By Kenn Gold & Shaun Daily

 The hit CBS drama The Unit is currently in its fourth season, and recently resolved one of the show’s major plot points when the affair between Tiffy and Tom was discovered by Tiffy’s husband Mac.  The series chronicles both the exploits of the members of the elite military force, based on real life Delta Force, and antics and activities of the women in their lives.  Tiffy and Mac Gerhardt (played by Abby Brammell and Max Martini) have had a torturous romance on the series, punctuated by bouts of domestic violence and affairs by both.  When Mac discovered a compromising picture of Tiffy with his commanding officer, Tom Ryan (played by Robert Patrick) all hell broke loose, though the writers figured out a way for all characters to survive the fallout.  The show continues to have a strong and loyal viewership, even after moving to Sundays, and currently brings in over 10 million viewers per episode.

Abby recently stopped by TV Talk to discuss the recent story arc, and her role as the bad girl Tiffy, on The Unit.

The last 3 weeks, you and Max had some incredible scenes.  Were those emotionally taxing to film?

Yeah, it was pretty exhausting, but luckily we have such a great kind of banter and chemistry built up from the last four years, it was kind of easy as well.  And there’s a lot of trust Max Martini and myself.  It was like, “Wow, we finally get to act!”  It was some really heavy stuff.

So is it good to kind of finally have the secret out? This has been under the surface through all four seasons and now to have it all come to a head?

Absolutely, I was wondering how they were going to play it out and who was going to survive, how they were going to survive, and hoping that I would survive the truth.  And I did, and I thought they handled it really well in terms of the writing.  It was great, and a release.  But now, it’s kind of like what’s next for Tiffy.  She’s not the one having the affair, so who is she?

Can you tell us anything about the rest of the season, in general terms, without going into spoilers?

I wish I could.  I don’t know, it seems like they kind of have Tiffy falling back more into a support role, and Kim kind of takes on a more dominant role in terms of the women.  But I would like to see Mac and Tiffy do some couples therapy.

If any two characters on TV need it, I think those two probably do. 

Yeah, that’s good.  And we could make a drama out of it, I’m sure we could find something.

Who’d play the shrink if they did that?

I know, we need to find someone really good.  I don’t know.

Are you surprised that the show is really standing up and draining viewers away from these other shows after its move to Sunday nights?

Yeah, I am surprised.  I didn’t realize until September when people started talking about what we were up against.  It’s just been a really nice surprise.  It’s really exciting. 

This season it seems like we’re seeing ads all the time for The Unit, so that’s got to be nice.  I don’t know if you’ve seen them. 

That’s great.  I don’t really watch TV unless I’m sitting down to watch The Unit or CNN.  So it’s good to hear that they are finally advertising it.  We felt like we were the only show that never got advertisements out, so that’s great. 

Does the dynamic change when you have a full season?  I know first season the show came out mid-season, and then last year it was shortened by the strike, so this is only your second full season.

Yeah, absolutely.  There is a real sense of relaxation.  The strike really put some fear into all of us.  And now that we’re back on, we’re all so grateful to have a full season.  There’s time for stories to develop and things like that.  They don’t feel pressured to have every character in every episode and load up the show too heavy.  Now they know they’ve got a good 22 so they can relax and really give the story lines more time and space to develop instead of cramming it all in to 13.  It’s really nice. 

How real do you think the portrayal is for the wives?  The husbands are all out doing their thing, and sometimes I have to think of Lucille Ball, with the trouble the wives are getting into back home. 

Yeah, I think the portrayal is so real.  Eric Haney, one of the guys who helped create the show and who was a founding member of Delta Force would tell us stories about these affairs that these women would have with these officers, and sometimes no one survived.  That’s why I was scared about how they were going to get this storyline out.  Sometimes the soldier would kill the officer, the wife, and then kill themselves.  It’s terrible, but it happens.  Human beings are very passionate and confused creatures.

 How does it feel being up against The Army Wives on Sundays?  Everyone I’ve talked to likes that show but says that The Unit is a more realistic portrayal of what it’s like to be an Army wife.  People actually recognize The Unit as the better of the two military wife shows.

Oh, that’s wonderful.  I had no idea.  When they first came out, it was like, “Imitation is the best form of flattery.”  It was kind of nice and cute, but then I got a little bit nervous when people were talking about how much they liked Army Wives.  It’s nice to know that we’re holding on to our status.

The Unit seems to have a pretty good balance between the male and females sides, where on Army Wives it’s all about the women and the men are kind of secondary. 

I think that’s one of the reasons that The Unit is so well received is the balance of the masculine and the feminine.  People love that and we all look for that in our lives and in nature.  It’s really nice to see it showing up on TV, because usually it’s either too heavy action or to heavy romance kind of things, but this has a really nice blend working for it, and I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful.  I think you’ve nailed it. 

