Susan Sarandon and Trace Adkins.

Question: What attracted you to do this series?

Trace Adkins: Having spent my entire career in country music, I know a few things about what makes this world like no other and what makes country fans go wild. With MONARCH, we introduce the Roman family, country royalty, and we wrap them up in a big, bold, unforgiving drama story, not to mention the making of some great country songs. Lovin', lyin', cheatin', betrayal, revenge, murder, a pickup truck, and a splash of Johnnie Blue. It's like my character, Albie Roman, says, "Lies are the real Roman legacy." Those are all the things you need, and that's what this show delivers, a Texas-sized love letter to country fans everywhere. About this time last year that I was getting into Atlanta and about to walk on a television set, and I had no clue what I was doing or what I was about to do; so here we are now a year later, and I'm just hanging on by my fingernails.

Susan Sarandon: I love this family and love this show. I think it's so much fun, everything I hoped it would be. I got even more, because I didn't know anything about this country music business. And thanks to my maître d' Trace Adkins, who introduced me to this world.

Susan Sarandon and Anna Friel.

Question: What it like you to immerse yourself in the country music culture? And how much is it helping you to have somebody who's been so much of that culture authentically acting beside you?

Susan Sarandon: So much fun. I mean, that's the whole bonus of being an actor, right? That you get to go into these little bubbles that you don't know anything about and find out in depth so much more. I can tell you, when they did the music, even these people that really knew how to sing, there was a whole style thing that was imposed that was quite a challenge.

Anna Friel: Trace was always there to offer as much advice as we wanted, and all the great guest stars; so I learned very much on the job and were surrounded by such incredible talent. They were patient and were there at all times to help us progress.

Question: Susan, you began your career doing soaps like A WORLD APART and SEARCH FOR TOMORORW, and after a storied body of work, here you come back to the serialized drama. What was it that drew to you to MONARCH? And do you feel like this is a full-circle moment for you?

Susan Sarandon: Well, not until you said that, but that's a good way to look at it. I just go where the fun is and where I haven't been before. Like I said, I love the storytelling of country-western music. I never knew it in depth or anything. I've smoked a joint with Willie Nelson. That was about the deepest I got. But I was so eager and looking forward to meeting Trace and to being able to, you know, wear that hair and the jewelry and find out about a life on the road. And I do know about family; so that was easy. I've never been limited by what screen something's going to be on. You know, I've guested into a number of shows. I mean, I did two seasons of RAY DONOVAN. This is a real kind of guilty pleasure, you know, "Tune in next time" kind of thing. And I just thought it would be really fun.

Beth Ditto

Question: Beth, Where did you get the courage to be a businesswoman, an actress and a singer, musician? Where did that come from? Where did the chutzpah come from?

Beth Ditto: When you don't have anything to lose, nothing matters. I'm a trailer park gal from White County, Arkansas; so it's not like I had, like, a college degree. A businessperson? That is a stretch.

Trace Adkins

Question: here are so many incredible country music stars that are going to be in this season. Is there anyone that you are looking to have on the show moving forward?

Trace Adkins: I think we should bring on Blake Shelton, let him play my stupid younger brother. That's kind of what he is anyway. (LAUGHS)

Anna Friel

Question: Anna, who or what is the inspiration behind your character? And how did you prepare? How did you develop this role?

Anna Friel: Well, my inspiration was Susan, playing her daughter. How do you live up to that, first of all? And then, secondly, was learning an authentic accent, and then just playing lots and lots of country music and practicing and practicing and practicing. The biggest shocker, I couldn't believe that most of the guest stars arrived on a tour bus, got on set, did their performance, and then got back on a tour bus to go to the next performance. And I think those of you that don't come from a world or a background of country music could potentially underestimate just how much work goes into it. I'm a huge Kaitlin Smith fan now, my gosh. I wasn't familiar with her, and she's about to get introduced on our show as well, and she's miraculous.

Meagan Holder

Question: It's very clear that the Roman siblings have gone through a lot together as the children of the king and queen of country music; so how would you describe the evolution of those sibling relationships in this show?

Joshua Sasse: I think what's lovely about it is that Beth, Anna, and I all came from such different aspects to the characters, and I think that lent itself a very sort of fun because it felt like a family in and of itself. And so that made it feel very organic. And, you know, whilst weirdly all being very different, we're all quite similar. And so that fraternal thing worked really well.

Meagan Holder: You know, I married into this family, and my character makes some morally questionable decisions and choices, but working with Anna, Beth, Josh, honestly everybody, we created such a family that we felt what we were playing. So that was really cool, just, like, marrying into a family but also understanding the drama behind it; and I think because we're all so close -- we actually became a family off set -- it was so much fun to play the drama and backstab each other and lie to each other on camera.

Martha Higareda: Yes, I want to say something too, like, echoing what Meagan is saying too. We actually created a family, and when I was casted into the show, I remember thinking, "Oh, my God, this show has everything" -- representing also the Latino community -- "that every Latino would want to watch."