SciFiAndTvTalk

Kiefer Sutherland Returns in Season Two of Fox's Touch - February 2013

Actor Kiefer Sutherland.

Touch, the critically acclaimed adventure drama series starring Emmy Award winner Kiefer Sutherland (24), will launch its anticipated second season with a special action-packed two-hour premiere on Friday, February 8th @ 8;00 p.m. EST/PST on FOX.

In Season Two of Touch, the dramatic action shifts from New York to Los Angeles, where single father Martin Bohm (Sutherland) and his gifted son, Jake (David Mazouz), are on the run. Their critical mission is to help distraught mother Lucy Robbins (Maria Bello, ER) find her missing – and equally gifted – daughter Amelia (newcomer Saxon Sharbino). When it’s discovered that they are all targets of the mysterious and possibly sinister corporation, Aster Corps., the desperate search for Amelia intensifies. Factoring into the unfolding equation is the genius of Aster Corps., Calvin Norburg (Lukas Haas, 24), who’s on the verge of making a career-defining discovery, as well as the extreme religious zealot Guillermo Ortiz (Said Taghmaoui, G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra), who stops at nothing to attain his vision. As ominous connections appear, Martin remains determined to uncover a global conspiracy in order to protect his family and save the lives of the innocent.

Canada's SPACE Channel to Air Derren Brown: Apocalypse

Psychological illusionist Derren Brown. Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE Channel.

Before the Mayan calendar flips to Doomsday, SPACE asks viewers “what if the world ended tomorrow?” From BAFTA Award-winning psychological illusionist Derren Brown, Derren Brown: Apocalypse uses a compelling blend of suggestion, psychological tricks, and experiments to construct an elaborate and shocking stunt to convince one person that the planet has been devastated by a catastrophic meteor strike. The subject at the centre of the experiment is left to believe that he is one of a mere handful of survivors. The gripping two-part special airs back-to-back on Wednesday, December 19th @ 9:00 p.m. EST, exclusively on SPACE.

The hapless ‘survivor’ at the centre of Derren Brown: Apocalypse is someone who, admittedly, takes life for granted. After waking up disoriented in a hospital bed, he makes his way outside only to discover the aftermath of the meteor strike. Buildings are in ruins, the streets are in disarray, and there are infected zombies everywhere. His sense of responsibility, leadership, compassion, and courage are tested every step of the way as he tries to survive the devastation – and the zombies.

Derren Brown is a performer who combines magic, suggestion, psychology, misdirection, and showmanship in order to seemingly predict and control human behaviour, and perform mind-bending feats of mentalism. While his performances create the illusion that he has some kind of paranormal powers, Brown is a prominent sceptic and a pronounced atheist.

For the past 10 years, Brown has created TV and stage performances that have stunned audiences, debunked the paranormal, and encouraged many to improve and enhance their own mental abilities. His first show appeared in 2000, Derren Brown: Mind Control, and followed with a series of specials. His television work also includes the hugely popular The Events, Hero at 30,000 Feet, and the more recent Experiments, in which Brown sets out to explore the darker side of what makes us tick as human beings.

In addition to his award-winning performances on stage and television, Brown is also an accomplished artist, exhibiting at the prestigious Rebecca Hossack Gallery in central London, as well as being published in a collected volume of works. Brown is also keen writer, penning four books to date which include Absolute Magic, Pure Effect, Tricks of the Mind, and Confessions of a Conjurer.

As noted above, photo copyright of Bell Media and the SPACE Channel, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks! 

Syfy Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary With a Star-Studded Special

Warehouse 13's Eddie McClintock is among the many familiar faces appearing in Syfy's 20th Anniversary Special. Photo copyright of Syfy. 

Happy Birthday,Syfy!  On Monday, December 10th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST, the channel will celebrate two decades of award-winning, imaginative entertainment programming during the star-studded Syfy 20th Anniversary Special.

Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff. Photo copyright of Syfy.

From iconic series such as Farscape, Battlestar Galactica and Warehouse 13 to Ghost Hunters, Face Off and the upcoming transmedia experience Defiance, the special will look back on Syfy’s official launch (September 1992) and evolution, and ahead to the future through the personal, behind-the-scenes insights of the creative talent themselves.

Being Human's Sam Witwer. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Said Dave Howe, President, Syfy & Chiller: “For 20 years, Syfy has been the leader in visionary and provocative entertainment programming. In this celebratory special, the extraordinary talent at the heart of the powerful Syfy brand will talk exclusively about the lasting impact Syfy has had on the media landscape for the last two decades.”

Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer. Photo copyright of Syfy.

In the two-hour telecast, a wide range of actors, directors and producers will share their memories of popular scripted shows including Alphas, Battlestar Galactica, Being Human, Caprica, Defiance, Eureka, Farscape, Haven, Lost Girl, Sanctuary, Stargate: SG1 and Warehouse 13.

Total Blackout's Jaleel White. Photo copyright of Syfy.

Showcasing a treasure trove of memorable clips, the special will feature interviews with the hosts of the hit unscripted programs Destination Truth, Face Off, Ghost Hunters and Total Blackout. Narrated by Dean Cain (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman),The Syfy 20th Anniversary Special will also talk to the stars and creators of Original Movies and Miniseries such as Dune, The Triangle, Taken, Tin Man, Alice, Neverland and Sharktopus.

Face Off's McKenzie Westmore. Photo copyright of Syfy.

The Syfy 20^th Anniversary Special is produced by the Emmy Award-winning company Associated Television International. Executive Producer: Jim Romanovich. Producer/Director: David Stephan. Associated Television International is an Emmy® Award-winning company that has been successfully producing and distributing television series, specials and feature films for over three decades.  ATI produced Mysteries, Magic & Miracles, one of Syfy’s first original series.

As noted above, all photos copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Production Begins On New FX Series The Americans

Keri Russell.

Filming on FX’s new drama The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, has commenced in Brooklyn.  The series is slated to premiere January 2013.

Matthew Rhys.

The Americans is a period drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. shortly after Ronald Reagan is elected President.  The arranged marriage of Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), who have two children – 13-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 10-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who know nothing about their parents’ true identity – grows more passionate and genuine by the day, but is constantly tested by the escalation of the Cold War and the intimate, dangerous and darkly funny relationships they must maintain with a network of spies and informants under their control.   Complicating their relationship furtheris Philip’s growing sense of affinity for America’s values and way of life. Tensions also heighten upon the arrival of a new neighbor, Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent.  Stan and his partner, Agent Chris Amador (Maximiliano Hernández), are members of a new division of Counterintelligence tasked with fighting against foreign agents on U.S. soil, including KGB Directorate S illegals, Russian spies posing as Americans.

Created and executive produced by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies), a former CIA agent who went on to become an accomplished author, The Americans is produced by Fox Television Studios and FX Productions. Joel Fields and Graham Yost are also executive producers, along with Amblin Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank.   

Q & A with Zachary Quinto - American Horror Story: Asylum

Zachary Quinto as Dr. Oliver Thredson in American Horror Story: Asylum. Photo by Frank Ockenfels and copyright of FX.

Six years ago, Zachary Quinto sent shivers up the spines of TV audiences with his portrayal of the superpowered serial killer Sylar in the NBC Sci-FI saga Heroes. Prior to that, the actor made his debut in the short-lived supernatural series The Others. He later guest-starred on such shows as CSI, Touched by an Angel, Charmed and Six Feet Under as well as appeared in the recurring role of computer expert Adam Kaufman in Fox’s clock-ticking 24. Quinto also played Sasan, the gay Iranian/American best friend of Tori Spelling’s character in her VH1 series So NoTORIous.

In 2009, the actor put his own (successful) spin on Star Trek’s iconic Vulcan character Spock in producer/director J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the feature film franchise. Quinto reprises his role in the upcoming Star Trek: Into Darkness. Last year, he played Chad Warwick, who died tragically in season one of FX’s American Horror Story. Quinto is back on the show this year and, in American Horror Story: Asylum, he plays psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson, who is, in fact, the notorious serial killer “Bloody Face.”

