Born in Israel but moving to the United States to chase her career dreams, Alona Tal is a woman whose television credits mean you've probably seen her at some time or another on the small screen.
Alona Tal / Credit: Amazon
Playing Jo Harvelle in Supernatural, Kelly Collins in Cult and Sonya in Burn Notice, it's the role of Jocelyn Harris that really shows Alona for the star that she is, in Amazon Prime's new original series Hand Of God.
We got the opportunity to chat to Alona all about her role in the show, what fans can expect from the first season and much more - read on to find out what she had to say.
What was it about Hand Of God that initially drew you to the series?
I read a lot of scripts, being an auditioning working actor, which is different to an actor that just gets offered - we have to really choose the things we wanna fight for. I read the scripts among a lot of other scripts during pilot season and it was, by far, the best script I've read in the past few years prior to that, that was the first thing.
Then I found out who was involved and I found out where it was headed, and those three elements... I thought 'they would never go for me, this would never work, but I'm gonna give it my all', and that was really what it was.
What was the experience like working with Amazon?
We kind of got the experience once removed a little bit, because we didn't have direct interaction with them as far as creatively speaking, but I can tell you what I've heard and I can tell you the end results of what I believe was the direct interaction with them, which was, it felt collaborative, it felt free and with a lot of support. You can sense when the people who are creatively in charge are comfortable, are confident and are taking the chances that you were hoping they would take when you read the script initially, and that's really what ended up happening and then some.
We've seen now how successful shows on Amazon can be such as Transparent, so was that exciting for you?
Oh tremendously, I like being in good company, I think everybody wants to be in good company, especially professionally, and when we were shooting Transparent had just come out - when we were shooting the rest of the show, not the pilot - and I was so surprised and blown away when I saw it. I'd seena few of the other shows, and they were all very, very good and I have friends who were in Bosch and I knew people who were on Mozart In The Jungle, they were all wonderful and very, very different shows, but Transparent really was groundbreaking because of the relevance that it had, and I think that that subject matter is very relevant, and our subject matter has been and will always be relevant.
How best would you describe the pilot episode for those who haven't yet seen it?
It's very action-packed, there's a lot going on. I would ask people not to get intimidated, and I would ask people to know that we are giving them a lot of credit to being smart, intelligent, sensitive viewers, and it's not what they think it will be.
You play Jocelyn in the show, can you tell us a little bit about her?
The show centres around Ron Perlman's character Judge Harris, whose son attempted suicide prior to the beginning of the first episode, and I play the daughter in law, the son's wife who's left with this quite tumultuous existence, having been raped seven months prior, we don't know who, we don't know why, and we're not quite sure why or what happened to her husband, we know he killed himself.
She's carrying a lot of secrets, she's carrying a lot of guilt and raw emotion and she's being forced to deal with the judge's mental state and it does have direct effect on her, and we watch her make the choice to get the pieces of her life back together and fight for everything she's got.
As you mentioned we do find out in episode one that Jocelyn was raped, how does that element of her story play into the rest of the series?
You know, we don't really focus on the rape. The rape... we just wan't justice because that was the thing that sparked it all, or so we think, there's a lot more going on behind it. We don't know why and that's some of the mystery. She's just what you would expect of somebody who was attacked. She's very sensitive, she's weary of people, but much like strong women she's very, very focused on pulling herself back together and making the choice, and we actually watch her make the choice to gather the pieces of her life back together.
Jocelyn has an incredibly powerful scene in the police station when trying to identify a suspect for the rape, and another where she's preparing to turn off her husband's life support machine - were moments like this tough to film?
Extremely, extremely. And not for the reasons that people may think. The subject matter's difficult but when you have a group of people who know what they're doing and are creatively trustworthy you really are just flying as an artist, you wanna just go in and do it.
But because they were draining more than anything. We shot it for a while. Marc Forster is a director that really enjoys giving the actor, when I say freedom it doesn't even really explain it fully, whatever it is you wanna do, he knows and once he's cast you and you've rehearsed and talks he just lets you go for it, whatever it is you wanna go for, so we do a lot of takes, as many as you want really, and so that was just a lot to go through.
Physically I was just tired at the end of the day but I think it was the most gratifying, most satisfactory days at work I've ever had.
Whether or not Pernell is really hearing the voice of God is questioned throughout the rest of the first episode and the series, but what did you personally think at the end of episode one?
I think I had the same reaction that everybody else did, which was, 'Ohhhh, s**t!', because you're so certain of one thing for the duration of the pilot and then it takes a complete turn at the end. Being a person who wants to believe that there's more to just facts and what you see in front of you, I kind of wanted to believe that maybe he's truthful, maybe there's something to it, but that's why it's so beautiful, that Ben - and he does this throughout the entire series - he leaves it up to the viewer to make the decision. Not just that particular aspect of the show, mostly everything, how you feel about everything.
Fans reacted really well to the pilot episode and so the series got the greenlight for a full first season, how did that feel?
Like it would you know? Like you would expect, it felt great. You're doing something and you're really passionate about it, you really just hope everybody responds and likes it. Any artist will tell you it's nervewracking to make something and love it and nurture it and then show it to the world and be like, 'Do you like it?' (laughs) You feel so vulnerable, so when people go, 'Yeah I like it!', you're elated.
What was the chemistry like on the set from the get-go?
I have to be honest with you, it was very, very close. I didn't have a lot of scenes with the rest of the castmembers but that doesn't mean that we're not actually very good friends. Me and Elizabeth McLaughlin, she's become a very good friend of mine, so has Julian [Morris], one of my favourite people is Garret [Dillahunt], Andre [Royo], I mean I can't even discriminate because - Emayatzy [Corinealdi] who plays Tessie, she lives very close to my house. I can actually see her house from my house! So it's surprising, it doesn't happen very often where you actually like the rest of your castmembers to this degree, it's almost like we're waiting for the other shoe to drop, 'When am I gonna not like you?!'
Can you tell us a little bit about a typical day filming the show? If there ever is a typical day!
I gotta be honest with you, there isn't! (laughs) I can tell you this. I can tell you that there's a sensation of a family. Ben before we started working did this thing - mixers - for the weeks leading up to shooting the pilot and also the weeks leading up to the show, where he wanted everybody to get to know each other no matter what department they're from, no matter where they're from, because it's a collaborative effort, everybody has something to do with the creation of the show. It's not that anybody's better than another, it's not that anybody's more important than another, everybody's important, everybody needs to know who the rest of the people are because we're a team, and that's the sensation you got when you went to work.
The medic on the show is one of my favourite people for example, whereas on other shows you'd barely know that they're around. He was probably one of the more interesting people I've ever met, just for example!
And we would all hang out in our prop department, and we had private jets - it's a dynamic that is very hard to explain, but believe me when I tell you it's not normal.
Well finally, what's next for you?
Hopefully season two right now! But I've had the privilege of being a part of a few movies that I hope will see the light of day. I've just seen one of them, it's actually a musical comedy with Topher Grace, Taye Diggs and Anne Heche, and Lesli Margherita who's a big broadway star, and it's a very different tone to Hand Of God.
I also shot a movie recently about same-sex marriage and we actually shot the same-sex marriage wedding the day it passed in Congress in the US, so it was very exciting and I'm very proud of it, because it couldn't be more relevant and it couldn't be more important.
And some shows in Israel, I also managed to squeeze that inbetween which was fun. You have to go home and touch base with your core for a minute, so I went back home and did a very good show in Israel.
What's immediately next for me is Africa, I'm going to Africa!
You can catch Alona Tal as Jocelyn Harris now, as Season one of Amazon original series Hand of God is available on Prime Video.