Felicity Huffman on 'American Crime' Season 2: 'I Have Won the Acting Lottery'

Turns out crime does pays if you’re Felicity Huffman.

“American Crime is an actor’s paradise,” says the actress, who returns for the second season of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated anthology tonight. “I work with amazing people that raise the level of my game. I get to tell meaningful and challenging stories and I get a new character every season, so it is not boring.” But that doesn’t mean the gig is easy. Huffman admits the dark, intense subject matter tends to come home with you at night. She also had to say goodbye to Barb — the broken woman and grieving mother from Season 1, a role that might earn her a second Globe this Sunday — and find her groove with Leslie, the ambitious headmistress at a high school ripped apart by the alleged sexual assault of a male scholarship student by two privileged and popular basketball stars.

American Crime was so well received — is there more pressure to make the sophomore season better?
We didn’t go into it saying, “We are going to make a better show this season.” That would be a disastrous place to start from. So you go into it with the idea that you are telling a new story and you are going to give this story and this character your all and hopefully the audience will be just as interested and challenged.

This is technically season 2, but essentially this is a whole new show. You are working with many of the same core people, but all of your characters are different and the relationships between your characters are different. Was that discombobulating?
I was just talking to [costar] Tim [Hutton] the other day about this. As actors and as people, even though we knew it was a different story and that we were playing completely different characters, we came back to something with a certain expectation of the familiar. What we were talking about the other night was just how different this entire experience has been. I think part of it is because we keep trying so hard to fit it into the context of Season 1.

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Personally, it feels very different. My character is very different from Barb. And the character’s job in the story is very different than Barb’s job last season, and that affects you as an actor because action defines characters. We are on the last episode and I have six more days here on location, and it is finally dawning me how profoundly different it is. And I wish I could really define that better as opposed to just using the word different a bunch of times.

It seems the main difference can be attributed to the character change. Can you talk about how they are different?
My character is always at work. She’s the headmistress of an elite private school. Although things touch us personally at work and we are invested in what happens at work, especially if you are good at your job and my character is very, very good at her job, she is always at work and always managing a crisis that is a level removed from her. Barb was in the thick of the crime and the crisis and she was affected personally because her son was murdered. Leslie Graham is at work, trying to keep the peace and control the controversy and find solutions to the problems at hand instead. She plays a very cerebral game and is always trying to stay 20 steps ahead. My smarts and my tactical came first, my heart came second — and it was only after I was driving away from that talk with Tim that I realized that’s why it feels so different.

Is the transition easier because you are making it with most of the same crew?
For sure. Because there’s, one, a shorthand and two, a level of trust. Everyone could exhale because you know how to play on the same field as them even though it feels like you are playing a totally different game. Last year we were playing tennis and now it’s rugby. I know the level of gamesmanship that is around me. John has assembled some great players from Lili Taylor, Richard Cabral, Regina King, Tim Hutton, Hope Davis, Elvis Nolasco so I know I am in good hands. Having that trust established makes it easier to really go for it and try things. Plus, if you have a bad day, there is less of a chance that it will be noticed because you are surrounded by all these other folks on top of their game.

This series is so intense all the time. There is rarely a moment of true levity, yet most people got to know you through Desperate Housewives. Do you miss doing comedy or do you prefer drama?
It is fun to do the frothy silly stuff. I don’t think of myself as a particularly funny person and it is not my forte. My husband is able to do a lot more than I am. Dying is easy; comedy is hard as they say. But artistically at the end of last season, I have to say I felt so fulfilled and so proud of what we accomplished. I was also exhausted by the end of last season. With great gratitude, I said goodbye to Barb. I didn’t want to hang around in her headspace any longer, but with bigger challenges and higher fences, you challenge yourself more. And if you can clear them, it is a great sense of satisfaction.

Is it important to you to be pn a show that is tackling such giant issues and do you think TV actually has the power to make a difference?
Oh my goodness, yes. I love the narrative power of television and movies. It can really change people’s perceptions. It can open them up to new ideas. It can introduce them to ways of living that were previously foreign to them and helps us all understand each other. I have a good friend who has two adopted children, and one of the reasons the birth mother of their first daughter chose them was because she loved Will & Grace. She had a totally different perspective of gay men because of the show and therefore considered letting a gay couple adopt her child. That is a small but profound example of how TV can change how people live.

I think American Crime is an important dialogue about race and the judicial system and love and hate. What does it mean to be family? How far would you go to protect the people you love? We don’t need a TV show to tell us racism is bad, but it is nice for a TV show to start a conversation and get people thinking and communicating about it.

I think the fact that this season’s main crime — a possible rape — happens to a young man instead of a young woman is going to push boundaries even further.
It adds another layer to the conversation that this is a story about a boy saying that he was assaulted or raped. Again it forces us to examine our own prejudices and our own bigotry. When a boy gets raped, especially by his peers, I think a lot of people would go, “Well that can’t be true.” You’d question the story more. That’s not right, but it’s honest.

Now that you have reached the last episode are you crossing your fingers for a season 3?
I will ride John Ridley’s coattails as long as he will let me. I get to work with amazing and talented people that raise the level of my game. I get to tell meaningful and challenging stories. And I get to do a new character every season so it is not boring. I have won the acting lottery.

And maybe you’ll also win a Golden Globe to go with your Desperate Housewives Emmy and your Transamerica trophy.
I don’t think so but it is certainly nice to get a seat at the table. That’s a fun night.

You and the hubby, William H. Macy (Shameless), are familiar with the awards circuit. I’m sure awards shows and nominations are all you talk about over Sunday brunch at your house.
[Laughs] Wouldn’t that be awful if that were true? Oh no. In fact, you’d be more likely to overhear a conversation where one of us goes, “Ugh, I’m so awful.” And the other one says, “I know. Me too.”

American Crime airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.