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An interview with Aleksa Palladino

If Aleksa Palladino looks familiar to you, it’s because she’s been in several great films. At age 14, she starred alongside Scarlett Johannson in Manny & Lo. From there, she moved on to star in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Her classic look and ability to make you forget anything but what her character is giving you make Aleksa an unforgettable actress, one that you’ll recognize in any role for she makes them her own.

As Angela Darmondy in the hit HBO series Boardwalk Empire, Palladino plays Jimmy Darmondy’s (Michael Pitt) common-law-wife, who has been acting as a single mother while he was away at war. She is raising their toddler Tommy with the monetary support of politician Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), who takes care of Jimmy as a favor to Jimmy’s mother, Jillian (Gretchen Mol).

But while Jimmy was away at war, Angela has grown into herself, finding she’s interested in being an artist (a painter, specifically) and also that she has feelings for a woman. When Jimmy comes back to Atlantic City, he wants to pick up where things left off, but it’s a completely different time now. Even though only two years have passed, the prohibition has everyone looking for ways to find alcohol and ways to sell it – which is how Jimmy and Nucky start doing business together. Angela, meanwhile, continues to see her lover, Mary, but becomes concerned that Jimmy is going to find her out.

WIth the season half over, but picked up for another next year, we checked in with Aleksa to find out how the role of Angela came to be more than just a housewife and what’s in store for her relationship with Mary.

AfterEllen: How did you come into the role of Angela?

Aleksa Palladino: I auditioned for it. There was very little information on her at that point – I mean nothing. She wasn’t even an artist or anything yet. That all came together, I think, once they had their cast in place.

AE: With Lisa Joyce, who played Mary, you didn’t really have too much interaction with her onscreen until really the first time you see them together in bed. Was it strange to not really have any screentime with her and then you’re thrust into this sexual situation?

AP: Yeah, I mean, it was the first time I’d met her at all, because the other scene she’s in – episode 3, I think – I’m not in that scene. So I met her probably a week prior to the bedroom scene. We had a lot of the same concerns, which was just that we wanted it to come across…we wanted the love to be evident between these two people. We were on the same page with that. It’s funny how fast you get to know someone when you’re going to be in bed with them. [Laughs]

AE: Did you guys spend a lot of time together before that scene off set?

AP: Well we’d just met, really, that week before. So we spent some time together and we also had a chance to sit down with the director of that episode, Allen Coulter, to get a vibe and understand what he was looking for. It was his intention as well just to make it this beautiful, moving scene and obviously have the sexuality present as well.

AE: So why does Angela have that feeling that Nucky is on to them? Was there something we were supposed to gather from the previous episode, or is it just something she’s paranoid about?

AP: There was a scene – I guess they cut it out – where he was walking on the boardwalk and she was coming out of the photographer’s shop.

AE: As far as a backstory on Angela and Mary’s relationship, it seems that it came to be when Jimmy was away at war, but did you maybe create one for yourself to have an idea of where the relationship started?

AP: Not a very detailed one. What we sort of decided on was that it was just a friendship and then it gradually and very naturally led to a romantic friendship. And yeah, her husband or boyfriend or whatever has been away for two years without writing, and basically you don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. To have the comfort and support of the natural person you could confide in, all those things, and then also because they’re both artists, they share that, too. It’s pretty uncommon for that time. I think it’s just a really nurturing and supportive friendship that then naturally progressed into a relationship.

AE: So when it comes to Jimmy, do you think that Angela loves him or is in love with him? How do you think that she feels about him? Because obviously when he came back, she didn’t really want to make love with him but he was kind of forceful enough and she was like, “Alright fine.” So how does she feel about that with him?

AP: I think that she was in love with him very much before he left, and then like I said, they had no communication for two years. During those two years, so much had changed for both of them. Like here, so much had changed for women, and for her in particular, when she dives into her art and all these things, she’s becoming more of her own person.

Even just the social climate, it’s changed so much. Women started wearing lipstick for the first time. There’s a little bit of a beginning of sexual liberation. It’s just a really pivotal time in general, and then for two years he was in war, and that’s going to change a person a lot, too. It’s sort of the feeling of coming together again and it’s two complete strangers, and not knowing how to pick up. Not knowing how to explain to someone, like, “Oh, I’ve changed a lot – I’m a really cool woman now.”

It’s sort of that feeling of being lost and how you reintroduce yourself to someone, you know, and I think that you come back from war with a lot of baggage and I can only sort of imagine what’s going on between them in scenes that aren’t written. I think there’s love there, I just think that it’s hard to know how to be yourself in a time where women aren’t necessarily allowed much freedom. To build it on your own and then have someone come back into the picture, someone who may not be receptive to it.

AE: Her feeling that sexual freedom – not only with Mary, but with Mary’s husband – I just wonder, how did you see her husband fitting in to that, you know, when they’re all together at the house and he wants to be part of the fun, I guess. How does he fit into the girls’ relationship?

AP: In terms of Angela, he doesn’t at all. I think that her feelings are for Mary and they’re not for Robert at all.

AE: So he just wants to be involved somehow, but you’re just not interested.

AP: Yeah, when I was doing a lot of research about bisexuality and all this stuff in that time, it was beginning to become, like, a popular thing for couples to try. Not mainstream couples, but still, like, artists and stuff like this. So I kind of see them as being that kind of couple that would try it together, but then between the two women there’s actually feelings there.

AE: Who came up with the idea of her being more sexually free? Martin Scorsese? I’d read that you had talked to him about that part of the role before.

AP: I think it was the writer Margaret Nagle. One of the writers. I think the whole sort of lesbian angle was her idea because she wanted it to be – she wanted it to represent the whole sort of “new woman” that Angela is. With her being this sort of independent woman raising a child on her own and had provisions for her own career, an art career…she wanted there to be a real heavy decision of “What do I lose by staying with Jimmy? What do I gain by staying with Jimmy? What do I lose by going out on my own? What do I gain by that?” It’s just heavy, weighted decisions.

AE: How do you feel about the wardrobe? Because you get to wear a range of different kinds of things on the show, from negligees to going out-outfits. Do you like it?

AP: Yeah, I love the clothes. It helps so much when everything around you just looks so real. The clothes and the sets, everything- it just becomes so real for you.

AE: How do you like working with Michael Pitt?

AP: He’s great. He’s wonderful.

AE: Yeah, I’ve always loved his work. Is there anyone else you were really excited to be working with on the show?

AP: All of them. All of them, really. It’s such a great group of people, I was really excited to work with Martin, obviously, and Tim Van Patten. And all the actors, it’s just great. Great people.

AE: Is there anything you hope people will get from your character? Like, anything you want them to know about Angela that maybe doesn’t come across as strong?

AP: To me, she’s very relatable, like a modern-day person can relate to her. She’s someone who’s really just trying to find her way – her way by her own standards. Someone who’s willing to do things that aren’t necessarily socially accepted to find her own happiness. I think it’s a really strong character and a very brave character. Just a woman who believes in herself. I think she’s going to keep growing in very interesting ways.

AE: Do you know anything about the next season or anything that will be happening in the near future?

AP: Honestly, I don’t know anything, and I can’t wait.

Watch Boardwalk Empire on Sundays at 10 p.m. EST on HBO.

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