Minka Kelly shatters 'broken woman' mold - New York Post

Minka Kelly, who stars in the upcoming Fox drama “Almost Human,” knows a thing or two about portraying broken characters.

The 33-year-old actress is best known for her role on “Friday Night Lights” as Lyla Garrity, a high school cheerleader who cheats on her paralyzed former quarterback boyfriend with his best friend and later finds religion. In a guest arc on “Parenthood,” she was cast as an Asperger’s aide who ends up having a one-night stand with her charge’s uncle. And she is currently starring in the DirecTV series “Full Circle,” playing an unhappily married woman debating running away with a British student.

In “Almost Human” — which premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on Fox — Kelly takes on a different type of role as Det. Valerie Stahl, a human intelligence analyst working on the police force in the year 2048.

Kelly with “Almost Human” co-star Michael Ealy. The series premieres Sunday night.

“I was excited about playing such a strong, smart woman. Previously I’ve played really broken characters and it was just fun to play someone so strong,” Kelly tells the Post via phone from Vancouver, where the series is filming.

Stahl is described as the smart and insightful colleague of leads Det. John Kennex (Karl Urban), who is suffering from depression and PTSD after surviving a catastrophic attack on the police department, and his android partner (Michael Ealy). Kelly — who once dated New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter — says the palpable chemistry between Stahl and Kennex in the pilot episode will continue throughout the season, which serves up a fair number of surprises about her character.

“There’s a lot more to her than meets the eye. I’m not saying she’s necessarily a robot but who knows,” she teases. “There’s a lot to be revealed and there may or may not be some stuff between her and Kennex — but you definitely will be getting into her back story and why maybe she may or may not be able to have any romantic relationships.” While “Almost Human” is a police drama, it’s not your garden variety procedural given its auspices — it’s created by J.H. Wyman (“Fringe”) and executive produced by J.J. Abrams (“Lost,” “Person of Interest,” “Revolution”) — and its futuristic setting. Kelly compares it to a cross between “Minority Report” and “Blade Runner.”

“Yes, I guess this is a cop drama but this is not like any cop drama you’ve ever seen before because we are set in the future,” she says. “They’re able to come up with scenarios and crimes and criminals that are so much more evolved than you’ve ever seen.”

Future cases tackled on the show include a criminal armed with a gun that can track down its targets by their DNA and another criminal putting real women’s DNA on sex bots and using them for their “services.”

Since Kelly was the last actor cast — she flew out to film the pilot two days after auditioning — she had zero prep time for technical scenes like a shoot out at the end of the first episode. Fortuitously, her role on the short-lived “Charlie’s Angels” reboot — which ABC axed after seven episodes in 2011 — ended up finally paying off.

“Luckily on ‘Charlie’s Angels’ I had really extensive SWAT team training and weapons training and I learned how to fight and I learned how to handle weapons and so that came in really handy,” Kelly says. “I remember the guys being like ‘thank God you know how to hold a gun’ because no one told me.”