Judith Light on Roles in ’The Terror: Devil in Silver,’ ‘The Punisher’

Judith Light never selects a project at random. The actress feels passionately about tackling projects and storylines that matter, such as her role as Dorry in The Terror: Devil in Silver, the third season of the anthology series.

In the series, streaming on AMC+ and Shudder, Light plays a “lifer” at New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. The actress hopes the show sparks conversations about mental health and the way we as a society deal with those struggling.

“[I hope the show makes us] pay attention and take care, and that we find the facilities that are there for people that really nurture them and care for them in really important ways [through] compassion [and] empathy,” Light tells The Hollywood Reporter on a recent Zoom.

Light also stars in the recently released special, The Punisher: One Last Kill, which dropped on Disney+ last week. The special was co-written by the show’s star, Jon Bernthal, and director Reinaldo Marcus Green. Light has no shortage of wonderful things to say about her co-star.

“Jon Bernthal is simply extraordinary,” she says. “We were talking before about compassion and empathy, that’s Jon Bernthal.”

Below, Light speaks with THR about The Terror: Devil in Silver, how the television landscape has changed throughout her career and some recent theater pieces that have inspired her.

What drew you in with The Terror?

It was the character. It was the writing. It was [lead actor] Dan Stevens. It was [co-showrunners] Christopher Cantwell and Victor LaValle. It was [director] Karyn Kusama, [actors] Chinaza Uche, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Stephen Root, Hampton Fluker. All my buddies who I’d done theater with or who are in the theater. Everybody really had a similar language. Everybody was on the same page from the very beginning. It’s just a very powerful story. It gives us an opportunity to talk about mental health institutions and the way people who have mental challenges are treated in this country and around the world. It’s also about how homelessness ties in with all of that, and what we’re really doing as a society to have compassion and empathy and kindness for each other.

When you see a show like this and look at what happens to these people, how they are just thrown into this facility. In particular, I was really interested in the aspect of a woman who is being thrown into a place like this by her husband. After 30-some years, he never comes back to get her. What does it mean to have resilience even though you’re incredibly fragile? I had known about Victor LaValle, but I had not read the novel. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, and I thought it was a striking story. It’s a psychological thriller. It’s not just about horror. It’s funny and it’s entertaining at the same time.

The idea that someone could be in this for life is such an interesting idea. What kind of headspace do you go into portraying someone like that? I don’t think anyone is ever considering it’s happening, but it’s certainly someone’s reality.

All the time. I talk to people now, since this is in the process of coming out and they’ve been looking at some of the interviews. Somebody yesterday told me that they knew someone who had been put in a mental institution because basically the husband didn’t like the wife’s mood swings. That’s the kind of stuff that we’re talking about. Instead of getting help and getting support, you’re put into a facility like this. To answer your question about the headspace, when you have great writing like this, and you have great people doing showrunning, and a best-selling author on the set with you, and great directors, what ends up happening is you can move into that headspace very easily. I knew I had ideas about Dorry and how I wanted to portray her, because I’m always interested in what someone’s psychology is. What makes someone tick? What makes someone survive this kind of abuse? And I’m always interested in that.

You’re no stranger to the thriller genre, I think that’s fair to say. What do you find about this genre that lends itself so well to touching upon these real problems?

Because I it lives all around us, and just like you literally said, nobody pays attention to it. Society, we are indifferent in many ways, because we don’t want to see things like this. When I say that this is a psychological thriller, what the value of that, whether this monster is real or not to these people, what this enables us to do is literally what you said, to make the commentary on the subject that it’s really uncovering. We think people are odd or quirky or troublesome or a pain in the neck — what are they doing that for? So many people strive in our society, I think, to be normal. We are so much more interesting than that as human beings. We have so many different complexities and all kinds of things that don’t necessarily fit into what certain people call the norm. There is no norm. People have all different kinds of feelings and thoughts and complexities and challenges. That’s what makes us all interesting, and makes this a viable, exciting project to do. Also, to be a part of the human condition. It’s like we don’t think about people. Then somebody will have these strange thoughts about something and then they think about it and they go, “I shouldn’t be having that thought. I shouldn’t be thinking like that.” We need to be talking about that so that people feel safe and free to be their authentic selves. I think it’s really, really important.

As someone who’s been part of shows in different eras of TV. I think it’s fair to say that even 15 years ago, stories like this one weren’t being told primarily on TV. The focus was more on features. I’m so curious on what you think has changed?

