Margo martindale taps into ‘sticky’ sweet crime saga | members only

Beloved character actor Margo Martindale, 73, won an Emmy playing a marijuana queenpin in_ Justified_, two more for playing a KGB spy handler in _The Americans_, and delightfully voiced

herself in _BoJack Horseman_. And now, thanks to a phone call from Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Martindale is taking on another unique role — a maple syrup farmer who turns to crime in

_The Sticky_, the new Amazon Prime Video series debuting Dec. 6. It’s inspired by the true story of the great Canadian maple syrup heist, in which thieves were revealed in 2012 to have

stolen more than $18 million (CAD) worth of syrup from Quebec's national reserve. Martindale offers up more details on that phone call, reveals why she’s following her “dear friend”

June Squibb's retirement plan and tells us more about those cartwheels topping her bucket list. _This interview has been edited for length and clarity._ THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE, IT WAS

IN THE MIDST OF THE COVID STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS IN APRIL 2020. YOU TOLD ME YOU WERE “WALKING AROUND ON THESE COUNTRY ROADS.” DID ANYTHING POSITIVE COME FROM THAT TIME? What it left me with …

was that I felt that the quiet and the sound of the birds was so amazing. And nature that seemed to come alive without all of that [noise]. I thought, _there's something to this _—

about the environment. It really made an impression on me. Did it change anything? Yeah, I'm more aware, that's for sure. It was like God said, “Let's stop for a moment and

take this in.”  DID YOU MAKE ANY LIFE DECISIONS FOR “THE AFTER”? Yes, and have I done it? I don't think so. But everybody got closer — all friends, checking in on people, calling

people. I've done that always — but it seems to be more so now. IT DIDN’T SLOW YOUR WORK. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN SAYING “YES” TO A ROLE? Something that I haven't done before.

And sometimes something I have done before. But this particular show [_The Sticky_], I've never done anything like it. So much fun. And the people were just extraordinary — all of the

French and all the Canadians and my two [co-actors] , Guillaume Cyr and Chris Diamantopoulos. I just love both of them so much, and all the other people in it and the writers I adore.

We've stayed a very, very, very tight group, [writers and showrunners] Ed Herro and Brian Donovan and the three of us, because we had to see through the [writers’] strike and see

through the lull to get this thing out. Margo Martindale stars in "The Sticky," inspired by the true story of the infamous great Canadian maple syrup heist. Jan Thijs/Amazon Prime

I HOPE YOU LIKE MAPLE SYRUP! Oh, I love it. And the process of how it's made, I learned quite a bit about a lot of things I didn't know. Driving around from Montreal to Quebec City

or any of [the cities] and looking along the roads and going, _Wow, there's tubing. There's tubing all around here. One tree to the next. _Would I ever have been aware of that?

Never. So it was a remarkable, wonderful experience. HAD YOU WORKED WITH JAMIE LEE CURTIS BEFORE? No, I never have, but she was so wild when she called me up she said, “Margo, it's

Jamie Lee Curtis. Hi. Listen, I have this project ... and I thought of you.” And I thought _In what world!? _Very, very, very flattered, and [I] read it and loved it. That was it.