Recently, the congenial and talented actor/producer enthusiastically participated in a conference call with me and other journalists to talk about his role on American Horror Story: Asylum as well as career in general. The following is an edited version of that Q& A. Enjoy!

When did you discover that Dr. Thredson was “Bloody Face?” Did you know from the beginning and, if so, did that inform your performance at all?

Zachary Quinto:  Yes, I knew from the very beginning. It was part of the conversation that I had in the first place with (series co-creator/executive producer) Ryan Murphy about me coming back to the second installment of the show. It very much informed the character that I was building from the beginning.

As a result, I felt like my responsibility became to create a character that people could trust, or at least trust initially, and have some hope that perhaps he is actually the one voice of reason and sanity within this chaotic world. So it was actually more exciting for me to know from the beginning. It gave me more to play with as well as more to hold back and more secrets to keep.

Dr. Oliver Thredson (Zachary Quinto) in the season premiere of American Horror Story: Asylum. Photo by Frank Ockenfels and copyright of FX. 

We’ve only seen a little bit of his evil thus far, but how is this character different from Sylar in Heroes? Is that something you were concerned about as far as audiences making comparisons between the two, and what is it that hooked you on really wanting to play this part?

ZQ:  I think any time an actor revisits territory where they’ve been before, it can be a source of trepidation, as it was for me. However, part of the reason that I loved what this opportunity stood for was, and that I knew going in, is that I got to really build something. With Heroes, that character was built before I was ever attached to the show. There were eight episodes of anticipation that were built before you met “Gabriel Gray (Sylar)” in Heroes, but I had no participation or opportunity to sort of contribute to that. It was just a character being spoken about.

So with American Horror Story, it was really exciting for me to go in and, having all the beforehand information, actually be part of the process of creating a character. That, to me, was a difference. It was something that I thought, “Yes, that makes sense.” It also has a similar structure to the journey I had on Heroes, at least with introduction of the character, or the “reveal,” which proved very effective in that scenario and I felt I could really also serve this story in this particular innovation.

Also, this is more rooted in character and relationship, and less in the sort of peripheral elements like superpowers. I liked that this was grounded and real. That type of direction is something I’m always drawn to, and this isn’t a six-year commitment as it could be with another show.  It’s self-contained and an immersion that I’m not going to be repeating or carrying on for an extended period of time. It’s something I got to contribute to as well as benefit from and grow and learn with. So I was really excited about all those elements.

Lily Rabe, Jessica Lange, Ryan Murphy and Zachary Quinto at the Prime Time Emmy Awards. Photo copyright of FX.

Now that we know Thredson’s very dark and dirty little secret, are we going to get into the psychosis behind the psycho and find out why he’s doing this, because he seems to be focusing a lot on Lana (Sarah Paulson) and her girlfriend Wendy (Clea Duvall)?

ZQ:  The most recent episode) The Origins of Monstrosity really dives into a lot of the roots of the characters in the Asylum world. So yes, a number of things will become clearer and probably even more disturbing in the next couple of weeks.

You and Sarah Paulson have a good friendship off-screen; how does that dynamic impact the show’s themes, especially considering, like you said, things are only going to get darker from here.

ZQ: Well, I have a great deal of respect for Sarah as an actress, and it’s a rare and unique opportunity to show up to work with a really good friend. Oftentimes, friendships are formed on-set and through these kinds of experiences working together in such intimate and unusual ways, but it’s even a richer experience when you already have that foundation of friendship. There’s an implicit trust and sensitivity to each other as well as one another’s needs, instincts and individual process. It’s really a remarkable gift in a lot of ways. We’re also able to have more fun, I think, and laugh at a situation a little bit more. There’s less awkwardness to cut through, too.

So I think it strengthens the connection that the characters share, whether it’s friendship, torture, being/taking a hostage, etc. I mean, I love going to work anyway, no matter who I’m working with, but in particular with Sarah, it’s been great. I think she’s doing such wonderful work on the show and I also just love watching her character and the journey she’s taking. Lana has gone to so many extreme, challenging emotional places, and Sarah has done all that so beautifully and dynamically. So it’s been a joy for me, really, this whole experience.

In light of your character’s recent revelation, was everything prior to that a ruse, or is there a side of Oliver that deeply believes in the psychiatry part? I mean, one of the last things we saw him do before the big reveal was tell Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) that Charlotte had post-partum depression and recommended she shouldn’t go home, which was a smart move on his part. But again, was it all just blending in or does he believe in that?

ZQ: I feel that he definitely believes in it. Part of being a psychopath is an ability to dissociate from one reality and create another one completely. I think Oliver does that expertly. He’s very skilled, given his level of training, medical training and instincts.  

That’s what allows him to get away with it for as long as he does. So yes, I think he does believe in it, which is kind of another layer of tragedy of the character. Oliver could have been something else. He could have made a more significantly positive contribution had he only re-channeled his traumas and energy.

Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto) in the Asylum episode "Tricks and Treats." Photo by Michael Yarish and copyright of FX. 

Was your approach to playing your character different in Season Two of the show with Thredson/Bloody Face being more of a threat as opposed to Season One and playing Chad as a victim?

ZQ: Yes. I feel like last season’s story was just told in a different style. This year is a period piece and there are other considerations that go along with that, just in terms of characterization, I think. I don’t know how much it has to do with playing an antagonist this year rather than the victim. That’s all just circumstantial.

There are still a lot of psychological manipulations going on from one end that makes it a little bit more veiled, or always holding something back this season. But that’s just all fun. However, I just think of it in terms of who the person is and what’s driving him. Obviously those motivations were very different for Chad than they are for Thredson.

What can you say about the victims that Thredson is targeting? Obviously, they’re all women. What do they all have in common and what is it about them that make them his targets? Also, do you have any interest in returning for Season 3?

ZQ:  So for the first part of that question; you’ll find out much more about that in the coming weeks, I won’t spoil it by being too specific, but it all traces back to one source of trauma that then sort of branches out to include all these unfortunate women.

As for your second question, I read today that the show got picked up for a third installment, which is very exciting. I’m so glad that it’s doing so well and people are really responding to it. FX has been amazing and so supportive and, I think, innovative in the stuff that they’re doing. It’s great to work there and be a part of it. I haven’t had any conversations with Ryan about what he’s thinking for the third season, so I have no idea.

I love my job and the people that I do it with and I always want that to be the case. So I know he has plans and if they involve me, I’m sure I’ll get a call at some point, but I don’t know anything about it yet. I’m just focused on getting through the rest of this season and moving onto the next phase of stuff that I have lined up.

Oliver (Zachary Quinto) and Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) in the Asylum episode "I Am Anne Frank, Part 2." Photo by Byron Cohen and copyright of FX. 

Was your decision to do this series based on the fact that it’s not actually American horror, in so much as it focuses more on modern horrors in the world right now?

ZQ:  I actually think it’s mostly uniquely American as far as the way that it’s structured in the certain instances and also in what it’s looking at. There are the sort of Catholic institutions in this country, in particular, and the social history of racism, homophobia, sanity, psychiatry, the idea of how to treat people who are mentally ill, etc. I think those are all very American ideas and concepts and the way in which we dive into them is also really American in the style of storytelling.

For example, the episode that aired a couple of weeks ago, episode five (I Am Anne Frank, Part 2), I thought Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who directed it, did an incredible job. I was so inspired by his direction and the camera work. It felt like such a wonderfully composed episode. I think that is really somehow reflective of modern day-America and also where we’ve come from. That’s what excites me about the kind of show that we’re making as well.

Having been involved with Season One of American Horror Story, did (series co-creator/executive producer) Brad Falchuk and the others allow you to provide input into your new character in Season Two?

ZQ; Yes, I had a few conversations with Ryan and Brad before we started. Ryan and I discussed what he was thinking and I had some questions and a chance to contribute to what I would like to see. Once they get going, though, it’s like their engines just drive them and all of us forward in such surprising and unexpected ways. So the vast majority of that comes from them and actually brings the show to life. That’s how I see it.

