VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘Reacher’ Star Willa Fitzgerald On Her Favorite Moments Making ’18 1/2′

The 18-and-a-half minutes missing from the Watergate tapes may just be among the biggest mysteries in American history, but in the film 18 1/2, the tape isn’t actually missing. It follows the story of a White House transcriber named Connie who finds herself in possession of the only copy of the 18 1/2 minute gap in President Richard Nixon‘s tapes.

Willa Fitzgerald, star who plays Connie, sat down for a conversation with uInterview founder Erik Meers to discuss her favorite moments on set.

“I loved the first scene at the diner when Paul and Connie meet,” the actress, who stars on Prime Videos’ Reacher, revealed. “I think it’s a really fun scene and one of the things I really love about the script is that it’s so condensed. It takes place over one day – less than one day – at almost only one location and that first scene is a very long scene. It was just a really fun challenge. A lot happens. There’s the setting of the stage and John Magaro [Paul] is such a great actor. It’s such a fun thing to get to do with him. I also love the fight scene at the end which I won’t spoil too much, but it’s just shot in a really creative way and this is certainly not an action movie, but there is a degree of action at the end. It’s approached in a very interesting way given the time constraints and shooting constraints that you have when you make an indie movie with this kind of budget.”

Fitzgerald also described the preparation that went into making a period piece and what helps her get into character.

“[Director] Dan Mirvish and [writer] Dan Moya had done a ton of research about the actual 18 1/2 minute gap clearly in the writing and prep process,” she said. “I was given all of that information and obviously read it, but I think I was most interested, as an actor, looking at what Connie’s world would’ve been like in the 1970s as a transcriber, what she was thinking and feeling socially and politically at the time because I think there’s some interesting conversation about that in the script. We were lucky that we were shooting in this time capsule of a motel. It already felt like you were in the ’70s. We had a great costume designer and I always find that a good period costume really helps you feel in the correct time period.”

18 1/2 is now available for streaming on VUDU, Prime Video and Apple TV.