Constance Zimmer says her ‘UnReal’ character makes no apologies for ‘getting the job done’

Constance Zimmer stars as Quinn on Lifetime's "UnReal," who is an unscrupulous boss who pushes her staff to swallow their integrity and do anything it takes to drum up salacious show content.

By Yvonne Villarreal

Aug. 4, 2016 3 PM PT

Please don’t ask Constance Zimmer to go to your viewing party for “The Bachelor.” She’ll spend the whole time texting.

The actress fiercely plays gruff executive producer Quinn King in Lifetime’s “UnReal,” a drama about the making of a popular reality dating show that is infused with cutting commentary on the genre. So when a friend invited her to a “Bachelor” viewing party after the first season of “UnReal” wrapped, yes, she was game to go boldly into Bachelor Nation.

Then fiction met reality.

“It’s almost really anxious for me,” Zimmer said, “because I watch it like Quinn. I can’t even really watch it as Constance.”

Zimmer spent most of the hour texting Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, the former “Bachelor” producer who created “UnReal” with Marti Noxon, about how eerily the fictional show matched the reality series.

“My worlds were colliding and I just, I couldn’t,” Zimmer said. “It was too much.”

Constance Zimmer talks about her character, Quinn King, from “UnReal.”

The first season of “”UnReal” drew modest ratings, bringing in an average of 1.3 million viewers per episode when DVR viewing is factored in, according to Nielsen. While the average is dwarfed by the nearly double-digit numbers the actual “Bachelor” can pull in, the acclaim and Twitter chatter it’s amassed have helped Lifetime shed its image as the Mom channel.

The series also marks a re-branding of Zimmer as a leading woman after years playing side characters on series such as “Entourage,” “House of Cards” and “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s a switch that has been embraced, with Zimmer now up for an Emmy in September.

Who do you relate to more: Quinn or Rachel (Shiri Appleby)?

You know, it’s so interesting, I relate more, weirdly enough, to Jay on the show.

To Jay?

Because Jay [Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman] is the one who is really, really struggling with the part of his job that really makes him feel horrible. Rachel and Quinn have built up kind of a lot of armor that they don’t see it anymore. It’s just their job. Whereas Jay, I think, is really — and especially in the new season — you’ll see him really struggling with, “Wait a minute, I’m trying to have a message and follow through with it, without getting swallowed up by the medium.”

Who is Quinn to you?

Quinn, to me, is a challenge every day to make sure that I’m representing not a likeable character, but a relatable character that is doing the job that is sometimes mostly a man’s job, but showing that I can do it all, and I can be in high heels and dresses, and be just as damn good, and not having to apologize for it, and not feeling like anything’s wrong with it. I’m getting the job done.

Have you ever looked at some of her lines and been like, “I don’t know if I can say this. It’s a little too much”?

Oh, all the time. Quinn is really the first character that I can’t even do in rehearsing. I can’t embody her until they say, “Action,” and I have no other choice. Because then I don’t question it, and I don’t look at it from the outside and think, “Wow, this is really mean, how can I make it sweeter?” I don’t. I take all the filters off of it and I just have to go for it. And I think it’s why I had no idea that Quinn was funny, no clue, until I watched it with an audience and I said, “Wow, that line was actually pretty funny.”

Do you think you’re going to get some more response from [“The Bachelor” host] Chris Harrison or any of the other folks involved with “The Bachelor”?

I hope so. I really like it. I mean, by the way, there are so many people in reality television that come up to us at panels and talk to us on social media, and they say, “I think you should change the name of the show to ‘Real.’”