Amy Brenneman: On 'The Leftovers'

Amy Brenneman Goes From Scheming on 'Reign' to Not Speaking on 'The Leftovers'

When Yahoo TV spoke to Brenneman a few weeks ago, she had just shot her scenes for The CW's "Reign" — and was departing the next day to film the new HBO show, "The Leftovers." In the post-apocalyptic series, based on a novel by Tom Perrotta and produced by Damon Lindelof ("Lost"), Brenneman plays a woman who leaves her family behind and goes totally silent.

You're off to do "The Leftovers." What's happening with that?

We shot the pilot in June. And it's everything people say. HBO feels more like doing an independent film. It does feel quite different from network. I fly to New York tomorrow to start shooting the nine episodes. With somebody like Damon and Tom Perrotta — who's the novelist and is on board as a producer — it's a very singular vision, which is really fun. I shouldn't say it's so different from network. Shonda Rhimes is such a strong showrunner. I think what's hard about network television and bigger studio pictures is you have all these different entities weighing and that can dilute the artistic expression. But when you have someone like Shonda or Damon, it's really nice, but you can just go to the source. I'm excited. It's a very different role for me.

What's your character like? Or is everything hush-hush?

No, because it's based on this Tom Perrotta novel, which you can read. It's basically this post-Rapture world, although my character doesn't really think it's the Rapture. But it's after this unprecedented thing that happens, and people have different ways of making sense of it. So, I join this order and I don't speak. That's the big jumping point off for me.

It must be challenging for you to go from this role on "Reign" to such a different one on "The Leftovers."

It's totally superfun. That's why I love doing what I do. To go from "Reign," which is so delicious and beautiful and verbal, to something like "The Leftovers," which is a post-apocalyptic blast — it's pretty fun!