‘Ballard’ Season 2 Hopes and Her Wedding

Maggie Q might just be good vibes personified. The Hawaiian-born actress, known for kicking actual ass over four seasons of Nikita and on features such as Mission Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard and The Protégé, isn’t just the opposite of intimidating over coffee in Beverly Hills. She’s showing pictures of her dogs in the custom-made tuxedos she commissioned for her recent wedding, sharing a recommendation for a budget-friendly veterinary dentist — canine teeth are quite expensive — and winning over the staff of the Four Seasons hotel where she’s spent a couple of days.

She’s in town to promote Ballard, her new Amazon Prime Video drama that premiered July 9. A spinoff of another spinoff (Bosch follow-up, Bosch: Legacy) and based on similar IP (it hales from blockbuster novelist Michael Connelly), it stars Q as the titular lead of the LAPD’s cold cases unit. In just days, it ascended to No. 1 on the streamer’s TV charts. But Q got a sense there might be the enthusiasm early on in the process. “When they made the announcement that I was doing the show, I got more texts, more messages, more people reaching out than for anything I’ve ever done in my entire career,” she says. “People love crime.”

It’s a little funny that Q — the letter stands for Quigley, the surname she dropped when she started acting in Hong Kong in the late 1990s — should lead a rare Los Angeles-set series just after she finally gave up on living there. Over an hour before she’s called away to glam up for her premiere screening, Q talked about “transitioning” out of L.A., what she knows about a possible second season, the never-ending battle to be seen for different kinds of roles and the helpful rule she recently established with her team.

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This is a very Los Angeles show. Do you still live in town?

I don’t know. I’m transitioning. I live part-time in Hawaii, but I lost a home here [in L.A.] in a mudslide right before Ballard started. It was state land that fell on my house. When that happens… nobody helps you. It’s not any negligence on my part or my home. They just have it in the laws that they are not responsible. After that experience, I was heartbroken. My neighbors broke my heart. The city broke my heart. The geologist, everybody. It was weird, because there was no empathy. If that had happened in Hawaii, there’d be a line around the block of people with shovels and homemade food, asking how to help. Instead, I had neighbors looking to sue me.

As a lot of people have learned this year, losing your home in a natural disaster is a real crash course in bureaucracy.

It’s like everything and the kitchen sink gets thrown at you, and you can’t even pick up the pieces. No one will let you, because the house is red-tagged. You’re just in purgatory. So as beautiful as L.A. is, with everything that it has to offer, I didn’t want to feel like I was heartbroken anymore. So I bought and renovated a house in Arizona. It’s almost done. People said hi to each other there. I walked into Beverly Hills today. I said, “Good morning” to 10 people. No one said anything back to me! What are you unhappy about? You are living in the most beautiful place! (Laughs.)

I’ve never understood why people call New York unfriendly. They clearly haven’t spent enough time in Los Angeles.

New Yorkers will give you the shirt off of their back. Somehow you come here, you have the best weather and people aren’t happy. It’s not everyone, obviously. But, after the mudslide, I had to think about the kind of energy I’m surrounded with. I don’t want to be surrounded by this anymore. So we’re transitioning out of it. I have a stepson, and he has one more year of high school. But other after that, we’re completely free. And you don’t have to live in Hollywood anymore. They don’t make anything here.

Ballard being a very big exception.

Which is crazy, because my whole career I’ve had experiences on shows that were supposed to move back to L.A. or supposed to stay in L.A., and I always ended up in Canada. Designated Survivor was supposed to move back to L.A. after two seasons in Toronto. But when ABC dropped it and Netflix picked it up, they were like, “Nope, we’re staying in Toronto.” I’m like, “I’m not.” (Laughs). But speaking of brokenhearted, I’ve worked in the industry for 20 years. I know all of the people, all of the technicians, and it is not OK that so many people are out of work here. They’re the best in the world. Why don’t we have the kind of rebates that Canada has? If Albuquerque and Atlanta can, so can we. It’s being done everywhere. Just not in Hollywood.

Without spoiling anything, this first season ends on a cliffhanger. This is notable because Ballard is a spinoff of two shows, Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, that were considered successful… yet canceled. What sense do you have about this show’s future?

I have no sense. This industry is not what it was before. It’s barely recognizable to me, and shows are so expendable. They can throw out a show in two seconds, and it doesn’t make a ton of difference that whole worlds and livelihoods are at stake. Studios always have options. But we have a writers room, and they’ve been writing away. The arc for the second season is very exciting. But I’ve had writers room hired before and then gotten canceled. So everyone’s like, “Maggie, of course!” I’m like, “No, no, no.” There is no “of course.” I am not a negative person at all. I’m a very positive person, but I’m a realist. They sent me reviews this morning and I didn’t want to read them. I’m glad they’re positive, but I don’t want to read them.

How have you managed career expectations over the years in terms of what you want to do compared with how Hollywood perceives you? It is not a bad thing to be typecast as a badass, but I would argue that that’s been the case for you.

