[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers about the ending of Devil in Ohio.]

From showrunner Daria Polatin, who also wrote the best-selling book of the same name, the Netflix drama series Devil in Ohio takes hospital psychiatrist Dr. Suzanne Mathis (Emily Deschanel) on quite a harrowing journey, once a demonic cult escapee comes into her life. While Mae (Madeleine Arthur) appears to be very emotionally fragile, she’s also harboring dark secrets that prove to be life-altering and that are a dangerous threat to Suzanne’s own family.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Deschanel talked about her personal connections to the project, why she found this particular material intriguing, how she balanced working with such dark material, the fun of having a cat show up on set, what Suzanne sees in Mae that makes her want to help at her own expense, her feelings about the twist ending, and the high bar she has set for herself, when it comes to signing on for a project.

Collider: This is quite a crazy and dark world to have been living in, while you did this shoot. When this came your way, what most intrigued you about it, and when it's material like this, do you have to take an extra minute to think about whether you even want to get into that headspace?

EMILY DESCHANEL: Yeah, there’s a moment. I focus on the character and the psychology of the character and who they are and where they come from and why they do what they do. I focus on that, as a way to navigate that dark subject matter that we definitely are dealing with here. It helped that we were a group of people that, when we cut, we could shake it off and have a laugh, so that was really helpful. And in terms of when I took the role on, I just found it really fascinating. The character was really fascinating. You have to do things to protect yourself from getting too dark. It helps having a barrier between work life and home life, and all of that.

It seems like you should get to have a support puppy to hug, in those circumstances.

DESCHANEL: There was a cat that would come to set, but it was a hairless cat. It was named Paws Luhrmann, or something like that, like Baz Luhrmann. That was nice. Anytime anyone brings anything like that, that’s good. I had my kids with me in Canada, and my husband, while we were filming, so I could come home and just be mom. That was really nice. It helps me turn off all the work stuff. They might be in a terrible mood, but at least it’s my life and they’re my family. It’s their terrible mood rather than someone else’s devil worshiping.

When you do something like this, is that connection with the showrunner and creator the most important thing because of the vision for it, especially when you need to trust who you’ll be working with?

DESCHANEL: Yeah, that was key. What was such an amazing gift was that Daria Polatin, who created the show and was the showrunner and who wrote the book that it’s based on, and I went to college together. We were friends in college. We’d lost contact with each other, but I kept up with what she was doing. I bought her book that this is based on, Devil in Ohio, and I knew that she was working in TV, after being a playwright as well. It was exciting for me to work with someone that I knew well and could trust. And then, she had been living with this story and these characters for so long that she really knew so much already about what she wanted. She had such a strong vision that was really helpful for all of us to lean on and help guide us while doing the show.

What do you think your character, Suzanne, sees in Mae that she finds such a connection with? There are so many reasons why she shouldn’t be doing any of what she’s doing, including involving her own family. Do you think she just sees some of herself in Mae?

DESCHANEL: Yeah. I think that Madeleine [Arthur], who plays Mae, and Suzanne have parallels in their lives. They both have experienced certain traumas and disturbing things, Mae more recently. It’s not the same thing, but there are similarities. They’re both dealing with trauma. Suzanne has never fully dealt with her own trauma and is, in a way, trying to save herself through saving Mae. She doesn’t understand that herself, consciously. She’s just driven by her conscious to save this girl, protect her, keep her safe and, and bring her home. She tries to find a place for her to live. She tries to find a foster home, but her own home ends up being the only option that Suzanne can figure out. She’s clearly driven by other things because it’s a big ethical breach to do something like that, as a psychiatrist. But this is inspired by a true event that actually happened. It would almost not be believable, if it didn’t actually happen in real life.

To dig into spoilers a bit with the ending, why do you think Suzanne gives up being with her own family to be with Mae? When she does that, do you think she believes that she can reconcile those two things, at some point? Does this just feel like a temporary situation for her?

DESCHANEL: I think she just can’t help it. Even though she’s trying to address her own trauma and her own psychological scars that she has, she hasn’t fully healed them. As a result, she can’t help but have this drive to protect and save Mae because, in her mind, she thinks it will help heal herself, in some way. I don’t think she can help it. She doesn’t see it as choosing Mae over her family. She doesn’t think that way. She thinks she’s gonna resolve it and that it’s gonna be okay. She thinks she’ll get this figured out with Mae and that it, hopefully, will all work out. There are some real blind spots that Suzanne is dealing with, unfortunately. Every person has blind spots. Even people that are in the mental health profession have blind spots. Unfortunately, I don’t think she sees it from the outside perspective. We watch it and can be like, “You’re choosing someone over your family? What are you doing?” It’s easy for us to see, but she’s stuck in her own psychology that doesn’t allow her to see beyond her desperate need to save this girl.

How did you feel when you learned what the ending would be? What was your reaction to that, the first time you learned about how this would all turn out?

DESCHANEL: As a consumer of TV and film, I liked it because I didn’t predict it. I thought it was a surprise, and I love a surprise. It was juicy to play, as an actor. It was a really interesting twist, and I liked that. I thought it also was fascinating for the character of Mae and what she’s doing. It adds another layer of where her drive and instincts are coming from and what she’s really doing, and then it gives me even more questions. Why did she do that? Would Suzanne forgive her? It’s very possible. She’s not seeing everything fully. There’s some really shadow there that she’s not seeing. But I embraced the ending. I found it satisfying, but I don’t know if everyone will find it satisfying. It’s not as final, as neat, and as clean as some people might want it to be.

I thought it was fun. I was concerned about how the rest of their dinner would go.

DESCHANEL: Yeah. How soon is Suzanne calling her therapist, or her husband? How quickly is she making excuses for Mae and trying to understand why Mae did that because of her own trauma? And will she forgive that?

What do you look for in a project now? Especially since Bones, you’ve done such an interesting variety of work and characters. What excites you? Is it just always a gut instinct?

DESCHANEL: Yeah. I have learned, over time, to trust my gut. That’s something that I have developed over time. I tried to ignore it when I was younger, probably similar to Brennan, the character on Bones. I’ve learned to really trust my gut with things. I really look for things that challenge me, as an actor, that don’t take me away from my family too much, and that are different, especially from Bones. Yes, I’m playing a doctor again, but Brennan was a PhD, she was dealing with dead bodies, and she was not emotionally available. There were enough differences there that felt right for me to play this part. There are a lot of factors that I look for. You have to check a lot of boxes for me to wanna do a job. Hence why I don’t work all the time.

I see why this project and character would stand out.

DESCHANEL: Yeah. It was fun. This genre is really interesting to me. I hadn’t visited that for a while. The characters, especially, were fascinating. The motivations and the cult aspect was really fascinating to me. I’ve always been fascinated by cults. There was a lot that to draw me in there. My mom is from Ohio, so there was an Ohio connection. And of course, Daria being the showrunner and knowing her was also big. Who you’re working with is huge.

Devil in Ohio is available to stream on Netflix.

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