Abigail Spencer’s Amber Braeburn isn’t just your run-of-the-mill bad guy. She might just be the scariest villain we’ve faced on 9-1-1. And not just because, by the end of the hour, she very literally slashes Maddie’s throat. It was a moment that left all of us screaming and one that Spencer tried to justify. “Guys, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I had to do it,” she said when we discussed it.
If we made a ranking of the scariest moments of the show, this one might just take top place. And Spencer was proud of that. “I’ve never been number one at anything. If I could be number one at this, I would pick it,” she said, proudly.
But Spencer also put a lot of work and a lot of research into Braeburn. “Tim and the team wanted me to know the actual events around the Weepy-Voiced Killer. And I had the research, but I also wanted to use the voice. So, you know, that’s my voice on the call, right? So, then it was, how are we going to do that? How is it going to play out when John appears, when Peter appears? What’s that going to be like with Amber and her backstory.”
MORE: A 9-1-1 Spinoff? In Nashville?
Everything is a choice, something Spencer wanted to make very clear. “The tone of the show is intentional. So, we get to dabble in horror and in the kind of depth of these things, and the way that Ryan [Murphy] does it is in a really fantastical, entertaining, digestible way.”
“So, I don’t have to worry about that part. You know, I just have to be of service to the art experiments in front of me, which is kind of how it felt.”
Funnily enough, Spencer was really and truly prepared to play Braeburn. Sometimes, life prepares you for the roles that will come your way. “I went on a real tear last summer on, like, full SNL sketch. There’s one about the women late at night, they’re like, getting all cozy in the bed, and they’re watching, you know, serial killer dramas. That was me last summer. So, I was like, whoa, I’m primed for this role.”
There’s luck, then there’s preparation. “And I have been doing quite a bit of research around various personality disorders. So, all of that comes into the mix, and then you just have to give yourself over to it and be in the scene with my wonderful co-partner, Jennifer Love Hewitt, who I’ve known a really long time, and she was so amazing.”
Spencer was quick to praise Jennifer Love Hewitt, who she met almost twenty years ago when she guest starred on Ghost Whisperer in 2007. “She’s an amazing actress, and she’s such a staple in our industry, and I admire her dedication to her career and her craft. So, it was, dare I say fun, even though it was very taxing and dark energy. We were laughing a lot in between the scenes. So, I think that helped.”
MORE: Eddie’s behavior in “Sob Stories” proved Buddie might just be coming
The energy, according to Spencer, was also really great. “Jennifer Lynch [the episode’s director] and Jen [Jennifer Love Hewitt] just gave me a tremendous amount of space. They really let me play. And I felt like they really trusted me to see how far I wanted to take it. I definitely was playing with different things, and they were there to ask for it. You know that feeling of ‘what am I watching’? I’m like okay, great. That’s what I want.”
Spencer didn’t just get to share scenes with Jennifer Love Hewitt, she also got to share scenes with Angela Bassett, who ironically, she’d been in a movie with before (This Means War)—one in which, she told us, she didn’t have any scenes with Angela with, and so she’d never met her before. Now, she not only got to meet Angela but joked about that previous experience.
“She’s a queen. She is a total queen in our industry, and I had so much fun with her. I love her.”
But she also really enjoyed the set in general, a set that, as someone who has been in many sets before—from Suits, to Timeless, to Rectify, Spencer believes everyone really, truly appreciates. “Everyone’s so confident,” she told us. “You know, what I’ve noticed about everyone is all, you know, from journeyman actors to real staples in the industry, everyone’s very committed.”
MORE: Is it time for Buddie canon now? We think so.
It’s about more than commitment, though. It’s about appreciation. “I think part of the reason it’s that it’s been difficult for so long, so everyone is like, really committed to the show and really knows what they have.”
And for Spencer, Amber Braeburn was her chance to try something new. “9-1-1 heard I was available and kind of said, what about Abigail for this? And I was like, oh, interesting. And, look, that was on the heels of Extended Family over at NBC. I had never done a multi-camera sitcom with a live audience before. I wanted to do that. So, I was definitely in the space where I’m like, oh, I’ve never done that. And I had never done anything like this.”
“So, I feel very thrilled when those moments come along because that’s the fun. And that’s the fun of doing it for so long. So maybe I’ve been my villain now.”
What comes after, well, what else hasn’t she tried? Or, what would she want to try again? That’s a story for another time.
What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 10 ‘Voices’? Share with us in the comments below! Check out our Tales From the 118 podcast if you want to listen to our ‘Sob Stories’ review. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Plus, if you want to leave your own rating/comment about the show, you can do so in our 9-1-1 hub!
9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
