Josh Holloway is back in the driver's seat with JJ Abrams riding shotgun in into an intricate FBI case.

Holloway and Abrams have their own tag team partners on this project in the form of Rachel Hilson and LaToya Morgan, respectively. Hilson stars opposite Holloway as Nina, the FBI's first black female agent, while Morgan is responsible for bringing Duster to life from a single mental image that Abrams conceived two decades ago.

ScreenRant's Liam Crowley spoke with Holloway, Hilson, and Morgan to discuss the collaborative process with Abrams, Holloway's legitimate stunt driving training, and the real-life inspirations behind Nina.

Josh Holloway Reunites With JJ Abrams And Gets Behind The Wheel

"I felt like I really needed to know my kitchen..."

While it's been quite some time since these two worked together, Holloway likened linking back up with Abrams to "putting on your favorite pair of jeans."

"They just fit just right," Holloway said. "We have a shorthand creatively. I love his agility as a writer. I know that it's going to be character-driven, multilayered, multidimensional, and it's going to have a point of view. That, combined with Latoya Morgan, who has this energy of this coolness, a savviness, those two combined created this incredible multidimensional character-driven show. When you memorize your lines like that (snaps), they go right in [your brain]. If it's bad writing, it won't go in. I got it because it's so good."

That writing began with a single image, the same image that opens Duster's official trailer.

"Everyone knows he's such a great director, but he's such a brilliant writer as well," Morgan said. "When we had that first initial meeting, he said, 'One of your scripts really reminds me of this image that I've had in my head for 20 years,' and that was the phone booth in the middle of the desert. 'This muscle car drives up to it, and I think Josh Holloway gets out, but that's all I've got.' I started throwing out and pitching who this character could be. In that moment, we decided we wanted to work on the show together."

"JJ told me in the first conversation, 'Don't take another show. I'm writing a show for you.' I was like, 'Dude, you had me at hello,'" Holloway added. "'You're a wheelman for the mafia in 1972.' My mind blew right there. I was like, 'Oh my God, the first thing I have to do is learn to be a stunt driver.' So I got off the phone, got on the internet, found the stunt driving school, and learned to be a stunt driver so I could slip into the skin of that. I felt like I really needed to know my kitchen."

Holloway's kitchen in this series is the titular vehicle, and he legitimately cooked just about every meal.

"I am certified. I got it for that reason. Luckily, my stunt coordinator had confidence, and we went out to the track and drove and did all the stunts," Holloway continued. "I do a lot of driving, and that's not taking anything away from our stunt team. They're incredible drivers and do the crazy stuff like launching cars and flipping them over, and crashing into other cars. Those are things they don't let me do, but they let me do a lot of driving. It adds another element to the character. It adds a lot of adrenaline to my day."

Rachel Hilson's Nina Draws Inspiration From A Real-Life Trailblazer

"She was definitely a touchstone for us..."

Starring alongside Holloway is Rachel Hilson, who plays Nina, the FBI's first black female agent. In the real world, that barrier was broken by Sylvia Mathis in 1976.

"She was definitely a touchstone for us," Morgan said of Mathis. "It was a combination of Sylvia Mathis and the women of the FBI. We talked to several FBI consultants who talked to us about their journeys. One of them specifically was a black woman who worked in the FBI in the late '70s and early '80s. We were really able to get what the authentic story was, and we really tried to infuse Nina's story with that."

Mathis served in the FBI's New York Field Office for three years, as she left the field to become an attorney in 1979. She ed away after being involved in a car accident in 1983.

"Unfortunately, her life was cut pretty short. I don't think she even got to be an agent for very long, but she was a smart woman," Hilson added. "I think that the women who came after her are just as important, just as pioneering in that way. Even the black female FBI agents up until this point are still the first of something. The first in a field office, in a state. I was able to talk to several. Jerri Williams was a consultant on our show, and she ed the FBI in the '80s. It was nice to get her perspective."

Duster streams new episodes every Thursday at 9 PM ET on Max.

Source: ScreenRant Plus