You’ve played some very different characters – in Heroes there was a lot more to Sylar than met the eye. In Star Trek you played an iconic Spock, and now you’re playing a psychotic serial killer psychiatrist. What was/is your favorite and most fun character to play?

ZQ: That’s a good question. I feel like each one of those experiences was so profound and unique. The past six years has been just full of growth and creative fulfillment for me. It’s hard to sort of narrow it down one, because they are accumulative in a lot of ways. As far as the TV aspect of it goes, I would say that I feel more settled as I’m getting older and my experience of things feels kind of more complete.

So Thredson has been very satisfying to me in that regard. I just feel like I’ve been carrying more of my experience with me into my work and as I get older, that deepens naturally. That’s kind of cool, but I just like to do good work, or try to do good work with good people and I’ve been very, very lucky in that regard. As long as I continue, that’s all I could ask really.

Zachary Quinto at the American Horror Story Season Two Premiere Screening at Paramount Studios. Photo by Brian Dowling and copyright of FX.

We have seen your American Horror Story character become a big focal point with this big turnaround involving Bloody Face, but what are your other favorite storylines, outside of your own, on the show that you really are excited for people to find out more about?

ZQ:  I love watching the Kit (Evan Peters) storyline; I think Evan is fantastic. I’m also really enjoying what Lily Rabe is doing with her character of Sister Mary now that she’s got the “devil” inside her. That’s such delicious stuff and she’s doing a great job with it. I can’t take my eyes off Jessica Lange, either. She’s so committed to her ferocity of instinct and extremely riveting and inspiring at the same time.

I love working with these people. I wish I had more to do with James Cromwell (Dr. Arthur Arden). I’ve never really crossed paths like the doctor in the asylum, but maybe there’s something to look forward to there. We’ll have to wait and see.

Did you always know that American Horror Story was going to be an anthology?

ZQ: No, I didn’t. When I did it the first time around, the timing of it worked out really well for me because Star Trek had gotten pushed, so I ended up having like a little bit of a window that I didn’t expect to have, and Ryan called to ask. I just thought it was going to be a couple of episodes and it ended up being four episodes last season. But I didn’t know what it would be, and then it was in the middle of that, that Ryan actually brought up the idea of the second season being entirely different.

That was the beginning of the conversations, which really intrigued me, obviously. I had been exploring the possibility of another specific job that would have been a more traditional sort of TV structure and it was really exciting in its own way. When Ryan presented the plan to me about this, there was no question that it was a bit more unique as well as exciting to me, and because of that, it made my decision pretty clear.

This season is more challenging, too, because I’m more of an integral part of it and there’s more work to do to help build my character’s arc because it’s a more extensive one. So therefore it’s more rewarding and more fulfilling in a way, because you’re really seeing something through from the beginning to the end. That’s cool and I’m having a good time with that.

As with the house in Season One of American Horror Story, the asylum is like a character on the series this year. Can you talk a bit about how the environment helps you get into character?

ZQ: That’s a great observation, because I think our production designer and the art department have done such an extraordinary job of creating this immensely oppressive, overwhelming environment, which does have actual characteristics depending on what part of the set you’re shooting in. I just think it’s a gold mine of information and opportunity for action and activities along the way, and makes such a full environment for us to work in.

It’s great, and that continues in the coming weeks because you get to see much more of the lair in which Lana is being held captive and where a lot of their scenes take place. Then there’s the hydrotherapy room and what that invokes and what happens in there as well as the bakery, the grand hallway, all the cells, the offices, the oppressive, concrete olive green kind of brown-beige and that overall institutional feeling. Growing up, I went to Catholic school and this really invokes a lot of the same imagery. The iconography and stuff with statues; I think all that is so well-realized in the world. I’m really grateful to the creative team behind that because they do remarkable work.

With the dark, and so intense, subject matter, how hard is it for you to step away from that when not on- set? How does this character have an emotional effect on you?

ZQ:  It does to a degree, but I consider it my responsibility to myself to be able to discern the boundaries in my life. So I really try to separate myself as clearly as possible. As a trained actor, that’s part of what I learned how to do, too, as far as going to college and studying and cultivating a technique that allows me to enter some of these really complicated, psychological landscapes and not get lost in them. But yes, I certainly have outlets and various things I do in order to make sure that I stay grounded and clear. It’s also what’s kind of fun about it. I know I can let myself go in certain ways, because I won’t go off in other ways that are important.

How do you prepare mentally to play this dark, demented kind of role, and do you enjoy it or find it more of a challenge?

ZQ: It depends on the scene. There are different levels of preparation for different scenes in different kinds of work. So I have a combination of things that I do. I usually just find some solitude and quiet in a little corner of the set where there’s not a lot of traffic and not a lot of people around and do what it is I need to do. I listen to music a lot, if I need to get into a particular emotional space. I use that and other sort of stretching exercises as well as breathing and taking time to mostly be quiet and find that kind of stillness.

I think that’s important. I love playing characters that go to extreme places and I love to explore different kinds of psychological landscapes. So it’s ultimately a kind of fun, but it’s also complicated and colored by the depth of the nastiness of it at certain times as well. That can be a challenging part.

As noted above, photos by Frank Ockenfels, Byron Cohen, Brian Dowling or Michael Yarish and copyright of FX, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Lost Girl Season Three Premieres in January 2013 on Canada's Showcase Network

Showcase's top-performing original drama, Lost Girl, returns for a third season on January 6th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/PST on Showcase. This season sees everyone?s favourite succubus, Bo (Anna Silk), making life-altering decisions that may have deadly consequences. To gear up for the new season, Showcase has produced an all-new special, Lost Girl ConFAEdential, airing the same night, and unveils a state of the art mobile gaming app.

Lost Girl follows supernatural seductress Bo, a tough yet lovable Succubus who feeds off sexual energy. After realizing she is one of the Fae creatures of legend and folklore who live among humans, Bo refuses to choose an allegiance to either the Dark or Light Fae clans, leading her on a personal path of discovery.

The series welcomes Rachel Skarsten (The Vow, Flashpoint) to the cast as Tamsin, a thrill-seeking, sexy new Fae who ruffles many feathers. Emmanuelle Vaugier (Two and a Half Men, Covert Affairs) reprises her role as The Morrigan, the leader of the Dark Fae. Making a special guest star appearance is two-time Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actress Linda Hamilton (The Terminator, Beauty and the Beast) as Acacia, a tough, sexy and ruthless assassin. Rounding out the cast are series regulars Kris Holden-Ried, Ksenia Solo, Zoie Palmer, Rick Howland and K.C. Collins.

Kicking off the third season is Lost Girl ConFAEdential, a catch-up show where faenatics get up close and personal with the cast as they discuss the on and off camera antics of the past two seasons. The special is set to air before the season three premiere on January 6th @ 8:00 p.m. EST/PST on Showcase.

The all-new mobile app, Lost Girl: The Game, is an exciting social experience that connects fans internationally. Featuring an original storyline, written by the show's writing staff, the game invites fans to create a customized Fae character which they can use to navigate a thrilling mystery set in the world of Lost Girl. Users can solve puzzles and brain benders with the help of their favourite Lost Girl characters. Available for download on iOS and Android devices, the free mobile gaming app launches in January 2013 via showcase.ca. 

Lost Girl was developed by Prodigy Pictures in association with Shaw Media and Showcase. Executive Producers are Jay Firestone, Emily Andras, Plato Fountidakis, and Paul Rapovski. James Thorpe is Co-Executive Producer, Vanessa Piazza is Co-Producer and Wanda Chaffey is Producer.

Primeval: New World's Danny Rahim - Sense of Security

Primeval New World's Mac Rendell (Danny Rahim). Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

Actor Danny Rahim is all smiles as he walks into the Vancouver publicity office of Primeval: New World (a spin-off of the hit UK Sci-Fi series Primeval). Having gone through hair and make-up, he is kitted out in his character’s familiar togs and ready for work. His character of security specialist/firearms expert Mac Rendell is among a handful of brave individuals responsible for protecting the city and its population from unwanted intrusions by creatures from Earth’s past (and in some cases future). It is a job fraught with risk and danger, but one that Mac has eagerly taken on. For Rahim, booking his role on New World was a long process and a challenging one, but the actor could not have been more thrilled with the outcome.

