I have someone I’d like to introduce to you. His name is Fabian Buch. Fabian is an acoustic guitarist/ singer/songwriter from Germany. He started playing acoustic guitar at an early age and is now currently pursuing a musical career.

According to the Bio section on Fabian Buch’s website Fabian was “born the son of a musician in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse (a city located in Rhineland–Palatinate, Germany), Fabian always remembers music being a part of his life.

Fabian’s father, his earliest musical influence, plays the keys and wrote many songs throughout Fabian’s childhood. From there it has been Fabian’s love of music that has gotten him where he is today.” In case any of you were wondering how Fabian Buch got started on the guitar, he stated that “My dad had a guitar that was broke and I picked it up and started playing with it. From there I taught myself to play by listening to songs and imitating them.”

From then on Fabian continued to play the guitar and build on his musical talents. As Fabian progressed, he came to the realization that “I knew music was my life when I started recording myself playing the guitar. There was something special about it. Whenever I had jobs in high school, I could only think about getting home to finish a song I started the night before. I even skipped school to finish songs.”. After all that dedication, Fabian’s hard work started to pay off for him.

“Fabian Buch got his big break once he was chosen for the FlatStar (Germany’s version of American Idol), a reality- based show featuring three women and three men who competed against each other for a coveted record deal. Fabian proved that he had the overall star quality, musical talent and charisma to be the next big sensation. During the show, Fabian was taken through a whirlwind of experiences that opened his eyes to the music industry; and he loved what he saw. “I didn’t know the music industry worked this way. I thought you had to do it all yourself. But I think you get better results when you work with the best producers and coaches to create something amazing. I love being a part of the process of writing so I know the song fits me. I love to put my own influence on a track.” (Fabian Buch’s website)

After FlatStar, Fabian Buch continued to write and record songs and has become a sensation in Germany. Fabian Buch has several music videos up on Youtube but his most popular video is “Hello, Hello” and has gained 1.8 million views. Feel free to check out the video below:

Another favorite song of mine is called “When You’re With Me” and that has a video as well but this video also
includes the song “Ich Fliege”:

Fabian Buch will be releasing his first album “Hello, Hello” through Sony International Distribution at a later date and is expected be out on tour in the U.S soon. I for one am looking forward to his album and will be writing a review on it when it becomes available. In the meantime if you wish to check him out online, Fabian’s websites are:
http://www.fabianbuch.com/splash/index.php
http://www.myspace.com/thisisfabianbuch

* I would like to thank the Cashmere Agency for providing Eclipse Magazine with the pictures

In a recent Q&A conference call, Sendhil Ramamurthy talked about becoming Jai Wilcox on the USA Network’s new hit series, Covert Affairs [Tuesdays, 19/9C], how he came to get the role and, among other things, some of the things that surprised him – both in terms of the show, and in terms of things he learned about the CIA.

D. Christiansen: Good afternoon. This is Danny Christiansen from New Media Strategies. I would like to thank everyone for joining us for today’s Covert Affairs Q&A session and start things off by thanking Sendhil Ramamurthy for being with us today to answer questions. So, thank you, Sendhil.

Sendhil Ramamurthy: Thank you. God, that was all very official and everything. I feel very worthy right now and nervous, all of a sudden.

D. Christiansen : No, no need to be nervous. As you know, Sendhil play Jai Wilcox on Covert Affairs, which airs on Tuesdays at 10/9 Central on USA Network.

What exactly made you want to be a part of this show?

Ramamurthy: It was kind of a roundabout thing, actually. While I was still shooting here, they were shooting this pilot and I put a friend of mine on tape for the role of Auggie, for Chris Gorham’s part. While I was doing that, I ended up reading the script and I really liked it, but I was already on a show and that was that. I kind of read it and filed it away.

Then, I guess when the show’s creators and USA decided to make a little change from the pilot and bring in the Jai Wilcox character they kind of approached me about it and I went in and I talked to the creators and I did a chemistry read with Piper Perabo and I got the job the next day. It was a script that I really liked. It was a very different character for me to play from what I had been doing before.

It was also one of those things where I was under contract to NBC and it was a way to do more work without having to try and get out of a contract and all of that and all the legalities involved with that and it was a chance to work with Doug Liman, so it was all kind of win-win.

Well, I hope Chris doesn’t hold any ill will towards you.

Ramamurthy: No, he shouldn’t. He’s doing an amazing job. He’s doing a great job. I’m really impressed with him and with everybody, really, on the show. It’s really been an amazing experience so far.

Will your character get to get out in the field at all?

Ramamurthy: My character does go out into the field, starting in Tuesday’s episode actually. I think originally as conceived the character wasn’t going to be going out into the field and once they cast me they saw some merit, some advantage to bringing me into the field. And it’s been a lot of fun. Most of the stuff I do has been with Piper and a little bit of stuff with Chris. It’s a lot of fun and it’s also a great way to see Toronto because we shoot everywhere around Toronto, so I’ve gotten to kind to see Toronto just by virtue of shooting all around the place.

How would you describe your character and, most specifically, his relationship with Arthur because there’s some kind of hidden motive going on there? At least there appears to be so.

Ramamurthy: Well, my character, Jai Wilcox is a second generation CIA man. His father, Henry Wilcox, was the Head of Clandestine Services, so he’s CIA royalty, basically. And, as we’ll find out in Tuesday’s episode, I don’t want to give too much away, there’s some baggage that comes with being Henry Wilcox—my character’s father’s name is Henry Wilcox—there’s some baggage that comes with being his son and it kind of permeates through the CIA. So, you see how Jai kind of has to deal with that.

He kind of has two father figures in his life. He’s got his real father, Henry Wilcox, and then he’s got Arthur Campbell, played by Peter Gallagher, who is somebody who, obviously, he looks up to and respects and he wants to impress the both of them and impress everybody else in his own right. I think it’s very important for Jai to feel that he is there at the CIA doing a good job on his own merit, not just because he’s Henry Wilcox’s son or because Arthur Campbell trusts him with specific clandestine operations that not a lot of people know about. So, the relationship with Arthur is definitely, you know, he’s my boss and I look to impress him at every turn that I can.

You’ve been doing a lot of research about the CIA and about some if the inner workings for the show. Was there anything that you found out that kind of surprised you?

Ramamurthy: There was a lot that we found out through doing all the research, from the fact that the CIA encourages dating within the agency, which I thought would not be the case to kind of the way that things operate there. I didn’t know even the basic things, like you can’t have your cell phone with you inside the CIA. I didn’t know that the CIA didn’t carry weapons on U.S. soil. So it’s interesting, we actually just shot a scene where I’m chasing somebody and they’re shooting at me and I have no gun, but I keep chasing them, like I keep going after them, even though I have no weapon.

So, for me, I found it really kind of courageous and heroic that these CIA operatives are going about doing their thing without a weapon. It could also be looked at as, God, how dumb. But I think it’s pretty heroic. It’s kind of like, well, I guess it’s like with anything like this, like firefighters if you want to look at it like that. While everybody is running out of the fire, they’re the ones running towards it and I think it kind of speaks volumes for the CIA and the people kind of protecting our country.

The interesting part about your character is that you are the assistant to the director and you have access to him that other people don’t, and how does that work in terms when dealing with Kari Matchett’s character as, you know, she’s his wife, but she’s also got a job on the team, but she can’t always get to him the way you can.

Ramamurthy: Yeah, and that makes for a pretty interesting dynamic between Jai and Joan, Kari’s character, Joan. It’s pretty antagonistic. She’s not very fond of Jay and their interaction kind of shows that. But what I love that the writers have done with the character is they put in moments where Jai, he does his job well. Jai is really good at what he does. That’s not to say that he makes mistakes. Everybody will make mistakes throughout any kind of mission, but he’s so good at his job that Joan at certain points in certain episodes can’t help but say, “All right, well done. You did it right.”

Actually, one of the instances happens in Tuesday night’s episode, which I wasn’t expecting because you kind of think in TV they’ll set up this one dynamic and just kind of go in that direction full tilt and that will be that. But it’s really nuanced, all the relationships between the characters are really nuanced and I’ve been really impressed with how they balance everything, from my relationship with Joan to Jai’s relationship with Annie to Auggie’s relationship with Annie; it’s a delicate balance and I think the writers are really doing it well.

I agree, because the relationships seem real and it’s interesting because I would think that your character and Auggie’s character might be—and it seems to be that there’s a little bit, I don’t want to say friction, but the dynamics.

Ramamurthy: Oh, there’s friction, Stevie. There’s friction. We’re having a lot of fun with that actually.

Well, it’s interesting because he has a fondness for Annie, but he can’t go out in the field like you can.

Ramamurthy: No, no he can’t and that’s probably part of the friction. And then I think, well, without want to give too much away I think that Jai, as the season goes on, kind of becomes a little bit jealous of the friendship between Auggie and Annie. They are best friends. They really are. There’s a trust between them that Annie’s character doesn’t have with any other character.

She can be completely who she is with Auggie. She can’t do that with Danielle, her sister; she can’t do it with me because, well, there are various reasons that will come out, but it’s a relationship not entirely based on truth and so that kind of makes that impossible. Having said that, I think there’s an attraction. There’s definitely an attraction between Jai and Annie and Annie and Jai and I’m having fun seeing how it’s all playing out.

Gregory Itzin plays your father?

Ramamurthy: Yes, he does.

How is that? He’s always so good in everything he does.

Ramamurthy: He’s kind of just amazing. I knew him from 24, obviously I’d seen is work on 24 and thought he was just amazing in it and when I heard that they were bringing him on to play my father I thought, okay, interesting choice. I didn’t see that coming at all.

But I was into it, I was really kind of impressed with it, that the writers and USA and the studio, everybody, kind of really got behind it. And the scenes that we did, especially in Tuesday night’s episode, which is Greg’s first episode with us, there’s kind of one of my favorites scenes that I’ve done all season, is a scene where he kind of drives it where it’s Jai, and Annie and him, just sitting at a table, having a drink and talking.

And it was an amazing experience to kind of just watch Greg work, because he’s so good and he’s so specific. I’ve really enjoyed all my scenes with him. Again, it’s a very complicated relationship, the relationship that Jai has with Henry, with his father. And we’re kind of getting more into it actually right now.

There’s a great scene in the finale, which we just got, which I’m really looking forward to doing. I think we’re going to shoot it next week. Greg will be back up with us, so, yeah, it’s been a real treat working with him.

So, is this sort of the start of us seeing a lot more of you and Jai?

