‘Ballard’ Star Maggie Q Tells Kelly Ripa She Got Smarter Filming The Prime Video ‘Bosch’ Spin-Off: “I Feel Very Honored”

Maggie Q‘s latest role — Detective Renee Ballard on Ballard — is one she has found to be both inspiring and informative.

The actess stopped by Live with Kelly and Mark, where viewers were shown a clip of her starring in Prime Video‘s new Bosch spin-off series.

After the clip from the upcoming crime drama — in which Q’s character tells Titus Welliver‘s Harry Bosch that she “lifted touch DNA from the fingerprint tape” —  played, Kelly Ripa told Q that she “just learned a lot about touch DNA” from “watching Court TV.”

“It’s all about touch DNA,” Ripa added.

Q, who told Ripa she is a fan of true crime, said, “Isn’t that interesting?”

Ripa replied, “Yes. Do you feel smarter playing a detective?”

“I do now, yeah. Much smarter,” Q teased. “You know, their world is very specific… It’s a thankless job. It’s a job that requires a ton of sacrifice. I feel very honored to portray the lives of these men and women.”

Q also told Ripa and Mark Consuelos that her character is “based on a real person.”

“So Michael Connelly, if you guys know the books, he had a lunch with this detective in the LAPD. I think it was 2016,” she shared. “He was so impressed with her career, very decorated detective, and was so inspired by that lunch that he decided to write the first book, which was The Late Show. And since then, there’s been six books now.”

Though Q did not name her on the show, Renee Ballard is inspired by LAPD Detective Mitzi Roberts, per Connelly’s professional Facebook page. In fact, Q said she has been fortunate enough to learn from the now-retired Roberts firsthand, explaining that she has mentored her “full-time.”

“She’s with me on the show full-time,” she shared. “How great is that? As an actor, you understand that this is the best gift that you can have.”

Consuelos and Ripa completely understood how “amazing” this mentorship is, as the latter pointed out, “That way you can go, ‘Would I really do this? Would you really do this?’”

Q highlighted how she has gotten to “observe” Roberts both on set and off.

“There’s just things that I have admired about her personality that I admire a lot that I don’t have. Like patience,” she teased. “Things that you have to have as a detective. Not knowing that these are qualities that they bring into the job that are very important. So in observing that, I was able to bring in a lot of her own personal characteristics into the character on the show that I think work really well for her.”

Consuelos replied, “Wow, so lucky.”

Live with Kelly and Mark airs on weekdays. Check out their website for your local listings. Ballard premieres on Prime Video on Wednesday, July 9.