Family Law’s Jewel Staite Talks Season 2: ‘I’m Basically Playing L.A. Complex’s Raquel If She Went to Law School’
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Most TV aficionados likely associate Jewel Staite with her turn as Firefly’s sweet-natured mechanic Kaylee. But for the actress, it’s another, far more caustic past role — The L.A. Complex’s Raquel — that comes to mind when talking about her current gig on the Canadian drama Family Law.
Returning for Season 2 on The CW this Friday (at 8/7c), Family Law stars Staite as Abigail “Abby” Bianchi, a lawyer and recovering alcoholic who is forced to work at the family law practice run by her estranged father Harry (played by Victor Garber). In addition to navigating a terse relationship with Harry, Abby also now finds herself working alongside her two half-siblings, Lucy (Genelle Williams) and Daniel (Zach Smadu), with whom she previously had no relationship.
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With their equally sharp tongues and struggles with substance abuse, Staite definitely sees “a lot of similarities” between Family Law’s Abby and L.A. Complex’s Raquel, the actress says. In fact, when her friend Martin Gero, the creator of the latter cult-fave series, asked how her new project was going, “I said, ‘Well, I’m basically playing Raquel if she went to law school,'” Staite tells TVLine with a laugh. “He’s like, ‘Oh, my God!’ Like, ‘Yeah, just imagine Raquel in a courtroom. It’s sort of like that.'”
“I feel like Abby and Raquel would be BFFs. They’d probably get arrested together. It wouldn’t be, like, a healthy relationship,” Staite continues, laughing again. “But yeah, I feel like they’re twin flames.”
Below, Staite previews Season 2’s exploration of Abby’s sobriety, her crumbling marriage and her evolving relationship with her siblings. Plus, the actress shares what it’s like working with legend Victor Garber.
TVLINE | Looking ahead, how successfully is Abby navigating her sobriety journey in Season 2, especially given what she goes through at the end of the first season?
I think Abby feels like she’s in her groove. She feels like she’s nailing it, and I don’t think she really understands just how much more work there is to be done in facing why she has this addiction in the first place, why she wants to hide from her life and from the pain that she’s experiencing. So she comes to some revelations, for sure, as Season 2 goes on, especially towards the end, as to how much more energy it’s going to take for her to, hopefully, come out the other side.
TVLINE | At the end of Season 1, did Abby fall the wagon? Or did Lucy arrive at her house at just the right time?
Lucy arrives just in time. So she didn’t take that sip. She’s still sober, and I think she’s starting to realize that maybe it’s about being sober for herself as opposed to, [in] Season 1, when she was trying to stay sober for the sake of her family, for the sake of getting her marriage back together, her life back together. I don’t think she really realized how unhappy she was in that marriage. She’s striving to get something back that she, I don’t think, really wants in the first place. So there’s a lot of revelations that happen for her to come to terms with the truth of that, which is the hard truth. It’s a comfort zone thing for her to go back to that life, but it is not a happy life.
TVLINE | She finds Frank with Felicity at the end of Season 1 and thinks that he’s going to cheat on her again. So what is the state of her marriage in Season 2?
It’s precarious. I think she has realized that he’s not going to change. He’s asked her to make all of these changes, and he’s also pointed the finger at her so much that they are living this pattern [that] they’re just so ingrained in of Abby being the bad guy, Abby being the naughty one, and Frank being the moral compass. And that’s not necessarily true. When she finds them in that elevator, I think she realizes, “Oh, hang on. Maybe I’m not the bad guy here. Maybe I’m not the only one who’s contributing to the demise of this relationship.” So I think she’s sick of it. She’s tired of feeling like the bad guy all the time, of having the finger pointed at her, and she really starts to stand up for herself, and it’s kind of liberating. As the person who gets to play her, I’m reading some of these scripts and going “Yeah, finally! Finally, she’s gonna let him have it!” You know, he deserves to be screamed at. [Laughs]
TVLINE | As things get worse between the two of them, will Abby’s eye turn to someone new?
