Morales' Time to Shine: The Hunting Party's Sara Garcia Teases In-Field Action
The show's "woman in the chair" breaks down her upcoming field adventure.
This story contains spoilers for The Hunting Party Season 1, Episode 8, "Denise Glenn."
As the first season of NBC's thriller The Hunting Party barrels toward its season finale (April 7), one season-long character is set to finally get her star moment.
Every week, Agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson (Melissa Roxburgh), CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sabongui), and former Pit prison guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) head into the field to collect each escaped inmate. Meanwhile, Pit prison warden Oliver Odell (Nick Wechsler) and intel officer Jennifer Morales (Sara Garcia) are the brains at HQ helping them collect intelligence and craft strategies for each case.
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While everyone is locked into each case, Morales humanizes the team with her lighter approach to their serious work.
It's a character trait that Garcia told NBC Insider has been important to the character since her first audition.
"Morales is in the military and this is a very serious show, but there's a lightness and a loving energy to her," she said. "And so, instead of leaning into maybe the stereotypical thought of what a military person would be like, I leaned in the opposite direction and inserted a little bit more of myself into the character, and they picked up on it."
The delightful quirks of Jennifer Morales
While Morales' initial introduction in HQ was one of a tough military intel officer, the character has since been fleshed out as a much lighter spirit in vibe and energy.
"She's quirky and fun. We [first] get to see that in Episode 3," she said of the scene that revealed Morales' competitive nature. "That scene was so fun for me to shoot. I remember getting those pages and just being like, 'This is great!'"
While the scripts contain big reveals about all of the main characters, Garcia said there is some freedom to express their characters in the small things, like personalization of their desks, or in unscripted reactions between characters.
"Every moment that we were on set, I was just looking for ways to make the bullpen her own," Garcia said of her approach to adding nuance to Morales.
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"She is essentially commanding that space alongside Odell, so I wanted to make it feel like, 'This is my space and my domain,'" she explained. "There was a moment where Hassani comes over and I'm like, 'No! Don't touch the thing.' Or, there are some little moments where Shane comes over with water and coffee, and I was very meticulous about my space."
She's even slipped in her own Easter egg involving tiny plastic ducks given to her by the props team.
"I started hiding them all over the desk and the bullpen," she said, laughing. "They may or may not make it into the shot, but for me, she takes her job seriously, but she's also trying to bring that lightness to a work environment that is really, really dark. I'm constantly trying to lighten the mood."
Garcia breaks down how Morales works within the ensemble
As one of the few focal points in the chaos of the series, Morales has scenes with all of the core characters. In our call, Garcia was quick to lay out how Morales sees them all.
"Her connection to Odell is a big brother/ little sister vibe," she said about the morally gray warden.
"In her relationship with Shane, she has a respect, but a kind of a rivalry because he was another serving member," she said of their shared military backgrounds.
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"And then her relationship to Bex is one of a mentor/mentee situation," she added. "She really looks up to Bex, yet she's quite reserved around Bex. [With her], she's not joking. She's really focused. Whenever she's talking on the phone to Bex, she's focused and clear in her directive, and wants to show that she's capable. And she gets to show her that in Episode 9."
Yes, the computer expert gets to stretch her field legs in the season's penultimate episode, "Tom Beecher."
"Morales has her big debut out in the open," the actress teased. "[The writers] had been talking the whole season of giving Morales an episode, and then when it came to me, it was so much better than I even imagined! It really was a joy to be able to sink my teeth into her that way."
Catch new episodes of The Hunting Party when they premiere on Monday on NBC at 10/9c. Episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.
