‘Accused’: Betsy Brandt Previews Conundrum at Center of ‘Jessie’s Story’

In one word, “Jessie’s Story” on Accused is “complicated.” (But then again, such is true of all the episodes of the Fox anthology thus far.)

In the May 2 episode, a teenager (Bebe Wood) tries to uncover the identity of her biological father only to hit roadblocks. She then goes to extreme measures to find the truth. Betsy Brandt, who plays Jessie’s mother Kara, teases what happens as a result.

This episode was so good and you were great in it.

Betsy Brandt: Oh, thank you. I love the show. When I read this script, I was like, oh my God, I want to play this part. I know Bebe, because we worked together on Love, Victor, and I think she’s so great and so I knew she would kill it. I was a big fan of Josh Hamilton. Michael Offer was directing and he’s on my list of people that I’ve wanted to work with. And Howard Gordon too, of course, who created the show. It was such a great gig.

I was going to ask about that reunion with Bebe. How was it working with her again?

Oh my God, she’s so —I met Maile Meloy, our writer, who’s fantastic, at the airport, as you do. I was in the Maple Leaf Lounge because that’s where all big things happen because we shoot in Toronto, and I ran into Chad Lowe, who’s a friend and knows Maile and introduced me. And she hadn’t met Bebe yet. And I said, “get ready. She’s magical.” And she absolutely is. And she’s so great in this. Truth be told, there’s some subtleties in this episode that, given a different group of people or a different actor in Bebe’s role, it just wouldn’t have come off as well.

It’s such a complicated story, too. What stood out to you about it when you read the script?

My character’s a single mom. She’s got a teenage daughter. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. They’re both very determined, headstrong people. Jessie, the daughter, wants to know about her birth father, and Kara, my character, really doesn’t want her to know. And so one of the themes in this I love is that we live in this age of you can find out anything. If you want to do a deep dive on ancestry.com like my husband did and still updates me constantly… And it feels like almost not real to me, but if it’s important to him, it’s important to me. [Laughs]

So you want to know, but then it’s like, do you really want to know? That’s the conundrum. I think about that with some things you can find out about, [like] medical information. Is it helpful to know? Do you not want to know? It’s a lot of information and I feel like Kara gets that because she’s been around the sun a few more times than her daughter and her daughter just wants to know everything.

Shane Mahood/FOX

How does Kara and Jessie’s relationship change as a result of Jessie going on this search?

It’s hard. I say this because I have two teenagers. And it was hard for me to see my parents as people. You think that they were born age 35 or 40. So I think that was probably kind of mind-blowing for this teenager. And not to speak for Bebe’s character, but I think also we live in this land of constant information and everything is curated now. So whatever you think family life is for other people — their house is perfect, it all looks perfect — you don’t know on the other side of that door could just be a ton … I could be a hoarder. You don’t know. But we always assume it’s better than whatever we’re doing. That’s just kind of who we are as people. So I think a lot of it is you have to let go of that.

Then there’s the forgiveness that we owe families, the people that we love in our family, because we all screw up. Listen, my kids are aware that Mommy makes plenty of mistakes. My daughter is going to college next year, and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s part of your job, to make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing.”

In this, Jessie learns about some decisions her mother made before she was a mom. That’s a lot for her to get her head around, and I think it’s isn’t always what we think it is. People aren’t always who we think they are and what they look like to us. That’s always fascinating to me as an actor and just a person to get to get into that.

What can you say about those decisions and where Kara’s head was when she made them?

I’m lucky enough that I actually get to say this. Kara’s like, “that was the best decision I could make at the time. That was where I was at the time,” or that opportunity or why she decided to do what she did. I really don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a beautiful scene at the end [and] you don’t always have that, your character doesn’t always get that moment, but there’s a great moment for my character at the end, and I was incredibly proud of her.

What can you preview about Jessie’s search and how Kara handles it? Does she handle it the best she could?

It’s not like Jessie’s nosy. She wants to know about herself. A teenager wants answers about who she is and where she comes from. So it’s not crazy. And I’m sure Kara was the same way when she was her age. That’s the funny thing: There’s such a similarity and they don’t see it at all. But there is, and I love that. I feel like that through line is in there. I feel like Jessie’s just pushing, and that’s how Kara is, too. And Kara’s pushing back. Also I think she recognizes that in her daughter and wants to — I don’t want to say foster it, but wants to help her in this journey. And so it’s tricky for her to navigate that. It’s so relatable and I feel like every character in this episode, everybody knows someone like them, if it’s not you.

Do you think Kara regrets anything that she’s done up until the point that Jessie starts her search and its results?

I don’t know if she does. And if she does, I don’t think she would admit it, which I also love about her. [Laughs] Whereas me personally, I’m like, “oh my God, I really f’ed that up.” I think that attitude has served her. But yeah, I don’t know if she would admit it in any way, but I honestly don’t believe that she does. I think she’s like, “it got me where I am.”

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And that goes back to how complicated this is. But every single case this season is.

Every single episode — to the point that I still think about some of those other episodes. Like Malcolm-Jamal Warner, I still think about that. Oh my gosh, the episode with the surrogate, I could understand both sides of that coin. I love this show, that it gets you thinking, it gets you talking. And it’s also just really fun to watch. There are moments where I’m like, “Oh my God, is he? He did!” I mean, the first episode with [Michael] Chiklis, holy s**t! That was so beautifully intense.

What should viewers keep in mind about Kara while watching this episode?

We’re all doing the best that we can.

And she is.

Yeah. I was just doing press with a British actor [for Saint X] and so I keep saying mad respect. I have mad respect for her. [Laughs]

What are you hoping viewers take away from the episode?

I think go easy on the people that you love. They make the best choices that they can. I say this in a lot of things we’re dealing with in the world right now: Let’s blame each other a little bit less.

Accused, Tuesdays, 8/7c, Fox