S.W.A.T.’s Anna Enger Ritch and Annie Ilonzeh: Zoe/Devin Team-Up ‘Was Like a Really Interesting First Date’
This week on CBS’ S.W.A.T., it is high drama (on multiple levels) when a hiking expedition for teammates Zoe Powell and Devin Gamble turns into a showdown with an illegal weed farm they stumble upon, run by a dangerous cartel.
As if that doesn’t promise up enough tension, Powell has been tasked by Hondo with convincing benched Gamble to sign the statement that she needs to in order to return to active duty on S.W.A.T.
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TVLine hopped on a Zoom with Anna Enger Ritch and Annie Ilonzeh to preview the hike-gone-wrong, and how Gamble will react to Powell’s nudging.
TVLINE | Annie, we’re 13 episodes into your first season on S.W.A.T. and Gamble just can’t catch a break! Is that part of what drew you to the role, that she’d face challenges?
ANNIE ILONZEH | The whole thing, honestly, but that too. I love being the underdog, I like the down-and-out thing. Sometimes people would think, just looking at Gamble, that she’s got it easy or all figured out, but the odds are stacked against her with her family but also with getting into this new SWAT family, and finding her footing. SWAT has really helped her to ground herself, but the moment the odds were stacked against Gamble, when I read that I was like, “This is super cool. I can’t wait to dive into this and play with this, and find my way out of it.” You want to rise to the occasion, and Gamble inspires me to do that.
TVLINE | Anna, as Zoe and Devin get ready to embark on their hike, Hondo nudges Powell to get inside Gamble’s head, and get her to sign the statement that will get her reinstated. How is that going to go over?
ANNA ENGER RITCH | Powell is going to take a very delicate approach and try not push Gamble too far. Powell understands that she is going through a lot and she wants to be supportive without overkill. But she also wants to nudge her enough to see, “We all want you here, you want to be here, so why aren’t you doing anything about it?”
TVLINE | Annie, can you give a flavor for how Devin will react to Zoe’s overture?
ILONZEH | [Laughs]
RITCH | Yeah, Annie! How does she react to that? [Laughs]
ILONZEH | Pretty defensive! Pretty defensive. This “gentle nudge” is met with a bit of annoyance on Devin’s part. Powell is coming from a genuine place of love and support, letting her know that she’s got a family. But Gamble’s been traumatized with the idea of family. Family to her equals dysfunction, it does not equal love and safety, so it’s definitely met with some personal defensiveness. She feels like she is cornered. And Gamble don’t go down without a fight! She don’t do that, she no likey.
RITCH | To be fair, Powell doesn’t exactly come at in a delicate, gentle fashion, because I don’t know that Powell knows how to do that. She has one speed and it’s “All cards on the table, no holds barred.” That’s how we operate, we keep it real. “This is what it is—
ILONZEH | —take it or leave it.” Combined with the stakes of the situation we find ourselves in, with all this stuff swirling around…. They’re in this environment, this atmosphere, that is not a gentle one. So theres’ no mincing words.
RITCH | Theres no time for that, nope.
TVLINE | Did filming this episode present any firsts for either of you as an actor?
RITCH | I can tell you this: It was one of my most memorable experiences. Annie and I were first up, last out, non-stop, and we were there with the support and the hard work of all our crew. It was a very physical episode, too, so to maintain our energy we were literally doing push-ups and jumping jacks and all kinds of HIIT workout stuff….
ILONZEH | Sprints! Sprints up the hill…
RITCH | We left our heart on the table. It was one of my most favorite experiences because we were in it together. If you ever get a chance to work with anyone in the world, work with Annie Ilonzeh. It will be one of the best experiences ever.
ILONZEH | We did a pre-conversation prior to this conversation, where we took five to 10 minutes to just gush over each other, and I want to echo everything Anna said. But also, I felt like I was on this really interesting “first date” with Anna. We all work together, we’re an ensemble cast and we’re all super-close — all the things — but this was our time together. It was a challenging, physical, close-quarters, very passionate, supportive, emotional date that we were on. And we were down. It really was this interesting dance that we were doing, and I could get enough of it. That was my first experience with something like that in all my years of being in this industry. One would think this was hard and challenging, and it was — we were in the trenches, legit.
RITCH | But it was such a gift in every way you can imagine, as an artist and as a person. It was beautiful.
ILONZEH | We were on a date with the crew, as well. One little story: Our A-camera, Tim, was to sit on the back of and ATV and were supposed to run up, past the camera, there in the woods.
RITCH | While [director] Garry [Brown] is [humming the S.W.A.T. opening theme]….
ILONZEH | The ATV is supposed to keep up with us, but ee realize, safety-wise, that just wasn’t happening.
RITCH | The terrain was too rocky, broken limbs anywhere…. Tim goes, “I’m going to take this 80-lb. camera, strap it on my back, and I’m going to run with the girls”!
ILONZEH | We all learned a lot about each other, and thats the beauty of it.
RITCH | Garry was so wonderful, just a gem of epic proportions. He allowed us to explore and do…. It felt like such a wonderful collaboration And we had some really awesome guest stars. Valerie Loo (American Horror Stories) played the young pregnant girl, and Spencer Treat Clark (Animal Kingdom) played one of the bad guys…
TVLINE | Where and when did you film this? Because I saw frost coming out of your mouths.
RITCH | It was so cold!!!
ILONZEH | Yes, it was. It started right before Christmas break. And then we wrapped it in the new year, around January 3rd. So you can imagine, even though it’s L.A. it’s northern L.A.
RITCH | We were near Agoura Hills, a bit past that even. And we were deep into the hills, so far that Annie and I stayed out there, which was helpful with the sleep.
TVLINE | I was curious if that location wound up surviving the wildfires.
RITCH | It did. The fires were close, but… not there. There was one episode that happened after the Palisades [fires began], where we were filming at the canyons in Santa Clarita, and we were literally mid-shot as the smoke was rising from Castiac Lake fires. We had to shut down production, and thankfully they got it under control. We went dark the next day and came back to work the following.
TVLINE | What’s next after this for your characters, individually?
RITCH | You will never see Powell more vulnerable than when we tap into her personal life. She likes to put on this strong coat of armor when she’s in uniform and has her weapon she feels bulletproof and eight feet tall, and when you strip all that away, you really see how vulnerable, and very awkward, she can be.
ILONZEH | With Gamble, we’re going to dive deeper into the push-pull that she has with her family, and with 20-Squad, which now is family as well. We get to see Dad and brother again (played by Rif Hutton and Nick Creegan), and there are some interesting conversations to be had.
RITCH | I love the brother dynamic.
ILONZEH | I know, and he’s such a sweetheart, too. Shout-out to to Wendy Weidman, she’s a great casting director. Her department is so spot on. Every time somebody comes in, a lot of times we’ve seen their work or we grew up watching them, and we’re like, “We got them?” Even whens someone plays a bad guy and we take them out—
ILONZEH | —we’re like, “Wait, is there a way we can bring them back?!” [Laughs]
Want scoop on S.W.A.T., or for any other TV show ? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!
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