‘Emergence’ Star Allison Tolman On Her “Folksy” Roles: “People Just Feel Like They Know Me”

When Allison Tolman talks about bursting on the scene in 2014, playing Deputy Molly Solverson in the first season of the FX anthology series Fargo, she talks as if it was even longer than five years ago. Why? Because those last five years have been just jammed full of interesting roles and surreal moments. “There’s no other reason why I am where I am,” she recently told Decider.

She certainly didn’t think she’d find herself as the lead of a network drama, but here she is, starring in ABC’s new thriller, Emergence. She plays Jo Evans, the police chief of a small Long Island beach town, who finds a girl (Alexa Swinton) at the scene of a plane crash with no memory and no injuries. She eventually takes in the girl she names Piper when she realizes that a) she has supernatural powers, and b) some very bad people are after her. Co-starring in the series is Donald Faison as Jo’s ex-husband Alex, Ashley Aufderheide as their daughter Mia and Clancy Brown as Jo’s father Ed.

The refreshingly self-deprecating Tolman sat down with us to talk about the show, her overstuffed life since her Emmy-nominated turn in Fargo, and why Zach Braff may be jealous of her boyfriend.

DECIDER: What mode were you in when Emergence came along? Were you looking for a network series, an independent film or something else?

ALLISON TOLMAN: I mean, I was definitely looking for a series, but I didn’t think I was going to land on a network, necessarily. I certainly didn’t think I was going to land on a network drama. I couldn’t have been more surprised that that’s where I ended up, to be honest.

I always kind of… Maybe just because I started on FX, or maybe it’s because I’m just not your typical leading lady, I just always kind of felt like I was a cable girl or a streaming girl. So the fact that I ended up leading my own network drama still continues to be utterly bonkers to me.

What did creators Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters see? Did they approach you or did you have to audition?

They approached me, and then we sat down and had a meeting, basically. So I read the script, loved the script, thought it was just so strong. Then sat down with them. We just had a sit down and kind of… You sit down and you kind of sniff each other out and figure, “Can we work together? Could we do this for possibly the next seven years or whatever?” And we got along great. So we decided, “Yes, we could do that, happily.”

What were they looking for as far as Jo the character was concerned? What did they see in you that they knew that you were their Jo?

I don’t know. I get asked this and I thought about it and I can’t say what it is. But just even since Fargo, people feel like they know me and they feel like they can trust me, which they can’t and they don’t. No, I’m kidding. She said something about my face is just like your sister or the girl next door or something. Like the one who used to babysit you when you were a kid. I don’t know.

I think it’s a shortcut for writers and showrunners to be able to be like, “Hey, if we cast this woman who everybody feels like they know and they feel kind of warmly towards, then we don’t have to work very hard to get people to like her and trust her.” I don’t know why I inspire that in people. Again, I mean, I… I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I guess I’m a little bit folksy or something. People just feel like they know me.

There was going to be a lot of conspiracy elements and supernatural elements. A lot of the supernatural elements were going to be CGI or special effects. As an actor whose work is very natural and seems almost effortless, how do you deal with a show that involves stuff that you may not see?

I will say for starters, we use as many practical effects as we can in the show. I mean obviously, we can’t flip a car over in the middle of a road. But everything that’s happening in the basement, in the pilot, all of the shaking and the washing machine walking across the floor on its own, all that stuff, that’s all practical [effects]. We have an incredible effects team and we do as much practical stuff as we can in every episode.

But when you do start getting into CGI, for me, coming from the theater, you’ve built an entire world on stage and you just get to live in that world. And when you transfer over to film like I did, it’s already such a shift. You no longer are living in an entire world, you’re living in a world that’s between you and the person that you’re talking to and you’re ignoring the camera that’s just right over their shoulder, and you’re ignoring the light that’s just beside your head, and you’re ignoring the crew that’s just off to your right. So there’s a lot of really intense focus when you make the switch, I think, from theater to film.

That translates to special effects as well. They tell you that “this tennis ball” or “this piece of orange tape is XYZ,” and you say, “All right, I can sell that.” Because you’ve already kind of made the leap to pretending that you’re not noticing that the crew is right behind you.

What struck me about the pilot is that Michele and Tara are trying to build the relationships between everyone. You and Clancy’s character, you and Donald’s character. Did you notice that in the script right away? Was that part of what appealed to you?

Yeah, absolutely. They recognize that there’s a strength in that. There’s a strength not just in having well developed characters, but well developed character relationships, because that’s what we’re going to return home to at the end of every episode. That’s the only thing that we’re going to be able to use to keep a story as fantastic as this one will continue to be, grounded. So they know if you can build that early, you can sell that early. That’ll always be something that we can return to as an audience, as writers, as performers. It’s so helpful to have a strong foundation. So they started building that early, which is smart.

