New Drama � SEPT—25 � 10 pm � ABCBest known for her
extended run on How
I Met Your Mother and as
Maria Hill in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe,
Cobie Smulders, 37, takes
center stage for Stump-
town, an adaptation of a
graphic-novel series, on
which she stars as Dex
Parios, a Portland, Ore.,
private investigator with a
military background and
a whole lot of baggage.What about Dex
intrigued you?
She’s unlike any charac-
ter I’ve ever read. I find
her very hard to describe,
and it’s one of the rea-
sons I’m drawn to her. It’s
this messy person who
drinks and gambles too
much, but at the same
time, she’s inherently
good and wants to help
others. It’s exciting to play
a fully realized woman.You got your big break in
comedy, but you’ve
taken on a lot of action-
heavy roles over the
past few years. Wasthat an intentional
transition?
I stumbled into How I
Met Your Mother, which
was the first comedy I’d
ever done. So I like to
continue to stumble my
way into new things,
because that’s the only
way you can grow and
challenge yourself.
What excites me about
our action sequences is
that they’re not going
to be clean. Dex is not a
spy or highly skilled, so
we want the sequences
to look like a real bar
fight, which is uncoordi-
nated and sloppy.What should viewers
expect week to week?
It’s an unusual show.
We’re really trying to do
something different and
kind of wild. We’re still
figuring it out, but people
will hopefully like our
show because of the
people in it and seeing
these characters put in
situations they don’t
know how to get out of.
—DEREK LAWRENCEmulders
STUMPTOWN’S
↓ Dex (Cobie Smulders, right) returns home
to take care of her brother (Cole Sibus)KAILEY SCHWERMAN/ABC
from # 1 NEW YORK TIMES
bestsellingAt
Death’s
DooR
arrives
9.10.19ALSO AVAILABLE
FOLLOW TOR BOOKS TOR-FORGE.COM
GET ORIGINAL CONTENT when you sign up for the free Tor/Forge monthly newsletterA DarK-HunTeR® Novel
Now In PaperbacKStYgianSherrilynKENyOncomes the fi nal chapter in
the Deadman’s Cross saga