Brad Ingelsby, the creator of ‘Mare of Easttown’, is back with another gripping crime drama, set in working-class Pennsylvania. ‘Task’ dives into the lives of federal agents, gang members, and fractured families in DelCo. The series stars Mark Ruffalo, Jamie McShane and Martha Plimpton leading the cast, along with talents such as Thuso Mbedu, Fabian Frankel and Alison Oliver.Plimpton, known for her roles in series like ‘The Good Wife’, ‘The Regime’ and ‘Raising Hope’, plays FBI Bureau Chief Kathleen McGinty, while Emmy-nominated Mbedu, known for her fierce roles in ‘The Underground Railroad’, ‘The Woman King’, takes on the role of Aleah, a young agent navigating the moral weight of the job. Sitting down with ETimes, the two actresses opened up about Ingelsby’s collaborative process, what it was like to watch the series come together for the first time, and why Fabian Frankel may surprise audiences after his turn in ‘House of the Dragon’.Entering this series with Brad Ingelsby as the creator, ‘Task’ is quite the follow-up to ‘Mare of Easttown’. From your perspective, how does he handle his characters while blending younger talents with seasoned talents such as Mark Ruffalo, Jamie McShane and Martha Plimpton, and doing so, while making all feel equally essential to the plot?Martha Plimpton: Well, I think you’ve said it. I mean, it’s really true. I think Brad is just, first of all, he’s just a really lovely person. He’s a very warm, very lovely and very open and empathetic person. And, you know, you meet him and you think, how in the world did you come up with all this dark stuff? You know, where is it all coming from? But I think that’s, it’s in Brad’s nature.I don’t know him. He’s not like, you know, my closest friend in the world. I’ve never sat down with him and, you know, had a life conversation. But I can tell from his perspective and from the way he writes that he really is interested in people’s motivations and in what harms people, what wounds people and how those wounds, you know, motivate them through their life. Thuso Mbedu: And to add to that, in our process of making the production, what I noted is Brad is also very collaborative. So when it comes to answering the part of your question, it’s like young and old, it doesn’t matter. You know, there’s no distinction. It is because he was constantly in conversation with us as the actors, which also means even before getting into that space, he would have been in conversation with the environment around him. And what I appreciated, again, is it was my first time, you know, in Delaware. It’s my first time experiencing the community. And it’s like, even with our crew members who are locals, that you could see them within the world of the story. It’s like so very true to the environment that we’re in. Yeah.When working on ‘Task’, you’re focused on your own storyline and don’t always meet all the actors. But then you finally see the show as a whole. What were your first thoughts?Thuso Mbedu: Well, for me, number one was, OK, we all know that the story was amazing because we all read the script, right? But I appreciated how extremely talented everyone is and how they executed their roles in such an amazing way that, you know, takes you through the journey of the story. Because again, like you said, we’re not there to film every scene. So for me, it was like, oh my snap, this is what we do. And for me, I’m so grateful to have been a part, no matter how small it is, to be a part of this amazing story.Martha Plimpton: It was just extraordinary seeing everyone. I mean, we work together, you know, and we know we could do it. But then when we watch the show and it’s all put together, also visually, you know, because we don’t watch dailies or I don’t anyway. And visually, to see the way it came together and how the visual language of it was also so incredibly, I mean, just truthful and also very beautiful.How much did you play off each other while working within the Task Force dynamic?Thuso Mbedu: OK, so for me, it was actually very easy for me to play with Aaliyah, who wasn’t trying to connect with anyone. And even on set, it was hilarious because, you know, Lizzie and Grasso had this weird dynamic happening and Aaliyah was just always observing and never impressed. And we’d have moments where it’s like, you know, it’s lighter on set and you have now Allison and Fabian just have cracking jokes. Joke after joke after joke. And I’m sitting there and I’m just like… And they’re like, oh, why aren’t you laughing? I’m like, well, this is none of it is funny. A lot of people are saying that ‘Task’ is the new ‘Succession’. Do you feel pressure for the series to succeed?Martha Plimpton: So there’s no I think notions of pressure for executives and, you know, people, people making decisions. But luckily, we luckily our job is just to, you know, to come in and, you know, have a good time and do as well as we can and be honest and be truthful to what we’re doing. And hopefully enjoy ourselves in the process. And if the wonderful thing about knowing that people are saying such nice things about the show is that, you know, like you said, it’s not it’s not the motivating factor, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. It feels really nice to know that people like the show.Reviews have already been strong, and the show has scored well on Rotten Tomatoes. I want to ask about Fabian Frankel. He got a lot of hate for ‘House of the Dragon’. Without spoilers, do you think his role in ‘Task’ will change that perception?Martha Plimpton: I think that he’s such a lovely person. He’s such a wonderful actor. He is so good in this show that, you know, even if you hate him, you’ve got to love him, you know, because he brings such depth. He’s you know, he’s really so good in the show. And obviously, you know, very good looking, you know, that I don’t think that people I think, you know, he’s one of those. He’s one of those, you know, and also Brad doesn’t write characters one-dimensionally. He writes all characters with lots of sides to them, with lots of complexity. And I think that this show gives Fabian a wonderful opportunity to sort of express that complexity and that depth in a way that maybe ‘House of Dragons’ wasn’t because he was riding dragons. Or maybe I’m wrong. I don’t know.Thuso Mbedu: Yeah, for me, it’s hard not to root for all the characters because of how well written they are. That’s well in it. Because again, we don’t want to get spoiled.’Task’ is a seven-episode crime drama miniseries that follows Tom Brandis (Mark Ruffalo), a former priest turned FBI agent, who is appointed to lead a special task force investigating a string of robberies. At the heart of the crimes is Robbie Prendergrast (Tom Pelphrey), a seemingly ordinary family man living a double life, is torn between providing for his children and descending deeper into a world of crime, danger and illegal schemes. Go to Source
