Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 16 February 2017
2 tough guys meet their match

in Maggie Siff on ‘Billions’

FRAZIER MOORE to Chuck when he rages, gether.
AP Television Writer “I always knew I’d end up Years later, Don (and the
NEW YORK (AP) — Last sea- smeared by Axelrod’s poi- audience) would learn that
son, “Billions” performed a son,” for which he blames Rachel had died of leuke-
delicate balancing act. his wife as having served mia — but not before she
Chuck Rhoades, the pow- as the carrier: “Proximity is made a brief comeback.
enough.” Siff was pleased to shoot
In this image released by “I no longer have proximity this fleeting encore for the
Showtime, Maggie Siff por-
trays Wendy Rhoades in a to it,” she sneers, “and YOU series’ final season.
scene from the series, “Bil- no longer have proximity to “I always wanted Rachel
lions,” airing Sundays at 10 ME.” to circle back through that
p.m. EST on Showtime. Wendy is an unusual char- world,” she says.
Associated Press acter for series TV, and a But the one-minute scene
distinctly different charac- she was asked to play (the
ter than Siff has played in only portion of the script
the past. And yet all her she was privy to) made
erful and perverse U.S. At- women share a common no sense to her, especially
torney (played by Paul bond: They’re strong, smart after series star Jon Hamm
Giamatti), was locked in and commanding even tipped her off that her
a legal cage match with in a crowd dominated by character was dead.
hedge-fund titan Bobby men. “I said to (series creator)
“Axe” Axelrod (Damian For six seasons on FX’s hit Matt (Weiner), ‘What’s go-
Lewis). But through it all, drama “Sons of Anarchy,” ing on?’ He said, ‘It’s a
Wendy Rhoades kept a Siff played Tara Knowles, dream. Just do a dream!’”
foot planted in both worlds: the physician wife of a She did, with a chinchilla
as the wife of Chuck and motorcycle-gang leader coat obscuring tell-tale evi-
top aide to Axe. who could hold her own, dence that she was preg-
Now, in this Showtime dra- and then some, in that nant with Lucy, now 2½, by
ma’s sophomore season, wild-and-woolly world. (At her husband, design con-
the equilibrium is shattered. least, until she was stabbed sultant Paul Ratliff.
Wendy has separated from to death in her kitchen “I had no idea how the
her husband and bolted with a barbecue fork by, scene lived inside the epi-
from Axe’s firm, leaving ironically, another woman: sode until I saw it on TV
those combatants to clash her mother-in-law and the along with everybody
even more ferociously. club’s grande dame.) else,” she says.
The only sure thing about “When we first started that A woman who began her
the narrative shakeup: series (in 2008) I didn’t ex- career in experimental the-
Wendy Rhoades can take pect it would become ater in Philadelphia and
care of herself, and, when the sensation it did,” says then off-Broadway, the
necessary, cut Chuck and Siff in her quiet, thoughtful Bronx, New York native,
Axe down to size. On a way, “but it tapped into now 42, admits to surprise
show that pits two Alpha something tribal in the au- at her repeated success in
Males against each oth- dience’s psyche. It was TV drama.
er, Wendy stands tall as a so pulpy in its violence, But surprise has been a
reigning Alpha Woman. yet also had this operatic driving force in her career,
“This season you see her try- family drama at its center she explains: “You have to
ing to walk a line with each even when the violence surrender yourself to what
of them while she maintains crossed the line — MY line, finds you in this life.”
her dignity and distance,” at least. There were scenes Despite no sign of surren-
says Maggie Siff, who brings I couldn’t watch!” dering, she finds herself
Wendy vibrantly to life. “To Siff came to “Sons” from her now in an acclaimed dra-
find her own moral center, brief but emblematic stint ma alongside two leading
she had to shed the two of early in “Mad Men,” where men she calls “phenom-
them.” she played Rachel Men- enal actors and phenom-
On the premiere (Sunday ken, the bold heiress and enal human beings.
at 10 p.m. EST), you’ll see boss of a New York depart- “Damian is so subtle but so
Wendy spurn Bobby Axel- ment store who became precise as an actor,” she
rod’s overtures to return romantically involved with says, “while Paul charges
as the in-house psycho- ad man Don Draper. out of the gate with so
therapist and performance Unlike so many of his con- much life. Their energies
coach. quests, Rachel soon rec- are very different. It’s fun
“There’s this thing that hap- ognized that their relation- to float between them as
pens when we’re in a room ship was not one for the scene partners.”
together,” she says sharply ages. She cut her ties with And for “Billions” viewers,
as he works his charm. “But Don, this caddish married there’s more fun ahead
I’m shutting it off. I HAVE man and dad, when he watching Siff power be-
shut it off.” proposed they leave it all tween them as the forceful
And you’ll see her stand up behind and run away to- link in this tangled tale.q