Ramamurthy: Yes, like I said, I kind of came to the party later. I was cast after they had shot the pilot and the show had been picked up for 13 episodes and I was cast after they had kind of broken the first four stories. They had already written the first four episodes or done very specific broad strokes of the first four episodes. So when I met with them they said, listen, we’re going to slot you in where we can in the first four episodes because we’ve put out the structure already, we already know what we’re going to do in those episodes.

For instance, in last week’s episode I wasn’t even in it because that was actually the first episode that we shot after the pilot, even though it aired fourth we shot it first, so there was just no way for me to be in it. And so, I kind of like am peppered through the first four episodes and then on Tuesday’s episode it’s kind of like the real introduction to my character where you find out what Jai is all about, where he comes from, what makes him tick and, more importantly, what he’s doing there and what his kind of general arc and mission will be throughout the season.

I was wondering if you could tell us if Jai’s relationship with Annie is going to be strictly professional or if he has interest aside from what we’ve been shown so far?

Ramamurthy: Again, it’s very complicated. I think one of the best things about this show is that all the relationships are really complicated. It’s kind of the best thing that was written in the pilot is the note that the Ben Mercer character leaves for Annie’s character. It says, “The truth is complicated.” And that doesn’t just apply to Annie and Ben. That certainly applies to Annie and Jai as well.

Like I said, everything is not what it seems when you meet Jai and Annie and the audience knows that Arthur has told him to get close to Annie in any way possible. And you kind of see a few different tacks that Jai takes to kind of accomplish his mission and then he can try and go the romantic way, he can try and go the professional way; there are a few different avenues and Jai is pretty crafty and he kind of tries whatever works in certain situations.

And I think that’s all well and good, but in the end Jai and Annie, they’re not robots. There are emotions, there are feelings and when you get close to somebody it can complicate something that you want to just be a mission. So, we’ll see. I have to be honest, I’m curious to see where it goes because I don’t know yet.

You were talking a little bit about Jai’s being a second generation CIA agent. Are we going to see kind of a back story for him?

Ramamurthy: Yes, you do. You get a little bit actually in Tuesday night’s episode; you just kind of hear what he’s about, what he’s been up to, actually, just prior to coming to the CIA. You get a little hint as to where he was and what it was that he was doing and a cool scene that we shot, it was me and Piper and Eriq La Salle, actually, which was a lot of fun. He guest stars in Tuesday’s episode and he’s terrific in it. And he’s such a nice guy.

I mean, I was a little in awe. I was acting with Dr. Benton, like what do you do? But he was really great. And you do, you do find out kind of where he’s from and as the season goes on you actually find out a little bit more about where he was and what it was that he was doing where he was, which is kind of important to the overall end game of the season.

What do you find to be the biggest challenge in playing this particular character?

Ramamurthy: For me, it’s been a huge challenge just because it’s a very different character than what I’ve been playing on TV before, which I’m excited about. But it’s an incredibly layered character and you’re always kind of second guessing because you don’t want to give too much away in each scene and so that’s something that I’ve really worked hard at and you don’t want to tip your hand too quickly.

Jai is a charmer, or he thinks he’s a charmer anyway, and everybody around him reacts that way so I guess he is and you don’t what that to just be it, so there has to be something bubbling underneath it and the challenge was to not let kind of the end game, which, obviously, I know where it is, but you don’t want the audience to know if the fifth episode of the series what’s going to happen, so it was a really tricky balance for me and, again, I hope I got it because we haven’t seen a lot of it, we haven’t seen a lot of the episodes, so it’s going to be interesting. So, for me, that’s been the most challenging thing.

The other challenging thing has been it’s a very physical role for me. In Tuesday’s episode I was doing parkour. Who gets to do parkour on TV? They brought in a guy from Cirque du Soleil to work with me to kind of work the moves out and stuff. And I saw the chase scene actually that’s going to air on Tuesday and it’s really cool. I was really excited when I saw it. It’s a very fun thing and it’s what you would expect from Doug Liman, from a show executive produced by Doug Liman. It’s certainly worthy of kind of his previous spy stuff.

Talking about you and the character of Jai, what would you say are your biggest similarities and biggest differences between the two of you?

Ramamurthy: Well, similarities, I think he looks like me; that’s pretty similar. But, listen, Jai is a bit of a flirt and you can see it as one way in that he’s using it to help accomplish what he’s supposed to be doing, but it’s kind of in him to be a little bit flirtatious and I’ve been told that I can be flirtatious at times by people, so maybe that’s a similarity with me and Jai.

The kind of dissimilarities are I’m really bad at kind of not tipping my hand, basically. It’s hard for me to lie about things or not lie, that’s the wrong word; not disclose everything upfront. It’s very difficult for me to do that, but it’s no problem for Jai. I mean he kind of lives in that world. That’s what he does.

And he doesn’t see a problem with it and other people might, people that he’s not disclosing the information to. It maybe comes across as dishonest, but that’s what he does. He’s a CIA operative. That’s what you do. You’re required to not fully disclose things to people, like people close to you, your family, your friends and that’s kind of the world that these guys live in and it’s second nature to them and it’s not something they feel morally conflicted about at all, whereas I would.

I would feel conflicted about it and I think that’s the major difference.

What are your thoughts on the tension that Jai has added to the show, especially between Arthur and Joan?

Ramamurthy: I think it’s kind of interesting because he’s become an unknowing pawn in the marital strife between Arthur and Joan and I don’t think it’s something that he particularly wants to be involved in. But I also don’t think, because these guys are CIA operatives as well, Joan and Arthur—this is what they do, too. They don’t really tip their hand too much, certainly to Jai and not to the rest of the people either as to what’s going on between them.

Yeah, obviously, everybody knows they’re married and there can be a little bit of frostiness between the two of them, but when they interact in front of the rest of us, in front of Annie, in front of Jai, in front of Auggie, we can’t see that. And that’s another instance where these guys, they’re able to compartmentalize in a way that me, personally, Sendhil, I’m incapable of doing that.

I can’t kind of like say, okay, well, I’m doing this, but I’m going to shut this out. I’m not very good at that, but all of these guys are very good at that because it’s their job. They wouldn’t be doing what they were doing if they were bad at it. So, as far as the tension, yeah, he’s there and Arthur has put him into the DPD, a place where he’s never been and didn’t even clear it. I mean, Jai, as we saw in the first episode I appeared in, Jai is the one who informs Joan that Arthur put him in.

And we actually did a different take of it where I was actually kind of ribbing her a little bit about it, but looking back on it, I’m glad that they didn’t use that take because I don’t think it was right at that time. That’s another thing, they were developing the character kind of after they cast me, so the first few episodes I was kind of like, okay, which direction am I going here? I don’t want to make him too arch.

And they were very helpful, Matt and Chris the creators of our show, were very helpful in holding my hand and kind of guiding me in the right directly while they figured it all out and they have, luckily.

How do you feel Jai will develop as the series continues?H

Ramamurthy: I think for the first time Jai starts to have second thoughts; not second thoughts, but he starts to realize that okay, maybe this deception thing is a lot more tricky and a lot more difficult and affects people in a different, sometimes adverse way than he thought and I don’t think he actually really thought about it that much and there are certain things, the relationship with Annie; there is one thing, in particular, that happens in I think it’s the eighth or the ninth episode where I kind of made a choice.

There’s a conversation between Jai and Annie where they kind of mention past relationships and I think that there’s a past relationship in Jai’s life that deeply affected him and I don’t think it ended up the way that he wanted it to end up and I think that I’d like to see that explored a little bit more as to why he’s able to connect with Annie in the way that he does. I don’t know if that will be this season or not. I don’t know if there will be the time to do that, but I hope in subsequent seasons, should we be lucky to get one, or two or three or four or five, I hope that’s something that we can look into.

What was one of your favorite on set moments from Covert Affairs so far?

Ramamurthy: Well, the actual filming stuff, the parkour stuff was the coolest thing for me. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoy the physical aspects of this part for me, in general. I’d love to have a really good fight sequence, which may or may not be happening. I can’t say. But the hand-to-hand combat, that kind of stuff is something that would be really interesting to me and I’d like to see that kind of explored a little bit more.

But the parkour was fun and then kind of the offset moments. I mean like me and Chris Gorham and Piper Perabo have actually become really tight. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company and we hang out quite a bit up here in Toronto and from a non-work point of view, that’s been something that’s been really fun.

I’ve been so lucky to work with a cast on Heroes that I was so close to and we all got along really well and we all hung out together and we’re still all in touch. They all sent me e-mails when I got Covert Affairs and Jack texted me this morning saying congratulations about the numbers from Tuesday and it was a really tight cast and I’ve managed somehow, I don’t know how, to land on another show with a cast that’s just as tight.

And I just really enjoy both Chris and Piper and Kari. Kari and I don’t have a ton to do together yet, but hopefully that’ll come and when Peter is up here and Greg as well, it’s a really nice bunch of people to work with and I’m really enjoying that aspect of it, too, because it’s nice to be at work. When you’re at work for 17 hours with people it’s a good thing when you get along with them.

What other upcoming projects do you have, besides more Covert Affairs?

Ramamurthy: I did a movie called It’s a Wonderful Afterlife. It was written and directed by Gurinder Chadha, who did Bend It Like Beckham. And it’s released in the U.K. already and I believe a U.S. release is happening towards the end of this year.

And then I did another film called Shor, which I actually shot in Mumbai in January and February. It’s like a really gritty crime drama. It kind of follows my character’s descent into a kind of hell, if you like. And that was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, just shooting, the physical toll of it was enormous. The heat, I was shooting in the largest slum in Mumbai for a lot of it and it was, again, just a very different experience for me and working with a whole different crew and a whole different culture of filmmaking and I’m really excited for that. I think that’s going to be released in October.

You talk about all this tension that Jai just causes at the CIA and my question is there is a lot that I noticed between him and Auggie and with both of you being so flirtatious is a girl involved as far as why he dislikes you so much?

Ramamurthy: I think when two guys have that much friction it’s a pretty safe assumption. Only a woman could do that. But, again, what I like about what the writers have done in subsequent episodes, there are kind of events that happen that make Jai and Auggie work together. And they actually, believe it or not, they work together really well.

They’re able to bounce off of each other and get ideas off of each other. The episode we’re shooting right now, actually, Jai and Auggie get together for a very important reason. So, while there is that friction, and also, a lot of the friction just simply comes from the fact that Jai is Henry Wilcox’s son. A lot of that comes from that. Henry was, again, this will come out in Tuesday’s episode so I won’t give too much away, but a lot of things that Henry did caused him to have a certain reputation and I think everybody at the CIA assumes that Jai must be cut from that same cloth.

