Exclusive

666 Park Avenue Star Rachael Taylor Teases Jane's "Personal Connection" to the Drake, Homage to Hitchcock

Exclusive! Taylor dishes on "a cool little turning point" in the ABC drama's second episode, airing this Sunday at 10 p.m.

By Tierney Bricker Oct 05, 2012 8:00 PMTags
666 PARK AVENUEABC/ANDREW ECCLES

If Alfred Hitchcock taught us anything, it's that a situation involving an attractive blonde and birds usually doesn't end well.

That's the sitch Jane (Rachael Taylor) will find herself in on Sunday's episode of 666 Park Avenue, ABC's new hit drama that focuses on a New York City apartment building, the Drake, that's a gateway to hell.

We chatted with Taylor, who teased about Sunday night's episode, Jane's ongoing quest for answers and her "personal connection" to the spooky building. Plus, which main character could be going to the dark side?

"Episode two is super fun because we pay homage to Hitchcock's The Birds, which I think is really exciting, especially because I'm a huge fan of this genre anyway. For me, that was really fun to do."

In the episode, Jane uses an infestation of birds in the building as an excuse to get some answers. "We realize that the basement's going to lead us to some other kind of puzzle, which in a few episodes time, is going to help explain why Jane is more attune to the supernatural happenings in the building than say Henry (Dave Annable)," Taylor says. "There's a really cool little turning point for my character. She demands a wall be demolished pretty much because she wants to find out what's behind it. As she does that, my character definitely gets in some peril, but it will lead her to more answers."

But with answers, comes more questions, like why Jane is "hyper-attune to the darkness" of the building. "What we're going to uncover is that Jane actually has quite a personal connection to the Drake that she didn't even realize," Taylor teases.

While Jane gets more answers, her relationship with Henry is slowly starting to crumble, according to Taylor. "The walls are absolutely going to close in on Jane and Henry, and it's going to test their relationship. It will fundamentally change them as people in very different ways. I think Henry is more likely to go over to the dark side than Jane."

But that doesn't mean Taylor won't get to have a little fun being the "good one" in the relationship. "What's been cool for me is come episode eight and nine, my character is literally unrecognizable," Taylor teases. "She's a different person. I don't just say literally in the pop culture sense, where people just insert that word in the wrong place all the time. I mean she becomes a different person, which has been really super exciting as an actor."

Finally, Taylor says 666 Park Avenue has all the makings of a cult favorite. "What's cool about making a genre show is that I think we have the potential to build a good, small little fan base of people that really pay attention to the detail that's in the show," Taylor says. "From a plot perspective, it really is quite intricate. Some of the things that you learn in the pilot pay off in episode five. And some of the things that happen in episode four…for example, Henry's character gets involved in this political scandal. We think it's a deviation from figuring out the puzzle of the Drake, but actually, come episode eight, it all feeds back into the process."

666 Park Avenue airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on ABC.