Montego Glover Talks The Following, White Collar, Broadway & More

You’ve seen her on Broadway in Memphis and The Color Purple as well as on the small screen, most recently in one of my favorites, Hostages as well as Smash to name a few. Now, Montego Glover recurs on the hit Fox show, The Following as FBI Agent Lawrence and she took some time out today to talk to Hollywood the Write Way about her latest role, Broadway, and more. Please note that spoilers for The Following are below. Check it out:

I love The Following! It’s such a dark and disturbing show. Since being on the show, is there anything you’ve learned about serial killers or cults that you didn’t know before?
Thank you. I think it’s safe to say that I’ve learned everything about serial killers or cults that I didn’t know before (laughs). I agree, the show is so dark and twisty and exciting and interesting to watch. I have to say, I find it really compelling.

Season two of The Following is just as strong as season one. But which episode would you say has been your favorite to shoot so far?
Keeping in mind that in the world of The Following, everything is a little dark and upsetting…I’d say that my favorite scene to shoot so far was (in Episode 2.07 “Sacrifice”) when Lily Gray had Mike’s father. She sends Mike a video and we all watch her be truly awful as she kills Mike’s father in front of him but you know, probably hours ago because by the time Mike gets the video, it’s too late. That was a really tough day and I mean tough in a good way.

If there’s one episode you’d love to be a fly on the wall in the writer’s room to see how it came together, which episode would it be?
Oh wow. I think it’d probably be the season two premiere, “Resurrection.” You have to decide as a writing team where to pick up and how much information to give us at first. For example, we’ve recently discovered that Claire in fact isn’t dead but in witness protection. That could have easily been revealed in the season two premiere but I think it’s a very smart choice on the part of our writers to withhold that information until much later in the season. It’s just as shocking to us as we know it will be to Ryan.

Moving onto White Collar, as it was recently announced that this show will be coming to an end…what was your experience like working on this show?
I love shows that shoot in New York City particularly because I’m a New Yorker and I always appreciated how much of the landscape of New York City White Collar consistently used. This is a great, great, great company of people, a great crew…I really enjoyed being able to embrace them, embrace the story, and embrace the city in a different way. It’s one thing to live here, it’s another thing to tell stories using the landscape here.

So is there any location in particular that has helped you see the city in a different way?
Oh, totally. Specifically in my episode of White Collar (“Judgment Day”), we were using the financial district as our location. How many times on film have you seen the Wall Street Bull but not really taking it in? I realized we were literally 25 steps away from the bull for the whole day, I just thought, “Wow.” It’s a huge bronze bull. It’s there, it’s always there, it’s visited frequently by tourists and so on and so forth. It was an awesome and crazy day. People were taking pictures of the bull and then realizing that they were on a TV set as well. It was a total tourist two for one.

Having appeared on White Collar, The Good Wife, and The Following to name a few, what draws you towards dramas?
I think that there is an energy about me that is comfortable in that space although I love comedies. I love working on comedies and in my heart, I think I’m very funny but to plug in as well to the intensity and the drama between people and inside situations, there’s so much being well written in drama these days. You can swing a stick at five excellent dramas within two blocks of each other just in New York City. It’s marvelous.

Now, The Good Wife is known for being very welcoming to theatre actors. SO if you could return to the show and act alongside any Broadway actor on this TV set, who would it be?
Wow. I think I would return to The Good Wife and I’d want to act alongside Alan Cumming. Alan has such incredible chops. He has an amazing amount of skill. I know that he knows both spaces. I’ve been an admirer of his for a very long time so I would really love that.

What has been the greatest advice you’ve been given in the Broadway world as far as acting is concerned?
The best advice I’ve been given is to remember that there is no one like you. There is no one exactly like you. This is sometimes easy to forget when you live in a place like New York City and so many actors live here and we’re all attempting to do the same thing. It’s easy to forget that you are not one of twenty five women who all fall in the same casting range. That is true but the greater truth is there is no one like you.

They all haven’t performed in front of President Obama and First Lady, Michelle Obama like you have. What was that experience like?
Wow, that was surreal. Unbelievable. A huge privilege. A great honor. Nerve wrecking. Exhilarating. Amazing. As I was singing, I thought, “You cannot look at them while you sing because if you do, you may not be able to hang on.” I sang a song from my Tony Award winning musical, Memphis. I had sung that song more times than I could count, I could sing it in my sleep. But I thought, “I just might fall out if I look at them while I sing.” So I the second I was done, I looked down at the President and First Lady and they were beaming back at me. Beaming. They could have been my parents sitting there, as proud and as happy as they looked so it was lovely.

That makes me so happy to hear.
It does! It makes me so happy to be able to say that. Top to bottom, left to right, that is the exact mental snapshot I’ll have forever and ever.

So will we see you on the Broadway stage soon or are you focusing on television?
I am over the moon and delighted to be able to work on the Broadway stage. At present, I am reading a lot of scripts and looking for the project that feels great to me and also fits. Because I’ve been so busy working in film and television, my schedule doesn’t always allow for a schedule that’s as relentless as a Broadway schedule. Eight performances a week for as many as fifty-two weeks or as few as thirty-five is a very heavy schedule compared to a shooting schedule week in and week out for film and TV. So it’s really as much about an artistic response to a piece and making it fit in my TV and film schedule. Because of course, being a woman of this century, I want it all. (laughs)

Speaking of wanting it all, you mentioned comedies so what comedy would you love to appear on?
I’m trying to think of comedies or what’s considered comedy that I can name because there are things that I think are funny but maybe someone else doesn’t. For example, Orange Is The New Black is brilliant!

Now, is there a Broadway show that hasn’t had a revival in a long time that you’d love to see come back and love to be in?
That’s a really good question. Hmm. There are things that I’ve always enjoyed but in terms of what I’d love to see come back and star in…wow. One of my dreams is to play Dot in Sunday in the Park With George.

Watch The Following Mondays at 9/8c on Fox.

Catch Montego in the upcoming film, Alone as well as the freshman series, Black Box premiering Thursday, April 24th at 10/9c on ABC.