Jennifer Morrison on Power, Empathy, and <em>The Night Agent</em>
Jennifer Morrison has long built a career on inhabiting characters who live in the gray — women defined not by perfection, but by contradiction, conviction, and quiet resilience.
From her early days transitioning out of modeling into acting, to becoming a household name through her emotionally grounded work on House and Once Upon a Time, Morrison has consistently gravitated toward roles that explore the inner lives of women navigating complexity. Over time, her creative ambitions expanded behind the camera as well, establishing her as a thoughtful director with a keen sensitivity to character and story.
Across film and television, Morrison’s work has been marked by an insistence on empathy — an ability to understand even the most flawed perspectives without flattening them into easy answers. That sensibility has not only shaped her performances, but also her broader legacy: one rooted in curiosity, emotional intelligence, and a refusal to simplify the human experience.
Now, in Netflix’s hit, The Night Agent, Morrison steps into new territory as First Lady Jenny Hagan — a role that pushes her even further into the morally ambiguous terrain that she has long been drawn to. Set against the high-stakes backdrop of political power, Jenny is a woman whose good intentions are steadily eroded by compromise, ambition, and proximity to influence. It’s a performance that feels both timely and deeply personal, reflecting Morrison’s enduring interest in the fragile line between who we believe ourselves to be and the choices that we ultimately make.
In bringing Jenny Hagan to life, Morrison not only deepens her legacy of portraying complex, deeply human women, but also reminds us that the most compelling stories — and the most lasting performances — are the ones that dare to sit with contradiction rather than resolve it.
KP: The last time we spoke was for Dr. Death, so it’s been a few years! I’m so happy to be catching up with you again.
Your latest role is as First Lady Jenny Hagan in The Night Agent, which has done tremendously well. Congratulations!
I believe this was your first truly politically focused role, if I’m not mistaken. How did stepping into a political thriller shift your performance instincts in comparison to your past work?
JM: Every genre asks for a little bit different energy. I think the stakes are similar no matter what you are working on, but with The Night Agent, it was exciting to find Jenny’s rougher edges. In politics, it feels like it is metaphorically a “kill or be killed” world. That darker side of politics requires finding the lengths that one will go to get what they want.
KP: The world of politics is highly complex and typically unscrupulous, no doubt — perhaps today more than ever. How do you feel Jenny reflects the realities of power and proximity to power today?
JM: I think that Jenny started with fundamentally good intentions. I think this is true for a lot of people in politics, and yet here we are. So, I think what Jenny reflects in today’s political environment is how good intentions seem to always require compromises in order to move forward. Those compromises can quickly and slowly erode your good intentions until you no longer recognize yourself — or your tactics.
Everyone sees the world only through their own lens of experience, and everyone believes that they are right and justified. Therefore, many terrible decisions — or at least damaging decisions — arise from this truth.
KP: Coming off of that, you’ve spoken to us about empathy being a common guiding force in your work. How did empathy shape your approach to Jenny, especially when her choices were difficult to justify?
JM: When I considered her decisions through the lens that she truly believed her husband’s policies would make the world a better place, I could start to find the core to her actions.
The backstory that I built for her also helped shape the lens through which she considered the compromises that she made, which ultimately led to her downfall.
KP: You also talked about wanting complexity in female characters. I imagine you feel that Jenny pushes that forward in a meaningful way? [Laughs]
JM: Oh, definitely! Jenny is wildly complex. She is very human in that way. She has a moral compass, she is a loving mother and wife, she is incredibly bright and self-made, and, yet, she makes terribly misinformed decisions. She gets herself in way too deep in a dangerous financial deal, and she lies by omission to the person that she loves the most because she loves him so much — and that’s just scratching the surface. But this is how humans operate! We are messy and inconsistent.
KP: That is incredibly true, for better or for worse.
Throughout your role in the series, there exists a strong tension between public image and private truth. How did you embody that duality?
JM: I worked with a movement coach to find subtle differences in Jenny’s public presentation versus her private default setting. It was nothing drastic, but the nuances of how I carry my body differently really helped me tap into different emotional spaces for Jenny.