At least you’re known for something! (Laughs). It’s very easy to be on the outside of our industry and for people to go, “Why did so-and-so do that?” People think that everything’s up to you, and it’s clearly not. What you said about what I want to do and what they’ll let me do, that’s what it’s all about. That’s the battle. I see myself as multifaceted, and they see me as one thing. I know I have more to give than they believe. Your whole career is spent convincing people of that. I remember an interview that Bradley Cooper did once. Some journalist said, “Oh, who knew you had all this talent,” right after he had made it really big. And he said something like, “Well, I always had talent. I just never had the opportunity. It wasn’t about what I could offer. It was whether they would allow me to offer that.” That’s every single person’s battle. And it’s constant.

Tell me what waging that battle looks like for you.

I didn’t have a manager for a very long time. One of the reasons I went with Anonymous [Content] was a conversation I had with the two people who wanted to represent me. They basically said, “You’ve done this, this and this. What do you want to do now, Maggie?” I said, “Let me be clear. I don’t think I’ve done anything yet.” I’ve worked, but I don’t know that I’ve made some kind of mark or anything.

Working consistently is huge. That is a mark on its own.

You’re right. I’ve worked, and I’m lucky.. But I was basically trying to tell them, “Let’s get started.”

So what did you say when they asked you what you wanted?

That I want to fight the same battle I’ve been fighting the entire time I’ve been in the industry. There are things they will offer me, and there are things they will never look at me for. It’s been 20 years of that. What I’ve been trying to do since the beginning is just get into the rooms for things that people aren’t considering me for. And if I’m in that room, and I’m not good enough, that’s OK. I don’t have a problem with rejection. But to not be in those rooms is a disservice to people who aren’t being seen. So It’s about opening people’s eyes. It hasn’t been easy. Just because the industry is now checking ethnic boxes still does not mean they’re seeing people.

In terms of box-checking, the Asian and AAPI creatives I’ve spoken with over the last few years seem to uniformly feel that the forward momentum has stoped.

That’s how you know that it’s not entirely genuine. Optics are the world we live in. Everyone wants to look a certain way: look conscious, look like they care. As a minority in the industry, from the beginning I was like, “We’ll see if it’s actually genuine.” Checking boxes makes people in their offices feel really good. But if they’re not the right person, then we get set back. And you should still make people fight for things. I don’t think any minority will tell you they just want to be given a handout. You want to earn it.

What have been the incremental battles you have won?

Your magazine was the first place to report that when I signed on for Nikita, I was the first Asian-American lead in an [American TV] drama. I couldn’t believe it. That was huge. It was a milestone without me going for the milestone. At the time, Peter Roth was head of Warner Brothers Television. I said to him: “Why me? Are you sure? This role has always been played by a white woman.” He said, “Maggie, I’m just looking for the best actress. I don’t care what ethnicity you are.” And it was people like Peter who really made that difference.

I’ve read that you weren’t looking to lead another series. So what was the initial dialogue with your team?

My team brought it to me the year after they started talking to [the producers] about me. I have a thing with my team. If somebody comes and asks about me, and it’s not serious, don’t tell me. I don’t care. I think it’s one of those things that drives actors crazy. They’ll ask about you, but very, very rarely does it materialize into an offer.

When did you set that boundary?

A few years ago. Otherwise, it’s just a lot of talk. I don’t want any sort of fancy delusions in my head. So when they finally called me about it, my agent said, “I’m looking at the original email from Henrik Bastin, who runs [production company] Fabel Entertainment, and it’s exactly a year that we’ve been talking and you haven’t known anything.” Thank you! It’s healthier, mentally. Creatives… we’re already a little nuts. You don’t need anything to add to that.

So you are again playing a badass, but it does feel like a departure for you. And it doesn’t exactly feel like a traditional procedural, either. Was that part of the appeal?

I have a high filter for tropes. I’m constantly reading things, and I will have a cellular reaction to something if it feels tropey to me. My whole body will tighten up. I’ll tell showrunners, but I swear it’s out of love. I just don’t want to fall into those typical traps. Obviously, there’s no way you can ever completely avoid them.

What’s next for you?

There are a couple indies that I’m really excited about, and they’re looking for financing. If we get a season two of Ballard, I think we’ll be back in the fall to shoot. I’m really happy right now. I don’t want to work my life away. I’ve worked really hard for the last 25 years. I want to be with my husband. I want to be with my dogs. I don’t have the big void to fill that I did when I was in my twenties, so I can say no to things with a smile on my face.

I hadn’t realized you were married. When was the wedding?

Four weeks ago. (Laughs.) To be fair, we had already gotten married but never had a ceremony. Our parents are getting older, so we thought that it’d be nice to see everybody together. He and I are both very private and very quiet people, so we didn’t need a big party. But then when we had it, we were like, “Oh my God! That was so fun!” Now I know why people get married. Everyone you love is in the same place at one time. Your heart is just bursting.

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All 10 episodes of the first season of Ballard are now streaming on Prime Video.