IGN
Grace Park Talks The Cleaner

The Galactica star discusses her A&E series, posing for Maxim, guest starring on American Dad and more.

By Eric Goldman

07-6-2009

 

While Battlestar Galactica may be over, fans of Grace Park can see the actress these days on the second season of The Cleaner, airing on A&E. On The Cleaner, Park plays Akani Cuesta, who works alongside William Banks (Benjamin Bratt) and Arnie Swenton (Esteban Powell) as "extreme interventionists", going to very dramatic lengths to help addicts get clean.

I recently spoke to Park about her work on The Cleaner, in a conversation that also turned to Park's upcoming Maxim pictorial (alongside Battlestar's Tricia Helfer), a vocal guest appearance she'll be doing on American Dad and an amusing, dialogue-free cameo she made on a Battlestar-reference heavy episode of CSI this past spring.
 

IGN TV: The first season of The Cleaner was shot at the same time as the final episodes of Battlestar. Given how busy you were filming both simultaneously, did you have any time to do much research for The Cleaner?

Grace Park: Yeah, I did some research before we started up, because we had the writers' strike. So I just did what I could in Vancouver. There's an area where there's a lot of heavy drug use. There was someone I knew who knew somebody there and so I had my in and spent a few hours with them and kind of went to the different "hotels". Places where everybody is shooting or using. Not a place where you want to raise your kids! But at the same time, it was oddly safe. Maybe that's because people were very heavy into either their own pain or their own usage. That's not necessarily the kind of people we come across in the show, to that degree. It's going to be different. A lot of the people we get on the show are more like the functioning addicts.
 

IGN: It strikes me that with Battlestar, the entire concept had you mostly confined to the ship – you had guest stars, but the focus was on the regulars. On The Cleaner, you have a show that is innately much more guest star heavy.

Park: Right. What I really enjoy is getting to meet the people and working with their process and us together. And by the end, you've forged a mini-friendship. I really like that. I enjoy meeting people, no matter who they are, and discovering who they are as a person.

IGN: They have these references to your character's history and how it relates to William. Have you thought about that much or asked the producers about it?

Park: Me and Benjamin joke about what that weekend would have been. I've been thinking about it, but sketching the outline of what that would have been, I hadn't done – going into it emotionally and realizing how that really, genuinely affects their relationship – until the beginning of this season. And then a lot of other things fell into place – why she hangs around and why she might be a little bit competitive with him. I did a little bit of work with that with an acting coach. A lot of stuff made sense and it filled in a lot of little gaps. But then in a way, it was almost too deep. It's like it's good to know, but it's important to stop it. Because in everyday life, just because someone affected you, you're not walking around with that. Unless you just broke up with your girlfriend, you're not down from that. Sometimes that stuff doesn't fit. It doesn't always fit to bring it in. But you try it. And then sometimes they're like, "What are you doing?" And then you go, "Never mind!" [Laughs]
 

IGN: Are there episodes coming up that are particular favorites of yours?

Park: There are a few opportunities where we go back to the dynamic of the team and the banter between the three, mixed with the intensity of the case. And I think that's always really fun. Because it's easy to go into a case and just be serious, but you have an interesting dynamic with the team, because there is this sarcasm and this history with all of us. We all bring our own personality to the table and it's kind of a strange team.

IGN: What about upcoming guest stars?

I like the episode with Mia Kirshner. She plays a rock star on pills. I really had a great opportunity, because in that episode they're like, "Akani, you've got to go deal with her," because William is dealing with the manager. The case is not always so cut and dry, so you might be picking up the other end of the lace. So it ends up being this big mess, because the character is not on her best behavior at all. That's what made it so fun. Mia's a talented, kind, deep person and so she had her qualms about really going there with that part of the addict's journey. She didn't want her just to be a whirling dervish and present that image. It's kind of a lesson – this is what happens when people are on substances. They're not pretty. They're not nice, or open or beautiful. It's the ugliest part of you and it wants attention. So it was so cool to be able to work with her, and then with our conversations – not just in the script, but stuff that we're talking about – got to inform the story and just totally took it to another level. Because after that, we had that little quick conversation, and then she just threw the biggest fit as the character. [Laughs] She threw stuff across the room, screaming at me. And then of course Akani totally doesn't want any part of it. So is she completely ignoring her, and it'll make things even worse? So it's a good, volatile cocktail. It was really fun working with her.

