Maggie Q Shares How Nikita Burnout Steeled Her for Taking Ballard Lead, Teases Reunion With Noah Bean

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The fact of the matter is, kicking butt as TV’s Nikita kicked Maggie Q’s butt — and more than a bit.

Even so, that four-season initiation-by-fire wound up preparing the actress to headline Ballard, Prime Video’s Bosch: Legacy offshoot premiering Wednesday, July 9 (with all 10 episodes).

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Ordered to series in November, the new entry in theBoschTV universe finds Detective Renée Ballard running the LAPD’s new cold case division — a poorly funded, all-volunteer unit that operates out of an inglorious basement and is saddled with the largest case load in the city.

Renee Ballard (Maggie Q) and Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver)Patrick Wymore/Amazon MGM Studios.

TheBallard cast also boasts Courtney Taylor (Insecure) as Samira Parker, a wary ex-cop who returns to the force at Ballard’s behest; John Carroll Lynch (Big Sky) as Thomas Laffont, Renée’s former partner who un-retires to help her out; Michael Mosley (alwaysCastle) as Ted, a reserve officer who is assigned to the unit to keep an eye on Ballard; Rebecca Field(All Rise) as Colleen, an enthusiastic (and eccentric) volunteer;Victoria Moroles (Teen Wolf) as Martina, the team’s savvy legal intern; and Amy Hill (Magnum P.I.) as Ballard’s spunky grandma, Tutu.

In the TVLine video above, you can watch Maggie Q open up about the aforementioned Nikita burnout; below, you can find my complete Q&A with her about Ballard vs. Bosch mantras, the characters to watch for, and more.

TVLINE | I stumbled into a Designated Survivor rewatch back in May, and you wouldn’t believe this: In Episode 4, the president deployed the National Guard to Michigan, against the governor’s wishes. Can you imagine?[Laughs] Well, also people didn’t believe that “designated survivor” was a real thing. They thought [the concept] was made up, and it actually isn’t.

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TVLINE | When you and I spoke about it eight–and–a–half years ago, you suggested that Designated Survivor and its “President Kiefer Sutherland” was a “solace” at the time for some people.Mmm-hmmm. Absolutely.

Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Michael Mosley (Ted Rawls)

TVLINE | Harry Bosch famously says, “Everybody counts, or nobody counts.” Is that equally true for Ballard, who is trying to get closure for people by solving cases that are five, 10, 20 years old?That is the line for Bosch, and something that I feel is true for most detectives. In Ballard’s world, [her mantra] is, “Dig down,” right–

TVLINE | Ergo the tiny shovel on her key ring.Yes, she keeps reminding herself to truth-seek, to keep going, keep digging. Even when you think you’ve dug enough, go further. I think she’s just getting to “Everybody counts, or nobody counts,” because in her eyes, everyone does count, especially in the Cold Case Unit, and especially these families that are waiting for closure and whatever peace she can give them. It’s a great motivation for her, for sure.

TVLINE | In that respect, is this almost a more “pure” version of a detective character to play, because of that motivation? I think so. It’s weird, because with cold cases there’s no obvious urgency, and yet there is — because there’s still a family waiting for answers, and they’re waiting for you to care enough to continue to “dig,” as we talked about. We get to explore a lot of that with victims’ families in the show, we get to see what they go through and how long they wait, and what that does to their lives.

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These real-life detectives, a lot of what I’ve gotten from them is that they take that very personally, the family that’s waiting for answers, and so yes, I think it does lend itself to this “purity” of desire to help relieve that. I’ve seen that in many homicide detectives, as well as cold case detectives.

Maggie Q (Renée Ballard) and Courtney Taylor (Zamira Parker) i

TVLINE | Renée has an eclectic assortment of individuals working with her there in the basement. Which character dynamics are you most excited for people to see?Oh, gosh…. I love them all, in such different ways. Obviously the friendship with Parker, and the history that she has with Laffont and his care for her…. The way that she’s trying to balance these volunteers is just bananas for her, because she’s never had to lead a motley crew of people through something that’s actually very serious. They’re underfunded, forgotten… there are all these things that she’s up against.

TVLINE | “Please don’t tell me you think your psychic” [as she tells one volunteer].[Laughs] Isn’t that the best? It’s like herding cats, you’ve got to rein these people in. They all have good intentions, but that doesn’t mean they’re on the right track, so Ballard has to pull together all of these personalities — coming from ego, coming from their heart, coming from retirement…. Her trying to balance all of that makes for some levity in moments, but it also gives you some sympathy from the perspective of a person who is just trying to make everything work. It’s not as easy as it looks!

TVLINE | I wasn’t keeping track of the casting, and boom, there in the first episode, Noah Bean walks in as a councilman who’s riding Ballard to solve his sister’s murder case. What was it like reuniting with your Nikita co-star?Oh, I love Noah. He’s such a quality actor. There were three people they were considering for that, and I may have told them that I really enjoy working with him and that he’d actually play the role perfectly. And he did — he knocked it out of park and he got the role. He’s featured in the trailer, so a lot of people started going, “Wait a minute, Nikita and Ryan Fletcher are back together?!” [Laughs] That was kind of cool.

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TVLINE | Was Shane West a runner-up for the role?He was not. [Laughs] Shane West as a city councilman is a little less believable than Noah Bean.

TVLINE | Which of your past TV roles do you wish you’d gotten to play longer?[Thinks a minute] None of them…? I was burnt out. I enjoyed Nikita so much [but] after four years, I was so burnt out, because I approached it with movie energy, I approached it very idealistic. I was so naive to think that I was going to be able to carry the show for 10 months [out of the year], and know how to do that.

One of the producers, he had worked on Buffy [the Vampire Slayer] for seven years and saw what [Sarah] Michelle [Gellar] had gone through. He sat me down and said, “Maggie, do you know what you’re in for?” And I’m like, “I’m a hard worker! I have a great work ethic!,” thinking I could just will it and give everything. The reality is I was too young to know how to pace myself, and where to give and where to pull back.

Now that I’m older and I’ve been No. 1 [on the call sheet] several times, I have the patience and the wisdom to know how to do that. With Ballard, it’s been invaluable, because without that [experience] I would never know where the push and pull began and ended.

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TVLINE | That’s what Lee Majors once told me, that being the “The” in a title — The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy — can be exhausting.Oh, my goodness. The one-hour drama is the hardest job in Hollywood. It is really, really exhausting.

Want scoop on Ballard, or for any other TV show? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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