‘Found’ Star Parker Queenan on the ‘Importance’ of Playing Jamie and How He and Margaret Will Finally Move Forward (Exclusive)

Jamie’s return has caused quite the shakeup on Found, and Parker Queenan spoke to PopCulture.com about how the adjustment has been.

The actor has been starring as Margaret’s son on the NBC drama, who has returned after being taken when he was younger.

In recent episodes of Found, the series has been digging deeper into Jamie’s kidnapping, revealing that someone close to Margaret was actually responsible for abducting him. In Thursday’s episode, “Missing While Independent,” Jamie opened up to his mother about what he went through and why he’s been feeling what he’s feeling. Additionally, his abductor, Carrie, was finally arrested. Queenan discussed what’s next for Jamie and how it’s been having such a significant role on the drama. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity).

PopCulture: You have really been shaking things up on Found this season as Jamie, Margaret’s son, who went missing. What has it been like being on the show and having such a significant role?

Parker Queenan: Oh, it’s pretty cool. I didn’t realize at first how big the role was. I admit I hadn’t seen the show beforehand. I knew of it a lot, but I hadn’t actually watched it, and I had a lot of family members that watched it, when they found out I was gonna be on the show, they were like, ‘Is he playing Jamie?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, who’s Jamie?’ And I got on the show and then I realized that everyone on set were really excited to meet who played Jamie. Obviously, I very fast found out who Jamie was and the importance of that. They were very secretive when they give you these things.

They don’t tell you much information. And it was very cool. It was very exciting. ‘Cause you know what’s cool about it? You don’t get to play a lot of characters that have something kind of giving them an introduction, there’s nothing before the character most of the time. Most of the time you kind of play a character who just sort of comes in, but it’s cool to play a character who’s got a little bit of a reputation behind him or a little bit of mystery behind him before the show starts because then you’re like, ‘Okay, well now I have something to play with. Now people will be interested in me whether I’m good or not because they’ll be like, that’s Jamie,’ and there’s something there.

PC: Going off of that, both fans and everyone at M&A have been on the fence about who Jamie is and if he is who he says he is. But over these last few episodes, we’ve really been learning a lot about what happened with his kidnapping and what Carrie did, which explains why Jamie has also been on the fence about opening up. How challenging has it been to channel Jamie’s mindset and the emotions that he’s been holding in?

Queenan: Oh, it was pretty tough. It was tough because there’s a lot of contradictory things going on within him. Obviously, people in the show see that he’ll say one thing but he’ll do the opposite or he’ll want something but he won’t quite go after that thing, and there’s a lot within him that’s battling why he’s here and whether he wants to stay and whether he trusts everybody and whether he wants to open up to them, and it’s a lot of internal conflict while also understanding the fact that it’s a weird thing because if you get kidnapped and you know that you get kidnapped, it’s a bit more linear and you’re able to say like, ‘Yeah, I have trauma and I recognize that,’ but he got kidnapped and he didn’t really know he got kidnapped, and that’s I think what makes the character interesting is that he finds out that he got kidnapped.

It’s not like a Stockholm Syndrome kind of thing where he’s indebted to his captor. He kind of has two moms in a way, and he’s like, ‘Which one do I go with and which one do I trust?’ And they’re kind of mutually exclusive. He doesn’t get to have both of them. So that’s kind of a hard thing to play and to understand how it happened before.

PC: We do see Jamie eventually open up to Margaret about what he’s been through. How much did that moment mean to the both of them?

Queenan: A lot. He kinda does it piece by piece. He doesn’t do it all in one moment. He does reveal a little bit over a while, and I think that each one of those steps is a pivotal part in them coming back together again and him understanding her and her understanding him, and partly bridging the gap for the audience because there’s a lot of mystery behind who Jamie is and what happened to him, but then also bridging the gap between these two characters and the fact that they’ve been estranged for a long time. They don’t really understand each other and I think it’s got a lot of emotional impact for the both of them. They’re both very confused, but they’re confused together, which helps.

PC: After Carrie’s son is found, she comes out of hiding and is finally arrested. What can fans expect from that aftermath, and how Jamie, Margaret, and their family are finally going to move on from it?

Queenan: It’s nice. There’s a lot to be explored after that fact. Him parting from his fake mom is kind of the start of his new life, and he can be with Margaret, and he can be with M&A, and he can open up in ways, and he can meet his family again, but none of that really means anything. It doesn’t really hold water until he actually lets go of what happened to him in the past, and I think as soon as that happens and that storyline is kind of cauterized, then he’s able to really open up in a way that’s more honest to them and for them to find out what being a family is like again, with people that they know, but they haven’t known in a long time, which is tough.

PC: You talked about this a little bit already, but what have you loved most about exploring Jamie and this storyline that has been at the forefront of Found since the very beginning?

Queenan: The conflict, for sure. The conflict is the most interesting part for me because it doesn’t seem rational on the outside. I’m sure that people watch it and think, ‘Why is he doing the things he’s doing? Why not just take the easy road? Why not just say yes? Why not just open up?’

There’s a lot of reasons why he doesn’t do those things, and it’s an interesting thing as an actor, I guess, to play something where you don’t really know the answers, like the character doesn’t really know the answers, you don’t really know the answers, and you’re kind of figuring it out together, and you’re figuring out what would this mean to him if he actually does accept things in his past, does that mean that they’re real? And if he doesn’t accept them, does that mean that he can escape them? And that’s kind of a big part of it, that’s why it takes him a while, if ever at all, because it’s a really big pill to swallow. And for myself as an actor, I think the conflict was the most interesting part.

New episodes of Found air on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.