Tonight, CBS will air the all virtual episode of All Rise, which was the first series to commit to an episode like it during the pandemic.
Simone Missick, who stars as Judge Lola Carmichael in the series, opened up about the process of filming from her home and what fans of the show can expect to see.
“I’m glad that we’re telling this story. I’m glad that it’s present. I’m glad that we’re getting to see these characters go through what millions of Americans and people all over the world are dealing with,” she shared with ET of the episode.
Simone adds that “it feels wonderful to be able to tell such a present and important story and it’s almost like our love letter to the essential workers in L.A. — the men and women who are delivering groceries, and working as nurses and doctors and working in our court system. You can’t take a day off, so it seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t until we were all doing 12 different department jobs we said, ‘Oh no, this is way harder than we thought it was going to be.’”
Simone and her co-stars, including Lindsay Mendez, Marg Helgenberger, Jessica Camacho, Wilson Bethel, J. Alex Brinson and Ruthie Ann Miles, were sent costumes, props, lights and other equipment, all of which had to be sanitized, to their homes for the special episode.
While filming the episode, there were times that she was not in the same Zoom call or video chat with the person she was supposed to be interacting with.
To compensate, Simone explained that she taped pictures of each of her cast members on her screen.
“In rehearsal, I would look at everyone on the screen to get a sense of what their performance was going to be, and then I would start taping people’s faces up,” she told Variety. “As actors, it made us all depend on one another when it came to really connecting with the relationships these characters have and being able to ignore the technology and the connectivity issues.”
She also told both sites that while she can see virtual episodes for All Rise and shows alike happening for a few more, it shouldn’t become commonplace.
“No one involved wants to envision that this is the thing that keeps happening,” Simone told ET. “I got a chance to watch the episode. I’m so proud of what we did. It’s so real. This is, ‘I’m trying to do my job with [technology] in place.’ Would I love to see a multi-character legal drama set in peoples homes? No.”
She adds, “I want for actors and writers and creatives to get back to work safely and until the science is able to catch up, I feel like we’re going to see a bunch of people come up with different content that could live on a Netflix or a Hulu or a CBS and work because it’s telling a story.”
All Rise airs tonight, Monday, May 4 at 9/8c on CBS.
