by Erika Waddell
Best known as the inspiration for Patricia Arquette's character on NBC's "Medium," Allison DuBois uses her psychic abilities to help police departments around the country find missing persons, as well as working with the district attorney's office in Phoenix, where she lives, assisting them with jury selection. Courttv.com's Erika Waddell recently caught up with DuBois, 33, to talk about being the inspiration for a hit show, her work with law enforcement, and what it's like to see dead people.
"Medium" airs Mondays at 10pm E/P on NBC. Season premiere September 19.
Q: I understand that you are a consultant on "Medium." How much of what happens on the show has happened to you in real life?
A: I'd have to break each episode down to answer that, but I could give some examples. There was an episode where my brother, who also has the ability, was in the military and it prompted him to get out because he knew he was going to [die] had he stayed which is true. There is also an episode where my middle daughter had an imaginary friend who turned out to be a child that had died, and that happened. There's the episode where my older daughter actually worked a case with me and that's true. Sure there's some Hollywood magic thrown in, great background music and stuff, but what's surprising is that people will look at the murders and go, "That couldn't possibly happen," and I say, "I've worked way more [complicated cases] than that." But they do change a lot of the characteristics of the murder scenarios. I don't want to re-victimize the families.
Q: Do you have any script control?
A: No, but Glenn Gordon Caron [the show's creator] and I made a pact that if he wrote something I just couldn't live with, to tell him and he would try to find a way to make it okay for me. The only episode that was bothersome to me was the one about my brother because it was so personal.
Q: How did they choose you?
A: I did a pilot almost five years ago called "The Oracles," where they were testing people in my genre. I ended up making it and met Kelsey Grammer. He was co-producing it at the time, and we kept in touch. Then I got a call from his assistant about a year and a half later saying that he was interested in a series based on my life.
Q: Did it change your life?
A: Yes. It's difficult sometimes to keep your feet on the ground. I get used to having my hair done for me. Little things like that. And people are very respectful of me, too, especially in Arizona, where I live. They'll stare at me a little, but they're very courteous.
Q: Has your celebrity has given you more credibility?
A: I hope my track record speaks for itself, but I think the show has given people more of a playing field to talk about the subject of mediumship, and a comfortable place to talk about it. My mission in doing this is to break stereotypes of what a medium is because I never wanted to be tied to crystal balls, or 13 cats. I wasn't relating to what I saw mediums as being, so I appreciate being able to put my own image out there.
Q: In one episode of "Medium," your character is asked by the D.A. to lie on the stand about how she helped the prosecution. Has that happened to you?
A: No. And I said to [the writer], "The D.A.s I work with [are not allowed to] put me on the stand. They can't [use] a medium's testimony." So what does he do? He goes out and writes an episode where I can take the stand! [laughs]
Q: So a psychic's testimony is inadmissible in a court of law?
A: Of course. And now when I work on a jury -- I'm a jury consultant for the D.A.— I have a problem because people know what I look like. I can no longer sit in the courtroom, so all of the jury consultations I've done since the show's come out I've had to do from my office. They give me the completed jury questionnaires and I tell the [prosecutors] who the defense will think is okay. Also, for example, I know if a potential juror had a sexual assault or something in her history and if she'll take it out on the defendant. So we'll [choose] that person [as a juror]. It's something that the defense could never know.
Q: When you're working for the prosecution, you don't have to inform the defense that you're helping out?
A: Our argument is that they wouldn't believe it anyway. They'd have to prove that I do have the ability. And if they tried to discredit me, saying that I didn't know what I was talking about -- well, if I don't know what I'm talking about, then it doesn't really matter if I'm consulting, right?
Q: In the same episode, the defense attorney thinks your character is lying and tries to get her to crack on the stand. She fires back with information from his past and he backs off. Can you really get specific information about people?
A: I've done that more than a few times. Mediums go bad! We can't separate what we do from our everyday lives, but we do have to try and keep ourselves in check.
Q: Why do you choose to help the prosecution over the defense?
A: The prosecution puts the bad guys away.
Q: Have you ever defended someone?
A: No. But I make sure the DNA backs up in each case and that this is truly the person who tortured and killed another human being. I'm very careful about that.
Q: Have you ever gotten a strong feeling that a defendant was innocent?
A: No. I've only worked on the worst of the worst. The triple homicides, the rapes and murders.
Q: Is that emotionally draining?
A: It is, but I'm just one of many people who choose to take that on in order to make things better for the victim. When I was able to physically be in the courtrooms working the cases, the victims who had died were always sitting there, watching the court proceedings. But I don't believe that I'm supposed to be the answer in every situation.
Q: How does law enforcement deal with your legitimacy?
A: This happens all the time: Police will say, "So the medium was in another state. How could she have known where the body would be found?" And they end up investigating the profiler, thinking that she may have had something to do with the murder.
Q: Do you think that law enforcement is welcoming to mediums, or are they a last resort?
A: They're becoming more open-minded, but I do think we're used as a last line of defense. If they knew who the valid profilers were, and if there was some way to keep track of these people, that would make it a lot easier. I'm trying to train one of my friends how to profile cases. She's profiled with me but needs to learn how to read things better. For example, tattoos on the knuckles is something that people do in prison, and if you see that, you know it's someone who's served time for a violent crime.
Q: Are you paid to work a case?
A: I never accept payment to work a murder or missing-person case. I don't want to further hinder the people who have gone through such a tragedy that they have to worry about how they are going to pay me.
Q: You offered your help in the search for Elizabeth Smart. Were you approached by law enforcement?
A: A search-and-rescue team approached another profiler, and she asked me if I'd give them my information on the Smart case. I did, but the problem was that I gave the name Brian and the abductor went by the name Emmanuel. Police didn't figure out until a lot later that his real name was Brian. I had also told the profiler that it was a groundskeeper who abducted Elizabeth, but she edited my information and didn't include that. You can understand how irritated I was.
Q: Have you worked on any other well-known cases?
A: The only reason you have the Elizabeth Smart case to read about is because she's alive. In most of the cases I work the person is deceased, and I don't want to re-injure the family by them having to hear about it over and over just so I can show how great I am.
Q: What about Natalee Holloway, the missing teen in Aruba. Have you been approached by law enforcement for help?
A: Nobody's approached me on that. From what I've seen, the police there are doing a bungling job. It's hard enough working with the law enforcement here. How the hell am I supposed to work with the cops in a foreign country?
Q: Do you think there are psychics trying to get involved?
A: Oh sure. The only way for someone who does what I do to become well-known is to crack a high profile case and make a name. I understand it, but at the same time it's not the route that I took.
Q: What is your favorite part of what you do?
A: I love bringing people through who have died. I love seeing what they saw. One time an organization for parents of murdered children asked me to come and speak. There were 60 people there, and all their children had been murdered. All the kids that had died were there, too, and I could see them. I ended up reading everybody in the room. When they all walked out, they had smiles on their faces, and they hadn't smiled in a long time. That's why I do what I do.
(Published on CourtTV.com Sept. 15, 2005)
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