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Warning: SPOILERS lie ahead for Based on a True Story season 2!Melissa Fumero is showing off her detective skills in a slightly different fashion in Based on a True Story season 2. Having started her career with the soap opera One Life to Live and its shared-universe companion All My Children, Fumero found her breakthrough role as Amy Santiago on Fox/NBC's beloved police sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, having been a lead player across its eight-season run. In the years since, Fumero has found further success both in front of and behind the camera, starring in everything from Hulu's animated M.O.D.O.K. show to Netflix's Blockbuster, while also directing episodes of Grand Crew, Gordita Chronicles and Primo.
Fumero joins the Based on a True Story season 2 cast as Drew, a mother who befriends Kaley Cuoco's Ava during her efforts to get out of the house and find friends away from her true crime obsession. During an investigation into a crime scene, though, she learns that Drew is actually a detective investigating the string of copycat killers in the area, capturing Ava's attention to try and stay one step ahead of the police. However, as the season progresses, she learns that Drew is harboring a much darker secret, and may not be who she says she is.
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Everything Melissa Fumero Has Done Since Brooklyn 99
After playing Amy Santiago for years, the actress transitioned to a Netflix series and a rom-com among other projects.
Alongside Fumero and Cuoco, the ensemble Based on a True Story season 2 cast features new and returning faces, including Chris Messina, Tom Bateman, Liana Liberato and Sara Paxton. With Physical creator Annie Weisman taking over as showrunner for season 2, the show not only finds a way to maintain the stellar balance of dark comedy and mystery from season 1, but also delivers some surprising twists and turns.
Shortly after the season came to a close, ScreenRant interviewed Melissa Fumero to discuss Based on a True Story season 2, why she was thrilled to get to join the dark comedy mystery show, breaking down the various twists surrounding her character, the various meta references Weisman included for Fumero's work in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and why she doesn't think a revival of the police sitcom will ever happen.
Fumero Loved Getting To Work With Cuoco & Her Unique Form Of Improvising
"We had kind of a great, easy chemistry from the get-go..."
ScreenRant: It's great to see you again, Melissa, and to talk about Based on a True Story season 2. I love it even more than season 1, somehow, even though that set the bar so high. I'd love to hear what it was about your character and about this show that drew you to want to be a part of season 2?
Melissa Fumero: Yeah, I was also a fan of the show, so when they came to me about this role, I was really excited, because I think Based on a True Story is, first of all, a great show. It's hilarious, but I love where they go tonally, and it's so unexpected, it still gets me with the gore, and how far they go with it. It's so fun, which is a weird thing to say about gore, but you know what I mean. [Laughs] So, I was really excited to get that call and to have the opportunity to join them in season 2, and also, this cast is just amazing.
I've never met or gotten to work with Kaley. I had met Chris Messina a couple times before because of Mindy Project and Brooklyn Nine-Nine being on at the same time at Fox, but yeah, I was just a huge fan of the show and the cast, so it was just one of those dream scenarios where getting that call was super exciting.
So, since you mentioned the balance of tone, that is something I've loved about this show. Obviously, I love your work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but also Blockbuster, which we talked for last, but this is a very different kind of comedy for you. Does that change your approach to playing a scene in comparison to those shows?
Melissa Fumero: I guess yes and no. I am always going to start by trying to be truthful in any character. I think the more honest and truthful you are, the funnier it is, but this definitely was different tonally from a lot of the other comedies I've done in that I've sort of just got to be the straight man in this. Kaley loves to ad lib and improvise, and that was really fun to do. We had kind of a great, easy chemistry from the get-go, which is always the other piece that you're unsure of how that's going to go. Especially when you don't get to chemistry test, and you're just sort of jumping into someone else's show.
But we hit it off day one, and just had so much fun doing our scenes and finding the dynamic of these two characters that also easily fall into this friendship pretty quickly. So, we had to find things kind of fast, and I love the way Kaley works in that she just kind of goes there with the improv and the ad lib. I think that helped us find a rhythm off the bat that was really fun. I was like, "Oh, there it is, that's who these people are, and that's who Drew is, and that's what this relationship is." So, yeah, it was kind of bouncing off of Kaley for this, as opposed to some of the other things I've done, but it was really fun.
Fumero Got To Learn About Her Based On A True Story Season 2 Twists Early
She Also Learned That Weisman Had A Unique Reason For Casting Her
I also love the two big reveals. The first one, in which you are a cop investigating these killings. It feels so stylistic the way it's introduced, but at the same time, like you mentioned, there's also so much gore. What is it like going into filming that sequence, in particular?
