GRACEPOINT: Anna Gunn On Her Unsettling New Role



Anna Gunn has said that she found the experience of playing Ellie Miller in Gracepoint ‘unsettling’ because of the change in perspective that the character undergoes through the story. She plays a police detective who is involved in a high-profile murder investigation that threatens to tear apart a small Californian town.

Gracepoint is the new ten-part event series from Fox TV which premieres next Thursday night. When twelve-year old Danny Solano is found dead on the local beach, a formerly peaceful community is thrust into the media spotlight, while the police investigation makes everyone a suspect. The series is based on the acclaimed UK drama Broadchurch, and shares a star in David Tennant. Anna plays the role originally made famous by Olivia Colman.

At the heart of the drama is the fraught relationship between local detective Ellie and her new boss, outsider Emmett Carver (David Tennant, playing the American counterpart of DI Alec Hardy). Carver’s by-the-book approach and blunt manner annoys the empathetic Ellie, who knows the victim’s family and many of the suspects personally, and she often makes her feelings known to him.

“What she’s trying to remind him of all the time is, ‘Remember, this is my town. These are real people who have been dealt a horrible blow. While your way may be to run roughshod over them, my way is to go in and just talk to them as people,’” she says, adding, “The most unsettling piece for me was the part of Ellie that was still holding onto an idea that you really are innocent until proven guilty, and that there was something about her that wanted to give dignity and a fair shake to everybody.”

However, Carver’s approach soon starts to rub off on Ellie and she is forced to begin to view her town and friends through a new prism.

 “She had to start looking at the people in her town, her friends, her cohorts, her compatriots with an eye of suspicion,” Anna reveals. “And that does something to a person, something very deep and rather disturbing.”

Anna talks more about Ellie Miller in this video clip from Fox TV:



Gracepoint premieres on Fox on Thursday 2nd October at 9pm ET/PT. Based on the UK drama Broadchurch, the producers have assured fans that there will be new twists and turns, new suspects and a different ending.

Gracepoint
A young boy, Daniel Solano, is found dead on an idyllic beach in the small seaside town of Gracepoint, spurring a major investigation lead by Detective Emmett Carver, who has just arrived in Gracepoint to fill a high position in the town’s police force. That job previously had been promised to Detective Ellie Miller, who, in light of the tragedy, must put any resentment aside and work the case with her prickly new boss. Danny’s parents Mark and Beth, and his older sister, Chloe are devastated by the news, which carves a powerfully dark wake through the town as friends become suspects in the all-new event series from Fox.

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