And without wanting to try too hard, because Jai is a Yalie and an alpha male and all of that and doesn’t feel like he has to prove himself to anybody, I think underneath he wants everybody to know that he is not Henry Wilcox, he’s not that guy.

He’s very good at what he does and Henry was very good at what he does, but I think that’s where the similarities kind of stop. He’s nowhere near as Machiavellian as Henry Wilcox is and I think everybody at the beginning thinks he is. And as the season goes on we’ll see how that perception of Jai changes or doesn’t change.

I had some help from Chris Gorham to ask this question. He suggested that I ask if there was going to be a Heroes movie and can Gorham be in it?

Ramamurthy: Can Gorham be in it? You know what, if there’s a Heroes movie, I’m guaranteeing that we’ll get Gorham in it. Right here, you heard it here first. I don’t know if there’s going to be a Heroes movie. I’d love for there to be one. I think that it would be great for the fans to have the story wrapped up properly because that finale was a season finale; that was not a series finale and I feel like we owe it to the fans who were incredibly loyal and supportive of us through all the ups and downs of Heroes, it would be nice to do it for them to have some sort of closure.

I don’t know if it’s going to happen. If I’m being 100% honest, I don’t see how it can, just scheduling-wise it’s going to be really, really difficult. But if anybody can do it Tim Kring will pull it together somehow.

We’ve already seen Piper with a lot of accent and language work. Are you looking for that with Covert Affairs? Have you actually already done some languages and some accents that we get to hear?

Ramamurthy: Boy, that’s a tough one to answer. There might be some accent stuff coming up. I’m not sure, to be honest, because there are some rewrites going on right now, but it’s a possibility.

As far as languages go, I haven’t had to explore my unfortunately incredibly limited language skills. Piper has a really great facility for languages. She’s great with it. But me, I’m not so great with it, so if they happen to be reading this, the writers, and read this, they should feel free not to give me any language stuff. Accents I’m good with; languages not so much.

If you were to put your iPod on shuffle right now and press play, what’s the most embarrassing song that would come up?

Ramamurthy: Wow, that’s a great question because I have a shared iPod with my wife. I actually had it on shuffle just now in the gym and I’m trying to think what came on. Oh, what’s that guy, it was an Enrique Iglesias song, which I would usually probably never listen to, but it popped on. And I am not ashamed to admit that I listened to it all the way through. I did not fast forward it.

I love the character of Jai. I was wondering will we learn more about him through action scenes or more like in the office.

Ramamurthy: You kind of learn, I think, personally—this is just my own personal view—I think you learn the most about Jai when he’s out in the field with Annie. Because there are times in the field where you have a little downtime and you just have a little chat. And I think those are the times where you see, where you learn more about Jai.

Now, what makes that more tricky is the audience already knows what Jai, like one of his missions is to get close to [Annie], so when he’s talking to Annie and kind of revealing stuff about himself or trying to find out stuff about her, how much of it is real and how much of it is part of his mission and that’s, again, that’s been the tricky thing for me is how much to give away in these conversations that I have with Annie.

And it’s kind of the most fascinating and difficult and frustrating part of playing the character, which I love all three of those things. Like, it’s a good thing to have all those things happen in one character when you’re playing it because you don’t want it to be easy. You don’t want it to be a cakewalk, like something you could do standing on your head. I’m having to work really hard at it.

Since you came to the show kind of late, how long did it take you to find your groove, to be relaxed on the show and everything like that?

Ramamurthy: To be honest, like probably not until the sixth episode. Yeah, it took a while because, you know, they were forming the character as we were shooting it really because, again, the character was a different person before. This character is fulfilling the same role and has a lot of the same character traits as the Conrad character from the pilot, but it is a different character.

And so, once they cast me they were actually kind of writing the character to fit me, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and so that took a little bit of time and there are definitely some growing pains and there are a couple of things that I look back and I think, oh God, I wish I had done that because now I know this and I would have done it differently, but that’s just the way it goes in series television and I just feel fortunate to be a part of it and all that stuff gets ironed out and I think it takes a few episodes to settle in because in that second episode and the third episode where I appear, I think I only worked one day on the second episode and I think I worked three days on the third episode. It took me a while to find my groove, definitely.

I’m wondering why Arthur chose you to get close to Annie. Does Jai have some sort of history with the mysterious Ben Mercer that makes him a good choice? Or is it just that he is so good at getting under other people’s skin and is such a good operative in his own right?

Ramamurthy: Aren’t you a clever girl? I’m not going to answer that question in any way that you’re going to find satisfying. I’m going to just say that upfront right now, but yes. That’s my answer. There’s a lot, like I said, there’s a lot there, which is why I’m so excited to play the character. My parents, actually, were talking to me the other day and they were like, “What the hell is your guy doing? I don’t understand. What’s happening? He’s like kind of there, but not there?”

And I was just like, “Just relax. It’ll come out.” And, again, that’s probably one of the frustrating things for viewers of series television is you want all the answers right away, but then you don’t. You want something more and from a writer’s point of view, they don’t want to burn through too much story. They’ve got to crank out 13 episodes.

So, the one thing I would say is it’s a very slow burn for the Jai Wilcox character and as far as, you can probably tell how much I’m trying not to answer your question, there are definitely things in Jai’s background and what he was doing prior to arriving at Langley that make him a really, well, the only choice to be dealing with Annie and the Ben Mercer situation.

Is the spying leak story line going to be wrapped up soon, or is that going throughout the entire season?

Ramamurthy: That is something that I think definitely kind of goes through and it grows in importance throughout the entire season. And I don’t even know whether it will be resolved or not resolved by the end of the season. Again, should we be lucky enough to go more seasons, it could be something that is further explored.

If you could read the 12^th episode, which is sitting on my kitchen table right here and I’m looking at it, you would know that there’s an opening there for it to continue should the writers decide to go in that direction.

For the record, I tweeted out that you said that Chris Gorham would be in the Heroes movie. He just re-tweeted it for the win, so he’s very excited.

Ramamurthy: Oh, good. Now I’m going to have people from NBC calling me saying, “What the … are you doing?” I’m going to be getting e-mails from Tim Kring in about five minutes. My BlackBerry is going to light up.

Well, we’re really enjoying seeing Chris and your co-star Ann Dudek and Peter Gallagher. They’re all on Twitter. We only hear about you through Wendy Lynn. So, when are you going to make the move to Twitter? We want to hear from you.

Ramamurthy: You can hear from me by talking to me right now. The Internet scares me. I’m not very Internet savvy, to be honest. I’m not very computer savvy. I’m not a big Web surfer. It’s just not something I do. I can’t see why anybody would be interested in what I’m doing during my day. Like I’m having a coffee at the coffee shop; like, who cares?

Well, we care, like when you’re listening to Enrique Iglesias at the gym.

Ramamurthy: After I said that, I just realized what a giant mistake that was because I shall never hear the end of that.

And I sent it out to Twitterverse, so I’m sorry.

Ramamurthy: Of course you would. I would be disappointed if you didn’t, quite frankly. Because that’s a nice embarrassing bit of detail. But no, I wouldn’t count on seeing me on Twitter any time soon. But what I do do, if I have something that I, on the rare occasions when I do have something that I want tweetered, how do you say it?

Tweeted.

Ramamurthy: Tweeted. On the rare occasion when I want something tweeted out I pop Wendy a text and she tweets it out for me.

Okay, well, maybe you’ll change your mind in the future, but we’re loving you on the show.

Ramamurthy: Well, thank you very much and maybe I will change my mind. You never know; you can sometimes teach an old dog new tricks.

Yes, I’m going to have a chat with Chris. I’m sure he can get you going.

Ramamurthy: Oh, he’s been working on me and Piper already, don’t you worry about that.

How much access do you guys have with the real CIA?

Ramamurthy: The guys who did the pilot had access to the CIA. Like I said, I didn’t do the pilot so I had no access to the CIA. I had questions, obviously, once I came on board and through Piper and Chris who had had; Valerie Plame, was our CIA advisor on the pilot, and so they had access to her and were able to ask her all sorts of questions.

And I know that Piper went to the CIA before starting shooting of the pilot and met with them and got to meet with a CIA agent that was her age who was kind of her and got to ask her questions to help her with the role. And that’s one of the disadvantages. You’re certainly at a disadvantage coming into a show and not being in the pilot. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that you’re not.

Because it’s hard to come in, and my character is really coming in the fourth or fifth episode of the season and so it makes your job a little bit more difficult, but challenge is good. I’m into that. And, hopefully, should we get another season I already spoke to the creators of the show, Matt and Chris, and said I would love actually some access to the CIA to be able to speak to somebody or to go down there, especially for this character because he is CIA royalty.

It’s his second home. He’s been surrounded by the CIA from birth really and it would be really helpful to me to have that time at the CIA, but I flew straight from London from the premiere of my movie to start shooting on Covert Affairs. There was just no time from the time I was cast to starting shooing on Covert Affairs to meet with them.

Have you done any research or do you want to do any research on CIA just to help get your character beefed up or anything?

Ramamurthy: Yes, we have definitely done all that and learned. The CIA is about protocol and so a lot of the questions that we’ll have are about the protocol. Okay, what would a CIA operative be doing in this situation? What are the steps? Everything has to be run up the ladder, you know, run up the flag post and what are the steps to get what you need done? Even the littlest things, you can call it bureaucracy I guess if you want. There are certain things that need to be done and Jai is very conscious of the hierarchy at the CIA, of the protocol of the CIA and I think, and this is one thing, another thing one of the bloggers asked me this question.

It’s one of the things I’d like to see explored in future episodes and seasons, is Jai’s pretty by the numbers as far as following the rules and all that and I’d like to see there be some instances where he’s faced with maybe having to do something, that yes is “wrong” but will accomplish something that he knows is right and I’d love to see what decision he makes and how he goes about making it to do that. And I hope that’s something that we get to explore and it may be something that we get to see in the finale. We just got some pink pages, so we’ll see. It’s something I brought up already, so we’ll see.

So you say it’s a very physical role, are you going to find that Jai has any kind of super strengths?

Ramamurthy: I think I’m done with that for a while. I’m very grateful to the sci-fi fan base for all the support that they’ve given me and Heroes throughout the past few years, but I think I’m going to pump the brakes a little bit on the sci-fi super strengths, walking through walls, being indestructible cheer leader, which I tend to be on my days off and take a step back and try and be a kick ass CIA operative for a while; kick ass spy sounds like a nice little change.

A Twitter follower asked why you were sporting a professor beard last year? They were curious.

Ramamurthy: Professor beard?

Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but they apparently saw some photo of you in a professor beard.

