‘Bosch’ Star Mimi Rogers Is Back in the Limelight

The thrill and challenge of bringing a character back

I was enormously excited about taking on Honey, coming off of how we ended the last season [an assassin shot Honey in her own home]. Clearly the shock and the near-death experience jolted her priorities in a big way. The bigger challenge is to realistically portray the very difficult kind of recovery journey coming back from that.

The shocking personal inspiration Rogers drew on

My husband and I were held up in our garage at gunpoint a long time ago. It was all very quick, and no one was hurt. It was just, like, “Here, take everything. Go.” I know a lot of people react to an experience like that by collapsing into fear — fear of leaving your house, fear of everything around you. My reaction was not that at all. My first reaction was a very deep-seated, primal, murderous rage. I thought that would be a very interesting element to bring into her — how she reacted and her journey to recovery. I got to pull from a lot of that.

Why Honey Chandler is such a great role

I’ve been overall pretty fortunate. Honey is a fully formed character. She’s not a mother or a grandmother or a sister. A lot of times, as actresses get older, you get looked at to be the mother or the aunt. With Chandler, it’s just Chandler. She is not defined by any of her familial or other relationships. She is a very strong, very complicated kick-ass character. Honestly, one of the best experiences of my career.

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How streaming is helping women actors

Streaming has been tremendous for actors in general. For female actors of a certain age, it just has been a renaissance. It really has expanded everyone’s idea of what can be viable and what can be interesting. And that even women of a certain age are interesting and entertaining and fascinating, and you can base shows around them. And it absolutely works.

Mimi Rogers’ pandemic binge TV hits

Like everybody, we stuck close to home. I’ve always done a lot of cooking, so I went into a sort of massive overdrive cooking. Our evening routine: Have dinner, then binge The Last Kingdom, which was great. We binged and sort of wished we could live in The Great British Baking Show. And Ozark and Fargo — and, of course, Bosch. I tried not to watch it all in one day.

Is it time for a Northwoman film? 

The one thing I haven’t done that I’d like to do is a true period piece: 18th century, 17th century. The closest I got is 1940. I want to do a thing with corsets and gowns, or to be a Viking warrioress.

Her secret obsession, revealed

I’m kind of obsessed with flowers. I love buying and arranging my own flowers. If I weren’t an actor, I could be totally happy to have a flower shop. I love to see everything when it’s in bloom, in places like Descanso Gardens. Flowers sort of make me hum. If I’m having family over for Easter or Thanksgiving or Christmas or even just dinner, I love to go to Trader Joe’s and buy a cart full of flowers. I have tons of vases and I’ll spend a couple hours putting together flower arrangements. That makes me really happy. I like walking through a park with all the cherry blossoms in bloom. I don’t take drugs and never have taken drugs. Flowers get me high.