SPOILER ALERT! This post contains spoilers for all ten episodes of Ransom Canyon on Netflix.
Ransom Canyon star Minka Kelly juggles a lot of layers and dynamics for her character Quinn O’Grady in April Blair’s 10-episode Netflix series, based loosely on the book by Jodi Thomas.
At the start of the show, a history between Quinn and widower Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) who has lost both his wife and his son, becomes clear, but Quinn also fields courtship from Staten’s late wife’s brother Davis Collins (Eoin Macken) as well as her growing businesses — Gracie’s Dance Hall which she runs with her righthand woman Ellie Estevez (Marianly Tejada) and her lavender farm. Her feelings for Staten have not dimmed despite giving it a go with Davis and putting everything she has into Gracie’s. Oh, and if that weren’t enough, Quinn also had a past life studying piano in New York City, and a significant figure from that past resurfaces in Ransom Canyon to recruit Quinn for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“There’s just a lot going on in her world. There’s the juxtaposition of the joy and the success of this bar, but now that it’s like going so well, she’s gonna leave it behind, and that’s a lot to weigh out,” Kelly told Deadline in an interview ahead of the show’s release. “What means more to her? Going to New York and playing with the New York Phil for six months, or does she stay here?”
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In the below interview, Kelly dives deep with Deadline about establishing Quinn’s independence while maintaining her love for Staten, how she balanced the energy Meta Golding brought to set as Davis’ ex-wife Paula Jo, piano lessons and more.
DEADLINE: From the start of the series, it’s very clear that Quinn is fiercely independent. She doesn’t need anybody, especially Staten, but there’s also this, “Will they/ Won’t they Connection with him. How you balance that for her character in the show?
MINKA KELLY: That’s a great question. I was able to really relate it to a lot of experiences I’ve had, especially when you think of Quinn has loved him her whole life since high school. So you think you want to really believe in someone. I can relate to falling in love with someone’s potential, which is a really dangerous thing. I’ve done that a few times, and I’m sure someone’s done it in reverse with me, like fall in love with my potential and I let them down.
That’s the problem with putting anyone on a pedestal. You’re falling in love with a fantasy of what they could be and, and it’s a hard lesson to learn to go “If they never changed, if they just stayed exactly who they are right now, is that okay with you for forever?” Sometimes you have to learn that the hard way, and you think falling in love with someone’s potential is romantic, but it’s not because you’re not falling in love with who’s right in front of you.
DEADLINE: I’m also curious about how the added backstory of Amala, and Staten having been married to her, and then she was Davis’ sister, if that added anything to how you wanted to portray Quinn as well?
KELLY: There is the guilt of, “Is it okay for me to love him when someone so close to me, she was his person?” You can have every intention of thinking this is your friend, but to deny a love that you had for them since high school makes that a really complex thing. And I think that’s why she had to move to New York for such a long time so that she could just get away from from from that ever becoming messy, to just save herself from that.
DEADLINE: Speaking of New York, With Quinn’s piano-playing background, I feel like that’s something that’s at the core of her character. Did you trained for the piano? How did you want to bring that to life?
KELLY: That’s kind of the beauty of this job. It’s one of my favorite things about what I do, is whatever show or whatever job, you’re probably going to have to learn a new skill, so when they said I’m going to have to learn piano for this, I was so excited. It was a dream come true.
I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the piano, but you always have these excuses as to why you don’t have time to take the lessons, and it’s too hard to learn a new thing as an adult, but now it was my job. I didn’t learn how to read music, but I did learn how to play the songs I had to play in the show. I had a piano teacher in Albuquerque that I worked with. And then, my partner is a musician, so he really helped me also learn the song, and then I just would do it over and over again and just learn by memory. So I can’t say I know how to play the piano, but I do know how to get through the songs that I had to learn for the show.
DEADLINE: When Kate Burton’s character comes and reminds her of this whole past, how was that dynamic for you?
KELLY It was wonderful to work with her. It was just so easy. I didn’t audition with her. She just showed up to set, and was so fun to work with. I felt so lucky that I got to work with her. I mean, what a legend.
