Constance Zimmer on Emmy nomination: Awards and nominations don’t define me

American actor Constance Zimmer, who rose to fame with popular American series, Entourage, has garnered more fame with the drama series, Unreal. Playing the role of Quinn King, a scheming, demanding TV producer, Zimmer was even nominated in the Best Actress Category at the Emmy Awards, last year. As the show, whose first and second season will air in India from July 17 onwards, gets ready to air its third season in 2018, we speak to Zimmer over the phone from Los Angeles. Excerpts:

You were nominated for an Emmy last year, and this year too, you are considered as one of the front runners for nominations? How much do awards and nominations matter to you?
I know its a clichéd thing to say that getting nominated is almost like winning an award. But in my case, it is true. We are not a show like Game of Thrones, and we are not that popular. We are a small show, and we are not watched by a million people across the globe. To be nominated, and be a part of small number of actors who were nominated, meant a lot to me. Having said that, awards and nominations don’t define me. It’s not like that I don’t need them, but I am not much worried if I don’t get it.

The show has been postponed till 2018. Does this gap between the second and the third season bother you? Will it affect the show’s viewership?
I can only hope that the show gets more popular, because this time it will be aired in summer. So we are wishing that it works in our favour. The network wants to hold on to it, because they want to start another show at that times, and sometimes working in a partnership helps. That’s the only thing that I can say as of now.

Second season had a black suitor, and the third season will see a female suitress this time. Are you worried that the show might land up in a controversy because of that?
We don’t have an answer for everything, but I am happy that we at least started a conversation about various issues. I wish we could have more impact. We are not a safe show, and we don’t hold our punches back. Having a female suitress will change the dynamics, and suddenly you will see men get objectified, and how they are “used” in the show business. I don’t want to scare people away that by saying that there will be a lot of “feminism” involved, but you will see in the show, how manipulative the industry is, and how women really treat men.

Apart from being a series regular on the show, you have also acted in House of Cards, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Was it difficult to switch between the characters?
I am grateful to have played such important and strong female characters in shows, which have had such a big impact. There’s no secret, or different that I do to play each character. The only thing I do is to try and make the characters different from each other, so that they have an identity on their own.