Hilarie Burton Morgan knows the true crime genre has people absolutely hooked.
(But all episodes will still be available to stream onAMC+after the finale airs.)
Its cases like these that make Burton Morgan consider this the most important gig shes ever done.
Jim Spellman / Getty Images / Amanda K Bailey
SELF: What inspiredIt Could Happen Here?
Burton Morgan:It was born out of a recent case that happened here in the Hudson Valley.
I had heard about this already, you know, its a really small town.
So I started investigating it through articles that had been written and through the paper covering the trial.
And they were wonderful.
They were like, Do you think theres a series here?
Do you think its happened enough that we can go to different towns?
It started off very personal.
You studied criminal justice in college.
Was that your original career plan before going the VJ/actress route?
I went to Fordham at Lincoln Center, which has a really wonderful law school attached to it.
And that was the trajectory I was on.
I grew up outside of D.C., so many of our parents worked for the government.
If you could work in Langley, that was the biggest deal ever.
The FBI and CIA would come scout at our science fairs.
And so that was my fallback plan.
I was going to go work for the government.
I was doing criminology and psychology and journalism courses.
That doesn’t mean that that interest went away.
But I remember that feeling of vulnerability when I was looking at a lot of that information.
(Also, the glamour of interviewing Beyonce was very alluring.)
When youre interviewing these people on your show, they are opening up about their trauma.
That has to be a lot to absorb.
How do you work through that?
As a small-town person, Ive always experienced other small towns by driving through.
And so if its under seven hours, I drive to these places.
I spend the time driving there getting in the right headspace and educating myself.
And then I spend my time driving home trying to compartmentalize.
Ill be honest, Im not good at that.
I dont ever want to feel like Im done with it.
So I have been struggling with that.
I actually didan episode of Tamron Hall, and I got a DM from a woman who practices mindfulness.
She was like, I need to teach you some skills.
And I was so grateful that someone saw that.
But Im not ashamed that these stories make me feel big feelings.
I think thats important.
And there is a professionalism and separation there.
What have you been doing lately for self-care?
Do you make a point to have a go at work that in?
My self-care has been doing theDrama Queenspodcast.
I know that once a week, I am going to spend two hours with my girlfriends.
Were going to watch ourselves from 2003.
Its like digging into a time capsule.
And then we get to spend an hour catching up and talking about it.
And that has been so incredibly cathartic.
Its been really rewarding to work together as producers and grown women.
And its also just fun.
We make each other laugh.
We have a good time.
And so its the light at the end of the tunnel for sure.
Mom shuts herself off in her office, and we just giggle for a couple hours.
What goes through your head when you see yourself on screen from 2003?
Im much more forgiving than I was, lets say, in 2008 or 2009.
I can view that little animal on the screen as a completely different person from myself.
So Im much more sympathetic to her.
And I just want to protect her and love her and tell her shes doing okay.
Its a much more gentle process almost 20 years later.
Were about to creep up on some horrendous hair.
And I was mortified, but I had to keep doing this TV show.
So, yes, I see a little girl whos trying really, really hard to be a grown-up.
And I love her for that.
And Im also terribly mortified by some of the stuff that we had to do.
I wear a lot of like, odd cheetah-print, creepy, schoolgirl-fantasy costumes in this show.
Its a good catalyst for having hard conversations with your kid.
Has he watched those episodes?
Oh, God no!
He does not need to see his mother kissing everybody on the planet.
Does he ever ask about your work?
What hes really interested in is the music side of it.
He was very curious, like, Whats a VJ?
And whats a record label that Peyton Sawyer is talking about?
Because in their world, people just release a song on YouTube or TikTok and it goes viral.
So that old system is really interesting to them.
Hes going through his Nirvana phase right now.
So hes like, Oh, you were the emo girl.
Whats new on the farm?
Were having a fox problem right now.
We just lost a bunch of chickens.
And this fox is so bold.
My husband has been cataloging our interactions withThe Sato Project.
We got a dog from Puerto Rico 12 years ago while I was pregnant with my son.
He was a jungle dog, total feral animal, like a coyote.
He was hit by a car, and we paid his vet bills and then brought him back stateside.
Erwin could be the answer to my fox problem.
What if hes ferocious?
He was a jungle dog.
He could be intimidating.
Has it been really nice living outside of the limelight?
I moved here in 2010.
This community has been so wonderful and protective.
When we moved out here, there was no such thing as Zoom; there was no Skype.
Id love it if you would come and do this.
And thats a really nice way to build a career because its based on your merit.
And its based on your work ethic on set and your performances and your relationships with people.
Im not good at this song and dance, but Ill show up for work and know my lines.
Are there certain farm chores that de-stress you?
Jeffs the animal person here at the farm.
And so teaching my kids and growing with them is certainly my favorite thing.
Every night before dinner, we do a ride around the property in an ATV.
And the point is to make a lot of noise so predators dont sneak up.
But this fox doesnt seem to care, so I need a bullhorn or something.
Are there any negatives to farm life?
Im good in spring, summer, and fall.
But the snow gets a little cumbersome.
I turn into a snowbird and Im like, Hey, we should go to North Carolina.
Should we go visit Dad?
Its pretty in December, in January.
But when you start getting into that February, March, April snow, I get fatigued.
How did you overcome that fear?
I never want to be afraid to try something for fear that its going to land poorly.
I think these families deserve our effort, and they deserve people like me to take risks.
And if I fail, its only because I was trying.
I can post about these cases and get pretty good interaction.
And so its hard for me to temper celebrity with activism.