It was also just so beautiful to sit there, and play out this scene that I think it’s so important to remind ourselves [that] life happens, and it’s not all our responsibility to heal everyone around us or to be responsible for anyone else’s happiness. We can’t outsource our self-worth or our happiness or our joys to anyone, and it’s okay to choose to take care of yourself that doesn’t make you bad or selfish. It’s okay to choose you. And it was really, really touching to have her give me that.
DEADLINE: Back to the romance part of the show, would you say that Staten and Davis bring out different sides of Quinn?
KELLY: Of course, there’s a lot more ease and comfort with Staten they have a more natural chemistry because they’ve known each other since high school. So it’s easier for them to bicker with each other. It’s easier for them to fall into sort of the romance with each other, even though they’re fighting it because they’re both thinking that it’s not the right thing to do. Their head and their hearts are in conflict, and when your head and your heart are in conflict, there’s going to be some friction.
With Davis, it’s like, you know, she’s trying to maybe do something different and choose differently. And on paper, this one looks like the right one. He’s saying all the right things, but there’s still something about him she doesn’t know that she quite trusts, and can’t put her finger on it, but she’s gonna doubt her instincts and just go where she thinks might be the most healthy direction for her, which is this guy that’s doing and saying all the right things. So she’s a little more guarded with him.
DEADLINE: How did you approach the scenes with Davis’ ex wife Paula Jo portrayed by Meta Golding?
KELLY: Isn’t meta amazing? Yes, she was so fun to work with! I loved every day that she was on set, because she’s just so effortlessly powerful and gracious and lovely and warm and kind, and then she turns into this character who is so tough and she’s so sweet that after every take, she’d be like, “I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to look at you like that or talk to you.”
And I’m like, “No girl. I love it. You are killing it. This is good. Give it to me. I am remembering not to be intimidated.” She’s just so captivating, and I’d have to remind myself not to just watch her as an audience, but to stay in the scene with her because she’s just so wonderful as an actor, she’s just so good, and the choices she makes are so specific and brings her character to life in such a fun to watch way. All I had to do is react to her and listen to her, and she did all the work.
DEADLINE: Well I feel like you match it in your own maybe quieter way.
KELLY: Thank you. One thing I will not ever do is compete with a woman, period. So I love, and I appreciate that you said in my own quiet way, because, that was the intention is to not try to match her energy, but to maybe meet her with the opposite energy. We’re not here two women trying to out power each other.
DEADLINE: In the end, Quinn does choose herself. She’s going to New York for six months. There’s that scene where she looks at Staten in the bar, and she goes over to him, but he’s left and he’s left the bracelet. How did you approach that ending, and how does that reinforces what we’ve been talking about and segue into what you would want to see for Quinn in a Season 2?
KELLY: I liked it being a little ambiguous, like was she going to make peace with him or was she going because she wanted to try again? I don’t think she wanted to try again. I think she was really happy with her choice to choose herself and pursue her dreams and appreciate this opportunity and go to New York, but I think she maybe wanted to do it without leaving any sort of baggage behind, but the she didn’t get that chance. So maybe that leaves room for how they deal with how they departed, and they didn’t really get a whole lot of closure there. Their last encounter was that fight.
DEADLINE: I also felt the complications of her having to break up with Davis. How does that scene contrast with how she leaves things with Staten?
KELLY: I think she always knew she probably wouldn’t have the capacity to fall in love with anyone else while she was still so in love with someone else, even though she really wanted to be able to. I think it was real for her because she wanted it to be real despite her heart being somewhere else completely. The breakup probably needed to happen regardless of what happens between her and statin, just because she had some some cleaning up of her own to do with her own self and her own sense of self.
She wasn’t really emotionally available, so it was the responsible thing to do anyway, and I think the reason that’s so emotional is because she did have love for him, and she did feel that his love for her was true. It just was one of those things where “I’m just so sorry. We never really had a chance, even though I really wanted to. “I may, I may have used you to help distract me from him, and I feel really guilty and sorry about that.”
RELATED: ‘Ransom Canyon’ Showrunner April Blair Unpacks Finale And Season 2 Hopes
The post ‘Ransom Canyon’ Star Minka Kelly Details Quinn’s Layers And Choices At The End Of Season 1: “That’s A Lot To Weigh Out” appeared first on Deadline.
