Although Tamara Taylor portrays the stoic Angela Wheatley on the popular NBC crime drama Law7 Order: Organized Crime, the actress admits she was intimidated by one of her co-stars.

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In an interview with Pop Culture, the actress revealed she was intimidated by Raul Esparza, who portrays former Assistant District Attorney and fan-favorite Rafael Barba on Law & Order: Special Victims Unt. SVU and Organized Crime recently had holiday episode crossovers.

The actress referenced a table read she partook with Esparza, in which she was awed by his performance.

“A little bit, I gotta tell you. You know we did the Zoom table read. Which you know on Organized Crime we haven’t done in a while because it just doesn’t feel like there’s enough time. But I think SVU does it like clockwork,” Taylor said. “They’re a well-oiled machine. So we got on, everybody is there. And Raul, jeez, had a lion’s share of the lines which he always does… I was just taking in how already there his performance is, on a table read… My gosh, he’s probably one of the best actors I’ve ever witnessed.”

Taylor, who called Esparza her “favorite,” went on to praise Law & Order: Organized Crime’s serialized format, which was a stark departure from the franchise’s episodic format.

“I love this form of storytelling on network television,” Taylor said. “…Usually the episodes are standalone and… you got a beginning, middle, and end. You don’t have to play them sequentially in any sort of sequential order. [But] this is really fun because you get to take a deeper dive into everyone’s world.”

Shadow and Act had a chance to chat with Taylor earlier this year about the show.

“It’s a great dynamic that’s literally speaking to what’s going on right now,” the former Bones star said of the change in police procedurals after last year’s racial reckoning. “The old is being outmoded and the [characters] are having to relearn. I think the [writers] have been handling this [season] with grace and have been open to the dialogues and questions that we’ve all brought up. I think they’re walking a tightrope pretty well so far.”

Tamara Taylor

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