For an actor, it’s so fun to be able to make a show that has all these big set pieces and has these big thrills and chills and stuff like that. It’s fun to be a part of a show like that. It’s satisfying as an actor. I do these stunts and I run around and I do this, that, and the other. There’s CGI and I’m acting with pieces of tape. Then at the end of the day, I get to go sit on a couch with Donald Faison and just talk like humans. That is such a blessing as a performer.

Do you hope that this show catches buzz more for its characters and relationships or the conspiracy?

That’s a good question. I guess for the conspiracy because I don’t have any doubts about our ability to flush out these human relationships. I know we’re doing that and I know that we’re going to continue to do that.

I hope that people who love conspiracy and love to be surprised and love to figure things out and love to get on Reddit and compare theories, I hope that they find what they’re looking for in our show. But I have less control over that. So I think that’s the thing that’d be most satisfying to me, would be to know that we’ve delivered in that way.

Another reviewer mentioned that the characters don’t have other stuff going on. Jo doesn’t have some sort of PTSD or something on top of all the other stuff that she has to deal with, that kind of thing. Was that something that you noticed right away? How does that clear the field for you as an actor and for the audience?

It’s certainly something that I noticed right away. Also, that was only kind of, I think, reinforced by their casting me in that role. I don’t feel like I… Again, it’s that folksy thing. I don’t read like someone who’s got a super dark past and a drinking problem and whatever. I love those characters. I want to watch those characters all day, but that’s not who I’m going to play. They’re just not going to hire me to plat that person.

But I think that’s a huge strength in our show. I think that that’s one of the best reasons to watch is to watch someone who reminds you of you deal with situations that… I mean, and think, “How would I deal with this? How would I do that? I don’t know.”

When you noticed that, “Hey, Donald’s going to play Alex,” were you thinking, “They’re going to kind of lean on having a little bit of a sense of humor despite all of this dark material.”? Was that an indicator to you?

I mean, you know Michele and Tara. You’re familiar with their other work a little bit, I guess. They’re also very funny. So I don’t know that we had any choice but to make a show that’s a little bit funny. They’ve cast a bunch of funny actors and they’re very funny as well, and they staffed their writers’ room with funny people. Which I think is fascinating. It’s such an interesting way to staff the writers’ room for a drama with people who can write comedy.

Do you agree, though, that if you can do comedy, you can do drama?

I think it helps. I think it certainly works better going that way than the other way, if that makes sense. I mean, they’re certainly not the same thing. But if you’re really good at comedy, I feel like that that’s… It’s like Russian comedy, like the best comedy is pretty tragic. So one side of really good comedy is tragedy. I think that our cast is able to deliver in that way. Yeah, I don’t think that’s a mistake.

By the way, when you’re working with Donald Faison, is there a lot of Zach Braff in your life as well? Do they have a text chain going with the Scrubs people?

[Laughs] I don’t know. Every now and then, yeah, I know he and Zach are besties. Donald and my boyfriend are good friends and are golf buddies, and have been golf buddies for years long before the show came about.

Long before Donald and I met, my boyfriend, Tim, who is not in the business and works in IT, has been playing golf with Donald. So more often than not, what I see is Donald will post a picture with my boyfriend Tim and someone on Instagram will say, “Whoa, does Zach know? Have you told Zach?” I think I’ve inadvertently… I’m moving in on Zach Braff’s territory by moving my boyfriend to New Jersey with me as well.

It’s been a few years now since Fargo. From what I remember, it was your first big screen credit. How do you see your career now as opposed to when all the Fargo stuff was happening?

I think that after Fargo, I felt like I was kind of riding that Fargo wave for as long as I could. And then I remember exactly when I was like, “Oh no, I’ve lost that momentum.” I’ll never lose the influence that Fargo had in my life, obviously, and in my career. But I remember being like, “Now I’m back on the scene as just an actress trying to get another series. I can’t ride that wave into another job. I should start really kind of hitting the pavement again.”

I went through a few years of that and had some successes and some failures. But certainly, this show, this cast, these writers, this network and the support that the network has been giving us up until this point with publicity, etc., it feels like we’re poised as well as we possibly can be for success. So in a lot of ways, I think that this is where I have been trying to get back to since Fargo.

So I’m cautiously optimistic, but I think I am cautious. It’s only been five years since Fargo, which is insane to me. But I think I take things with a grain of salt. I’m less quick to be like, “Great, we’re succeeding. We’ve made it.” Because I’ve been doing this long enough now to know that a lot of things have to go right for your show to go. It’s a miracle when a pilot gets made, and it’s a miracle when a pilot gets picked up, and it’ll be a miracle if we get a second season as well.

