Actress Julie Ann Emery‘s career is one other stars would kill to have. To start, she has worked with some legendary people in the business such as George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Vince Gilligan, Peter Gould and John Ridley, and her parts have varied — from playing Betsy Kettleman in Better Call Saul to appearing in the first season of Fargo.
“When you play a wide range of things, it can be confusing for the business,” the actress, 47, exclusively tells GRAZIA USA. “So, in some ways, that is a harder road. But in other ways, I played the best roles in my career ever since I turned 40, and if someone had told me that in my 20s, I would not have believed them. If you’re on that kind of path as an actor, I say stick with it and ride it out. It’s possible. We are seeing such brilliant roles for women into their fifties and sixties.”
“I’ve also worked with some of the best writers and directors on television,” she adds. “I am so lucky and fortunate. You kind of pinch yourself all of the time.”
The Catch-22 alum was born on a dairy farm in a very small town in Tennessee, and the only theater for about 100 miles was in her hometown, which is how it all began, as she had a drama teacher at her high school who recruited her from the chorus. “I started participating in plays, and she utterly changed my life,” she recalls. “I went to a theater school for college and then to a conservatory. I just thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if I could piece together a living doing regional theater?’ It took me a long time for me to even imagine being on screen.”
From there, Emery landed roles in Hitch, House, Bones, Dexter, Suits, NCIS — and that’s not even the end of the list. In 2017, she joined the main cast in the role of Lara Featherstone for the second season of Preacher. “I think stay open to whatever your path is. It’s led me here, and I’m thrilled about it, but it was not something necessarily deliberate,” she shares.
These days, Emery got the opportunity of a lifetime when she was cast in the AppleTV+ limited series Five Days at Memorial, which premiered on August 12 and was created by Carlton Cuse and Academy Award winner Ridley. The Bosch star plays Diane Robichaux, an assistant administrator for LifeCare, who finds herself heavily involved in the events post-Hurricane Katrina.
“Five Days at Memorial feels like an epic disaster movie that turns into this amazing character drama,” she explains. “But it’s a dramatization of real life. It’s set at Memorial Hospital during Katrina, and my character runs a long-term care facility on the seventh floor of the hospital, but we rent that floor from a larger cooperation called tenant healthcare, which is this massive health conglomerate. That seems innocuous at first, but it becomes life and death by the end of it.”
The series, which is based on the acclaimed nonfiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Sheri Fink, focuses on the first five days in a New Orleans hospital after the hurricane came through and made landfall. When the floodwaters rose, electricity went out and temperatures climb, resulting in caregivers being forced to make some tough choices.
Though the material was challenging, Emery loved working with the cast and crew. “I would have jumped onto this without even knowing the subject matter just because of Carlton and John’s names. So, both of them being on the same project was very attractive. The hardest part was trying to bring the audience inside the situation and inside the psychological and emotional lives of the characters with us because it was heavy,” she shares.
“We all dove in head first,” she continues. “Everyone was incredibly committed to what we were doing and telling the story. It’s important for us a society to watch this, to know this story and have a conversation about it. These disasters are going to keep happening with more frequency and ferocity, so we need to be in this together.”
Emery says it was “an honor” to play Diane, who was with child at the time. “We should not negate leadership because someone is pregnant. We should call on them,” she states. “We should empower them to do and be whatever they want. What she did was amazing.”
As for what’s next, Emery is keeping an eye out for “great writing and a brilliant character,” she says. “I’m looking to work with some of our brilliant women. I really want to work with more female creators and directors.” Emery is crossing her fingers to cross paths with Patty Jenkins, who directed Monster and Wonder Woman.
“We’re seeing women really thrive — even later in age,” Emerry, who is attending the Carousel Ball for Juvenile Diabetes in October, declares. “That’s very exciting to me, and it’s such a big relief to me. We still have things to work on, but at least our representation on screen has gotten much better. It’s a thrill for me.”
