Five years ago David Michod’s Animal Kingdom landed on U.S. shores with a bang. The Aussie indie film about a suburban working class family moonlighting as a crime syndicate was uncompromisingly original, deftly written and fiercely acted by a cast which included Guy Pearce, frequent collaborator and Jackie Weaver who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as the deceptively doting matriarch of the clan. In its reboot as a TNT series, that role has gone to Ellen Barkin, herself no stranger to fierce characters and who has two Globe nominations of her own (for Switch, in 1992 and Before Women Had Wings, 1998). The HFPA’s Jenny Cooney asked her about stepping into the role and what got her exited about Kingdom.

Read Flashback: Ellen Barkin, Golden Globe Nominee, in 1991 by Ana Maria Bahiana.