Special Ops: Lioness Interview: Michael Kelly Talks New Taylor Sheridan Series
16Following a comprehensive and storied foray through neo-Western dramas and complex thrillers, Taylor Sheridan is opening up another realm of distinctive storytelling with his new Paramount+ series, Special Ops: Lioness. The filmmaker, best known for creating a signature cadence to his stories through Western elements and complex thrills, is delving into the world of espionage, exploring spies and secret agents. Featuring a star-studded cast led by Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Kelly, the eight-episode series is based on the real-life CIA program, Task Force Lioness created by the U.S. military to contend with women potentially used in terrorist attacks. In an interview with Collider last month ahead of the series premiere, Kelly reveals it’s one of the most “captivating” scripts he’s read in a long time thanks to its female-focused storyline.
Special Ops: Lioness follows Joe (Saldaña), the leader of a female-focused, undercover CIA team tasked with befriending and potentially flipping the loyalties of wives, mothers, girlfriends, and other women in close contact with male terrorist leaders. As Joe attempts to make things right in her unit, the Lioness Program, spearheaded by Kaitlyn Meade (Kidman) and Donald Westfield (Kelly) enlists the aggressive Marine Raider, Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) to operate undercover alongside Joe. Though Cruz is rough around the edges and running from her own trauma, it’s this characterization that makes for a “powerhouse” performance from Oliveira that Kelly beams about in our interview.
The Emmy-nominated actor, who is a powerhouse himself, best known for House of Cards and Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, is no stranger to playing government operatives in TV and film (like, most recently Transformers: Rise of the Beasts). But while his character Donald oversees the program in Special Ops: Lioness, he teases in an exclusive Q&A conducted on June 26 during the WGA strike but before the SAG-AFTRA strike, that there is a lot more to him than viewers will see in the first episode.
This interview was conducted on June 26, 2023, during the WGA strike and before the SAG-AFTRA Strike.
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