Ramamurthy: I did grow a beard there for a while. Oh, professor as in my character on Heroes. There was a whole storyline that I kind of pitched for Dr. Suresh to the writers of Heroes and I’m not going to go into it. It involved being a mountain man with a grisly beard and I thought it was really fun and cool. They didn’t and I showed up on the set and they were like, “Shave immediately.” And that’s kind of what happened. And I actually did press where I said that the beard was part of the story before they wrote it so that they would be forced to write it and they so weren’t forced to write anything. They’re like, “Sendhil, go to make up and have Wendy shave you. That’s it.”

Christiansen: Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today’s session. I’d like to once again thank Sendhil for joining us and remind everyone to tune into an all new episode this Tuesday, August 10^th at 10/9 Central on USA Network.

Ramamurthy: Thanks a lot, everyone. Thanks for chatting and please come and visit the set soon, hopefully on a day when I’m there.

Photos courtesy of USA Network; Photos By Bruce Macaulay and Steve Wilkie.

Monday afternoon I had the pleasure of taking part in a teleconference Q&A session with Warehouse 13’s [Syfy, Tuesdays, 9/8C] Allison Scagliotti and Eureka’s [Syfy, Fridays, 9/8C] Neil Grayston on the small matter of Syfy’s first ever crossover, in which Eureka’s Douglas Fargo [Grayston] visited Warehouse 13 to upgrade their computers and Claudia Donovan [Scagliotti], in turn, visits Eureka to check out some of the town’s unusual tech and pick up a batch of Fargo’s synthesized purple goo for the warehouse.

Gary Morgenstein [Syfy]: Welcome everyone, thank you for joining us. I want to bring on Neil Grayston from Eureka and Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13. Their crossover episodes begin tomorrow night on Warehouse at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific Time and then concludes on Friday on Eureka also at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific Time. Go ahead, guys. Feel free to start asking questions.

Allison Scagliotti: Bring it on!

Neil Grayston: All right!

Tell us a little bit about how this came about and what made the crossover appealing for both of you.

Scagliotti: Neil, do you want to start or shall I?

Grayston: I – say you – you go ahead. Yes, you do the start because you’re the one who introduced yourself to me at Comic-Con.

Scagliotti: That’s true, all right. I believe that the nugget of the crossover idea began when Neil and I met at last year’s Comic-Con, Comic-Con 2009. I watched the Eureka panel moderated by Josh Gates, which was hilarious. Then, at the Syfy party I marched up to Neil and I said, “Neil, let’s be friends.” And he said, “Okay, it sounds good.” We were inseparable from that moment on and we had this immediate dorky chemistry where we were finishing each other’s sentences and, you know, delivering punch lines at the same time. Our…

Grayston: Yes, that was weird that first time when we just made the same joke and we stopped, and we’re like we just made that joke at the same time. And we just made the same movements for that joke, too. That’s weird.

Scagliotti: Yes, we have the same sense of humor. We did on the set, too. And it really, you know, our chemistry played so well in life that I think our respective showrunners and, you know, the good people over at Syfy realized what a commodity it can be to blend these shows. But I think one really believes existing in the same universe and so here we are Claudia and Fargo at the center of this awesome crossover event.

Grayston: One year later.

Scagliotti: Yes.

So, I mean, let me ask you, you know, the two of you, I’m not sure, you know, as far as your characters go, I’m not sure what the original intent was. But both Claudia and Fargo have really sort of grown and become very, you know, not just essential parts of the whole cast puzzle, but, you know, very popular with the fans. So just if the two of you could tell us a little bit about how you feel about the growth of your characters now over the past couple of seasons.

Grayston: Sure. Well, I guess I’ll start on this one. For me it’s just one of those awesome things where I was actually only contracted to be in seven episodes a season. I was really a tertiary character in Eureka. And they just sort of kept on chucking me in to the point where, you know, now I’m all episodes, my character is running Global Dynamics and it’s just – it’s a nice thing to work hard and try to do the best job you can and have that noticed and have them continue to, you know, employ me. It’s awesome.

Scagliotti: And on my side of things, I mean, similarly when I joined the cast in Season 1, I came in late, I showed up in Episode 4. And really by brute force Claudia was an outsider who sort of fought her way in and had to figure out where she fit within this group but has become such an integral part of the family that, you know, she’s sort of everyone’s little sister, little nerdy sister.

And that really mirrors, I feel, my evolution as an actress out and about trying to belong to something, finding her way onto this show and developing such a second family with this, you know, amazing cast and crew. So I’ve been really lucky to play a girl who’s very close to myself.

Hi, Allison. I just wanted to ask has there been any movement on the – this – the quest to get you in the role of Cassie Hack in Hack/Slash?

Scagliotti: Yes, Allison Scag for Cassie.

Well, what’s happening with that?

Scagliotti: What’s happening with it? Well, it’s immensely flattering and I feel like the future is working to my benefit with this. The Allison Scag for Cassie Hack tag began as Sax Carr at Comics on Comics request to cast a fan favorite actress instead of your standard A-list flavor of the month in a role that a lot of people love.

So I have been reading Hack/Slash and now Tim Seeley has asked me to write the introduction to his next Hack/Slash trade paperback. So it’s sort of, via this amazing sort of viral movement, it’s spawning a – me making a major play to play Cassie in the adaptation.

So I can’t really speak to how it’s developing on the professional side. What I can say is that I am working on it and when I get back to LA this week, I’m going to hit the pavement. With the t-shirts that Sax Carr made.

Can you tell us, without going into the spoilers, but can you give us kind of the set up for this crossover within the plots of the show? Like what – why are the two characters going to the other town?

Scagliotti: Yes. Neil, do you want me to start with Warehouse and then you can describe Eureka?

Grayston: Yes, sure.

Scagliotti: So Fargo comes to the Warehouse to update our computer system. Little does he know that much like all of the artifacts, the Warehouse has an organic human element that it’s not as simple to upgrade as just a new plug-in. So the Warehouse fights back because we discover that an important component of the computer system is half of a man’s brain.

So we have Renee Auberjonois from Deep Space Nine guesting as a Warehouse agent whose brain was compromised. And we – Claudia and Fargo connect in the Warehouse and put their heads together to sort of save the day and avoid the (severe) Eureka (gack) out to kill them.

And Neil really – and I got to tell you, I’m going to gush a little bit, I – because I watched the episode twice now. Neil hits it out of the park. I’m so glad that he’s so featured in this episode because he’s really fantastic in it. And I predict that this episode is going to be a fan favorite.

Grayston: Aw.

Scagliotti: And it’s true.

Grayston: Well, thank you.

Scagliotti: You’re my favorite.

Grayston: I’m all scratching my elbow over here. Yes. The Eureka one is basically I guess, you know, Fargo obviously has a little bit of a crush on Claudia and starts – I guess he starts making the purple goo that the Warehouse uses for the artifacts and sort of synthesizes it. Because the Warehouse already has a purple goo making machine, right?

Scagliotti: Yes. There is a (gurie) that pumps the goo throughout the Warehouse, but it has to be manufactured somewhere.

Grayston: Okay, yes. So Fargo decides to start making a version of that in Eureka and invites Claudia over to come pick up a batch and then science happens and mystery happens and Claudia helps save the day and solves some puzzles that are happening and explosions happen and sparks and stuff and it’s a really fun episode.

Scagliotti: Sparks and explosions and more kissing, I might add.

Grayston: Yes, yes, a lot more, ha ha.

So I guess Nolan Gerard Funk should be looking for a new job, is that what we’re saying here?

Scagliotti: No, Nolan continues his (arc) on the show, but he’s got some competition…

Gold: Okay.

Scagliotti: …that I will say.

That’s good to hear. My next question, I just wanted to ask I know you guys and we all just got back from Comic-Con here and I wanted to hear what were your antics? What was the Syfy party like? Did you guys do anything, I guess, unusual or to be noticed at this year’s event?

Scagliotti: Oh my God. I barely remember Comic-Con that’s how slammed it was with responsibilities.

Grayston: Yes, it’s like 48 hours blended into three almost…

Scagliotti: Yes.

Grayston: That’s what it feels like to me, like, it was just sort of got off the train and then all of a sudden I was in a plane going to Vancouver. I don’t know about you guys.

Scagliotti: Yes, it very much felt the same way for me. We got to moderate each other’s panels this year.

Grayston: Which was awesome!

Scagliotti: It was. We sat on the train from…

Grayston: And terrifying.

Scagliotti: …yes, we sat on the train from LA to San Diego together going over our notes, like, feverishly. Not even concerned with how we would sound on our own panels, but it’s a totally different animal to stand up in front of a room full of 2000 people and keep someone else’s panel moving and keep it light, keep it funny and make sure all of the information is covered. But Neil did an amazing job and. Very much like the Warehouse crossover before the Eureka crossover, I got to watch Neil hit it out of the park, which took all of my anxiety away. You’re my crutch, Neil.

Grayston: Oh, all right. Whoo. No, but you did a great job too. I mean, it was awesome. And it was like sort of two different little beasts, but when you walked out and did the thing where it was like what up Comic-Con or something like that and it was all rock starry, it was like, yes, way to go. There you go. You got it in the bag.

Scagliotti: It was fun. It was nerve-wracking but a blast.

So my first question is what – for each of you, what were the challenges of playing the same character yet on a different show and in a different, you know, working environment actually?

Grayston: I didn’t find it to be that difficult myself. I mean, I know the entire cast from Warehouse or, well, most of them. I know the top four. And I knew the director and the second unit director who happens to be the supervising producer as well because they both directed an episode of Eureka, so it was just like going over to my extended family’s house for dinner kind of thing. It was one of the most comfortable sets I’ve ever actually been on, which was radical.

Scagliotti: And we loved having you. Yes, it was very much like packing a bag with all, your character’s attributes in it and bringing it over to, you know, your family on the other side of the country. The shows have unique tones, like Eureka is grounded in science and Warehouse is more sort of the unexplained, the supernatural, but I think it’s plausible that there are, you know, two top secret government institutions in different parts of the country that are, you know, somewhat connected.

Everyone over on Eureka was super supportive of me staying true to Claudia’s sort of snarkiness. So, yes, I’ll go with Neil’s metaphor, visiting relatives on the opposite side – the opposite coast.

Excellent. And as a follow up to that, as far as the way each of your characters, you know, talk and act, was there any deferring to you guys to do that or was that all still pretty heavily scripted?

Scagliotti: Go ahead, Neil.

Grayston: I’m – I mean, I’m sorry, what was – yes, I mean, it was scripted, but we got to just sort of – both of the episodes I think were written so well that it was just that everything felt natural, I suppose. Is that an answer?

