Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Angie Harmon describes Buried in Barstow as her heart project. The script immediately grabbed her attention and she spent nearly three years shopping it around before Lifetime, the home of Harmon’s Rizzoli & Isles series, came on board.
The story will play out over a series of movies and the first installment is set to premiere on Lifetime on June 4, 2022. Tom Evans and David Rambo wrote the screenplay and Howard Deutch directed, with Angie Harmon starring and executive producing.
Harmon plays Hazel King, a retired killer for hire based in Vegas who attempts to escape that life after becoming pregnant. She finally settles down in Barstow, CA and tries to maintain a low profile while running a diner with her teenage daughter (played by Lauren Richards).
And, of course, Buried in Barstow finds Hazel pulled back into her old life for what’s supposed to be one last job.
During the 2022 Television Critics Association’s winter press panel, Angie Harmon described the actual process of shopping Buried in Barstow around.
“There’s a lot of crying and heavy drinking, more crying. There’s a lot of rejection, more crying, heavy drinking. You know, it’s fun, it’s great. It’s just one of those things where you really start to – in all seriousness – see how long it takes to get a project made, especially one that you believe in,” explained Harmon. “There are just so many different facets that go into getting a project done. And this is a real learning experience.
To be very honest, I’m comfortable with the word no. I’m just not really used to hearing it because I’m like, ‘No, no, no, you don’t mean no. You mean yes. Great, fine,’ and now we all work together. But it was just like there was a lot of ‘Hmmm, it’s not really for us.’ What are you talking about?! It’s amazing, and genius, and these actors are incredible. What do you mean it’s not really for…? Okay.”
Harmon continued: “So, yeah, it was a very sort of humbling experience especially [when] you take it to people that you admire in the business, and people that you love and adore in the business, and people that have sort of shepherded you through different aspects of your career, and then they say no. And you have to learn to just sort of not take it personally.
I believe in it and I’m amazingly ‘tenacious,’ I believe is the word. Other people would say different adjectives. I’m going to go with tenacious. I believed in this from the moment that I read it. The moment. And so, I was just, ‘It has to be made. It has to be done.’”
Angie Harmon sees Vegas and Barstow as representing the two sides of Hazel’s character.
“I can see that because the Vegas sort of angle represents her youth and just how horrible it was and all of that. But then Barstow, it’s not like it’s a real pleasant place to be either,” said Harmon. “It’s got that kind of edgy anger that she’s trying to change and just make a wonderful life for her and her daughter, and the other characters that are in the diner.”
Texas-born Harmon didn’t have any qualms about starring in another project that required her to handle guns after her seven-season run on Rizzoli & Isles.
“No, I have no problem with that. And to be honest, you know, I think it’s kind of an aspect of my career that just sort of followed me around the entire time. I got to a place where I was just like, you know, it’s a blessing because what if I was the huge nerd? I just had to play a huge nerd for 25 years. At this point, I can break down a crime scene and prosecute a case and win or defend it, or whatever. Whatever sort of law enforcement you might need. I’m your gal,” joked Harmon.
Buried in Barstow’s a different sort of project for Harmon. She’s never been involved in a series of films before and admits that going in she wasn’t sure how it was going to work.
“I kind of didn’t really understand how we were supposed to do this and then film it and then how much of the original script we’re supposed to put in this one. So, it was kind of a learning experience for me,” said Harmon. “I mean, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m curious to see how the audience responds to it. But then I just sort of justified it in my head as we go to the theater or we watch movies that are two hours long, and then there’s a sequel, and then there’s a third. So, I was just like, ‘Oh, well, they’ve been doing this since the beginning of filmmaking.’
I kind of justified it like that. But to be honest, this is a new experience for me.”
