Iantha Richardson shares how new season of 'Will Trent' brings characters to life

NEW YORK CITY -- The ABC television series "Will Trent" became a hit in its first season, and now the crime drama is taking it to another level.

Season two of the show is in full swing and its characters are just as interesting as the cases they solve. Just ask Iantha Richardson who stars as Det. Faith Mitchell, Will Trent's partner.

"It's a lot of action," said Richardson. "A lot of action. I think this is the most action that I've seen from me and my co-workers like to date. There is a lot of romance for Faith. She has somebody stable in her life, we're going to see that manifests a little more."

After a rocky start, she and Will are figuring the whole partner thing out - all in the pursuit of justice. But she's also playing a role that's helping her find a deeper level in her own right.

"I would say that I think every character that I play, there is a piece of me in it. It may not be completely me, there may be parts that I have to finesse and like grab from other sources, but there's always a piece of Iantha," Richardson said.

There are several qualities her alter ego Mitchell has in her story that makes the role even more of a joy to play for Richardson.

"Oh, I love her resilience," she said. "And I love her heart, I think to be a part of a job, a system such as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Atlanta Police Department that shows you the worst of the worst of human beings and to still come to work every day and say like, what is this be curious, be open and want to help people? I think that's a superpower because you can get jaded so fast in this world."

Richardson said that this character is also her way of showing off the representation of where she came from and for people to see that anything is possible. She went to school in Harlem and used to work for the Harlem School for Arts and Harlem Children's Zone.

She said it's very important to show the complexities of Black women and that they are layered.

"I think representation is such a huge thing to me," the actress added. "Because when you're able to see somebody who's doing something out of the box, or something that you may have not even thought as possible for yourself. It opens up your world. It's opened up my world as a child so my why's to keep expanding so that stereotypes get dismantled, so that just personalities people are able to come together and even more of a fluid way."

Along with her background as a dancer, director and producer, Richardson says beyond her work on "Will Trent," Broadway is another challenge she'd like to conquer.

"So Broadway is one thing that I'm manifesting full force, like I would love to do a Broadway show, because I think it just gives you it's just a different skill set," she said. "Like I would love to do that."

You can catch a new episode of "Will Trent" ABC on Tuesday and streaming Wednesday on Hulu, which is owned by the same parent company as this station.