Scagliotti: Yes, it is. Yes. We were allowed to play. Like I know on Warehouse we get to adlib a lot and Jack Kenny our showrunner is there to support. And, yes, I mean, I felt very, supported over in Eureka. If I had an idea for something that was more Claudia that was more of a callback to Warehouse, they were all for it. Matt Hastings is very cool like that.

Grayston: I got to say, too, I really enjoy Jack Kenny, the showrunner for Warehouse. Sometimes he would just appear and say like, “Hey guys, I got jokes; who wants some jokes, anyone want some jokes?” And then he would just like have like funny lines for you. We were like, yes, yes, I want your jokes. Totally. I’m your little doggie. I want your joke treats. Yes, that was a really fun thing.

I’ve actually seen a little bit of the episode. I’m actually running a clip on my site. It seems like there are some bugs that kind of come into your lives in the Warehouse. If you both can comment on working on those kind of special effects?

Grayston: Oh, the robot spiders.

Yes.

Grayston: Yes. That was – that – that’s the source of – the only time I saw Saul Rubinek crack up completely during a take and not be able to do one was when one of them is attacking Eddie. And it was actually – when we were filming it it was a green – neon green Styrofoam football that he was holding and it just sort of popped in. One of the crew members just sort of threw it at Eddie in the thing and then Saul completely lost it. It was probably one of the funniest moments I’ve seen.

Scagliotti: Yes, that was the moment when I realized that Eddie is the best schmactor among us. Schmacting is the term that we use when we’re acting with a lot of green screen and reacting to things that aren’t there, so it’s like acting schmacting. Yes, Eddie excels at it because he likes to play pretend.

What did we have to do on Eureka? We had to visualize trees and airplanes that weren’t there and we – basically any time we’re working with a lot of effects, you just have to return to the sort of imagination that, you know, you used as a kid. Suspend your disbelief on elementary levels.

Grayston: Yes, it’s sort of like get your (scared belief on).

Scagliotti: Yes, you did. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, now you’re scared. Now you’re shocked.

Grayston: Yes, or now you’re amazed.

Scagliotti: I like to call it extreme acting.

Grayston: There was also that point where the – in Warehouse where the robot spiders went on the attack and we kind of had the events were mixed up so everything flew at us at the same time, that was kind of fun.

Scagliotti: That’s right, yes. Yes, the cues were messed up and we got a cue for a fire and a net and to run all at once. It was just kind of like – it was like a Laurel and Hardy bit. But I feel every time we hang out it’s kind of like a Laurel and Hardy bit.

Grayson: Yes, pretty much. Something ridiculous always happens. It’s good times.

And also for both of you, have you – during Comic-Con it was a blur for me as well, but did you get a chance to go to Café Diem that was actually reproduced there at the Hard Rock?

Grayston: We did. On the…

Scagliotti: Yes, a couple of times.

Grayston: …the – yeah, the Eureka…

Scagliotti: We got mobbed.

Grayston: …people, we had a little gathering there on the Friday and Scags came along because she’s a Eureka person now, too. Come on, she’s in the show.

I have a question for each of you. First of all, Neil, during the Warehouse episode does Fargo get to geek out with any of the artifacts and does he try to steal any?

Grayston: Well, he tries to play with one. I think it’s Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. But he’s very quickly told to not touch anything, which is a good idea because, you know, Fargo touching things, buttons, everything, bad idea.

Scagliotti: Yes, at one point you do touch the wrong button and get electrocuted.

Grayston: Oh yes, that is true. I forgot about that. Yes, of course. That’s what Fargo does.

And, Allison, you – Claudia has kind of a bad reputation for being accident prone, what with, you know, acts of Claudia not being covered by insurance and all.

Scagliotti: Yes.

Does that carry over onto Eureka at all?

Scagliotti: As a matter of fact I was on my best behavior in Eureka and I sort of lended my sort of energy tracking skills out in the field. When things started to go awry, luckily it was not Claudia’s fault. It was beyond anyone’s control.

Grayston: But you do step on something that you shouldn’t step on.

Scagliotti: Oh, that’s right. There’s that little – oh, field of explosives thing.

Grayston: Yes.

And then I have a follow-up. In addition to your obviously awesome roles now, you’ve both got some good guest shots and I’m wondering if there are any shows either of you would love to guest on and if there’s any chance of the surprisingly cool Wonder Twins making it back to Smallville.

Scagliotti: Oh, Neil, you go while I think of where I want to guess right now.

Grayston: Oh, curses. I was like, oh, there’s a Wonder Twins reference. That’s completely about you. Geez. It’s so hard, I mean, there’s so many good shows on TV right now. I’m a big fan of True Blood, but then obviously there’s like other shows like Community and Modern Family that would be great to do because I love comedy. Wow. Open up that field and there’s a lot. Even Syfy just has so many good shows that I’d be like, yes, sure I’ll go on SGU, that would be awesome. Like I don’t know, just, yes. Name a good show, I want to be on it.

Scagliotti: Yes, there are a lot of good shows. Yes, I’m just starting to watch Mad Men. I would love to do that just to do like a period of piece. But, yes, Community is a favorite. We should go on Community together as like Greendale graduates.

Grayston: Totally.

Oh, that would be awesome!

Scagliotti: Wouldn’t it? Okay, a pitch. Let’s start that Hack/Slash movement now.

Grayston: Yes, there we go.

Scagliotti: I don’t know about the Wonder Twins coming back. They certainly left it open and I would love to do it again. As of yet I have not been approached, but, you know, never say never.

I have a question for each of you. I’ll start off with ladies first, Allison. Can you talk about your experience doing that Destination Truth episode last season?

Scagliotti: With pleasure. I like to say that Destination Truth was like summer camp on steroids because it was so vastly different from doing a scripted show. They are so authentic out there. It’s really roughing it, but I had a blast.

It was five days in Northern Chile in December, it was like 80 degrees outside every day and we were really – we were tripping around abandoned mining towns in the middle of the night looking for ghosts. It was super spooky and super fun. I’d love to go back to Destination Truth and do something possibly involving water, but I don’t want to dig myself a hole too soon.

But Josh Gates is a really funny guy. I actually hope that we get to have him on Warehouse at some point because he’s a…

Grayston: It would be awesome.

Scagliotti: …(comrade heart) I think. Yes, right.

Grayston: Yes. It would be great.

Scagliotti: Neil supports this idea.

Grayston: Right, I would love to meet some Gates, man. He’s a cool guy.

Scagliotti: He is.

Yes. It would be something to have the two of you go in the field with him. That could be a good crossover too.

Grayston: Yes.

Scagliotti: Ooh, even better.

Grayston: Rad.

Scagliotti: Come on, Neil. Go to The North Face, buy some cargo pants, let’s go.

Grayston: Oh right. I think I have some shorts that look like that, so there we go. Safari time.

Scagliotti: Good.

And then a little one – a fun one for you, Neil. Thinking ahead we now have heard that Felicia Day is going to be joining Eureka come the second half of the season, so I’m curious if you’ve started to work the writers to see if maybe there can be a, you know, Fargo, Felicia character hook up.

Grayston: Yes. I see. I don’t really know exactly what her character is coming in to do. I know it has something to do with Wil Wheaton coming back as well. But all I’ve heard is that there’s a possible love triangle in the works. I can only assume it just involves me because, I don’t know, I can only assume.

Scagliotti: Because Fargo is a player.

Grayston: Yes, you know. He’s got all his business suits now, he’s got to do something and look fancy with them. But, no, like thinking of that I actually – I only met Felicia the night of the Syfy party and she’s so nice. She’s a super nice person. We only chatted for about 20 minutes or so but it was like all right, this is going to be fun, you’re going to be on our show and Will Wheaton is going to come on and this is going to be like a nerd heaven kind of thing over here, so I’m very excited for that.

Well, great. And before I go just a little bit of an informal invite would be great to see both of you out East Coast conventions at the Dragon-Con someday too.

Grayston: I’m going to be at Dragon-Con actually.

Awesome.

Scagliotti: Oh, fingers crossed.

Yes, I know…

Scagliotti: I’m not going to be able to make Dragon-Con, but I’m going to do my best to hit up the New York Comic-Con in December.

Grayston: I really want to go do that one too. Some people keep on telling me that it’s awesome, so hopefully the schedule permits. Maybe we’ll see you in in NYC, Scags.

Scagliotti: Come on, bring it.

Grayston: All right.

Allison, I wanted to know what was it like working with Lindsay Wagner?

Scagliotti: Ooh, oh my God. Working with Lindsay was a dream not only because she’s a sci-fi legend but because she’s really a fantastic actress. I felt really lucky. I didn’t have a lot to do with her in her first appearance, but she comes back for the second episode of the show later in the season and what we have together is so meaty. It was kind of an actress’s dream to work with a veteran of the industry, not just a veteran of the genre. She’s a wonderful person and a really incredible actress and I had a lot of fun with her.

Yes, it must have been surreal having the real bionic woman there.

Scagliotti: Really.

And, Neil, how did – how will the crossover episodes help both shows, do you think?

Grayston: Oh, I think it’s – yes, I think maybe for the people who never sort of connected with the other show, I’m going to say, like for our respective things, it might sort of help people to start watching the other one as well. I think just, too, having them in the same universe opens up so many different possibilities for a bunch of awesome fun times. So I’m actually – I’m really excited to – that we, you know, went ahead and blended the universes and now there’s two shows that are definitely in the same universe that can share a lot of things if need be.

Scagliotti: Definitely.

So will this continue or is this just a one-off?

Grayston: So far it’s just been the one-off, but I certainly hope it continues because, yes, I’d love to work with all of the Warehouse people again and I don’t know, Scags, would you enjoy working with the Eurekans again?

Scagliotti: And how. I think the idea is each show wants to steal the other. I – Jack would love to have – all of us would love to have Neil ditch Eureka and come play with us on a regular basis. And (Jamie) has said he wants to steal me from Jack. (But we’re too)…

Grayston: And, yes, (Amy) also said she wants to steal you, I think. I think everyone has said they just want to kidnap you and put you on our show, which that sounds kind of scary, the kidnapping thing, (a little crazy).

Scagliotti: Aw. It does. It’s just a little crazy, but it’s cool. I trust you guys. Yes, I mean, it’s – even if we don’t crossover again, we – we’re to the point where we can be referential to each other’s shows.

Grayston: True.

Scagliotti: Yes. (We get to play off of the family).

Grayston: I actually want to get a Fargo bobblehead on the – in the Warehouse just to keep him somewhere.

Scagliotti: Oh we so have to have, like, a special shot for that.

Grayston: Yes, just like in the background, someone can point it out and be like, hey, look (that’s a nice head). I think that would be rad.

Scagliotti: Oh next year when we shoot Claudia’s room, hello.