A lot of people are asking, “Where are the Emmys for this show?”

Yeah, where are the Emmys for this show?  That’s what we’re all saying too.  Maybe we should all get together and have a pity party.

You’d think it would get recognized after being on for years. 

I wish, I’m all for an Emmy.  I don’t know where they are, maybe they’re coming.  Maybe our time is coming. 

I’ve got a question that’s kind of off topic, so you have to forgive me in advance.  We have a lot of fans of the Terminator franchise that are listeners here.  I’m not sure if you and Max have talked about this, but your characters both had affairs with actors who are Terminators in other realities, or other shows. 

Nice insight.  You know what, that has not come up in our discussions, but now I think it is going to.  It must in fact be discussed! (laughs)  That’s brilliant and I can’t believe we didn’t realize that.

What’s the most fun episode or thing that Tiffy has done, among the many crazy things?

I know, she’s one of the wilder of the bunch.  My favorite one was in the season 2 finale when she cuts her face.  That was unbelievable.  We got in that huge fight, Max and I, and it ends with her slicing her face open.  It was such a great, dramatic, deperarate choice and I loved breathing life into that. 

Tonight is also the end of The Shield, and I know you were on that show.  Do you have any thoughts about it coming to an end?

I didn’t realize that was tonight.  It’s such a good show and it broke through so many boundaries and pre-conceived notions about where television could go and where story telling could go.  It was so raw and so fun to be a part of.  I love Shawn Ryan and all those guys at The Shield.  They’ve had one hell of a run and it’s sad to see it go.

You’ve done a lot of really interesting roles.  Are there any characters that you’ve played that you’d like to revisit?

I loved Push Nevada.  It was so strange, kind of going in a Twin Peaks direction.  I wish that would’ve taken more of a hold.  We only got out six episodes of that before they canceled us, but it was really fun. 

They bring you these really crazy things that Tiffy is going to do, how do you make it believable?  You have to make it real, how do you do that?

First of all, you don’t ever judge your characters. You love them no matter what decisions they make, and no matter what the writers give you to do.  You have to find a way as an actor, to love your character unconditionally and all of the crazy things that you are being asked to portray.  If your heart is open enough and your mind is open enough, it’s a piece of cake.  You can go anywhere, because human beings are capable of anything.  That’s actually one of the things that I love about acting is that there are so many options in life, there are so many avenues that people can take, there are so many word choices that people can pick and choose and put out there.  If something comes across my path in a script, it’s just learning how to say yes, even if an initial no arises.  It’s just examining that no energy and seeing if I can’t figure out a way to justify what’s being asked of me as an actor.  If I can’t, maybe I’ll talk to the writer for a minute and see if we can’t come up with something, but it’s really about loving your character and not judging them for their choices.

So the character to you has a consciousness?  If you see something she wouldn’t do, you’ll tell them?

I don’t ever say my character won’t do this.  I love seeing what the writers do, because that is their job to tell a story, and the actor’s job is to justify the story and the choices the writers have made.  I went to theatre school and we worked with upcoming writers and playwrights, and our job was really to just act the thing and leave the writing to the writers.  I don’t get too involved in whether my character would do that or not.

 Wouldn’t you say that Tiffy is maybe the most morally ambivalent character on the show?  Not only is there the affair, but you had the episode this year where she planted the gun on the boy who was harassing her at school.

I think Tiffy is the most bad ass character on The Unit.  I think she is the most raw and there is something very human about Tiffy and her flaws and recklessness.  I really enjoy that, and as you can see from my career, I really enjoy playing these “bad girls”.  There’s this really dark feminine energy that exists out in the world and must be represented.  I’ve never really been drawn to the girl next door type.  Yeah, she has some issues, but who doesn’t. 

One thing that bothered me at first was how the affair came out.  Tiffy is probably too smart to keep a picture like that around for Mac to find.

Yeah, you’d think.  But you never know what people are capable of.  You never know why people keep that picture.  Even after her daughter found it; what in the hell is she thinking?  Everybody wants to know that.  But people do this kind of stuff all the time.  One of my friends said people in affairs want to get caught.  And I just thought that was brilliant.  We all want to heal, and we want our secrets out on some level.  There’s a piece of that and there’s a lot there to explore, and I think it’s really interesting that she kept that picture actually, as stupid as it was.

They did resolve it in a very cool way.  I didn’t see how they could do it without killing at least one of the characters though.  The consequences of the affair getting out there were just so big.

