Melissa Roxburgh has taken on the role of another powerful but also empathetic character in the form of Bex Henderson in The Hunting Party. With the season 1 finale almost here, we chatted with Roxburgh about the role, what to expect in the finale, and much more.
Bex was originally an FBI profiler, but then a case took its toll on her and she took a step back from that life. Instead, she worked for a casino, until the day she was called back in to work with a secret government team. It turned out that there was a place called The Pit, which housed psychopathic killers once thought to be dead. They’ve been experimented on, and now some of them are out.
Bex and the team that’s put together are on a mission to protect the innocent people of the United States from these killers. It’s been a thrilling ride so far, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for The Hunting Party season 1 finale.
Melissa Roxburgh talks the cockiness and nerdiness of Bex in The Hunting Party
Precinct TV: I love how we’ve seen Bex grow. She was already confident, but she has gained more confidence, especially working alongside Odell again. What’s it like for you for Bex to show that she’s a better profiler than Odell?
Melissa Roxburgh: What I love about Bex is that she does have a little bit of cockiness as far as her abilities. She should be proud of how intelligence she is and her skills and her profiling. I think that her intuition about certain things has always been bang on.
When she was younger, she didn’t get to be in control of cases as much, and then she came from the casino, so that really didn’t give her a ton of opportunity. Now she’s out there, and she knows what she’s doing. I think it’s not about showing Odell she’s better than him, although she is. I think it’s more that she’s just a nerd about this stuff.
She loves it! She lives and breathes it. Obviously, she’s got her own traumatic history that motivates her. I just love playing with that nerdy aspect of where she’s kind of rattling off information as if everyone should know and then realizing nobody does.
PTV: Except those of us as nerdy as her about this stuff.
MR: Exactly.
PTV: We’ve seen this professional relationship develop with Hassani. What’s it been like for you, because they’re almost like equals, even though they’re not?
MR: Yea, it’s interesting because you get introduced to this world where Hassani’s pretty much in charge and Odell’s the warden of The Pit, which is no longer, so now he’s got this new role. Then we have AG and we’ve been introduced to Lazarus, so there’s all these people who are higher up than her, but it’s almost like she doesn’t see that, which is good and bad. She does her own thing, and she says what she wants to say, and I love that about her.
I’m wondering when it’s going to get her in actual trouble, with AG especially. [There is a spoiler in here that I had to redact]. It’s not like she gets to do whatever she wants, but she’s so good at her job, and she knows it. So she can kind of push back a little.
PTV: We’re going into The Hunting Party season 1 finale. The last we saw, Bex had met Odell’s contact, Lazarus, so what can you tease about this final episode?
MR: The contact that we make with Lazarus, um, well, she’s seemingly on her team, and I think she is. Then we discover some details about her that involves multiple players, and it’s one of our biggest cliffhangers of the whole season. I’m excited for people to really get to know this character.
PTV: My favorite serial killer has been Denise Glenn from episode 8. What’s been yours? And yes, it feels weird saying “favorite serial killer.”
MR: She was fun. She was one of my favorites as well. What I liked about her is that she really pushed back on Bex. Someone asked me once like who my nemesis would be, and I would say someone who can profile Bex back, and she almost did that in a way, which I thought was clever of the writers.
I think Dr. Malak is still up there as one of my favorites. They’re all good; I do want to say that.
The one that made me sad was Jessup, because I almost felt like he didn’t really know what he was doing, which made it worse. You’re like, do I help you or put you back away? I don’t know which one!
PTV: I’m holding out for The Hunting Party season 2. Is there anything you would like to do that you haven’t managed to already?
MR: I would like to do more stunts. I think they did not trust me, but I would love to do more stunts. We got to see a little bit with Brenda in episode 3, and it was fun. Josh [McKenzie] and Patrick [Sabongui] both have some stunt knowledge already, because Josh is an MMA fighter and Patrick has done stunts in a past life, so they give a lot of it to the boys. I want my turn.
PTV: What about with Samantha? Would you like to see more of that relationship develop, because I think we need to see more working moms kicking butt.
MR: A hundred percent! She’s off at college, so she’s hard working and studying right now, but I think she’s such a crucial part of the reason Bex is doing this. She’s also got her own history with serial killers. That’s the whole reason Bex and Samantha are bonded together. I almost want to see Sam kind of give her influence in things.
PTV: Yes! That would be cool. Finally, what has been your most surprising thing about Bex this season?
MR: It really surprised me when she got the information — well, we don’t really know if it’s a lie — off Odell’s phone and told him that he was one of the last things she saw. If that was a lie, that would surprise me, because she doesn’t lie. So, I’m interested to see that. I’ve made the decision that it wasn’t a lie, but who knows.
PTV: We need season 2 to find out.
The Hunting Party season 1 finale airs tonight, Monday, April 7, at 10/9c on NBC. Catch up on the series on Peacock.
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