If you loved Dawn on shows like Heroes, and the Vampire Diaries (where Olivieri played the part of a local reporter who was constantly being “compelled” by Damon Salvatore) you’ll get to see this stunning and intelligent up-and-comer again! She is now preparing for a lead role in House of Lies, a new comedy on Showtime that will co-star Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell. Not much word on the plot yet, but Dawn sat down with Celebuzz to talk about her new role:
You recently signed on for House of Lies, a new series from Showtime. How is that going so far?Oh, we haven’t even started filming, we start July 7th because we are airing this coming January.
Do you know anything about your character yet?All we know its what has been released. I’ve purposefully not been informed of the arc yet because I just got back from backpacking through India for three weeks and I didn’t want [my character] in my head while I was trying to decompress but that was just my way. Now that I’m back I’m here, I’m ready to work, I’m meeting with the writers.
We already know that [my character] Monica and Don Cheadle’s character, Marty, were married at one point but they have since split. They have a child together and Marty has custody of the boy because I have a small oxycodine addiction but I’m super high-functional and I pretty much kill it at work. I’m pretty much his competition in the consulting room. The show is pretty much a corporate Californication, that’s really the best way of describing it. It’s really very current humor, very current issues, it’s all very up-to-date and very relatable and very funny. It’s dark comedy an you’ve got some killer guest stars and I mean – it’s a funny show.
A pill-addicted career mom? That must be pretty fun to play.Oh I can’t wait. We’ve only shot the pilot so the possibilities for Monica are so exciting because she is such a ball-breaker, especially at work. There’s a line in the pilot about my character being the number one closer at the number one firm and Marty is scared of me.
You would think every woman has a maternal instinct to care for their baby but, for some reason, work is more important to her than her child so this will be a really powerful role for women to see her struggling. It’s going to be a great show.
Monica sounds a lot different from the other characters you’ve played, like Andy in The Vampire Diaries.Finally I get to play a character that’s closer to my personality. There was just a simplicity to Andy that made her a robot and I tried to find ways for her to be fun towards the end but it was such a short-livedrole so I didn’t have the chance to do anything special. The writers probably didn’t have the chance to write anything eccentric [for Andy] because they had so many characters to go through, to break down. It’s kind of like you are setting the lead up to go through his emotional arc and it’s fun but it’s not always what I love to do…but this particular character I’m going to have a blast with I know it already.
Olivieri says filming for House of Lies will begin on July 7th, and the show will première in January.