Abigail Spencer’s time on 9-1-1 has come to an end with a bang, as her character, Detective Amber Braeburn was revealed to be a years-long serial killer with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
After kidnapping Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character Maddie Han, Amber found herself spiraling as she tried to find ways to kill her escaped victim and keep Maddie locked away, who was being looked for by desperate husband Howard ‘Chim’ Han (Kenneth Choi) and Sergeant Athena Grant (Angela Bassett).
As the second episode of the two-parter came to the final moments, Maddie had her throat slit by Amber but was able to make her way upstairs to save Chim moments before he was going to be shot to death by Amber by smashing a hammer over Amber’s head.
© Disney“If they were going to give me this much responsibility in the episode, I really wanted to give the leads a break and also give Jennifer her due because she’s tremendously insanely good,” Abigail told HELLO! of her guest role and working alongside Jennifer with whom she has been friends for over 20 years.
“She’s been entertaining the world her whole life, and she’s a wonderful actress and so committed to her character and really understands this all works.”
Abigail’s scenes were mostly with Jennifer and Angela, alongside Peter Krause and Kenneth, and she said that she loved the chance to “get a little nervous” about working with a close ensemble cast “because it means I still care”.
“Honoring, like you said, what this close cast has knitted together,” she added.
“They were amazing to me. I’ve known Jennifer for 20 plus years, and I forgot I did a movie with Angela Bassett, but this is Angela’s show, Peter’s show, Kenny’s show, and I know what it’s like to have my show, and so when I come on I’m there to support and make their lives easy, hopefully, and give them a break. They’re working their asses off!”
© DisneyThis was also Abigail’s first time on a Ryan Murphy show, an opportunity that made her “excited to dabble in the sensational”.
“I think what he does really well is taking everyday things but then to take this episode where it literally turns into a horror film, this is crazy,” she said.
Abigail was allowed to bring her own “performance art” to the role of Amber, sharing that the “crew made me feel very safe because I was doing weird things” to create the character who was based on the Weepy Voiced Killer; Paul Michael Stephani became known as the nickname after a series of telephone calls, anonymously reporting his crimes in a remorseful and high-pitched voice.
Abigail listened to the real life calls Paul made, and she said she was “intentional” about the clothing and the shifts between the personalities.
© Disney“Everything was very thoughtful and very intentional and they gave me a tremendous amount of latitude leading up to the second episode that Jennifer Lynch so beautifully directed. Jennifer gave me a lot of faith, and I kind of felt like, ‘Let’s just go for it,'” said Abigail.
“Multiple personality disorder is a very real disorder, and I’m not excusing any of the deeds that were done by any of these characters, but that’s my job, to bring understanding to that – and we only had 47 minutes to do it.”
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