Atlanta native loved being on the hunt in Netflix thriller ‘I Will Find You’
In TV and film, Atlanta native Logan Browning has played a cello prodigy, an outspoken student activist, a superhero and a ruthless dance squad captain.
But for the first time, she gets to hold a gun and chase down a perp in the newly released Netflix crime thriller “I Will Find You.” . Her FBI agent character, Sarah Greer, hunts for possibly innocent perp David Burroughs (played by Sam Worthington), a man convicted and imprisoned for killing his 3-year-old son in cold blood. He then escapes prison, thinking his son is actually alive.
“A rite of passage for many actors is having a role in ‘Law & Order’ but I never got to do that,” Browning told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You know who’s most excited about this? My mom. She loves Westerns and any kind of crime shows. She loves people in a uniform. When I auditioned for this, I ran lines with her and she gave me notes.”
Browning got to partner with Chi McBride, a respected veteran actor who has played a variety of authority figures over the years, including a big-hearted SWAT captain (“Hawaii Five-O”), a hardened detective (“I, Robot”) and a strict principal (“Boston Public”). In “I Will Find You,” McBride plays esteemed, hard-nosed agent Max Williams, who looks perpetually annoyed by whatever is happening.
“It was so helpful to be around his vibe,” Browning said. “He’s done this before. I learned so much watching him, just being around him.”
Midway through the series, Greer, an ambitious agent who is in line for a promotion, begins to suspect Burroughs isn’t a killer. “Have you ever been chasing someone you thought was innocent?” Greer asks Williams during Episode 5.
Williams’ reply? “We just catch ‘em. We don’t cook ‘em.”
Greer obviously disagrees with her elder. Browning appreciates her character’s moral compass: “We see portrayals of law enforcement that can be disappointing and hurtful. She is someone who follows a North Star.”
She also got to run across multiple New York City rooftops in a key chase scene.
“We shot that for two days in the dead of summer,” she said. “It made things feel so real. I’ve got the bruises to show for it.”
Browning said she enjoyed playing Greer so much, she is hungry for more similar roles.
“I want to do this again and again,” she said. “You watch ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ and there’s this energetic essence. You can vibe with the show and its characters. On ‘Dear White People’ (the Browning-led 2017 Netflix series), it was satire, and I had to find the humor in what I was saying and doing. This feels so different.”
Browning grew up in Clayton County in the 1990s and caught the performance bug in a Baptist church, drawn by the big hymns and animated preachers. “My parents also took me to plays and musicals,” she said. “Music and performance were always part of my life. I vividly remember going to Tyler Perry’s plays. It was such a part of Atlanta to do that.”
She said she would watch the Disney Channel and see fellow Atlantan Raven-Symone and other teen actors and imagine herself doing the same thing. “I just felt like they were my friends,” she said. “It was the first time I saw myself on television. I really connected with them.”
Browning moved to Los Angeles and built an acting career, landing recurring roles on “Pair of Kings” on Disney XD, “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide” on Nickelodeon and other shows. She took that experience and was able to successfully transition to a career as an adult.
“My mom was always on set,” she said. “I remember playing hide and seek on ‘Ned’s Declassified.’ We were allowed to be kids.”
After landing a lead role in the live-action film “Bratz” in 2007, she came back to Atlanta and worked with Perry on the TBS sitcom “Meet the Browns” as Brianna Ortiz, an adopted child who grows into a responsible young adult.
“That was pretty epic,” she said. “I got to be back home with my family and friends. And the sitcom felt like a family, too. I remember there was a big prayer at the beginning of every day. Regardless of your belief system, that really unified the production.”
Browning also spent time in Atlanta in 2014 and 2015 shooting two seasons of the PlayStation Network series “Powers” back when the video game company was dabbling in scripted shows. She played superhuman Zora, who could manipulate light into shapeable, luminescent purple cubes.
She recalled shooting scenes at the original Georgia International Convention Center building in College Park, where her mom used to work as an event planner.
“I remember running around in that building as a kid,” Browning said. “It felt like kismet.”