Ladies love outlaws, Waylon Jennings once sang, and it’s an attraction that does not always have a good outcome.
Things are not looking good at the moment for Tara Knowles in “Sons of Anarchy,” admits Maggie Siff, who plays Tara in the acclaimed FX drama, which continues its sixth season at 10 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’ve been joking that Tara is the place people go to see their dreams die,” says the Bronx-born Siff, 39, previously best known as Rachel Menken on “Mad Men.”
When “Sons of Anarchy” began, Tara was a surgeon who had returned to her hometown of Charming, Calif., after 11 years away. She immediately ran into Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), heir to the “Sons” motorcycle club and her high school boyfriend.
They reconnected. Before too long, Tara was kidnapped and her right hand smashed in the door of the getaway van.
It’s been mostly downhill from there. Tara is now facing a long prison term, fears her children could be in danger and seems to have drifted away from Jax.
“I think she’s lost right now because she’s lost her ability to be a doctor and a healer,” says Siff. “She has to turn her attention to other things and I think it’s really wreaking havoc on her and bringing up the darker parts of her nature.”
Tara has never been afraid of a little violence. She once shot an abusive ex-boyfriend, and after Jax finished him off, they immediately had sex.
But while she’s drawn to Jax’s aura of danger and shares some traits with his force-of-nature mother, Gemma (Katey Sagal), Siff says part of Tara’s role is to not be them.
“One of the things that was alluring to [show creator Kurt Sutter] about having me was the feeling, ‘This is somebody who's different.’
Siff says she’s “trying to figure out how Tara fits and doesn’t fit, and then slowly gets pulled back into a world that she’s worked really hard to define herself against.”
Tara’s ambivalence has sharpened this season as she and Jax circle each other with mutual suspicion of betrayal. That’s even reflected, says Siff, in the sex scenes.
“They’re always awkward to film anyway,” she says. “Charlie and I have a real shorthand for how we do those things. We talked about it and were like, ‘All right, here we go,’ and we did it and it was sad, but I think it was a good moment for the show, to show the depth of how disconnected they are.”
Still, on some level ladies still love outlaws. “I don’t know,” says Siff, “where it will end.”
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
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