Chicago Fire alum Monica Raymund, 33, does a 180—from heroic firefighter Gabriela Dawson to hard-partying Jackie Quinones, a National

Marine Fisheries Service agent, in the new crime drama Hightown (May 17 on Starz). The series takes place in Cape Cod against the

backdrop of the opioid epidemic, and when Jackie discovers a body on the beach, she decides it’s up to her to solve the murder.

 

 

It was a personal thing. I was like, “Let’s give these characters the respect that they deserve. Let’s figure out where they are now.” Also, I wanted a chance, selfishly, to see my friends again, and to make the audience happy.

Yeah, I do as an actor because you get to push yourself, challenge yourself, and it’s helpful for us as actors to allow these kinds of circumstances to be so present. It gives us something to work with. So I love it, and also it’s a topic that so many people in this world deal with, and unfortunately that’s the sad reality, but it is the reality. So it is wonderful to play a character who struggles with the same thing that the viewers may be struggling with.

 

 

Well, redemption’s the perfect word to say. When she finds the body of this girl who got murdered, she becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what happened. I think that is her way to redemption. It gives her something to look for. She’s messed up her whole life. She may still make bad decisions, but here is an opportunity to do something good, to figure out who did this, so that she can be a part of something happy and positive and try to bring positivity back to Cape Cod.

Totally. I think she uses the drugs to, of course, keep catching girls and bringing them to a flytrap. It makes her feel like she’s not doing something wrong, because she wakes up the next morning, and she’s like, “Oh, s—, what did I do? Oh no, what did I just do? I messed things up.” We’ll ruminate around in the series that the love of Jackie’s life may come back into her life, and we see the mess that she’s created because of that and how the drugs basically help her make these bad decisions, so she doesn’t have to think about it in the moment. It’s only the morning after that it really hurts, right?

That’s a really personal question, and it’s very different for each actor. Some people feel like it doesn’t matter, we are past it; but there are others who would disagree, but who knows what their history is? Everybody’s relationship to coming out and how that affects their work is absolutely an intimate relationship.

You spent several years in Chicago on Chicago Fire, and you filmed at least one week in Provincetown for the carnival scenes for Hightown. How much does being on location inform how you play a character?

The more that you can be in a real environment, the better it is. Cape Cod itself is kind of a character, and so once you’re outside on the beach seeing the water, being in P-Town, seeing the people, it’s hard not to feel like you’re really in the world.

Do you feel like we’re starting to see more lead roles for women in TV?

I feel like we’re finally beginning to see the door open on that, yeah. It’s an interesting time for women in entertainment, isn’t it? We’re beginning to have the conversation of what inclusivity looks like. We have a far way to go in terms of parity, but I think that we’re now seeing the stories that can unfold by including all bodies no matter what your body, right? So, if anything, now our creative juices get to flow in ways that they haven’t really been accessed before. It’s fun to give these other points of view as women.