Miranda Otto reveals what drew her to the TV role of playing a CIA station chief in Homeland

AUSTRALIAN actress Miranda Otto is joining the next series of popular US show Homeland — and as a CIA station chief, she’ll pull no punches.

Miranda Otto, NIDA Foundation Trust Gala dinner, Kensington. Picture by DAMIAN SHAW

AUSSIE actor Miranda Otto’s latest role as Allison Carr, the CIA’s Berlin station chief in hit US series Homeland is a far cry from her highest-profile character of warrior princess Éowyn in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. Allison is just as stoic, but far more real.

Otto, 47, joins Homeland alongside multi-award winners Claire Danes (Carrie Mathison on the show) and Mandy Patinkin (who plays Saul Berenson) as the focus of the show moves to Berlin in season five.

What drew you to the role of Allison?

“It’s a great role. I got very lucky on this one. It’s so hard to think of what I can tell you and what I can’t (she jokes, CIA-style, ‘it’s classified’). She’s career driven, on a fantastic trajectory. Someone was asking me ‘is she Type A?’ I think to work in this business (the CIA) they pretty much have to be kind of type A. She’s very much on the front foot and she’s ballsy, definitely. She is very in control and very, sure of what she’s doing.”

Is it hard to join a show like Homeland in season five when the core cast and success is well established?

“It’s a little daunting coming on to work with actors that you respect so much. At the beginning it’s a little disarming. But at the same time, coming onto a show that is already running is brilliant because people know the show really well. Working on a show when you are still trying to discover it along with the audience can be tough. Whereas with something like Homeland, they just know what works. They know how to write it.”

Homeland is being shot entirely in Berlin this season — why?

“Berlin is such a great backdrop for the show. I love the way they went to Cape Town last year for that season, because the show is so international. But I think about movies like The Bourne Identity, and when they shot in Europe there was something so great about that. There is something — so much history of espionage in Europe. And then in Berlin there is not only the history but how the Berlin is today — how vibrant and interesting and politically at the centre of Europe. Sadly my German is almost non-existent, although I did a little at school.”

Tough act to follow ... Claire Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison in Homeland.

How does that work with family (husband Peter O’Brien and daughter, Darcey, 10) in LA?

“As actors we are accustomed to moving around, and it’s always great to live and work in a city — you feel; like you are truly living a life there. The commitment to the show is five to six months, we started in June, I’m home in LA this week, we’ll finish around the end of November. My daughter was on school holidays for a time so that was great — the whole family was there (in Berlin) then.”

Acting is in your blood (Otto is the daughter of actors Barry and Lindsay Otto, and the sister of actress Gracie Otto), so what does Darcey want to be when she grows up?

“Who knows what she’ll be? If she wants to be an actor of course I’d be for it. I keep trying to show her the cold hard truth of the acting profession, but I think I was the same ... you always have stars in your eyes.”

You’ve done lots of film and less television, why are TV roles becoming more attractive?

“The writing has changed. TV in America is like the new frontier of movies, because there are so many new platforms here. Instead of being conservative about things every new platform is saying ‘go out and write us something that’s amazing that hasn’t been seen before and take risks’. So it has produced all these incredible shows in the past five years. There are some great women’s roles in television … so much more interesting than what I was reading in film scripts.”

Is there someone you’d love to play?

“Hillary Clinton. What a woman, she is fantastic, Like, God, what a life, what an intellect and what savvy, she’s amazing.”

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Originally published as Miranda Otto reveals what drew her to the TV role of playing a CIA station chief in Homeland