What you need to know
Laura Benanti may play a cop on screen, but she’s totally unsuited for real-life emergencies.
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE on the show’s Season 4 premiere, Mayor of Kingstown co-creator Hugh Dillon revealed that Benanti, 46, who has trouble seeing or smelling anything resembling blood, had his own coping mechanisms on set.
“Laura doesn’t like blood, so sometimes I have to get an alcohol swab and put it under her nose,” Dillon, 62, recalled.
The producer pointed out that even though the blood was fake in the crime thriller series, the actress was “still reacting.”
Arturo Holmes/WireImage
Benanti joined the cast in season 4 as prison officer Cindy Stevens. The actress told PEOPLE that she had to “put all my vanity aside” to prepare for her new role.
“I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup,” she explained. “My hair is slicked back as usual. There’s no lighting, just overhead fluorescent lights and sometimes under fluorescent lights.”
“I think as actors, we’re always a little self-conscious about how we look, so it was freeing in a way,” she continued. “And this was like, ‘I know I look like an old woman, so I’m going to keep going.'”
In addition to hair and makeup, the Broadway star also had to do stunt work. She said she had to perform “some scary action scenes” and was also trained to handle guns.
“I’ve never shot a gun in my life,” Benanti said. “I had shot a gun in Nashville before, but it was like a handgun, and[my character]wasn’t very good at it. She had never shot a gun before, so I didn’t have any training, but I did in this movie.”
Dennis P. Mon Jr./Paramount+
She went on to say that the stunts “were all very safe,” adding, “I don’t know exactly what the stunts were using, but they always did a great job of showing us that the guns were empty.”
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
The Nurse Jackie alum said she felt welcomed on the set of the show, which also stars Jeremy Renner, despite being a newcomer.
“Everyone was really welcoming from the moment I stepped out at bat. Everyone was so funny and warm and it made me feel at ease that they created an environment that was the opposite of the show. I think that’s very necessary, otherwise it wouldn’t be bearable,” she said.
The Mayor of Kingstown is currently streaming on Paramount+.
