'Grace' Dynamics w/ Holly Hunter

By LillyKat
PTR Senior Staff Writer

There's nothing like a chat with Holly Hunter to get one fired up about the return of Saving Grace

We've had the the good fortune to speak with Holly a couple of times over the course of the show's second season, and each time we've found her just as passionate, driven and focused on the show's well-being as she was the previous time we spoke with her.

Even better, none of what she says sounds like pre-programmable soundbite nonsense.

It's refreshing.

(Except when you're on a call where everyone is asking meditative deep thought questions about the show and character to which we here at PTR have already had Holly answer for us. But hey, I guess we're lucky in that sense.)

Saving Grace returns to TNT for its final round of second seasons episodes starting Monday, March 2 at 10 p.m. The always-good Christina Ricci joins the cast in a three-episode arc as Grace's new partner, Abbey Charles ('cause when we last left things, we remember Ham needed some time away from ol' Grace).

And when we recently caught up with Holly, we wanted to get her thoughts on just that - the ever changing dynamic that is between Grace and Ham, especially considering Kenny Johnson told us he felt as if Ham and Grace’s roles have reversed this season, with Grace now the caretaker of Ham, and Ham somewhat strung out as a result of the death of his brother.

Says Holly: "It was fantastic to see that dynamic exist [between] Grace [and Ham] because Grace has been an extremely self-motivating character, without a lot of regard for consequences of what she wants to do. It was wonderful to get to explore a real genuine, caretaking aspect of her – that she wanted to take care of him, and he needed someone to take care of him. It’s just wasn’t [all about] Grace. [And yet], he couldn’t handle Grace taking care of him. I love [that] complexity. It certainly allows me to be playing a three-dimensional character. It keeps the humanity of the character alive. [She's] not just one thing, and [she's] not just ten things. [She's] an infinite number of things. So, that dynamic between those two characters was [and is] beautiful, and it was wonderful to see Ham kind of fall apart. It’s going to be fascinating to see where these two characters go because it’s obvious that the love that they have [for each other] is deep. And this what I love about the show is these relationships that I have with Rhetta, with Earl, with Ham. They’re complicated."

She pauses for a second.

"Hey, that was a good question!"

(Wait, did Holly just like my question? She did. Perhaps because it gave her a break from having to psychologize herself into oblivion.)

We also asked her thoughts on Christina Ricci joining the cast ('cause Christina is just so.darn.good in everything she does).

Says Holly: "It was really great. She's wonderful. We really wanted her. [Creator] Nancy [Miller] wrote the part [of Abbey Charles] with Christina in mind. And once again, the character is a very unpredictable character - very, very complex. We had a chance to work together for three episodes, and it was great to have the dynamic of Ricci’s character coming into the office with the [existing] established dynamic that we all have together [as the squad]. To have Christina be this new cop that comes in was great."

I guess we'll put in our request right now to have Christina become a regular on the series. Please - pretty please? With a cherry on top?

Our thanks once again to Holly Hunter for taking the time to chat about the always complex Grace Hanadarko. We also want to thank our friends at Turner publicity. Saving Grace returns Monday, March 2nd at 10 p.m. on TNT. If you missed out on the first half of the season, be sure to check out the show’s official Web site to catch up.