“My original audition was in the UK,” says Rahim. “All the actors who were reading for the role were sent two scenes ahead of time to learn. So I went in, did both scenes and it went great. Everyone there was extremely helpful and just open to letting you explore the character and try different ways of doing so.

“When I got to the second audition, the atmosphere felt tense and the actors who were already there looked really panicked. I thought, ‘OK, something’s up. What’s going on?’ It turned out that an extra [audition] scene had been given to everyone. The thing is, I have dyslexia, so it takes me a little longer to learn. I have special filters and other things that I do at home to make it easier for me.

Mac Rendell (Danny Rahim) - ready for action! Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

“I walked into the room and explained the situation. I said, ‘I’ve done the other two scenes and you’ve seen what I can do with a bit of prep time. If I try to learn this now, I’m going to be thinking about that the whole time that I’m in here with you. I gave it a shot anyway and it was an absolute disaster. At the end I just apologized, but then everyone in the room had a chat and said to me, ‘We love what you did in the first audition. Can you come back tomorrow and redo this scene?’ So they gave me another chance and I redid the scene the next day.

“From there it was just a matter of waiting. I kept being told that I’d know for sure by Friday, but then Friday would come and I wouldn’t hear anything. It’s funny because I’ve actually gotten into the routine of doing an audition and then forgetting about it. If not, you start pondering over it and thinking, ‘Did I do it correctly? Should I have done this? Should I have tried that?’ and you drive yourself mad. So by the time it got to those Fridays and the weekends I figured, ‘OK, I didn’t get it. I hope it goes well for whoever did.’ Then, however, one Tuesday, I finally got the call offering me the role. Two days later, I flew over to Vancouver to start work on New World,” says the actor with a smile.

Across the pond in Primeval: New World, wealthy inventive genius Evan Cross (Niall Matter) leads a team of specialists that track down and investigate Anomalies or rips in time that allow the passage of dangerous creatures into our modern-day world. He has a very personal reason – which is explained in the series opener – The New World – for doing this, and Mac Rendell is among those that Evan specifically recruits to help him. At the time of this interview (early July), Rahim and the rest of the New World cast and crew were shooting the two-part season one finale, and by now, the actor was quite at home walking in Mac’s shoes.

Mac (Danny Rahim) in the New World opener "The New World." Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

“When I got the original [audition] breakdown for my character, it said that Mac is charismatic and fun,” recalls Rahim, “so I thought, ‘What elements of my personality can I bring to the character to try to make him me in a way as opposed to projecting or playing someone else?’ So I used my sense of humor and joked around and did things the way that I would do them. There was a bit of improv and I just played myself, which I loved. I was told that that was exactly what they were looking for, so it was a gift in many ways and when we began filming I was able to bring more depth to Mac because I was playing sort of elements of myself as well as aspects of my character

“The biggest challenge this season with Mac is that he has a huge story arc where a great deal happens to him.  It’s very ambiguous at the beginning as far as where his arc is headed, but we learn more and more with each new episode. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to mention a lot of what goes on down the road, but I can tell you that there are some things he experiences that I haven’t as yet experienced in my life, perhaps even loss and grief. Along with the lighter moments, those are the sorts of things that, as an actor, you have to try to portray as truthfully as possible. That’s been tricky for me, but I’ve worked quite meticulously on it and, hopefully, I’ve been able to achieve it in my performance. That’s all part of the fun, though. This is like play to me. When you can come to work and it doesn’t feel like work, that’s the best possible position to be in.”

Having committed his fortune as well as the resources of his high-tech firm, Cross Photonics, to finding a way to stop or at least control the Anomalies, Evan was not about to cut corners when finding the best possible people to take on such a task. Along with Mac, his team consists of predator expert Dylan Weir (Sara Canning), techie Toby Nance (Crystal Lowe) and government military liaison Lt. Ken Leeds (Geoff Gustafson). He has also placed considerable confidence in Angelika “Ange” Finch (Miranda Frigon), who handles the day-to-day running of Cross Photonics. While the level of interaction amongst the characters varies, there is a common dynamic that binds them together.

(L-R): Mac Rendell (Danny Rahim), Dylan Weir (Sara Canning) and Evan Cross (Niall Matter). Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

“All of us came to the show with an idea of who our characters were and where they were headed, and the writers also had their ideas of who these characters were and where they were headed,” explains Rahim. “Out of that has developed, I think, some really strong onscreen relationships, to the point where the writers looked at our performances and began building upon certain relationships. For example, Mac and Toby have this should they or should they not be together type of vibe. Are they like brother and sister or is it more than that? There’s actually a big scene that we’re filming later today where something happens and their entire relationship is put in jeopardy.

“Stepping outside our characters for a moment, this is the first time I’ve ever worked with a cast that, after we wrap for the day, we’ll go out to eat together. We also sometimes like to go to the movies, and on the weekends we hang out with one another. We’re really like a family, and that’s great because we’re almost playing a family onscreen. We’re able to take so much of how we relate to one another and what we do in our own time and bring it to the show. That allows us to dig deeper into our characters’ relationships as well as personalities and how they all relate to each other.

"What’s neat is that as the season goes on, you might be thinking, ‘Oh, I know where it’s heading with these two,’ and then things get totally flipped around, Never get complacent,” teases the actor, “because it will almost always change. Not only does that keep us actors on our toes, but hopefully it will also keep the audience on its toes and engaged.”

Mac (Danny Rahim) in the season one episode "Fear of Flying." Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

While successfully steering clear of major spoilers, Rahim is able to reveal a little more about what viewers can expect to see where Mac is concerned. “As I mentioned earlier, there’s this big thing that happens in my character’s arc that really turns his world upside down and was a huge acting challenge for me because I had to explore something that I had never explored before in real life,” he says.

“Mac gets a few of these curves thrown at him throughout the season. His journey begins as a security guard at Cross Photonics, but then all kinds of things happen to my character as well as around him, and there are points where he could go one way or the other. As to exactly which way, you’ll have to watch and find out.”

Growing up in the United Kingdom, Rahim initially looked to the sky when it came to dreams of a future career. “I always wanted to be a pilot and fly planes, but then I found out that my eyes weren’t 20/20, so I could never become a pilot. That set me back a bit because it was something I really had my heart set on,” notes the actor.

Toby Nance (Crystal Lowe) and Mac Rendell (Danny Rahim). Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

“When I was younger, my mum became very ill with depression and my dad passed away. That’s just the way life is sometimes, but when I was at school and as my mum got more and more ill, my schoolwork began to deteriorate and I was sort of a cheeky naughty boy at school. I loved football, and at one point I’d go to school, have lunch, play football and then go home. So the school basically told me that I couldn’t play on the football team anymore unless I did something that was out of my comfort zone.

“Well, my best friend, who was also a bit of a tearaway, and I ended up being cast as the leads in Guys and Dolls. We hadn’t anticipated anything like that. We figured that our teachers would make us play ‘tree number one’ and ‘tree number two’ and then we’d go back on the football team. However, we were given a real opportunity to prove ourselves, and after that, my teachers said to me, ‘We’re going to put you in another show and send you to the Edinburgh Festival so you can have a go there.’

“They actually helped me audition for all the various drama schools. I guess they saw something in me, and I discovered a love for acting later on. I went on to study at the Manchester Metropolitan University School of Theatre, where I graduated in 2008, and here I am today,” he enthuses.

Danny Rahim as Mac Rendell. Photo copyright of Bell Media/SPACE.

The actor’s first job in front of the camera was in an episode of the 2009 British TV series Unforgiven. “I remember having to ADR [automated dialogue replacement] every single line on this job,” says Rahim. “I think I had three or four scenes, one of which was set in a lecture hall and there were hundreds of students, a piano playing and lots of rustling along with some other stuff. So that’s what I blame  anyway for having to do all that ADR, and not my performance,” jokes the actor. “Seriously, it was a terrific introduction to the screen. I remember going to set when I wasn’t filming and just watching, because no matter how much you’re taught in school, nothing can replace the experience of actually being on-set.”

