All Rise star Lindsay Mendez dishes on the growth of Sara Castillo

All Rise returns to CBS tonight, and Precinct TV spoke to the TV crime drama‘s scene-stealing star Lindsay Mendez ahead of the latest episode! Lindsay plays court reporter Sara Castillo, and she’s a force to watch in every scene she’s in—no surprise since she’s also a Tony Award winner.

Precinct TV connected with her about making the move from the Broadway stage to her first-ever TV series regular role, how Sara has grown and transformed from season 1 to season 2, and what the show means to her.

Get to know both Lindsay and her character in our interview before the series’ latest episode airs tonight on CBS at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. (And if you need a refresher of where the show left off, you can go here.)

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Precinct TV: All Rise is your first TV series role, and hopefully one you’ll be doing for a few more years. What about the show inspired you to make that kind of commitment?

Lindsay Mendez: I had just finished Carousel and won a Tony Award; that whole thing really surprised me. I didn’t really see that coming. Once I achieved that, I was like, “Oh man. What else do I want to do that really scares me?” It feels like something that I never thought I would do. That’s how my career has always gone. What’s going to scare me the most? That tends to be where I flourish.

I thought oh, well, I’m really afraid of TV. Let me go for that. I was able to pursue the pilot season that year [and] when All Rise came across my desk, I just loved the pilot. I loved the characters. I loved how quick-witted they were, and how smart. I also just really loved that it was a show about Los Angeles; I’m originally from Los Angeles. They were going to really be covering so much about our judicial system and how difficult it is to navigate, but that it does work, and giving people hope through it. I’m really, really inspired by what I knew they wanted to do with it, and I thought it would be really amazing to be a part of.

I had no idea, really, what I was getting into. With TV it all happens so fast. When you audition for Broadway or when you’re prepping a Broadway show, it’s a longer process, but when you’re doing a pilot, it’s wham, bam—they cast you, you do the pilot, it’s all super quick. You just sign up and take the leap and co-create. Well, I did, because I just absolutely love working with my company there. I think that’s when you can really fly, is when you have to take those big leaps.

PTV: They’re two very different formats, but there is an almost theatrical quality to All Rise in how it’s written and constructed. How much of your stage experience have you been able to use with Sara, and how much of this has been a learning curve for you?

LM: A lot of us in All Rise come from a theater background. I think that was something that our show creators really wanted; they wanted a rep company of sorts. They give us a lot of opportunity to rehearse together before we film. It really does feel quite free, and we can play. Especially when it’s a scene between the regular cast, because we’re all so used to each other, and we can really give each other ideas and play around. It actually feels very much like the same process that I would have in rehearsing a play or a musical.

I think that the hardest thing for me has been the repetition of the filming. If I take a drink from my coffee, I have to do it the same time every time, remembering that, where my marks are and things like that, that on Broadway I don’t think about. That’s been a big balance. I guess that all season one, it was like, “Ugh. Lindsay didn’t make her mark again.” The cameraman would hit me if I could make it. (laughs) Now, I feel like a major pro. I’ve conquered it.

But as far as the acting goes, you’re totally right. We really do play the scenes. We don’t stop and start, and people come in really ready to play and get in the sandbox. It does feel very similar to how I would approach a rehearsal for a show.

PTV: We’re halfway through All Rise season 2, so how do you feel Sara has evolved from the character you first met? Because that’s the one big benefit of doing TV is now you’ve gotten to see her grow beyond the original text.

LM: When I first got to know her, she was just really the fun of the courthouse and brought a lot of joy. While she was good at her job, I felt she was still a little tentative in her place with the judges and with just navigating the whole system, being lower on the totem pole as opposed to the other characters that are in the show, because I’m the court reporter.

But this season, I had some good talks with Dee [Harris-]Lawrence and Greg Spottiswood, my showrunners, that they really wanted Sara to grow in confidence and to take charge more of her life, and just prove to herself that she could do anything. You’ll see as the season keeps going, she really does start to spread her wings a bit more and say like hey, all these people around me have inspired me. I can do anything they can do and more. She starts to really push herself, speak her mind more. I think that’s been really fun to explore this season.

The first season I felt one of my main purposes here is to be a best friend to Emily to Jessica Camacho’s character. This year they were like well, Emily needs to show up for Sara too. We’ve been able to explore that friendship more, and that she’s just demanding more of the people in her life, and demanding more of herself. I really love that evolution for her.

PTV: And yet in the middle of these great character arcs and serious subjects, the show throws in some really random and fun comedic subplots. What’s been your favorite All Rise subplot so far, since Sara’s involved in many of those?

LM: To be honest, and it’s largely because of my relationship with her off camera, the things that I get to do with Ruthie [Ann Miles] are my favorite things. There’s an episode in season 1, where there’s this big earthquake and Ruthie and I fight over who’s the earthquake monitor. This whole episode about, we both want to be earthquake monitor. It was so random, but we had so much fun playing it; they really let us work out the scenes, because we’re both theater girls and we’ve known each other for over ten years. It was so fun for us, crafting little moments. We were back at home. We just love working together and finding those moments whenever we can.

PTV: Given that the two of you have that theatre experience, a musical episode would be both completely random and kind of interesting. Would you be open to the idea of that if somehow it actually made sense?

LM: I don’t know how it would work either, but there’s a lot of people with musical ability on our show. I don’t know how well those episodes land, but yeah. I mean, I would be down. It would be really random, but I would be down. Whenever I see a musical theater performer that’s on a television show singing, I’m always like, “Ugh. They found a way. She’s at a bar.” I have my own feelings about that.

I have not pushed for myself to do that. I just felt that’s a different part of what I do, and it’s okay to be separate. At the same time, I’m sure we would all have a blast and do it. Before COVID, we would have dance parties on set all the time. We love music, and we all have such a good time doing that. I feel it would be something we’d totally geek out on and love to do.

PTV: We’ve discussed this with other cast members, but especially as someone from Los Angeles, is there any storyline in the show that’s particularly resonated with you? Given how timely All Rise has been.

LM: I feel there have been so many. I don’t know if I can pick out just one, but I think it’s been such a cool experience to get to have these things happen in our world, and get to really reflect those on our screen. I mean, I personally love how we get to tell so many stories with people that they bring on our show. We really reflect the diversity of California in a true, honest way.

For example, as soon COVID happened, it was like this is going to be our world too. It was like wow. How cool that is our show is going to be a reflection of our actual time? We have that opportunity. We have the opportunity to have the first episode of the season be about Black Lives Matter, defunding the police, and all of that. We really tackled all of these things head on in the moment. [It] has just been so thrilling and important, because not every show can do that. Not every show has that lens.

It’s just been so exciting, and it feels important. It feels so great that the audiences seem to really be responding to it and loving it. I think that we’re always walking a line, but a lot of different demographics watch our show, [and] I think that everyone can grab onto something that they really stand behind.

All Rise airs Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.