The following interview for Backstage’s on-camera series The Slate was compiled in part by Backstage readers just like you! Follow us on Twitter (@Backstage) and Instagram (@backstagecast) to stay in the loop on upcoming interviews and to submit your questions.
Whether you know Gina Torres from beloved series like “Angel” and “Firefly” or watched her on the big screen in “The Matrix” franchise and other, or followed her as Jessica Pearson on USA’s longrunning “Suits” and its spinoff “Pearson,” you know how much of a versatile scene-stealer she is. This holds true for her latest role as Tommy Vega, a new character on Fox’s hit series “911: Lone Star”—one which co-creator and executive producer Tim Minear wrote with Torres specifically in mind.
Being present, empathetic, and kind during this time is how Torres stays inspired.
“We had a conversation around the dinner table yesterday about, just, the energetic: everything that’s going on in the energetic, and how it can 100% be a part of and inform how you’re feeling and what you’re doing and how you go about your day. Even if you’re not a news junkie, even if you don’t subscribe to any of the things, it’s still a part of the air that we’re breathing right now in the spaces that we’re existing. You know I kind of likened it—to all you ‘Star Wars’ fans—to there’s a disturbance in the force. And you can’t help but be affected by that. So my medicine, if you will, is to just really make my world as small as possible and to start checking in with myself, to get to the quiet spaces where I can breathe and really reflect on the things that I need to fill myself up, whether it be make a great meal and enjoy it fully, or sweating—you know, working out, that’s a great time. Spending real time with the people that I love who live in this house: my daughter and my partner, and really listening, you know? Really getting back into the art of listening and paying attention and looking at someone in the eye and seeing where they are.”
Once she got the call about the role of Tommy, Torres did not need too much convincing.
“I loved how [Minear] drew this character. I love that she’s so beautifully human, and flawed, and a little doubtful of how she’s going to go back into the workforce—whether she still ‘has it’ or not, whether she has it to give in both her work life as well as her personal life. Can she strike that balance? [It’s] something that I think most working parents go through, most working moms go through, and it’s a place that so, so many of us are finding ourselves at this point in time.”
She was able to bring life to this character with a good deal of real-world experience.
“One of the joys of it being written with specifically me in mind is, there are a lot of sort of no-acting moments. There’s a lot of personal experience I can draw from, not necessarily from being a paramedic captain, but from being a human being…. That’s been lovely: to draw from life. To draw from my own experience. It just makes it that much more organic, that much more authentic. And I can also call bullshit when I see it. I can also say, ‘You know what? No. That doesn’t feel right. I don’t think that this is a choice that this person would make at this point in time,’ and to be able to do that with absolute authority. Other than that, we have great help on the show with technical advisors, people who are actual, working paramedics who help us really look good.”
Torres is now starring opposite Rob Lowe. To her, a great scene partner is ready for anything.
“The best scene partners are the ones that come ready to play. And it doesn’t matter if it’s comedy or if it’s drama or if it’s action: You just have to be ready and willing to open yourself and be prepared enough to do the job at hand, the task that you’ve been given, but also open enough and agile enough to let in the energy of the person and the persons that are around you, because you don’t know what they’re bringing to the table, you don’t know what they’ve got on that day. And so to be able to incorporate all of that, it really is what brings all art forms together. It’s the human interaction, it’s the human connection, and to be able to throw the energy and bring it back, that’s what people see at the end of the day…. It’s those moments of flight that engage the audience and that leave an imprint, and that’s what you strive for.”
After years of work, Torres is well-equipped to give valuable insight to young actors.
“It’s hard when you’re a young actor, you’re trying everything—and you should. You should absolutely try all things because as a young actor you don’t know everything. As a mature actor, you don’t know everything. As a person—you’re just a work in progress, and you should always feel like you’re a work in progress. So don’t be afraid to fail. And hope that when you swing for the fences that somebody acknowledges and can appreciate the swing. Whether you miss the fence or hit the fence or don’t get anywhere near the fence, the passion in the swing is so important. And that’s something that you can't second guess, because that’s the thing that really sets you apart from anybody else.”
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