Yeah, they were huge.  I love how they parallel the whole thing with the rescue of Betsy, Jonas’ daughter.  Mac was forced to see what was really important here, what the stakes were that they were playing with.  They just handled it really, really well.  I didn’t think it was going to be handled with such sophistication.  I was really happy about it and I think we all were.

A listener in the chat room is asking, what is your favorite character you’ve played so far in your career?

I really enjoyed Kirsten on Six Feet Under.  I also love Tiffy.  She’s the one I’ve been with the longest, and she has given me a lot of opportunity to explore humanity’s darker side. 

When you look for other gigs on hiatus or whatever, do you look for a specific genre, or is it the character?

Yeah, it’s the character and the people involved, and the overall story.  I’m open to all kinds of genres and all kinds of stories.  As long as the story and the people involved are good, and usually the two come hand in hand.  I’m of those, who likes to do good work.

We have a call from Kismet from the chat room for you.  Go ahead Kismet.

I have to tell you I’m a real big fan, and I was just so happy the show was renewed after the 1^st season.  Your acting skills really impress me, and from one week to the next I’m never sure if I should be rooting for her or what.  I love that multi layered portrayel that you do.  I’m wondering, of all the things your character has gone through, have you gotten mail from other women who had gone through those things?

No.  You know, that’s a really interesting question.  I have not gotten a lot of mail from women, but I do run into them.  I run into them in the grocery store.  They all seem to say similar things to you.  They never know, from week to week, whether to say, “You go girl!.”  Or, “Oh my God, look at that!.”  It’s really interesting though.  I had one woman who was British, and she said, “Oh, you’re so naughty!”  It’s the kind of thing where women identify and kind of love to hate Tiffy.  It’s really great, and she’s had quite an effect one way or the other on women.  But no, I haven’t gotten a lot of mail. 

What is it like working with all those really hot guys?

You’d have to ask Tiffy.  You have to separate your daily life from your character, and it’s something that is really hard to explain to people that don’t have to go through it.  But Abby kind of stays away and the character just takes over.  It’s like choreographing a fight scene on stage or theatre.  You’re just concerned about hitting your main points and being safe and trusting your partner, then cut, over, done.  And you just walk away like nothing ever happened.  Some people don’t understand.  They are great guys and everything, but I don’t think of them like that. 

Someone on the Twitter board is asking if you’ve ever done Broadway?  She says you would be great on Broadway. 

Thank you.  I long to d Broadway with all my heart and soul.  I was trained at Carnegie Mellon in the drama department, and theatre is my first love.  I never said when I was kid that I wanted to grow up and be a TV star.  I wanted to pursue stage first and foremost, and it just turned out that I started booking all this film stuff and TV stuff.  But yes, I would love to Broadway, and I feel it calling to me constantly.

Do you feel that your stage training makes you a better actress for TV?

Yeah, definitely, I think so.  And I think it makes you better prepared for life too.  It’s a very interesting art form to study the human being, and the actions and motivation and the ups and downs and wildness of the human condition.  It’s been helpful in every aspect of my life actually.

Would you ever play a good girl again, after Tiffy?

Oh, I’d love to play a good girl.  It just doesn’t seem to happen that way.  I’d love to play a good girl, but I have this edge that really has to come out.  But I’m open to it.  It’s really how some women really gravitate toward the darker roles, and some gravitate to the lighter ones. 

At the end of the series, how would you like Tiffy to end up?

I’d like her to end up in some kind of couples thereapy, healing her wounds, and she’s already back in the classroom.  But I’d like to see her at peace, in her relationship and within herself.  It would be nice to see her not so tortured.

I know we can’t pump you for spoilers, but I’ll try anyway.  Are things really over between Mac and Tom?  Is that going to play out further, or can you even say?

I think it’s always going to be there a little bit.  But for the most part it’s played itself out, but you never know.  They don’t really tell us anything.

Is there any part of your personality that goes into the character?  Are you like her at all, or is it just totally night and day?

No, I think there’s a lot of Abby that goes into every character I play.  That’s the beautiful thing about actors, that they bring their whole heart and soul and all of their experience to the characters.  I’m definitely more joyful and relaxed, but I’ve got a lot of passion and heart, just like Tiffy does, and I’m a little bit reckless and wild.  It’s back and forth I’m kind of like her and not like her.

Since this is such a high profile show now, do you get recognized everywhere you go?  No, not at all.  In airports strangely enough, and I’m not sure what that’s about.  But I’ve been recognized the most in airports.  One time I got recognized in a truck stop bathroom, driving from California to Texas and that was hilarious.  I was in the stall, and they were like, “I know you, I know you!  You’re that girl from The Unit.  I know you!”  And I said, “Yeah, you’re right,” and got out and gave them hug.  She went and got her camera and we took a picture by the towel dispenser.