Perdita Weeks on Taking a Page from 'Mission: Impossible' for Her 'Magnum, P.I.' Directorial Debut

Perdita Weeks

Sometimes art has to make way for real life and tonight’s “Extracurricular Activities” episode of Magnum P.I. does just that by dividing the episode into two separate stories to enable Perdita Weeks, who stars as Juliet Higgins, to make her directorial debut.

The first story sees Magnum (Jay Hernandez) and Higgins hired by a dean at the University of Oahu to quietly investigate a professor who has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a female grad student. And the second, which doesn’t involve Juliet, has TC (Stephen Hill) and Katsumoto (Tim Kang) take Cade (Martin Martinez) and Dennis (Lance Lim) on a father-son camping trip with Rick (Zachary Knighton) tagging along.

“I just loved that it was basically two contrasting movies in tone and style and that I was going to be able to do two completely separate things,” Weeks tells Parade. “I’ve got the thriller situation. It felt like my Mission: Impossible movie on one end. And then on the other, it was my sweet, sort of Buddy movie in the forest.”

Weeks is a fan of Magnum P.I. writer Katie Varney, who wrote the “well-crafted episode with an interesting tone.”

“I’ve always liked her episodes,” Weeks says. “I think she’s very good at what she does. I’ve really, really enjoyed working with her and I think I got a great episode. It was definitely challenging, mainly because it is location based, and it was quite a big episode, a lot of action.”

What made it especially enjoyable for the novice director is the episode features an epic car/motorcycle race through the streets of Honolulu, hence the comparison to the Mission: Impossible movies.

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“That whole stunt sequence was kind of the third movie within the episode,” Weeks continues. “We ring-fenced it. It had a hell of a lot of its own meetings. Logistically it was very difficult. We were blocking off roads and building sets. It was a huge amount of work, but it was my set piece, and I really just threw everything into it.”

To make it happen, showrunner Eric Guggenheim was very generous, allowing a couple of extra days to film the stunt sequence, which is which is almost unheard of on a TV series. Plus, the crew worked on a Saturday to make it happen, so they, too, went above and beyond to make it happen.

“The main thing that really clinched it was I found the Chinese cultural plaza that we somehow managed to get permission to film in,” Weeks says. “I just saw those stairs and this mezzanine, and I was like, ‘I want to see Higgins on a motorbike going up and down those stairs, I just think that will be really cool.’ So, I videoed this whole sequence on my phone, sent it to the stunt coordinator and I said, ‘Is this possible? It this nuts? Is it too dangerous?’ He was like, ‘All of the above, but it’s possible.’”

And he did make it happen. Weeks jokes that the cool thing about being a director is you come up with an idea and other people make it happen.

“It’s great,” she says. “You don’t need to know everything; you just have to see it and say it. Other people, brilliant, brilliant team members figure out how.”

During our conversation, we talked more about directing, whether or not Weeks thinks the Magnum/Higgins relationship made the show jump the shark, and her opinion on the series finale.

Was directing easier than you thought? Harder than you thought?

It was probably what I was expecting, to be honest. My episode was towards the end of the season, thankfully, which the showrunner did on purpose to give me extra time to shadow [other directors] and get my head in the game basically, which I was really grateful for. But it was entirely all encompassing. It is difficult to be on camera and behind the camera. Just logistically it’s tough. Especially when you’re on location. I loved doing all the camping scenes, because I wasn’t in them. It was great, I just had my director's hat on for those days and that was it. I never had to sit in hair and makeup.

Logistically, it is tricky having to get ready and stay camera ready while still trying to run around and you’re kneeling in the dirt and you’re running up and down stairs trying to find the stunt person or whatever. Yeah, about as hard as I had imagined.

Related: Jay Hernandez on 'Magnum, P.I.'s Band of Brothers

Now that Magnum is over is directing something you might want to pursue for other shows? Is this a potential new direction for you?

Yeah, definitely. I would absolutely love to continue directing. That’s my goal. Whilst I’m not giving up my acting anytime soon, I’ll still work if they’ll have me, but it’s good to have another string to your bow in this industry particularly. We’ll see.

How do you think the Magnum-Higgins relationship is going? A lot of times when shows put the two leads together, it jumps the shark.

I know that some people still weren’t receptive to the idea of the two leads being together. I sympathize. Jay and I both said, “When these two characters get together that is the end of the show.” And kind of it was. Then we got this reprieve and we got to play out this bonus round. Season 5 was total bonus. It wasn’t supposed to happen. That was fun. That was like peeking behind the curtain. I think they’re pretty good together and I think it was believable. I think we deserved to get together by the end of it. There was so much blinking heartbreak and ups and downs. I think these two needed some peace and tranquility and happiness and love.

Magnum is a couple months in your rearview mirror. Juliet had an interesting five seasons. What have you loved about playing all her different states of mind as she went though this five years?

It was really fun. Sometimes you want to grab Juliet and shake her. She really does get in her own way. But that’s really fun to play. She’s a very conflicted character who has been through a lot of trauma. She’s had a very weird life. She had a very strange existence. She hasn’t known a huge amount of love. So, to find herself surrounded by these really wonderful people who are so accepting of her and loving, I love that it took her four seasons to defrost.

And then with the romance with the doctor (Jay Ali as Ethan Shah), that was always going to be interesting to play because it was like how many more obstacles can there be for these two people who are quite clearly meant to be together? But then it was also like: What if they do get together? It was a real conundrum. It has to work, or it’ll just be the worst thing ever. It would have been so awful if something went wrong and they split up. That would be the end of her life. The stakes were high, which I liked.

Related: Stephen Hill on the Danger in Paradise on Magnum P.I.

What was the last day on set like?

I can’t even remember what the last day on set was. Isn’t that terrible? I actually don’t remember. Sorry, that’s a crap answer, but I honestly can’t remember.

Did you know enough ahead that you were able to bring it to a conclusion? Are you happy with the way things ended?

I’m really happy with the way it ended. That last scene we changed it a little bit. I’m quite a worst-case-scenario person and we didn’t know that we’re coming back. This could be the last thing that these two characters ever say to each other. Ever. I hope that it feels like some kind of resolution and that there’s a little bow on it and it’s like the cherry on top and it just gives some indication that they will live happily ever after because that’s what I want for those characters. They’ve been through enough. They deserve happiness and love.

Magnum and Juliet live on Robin Masters estate because he is a famously rich author. From time to time, we’ve gotten to see or hear excerpts of his White Knight books. Are you a big fan of mystery thrillers?

To be honest, that’s not really my go-to. I like historical fiction. To be honest, I will read anything. I’m quite an avid reader. Thrillers … although I read I Am Pilgrim recently, which is a thriller which is very, very good.

Maybe Peacock will decide along the line that they want a few Magnum movies. Would you be up for that?

Oh gosh, who knows? I don’t know if you’d manage to get all the gang together, but who knows. Never say never.

Magnum, P.I. airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

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