While there’s plenty of dramedies to look forward to this year, Good Cop/Bad Cop is unquestionably one of the most highly-anticipated 2025 releases. Revolving around a sister and brother detective team in a small Pacific Northwest police force, the show boasts a stellar cast of international and Australian actors, with America’s Leighton Meester at the helm.
In fact, it’s the former Gossip Girl star’s leading role that makes us – and her Good Cop/Bad Cop castmates such as Grace Chow – more optimistic about the future of female-led stories in entertainment.
“We’re half the population, and I think we’re in an era where really awesome, powerful women are in the spotlight and can be role models,” Chow tells Missing Perspectives.
“I think that Leighton was just such a great captain of a team. A comedy show is essentially a team sport. You have to work together to make the gags land,” she continues. “It was really great to learn from her. She was so professional and such a master in her field.”
While Meester (who plays Lou) and Luke Cook (who plays her brother Henry) are the central roles, the significance of the other characters is not to be underestimated. A crime comedy filmed on the Gold Coast surely needs all bases covered, and Chow excels in her role as Lily, a dispatcher for the EVPD.
“Lily is completely different from me,” says Chow. “She has this squeaky, high-pitched voice, for starters, that is just such a different vocal placement to my own. So, I’m really excited for the audience to see that.”
The departure from her usual persona doesn’t stop there. “She wears her heart on her sleeve, and really follows her instincts without any thought,” the actor explains.
“I think I’m quite a considered person. I really like to think before I speak, but Lily just says whatever’s on her mind.”
Since graduating from the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Chow has immersed herself in different elements of the entertainment world. She played Constable Cindy Cheung in Mystery Road: Origins and Wendy Hang in season 2 The Twelve, won the prestigious Griffin Playwright’s Award in 2022, and last year, was awarded a ‘Rising Star’ award by the Casting Guild of Australia.
With Taiwanese/Singaporean heritage, Chow says that forging a career in a still somewhat white-dominated industry hasn’t been easy. But the tide is slowly changing.
“Of course, there have been challenges. Of course, there have been barriers,” she says, before offering a more hopeful perspective. “But I like to think of myself as living my free, unencumbered creative life,” she says, “and it’s just waiting for other people to catch up.
“I’ve played 40,000-year-old intergalactic space princesses and futuristic snake oil salesmen and all these amazing, fun roles,” she reflects. “We’re living in the era of Michelle Yeoh. I mean, come on, she’s literally everything everywhere all at once!
“I really love that in recent times, we’re getting to see these Asian women coming into the limelight, and they were always capable of that,” the actor adds. “We were always capable of that. So it’s really great that we’re getting our flowers now.”
As she watches the entertainment world progress in terms of gender representation, this intersectionality is particularly important to Chow. She emphasises that underrepresented communities deserve to shine on the screen and stage.
“I hope that the industry continues down this road of elevating female stories and female perspectives, and all cross-sections of intersectionality,” she says, citing the “queer community” and the “BIPOC community” as examples. “[It’s] where parts of all these stories are really important to showing a great cross-section of society.”
As for Good Cop/Bad Cop, not only does it showcase some diversity in its casting, but Chow hopes it offers a hilariously entertaining and unique take on the crime comedy genre –ultimately leaving viewers feeling good.
“I think the show has a lot of heart and a lot of joy to match. So that’s all I really want – for people to walk away with as much joy and love that we had making it.”
The Stan Original Series Good Cop/Bad Cop will premiere February 20, only on Stan. Watch the trailer below:
Top photo source: Ruby Darge Photography, Make Up Artist, Stylist Anmar Sahar Hair Artist
