By Alice Wasley From: The Daily Telegraph October 01, 2008

 

Robin Tunney says the premise of The Mentalist offers a different perspective from the usual cop shows.

 

"Well, I think the idea that it is character driven and it does have a sense of humour about it and its cases (is different). It’s coming from a more eccentric place. I think that Simon’s character is more eccentric than any of the criminals,” she says.

"There’s a lightness to it; it’s not CSI where there’s hi-tech science and DNA. It’s more akin to Columbo and there is that sort of old-fashioned feeling.

 

"The unit within it is more like a dysfunctional family. It goes back to plain old observation. A combination of Columbo and Sherlock Holmes.”

 

As well as looking at the human side of crime solving, series creator Bruno Heller wanted to put a different spin on the psychic, Tunney says.

"Basically he said he got the idea because his wife was really into these shows like Ghost Whisperer and Medium, and he thought it would be fun to do a show that was more cynical and showed how people do that stuff,” she says.

 

Tunney, who starred alongside another Australian, Dominic Purcell, in Prison Break, has also appeared in a number of films, including The Craft and Vertical Limit. She will next be seen in The Burning Plain with Charlize Theron, which is to be released later this year.
Tunney says she was attracted to Heller’s writing and the prospect of working with him on The Mentalist.

 

"I read the script and I thought it was really clever. I’d never been somebody to watch a lot of procedurals but I liked the banter between my character and Simon’s,” she says.

"And also the fact that it had a really interesting tone for a show like that. It had moments of humour and moments of seriousness and I also think for an actor it was a little bit more character driven.

 

"I think that the whodunit of it all is sort of fun but that at the end of the day it’s about the character.”

 

Though she was predominantly attracted to the material Tunney admits she had a personal reason for taking on the role of Teresa Lisbon.

It seems not only are the Aussies nabbing all the plum roles in Los Angeles, they’re nabbing the women as well.

 

Tunney’s boyfriend is Australian writer-director Andrew Dominik, who’s best known for his debut film Chopper and last year’s The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and she says that, having met Baker through the Aussie LA network, working with him was also a selling point.

 

"To be totally honest Simon and I have some friends in common and I’d met him before and I always thought he was a really good actor and on top of that I also knew that he was a really decent guy that I got along with,” she says.

 

"Proximity in television is really extreme, as opposed to a movie. "You can work with someone you don’t like personally for four months and it’s not good but it doesn’t dictate your life. In a situation like this I wanted to be sure that I knew and liked the person I’d be working with both creatively and personally.

 

"We have a fantastic time. Simon, he makes me laugh. Like all good Australians, he takes the work seriously but not himself.”

 

Baker is best-known to US viewers for his starring role in The Guardian in which he played a troubled lawyer who had a run-in with the law and is forced by the courts to go from a corporate drone to someone who steps into bat for the underdog.

 

Tunney says that Baker’s role on The Mentalist shows more facets of the actor’s personality.
"I think it’s a great role for him. I first saw him in (Ang Lee’s) Ride With The Devil and I was like, wow that guy’s really good,” she says.

 

"My boyfriend was obsessed with him on The Guardian. And he is funny, which I would never have guessed by watching that show.

 

"He has that great Australian ability to take the piss out of himself. It is useful to have a sense of humour about yourself. It is nice to see that side of him. And it makes the day go by a lot more quickly.”

 

So, having an insight into the situation, what does she put the proliferation of Aussies in Hollywood down to?

"I don’t know – they’re really good actors,” the 36-year-old says. "There are not a lot of people who live (in Australia). It’s remarkable, the number of them that are working (in the industry).

 

"I think they have an easier time with the American accent than the English or people from other countries. I know lots of them and they spring up everywhere – once you know one. "You can be travelling too, and you’ll be in the middle of nowhere and the person you’ll see on the other side of a mountain is an Australian,” she laughs.

 

The first sparks of sexual chemistry between Tunney’s character and Baker can be detected in the first episode and Tunney says she is looking forward to a slow-burning flirtation.

"What’s great about it is – and this is why a lot of actors have turned to television – it really takes it’s time. "It’s like one of those Moonlighting things. They’re completely opposite and there’s the banter that comes with that.

 

"I love all those George Cukor, great movies and Bruno’s been writing to that. "They’re two formidable opponents, which is fun. There are not a lot of roles out there for smart women.”

 

One of the downsides of all that banter is the pages of dialogue she has to learn before stepping on the set. "It’s unbelievable – because I’ve never had this big a role on television before and I’ve done movies I thought, I’m tough, I can handle this.

 

"They’re very long days. It’s a lot more dialogue and you go at a much faster clip than you would on a movie. Luckily we have a great group of people around and you feel safe. "It’s OK to screw up and inevitably everybody will. It’s been a blast.”