For actor Ana Mulvoy-Ten, The Artist checked more than a few boxes. The American Crime alum stars in The Network original series as Lilith, one of the many intriguing characters who populates this murder mystery. And playing Lilith enabled Ana to do something she’d always wanted to do!

Before the Thanksgiving Day premiere of The Artist, TVBrittanyF.com connected with Ana to learn what hooked her about the show. She also spoke about the joys of the filming experience with the likes of Danny Huston. Plus, how much research did she do about the real-life history that is seamlessly integrated into The Artist‘s fictional adventure?

Brittany Frederick: The Artist is a unique show, and it’s also different from many of the roles you’re known for. What was it about this that made you want to play Lilith?

Ana Mulvoy-Ten: It was just a lot of fun. And I’ve wanted to do a period piece forever, so the fact that it was historical fiction. I also really always wanted to learn a skill, and in this I got to do ballet and French, so I got two things that I had to work on. I love art, I love ballet, I love historical fiction—it was just all the things that I love in one project, and it was fun and so nuanced as well. It had all the elements of projects that I love.

Speaking of history, since some of the characters in The Artist are real historical figures, how much history did you already know—or did you feel like you needed to know going into filming?

I knew some, just because I love movies and I read a lot. I’ve read some Gilded Age books before. I did do research on the history of ballet and women’s lives at the time, and what it would have been like for a ballerina. I did that because I just find that fascinating, and I love doing research. But I didn’t really need to, because [The Artist creator] Aram [Rappaport] sort of built his own world anyway, so we kind of picked and chose what we wanted.

Did you have favorite aspects of Lilith or favorite scenes you were in that you want viewers to look out for?

I’m proud of all of it. It was just such a joy to do. And I feel like I put my entire life and my entire being into into this character. I have some really epic scenes with Descartes in French, which I haven’t seen, but doing them was wild. So I like a lot of the French scenes, and I like that my character is slightly feral sometimes, and will just lash out. She’s a ballerina, but sometimes she’ll hit someone or bite someone. I think that’s quite exciting. [Laughs.]

One of the greatest things about The Artist is how many wonderful actors are part of it, but obviously because of the mystery format they can’t be together all of the time. Is there any co-star that you would’ve liked to work more with?

I get quite a lot with Janet [McTeer], but any more time would have been incredible. Danny [Huston] was amazing because we did so much French together, so we had that in common.

I would have loved more with Ever [Carradine], because I think we decided that we would have been like great friends in the show if they’d have given us more time. And then I didn’t even get to work with Zachary [Quinto], really, because he was in a different part of it. So I guess there’s a lot of people that I would have liked to have had more with.

The inherent catch-22 of a murder mystery is what you need to know for your character, versus learning things that might impact your performance. How much about the plot did you want to know ahead of time?

I loved reading these scripts so much. I was like, please send me the script as soon as it’s written, Aram—because he was writing it during when we were shooting, it was being finished. There have been some times I just want to see my own character things, and I don’t want to know what happens. But with this one, it felt like a play sometimes, so I actually did want to know where I was going to go or where I ended up, just to to build the character. I don’t know that it’s always necessary.

How would you describe the filming experience? What did you take away from being part of The Artist?

it was just a really unique project, and life really imitated art in a in a mad way. We were all living in Connecticut, like in this tiny radius, and we were [filming] in this beautiful museum house that was filled with the most beautiful art. And I think that there was just something very kind of mystical and strange happening to us and our characters at the same time.

It definitely felt like we were in this parallel dimension, because this house that we were shooting in—that we were there just all the time—none of the furniture had been moved. None of the art had been moved. So we were very much living in that world, in the middle of nowhere in Connecticut. It wasn’t like we went back to our lives. I was staying in a hotel that’s known to be haunted, and we were all in this hotel.

So it was hard to know where reality and the show began and ended. It started to meld… I’ve never had an experience like that. It was like the show and the house and the characters were taking over us, and it was kind of bigger than us.

Part 1 of The Artist premieres Thanksgiving Day on The Network. To learn more about The Network and sign up, click here.

Article content is (c)2020-2025 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.