Grayston: Sweet. Awesome.

I have a question for you guys. Without a doubt both of you are fan favorites and you’re both – you’ve both mentioned your own and off screen chemistry. Do you guys think the crossover could be a spinoff series in the making for Syfy?

Grayston: That would be so rad.

Scagliotti: Could you imagine? Where would we shoot it? Like…

Grayston: Brazil.

Scagliotti: Because Warehouse shoots in Toronto and Eureka shoots in Vancouver, would we end up in, like, Regina Saskatchewan or like (in California).

Grayston: Oh. Oh, I kind of hope not.

Scagliotti: (I think) it’s somewhere in the middle…

Grayston: I don’t mean to disparage the prairies but yes.

Allison Scagliotti: (We) don’t know.

Grayston: I’d say we just go somewhere completely out, so let’s get – in Europe. Let’s do it in Europe somewhere.

Scagliotti: Yes.

Grayston: In Spain.

That would be awesome. And a question from one of my readers, they wanted to know if we’re going to see any Warehouse 13 artifacts in Eureka and how many Eureka artifacts will we come across in Warehouse 13. Can you comment on that at all?

Scagliotti: Well, I bring some tracking devices over to Eureka when I’m there picking up the purple goo. And that’s another, you know, little Warehouse feature, I guess, the purple goo that we use to protect the artifacts is manufactured there. And then, Neil, you bring some (gack) over to the Warehouse, don’t you?

Grayston: Yes, yes. I’ve got like a little – a couple suitcases of stuff, I think that got, you know, my little – my – the robot eggs I’m going to call them and the laser. But, you know, my little Eureka stuff.

Are there any other sci-fi shows that you’d like to do a crossover with? Maybe like a three-way crossover or something.

Grayston: Ooh.

Scagliotti: Ooh, a three way.

Yes.

Grayston: Oh.

Scagliotti: It seems like Haven probably exists within the same universe. Do you think there’s someone in Haven we need to snag, bag and tag, Neil?

Grayston: Oh, yes, definitely. That’s – it’s – yes, very much. I mean, it seems a bit darker than our shows, but so it’s probably definitely still in the same universe. I mean, of course…

Scagliotti: Yes, but that’s why they need us. They need us to, you know, like, tumble in with our comedy act and like…

Grayston: Yes.

Scagliotti: You know, (lighten) things up a bit.

Grayston: A little bit of wacky.

I think in like – unfortunately I don’t think it would really work, but an SGU crossover would be pretty rad because, you know, we can hang with Mr. Blue and Elyse and everyone. It would be like oh, all right, we know a bunch of people here too.

Scagliotti: That’s right.

(They get to run an) alternate reality.

Scagliotti: (It’s so funny) how we’ve all sort of become friends with each other on all of the different sci-fi shows. So it’s true, we are a little sci-fi commune.

Grayston: Like a nerd gang.

Scagliotti: We are a nerd gang.

Okay, my follow-up on that is you’ve had some great guest stars, you know, announced for the season and such, is there like a dream guest star that each of you would like to appear on an episode of your show?

Grayston: I would totally like Bruce Campbell to be on our show…

Awesome.

Grayston: …in some form or another.

Scagliotti: I want Betty White.

Grayston: Ooh, that’s a good one.

Scagliotti: Because I’m obsessed with Betty White.

My question is – it’s kind of directed towards both of you regarding guest stars on both of your shows. Like, Allison, and – are you a big Firefly fan? And, Neil, what was it like to work with Wil Wheaton? Like did you both kind of like geek out at some point?

Grayston: Yes, do you want to go first, Scags?

Scagliotti: I – sure. You know what, I – (if I do) mention that since I’m more of Artie’s counterpart and that guest stars occur much more with the Pete and Myka characters, I don’t usually get to spend a lot of time with them, so…

(How sad for you).

Scagliotti: …Sean and Jewel from Firefly were great. I’ve never actually seen Firefly, guilty confession, but I did get to geek out over…

Grayston: Ooh.

Scagliotti: I know. I’m sorry. But I did geek out over Renee Auberjonois in 13.1 and I geeked out over Lindsay, working with Lindsay Wagner in episode eleven, which will air in September.

Ah, gotcha. And, Neil, how about you?

Grayston: Yes, well, the thing about Wil is he was like my favorite character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, which I used to watch all of the time as a kid because it was just, you know, you identify with him. I was a little boy and he was a young man so he was closest in age to me and I just always thought that (it wasn’t a crush) or was it just rad.

And then meeting Wil, he’s such a nice guy. He’s super down to earth and he’s just really cool, so it was kind of like all right, I really, really enjoy you. And then to know that he’s going to be doing a multi-episodic arc is just fantastic because he’s just a really nice guy. I consider him quite a good friend, so now I’m just going to get to work and hang out with him some more. It’s really fantastic.

What an awesome opportunity you guys have. I totally envy you all.

Grayston: Yeah, It is a really good job.

Scagliotti: I do have a (nerds dream) job. Which is convenient because we’re both nerds.

Grayston: Yes.

Well, my follow-up question is kind of along the real life geeky kind of arena. How geeky are you guys in real life? And like – and there’s been some media attention lately about how young people are more or less kind of getting disinterested in math and science.

How is being the new young face of geek or how does that help young people’s interest in math and science because it’s – it sounds like we’re almost kind of becoming up on like a shortage of engineers and, you know, and girls that are interested in science. Like what do you think you all’s position as actors in these awesome shows, how do you think you all can kind of stir up the spark of interest in young people?

Scagliotti: Neil, do you want to start (that) or shall I?

Grayston: Oh, I for one wish I was as good at math and science as my character is because I’m pretty horrible at it, but I had no idea that people were getting disinterested in it. Because I know so many engineers and, you know, I’m just going to say scientists but that might just be the people that I know or something. But, yes, wow, that’s kind of a drag.

Scagliotti: It is, yes. For me, I’m not at all inclined towards the mathematics or the sciences. I’ve always been an artsy girl. But for me it’s really, really a joy to play a smart female character. Because I’m sure you’re no stranger to the talk that there’s kind of a surplus of your standard giggling wide-eyed girl who flips her blonde hair behind her shoulder and pouts her lips and anyone can kind of do that, but I don’t think there’s anything inspiring about a character like that. It’s not rewarding to play her, and it’s not rewarding to see that sort of exalted on screen.

So getting to play a girl with a specific skill set like Claudia, the payoff – the ultimate payoff for me is when moms reach out to me on Twitter and say that their young daughters are obsessed with Claudia and want to dress up like her for Halloween and, you know, are aspiring to be geeks and have, you know, have special – have these interests that aren’t dictated by what other people at school are telling them is cool.

Or, you know, that they’re not reading magazines that come from a real place, that come from listening to themselves and listening to what they like. So for me it’s very rewarding to play a role model actually.

I’m a fan of both shows, so I’m really looking forward to the crossover. Allison, with the crossover, Claudia’s getting a little more responsibility and you’ve mentioned already you’re working with Lindsay Wagner. It seems like Claudia is also getting field operative training. I’m just wondering with her role expanding this way in the series, how do you approach that and are there any challenges that come from that that you haven’t encountered previously on the show?

Scagliotti: You know, portraying Claudia’s increasing responsibility is really just what you’re seeing is my – me coping with becoming a series regular for the first time and sort of navigating what it means to be, you know, the fourth leg of a table. And supporting something with three other people and needing to be a unique sort of member of a team. I’m really – I’m bringing the truth of what it’s like to be nervous on the job. It’s all the honest Allison nerves that you’re going to see.

Cool. Neil, you’ve mentioned already about Fargo’s being the boss at Global Dynamic and it’s been interesting watching that arc unfold, but I think it’s even more important that it’s in an – in a Eureka where everything is different. I think it was Henry who said something to the effect of everything is different yet strangely the same. Now how does that present challenges for you? And just out of curiosity, how does Fargo find the time to get away from running Global Dynamics to go to Warehouse 13?

Grayston: Yes, that is a good question. I guess he just – he is told to go to Warehouse 13. There are powers above him even at Global Dynamics. But no, the thing [is] it’s really fun. It sort of opened up a lot of things this season being old bumbling Fargo who is now thrust into running GD and trying to pretend to be this sort of power hungry kind of jerkface. And it’s fun sort of playing the public and private Fargos and, you know, the difference between that.

I mean, there’s always little glimmers of when there’s a lot of people around Fargo is one way. But then with the sort of time-traveling six his insecurities come out and his, you know, what is this job stuff, is allowed to come out and it’s been really fun to play that.

And also just play Fargo as a character who actually is semi-competent sometimes. Because I think last season it was getting a little bit away from that and kind of verging into the ridiculous where he was just a completely, like, there was a point where I was like why would anybody do this? Why would he do this? The town is going to blow up and he’s worried about, you know, this small little thing. So it’s really fun to actually have him grow as a character and feel a bit more human this season.

Neil, I was wondering if you think your current incarnation of Fargo might meet the diabolical version that must have existed in the new timeline? Are any plans for that coming up?

Grayston: I don’t know. I think what we’ve done with the time line, I don’t think there’s any sort of alternate us characters. I think we just sort of like replaced them and stepped into their shoes. But I certainly would love to have say a scene where, yes, maybe there’s some video or something like that, some recording of the previous Fargo maybe giving a speech, maybe, you know, chastising some people, but it would be super fun to play jerk face Fargo. So I’m hoping that maybe we get something out of that.

Well, if the timeline is reversed, what direction would you like to see Fargo go in after that?

Grayston: You know, I like him on this track. I like sort of being able to still be kind of goofy and fun, but I also really like him having responsibilities and actually stepping up to the plate and being able to achieve things once in a while.

Scagliotti: And I would like Fargo to start dressing like the hipster that Neil is.

Grayston: I’ll just bring them my closet over to the show.

Well, actually I was…

Scagliotti: Skinny pants and skinny ties for Fargo.

Grayston: Yes, skinny pants with skinny ties, yes. Suits are weird for me. I feel very odd in them. They seem so billowy.

Scagliotti: They are very billowy.

Grayston: Yes, I’m a skinny dude and that’s a lot of fabric for me to be wearing.

Allison, would you ever be interested in playing an evil version of Claudia on Warehouse 13?

Scagliotti: Yes. Oh my God. I – you have no idea how much I want to get my Starbuck on and go rogue in Season 3. I am lobbying for a punk rock episode, and Myka got to parade around in a superhero suit, and I want, you know, leather pants and arm band and rock – I want to rock out on stage.

