Tamara Podemski Brings Change to the Western Genre as Joy in ‘Outer Range’

Tamara Podemski is the kind of actor who wants to be part of the change in how Hollywood views indigenous voices, and in talking with her about her role as Deputy Sheriff Joy in the hit Amazon Prime series Outer Range, which recently wrapped up its first season, it’s clear that she wants to bring authentic characters to life outside of the labels that are put on actors like herself.

Outer Range sort of has Joy as their character that checks all their “boxes,” as Podemski put it. She’s a queer, indigenous sheriff in a town that would definitely have made racist remarks about a character like Joy in a different time. But what makes Outer Range so interesting is that it is bending what we think we know of the western genre and mixing science fiction in with it to tell a new kind of story. And one that clearly keeps the racist stereotypes out of it.

“It was clear on the page that this wasn’t a western that was trying to be like every other western before. That’s why I love the term the neo-western because I really think that’s what Brian Watkins created,” Podemski said about the series, as she spoke highly of the process and what brought her into the show in the first place.

But it wasn’t just an easy choice for Podemski. When I asked her what excited her about taking on a character like Joy, she quickly said, “Let’s say excited and intimidated,” in response. “I get excited by the challenge; there was nothing easy about it. It was very clear that this was a character who was given every diversity check all pushed in and rammed into one role. And not only that, it wasn’t a realistic role. There’s nowhere in reality, in America, where this woman exists, at the time, you know, two years ago when I first read it. And I think my research showed very few women of color that were sheriffs and even those that were near more metropolitan areas. So to take her and set it in such a rural place and make it even more challenging to make her an out, gay woman running for office and Native American, I found the burden of that was much greater because I needed to ground her in reality. And I needed to make it believable and that, I think, is where I spent most of my time.”

A new kind of western

Outer Range has its sci-fi moments, but it’s a character-driven show in a way that I think is incredibly true to the western genre. But I loved Podemski as Joy because she took a character that, on the page, could have been something completely different but made her such a well-rounded and lived-in character that you feel for her throughout the shows’ first season.

You can see our full interview here:

Podemski is in Outer Range, season 1 now available on Amazon Prime Video. And you can catch her in season 2 of the FX series Reservation Dogs!

(featured image: Prime Video)