Rahim also appeared in the feature film Late Bloomers as well as the short movie Olives with Your Tea and an episode of EastEnders. Prior to New World, the actor played Jagdeep Gakhal in Young James Herriot, a three-hour miniseries based on the TV show All Creatures Great and Smallabout the university days of legendary Yorkshire veterinarian James Herriot, set in 1933, Glasgow, Scotland.

“What was brilliant about that job is that I got to play a nerdy scientist with a beard, a lab coat and a pair of really cool Harry Potter-type glasses,” he says. “It was one of those opportunities where I wasn’t playing close to myself. I became very much more well-spoken and had to talk about all these tests and scientific experiments that I’d never heard of. I was on You Tube every night working out how to do certain tests and how to actually pour this into that when my character was onscreen creating something.”

Although he has only been in the acting business for a relatively short time, what makes the work rewarding so far for Rahim? “The great thing about this business is when you can help tell a story that affects others,” muses the actor. “When we were filming Young James Herriot, we met James Herriot’s family and they were all overwhelmed by what we were doing. When you know you’re affecting even just one person it makes everything worth it. I’m not quite sure how a Sci-Fi dinosaur show will have a similar sort of impact, but even if it’s a matter of someone who after having a really bad day, coming home, sitting back and escaping for an hour, then, again, it’s all worth it. It’s never a bad thing when you’re able to affect people positively.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photos copyright of Bell Media/SPACE, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Omnifilm Entertainment to Release Primeval: New World Dinosaur App Games

65 million years ago dinosaurs roamed the earth, but today they’re back, and they’re hungry! Now they can eat your unsuspecting friends, co-workers and family members as Vancouver’s Omnifilm Entertainment is set to launch two mobile apps associated with their new television series Primeval: New World, for Bell Media’s SPACE.

The North American spin-off of the UK’s Primeval series follows a specialized team of animal experts and scientists who discover dinosaurs and other dangerous predators emerging onto the streets of modern-day Vancouver through anomalies in time and space. Their goal is to return the beasts back to their age with as little carnage as possible. The SPACE original series airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET.

To extend the fan experience across multiple platforms, two mobile apps have been produced to bring Primeval: New World onto the mobile platform, with features that appeal to a wide variety of users and age groups.

“The audience for Primeval: New World brand is very savvy and comfortable with technology. There are already dozens of fan sites popping up, and we’re seeing strong buzz in social media. We are delighted to provide this very active fan base with unique new ways to interact with the dinosaurs and the characters across as many platforms as possible,” says Gabriela Schonbach, Partner at Omnifilm Entertainment and Executive Producer of the series.

“Primeval: New World has the richest and most diverse collection of online and mobile content we have ever launched for a SPACE original series,” says Bill Lundy, Senior Producer of Digital at SPACE. “Not only are we offering our viewers an exciting and engaging website with unique user generated content, but we are also providing them with mobile app game experiences. The cross promotion of the television series through these different mediums is a perfect fit for our engaged audience.” 

The first App, Primeval: dFX – Dino Movie Maker, is easy to use, generates hilarious, shareable video clips, and is ideal for a general audience, even those who do not consider themselves “gamers.” The trailer for this App is available at www.primevalnewworld.com/mobile.php.Users can select from a variety of dinosaurs featured in the TV series, record a video clip using their iPhone or iPad camera, and then the App quickly inserts the selected dinosaur into the video clip. The resulting clips bring the Primeval: New World creatures into home video clips of viewers everywhere. All videos can be saved for epic montages, uploaded to popular social media channels, such as Facebook, or emailed out to friends and family.

The second mobile App, simply called Primeval: New World, is more of a traditional platform game. Players can choose which character from the series they want to control. The PNW characters embark on missions to defend the streets of Vancouver from dinosaur attacks, work to capture creatures, and rescue civilians. As players move up levels and enter into new environments, they collect tokens and points to be redeemed for in-App purchases.

Primeval: dFX  - Dino Movie Maker launched in the iTunes App Store ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/primeval-dfx-dino-movie-maker/id570264600?mt=8 ) on November 10th and is already top 100 in 5 countries, and climbing with an average of over 450 installs per day! The Primeval: New World platform game hopes to launch on November 22nd. The mobile Apps were produced for Omnifilm Entertainment by based Robots and Pencils, with the financial support of Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Canada Media Fund, and SPACE (Bell Media Inc).

Q & A with Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome's David Eick and Luke Pasqualino

Actor Luke Pasqualino as young William Adama in Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome. Photo copyright of Syfy.

In December 2003, the-then named Sci-Fi Channel aired the three-hour miniseries Battlestar Galactica, a re-imagined version of the original 1978 TV series. Not long after, a weekly series premiered, and for the next four seasons, a human-made robot species called Cylons carried on with its self-appointed mission to destroy the survivors of the race that created them.

That series was followed by a prequel, Caprica, and currently a second prequel, Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome, is airing online as 10 12-minute installments in conjunction with Machinima.com. Set in the tenth year of the first Cylon War, it chronicles the adventures of William Adama (Luke Pasqualino), a young pilot and new recruit assigned to the newest battlestar in the Colonel fleet – the Galactica.

Last week, Blood & Chrome co-creator, co-writer and executive producer David Eick (executive producer/writer on the re-imagined Battlestar series and executive producer on Caprica) along with Blood & Chrome’s Luke Pasqualino - who joined the call in progress -  enthusiastically spoke on the phone with journalists about working on this latest installment of the successful franchise. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!

Did you have an entire 13-episode arc planned out for Blood & Chrome?

David Eick: No, but there was an entire 10-episode arc planned out because this was originally developed as an online project. As such, I'm so happy to have such a great and comprehensive cross-section of the press here today because there's a certain record I’d like to set straight which was a little bit frustrating to me a few months ago when I saw the headlines that the Blood & Chrome project had somehow been rejected or was a failed pilot or wasn't going to make it on the air.

It was never intended to be a traditional TV pilot, so to speak, such that Syfy not picking it up in a traditional manner to an episodic series was some kind of a rejection or failure. It was always developed, at least from my point of view, as a project for an online environment and something we’d develop and structurally build as a ten-part sort of a series. The concept was similar to the 1930s style movie serials where you have ten minutes of story and a cliffhanger followed by ten minutes of story and the cliffhanger. Then after ten of these episodes, it would all kind of resolve itself in a pre-act structure as a whole movie.

So when I set out to develop this, my thinking was to design a mission, so to speak. Of course, once the characters and the overall idea had been approved by the network, this mission, as missions often are in the military sense, was then divided into ten smaller missions. That's really what we wound up with and what the audience is now seeing. I think where the confusion came in is that for a moment, after seeing the script, the network said, "We don't want to rule out the possibility of just advocating the online venture altogether and throwing this up as a pilot for a traditional series to Syfy."

There were discussions about that, but there was a genuine feeling that we had really designed something altogether groundbreaking from a visual effects (VFX) standpoint and to stick with the original online plan and then, who knows, maybe on the air on DVD insofar as subsequent future episodes or stories.

Again, it was never taken as any kind of rejection or failure that this didn't wind up as another Syfy pilot. Blood & Chrome was always designed to be something much more unique and special and I'm thrilled it finally reached its distribution and has been seen/will be seen by the people it was intended for.

Do you hopefully have another story planned after this one?

DE: Well yes, in fact, as an exercise, which is not uncommon with these types of projects, me, (writer/executive producer) Michael Taylor, (writers) David Weddle and Bradley Thompson got together and with Jonas Pate, our director, hatched the next mission. Should be fortunate to go forward, it’s sort of what the next leg of this character study would involve.

There was absolutely a very organic kind of evolution of where we leave the characters at the end of this story and what we would pursue as our next tale. I'm very hopeful and optimistic that we'll be doing that soon.