But yes, I think that we’ve seen Claudia become part of the family and we’ve seen that become jeopardized. We saw her get emotional when she was framed and she got her cute on this season. It’s time. It’s time for Claudia to disobey somebody and sort of go to the dark side for a little while.

Grayston: Have you ever actually worn leather pants?

Scagliotti: No, I’ve not actually worn leather pants, Neil, but I have a feeling that it will be awesome. I will work out a lot before I do it.

Grayston: Oh sweet. No, I was just going to say that they’re really hot. They’re kind of uncomfortable.

Scagliotti: Yes, yes, they are sweaty. Copious amounts of butt soup occur in leather pants.

Grayston: Yes, yes, so, you know, get your talcum powder on.

I wanted to ask you both just kind of what it’s like being a part of the Syfy family. And by family I mean, you know, we talk to a lot of actors from a lot of different shows and different networks and you guys all seem to kind of know each other, at least know the shows and there seems like there’s a dynamic there may be in Syfy that I don’t see in other places. But I wondered if you guys see that and just what it’s like being part of that family.

Scagliotti: Well, I got to say we’re all extremely lucky to work for one of the coolest channels out there. You know, we’ve got people in charge who are committed to making great shows. And I think that that shows in their readiness to make a crossover happen between Warehouse and Eureka by paying attention to the real life chemistry that happened between myself and Neil. So it starts up there at the top with cool people running the show.

And then within our individual shows, we’ve both got amazing people in our respective writers’ rooms, great showrunners. It’s a bit of a love fest, but we’re – I think that’s why our shows have been so successful in their own right is because when everyone likes working together, when everyone enjoys what they’re doing, there is joy that shines through in the content that I think is infectious to the audience.

Grayston: Yes. I couldn’t have said it better.

Okay. Now as my follow-up here, we – we’ve kind of talked about the possibility of future crossovers and crossing over with different shows, but I just wanted to ask the two of you what is your gut feeling? Does this kind of open the floodgates at Syfy for a, you know, a more in-depth crossover between these two shows and I guess crossing into Haven and Sanctuary and the other shows out there?

Grayston: I kind of hope so. I really like the idea of having, you know, it’s almost like making the network a – like a comic book company sort of thing. It’s like, are we DC, are we Marvel or something like that, like, having those everyone exists in a similar universe I think is – there is just so many possibilities and it’s just kind of awesome. You get to work with all of my friends and stuff like that and sort of really make these characters that we have sort of live in a true universe rather than just like its own little bottle.

Scagliotti: That’s a great idea. I just started like brainstorming about how if we had our own little Justice League if we would call it The Nerd Gang and who would be in it. Like it would definitely be you and me.

Grayston: Of course.

Scagliotti: And then David Blue would be in it and probably Colin Ferguson and Saul Rubinek.

Grayston: Yes, absolutely.

Scagliotti: Whatever, all of the (cast) for all the Syfy shows, we’re all in. We’re all in The Nerd Gang.

Grayston: Yes, everyone can come in. Everyone can join.

Scagliotti: Yes, come on in, the water’s fine.

Grayston: We’ll be the leaders though, right. We’ll lead it. You know, just because.

Scagliotti: Yes.

I wanted to ask since Claudia just got that advice from Artie and she’s sort of a romantic newbie with Todd in last week’s episode, I was wondering how is this Fargo/Claudia romance going to happen and what’s going to happen to Todd.

Scagliotti: Okay. So, yes, there’s a love triangle. Claudia’s got a wondering eye in this episode, but you can’t fight the feeling, I mean, when the sparks are there, the sparks are there, you know what I’m saying. So, I mean…

Grayston: (I mean we’re) kind of trapped in the Warehouse.

Scagliotti: We are trapped in the Warehouse, but you’ll see. The end of – at the end of 13.1 Claudia gets a bit of a landslide happening in her world. That’s not the right word. What’s the word that I’m looking for? She’s…

Grayston: I’m totally at a loss for it, but I know what you mean.

Scagliotti: You know what I mean? Like she’s – she – she’s hit by a sort of tidal wave of emotional conflict.

Grayston: Earthquakiness.

Scagliotti: Yes. Which motivates actually Claudia leaving the Warehouse to go to Eureka for a couple days, like she just needs to get away, so you’ll see.

You’ll see what happens when Claudia let’s her taste wander.

Do you guys think that either one of them, your characters, would give up their jobs for love?

Grayston: Hmm.

Scagliotti: Hmm.

Grayston: Hmm.

Scagliotti: I don’t think Claudia would. I think Claudia is too emotionally guarded having spent 12 years trying to bring her brother back from an inter-dimensional space. And I’ve also – I’m speaking like from my own point of view, you got to work while the working is good, you know. At this point Claudia’s real love is tech and being part of a family, so I don’t think we’ll see Claudia making any grand gestures for true love any time soon. Neil.

Grayston: Yes, I think Fargo is probably more – he’s got a bit more of a predilection towards doing something like that. But he’s also, you know, he – that would have to be someone very insanely special who loves Fargo a lot – who Fargo loves more than science – but, and if any of the two characters were to give up their job for love, it would probably be Fargo, I think.

In previous seasons actors from your respective shows have played different parts on the other shows, I was just wondering if there’s any kind of sly double takes or any tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of that in these crossover episodes.

Grayston: There originally…

Scagliotti: No.

Grayston: …was a scene in the Eureka one because there was a – Saul was talking to Colin, was it not, on…

Scagliotti: Yes, that’s right.

Grayston: …or Colin…

Scagliotti: There was supposed to be a Farnsworth scene between the characters Sheriff Carter and Artie, but the episode was running long so it was cut. So there’s actually no mention of it.

But I – we’re – what we’re talking about is actually having an episode in the future where – and this kind of like blows everything in Eureka wide open is that Carl Carlson was actually Artie Neilson and when it looked like he was eaten up by the artifact, he actually just went in there to retrieve it.

Grayston: That would be awesome.

Scagliotti: (But yeah), he didn’t die, he just wound up back in the warehouse.

Grayston: Oh well, that guy pulled a fast one.

Scagliotti: He did.

If each of your characters were let’s say fired from your job and banned from, you know, Global Dynamics or the Warehouse, what do you think they would do if they couldn’t do what they’re doing?

Grayston: I think Fargo would try to get a job at the Warehouse.

Scagliotti: Yes. And Claudia – if Claudia were exiled from the Warehouse, she’d get by just fine. She’d fill her time with something very illegal. She’d probably become a bit of a Lizabet Salander type character like living off the grid, hacking professionally for cash and doing investigations because that’s what she’s good at and she likes digging up information about people.

For Allison first, now that most of the shooting, if not all, is done for this season for you, are there any special memories or episodes or scenes that you’d kind of say you – we should really be looking for?

Scagliotti: Yes, a few. First of all, tomorrow night Neil and I battling robot spiders with light sabers in the Warehouse and then kissing. I mean, that scene really has everything. I’m trying to (be)…

Grayston: Yes.

Scagliotti: …I think it’s really like the ultimate geek out scene. And then…

Grayston: Yes, I think that’s the most epic scene I’ve ever filmed.

Scagliotti: Yes, that was full of epic. And then for me a few episodes down the road — I don’t want to spoil anything and it is kind of full of spoilers — but I have a sort of face-off with another character. It’s very important. It’s a bit of a – actually I call it the Mexican standoff scene because I’ve got a (Tesla) and he’s got a gun.

And then, Neil, a question for you. I’m very curious, you know, on a personal level what it was like, maybe you can share some thoughts on when you found out that you were going to become the head of Global Dynamics.

Grayston: That was a thing where they sort of – I went down in December I guess it was, I went down to LA and I popped into the writers room because I’d never actually been in. And they told me everything like with the time change and all of that and then when they said that I was going to be the head of Global Dynamics I was sort of, like, I did like a pause kind of thing and sort of looked and was like are you serious? And then of course I did a happy dance and was really excited because there’s so many possibilities for that.

And then when I heard that it wasn’t just, you know, reverting, you know, in like one or two episodes, it was actually going to last for a while, it was like all right, this is – I’m getting stuff to do. This is awesome. So I’m very, very excited to do it and having a blast playing this weird version of Fargo who actually can do stuff.

My last question is kind of – it might be a little bit of a doozy for Allison. I don’t know if you can say any of this, but can you shed some light on the mysterious Regents of the Warehouse and the (scene that becomes the) time The Right Eye of Horus.

Scagliotti: Ah, well, I can’t say a lot about the Regents without spoiling what happens to one of them this season. Whew. What I will say is they’re, you know, the great thing about the Regents is they’re not what you would expect. They’re not, you know, a tri – you know, a tribunal around an internal plane. They’re populated by real people. Your standard working people – working class individuals who really should decide what becomes of these artifacts.

In that, you know, and in that sort of mindset all of the power is not given to the government. It’s really – there are a lot of checks and balances involved in the Warehouse so there is – Mrs. Frederick who we thought was the end all, be all superior has superiors of her own and they are – their word is sort of – it’s gospel. It’s the gospel of the Warehouse if you will.

Cool. Well, is there anything more behind the Egyptian symbology that we’ve been seeing, like, peppered in through the show?

Scagliotti: Yes. In fact we have two – our last two episodes involve us discovering Warehouse 2, the lost Egyptian warehouse and it’s very Indiana Jones-esque when Pete and Myka go to Egypt.

Holy cow!

Scagliotti: Yes, I think those are probably…

I’m having a (heart attack over) here.

Scagliotti: Yes, it’s very nice. Yes. I think our last two episodes are the most exciting of the season.

While at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, Eclipse Magazine had the pleasure of catching up with actor Christopher Judge as he was signing autographs for fans at the Holzheimer’s booth in the exhibit hall.

Talking to Christopher Judge is like talking to an old friend and indeed he has been one of Eclipse Magazine’s favorite interview subjects during our coverage of Stargate SG1 during it’s ten year run as a hit series in which he played the noble Jaffa warrior Teal’c .

Check out the exclusive video interview as Eclipse Magazine catches up with this versatile and talented actor/writer and photographer as he tells us about his upcoming projects including one with Bond actor, Roger Moore.

While Eclipsemagazine still has plenty more goodies to share with readers from our adventures at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, I think it’s only fitting that we take a nostalgic look back at all the wonders the 4 day event had to share with us while we were there.

The San Diego Comic Con has a multitude of things to offer that cater to many different interests, be it comic books which were the original focus of the event when it first began, to action/adventure/Scifi movies, TV shows, collectibles, gaming, costuming or just getting to meet a favorite actor/writer/producer/artist.

“I got my picture taken with Bruce Greenwood!!!!!”

Oh sorry, I digressed  there for a moment. Now that I’m back on track again, let’s take a look at some of the things that Comic Con had to offer a roving reporter wandering down the hallways and through the exhibit hall.

