Alison Sudol, 30, who has recorded three albums as A Fine Frenzy and has a new music project due this year, makes her highest-profile appearance as an actor in USA network’s 10-episode series Dig.
Sudol, whose pink-dyed hair and tattooed neck has been used to promote the series, plays Emma Wilson, an American archeologist working on a dig site under Jerusalem that leads to the uncovering of an ancient international conspiracy.
“She’s so brave and free-spirited and unapologetic,” says Sudol, in Los Angeles during a break between shoots in Jerusalem and New Mexico. “Being Emma in the show, especially in Israel, has taught me a lot abut myself. When you’re acting, you need to play things that aren’t necessarily comfortable to you — something as silly as yelling. I don’t like to yell. I pushed past it and yelled and it was liberating. It’s something I don’t let myself do.”
The series, starring Jason Isaacs and Anne Heche, premieres March 5. Sudol, whose dyed hair had faded into a sultry mix of pink and blonde at the time, discussed balancing her two careers.
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Up to now, your acting has been limited to Transparent, some guest spots or short films. How do you manage doing a series with being a musician?
Whatever you’re doing, you have to do it 100 percent; you have to be totally present. The balance comes down to time management. It’s a mind shift, which I think is the hardest thing to learn — shifting the headspace.
Can you compare staying in character as A Fine Frenzy with the character of Emma?
With music, every decision you make is a reflection on who you are — I’ll obsess over the color palette for a record and the promo materials. With acting, it’s not just your ideas. You’re one part of a working machine. It’s kind of a relief that I can trust other people [on the series] so I can just play my role.
It’s been more than two years since your last album Pines. Does the acting gig have any affect on you as a musician?
It’s affecting it on a really basic level, on a courage level. I feel much more brave than I ever have, and Dig is a huge part of that. Going to somewhere that I had never been, not knowing anybody and being in a hotel room for five weeks, it was a huge growing experience. To me, the making of art and experiences around that are the biggest part to me. Life experiences and the little things I saw and experienced go into the pot of inspiration.
To date you have not portrayed a musician in film or TV. Is that intentional?
I make music and I’m musician but its not interesting to play that. Playing an archaeologist, I learn so many other things by reading books, talking to people who knew anything about the subject. You get to live a life you otherwise wouldn’t.