Posted in: Amazon Studios, TV | Tagged: scarpetta

Scarpetta: Righetti on Dorothy-Kay Sibling Dynamic, Curtis & More

Amanda Righetti (The Mentalist) spoke with us about Prime Video's Scarpetta, Showrunner Liz Sarnoff, working with Jamie Lee Curtis, and more.

Any time you have to double for two powerhouses like Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis for any project, it would be quite intimidating, but Rosy McEwen and Amanda Righetti are taken to task as past Kay and Dorothy in the Prime Video series Scarpetta. Set within two timelines, the series follows Kay Scarpetta (Kidman and McEwen) as an innovative and intuitive forensic pathologist, embracing her role as Chief Medical Examiner through multiple stints in cases in Florida, Virginia, and South Carolina. Based on Patricia Cornwell's novels, creator and showrunner Liz Sarnoff regularly shifts between the past and present, with an ensemble cast surrounding the sibling characters. Righetti spoke to Bleeding Cool about how Sarnoff expanded Dorothy's character beyond Cornwell's original designs, learning and studying Curtis's performances, and working with McEwen on the Kay-Dorothy dynamic.

Scarpetta Star Amanda Righetti on Expanding Dorothy Beyond Cornwell's "Island"

Before getting cast, Amanda, how familiar were you with Patricia's work, and what intrigued you about entering her world?

I had heard of the books, but I hadn't read them. I read the first two before we started filming the first season is based on, and I was immediately hooked. Now, I'm reading the series, and I'm about halfway through.

What's it like working with Liz as a creative?

She's amazing. She's such a talented writer, brilliantly created these characters, took what Patricia wrote, and made it come to life in script form. Obviously, it's a stacked cast with amazing actors who have brought a lot of that to life. It's really smart, the scripts were page turners, and now that I've seen the first episode, it's just amazing to see it all come to fruition.

Did you coordinate with Jamie Lee Curtis to capture Dorothy's essence? Or did you work exclusively with Liz just on that aspect? Was there a point of reference?

I worked more with Jamie than with Liz in building Dorothy, and we spent a few hours together talking about the backstory, the Scarapettas, and the sisters' upbringing. From there, I studied some of Jamie Lee Curtis's older films, watched her in a lot of interviews, and then the producers were kind enough to let me see some of the dailies. I picked up on a lot of the mannerisms she was implementing with Dorothy and tried to lace that into my performance, so it would make it a little bit easier of a through line for the audience to follow.

Were there elements of Dorothy you had to isolate, playing her at a younger age, to where it's more a distinguishing characteristic of Jamie's incarnation?

Here's the thing, because Dorothy is more limited in [the Cornwell] books and we don't know a whole lot about her, Liz really took some purchase there to fill her out and make her come alive in a way that the books didn't or didn't spend the time on her. In terms of pieces of her that may be missing, I feel like it was the opposite, they were adding. Liz was adding things for Dorothy and to make Dorothy more a part of the story of Scarpetta than she is in the books.

How did you develop chemistry with Rosy and Jake [Cannavale as Pete Marino], and maintain that core trio of consistency throughout the series?

I was thrown into it with Rosy, like my time on set was pretty limited, but I'm the youngest of eight, and they're all sisters except for one, so I know a thing or two about the sister dynamic. Rosy and I spoke about it a little bit before we started filming, but she's such an easy person to speak to; she's soft-spoken and very lovely. Liz wrote such well-rounded characters that I don't want to say, "It was easy," but all the pieces for the foundation were set up for us to really be able to run with it.

It's such a stacked cast. Was it hard not to just sometimes feel a little lost in the shuffle? Or were there some days where you just kind of saw, you had to see like others work when you didn't have scenes to film?

Sometimes Dorothy is a little bit of an island in the show, especially for the flashback portions. Since it's a dual timeline, the character doesn't… Like, I don't have anything with present-day Dorothy or present-day Kay, so I had an opportunity to watch a little bit of Jamie's work while I was there, but for the most part, it was really fast and furious. I was in and out when I got to film, and I guess there's sort of like a blessing and a curse to it. It allowed me to focus on Dorothy, but in terms of getting to know the other cast members and spending time with them, that was limited. It wasn't as prevalent as the shows that I've done in the past.

Scarpetta, which also stars Ariana DeBose, Bobby Cannavale, Simon Baker, Hunter Parrish, and Savannah Lumar, is available on Prime Video.

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