When I met Annie Wersching last summer, she was then on the series Extant. Since then she’s moved on to a starring role in Amazon’s original series, Bosch. Amazon presented Bosch to the Television Critics Association and when I sat down to talk to Wersching about the series it hadn’t yet aired. Now all 10 episodes of the show’s first season are available for binge-watching.
Based on the Michael Connelly books, Bosch stars Titus Welliver as Det. Harry Bosch. Wersching plays Julie Brasher, a rookie who starts to shadow Bosch’s investigation. The fan favorite from 24 talked about her new character and her busy career, which only got busier as she’s appeared on Castle and The Vampire Diaries since filming Bosch.
Was your character in the books?
Annie Wersching: “Yes, she’s in the City of Bones book.”
Is any of her dialogue straight out of the book?
Annie Wersching: “Yeah. It was fun because I had read it before the week we shot the pilot, and I was going to reread it. Instead, I listened to the audiobook, which was kind of funny. After we’d already shot the pilot, I just listened to it a couple of weeks ago, and it’s so weird to hear this guy saying a line that I said as that character. It was very, very funny.”
Does Brasher trust Bosch at first?
Annie Wersching: “Yeah, I think she totally trusts Bosch. In the pilot, you see them meet for the first time. She’s a rookie. She’s fresh out of the academy, even though she’s older. She’s not a rookie at life. She’s just a rookie in the academy. Most rookies would never go up to a homicide detective, but she’s the kind of woman who just feels completely comfortable just going up and talking to him. I think she’s very intrigued by him and also what he does. She wants to basically be him, save the world a little bit and take some evil guys out of the running and be a homicide detective. So she’s very interested in him, just totally game for hanging out with him as much as possible so she can suck up all of his knowledge.”
Is Brasher by-the-books?
Annie Wersching: “Well, she’s fresh out of the academy so I think she kind of has to be a bit by the books as far as just the rules she has to follow, but she’s also very interested in Bosch, and I think wants to be where he is and like him as quickly as she can. However, she has to get there.”
Who are your favorite grizzled cops of television?
Annie Wersching: “Does Jack Bauer count?”
He’s more of a secret agent.
Annie Wersching: “Well, Sipowicz. I loved NYPD Blue back in the day. Sipowicz is the first one to pop into my mind.”
Are you interested in seeing how an officer can start fresh and new, and how they can get grizzled, even to where Bosch is?
Annie Wersching: “Absolutely. That’s kind of what Brasher wants to figure out how to do. How can I get there quickly? She doesn’t want to be a rookie anymore. She’s ready to go full in and sometimes that’s not the safest thing. So it’ll be interesting to see how she develops and see it from the ground up. Renee was already seasoned and very good.”
Did you get to do any ride-alongs with real officers?
Annie Wersching: “We did a whole training. It was different because obviously, I trained for 24. I went to Quantico and worked with all these FBI guys and SEAL guys and did all this heavy machinery, really cool stuff and helicopter stuff. This was riding along with homicide and robbery detectives. I was really trying to learn how to be a boot. A ‘boot’ is a new rookie. Like, what would make her a little different if you’re fresh out of the academy? What kinds of things would be fresh in her mind from school basically? So all that stuff was pretty interesting, and we did the simulator, where you stand in the room and they’re showing you a crazy scenario. You’re standing there and you have to decide when is the right time to pull your weapon, shoot your weapon. It’s trippy. It’s trippy to be like, ‘Are you reaching for your cell phone ringing or are you reaching for a gun?’ You have less than a second to figure out what you think they’re doing and what you’re going to do.”
How did you do at that test?
Annie Wersching: “I did okay. I mean, I did better as we went along. You’re talking to fake weird actors on the simulator, and they can’t hear you back, but I did pretty good.”
Have you gotten to explore any parts of L.A. that you don’t normally visit living here?
Annie Wersching: “I haven’t yet, but Titus and them have shot in some cool places. Like the Angels Flight thing, I’ve never done that. It’s a little train in downtown L.A. It’s really old, and it takes you up. It’s in the pilot, but I’ve never done that.”
Do you ever go out for movies?
Annie Wersching: “Quite honestly, no, I don’t. I do almost all television. Here and there I’ll have a movie audition, but at this point, it’s almost all television.”
Do you want or get to do much comedy?
Annie Wersching: “Only in real life. I came from the theater world where I did a lot of comedy, a lot of musicals and musical comedy but now it seems like I can’t imagine going back to that. I’m sure it’d be kind of like riding a bike, but I auditioned for something a while back. A play or something and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m talking so loud. It’s so weird.’ It comes back.”