What are some of the biggest differences between Blood & Chrome and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica TV series?

DE: What we decided to do differently to make it fresh and accessible as well as evocative but not duplicative of the last Battlestar was to make this a green screen composite universe.

We literally had a green screen stage with a massive lighting configuration that was something you'd see at a Rolling Stones rock show, and could accommodate a variety of different looks and environments. Then using a painstakingly built creative army put together by Gary Hutzel and Mike Gibson, our VFX guys from the earliest Battlestar days, we were able to achieve a look and a level of 3-D immersive compositing detail that I think you would compare much more easily to what you see in cutting edge feature films than to anything on television.

In the latter I include, by the way, TV shows that have ten times the budget we had. The reason we were able to achieve that, and I'm not bragging, I'm just giving a reasonable assessment of what's different, is that since the first Battlestar mini-series that we did in 2003, we built brick by brick this assembly of artists and experts and engineers and geniuses who have nothing but love for the product.

So with Blood & Chrome we didn't use a VFX house. We didn’t go outside the boundaries of our in-house unit and we sort of handcrafted our shots. By doing that and by combining that expertise and those artists with old fashioned sort of ancient in camera filmmaking techniques – which because of Jonas Pate and our Director of Photography Lukas Ettlin, we have the craftsman with the know-how to employ - we were able to create digital environments that are completely arresting, totally real, tactile and immersive and yet never require us to leave that green screen stage. And when I say old fashioned techniques, I mean diffusion, darkness, shadow, snow storms, and things that (pioneering Soviet Russian film director and theorist) Sergei Eisenstein would've done 100 years ago. That doesn't cost anything except your ingenuity.

I think because of those factors, we've been able to create something that feels completely different from the Battlestar that people may have seen three and four years ago, but that still retains a certain echo of that time so the fans still feel like they're immersed in that same universe.

Did Bear McCreary score all of Blood & Chrome or were the various episodes farmed out to different composers? Will there be a soundtrack available also when the DVD comes out?

DE: I don't know the answer to the soundtrack question. Every episode of Blood & Chrome is simply a ten minute chunk of a larger movie we made, so Bear's score is, of course, prevalent in all the episodes and I'm hopeful if we carry on doing more we'll get Bear back.

Where did the idea for doing another Battlestar prequel come from?

DE: I was asked by the network to think about a concept under the umbrella or the rubric of the Battlestar Galactica cannon and that would make sense as an online series. So I began thinking about the character of William Adama (Edward James Olmos) and the fact that we had seen him depicted as a very stoic, strong and very uncompromisingly anti-Cylon admiral and commander in Battlestar Galactica. We then saw him as a child exposed to an alternate, immoral world in Caprica. I thought it might be interesting to see what Adama might have been like when he was his son Lee Adama's (Jamie Bamber) age and a young, crackerjack hot-gun pilot, fresh out of the academy.

Also, where did his hatred of Cylons come from? Why was this man that we will later meet in Battlestar Galactica so uniformly and uncompromisingly committed to the utter eradication and disillusion of this race of robot people? Where did that come from? Was it because he was a prisoner of war? Was it because he was involved in some horrible conflict? He wants to incinerate them, but why?

The more I thought about it, the more I finally came up with the answer that he was emotionally driven. That his hatred came from a very personal place, and through that experience, Adama came to believe that the Cylons were an unforgivable race of creatures. Then, of course with them responsible for humankind’s genocide and attacking us, the Cylons had to be eradicated. However, beyond that there was something far deeper and personal driving him. So that was the sort of nucleus of it, and I just proceeded from there.

David, how important was/is it for you to keep telling Galactica's story? And then Luke, have you seen the Galactica TV series and how excited are you to be part of it?

Luke Pasqualino: David, do you want to go first?

DE: Why don’t you go first, Luke. I've been talking everyone's ear off.

LP: Okay, buddy. Actually, before I even got sent the pilot script (for Blood & Chrome) I’d heard of Battlestar Galactica and the phenomenon it was, but never actually sat down and watched it. When I found I'd been offered the role of Adama in this early 20-year-old period of his life, the furthest thing from my mind was watching anything that Edward James Olmos had done because I think you're seeing this character at two very different ages and completely different stages in his life.

I didn't want anything that Eddie did to influence my interpretation of the material. So I tried to steer clear from watching any of his work, but I did watch Caprica. Mr. David Eick made that a priority and kind of homework for me, really, and I loved it. To be part of the Battlestar franchise now and to be welcomed onboard as this young William Adama character is truly an honor and I’m very grateful for the opportunity.

DE:  As far as was it important to me to continue this, yes, I think it was. I consider myself terribly fortunate and uniquely blessed to have been given the opportunity to jump into this world and reinvent or re-imagine the Battlestar universe. It has been my number one vocation, now entering into its second decade, and remains my favorite thing to do; to write, create, produce, be on sets, in cutting rooms, the visual effect rooms, the casting rooms, etc., and be involved in all things Battlestar. It's where I’m happiest and where I think I do my best work, in all humility. It’s something I hope I'll have a chance to continue to do.

I’ve always wondered what happened to William Adama between Caprica and now. Are we going to learn anything about that?

DE: I certainly think we had every intention of exploring that interesting conflict between the William Adama who's committed himself to fighting in a war, and whose father we've come to know in Caprica, might have a very strong opinion against. In the Blood & Chromepilot we see an offhand reference to this idea that William's father was a mob lawyer and that maybe strings were pulled to create certain opportunities for Adama. Those are definitely interesting and complex relationship trends that we want to explore.

In fact, we went to great lengths with Blood & Chrome to not be” cute” about too many nods and winks to characters from Battlestar or Caprica. At one point, there was a discussion about having young William Adama in the hangar deck maybe bump into some young school teacher who is getting a tour of the Galactica. She introduces herself as Laura Roslin and her and Adama sort of move past each other. However, then I thought, “I don't want to be that cute or literal with it. If we're going to do stuff like that, we'll save that kind of thing for later on.”

There are a number of little Easter egg nods to the faithful Battlestar fans and anyone watching the Blood & Chrome DVDs or online will be able to recognize them. But I think one of the things that there will be less resistance to is to and to think about is perhaps having Esai Morales who played William Adama's father in Caprica, reprise his role in some capacity in a future episode. Do we show some of that conflict and strain between father and son and uniquely kind of contradictory impulses that a mob lifestyle and military lifestyle sort of present?  That's all really rich storytelling—top soil for us – to pursue if we get the chance to go forward.

We know at some point during the Cylon war that the Cylons teamed up with the Final Five. At some point are we going to get a chance to see the Cylons team up with the Final Five and potentially bring back those characters?

DE:  Those characters are stuck in a timeline or finite time frame, so it might be confusing for the audience if suddenly they were to see, for example, Colonel Tigh (Michael Hogan) in an episode of Blood & Chrome, even with the minutiae of that mythos apparent to the Battlestar faithful, I think it underscores the larger point here which is that we really are making Blood & Chrome for a new audience as well as Battlestar faithful.

As adherent and faithful as we are to the mythology into the history of the Battlestar universe, we're not slavish to it to the point where only nine people on a message board are going to get a kick out of it and everyone else is confused. That's not our intent or agenda.

Luke, as an actor, how do you retain the emotional core of your performance when you're surrounded by so many technical challenges, not the least of which is working with green screen?

LP:  When I first came onto the set and saw this huge sound studio full of green, I thought I was in some kind of field somewhere. But really, the biggest difficulties acting-wise were when we were doing scenes in the Raptor where Jonas Pate, our director, would be saying, “OK, there's going to be a bomb lying over top of you now,” or, “Something's going to hit the screen now.” Trying to judge those points is tough.

If I'm honest, though, I didn't find it as difficult as you might think to get the emotions and the messages across just because the cast I was privileged to work with. Ben Cotton, who played Coker, was absolutely fantastic. He and I overcame it together. Ben and I sat down and chatted about how we needed to work in order to overcome this green-screen difficulty.

