EXCLUSIVE: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor talks playing an FBI agent consumed by obsession in Apple TV+’s ‘Lucky’

The critically acclaimed actress talks to theGrio about filming high-octane stunts, working alongside Annette Bening and Mo McRae, and building onscreen tension.

Watching “Lucky,” it’s easy to get caught up in the rooftop fights, shootouts, and high-speed chases. But according to Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, some of the series’ most intense moments happen when nobody throws a punch.

The actress stars as FBI Agent Billie Rand in Apple TV+’s new thriller, based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel. As Billie closes in on Lucky (Anya Taylor-Joy), a career con artist forced back into a dangerous criminal underworld, the line between determination and obsession becomes increasingly blurred.

For Ellis-Taylor, that tension is what drives the series.

“Even scenes where we’re just talking, and it’s not action,” Ellis-Taylor told theGrio. “You want that same sort of feeling. You want that same sort of like… there’s always a possibility of bloodshed, even when it’s just words.”

The action is very real, too.

“I had a great stunt double,” Ellis-Taylor said. “But… I did a lot of stuff myself.”

Even after stunt rehearsals, she says filming rarely unfolded exactly as planned.

“Things happen, things don’t always go as planned,” she said. “That’s what keeps it alive and fun.”

One of the biggest challenges came while filming a fight scene atop an oil refinery.

“It was hot as hell out there,” she recalled. “They had us on these rigs, because we were on top of this oil refinery.”

The location only added to the intensity.

“It was like, okay, we’re gonna have a fight… but we’re gonna put you on top of this.”

For all of its action, “Lucky” is ultimately a story about obsession.

Asked whether she thinks the series proves there’s honor among thieves, Ellis-Taylor laughed.

“I don’t know how much honor there was with these folks,” she said. “I think everybody at some point was willing to sell… everybody sell each other out. And Billie. So was Billie, you know, which I loved.”

Billie may be chasing criminals, but she’s just as consumed by the pursuit.

“There have been times when you’re just blinded by it,” Ellis-Taylor said. “Want something so bad that you’re blinded by it. Like everything gets sacrificed or endangered or destroyed. Your health, your relationships.”

By the end of the series, Billie has little room left for anything else.

“Nothing… not her wife, not her children,” Ellis-Taylor said. “Nobody, nobody matters. Nothing and nobody other than to… catch these folks.”

“It’s the kind of… to witness someone at that point of desire is really fascinating… just to witness that. To observe that in someone.”

That obsession isn’t the only thing “Lucky” explores. The series also asks how much of who we become is shaped by the people who raised us. Lucky and several other characters spend much of the story trying to outrun the lives they inherited.

“I think every child, if they’re lucky, is in love with their parent,” Ellis-Taylor said.

“But then there comes a point where you see them as human beings rather than your mother or your father.”

That’s when the real choice begins.

“You make the choice. Am I gonna do that or am I gonna do something else?”

Ellis-Taylor says that’s where the story becomes especially compelling.

“What we see… is children deciding… ‘I’m not gonna be like you.’ But… they end up being like their parents.”

Away from the action, Ellis-Taylor says one of the highlights of filming was working with Mo McRae, who plays fellow FBI agent Eli Gates.

“We became friends,” she said. “I’m so grateful for that. That’s my homie now.”

The pair even spent time learning how FBI interrogations actually work before filming their scenes together.

“When law enforcement officers are in an interrogation… they come in the room usually… knowing far more than they allow the person to know,” Ellis-Taylor said.

That detail helped shape their performances, though playing an FBI agent didn’t transform her personal views on law enforcement.

“It didn’t change my perspective,” she said.

Ellis-Taylor also welcomed the opportunity to work alongside Annette Bening, Timothy Olyphant and Anya Taylor-Joy.

“I have an acting crush on her,” she said of Bening. “I’ve studied her work to try to get better as an actor.”

Despite earning an MFA, Ellis-Taylor says the greatest lessons of her career have come from the actors she’s worked beside.

“I got an MFA from NYU,” she said. “But acting school has been these jobs… working with incredible performers.”

The first two episodes of “Lucky” are currently streaming on Apple TV. New episodes air every Wednesday through August 19.