I will say that eventually Abby gets her groove back, thank God. [Laughs] She needs some love and some joy in her life. She needs to feel adored. I think it’s been a really, really long time since Abby has felt that way, has felt like someone has appreciated her for exactly who she is, and she eventually gets to feel that again. It’s a really wonderful moment for her to find her groove and to feel like she’s desired.
TVLINE | There were some big developments between the half-siblings at the end of Season 1, as well: Abby helped Harry make Daniel partner, and then Lucy came to Abby after her breakup with Maggie. How are her relationships with both Lucy and Daniel evolving in Season 2?
There’s always going to be some tension there, especially between Abby and Daniel, just because even if Abby wants those walls to come down and wants some sort of relationship with Daniel, he is just so consumed with the sibling rivalry they have going on. Daniel wants his father’s approval and love more than anything in the world, and Abby seemingly stands in the way of that. She’s competition, and he doesn’t like that. So there’s always tension between those two.
And then Lucy, it’s funny because Lucy and Abby start to grow closer, and they start to bond a little bit, but then in the background of it all, Lucy has had this affair on her partner that Abby knows about. It dredges up a lot of Abby’s issues and feelings about her own marriage. So there’s some things about Lucy she likes, and then there are some things about Lucy that she recognizes in her father, as well, that she’s never liked. So there’s a trust that’s missing there. But eventually, you do get to see Abby and Lucy bond a little bit more, have a bit more of a sisterly relationship.
TVLINE | Is Season 2 going to get more into Abby’s past and what spurred her drinking problem?
A little bit. There’s an episode halfway through that is one of the best that we’ve done and definitely the hardest to watch, where everything comes to the surface. There’s a lot said out loud that I think even Abby is surprised to hear herself say. When you go through a trauma, sometimes in order to move past it, in order to protect yourself, you dumb it down, you play it down, and sort of go, “It was no big deal.” But when you say it out loud, and someone else hears it and says to you, “That was a really big deal, and that must have hurt really badly,” it’s a kind of a “ding! ding! ding!” moment. I think she realizes, “Oh, maybe this is something. Maybe this is a big contributor to how I took a landslide in my life,” and really starts to pay attention to it and realizes that she’s shining a lot of that onto her own daughter as well. She’s so scared that Sophia is going to end up like her that she’s just hyper aware and trying her best to steer Sophia in a different direction. But you know, Sophia is who she is. There’s no steering her anywhere. She’s her own person, for sure. So it definitely all comes to light.
TVLINE | I love that there’s a line in the Season 2 premiere about Harry getting longer shorts, because I was going to ask you what it’s like working with Victor Garber, especially when he’s doing those treadmill scenes in his short shorts.
You gotta hand it to Victor, he’s such a team player. He was very willing to put the short shorts on, but I think there was a point where Victor was like, “Do I have to keep wearing the shorts? I just feel like this joke is over. Is it not over?” [Laughs] And I think the writers took the hint. They were like, “OK, let’s just nix the short shorts and give him a proper pair of pants,” which is pretty funny. I love Victor. He’s very, very funny, and he’s, obviously, a total pro. But you know, he’s dad. He’s taken the father role on very seriously with all of us. I just love that he’s willing to spend time with us on the weekend while we’re shooting and takes care of us and checks in and loves his FaceTime calls. He’s not a big phone call person. Loves the FaceTime. He doesn’t care where you are, you better pick up that FaceTime call. I think I picked one up at my son’s baseball game. I was like, “Victor, I’m literally at a baseball game,” and he was like, “That’s OK. I just wanted to say, ‘Hi,'” and it’s like a 10-minute conversation. I adore him, though, for that. We call him Dada, and we love him very much. He’s pretty great. And he’s game! We do crazy things on the weekend. We come up with wild ideas, and rent boats and go to karaoke and whatever. And Victor is, for the most part, pretty game to join us, and I just love that he’s willing to bond with us and be a part of the group.
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