TV Verdict

Recently I was given the opportunity to be a part of a Q&A session with Tricia Helfer where she talks a little about Battlestar Galactica but more about her other show, Burn Notice. The season two finale is this week and Tricia offers a little insight into her character and what to expect in the finale. One warning, there may be a few items in this interview that are a bit spoilery.Tricia discusses how she became a part of Burn Notice this season:

“I first got involved with the very rare, but very wonderful situation where you get offered a job. I was up in Vancouver filming Battlestar and I was approached by my agent or my manager about the job. I actually hadn’t seen it, the show, because being in Canada a lot in Vancouver filming Battlestar, Burn Notice doesn’t air up there yet, unfortunately. So they sent me DVDs and I was hooked from the first episode and gladly signed on to join in for the second season. But it came in as an offer and I was hooked from the first episode.”

She also comments on the chemistry between herself and the other actors:

“I’d say there was instant chemistry, but it was really only, I really only worked with Jeffrey Donovan. I met Gabrielle and I met Bruce and worked with him a little bit. Bruce is just such an easy going guy it’s impossible not to get along with him, and Gabrielle is really sweet. Jeffrey had actually emailed me prior to going down there the first time to welcome me and say he was excited that I was joining the show. So I went down knowing it was going to be a great cast to work with and they didn’t let me down, they were just really wonderful to work with.”

Tricia has seemingly been type cast with her two most recent roles as Carla on Burn Notice and Six/Caprica on Battlestar Galactica. She appears to be reveling in those roles and prefers to play the villainous type of character:

“I’d rather play an ass-kicking destroyer or a super strong spy or agent than some meek, vulnerable character. But it’s definitely, I don’t want to get type cast as one thing, and that’s certainly some of the other things I’ve been doing in hiatus, doing other roles, although I have one coming up where I’m an ass-kicking spy, so I don’t know about that. I don’t know how well my not being type cast is going, but they’re great shows. I’m super happy to be part of them. I think it’s important as I go to some of my next jobs maybe are a different take, a different type of character, but they’re certainly fun characters to play. They’re smart. They’re strong. Who wouldn’t want to play a strong female character?”

“I think that it is empowering and that she’s strong and smart and she’s gotten to where she is by her own gumption, her own dedication. I like the fact that she’s very similar to Michael. Although you don’t get to see her fun side like you do for Michael, but maybe she has a bit less of one. I like being on par with that level of agent, the fact that Michael Westen can pretty much do whatever he wants, as can Fiona and Sam, to some extent.”

“That’s how I feel that Carla is. Carla is not one to be taken advantage of, which I think is what’s interesting about coming up to the last two episodes is, she doesn’t trust anybody and she’s finally put a little bit of trust into Michael and I think that’s probably backfiring on her. I like the fact that she’s strong and she’s as good at her job as Michael is at his.”

She further shares what is the most challenging part of playing the role of Carla on Burn Notice:

“…it’s kind of not knowing the end. With Carla, I didn’t know who Carla worked for. I didn’t know who management was the entire time I filmed, so you’re just kind of filling in the blanks yourself, but at the same time you don’t really want to say, okay, this is who it is or make too strong of a back story yourself in case it is revealed. But that I’d say was the hardest thing is Carla being pretty much as elusive to me as the actor as she is to the audience.”

Getting into as many specifics as she can about Burn Notice and how it all ends this season Tricia discusses “management”, Carla’s bosses and Carla’s story:

“You’re definitely going to get a big clue, a big hint in the finale about who management is. I won’t say for sure if you’re going to find out who, what the organization is, but there will be another piece to the puzzle and you will definitely meet Carla’s higher ups, you will meet management, yes.”

“You’ll get to see a little bit (about Carla). You do see her, Carla, soften a little bit. She’s been rattled and she needs to rely on Michael a little bit more and she puts some trust in him. So she’s hoping that he doesn’t let her down. And like I mentioned before, she has management breathing down her back, so she’s definitely putting some trust in Michael and hoping that he steps up to the bar. But you really don’t learn-Carla still stays pretty elusive to the audience even through the finale. She’s certainly not-her whole history is not going to be revealed.”

Specifically about the finale she shares a little information and one major item that could be a little spoilery:

“I think the first two episodes back from the midseason hiatus definitely showed that Carla had been taken by surprise a bit, she’s been rattled, which she’s not used to. It definitely comes to a culmination in the finale where she’s been trying to get information from Michael Westen about who tried to kill him, who tried to blow up his apartment, and it really comes to a culmination with management breathing down her back. And she’s put her neck on the line in terms of vouching for Michael Westen and Michael hasn’t really fully come up with anything to help her out, so it comes to a culmination point in the finale.”