There's one with Lori Petty right after that, who plays an alcoholic. That's an interesting structure for that episode, because it's sort of this triangle – each one of the team members is split up and they're all dealing with their own thing. You see how they, on their own time, go and volunteer to help somebody, that they're clearly not getting paid for and that William is not telling them to help. So you realize this is kind of part of their fabric now. They sort of enjoy it on some level and enjoy reaching out to people and helping people and that human connection.
 

IGN: Battlestar was a very heavy show, obviously, and The Cleaner's subject matter is not a light one. Do you think to yourself, "It would be nice to do a comedy down the line"?

Park: [Laughs] Yeah. Something really wacky and weird. Well, I am doing American Dad. The character's not dark!

IGN: What do you play on that?

Park: I play this Japanese character. It's a Halloween episode and It's all about trick-or-treating and I think I'm one of the neighbors. But there's kind of an interesting twist, which I probably shouldn't say!

IGN: Have you done the recording session for that yet?

Park: No, not yet. I'm a little nervous!

IGN: So I heard you and Tricia [Helfer] just shot the cover of Maxim together. Was that for [the upcoming TV-Movie] Battlestar Galactica: The Plan?

Park: Yeah, that was for The Plan. It's the November issue. I was a little nervous to do that. It's been a few years since I did anything like that. It can be a little bit weird. I hemmed and hawed for long time and then finally it was like, "Ah, frak, let's just do it!" [Laughs] I'm totally glad we did it. I think it's going to be kind of cool. It's always fun working with Tricia.
 

IGN: Do you basically treat something like that as an acting role of sorts, since they are looking for that very sexy image for the photos?

Park: I think that's what's going on. But it's a totally different skill set. It's a different medium. It's not about emotion – it's about expression and almost the architecture; the layout of the page. It's different, because you can see a photo and know you like it, but then to be that person and doing it is a different sense. I don't treat it like acting, but I do treat it like a job. It's clearly work.

There was a point about two thirds of the way through when I was like, "What I can really use right now is some tequila or some champagne." They came back with Patrone, a couple of cases of Corona! So we're doing the photo shoot, and we look over and even the photo editor is sitting there with a Corona in her hand, looking over the Mac computer where they're downloading [the photos]. I'm like, "This is awesome!" But I did a little bit too much. I was like, "I can't have that whole shot, because I'm going to go red and it's going to f**k up the photos" and they gave it to the stylist. She comes back and hands me the thing, and I go, "Aww… I'm just gonna do it!" So then I'm sitting there in the chair later going, "Please, just keep shooting Tricia… I gotta make this pass!"

IGN: It was really funny seeing you in that very quick cameo on CSI. The whole parodying of a Battlestar type reimagining of an old sci-fi show was great.

Park: That was so funny.
 

IGN: So did they just call you up and ask, "Want to stand in a crowd?"

Park: No, actually I was going to play one of the guest stars in that episode. But we couldn't work it out, because there was like a half day overlap with the Cleaner. And because we had Whoopi [Goldberg] on The Cleaner, her schedule was limited. So I was like, "Fraking Whoopi!" I'm kidding! [Laughs] But that's why I didn't go do it. I was going to do all The Cleaner stuff and all the CSI stuff, and as Cleaner started, there was just this little half day overlap.

And then the day before, as we're walking through the set, I get this look from [Cleaner co-executive producer] Jack Clements. I go, "I'm not working on Monday, am I?" This was after they'd recast [on CSI]. And he looks at me and goes, "I'm going to make sure you work every single scene that day!" Yeah, didn't happen… [Laughs] But I was like, "I've just got to be a part of this thing." The reason I wanted to do it was because it was such a tongue in cheek, wink and nudge episode. I was like, "I'll just stand in the crowd! I don't care!"