she became close to one of the first female African American captains at the LAPD, and years later, is grateful to call her a friend. 

“It was wonderful being around a woman, an African American woman with that amount of power. So I was able to absorb how she used that power without crossing any line,” Johnson shared. “It was a great education because there’s a difference between male power and female power.”

Johnson understands the power her father had. But, she’s able to draw on what she knows about women with power in the LAPD to play Elizabeth. 

The actress is no stranger to power. She’s a former Vice President of the Screen Actors Guild and very passionate about fighting for diversity in Hollywood. 

“It really should be noted that The InBetween, visually, is one of the most diverse casts I’ve ever been part of,” Johnson said.

“And it’s not in your face. It’s not, ‘oh, aren’t we wonderful, aren’t we so proud of ourselves.’ It’s not even mentioned.” In fact, Lieutenant Swanstrom was originally supposed to be a white male before Johnson was offered the part. 

She believes that fixing any diversity problem first involves seeing our differences.  

“[America has] institutionalized discrimination. If you pretend that you don’t see [differences] you are aiding and abetting the institution. So, you have to see it. And you have to be aggressive with breaking down those walls. So, I don’t think it’s going to be a battle for The InBetween to go even further with diversity on all levels. And I hope that I can be a part of that natural integration of differences so it just becomes [the norm].”

The InBetween is a true drama/procedural hybrid with sci-fi, fantasy and horror elements. Combined with the show’s commitment to diversity, there is literally something to entice a variety of fans — and Johnson hopes we all keep watching long enough to learn if Swanstrom believes in Cassie’s abilities. She’s in no rush to give up those details yet. 

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Be sure to catch Anne-Marie Johnson on The InBetween, premiering Wednesday, May 29th at 10/9c on NBC. 

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