Through her 'Dark Winds' cameo, the actress hopes to "show the poignance of someone" with dementia and how people miss them "while they're right there"
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 4 premiere of Dark Winds
NEED TO KNOW
- Linda Hamilton made a cameo in the season 4 premiere of AMC’s Dark Winds as Barbara Sena, a woman with dementia
- Hamilton tells PEOPLE she was drawn to the role because her mother was also named Barbara and also faced dementia
- The star reflects on this “liberating” chapter of her career
Linda Hamilton's latest cameo has a deeply personal connection.
On Sunday, Feb. 22, the beloved Terminator star, 69, appeared in the season 4 premiere episode of AMC's Dark Winds as Barbara Sena, the wife of Scarborough Police Department Acting Chief Gordo Sena (A. Martinez). To step into her character, who has dementia, Hamilton drew upon her own experience with her late mother, who not only shared the character's name but also her journey with dementia.
"My mother had dementia for 25 years," Hamilton tells PEOPLE. "I swear to you, I went in for the fitting and the whole thing takes place in the '70s, and they pulled out some shoes for my character that were my mother's shoes. I mean, they were the exact color of taupe that my mother would wear to extend the leg. And it was a very specific color from the '70s, '80s. It just felt really sweet to be doing this to kind of honor her."
In Dark Winds, it's clear Hamilton's character doesn't quite understand the extent of her memory loss.
"I have spent a lot of time wondering, 'When does a person know? Do you know?'" Hamilton says. "I never really witnessed that part of dementia where someone really knows that they're losing it. So, it is a fine balance [to portray]. I have some friends now that are going through that and have watched them over the years kind of fail mentally. So, there's every good reason to play this part."
Michael Moriatis/AMC
Through the role, Hamilton hopes to "show the poignance of someone" with dementia and how "people around them are missing them while they're right there."
In an exclusive clip from Hamilton's debut in the premiere (above), Barbara and Gordo get a flat tire and veteran tribal police lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) comes to their rescue. Barbara tries to remember the last time they met, but confuses Joe with his father. When Gordo reminds her of their own son's name, she says, "As if I could ever forget our son, you are being so silly."
As Gordo and Joe fix the tire, Gordo recalls feeling "like teenagers" again with Barbara when their kids left home. He says he was looking forward "to what they've been robbed of." Joe then gives Gordo some advice: "She needs you not to give up, Gordo, whatever that looks like here on out," Joe said.
In addition to the personal connection Hamilton has to Barbara, she says she was drawn to the role because it was a departure from the strong characters she's become known to play.
"I feel like I really maxed out the tough guy, and I just don't want to play tough the rest of my career," Hamilton says. "This was just a very sweet little scene."
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Michael Moriatis/AMC
She also has a long-standing friendship with Dark Winds executive producer George R. R. Martin, of Game of Thrones fame. The two worked together on the late '80s CBS TV series, Beauty and the Beast.
"I love George R. R.," Hamilton says. "He was a writer on Beauty and the Beast. I have seen him since Beauty and the Beast and his journey has just been so great and so far from Beauty and the Beast. He's now just the king. So, when George R. R. calls, you say yes. I actually said I would do it for free if I could meet [George's fellow executive producer] Robert Redford."
Sadly, Redford died in September at 89, before Hamilton could meet him.
"I never met him," she says. "I didn't get to meet him [on set]. I think he wasn't real well."
Michael Moriatis/AMC
With her Dark Winds cameo and recent turn playing Dr. Kay in the final season of Stranger Things, Hamilton describes herself as a "workhorse" these days.
"It's really strange — I've sort of worked more as an older lady, as an older actress, than in my early career," she says. "So, I've enjoyed it. I mean, I really love the work that comes to me now, which isn't based on keeping your nails done or any of that stuff that goes with youth and beauty. It's liberating in some great way to shed all of that and just be a human being who's 69 years old on film."
"I'm glad I get to work," she adds. "I really do love the work. I do. We've all learned that you don't necessarily have much of a career as an aging actress, so I feel like I kind of beat that a little bit. I beat that. I think in your 40s and 50s, maybe they don't quite know what to do with women, but now that I've safely arrived at this age, it's like, go ahead. It's quite wonderful."
Based on the iconic Leaphorn & Chee book series by Tony Hillerman, Dark Winds season 4 focuses on the search for a missing Navajo girl. The search takes Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), officer Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Sergeant Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) from the safety of Navajo Nation to the gritty terrain of 1970s Los Angeles in a race against the clock to save her from an obsessive killer with ties to organized crime.
New episodes of Dark Winds season 4 air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and AMC+.
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