Melissa Fumero: Yeah, so Annie Weisman, the showrunner of Based on a True Story — who I'm also a huge fan of, who is just brilliant and hilarious and an amazing person — off the bat, when I had my meeting with her and Jaclyn Moore, who's also amazing, said that they wanted to do this fun thing, especially because I did a show like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, where it's revealed that my character is a cop. Because the show has so much fun in being meta and satirical, they were like, "We're doing this on purpose, this is a comment on your Amy Santiago." And I was like, "Great." [Laughs] So yeah, and again, it was kind of that stylized moment that the show does that was just really fun.
But to be honest, that was all the work of the creatives. My part was super easy. They were like, "Just walk in there and own the space, and own the room, and be a cop." And I was like, "I know how to do that." So, yeah, my part in it felt like the easiest puzzle piece in that sequence. But, yeah, that's the part of the show that I'm really a fan of is just those choices with lighting and shots and mood. It just takes you somewhere else, where you're being told that this is a big moment, and then, later, we find out it was something else.
Which I would then love to lead into talking about the later reveal in which we learn you are not actually a cop, but you are actually Matt's ex-wife. What are your thoughts on that reveal, and filming the big monologue in which you confront Ava, Nathan, Matt and Tory?
Melissa Fumero: Yeah, so Annie and Jaclyn were really generous with me that they gave me the heads-up of all of my character's twists and turns before I started, which was also fun to know where it was all going. I think that it is also fun to play a secret, as a character, and there's different ways that you can do that, but it was definitely something fun to hold in some of those scenes. I think it's such an unexpected [reveal], you don't see it. You know something's going on with Drew, but you can't put your finger on it. Kudos to anyone that guessed it. I can't imagine anyone guessing that she's his ex-wife. But it was such a fun reveal, and then the other piece was just having to do that monologue in front of that stellar cast.
It was the first scene I did with all four of them, and I was like, "Okay, this is intimidating, to say the least." But again, they're such a wonderful group of people. Chris Messina was especially generous with his compliments. He was like, "You're doing great." He was like a little cheerleader on set that night, and it was really fun. I just kind of went for it, and then was relieved that it all worked. It also was my first death scene, so I was very honored to get to do that on the show. Everyone really took care of me. Also, it's harder than you think to hold fake blood in your mouth and cough it out appropriately. It's trickier than I thought it would be.
I can only imagine, there are so many intricacies to filming a death scene.
Melissa Fumero: There's a very specific placement in your mouth where it has to live before you actually do it, and it's weird. So, it took me a couple takes to kind of get it.
Fumero Has An Emotional Reason Why A Brooklyn Nine-Nine Revival May Not Happen
She Is Open To A Season 3 Return, Though
I see I'm coming up on time, so I did have one final question for you. We mentioned it a couple times, and I'm curious if you've ever had thoughts on a Brooklyn Nine-Nine revival, even though it only ended a couple years ago?
Melissa Fumero: Oh gosh. We've definitely all played with the idea, and we definitely all miss each other so much, and miss spending our days together. I don't think we could ever do it, though, without Andre, so I don't know that that would happen, but, yeah. I hope to work in other things with everyone. Stephanie and I have a podcast together now, and I think we'll just always be looking for ways to work together again.
I really hope you are able to find those ways, and I'm also hoping that if Based on a True Story season 3 happens, they're able to find some flashbacks for you, because I would love to see yours and Matt's backstory explored a little further.
Melissa Fumero: Yeah, maybe some flashbacks!
About Based On A True Story Season 2
Season 2 finds new parents Ava and Nathan Bartlett three months into parenthood. Focused on taking care of her family, Ava is determined to resist her true crime obsession and return to work as a real estate agent while Nathan trains private tennis clients. But a series of new murders pulls her back in – is Matt behind the slayings? Is Tory, now entangled in a relationship with Matt, in danger? For a while, life is good -- Ava’s TikTok habit and her new friend Drew provide a welcome distraction, and Nathan’s all in on reigniting his tennis career as well as his friendship with Matt -- until danger comes knocking, literally.
Check out our other Based on a True Story season 2 interviews with:
- Tom Bateman & Liana Liberato
- Chris Messina
- Annie Weisman
- Sara Paxton
Based on a True Story season 2 is now streaming on Peacock.
Based on a True Story is a Peacock original crime thriller starring Kaley Cuoco and Chris Messina as a married couple who starts their own True Crime podcast. Ava and Nathan Bartlett are expecting their first child despite marital troubles as their finances continue to plummet, and their decision to hire a charming plumber to install a new toilet leaves them stuck in a true crime story of their own.
Release Date June 8, 2023
Seasons 2
Writers Craig Rosenberg
Showrunner Craig Rosenberg
English (US) ·