“It’s kind of hard without giving too much away. I will say I’m really excited to see the last episode. There’s a great stunt at the end that I’m just so excited to see. It’s not even my stunt, but I’m really excited to see it and I think it’s going to be a great finale. It really comes to a culmination point and Carla has kind of had it with Michael Westen and she realizes he’s just basically run her around in circles after she’s put some trust into him that he’s going to find the bomber and help give her the name, which essentially is a rogue agent, but she knows it is, and he disappoints her, so it comes to a culmination.”

“I’m not on board for next season, no. As I like to say, I was the baddie of the second season….”

Tricia goes on to share some of her most memorable moments working on Burn Notice:

“Most memorable moment, there’s quite a few. One of my moments that I disliked the most was, I’m not sure if it’s in the next episode coming up or the finale, but we’re shooting a limousine scene where Carla is trying to get a little information, offer a little and get a little from Michael Westen. I had stopped drinking coffee and I’ve been doing green tea, on a personal note I had stopped drinking coffee, but we started early and I just grabbed a cup of coffee off catering and we got inside this limo, which, of course, you can’t have air conditioning on because you’d hear it with the filming, and you’re in a limo with the camera, operator, the focus polar, a couple of other guys. Jeffery is in there. I’m in there. It’s Miami. It’s humid. It’s really hot. I’m in a pantsuit and I got the jitters from the coffee so bad that I could barely speak. I was sweating. Hair and makeup can’t fit in there, so I’m trying to do my own powder and my hair is matted to me and shaking. I had to hand Jeffrey something and I’m shaking in the scene.”

“And we finished it and I’m like, “Jeffrey, I don’t know what got into me. I had coffee and this is insane and I’ve not been drinking coffee.” And Jeffrey looked at me and he starts laughing. And he’s like, “Yes, you stop drinking coffee for a while and then you drink again and you realize why you shouldn’t be drinking it.” “Yes, Jeffrey, that makes sense.” But I was horrified by the scene while I was shooting it because I was so uncomfortable, but at the same time, I’ve seen it in ADR and it turned out fine. But Jeffrey stayed calm throughout even though I was a mess, so that’s definitely one of my memories from Burn Notice.”

This interview session was Burn Notice focused but Tricia did share a good bit of Battlestar Galactica information with us too. She shares that her role on BSG was her first role as actress, having previously been a model. The first question was whether there would be an end to her character on that show. Her response was “There definitely is, yes. For the first time I find out after five years of filming what that relationship is, so there will be a conclusion by the finale, yes.”

Tricia continues by sharing her thoughts on shooting the last episode of BSG:

“Shooting the last episode is intense, not only do emotions run really high because obviously this is the last time you’re working with a lot of these people and you become like family over five years, but it’s also very intense because last episodes tend to come in very long. I think we had a four hour script in a two hour time frame to shoot that we were maybe given a couple of extra days. So we really shot incredibly long hours and everybody was kind of like zombies at the end of it. So it’s intense, emotions are really high, but it’s also a wonderful feeling, it’s a great feeling of accomplishment and camaraderie, too.”

Tricia was able to work with two of the best actors in the business with Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos. She comments on that experience:

“…they’re all very talented and very professional people, there’s no diva attitudes, and it’s really about the work and the craft and they’re incredibly hard working. Starting, when I started Battlestar, Eddie and Mary had been in the business for a long time and Emmy nominated, Oscar nominated. It was just an incredible experience to be able to work with them. For all of the younger cast on Battlestar it was wonderful to have these two kind of helm the show and you got to really see what two people who are so talented, how their passion to the work goes and how much work they put into it and how much dedication.”

Coming up Tricia can be seen in an episode of Chuck. Her character may only be an agent of the week but Tricia hints that her appearance is open ended enough that she could return in future episodes of that series. She’s explains that she’s done with modeling, now feeling to old to do that work, and that she is in negotiations to appear in a new pilot. “…it’s a little too early to stake my claim on it yet until everyone has signed on the dotted line.”

Watch the Burn Notice Season 2 Finale on Thursday, March 5th at 10pm/9c on USA NETWORK! In the explosive season finale, Michael learns some surprising facts about Victor’s past, and is forced to take on Carla in a final showdown.