KP: In our past conversation, you mentioned being interested in stories that reveal something uncomfortable or unspoken, so I suppose you taking this role should come as no surprise to any viewer. [Laughs] Have you found that practice becoming easier or harder to pursue today?
JM: I think that pursuing it is easy — following through with it takes discipline. It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to make a character likable all the time. They should be justified in their own minds, but not necessarily likable. It can feel dangerous to purposefully avoid likability.
KP: Similarly, so many of your roles — and work behind the camera — give audiences something to think about. What would you want audiences to sit with after watching her arc?
“If we could all just try to put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we disagree with, we may find that we have more in common than we expected.”
JM: I would hope that people consider the idea that even if they completely disagree with and judge someone from a distance, they might know where that person is coming from. If we could all just try to put ourselves in the shoes of the people that we disagree with, we may find that we have more in common than we expected. We just might understand their intentions a bit better, even if we still disagree with the result.
KP: You once described storytelling as a way of processing complexity. What complexities feel most urgent to you right now?
JM: Finding common ground feels very urgent to me right now. Opening my mind to understand things or people who seem very foreign to me feels urgent. I believe that deep down we all share so many similarities, and yet we only seem to shine floodlights on our differences. Where there is attention, there is action. I feel that it is urgent to start shining light on our shared humanity.
KP: I couldn’t agree more.
To speak more on women’s roles behind the camera, you’ve been in the industry long enough to witness critical change taking place, including your own metamorphosis from actress to director. What progress feels real, and what still feels rather performative?
JM: I think it is up to the individual to make all of it real. Person by person we decide how performative or real anything is going to be. No matter what the reason, what mandates are put into place, or the reason an individual gets hired, it is on the hired person to be excellent — to do the job to their greatest abilities. You collaborate, delegate, and show up offering all that you have to offer. Even if you were hired for performative reasons, your excellence and hard work will win in that scenario.
KP: What do you think still isn’t being said — or shown — about women in film? What would you like to explore next?
JM: I think we are covering a vast landscape these days. The important thing now is to find a way to cover that landscape and keep commercial viability in mind. To put a wider range of ideas in front of people, we must have large audiences to receive those ideas. This means benching our egos at times and asking ourselves what people actually want to watch — how do we infuse that content with a wider range of complex women who are interacting with complex men? There must be a balance of how we all fit into the picture. Leaving a gender out can be just as damaging as oversimplifying someone on screen.
KP: Your body of work in television has become both expansive and enduring. Looking back on everything that you’ve created, what feels most true to who you are today?
JM: The two roles who feel the closest to me are Cameron on House and Tess in Warrior.
KP: What would you tell your younger self?
JM: Make the most of the moments in between jobs and the moments alone. Use that time to grow — get to know yourself instead of chasing connection in every moment. The quiet moments turned out to be the most educational and contributive to my evolution as a person.
KP: What advice would you lend to women about life, work, or love?
JM: I would say when you’re lucky enough to have all of them at once, just know that balance is almost impossible, and it is mostly going to challenge you and stretch you to your limits — but it is completely worth it. Being mentally prepared for the hard parts makes it easier to get perspective and stay in a state of ongoing appreciation.
KP: The last time we spoke, you answered our trademark final question by saying that a provocative woman is someone who is “brave enough to like things.” It’s still one of my favorite answers. Years later, what do you find yourself liking today?
JM: I still stand by that. It’s amazing how quickly people jump on negative bandwagons in order to play it safe or feel in control in some way.
There are so many things that I love. I love the wonderful messages in Paw Patrol, Spidey and Friends, and Frozen.
I love old sports movies with heart and messages of the resilience of the human spirit.
And I most recently love the Season 3 premiere episode of Euphoria. It has been a long time since I watched something where I had no idea what was coming from moment to moment, and this is that. I also continue to be so inspired by the filmmaking of Sam Levinson. Frame by frame the premier episode is excellent.
People take for granted exactly what it would take to come up with the worlds, characters, and specificity of images that the show unveils. The episode is loaded with symbolism and takes on massive ideas of faith and identity — and delivers some heavy ideas with an unexpected comic sensibility. Anyone who says differently missed the point. It is ahead of its time. I’ll be watching it over and over for visual inspiration. I cannot wait to see the whole season.
Photography: Jonny Marlow
