Scarpetta brings best-selling author Patricia Cornwell's iconic literary character to life in a gripping new Prime Video series starring Nicole Kidman as Dr. Kay Scarpetta. With skilled hands and an unnerving eye, this unrelenting medical examiner is determined to serve as the voice of the victims, unmask a serial killer, and prove that her career-making case from 28 years prior isn't also her undoing.
Set against the backdrop of modern forensic investigation, the series delves beyond the crime scene to explore the psychological complexities of both perpetrators and investigators, creating a multi-layered thriller that examines the toll of pursuing justice at all costs.
From Emmy-nominated writer, executive producer, and showrunner Liz Sarnoff, Scarpetta unfolds across two timelines. This dual narrative explores Kay Scarpetta's journey from her beginnings as a Chief Medical Examiner in the late '90s to her present-day return to her hometown, where she resumes her former position while investigating a grisly murder.
Earlier this week, we had the chance to sit down for a brief conversation with stars Simon Baker (The Mentalist) and Hunter Parrish (Weeds) to discuss their shared role as FBI profiler Benton Wesley. Baker plays the character in the present day, while Parrish portrays him in the past.
Revealing whether they collaborated on creating this version of Benton, the actors discuss their respective on-screen dynamics with Nicole Kidman and Rosy McEwen and how they went about mastering a Virginia accent.
You can check out the full interview with Simon and Hunter on Scarpetta in the player below.
You're sharing this role of Benton Wesley, so what was it like for you working together and developing this character into who we see in both of the time periods in the show?
Hunter Parrish: It's definitely one of the more exciting aspects of doing a show like this. I've never shared a role. So it's fun to get to collaborate and to work with this man who I respect so much and who has invited that collaboration. It's pretty cool. Pretty rare.
Simon Baker: Yeah. Look, that was a risky element, I think, going into it. And I think when I first read the script, I was like, how are we going to do the younger characters? Like, are we going to do some sort of dodgy CGI thing? No, they're not going to do that. That's a lot of work if we do that. And then they said, "Well, we're going to cast other actors." And I went, "Oh, that's dangerous. That is really dangerous." But I think it worked really well. And we did have a bit of time beforehand where we kind of got on the same page, worked with dialect together and you know like a kind of philosophical approach to the character. But we didn't really spend much time on set together.
Simon, you're working closely with Nicole Kidman as Kay. What was that back and forth like, developing that relationship at a later stage in their lives in the show?
Simon Baker: You know, just very much like walked onto set and hit it straight away. We had a really small rehearsal period. We have a history together. So there's an ease there straight away, which obviously probably through osmosis just sort of factors into performance stuff as well. Although we're playing very different characters to who we are. But that always helps with the trust, you know, particularly when you're playing someone romantically and intimately with someone. That element of trust is a really good thing. Makes you feel safe and so you can sort of take risks.
Hunter, at the same time, you're working with Rosy McEwen playing that relationship at a very different stage of their life. What was that back and forth like for you with her?
Hunter Parrish: Yeah, you know, it always comes down to—I mean, if you're lucky, you get to work with good people and if they're a tricky person or tricky personality, you have to navigate that. But Rosie McHugh is absolutely professional and beautiful, wonderful human. So again, it makes all that stuff, you don't have to work as hard, you don't have to manufacture as much. You just kind of be there and be honest with the character and things happen.
Benton does have a Virginia accent, so for both of you, was that quite a tough thing to master working on this character?
Simon Baker: Yeah, I guess you could say it's, you know, it's a bit of work, but that's the stuff that's kind of really fun. We had a really good dialect coach, Tom Jones, who worked with Rosie as well. And Nicole. He's more than a dialect coach. He's a really great guy to be able to kind of—and he was there. He was kind of really the consistent element that was there on set in both timelines. And I would constantly—I don't know if you were, but I was saying, "How's Hunter going? Would he say it like this?" So we had that, you know, which is probably really good because it's like an intermediary. Sometimes what you think you're doing isn't really necessarily what you're doing. So if you'd asked me, I would have been like, "Well, I'm doing this."
Hunter Parrish: That's exactly right. Yeah. You don't always get that in shows, and that's kind of a happy byproduct of it.
Simon Baker: Yeah. I'm really looking forward to catching up with Tom.
Scarpetta will launch exclusively on Prime Video on March 11.