Dukes says her 'Westies' character Birdie Polk learned everything about her target before manipulating him into working for the FBI.
Alpha Score of 68 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, strong value, weak quality, moderate sentiment.
Jessica Frances Dukes knew exactly who her character was from the first few lines of the script.
"As soon as I saw, I'd say, the first three of her lines, I knew who she was. There was a sort of power and attack with her," Dukes told UPI in a recent Zoom interview. "It just unfolded in such a beautiful way over the episodes that I just knew I wanted to do this."
The Ozark and Jessica Jones alum plays FBI Agent Birdie Polk in the MGM+ series Westies, set in early 1980s New York. The show follows gangs and law enforcement clashing against the backdrop of the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center.
Polk heads the organized crime task force. She pressures alcoholic NYPD Officer Glenn Keenan (Titus Welliver) to risk his life feeding her information on the gangs. In exchange, she won't arrest his estranged son Danny (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong), who works for the Irish Westies gang.
"I think that her studying Keenan and everything that he's done and what he's been through and the type of person he is -- a Marine, that he was the cop, that he was all these things," Dukes said.
"She knows how to sort of get to him in order to bring him on board. And, also, she's a master manipulator. She's playing the game, so she has a way of basically not 'asking' him to join, but saying, 'Welcome, and this is what we're going to do.' She's running the show and I really do love it."
Dukes noted that enforcing the law in that era was incredibly difficult. Many investigative tools used today did not exist.
"To be a part of New York in the 1980s and trying to bring some sort of law or order or anything, it was impossible. It was impossible for the police, for the feds, for anybody to have any sort of control over that city at that time," she said.
"Not being there, I had to study way more about the time. I had to dive in, in a way that I wouldn't necessarily have to dive in as much now."
Season 1 wraps up Sunday on MGM+. The series also stars J.K. Simmons and Sarah Bolger.
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