‘Will Trent’: Sonja Sohn On How Each Character Teaches Her A Lesson And What She’s Learning As Amanda

Sonja Sohn has breathed life into remarkable characters throughout her career, all of which have represented a different time in her life.

As Amanda Wagner on ABC’s Will Trent, Sohn said this particular portrayal goes hand in hand with this current chapter in her journey.

“This dance is an energetic one,” she told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “When the characters come into my life, it just all depends on things that I may be personally exploring in my own life, and it just so happens that key characters that I have played, have come into my life at a time where the core issues of the character are the ones that I’m dealing with or exploring at the time of my life that I’m in.”

“It just so happens that I’m doing my own work in that area, and that just gives me more material to work with and to lend to that character to dive into,” Sohn continued. “I think in this era of my life, where I’m like solidly middle-aged and that is actually a part of who Amanda is and her position on the job. She’s someone who has wisdom, someone who is established, and so there’s like an exploration there that I got to do with this character that mirrored my own.”

As Amanda’s past comes back to haunt her in this show installment, Sohn spoke about how this affects her relationships with other key characters like Faith (Iantha Richardson) and the main character, Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez).

“I definitely think it impacts our relationship,” she said of her character’s working position with Will. “It impacts Amanda’s relationship with Faith as well on a deep level, but there are certain people who are going to hold this information that is revealed about Amanda, and I think it will impact all of those characters, and I think it brings Will and Amanda closer together. He sees her humanity, and he starts to see what she’s been through, and he gets to show just a little compassion in his own way.”

She continued, “But I do believe that we get to go deeper there. Anytime you get more emotional or more information about someone’s vulnerabilities and how they’ve overcome them, there’s a deeper bond. That occurs between Will and Amanda and Will and Faith, but I think Faith loses a little bit of respect for Amanda, but that too will build their relationship in some way in the future.”

With each of Sohn’s characters over the years, which includes The Wire’s Kima Greggs, The Chi’s Laverne Johnson, The Originals’ Lenore, and many more, she learns a valuable lesson, and there is no difference when it comes to her portrayal of Amanda in Will Trent. Furthermore, it’s one that she also hopes resonates with viewers.

“I hope that younger viewers who watch Amanda understand that people, women my age, we were living in a different world, so y’all just need to cut us some slack in terms of like our toughness, our “realness,” which is like too much telling the truth without too much cushion under it, you know what I mean? We’re coming along, and the job is sort of teaching her what she’s coming into and has to deal with in this world,” Sohn said.

“I’m hoping people also learn that folks with a tough exterior also can be vulnerable, and there are reasons why. There’s a price to pay for that exterior, and that exterior, people don’t see how much people depend and need that sort of energy, but nobody wants to be that energy because it comes with a lot of flack,” she added. “It comes with a lot of judgment, but when you’re born to be that energy in the world, and your life has made you that energy, people subconsciously need it. Will needs it; Faith needs it because that energy is an anchor.”

Will Trent airs on Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on ABC, with episodes available for streaming the following day on Hulu.