Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (2024)

IT was Goldie Hawn who first observed that there are only three ages for actresses – babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.

Scotland has procurator fiscals rather than DAs, and there has yet to be a sizzling TV drama set in the fiscals’ office. But for Laura Fraser, the same principle applies.

The actress said: “You turn 40 and become a detective. I like it. You’ve got your emotional drama going on, whatever that is, then the crime on top of it. I enjoy that multi-layered storyline. I like peering at other actors, trying to figure out the truth.”

Since her convincing turn as international drug smuggler Lydia Rodarte-Quayle in the final season of Breaking Bad, Laura has been cast on the other side of the law.

Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (1)

Her first crime-solving role comes on BBC One, investigating two families embroiled in a horrible double murder. The show, One of Us, is written by brothers Harry and Jack Williams, who created
The Missing. Laura joins an impressive cast including Juliet Stevenson and Adrian Edmondson in the dark drama, set in the Highlands and Edinburgh.

She said: “Most of my scenes are with Juliet Stevenson. I loved working with her, watching her
face. Every second she was doing something different. She would really take you on a journey.”

The shoot – in the capital then the Borders, which stood in for the far north – also had its Friends Reunited moments.

Laura said: “I didn’t have any scenes with Gary Lewis but I love him. I did one of my very first jobs with him.”

She was 18 and Peter Mullan directed and also played the Big Bad Wolf.

Laura said: “It was a short film called Good Day For the Bad Guys. Gary played a character called Wee Jocky and I was Red Riding Hood in this bizarre pantomime short film.”

As is expected from the Williams brothers, One of Us explores sticky human relationships. Laura was already a fan of The Missing when the role came up.

She said: “They do keep it dark. I probably watch too much of that stuff, it’s not good for you. But it’s extremely addictive. Even when I was reading the scripts, I stayed up too late because I had to finish them.”

While Laura’s character investigates a gruesome double killing, her detective character Juliet is also facing her own demons.

She said: “She’s desperate. Her daughter’s very ill and she’s taking steps that normally wouldn’t be within her moral code as a police officer. She becomes more reckless as she gets deeper in the mess she’s created in her own life. She is confronted with epic moral questions as she pursues the case.

“Meanwhile, she’s there on her own solitary little journey with her own moral questions.

“We know one of the couples did it, we just don’t know which one. There are lies and webs of deceit
as my character tries to get to the truth.”

Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (3)

Laura clearly has an affinity with the Williams – they cast her in the second series of The Missing, which was shot straight after One Of Us.

She added: “I have spent a long period of working only for these brothers. We shot for five months in Belgium and Germany. We filmed in a block that was used by the Hitler Youth. It added another layer of darkness on top of the darkness of the story. It was grim.”

Back in Scotland, she is currently playing another detective, this time in a series called Loch Ness. Once that’s over in October, she has promised her daughter Lila that she will be at home until Christmas.

Laura said: “I’ve been working solidly for a couple of years. After Breaking Bad there were all these opportunities, I got a certain amount of momentum, it felt that if I turned something down I would be back to, ‘Oh no, when am I ever going to work again?’”

Having a high-profile role on what the Guinness Book of Records has certified as the most critically acclaimed TV show of all time has made Laura’s life much more straightforward.

She said: “Usually, when a job finishes I’m dreading the round of auditions. Now I’ve been offered a lot of parts. I don’t have to go to London and queue up and plead. It’s been really luxurious.Having been in something people had seen in the industry definitely puts me in a better position.”

Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (4)

Her Breaking Bad experience also showed Laura that it’s possible to be based anywhere in the world and audition for great parts by tape.

She was cast as Lydia without even shaking anybody’s hand. She said: “It doesn’t matter where you live now. Breaking Bad was a taped audition. You can be anywhere.”

And she admits she doesn’t miss the audition process.

She said: “I’m rubbish when I go in the room, I get nervous. It’s like a constant job interview when you’re in an audition period. All the adrenaline, the ups and the downs.”

It was daughter Lila who led the campaign for Laura and her Irish-American husband Karl Geary to move back to Glasgow last year.

She said: “She missed the family. She always felt really Scottish, became one of those ex-pats who became exaggeratedly Scottish. Country dancing, talking with a ridiculous accent, it was insane. Now she’s back, at school with cousins, part of an instant community.”

And while it’s preferable for Lila to have her mum shooting in Edinburgh rather than a former Hitler Youth HQ, it’s still not ideal.

Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (5)

Laura said: “Being in Scotland doesn’t really make any difference. She’s in bed when I come home and I’m away before she wakes up. We tried Skype but she doesn’t want that now.

“When she was younger she was happy to show me things, play with toys. Now she’s not accepting that. She wants the real thing.”

Laura can’t wait for a stint as a school-run mum. She said: “She is going into primary six,
so this will be the last year she lets me take her to school. I’ll pick her up, take her to clubs and hobbies and playdates. All that kind of stuff is just what I want to do.”

And if any of the other parents wonder what an American TV star is doing in the playground, it’s nothing Laura isn’t used to.

She said: “Most people are amused and confused when they meet me and I’m Scottish, wearing glasses and no make-up and trainers.”

• One of Us is on BBC One, Tuesday, 9pm.

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Breaking Bad star Laura Fraser on turning 40 and landing first detective role (2024)

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