I think it’s a matter of trying to pull yourself out of the fact that you're actually working on a green screen and, instead, focus as much as you can on the material and heart of the writing. That became so much more important that we didn't even think about the green screen surroundings.

I didn't realize how lucky we were to be doing this all on green screen. We had the opportunity to take this journey anywhere we wanted because we could literally put any kind of backdrop into this Syfy/Battlestar Galactica world. So it had its pros and cons, but I think we managed to overcome any of the latter and executed what we had to do and what was most important as well.

David, between Battlestar and Caprica what did you learn from an accessible storytelling standpoint that you were playing out in Blood & Chrome?

DE:  That's a wonderful question. As I was saying earlier, this was a story that came from a very personal place for me and it was really about exploring the root of what made Adama tick. This would be the Cylons and how that was informed by the character’s love relationships, his understanding of the potential for betrayal despite love and the importance of a male figure in his life who he could depend on even above and beyond his own blood relations. Beyond that, I also felt that there was an obligation if we were going to reintroduce Battlestar into the public that we tell stories that felt accessible.

We had done a tremendously thorough job of defining an elaborate and confluent mythology. That mythology would always stand intact, but this would be something that would function on a different level. I wasn't able to write the script, though, because I was already committed to a couple other projects, However, I had this story that I wanted to tell, and I was so fortunate that I was able to go to Battlestar alumni who had written the type of stories that evoke exactly what I was hoping Blood & Chrome would achieve. Hard hitting, mission oriented, accessible stories that had depth and emotion and would be unusual in that they would extend into darker and more human places than science fiction normally goes, which is always the hallmark of Battlestar.

So Michael Taylor and David Weddle and Bradley Thompson were at hand, God bless them. Together we were able to break the story in detail, and then Michael Taylor wrote a gorgeous script that stunned everyone and got this thing green-lit. That's really the tale of how it all came together, but the emphasis has always been on for the fans of Battlestar episodes like Ties That Bind, Act of Contrition and Hand of God. These are hallmarks of great battles or episodes that if you've never seen an episode of the show before were still wonderfully thrilling and engaging.

Luke, how did you approach the William Adama character to really understand who he is in this time period as compared to what we saw later? Was that easy for you since he was already established?

LP:  I think, and I mentioned this before, it was a question of trying to establish William Adama as an early 20-year-old when he's already been established in his kind of 40s and 50s, as Edward James Olmos portrayed him, and to see him now as the kid.

Being 22 myself, I know that being this early 20-year-old, especially when you're going into something new like the flight school that he attended, can be quite a difficult time for a young man. But I think my main goal was to not let anything that Edward James Olmos did influence my interpretation of the material.

I wanted to go in there with a fresh head and, again, I didn't know too much about the franchise before I got the role. So, I did my research and knew Edward James Olmos' and his character. David Eick gave me some great homework which was to watch Caprica, which I did, and I thought just to take this on with only the Caprica theme in mind was key for me as an actor to try and get across the point.

And obviously having producers like Michael Taylor and David Eick, director Jonas Pate, my co-star Ben Cotton, all of us playing together on our little team helped us get the message across and bring out the valuable points in the script. I did feel quite a bit of pressure doing an American accent. That was a big factor, too, but the key to the final product was just trying to get as many of the technical aspects out of your head and connect with the material as much as possible.

As noted above, photo copyright of Syfy, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Q & A with Grimm's Bitsie Tulloch

Bitsie Tulloch as Juliette Silverton in Grimm. Photo copyright of NBC.

It is never a good thing to keep a secret about yourself from your significant other. For Grimm’s Nick Burkhardt, that has become a matter of life and death. At the start of the show’s first season, the Portland, Oregon police homicide detective discovered he is descended from a long line of ancient profilers called “Grimms.” Nick’s ancestors were able to identify a race of supernatural beings or “Wesen” and spent their lives keeping humankind safe from these creatures.

Nick (David Giuntoli) has since had to balance his responsibilities as a Grimm with his police work as well as his personal life. That has not been easy, though, as all three worlds seem to be colliding more and more. He chose to keep his girlfriend Juliette Silverton (Bitsie Tulloch) in the dark about being a Grimm. Nick felt it would keep her from harm, but then he crossed paths with Adalind Schade (Claire Coffee), a Hexenbiest. Having a score to settle with Nick, she poisoned Juliette with a tainted cat scratch in Grimm’s season one finale, Woman in Black, sending her into a coma.

In the second season episode The Kiss, Nick’s boss, Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz,) gets a potion from Adalind’s mother that will wake Juliette from her coma. He succeeds in waking her, but the “cure” ends up wiping away Juliette’s memories of Nick while creating a passionate obsession between her and Renard.

Earlier this week, actress Bitsie Tulloch chatted with me along with other journalists about Juliette’s situation this season and what might be ahead for her and Nick. The following is an edited version of that Q & A. Enjoy!

So there’s a huge episode coming up this week (“Season of the Hexenbiest”). Can you give us a little bit about what’s going on between Nick and Juliette in this episode and how the return of Adalind may play into that?

Bitsie Tulloch: Well, Adalind is basically back to wreak havoc everywhere she can. She’s trying to sort of avenge her mother’s death, and how much my character plays into that story line remains to be seen.

Obviously based on last week’s episode (To Protect and Serve Man), it’s coming to a place where Juliette and Nick are going to have to talk about what’s going on. But the reality is that she doesn’t really understand what’s going on because she’s under a spell and doesn’t realize. She kind of just woke up one day and started having these intense feelings about Captain Renard.

Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) hovers between life and death at the start of Grimm's second season. Photo copyright of NBC. 

We saw Juliette and Renard kiss at the end of last week's episode; can you maybe pick up a little from there and tell us what’s going on with that in this week’s episode?

BT: The reality is they’re both inextricably connected to one another and neither of them understands why. I mean, Renard probably has a better idea why just because he’s more familiar with the Grimm world. Obviously he agreed to do the purification rite so that he’d be pure of heart when he kissed Juliette, but I don’t think he fully grasps what’s going on now as far as this intense attraction. And it’s not getting any better, either. It’s just getting worse and worse and stronger and stronger, so you haven’t seen the last of that yet.

When we last saw Monroe (Slias Weir Mitchell), he walked in on Renard and Juliette and they were kissing in The Spice Shop. Is he concerned about keeping that secret or does he think, “OK, I really have to tell Nick.” Can you talk a little bit about that?

BT: For the most part Juliette has been fairly honest and straightforward inasmuch as she can being given that there’s so much that she doesn’t know and is not being let in on. In reality, she doesn’t necessarily feel like this sort of behavior is becoming to her. But when it comes to her and Renard’s reason for going to The Spice Shop, it’s because he calls Juliette and says, “I know how we can fix this.” She’s like, “OK, let’s fix this otherwise we are never seeing each other again.” She is having a bit of a hard time fighting these feelings for Renard, but Juliette doesn’t want this to continue.

When she turns around and sees Monroe, she knows him and he knows her. She’s also aware that Renard is Nick’s boss, so now all of a sudden it’s just this tumultuous state of affairs.

Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) and Nick (David Giuntoli) in season two's "The Other Side." Photo copyright of NBC. 

What sort of new acting challenges have you found with the role of Juliette this season insofar as having to play her without her memories of Nick?

BT: It’s been hard. It’s certainly a harder story line than what I had last season. But, you know, there was a very strange coincidence. I read a lot of books by neurologist of Oliver Sacks, one of which is called The Mind’s Eyeabout prosopagnosia, a facial blindness where people can’t recognize their loved ones. Even though that’s not really what Juliette has – I mean, she can see Nick’s face – it was just interesting to me to think about how terrifying it is for these people who can’t recognize their loved ones.

So for her to wake up with out her memories of Nick and for me to then have to play it as if she was just meeting this guy for the very first time was interesting. You have to put aside everything that you use as an actor when it comes to finding (onscreen) chemistry) so that you’re coming to it with a blank slate because in this case, Juliette’s mind is pretty much blank right now with regards to Nick.

So it’s definitely been more fun for me as far as everything that’s been going on this season and obviously getting to make out with two sexy guys as opposed to just one is never a bad thing.

