I FEEL LIKE I'M PLAYING ME'

STEPPING INTO THE SHOES OF HER LATEST CHARACTER FELT COMFORTINGLY FAMILIAR

- Naomi Toy

In new sci-fi series Earth Abides, based on the classic novel of the same name by George R. Stewart, Jessica Frances Dukes plays Emma, one of just a few survivors of a virulent and deadly plague that sweeps across the planet. And Emma is the kind of person you want – make that need – to survive an apocalypse. She’s smart, knows her way around a weapon, is fearless but full of love and can even skin a cow.

“She’s a formidable force, she’s wonderful,” says Dukes, who is best known for her role in Ozark (see breakout). Inhabiting a woman who is at one with nature delighted Dukes, 34, who was flooded with memories of her own outdoorsy childhood when she first read the script. “I was like, ‘I finally feel like I get to play me,’” she tells WHO.

Tell me about your character, Emma?

We meet Emma after a year of being isolated, after losing everything that she knew, and she goes on this journey with Ish [another survivor played by Alexander Ludwig] and she teaches him how to plant, she teaches him how to hunt. She teaches him how to skin a cow and cook it up.