‘The Fix’s Marcia Clark Says ABC Law Show “Is Not About The Law” – TCA
At the beginning of The Fix panel at TCA, a sizzle reel of the law drama was shown and it ended with co-creator/executive producer Marcia Clark asking: “Is it a revenge fantasy?” and after a beat, she says with a small smirk, “Maybe.”
Clark was joined on the panel by fellow co-creators and executive producers Sarah Fain and Liz Craft as well as cast members Robin Tunney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Scott Cohen, Alex Saxon, Breckin Meyer, Merrin Dungey, Adam Rayner, and Mouzam Makkar. The show, co-written by O.J. Simpson prosecutor Clark, centers on Maya Travis (Tunney), an L.A. district attorney who suffers a devastating defeat when prosecuting an A-list actor for double murder. After laying low, she is lured back into the DA’s office after the same man is under suspicion for another murder eight years later. The show’s premise is all too familiar for Clark (which she talks about later) but she guarantees this is not a show that will follow the regular law drama tropes.
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“We decided this will be a law show that’s not about the law,” says Clark. “We incorporate things the way they really are. We stretch things for entertainment…we just hope you won’t stand up and say, “THAT’S RIDICULOUS!”
To add to that, the show is not in a courtroom and Clark says it’s all about the personal ramifications that happen to these characters as a result of what happens in the courtroom.
The series hits close to home for Clark, but Carter says after the first five minutes of the show, it is “complete fiction.” She adds, “In every episode what you think you know changes.”
For Tunney, when she first took on the role, her first question to Clark was “I’m not playing you, am I?” She admitted that would be a lot of pressure on her because Sarah Paulson did it so well in American Crime Story. Luckily she wasn’t and shares her excitement about working on a project from Clark, Craft and Fain.
“This is a time I have three women writing for my character and I can’t believe I saw it in my lifetime,” Tunney says. “It’s directed by a female — and it’s lots of female empowerment.”
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