Basic Instinct, Sliding Doors, Big Love and Terminal List actress Jeanne Tripplehorn says one of the best parts of starring in the FX drama, The Lowdown, was shooting it in her native Tulsa.
Created by writer-producer Sterlin Harjo and airing Tuesday nights on FX, the show follows Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke), a self-professed "truthstorian" or citizen journalist obsessed with bringing down the powerful Washberg family.
Tripplehorn plays Betty Jo Washberg, whose husband Dale (Tim Blake Nelson) appears to have committed suicide after Lee publishes one of his exposes. Kyle MacLachlan plays Dale's married brother Donald, with whom Betty Jo is having an affair.
"I was on my first conversation, a call with Sterlin, I think within 10 minutes of our conversation, [he] said, 'You ready to come home?' and I said, 'I am,'" Tripplehorn, 62, told reporters in a recent virtual interview.
"Just being there was really profound for me in a lot of ways. I hadn't been back home in about five years."
Harjo described the actress as being humble about how well regarded she is by the people in her hometown.
"She is Tulsa royalty," Harjo said. "Everyone was so excited for Jeanne to come back home and film this show."
Tripplehorn said she knew she was once again among friends when everyone started calling her "Jeannie" instead of "Jeanne."
"Nobody calls me Jeannie outside of, really, my family," she added. "I went: 'You know what? This is my new family. This is my family.' And now, yeah, I'm Jeannie."
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Tripplehorn said she grew up around her musician father and his friends, and herself starred in local theater productions and worked as a radio station DJ, so she knew firsthand what an eclectic, vibrant arts community Tulsa has.
"Tulsa was really rich in local talent and productions, in every form that inspired me and also made me believe that I could be a professional, that I could be paid for doing what I love," she said. "Tulsa's very rich that way."
The fact that her character was simultaneously strong, emotional and mysterious also made The Lowdown an interesting prospect.
"Betty Jo's a survivor. She comes from a very small town in Oklahoma -- may or may not have been a stripper. But she was definitely a rodeo queen and she's kind of a hellcat," Tripplehorn said.
"At all costs, the bottom line is, she's going to survive and she's going to take care of her daughter. She and her family were kind of the black sheep of the Washbergs and, so, she's going to survive. She's not that sentimental."