Exclusive: Melissa O'Neil on representation on screen, The Rookie season 8 and 'feeding' the Chenford fans

Melissa: I actually auditioned for two characters to begin with, at totally different ends of the power spectrum, but the dialogue was fantastic. It was about cops, but was totally driven by their own personal journeys, and that is what excited me the most.

Melissa: I am somebody who pays attention to that stuff, and I would be lying if I didn't say that I had apprehension about how we might handle that material. Would it be direct? Would we abide in a world where none of that exists? 

I was very heartened when we did try to tackle some of the imbalances that happen, both internally and also in the ways that police officers work with the public, acknowledging that it's not that the job inherently is filled with people who don't make the best decisions but that there are impossible situations where good people are put into a spot where they have no choice, and that there are also individuals in every profession who are imperfect.

But it also allowed us to show the heroes that we have on The Rookie behaving in a way that is, as our showrunner likes to say, aspirational.

We're police officers the way that we hope to see them in the world.

Melissa: I do feel like I've had a voice, but I don't want my saying that to somehow place an outsized importance on it. It is a Herculean feat what our showrunner and the writing team accomplish and that we're able to do all of this, every episode is very ambitious, and somehow we get it through.

But yes as actors, of course, we have that special ingredient as we're interpreting what we see on the page so every once in while I'll add in something, a little 'sprinkle sprinkle' but I don't want to take too much credit for anything, because none of it would exist without Alexi.

Melissa: We almost pick up right where we left off, and I've got to be honest, most of the time we're going to be with the high-stakes drama that's happening in Prague. Chen is manning the station and we get to see her in her sergeant capacity, liaising with the FBI. and mapping out what's going on.

Then we have this very specific, and I personally thought strange, situation where Tim and Lucy finally get to interact, but it is another stolen moment between the two of them, because they're on a mission – yet it's so pressing for him that he has to have this conversation, and I think that's sweet!

Melissa: This is a funny story. We didn't even know about Prague until we were all at Nathan's birthday party. Some of us were circled up with Mekia's husband and he says, 'Mekia is packing up, getting ready to go.'

We say, 'Where's she going?' and he tells us Prague for the show,and we said, 'What do you mean?' It was this hilarious moment.

It's cute though, because on one hand, some of our amazing friends got to do this incredible hard work in a very narrow amount of time but have an amazing experience, and then those of us who were left behind cultivated a deep sense of camaraderie – and that's not nothing, I'll tell you that!

Melissa: I think that the consciousness that we see from Lucy in the first episode is a balance. She's stepping into a new shape of leadership as sergeant, and is wary of not having that be confusing for a partner with whom she shares her work environment.

At the same time, my hope, and what I believe will happen, is that when Tim and Lucy do finally come together, she'll lean in.

We've done this dance not only with the characters, but with the audience for so long, and I think it's time to see what it looks like for them to be both leaning in at the same time.

Melissa: It's incredible. I come from a world of theater, and I miss the direct feedback of a live audience a lot. When you're doing television, you have months that stretch out where you're performing and offering your heart and art, but you have no idea what it looks like, or how it will be received.

Then when the show finally gets released, we get this direct, sometimes live, feedback, it's very exciting. People really love watching the show, and have made friends from all over the world through this show, and watch it with their family members – we're bringing families together to watch our silly little cop show!

It's really sweet but it's also bizarre, because fans will often dive deep into her background and unearth things that you don't even remember from 20 years ago!

Melissa: One of the ways that fans of our show have influenced my decisions is that they have inspired me to get very specific.What I have delighted in is that, sometimes I'll layer things in because it's pleasurable for me – I love making sure that the human that is Lucy has continuity and we're not forgetting the things that she's gone through, that if something happened to her in season two that might leave seeds that affect her in season eight – and I remember the first time that fans clued in on it and were like, 'Did anybody notice this?'

When I saw that, I was like, 'Oh my God, this is going to be fun. You guys are nerdy just like me,' and I want to contribute to that, because it brings so much joy to that process.

Melissa: Working with others depends on the scene – if it is a scene that has a lot of layers and should have a lot of history built into it, I do break it down quite thoroughly.

A lot of this season gives opportunities to see that Lucy is a really good cop, with a capacity for deduction and putting things together, and when you have a character who is so capable, preparation must set you up to be able to portray that accurately.

There are other times, if it's an interactive scene that involves a lot of listening and relational dynamics, when I think it's more important not to prepare too much, to leave space to respond to the living, breathing human in front of you.

But for the most part, our cast prepares on their own and then we bring it together live on camera, and that adds to the electricity that we capture. 

Melissa: I'm very inspired by her resiliency and ability to retain and even nurture a spirit of joy, despite or sometimes while suffering.

One of the beautiful things about representation is that we don't know what we're capable of or what is possible for us unless we see it. At this moment, I'm thinking of Yvonne Elliman and the first time I saw the movie adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar. This beautiful Asian woman was the ingenue singing on camera, and I remember being like, 'That's possible.'

Melissa: I'm really excited about an episode where we see Lucy working with Nyla (Mekia Cox). It was wonderful. Mekia is such an exceptional artist and talent, and it was sweet to work with her again; we worked together the first season when she arrived in the Rookie world, and it's been really sweet to reconnect with her.

There's also a big storyline for Lucy around episode 10. We get to see her confronted with what, I think, is a cop's worst nightmare, and how she handles the consequences of the situation, and how her community holds her is pretty intense. I also had to extend my capacity to portray something that I did not have a reference for in my own life, and I was thrilled to push myself creatively in that way. It was very satisfying work. 

This season, we also get to see Lucy stepping into her leadership, and that is tested in a lot of different ways. And as far as her romance goes, all of that remains to be seen, but I think fans will be well fed.

Melissa: Yes – Richard T. Jones as Wade Gray. He embodies the patriarchal heart on our show and is the only character that I see as being able to step into a father figure role for every single character.

I think it's essential to our show, and I wish that Lucy was interacting with him more, because her dynamic with her family is absent of that spirit. I always thought it would be so tender and sweet to see those two interact.

I also love when Lucy is in a role of learning and being a student, and of the other characters in the world of The Rookie, Lucy has the most to learn from him; Lucy's been excluded from the detective track, so even though there's a ton to learn from both Lopez and Harper, that's not the world she's in anymore.

Melissa:  Yes but it is a very specific craft that I respect so deeply but you need to be in Olympic shape to tackle a schedule that involves eight shows a week, embodying a person for two to three hours every night, and telling a story from beginning to end with a group of people who have all refined each moment over many months of rehearsals, then also make it fresh and new every performance for your audience.

It's a way of exercising one's storytelling that inspires me and lights me up so when the opportunity arises… but I might have to create it for myself.

I'm learning that in this industry, at a certain point, you have to start driving the car, but I would be so grateful for another opportunity to occupy that space because it is deeply rewarding.