It’s interesting you say that. I have seen a lot of television through the years, which I’m really grateful for. But the other day, we’re in New York now and we were driving downtown, and there was this endless line at the AMC Theater.

Really? That’s really nice.

[We were saying], “What is happening?” I wonder if things are shifting again, that people do want to go out with each other and go to the movies.

I will say, I have AMC A-List, and so do all of my friends. We do go to the movies a lot.

Right, and I think that’s happening more. These kinds of projects wouldn’t have been on television. Because we have the streamers and we can do these sorts of projects, you can be at home. It doesn’t cost you a lot for gas or parking or snacks at the theater. There is a simplicity to that and an ease in that for a lot of people, which I really understand. I really get it. I think it’s important that we have that availability to see these kinds of pieces on television, so that people really are feeling that they are getting vibrant television and awake television and entertainment. I think both are very, very important. In so many ways since COVID, I think we’ve lost our socialization. We haven’t been with each other. People are lonely. That’s why, in so many ways, Dorry tries to make this a family at New Hyde. It’s like, “Let’s be family, let’s be friends, let’s be doing things together.”

There’s a place in our world right now where we’re not doing that. I’m so glad to hear you say that you have that with your friends, and that you go out and you go to places. You go do things and you get out of the house. But people don’t have a lot of discretionary income. They just don’t. But if you’ve got a TV, you can see great shows like this one — which are entertaining and like I said, funny and psychologically interesting and a thriller — that’s all the better for all of [us]. We should be all doing everything, all the time, everything all at once.

The Punisher: One Last Kill is also on the horizon. Can you tell me about that?

It’s another very important topic, which is about transformation. It’s about revenge and transformation. Jon Bernthal is simply extraordinary.

I agree.

Like I [feel] about Dan Stevens and Chinaza Uche and Stephen Root and all these extraordinary actors that I’ve gotten to work with. He is right up there at the top. He wrote this with Reinaldo Green, who did King Richard, who is a splendid, splendid director. It was something that was put together very quickly, and we did it very quickly. Jon is so present and so real and so engaged and wants to make something that will really please the audience. I’m all about that.

I’ve had longevity because of the audiences. They have been there for me over the years, and they still are engaged over time. That really means a lot to me, and Jon feels the same way. He’s also a person who really cares about the veterans and PTSD. There’s a lot that when we can talk about it, we will talk about it, that he feels very strongly about this stuff. He’s a wonderful family man. He’s a great dad, and he’s got a great wife. And he’s on Broadway. Oh, you’re in L.A.

I’m in L.A., but I do know that he is on Broadway.

Oh, my God, he’s so good.

Really?

God, he’s so good. He’s got major stage chops. He started in theater. We were talking before about compassion and empathy, that’s Jon Bernthal.

That’s so lovely. Speaking of theater, have you seen anything lately that’s really inspired you?

John Lithgow in Giant. Oh, what a performance. Nathan Lane, Laurie Metcalf, and the rest of the cast in Death of a Salesman. Joe Mantello directed it. and it is simply … All of a sudden it became present to our world now. It’s really extraordinary. My friend, Tommy Kail, who directed Proof, that’s also a really important reinvention of something. We saw Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne in Fallen Angels last night. My friend Scott Ellis directed it. Oh, God. It’s so charming.

How so?

Talk about lifting you up and optimistic and just … It’s like a French confection. It’s English, but it’s just like this really delicious confection. Really, really, really wonderful. We’ve seen a lot of stuff.

There’s a lot out right now.

Whenever you get a chance to — we live between New York and L.A. — and whenever we get back here, we always see as much as we possibly can. [Also], Jellicle Cats. Are you coming here?

Oh, I wish I was. I want to see that.

There are things that I had seen in the past, like Liberation. It won the Pulitzer Prize and has been nominated for a bunch of Tony Awards. [It’s] a really, really important play. And by that, I don’t mean it’s not entertaining or interesting, fabulous, or funny, or any of those things. It’s really important — that’s why they gave it the Pulitzer. Bess Wohl, thank you very much. And my friend, the producer, Daryl Roth, who just knows how to pick these things that go to the heart and soul of what people need to see at the moment. It was spectacular. I bet you that it’ll go on tour. It closed on Broadway in February, I think, and you’ll be able to see it.