It’s just there’s so much out there. There’s so much to watch. The market is so saturated. So I just try to be thankful for every step of the process. And I just try to pick projects and continue to do work that I feel like I can look back at and be proud of because nothing is promised and you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

That segues right into this question. How long was it after NBC said, “We’re not going to pick it up,” then ABC picked it up since their studo produces it. Did you always think, “ABC produces it, so if NBC drops it, ABC will just pick it up,” or was that in doubt?

No, that was definitely something that we had no idea that that was even a possibility as if that was done. I mean, after the fact, we were like, “Well good, thank God they were around from the start. That makes sense.” But it certainly was not something that was on our mind while we were waiting for NBC to pick the show up.

I think all of us, we were creeping in towards Friday afternoon of that week, the week we knew we were going to find out about pickups, and I think we were all just like, “Oh my God, we’re not going to get picked up. I can’t believe it. I really thought we were going to get picked up.” I really thought that this pilot was good enough to go. So then getting that phone call that was like, “Okay, here’s what’s happening, here’s the bad news, but here’s the good news.”

You certainly prefer to have unmitigated good news, but it was still exciting not to have a straight “no” and still exciting to be like, “Okay, well we’ll find out a little bit more tomorrow.” And got on the phone on Saturday and found out a little bit more, and then got on the phone on Sunday and found a little bit more. Then by Tuesday, Donald and I were at the upfront at the ABC party, so we were like, “I guess this is real. I mean, they paid for our hotel room, so I guess this is going to happen.” {Laughs]

Did you have time to sit and think about how rare that is?

I mean, I think you’re right. I don’t think I really did had time to sit down and think about how rare that was. When we were in the center of it, you are just kind of in a whirlwind when you’re in the center of it. But when other people relay back to me the story, I’m like, “Gosh, you’re right. When you say it, it is really insane that that’s the way that things happen.”

I think we ended up right where we’re supposed to be. I think ABC is the right place for us. NBC just had too full a plate. I think we were in competition with so much of their other stuff, and ABC had a spot for us. So we’re thankful to be able to tell this story no matter where we landed. We’re just thrilled that we’re able to be somewhere.

When you look back at the Fargo year, what was the most insane moment to you?

It was all so surreal. We were driving to Kimmel last night. I did the Jimmy Kimmel show yesterday, and we were driving from my apartment in Hollywood down Hollywood Boulevard to get to his stages, me and a friend of mine and my hair and makeup team. We passed by the Starbucks on Hollywood Boulevard where I was recognized for the first time after Fargo started airing. I was like, “That’s the Starbucks the first time someone said, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re that girl from that show.'” I live a few blocks from that Starbucks, so it’s nice to have that daily reminder.

Then again, it’s only been five years. It’s been five years. I can’t believe that it’s only been five years since Fargo was on the air. Honestly, Joel, it continues to be surreal. Again, it’s all because of Fargo. So there’s really no division for me between being recognized at Starbucks for the first time and premiering in a network drama. It all continues to be so surreal, and it all is because of Fargo and that show coming into my life at that time, and the fact that we were able to find each other. There’s no other reason why I am where I am. It was all inextricably linked and I can’t pull those two things apart.

When you say, “I can’t believe it was five years ago,” I thought at first you were saying, “I can’t believe it’s been five years,” but you’re saying, “I can’t believe it’s been only five years.” It feels like it was almost a long time ago to you.

It feels like so much has happened. Yeah, I believe it. It’s unreal to me. It really is unreal to me.

Anything else you wanted to mention that we didn’t talk about?

I guess I talk a lot about my adult co-stars, but I also just have nothing but nice things to say about Alexa and Ashley who play… Ashley plays my daughter Mia, and Alexa who plays Piper. They are so lovely and so lovely to each other. They adore each other, which is really nice. You’ve got a couple sisters on set who just adore each other.

So yeah, I mean, I think it’s a big responsibility to kind of usher young actors into this business. I don’t know, I’m thankful that it’s us. I’m thankful that it’s this group that gets to be with these girls as they hopefully in success kind of sort of grow into this business and grow into this show as they get older. We’re just really proud of them and proud of the young women that they are. They’re both such smart, sweet, talented girls. I don’t know, we’re thrilled for them. We’re thrilled to have them on this show.

And they’re not playing super precocious kids. I mean, one of them has superpowers, but other than that, they’re normal.

Can you imagine how obnoxious the character of Piper would be if Piper had superpowers and was super precocious? What a scene! Uccch. [Laughs]

She’d have a catchphrase.

That’s a different show. I don’t want to watch that show.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

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