The Unicorn’s Natalie Zea: ‘It’s not like a typical show that I’ve seen anywhere’

Natalie Zea discusses Shannon and Wade’s future in The Unicorn season 2

The Unicorn was already TV’s best comedy, but the CBS series got even better when Natalie Zea came aboard as Shannon, the newest love interest for Wade (Walton Goggins).

Now that Shannon and Wade have formally been introduced in The Unicorn season 2, they’ve turned out to be a delightful match for one another—and in this week’s episode, “It’s The Thought That Counts,” they celebrate a special occasion together, taking another step forward in their still blossoming relationship.

That’s not counting how much talent Natalie Zea brings to the show. If you’ve been watching TV at all in the last decade, you’ve seen her in one memorable role after another, including working alongside Walton Goggins in FX’s Justified and having the road trip of a lifetime in TBS’ The Detour. She’s a big plus to an already great ensemble, and she spoke to Hidden Remote about playing the now not-so-mystery woman Shannon and returning to the work of network TV sitcoms.

Don’t miss Natalie in the next episode of The Unicorn this Thursday (Dec. 3) on CBS at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. You can catch up with The Unicorn season 2 on demand or on CBS All Access.

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Hidden Remote: When we spoke to Walton Goggins last season, he revealed that he had you in mind to play Shannon. What was your reaction to the part, and to be able to come back in season 2?

Natalie Zea: He called and said we have this thing; it was pilot season and I was just about to sign on to do a pilot. He said it’s going to be one day of work, and if we get a second season, if you’re available, we’d love to bring you on for however many episodes that we get.

I was like, I will do this. I love you, I love to work with you. I think [the show] is adorable…[but] I have no idea if I’ll be available in the fall. I mean, none of us knew what was coming [with the pandemic]. But I was like, yeah, let’s do it and we’ll work it out on the other side. Weirdly, it all ended up working out in ways that it wouldn’t have if COVID hadn’t happened. So some good things came out of this, I suppose. (laughs)

HR: Shannon was introduced in the first season, when Wade (and the audience) knew nothing about her. So when The Unicorn season 2 started it felt like we had all these preconceived ideas of who she could be. What was it like for you to play a character we thought we knew before we actually knew her?

NZ: The writers were so great about really laying a foundation for her. I spoke to the writers over the summer and they gave me a little taste of what was going to happen. A lot of it was, to be honest with you, logistics. How do we do certain scenes in the time of COVID? Because they just didn’t know.

They were working around a lot of figuring out, which we ended up not having to worry about that as much; it’s a very well-oiled system and it’s all working out great so far. We just spoke a little bit about what they were building, and I haven’t had to do anything. I just have to be her and they do all the work.

HR: Shannon and Wade are so much less complicated than any of the relationships you’ve played in a long time, whether it was Justified, The Following, even The Detour was a bit nuts. How has it been to play such a sweet, relatively straightforward romance in The Unicorn?

NZ: So refreshing. (laughs) It’s so great because they have done such a great job with embedding these layers to these characters. So much of the foundation is already there. But it also means that we get to play around a little bit more than I would normally, because the situation isn’t so out there or so heightened. We have a little more leeway to take liberties in little moments that reverberate throughout the season.

HR: The key word in every TV pairing is “chemistry,” which you obviously have being friends with Walton and having worked together before. How important has your familiarity with him been as you craft a believable romance between Wade and Shannon?

NZ: It’s been really important for us to have that background, because with COVID there are a lot of physical barriers we have to work through. We’re wearing face shields and masks, then there’s the [social] distancing. So the fact that we are so close as people and comfortable with each other has really helped us.

If you had a romantic on-screen relationship with somebody that you didn’t know very well during this particular time, it would add a whole other layer of difficulty, I think. The fact that he and I already have a well-established friendship was…people have chemistry who have never met, so it’s not a deal-breaker, but I think it really helped.

HR: Thursday’s episode involves Wade helping Shannon celebrate her birthday, which is a big step forward for them. What should we be looking forward to as these two get more serious?

NZ: What I will say is that when you haven’t been dating for a while and you start dating again, especially in your 40’s, the stuff that comes up is not the stuff that came up when you were dating in your 20’s and 30’s. So that’s some of what these two are going to be dealing with. A lot of what they’re dealing with is universal in that we can all sort of identify with it, but a lot of it is very specific to their age and their experience and where they are in life.

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HR: This is the first time in a while you’ve done a network sitcom. You had The Detour, but that was on cable, and you’ve done a lot of drama over the last few years. How has it been to come back to network TV comedy?

NZ: It’s been heavenly. I have to say, I loved doing The Detour. It was my favorite job I’ve ever had in so many ways. It will have the warm, gooey part in my heart forever and ever. However, we were living on a prayer. It was really like living this sort of guerrilla lifestyle for four months out of the year when we were shooting the thing. And while that’s very fun, when you have a young child and you’re living in a completely new city and sometimes country, sometimes you just want to like be on a cushy network show where the budget’s really high and they have delicious craft service and you get to sleep in your own bed.

So I fell right back into the network pace. I get to go home at a decent hour, I get to sleep in my own bed, I get to have dinner with my daughter and my husband, and I get to work on a studio lot, which I just love. The five-year-old in me, every time I drive onto the Paramount lot, is so giddy. So I enjoy a network sitcom, I’ve got to say.

HR: There’s something particularly special about The Unicorn, in that it feels so much bigger than the typical sitcom. Now that you’ve been working on the show for a while, what’s your take on it? Does it feel different to you?

NZ: I think a lot of us are still stuck in this very saccharine, almost sterile, pure idea of what a family network sitcom is. [With]The Unicorn, the writers of this show have done such an incredible job, and Walton has had a huge hand in this, of making this such a surprising little treat. This is not like a typical network show. It’s not like a typical show that I’ve seen anywhere.

It’s its own very, very special thing. And I would just say that this show has a lot of depth. It walks that fine line between being sweet and being soulful. I haven’t seen that done a lot and I think that everybody involved in the show should be very proud, because it’s just such a special show.

The Unicorn airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.