I’ve really been enjoying the scenes between your character and Sasha Roiz’s character. Can you maybe talk a little bit about having the opportunity to act more with him this season, and do you have a favorite scene so far between the two of you that you could perhaps speak a little bit about?

BT: You know, it was funny, when Sasha and I read that we were going to be love interests, he and I were dying because we’re like best friends. We were laughing so hard and were like, “Oh, my God, this is going to be kind of weird because we’re so close.”

So there was a lot of giggling, especially the first time we had to do a kissing scene. There’s a scene in episode 213 – the first one to air when the show comes back in the New Year, whenever that is - which involves Renard and is amazing.

As far as what Sasha and I have shot so far that was especially fun, there was the scene a couple of episodes ago when we’re all at that awards ceremony. The whole group is there and Renard and Juliette are both getting so nervous around each other and he then drives my character home. Of course, Juliette doesn’t realize that he follows her into the house and watches her take a shower. That whole day of shooting was fun, and actually the entire episode was pretty fun, too.

Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) in the season two mid-season finale "Season of the Hexenbiest." Photo copyright of NBC. 

In the episode “La Llorona” a couple of weeks ago Juliette describes a childhood that is similar to your own childhood from Spain. How did your back story become her back story? How did that get into the script?

BT:  Well, (series co-creators/executive producers) David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf have been remarkably, amazingly generous with the cast. Sasha for example, speaks Russian because his parents are Russian so he speaks Russian and a little bit of French having grown up in Montreal and they wrote that into the show.

One of the things I’m really proud of is that the cast is very ethnically diverse and multilingual. Reggie Lee (Sergeant Wu) is Filipino and he speaks fluent Tagalog. I speak Spanish because I grew up overseas in Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. So when they decided to do La Llorona they thought what a wonderful way to have this episode that’s incorporating the fact that I can actually speak Spanish.

So we basically did a South American/Central American and Southwestern United States fairytale that I by the way had heard of. When my family first moved back to the States, we lived in San Diego for two years. I had heard La Llorona because my mom’s background is Spanish/Spain.

They [the producers] have just been really great about trying to incorporate any sorts of skills that the actors have into the show. I know that they asked Reggie if he could think of any Filipino, Chinese or Asian fairytales that he was told as a child. So that might happen down the road. I think one of the greatest things about working on the show is the fact that it’s so collaborative.

Nick (David Giuntoli) and Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) in "The Bottle Imp." Photo copyright of NBC. 

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales are very rich material, and the writers have used that to create sort of a Europe based mythology with the royal families in Europe and all of that. However, we’ve also seen Mexican and Native American legends recently on the show. Do you know if that was a conscious move on the part of the producers/writers to be more culturally diverse?

BT: I know at Comic-Con, the producers/writers were saying that one of their main intentions for the show’s second season and going forward just in general was to make this show as international as possible. At the same time, they wanted to remain true to the original fairy tales. After all, the reason that we’re here in the first place, which are the Brothers Grimm.

But the producers have also always said that it’s not just about the Brothers Grimm, but about fairy tales in general, so why not make it international? That’s especially true because the show does very well internationally, and I think one of the reasons for that is because not only is the format is fun, but also easy to follow in the sense that, for example, people in Guam or Malaysia are probably familiar with the Cinderella story. So it’s been kind fun to just see a modern twist on the storytelling.

In “La Llorona,” Juliette meets an older Latina lady who instantly senses that she is torn between two men and this woman is almost like psychic about it. Are we going to see that lady again? Could she help Juliette?

BT: I’m not sure if we’ve seen the last of her. I don’t know. She freaks me out, though. So I think my character would probably be happy to never see her again but who knows?

When Juliette gets her memory back is there any chance she’ll aid Nick in fighting the Wesen?

BT: I have no idea, and if I did I probably couldn’t tell you. I would love to, though. Anytime my character gets to be a badass I’m a happy camper. I love doing that kind of stuff. It’s exciting for me.

Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) in season two's "The Hour of Death." Photo copyright of NBC.

There is such great chemistry amongst the entire Grimm cast. How do you guys continue to maintain that?

BT: I think a huge part of that has to do with the fact that we’re still all very close to each other still. I mean, we were all out drinking on Saturday night together until the wee hours of the morning. I had just gone to a basketball game with David Giuntoli and we met up with the rest of the gang.

Being on-location and working such long hours, some strange hours, too because we work at night quite a bit, we tend to interact with each other a lot more. Not only does David live in my building, he’s two doors down from me, and Reggie lives a couple of floors up. We all live in the same neighborhood and we hang out together a lot. So I think the chemistry is just there because we genuinely really like each other.

Also, Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt are such sweet guys and (executive producers) Todd Milliner and Sean Hayes are very warm and welcoming. The Koufs have a Grimm viewing party every Friday at their house, and I had a huge party for La Llorona because I was live Tweeting during the episode, so everybody was over at my place. We’re just a very close and friendly bunch.

Which Wesen did you respond to the most visually or story wise or if there was one that was particularly frightening to you?

BT: The cannibal-like Wesen in the episode that aired last Friday (To Protect and Serve Man).They were super creepy. Another one that I thought was sort of a sexy Wesen was the Mauvais Dentes, the saber-toothed tiger-like creature from the first two episodes of this season.

In Grimm’s first season it seems like Juliette’s profession as a vet played a fairly big part in the story. Sure, we didn’t get to see her at work a lot, but it definitely played a big part in that Adalind brought her cat to Juliette and that’s how she got sick. So going forward this season will we see more of Juliette at the vet's or as a vet and how that might play into her recovery?

BT: I’m not entirely sure because we don’t get more than one script at a time, but I personally love shooting anything as a vet because I love animals and then we always have a lot of like stage animals that I get to play with all day long.

But as far as my character’s concerned, they’ve really been focusing on this love triangle right now with Nick, Juliette and Renard. I haven’t yet shot anymore scenes yet as a vet, I’m made it very clear to them that I love any time I get to play with furballs.

Bitsie Tulloch as Juliette Silverton. Photo copyright of NBC. 

In Season One, your character seemed much more demure and ever since then the cat scratch coma she seems to be a bit more unhinged. As an actor, do you enjoy playing the darkness of the obsessed Juliette?

BT: Yes. I definitely prefer that. It was a very loving relationship, but I personally had a hard time relating to the way Juliette was scripted in Season One because she was so patient with Nick, and I’m very impatient. If he had been my real boyfriend, three days in I would have been asking him, “What’s going on? You sit down. We’re working through this. Don’t lie to me. I know something’s up.”

Juliette is coming from a place where they’ve been dating for three years. She knows that he was basically orphaned and then in the first two episodes of Season One, Nick’s aunt, who raised him, died. So Juliette is very compassionate and understanding and was just giving him space because she felt like that’s what he needed the most. Then she sort of began thinking that maybe what happened with Aunt Marie was why he was acting so weird.

But yes, definitely, Juliette having this weird obsession and being under a spell and also dealing with this crazy memory loss has been a lot more fun for me as an actor.

As an actress, what are you wishing for, for Juliette to get her memories of Nick back or to remain the way she is right now and why?

BT:  That’s an excellent question. I think it would be pretty cool if she eventually gets her memory back and then what’s her reaction going to be like this time? Is it going to be the same as it was the night in the rain when Nick told Juliette and she thought he was crazy? On the other hand, having gone through everything she has gone through this season, is all that going to make her open-minded?

So at a certain point I think it would definitely be nice for Juliette to get the memories back. I’m not quite sure what their (the producers/writers) intention are. I sort of know but I’m not going to say anything, but at the same time, like I said, it’s been really fun having to not only juggle this love triangle but also play with the memory loss. In that sense it’s been kind of fun as an actress to go through, and it’s certainly been a lot more emotional for my character this season, especially in a couple of episodes coming up. There was one episode where all I was doing the entire episode was crying, which sounds like it wouldn’t be that much fun but as an actress it was fun to really be able to delve into such deep emotions.

As noted above, photo copyright of NBC, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!