By LOUISA CLEAVE
A New York winter is on the way but for the cast of Third Watch the show must go on.
They will be shooting in the snow-covered streets, their latex gloves freezing onto their hands, and holding intravenous drip bags hardened by the cold.
But Molly Price, who plays cop
Faith Yokas on the show which follows the dedicated fire, police and paramedic services on their afternoon and evening shift, is used to the cold. She's a New Jersey native and can more than tough it out with the rest of the cast.
"I'm a pretty tough chick. I can hack it. The show's doing well [so] they'll probably give us a better winter wardrobe."
She already looks tired, picking over a pasta lunch, dressed in casual Saturday wear - black leather pants and black jersey, wearing no make-up and her hair flowing loose.
Her biography tells us she is a keen cook and her interests are reading and boxing.
On screen, her character is the sort of woman who once threw a murderous gang member to a rival gang and left him to be dealt to while she went home and caressed the heads of her sleeping children.
While we watch tonight's season finale (TV2, 8.30 pm), Price is under way with the second series of Third Watch.
The cast works outside nine months a year, 15 hours a day, five days a week.
Price recalls her first day of shooting: "Thirteen hours, non-stop it rained. It was a record rainfall in New York City. It rained every single hour I was outside. Thirteen hours running through poop in China Town."
The actress has appeared in other shows, including Sex and The City and Law & Order, and movies such as Pushing Tin with John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton. She was Sean Penn's love interest in Woody Allen's film Sweet and Lowdown.
She says Faith Yokas has given her a unique character to play and she is clearly enjoying the work.
"I love the fact she can be really nurturing and loving to the children and then she can throw a guy up against the wall and cuff him.
"And then she can cry to her husband and then go out and buddy up with [cop partner] Bosco. She has a spectrum in that she's smart and she's vulnerable. She's weak and she's strong.
"She's not a stereotype and I think she's unprecedented in the world of television.
"I'm very honoured and very privileged, and compelled to play her. You can't quite pigeon-hole her, and I like that."
Next year's Third Watch brings more marital heartache for Yokas and Price says all the characters' personal lives are developed beyond their jobs, and hopefully viewers will care more about them because of it.
"What's compelling this year is that it's a human being going to work and being a cop and coming back and being a human being.
"That to me is the cross-over that we're fine-tuning and making it more interesting. So artistically it's much more satisfying to go to work as an actor.
"People who like the show, I hope they like it because it's good. Not because there's great helicopter crashes ... That the show is good because it compels you [to watch] and you're interested to know what it feels like."
By LOUISA CLEAVE
A New York winter is on the way but for the cast of Third Watch the show must go on.
They will be shooting in the snow-covered streets, their latex gloves freezing onto their hands, and holding intravenous drip bags hardened by the cold.
But Molly Price, who plays cop
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