One of the great things about Comic Con is the fact that it is Mecca for those who love to do costuming. It’s one of the few places where you can see The Crow being followed by an original Battlestar: Galactica era Cylon or see Darth Vader deep in conversation with Cruella De’Ville.

There were cool looking pirates

And famous looking pirates (this guy had people doing double takes right and left!)

Super heroes

Actors/professional models even got to get in on the fun by working the booth to promote the new TRON movie

Wandering around the exhibit hall one could also take the time to admire the amazing craftsmanship of the life sized action figures.

Like Ironman (I kept trying to figure out how to get this into my suitcase).

There is also things to do like watching fans get autographs with the actors/writers and producers of their favorite shows! like:

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES

SUPERNATURAL

For me, as a roving reporter for Eclipse Magazine, one of the best aspects of going to Comic Con is the chance to sit down and interview the people who bring my favorite show to life (these are just two small teaser clips from larger video interviews to posted to Eclipse Magazine).

JARED PADALECKI

JENSEN ACKLES

Covert Affairs [Tuesdays, 10/9C] is the latest series to produce solid ratings for the ISA Network. The breezy-with-a-dark-undercurrent series was created by executive producers Chris Ord and Matt Corman [pictured above with series star Piper Perabo and executive producers Doug Liman, Dave Bartis] – who took time from their duties as overseers [executive producers] of the show to speak with a select group of bloggers/journalists, including yours truly.

Can you tell us how you came up with the idea of the show and how is it going to be different from other shows of this kind because I know of people are comparing it to Alias and stuff.

Chris Ord: When we came up with the show, we originally conceived it as more of a workplace show. That was our way into it. We really wanted to examine the CIA as a workplace and all the politics that go along with that and just what it’s like to actually work in such an odd institution. When you really look at the CIA, you realize that if you work there, A, you don’t get a lot of credit for the work you do because you can’t tell anyone about it. B, you don’t make very much money. And so it’s a very interesting person who chooses do this because the upside is just about self satisfaction and knowing you’re helping your country and doing what you can to help your country.

So we really wanted to examine the type of people that work there and the type of people who choose to do a job like this. That was the first seed of the idea and then as we started crafting it, the characters started to come to us and then the action and spy intrigue came after that. We started with the characters and worked our way backwards

Now, Piper Perabo said in an interview that her sister, Danielle, that obviously her life is going to get more complicated. Can you tell us, give us a hint of what’s coming ahead for her and for their dynamic?

Matt Corman: For us, one of the most interesting aspects about being in the CIA is the confluence of your work life, which is potentially dangerous, has a lot of intrigue and secrets, and a normal home life. Everyone in the CIA is somebody’s son or daughter. Often cases, they’re married. They have a boyfriend or girlfriend. And there’s complex emotional negotiations as to whether or not you tell the people around you what you do or how much you tell them.

At the outset of our series, of course, Danielle is completely in the dark and Annie is protecting her from this information. As the series progresses, that dynamic will be tested and it’s very difficult for Annie because the person who she’s closest to in her life is her sister. She tells her sister everything – except there’s this one blind spot where she’s lying about exactly who it is that she is. So we’ll progress that, but it will take time.

Ord: It’s not as simple as just reading her in. I think what everyone at the CIA recognizes is that if you tell somebody you’re in the CIA, which there are times you can do that, you are putting their lives at risk now by doing so. It’s not a decision to taken lightly and we want to explore that as the series goes on.

Going on what you just said, I know that you’ve talked to a lot of people at the CIA. I know obviously you can’t tell us a lot of certain things. But can you quickly talk about what the experience was going there and seeing that?

Corman: It was very important for us to go because we recognized entering into this process that our entire conception of what the CIA is was based on other television shows and movies. And as writers we always try and do as much research as possible and throw ourselves into the world that we’re creating. So it was absolutely vital for us to get there.

It wasn’t that easy to gain access because they’re not really an outward facing agency. They’re very internal. They don’t do a lot of interfacing with the public. So we had to send a lot of emails and place a lot of phone calls. But finally we were able to get in and it was transformative, as far as this process because a lot of the details that you saw on pilot and you’ll see on the show going forward were borne out of our experiences. For example, there is a food court with a Starbucks. There are a lot of young people that work there. You are not allowed to bring cells phones into the building. Just some of the little details just came from walking around and talking to people.

I’ve been talking to people since the premiere and seeing what they feel. The reaction has been really positive. So has the reaction been like for you guys?

Ord: We’ve been feeling very positive reactions, which we’re thrilled about. We were very proud of the pilot and we were happy with the way it all came out. We do make these shows for people to watch and enjoy. And that was really important to us. It seems from the reports we’re getting that people really enjoyed it and are looking forward to more episodes.

Moving forward in the series, there’s a character coming up that we really haven’t seen or really anything of yet and that’s a Sendhil’s [Ramamurthy] character. So can you speak a little bit about him?

Corman: Sendhil is going to be playing a really interesting character named Jai Wilcox who’s a second generation CIA man. First of all, Sendhil is a magnificent actor and we’re really lucky to have him and he’s a good guy to boot. But the character is very complex because he’s caught between two father figures. He’s working for Arthur Campbell, who’s played by Peter Gallagher and then his father was legend at the CIA. So he’s in a very complicated situation and he’s someone who is going to be getting close to Piper’s character for various reasons. And we don’t want to tip our hand too much, but their relationship is going to be very juicy and it’s going to have a lot of layers to it.

And speaking of relationships, one final thing is how would you guys pinpoint the relationship between Annie and Auggie right now and where do you see that going?

Ord: I think what we love about the relationship right now, and it’s both on screen and off screen, is that Piper and Chris just became fast friends immediately both as Auggie and Annie, but also off screen. And they get along really well and you feel that when you see them interact on screen. So we really see the relationship right now as friendship and it’s great for Annie to have such a cool mentor in the agency. But over time and over the series, I think if we have the fortune of having a number of seasons, we would definitely explore romantic possibilities between the two, but that would be way down the road.

Suddenly out of nowhere – not counting Burn Notice, which is burned spy – there are two spy series coming up. Essentially there’s Covert Affairs, which is just getting started and NBC has J.J. Abrams Undercovers. So I’m wondering, why a spy series, why now?

Corman: It’s funny. Things tend to cycle through. As you see with this Russian spy ring, it’s definitely in the zeitgeist. I think people are interested in the role of the CIA right now, which is changing. Technically and traditionally the purview of the CIA has been spying on foreign countries in other countries. But increasingly, it’s becoming a more tactical agency and also having somewhat of a role domestically. So as Americans and America tries to figure out what they want their CIA to be, it becomes good fodder for television.

So I think it’s just in the public’s mind right now and there are other shows. I think we’re confident that when people tune into our show, they’ll see that it has its own voice, its own tone and its own vibe and is very specific.

Ord: I think that’s a question for the networks in a sense. We started creating this show almost three years ago when we first thought of it. We didn’t know that all these other shows were on the horizon. But I think as Matt said, there is a collective zeitgeist that just feels that the time is right to launch these shows. We were fortunate enough that USA picked us up and we were on air.

One of the more interesting relationships on the show is between Joan and Arthur. At the very least we can describe their relationship as unusual. On top of the friction in their personal lives, she works for him. What can we expect to develop there?

Corman: You’re quite right. It’s always complicated to work with someone you’re married to. This is an added specificity of complication in that, as you said, she does work under him. But both of them I think it’s important to note are committed to trying to make their marriage work, so that’s what we can see, them trying to work through it on an emotional level and trying to cohabitate as coworkers as well. So we thing both actors, Peter Gallagher and Kari Matchett, are totally gifted and we really love that dynamic, so you can expect to see more of that.

Lastly, when we talked to Tim Matheson yesterday, he was asked what role he’d like to play as a guest on Covert Affairs and he replied he’d like to be a double agent. What do you think?

Corman: Hey, man, we think that that would actually be great. He’s a tremendous actor and I know he did a great job with the pilot. So I think we’ll have to take that note and see if it fits in anywhere down the line.

My question for you is as you’ve even talked about before, the show has been compared to Alias. But in a lot of ways, it seems more like true life than Alias ever did. Do you think based on your experiences at Langley that that’s actually true?

Ord: Yes, definitely. I think we’ve always intended this to be first off, a more grounded CIA. Obviously, it’s a TV show, but we wanted to start with a foot in reality and create stories from there. Also, I think there’s a big difference in the two lead characters of our show and that show, which is Annie is pulled out of training a month ahead. She is not a superhero by any means. She’s not as skilled in fighting or lock picking, things like that. It’s because of that that we feel, it’s that an experience that makes our show unique in the sense every action set piece we craft, we’re always thinking what would it be like to be Annie in this situation.

As you see in the pilot, she’s fighting a world renowned assassin on the subway at the end. And what she does have is a tenacity and a will and a perseverance to never give up fighting. But as you see, she jumps on his back, she’s doing anything she can to get a hand on this guy. It’s that disparity that we really feel shows her character and is the foundation of our show.

When you were doing the research talking to the people and going to Langley and such, what did you learn that surprised you the most about the whole CIA lifestyle?

Corman: Surprised us the most about the lifestyle, one thing, and you might presume this, but it was interesting to hear it is that when officers are in the field, they’re given an enormous amount of latitude. They may not communicate with Langley for days or weeks at a time. That to them is one of the most exciting parts about the job.

It’s on one level, this immense bureaucracy that has all the safeguards and bureaucratic nonsense that any big company would have. But when you ascend to the role of operative in the field, which in general takes about seven years, all of a sudden you are almost like James Bond. You’re given such free autonomy to do your job that it’s kind of breathtaking even to them. So to us just to really hear how much without a net they’re able to operate out in the field was interesting.

What’s the biggest challenge in writing for this show?

Ord: I think we’re just constantly struggling to fulfill the parameters that we’ve set for ourselves, which is if you take a normal, ordinary person and put them into these situations, how do they navigate them. How does someone who doesn’t necessarily have the training or the skill get out of these pickles in a way that’s credible?

When designing the series, you designed season arcs and series mythology and you plot it out and then go back … the episodes with details to execute your vision.

Corman: Yes is the short answer. But we did think about the season and what we wanted to do with that and as we were crafting the all 11 episodes that will follow the pilot. And then there … little, I think, cues here and there that hopefully the audiences will pick up on in terms of playing that mythology out. But it was certainly in our minds as we crafted the season, and then within that, we wanted to write individual episodes that could stand on their own, so that there’d be a case or something or mission that Annie has to complete by the end of the episode. So we’re cognizant of doing both.

What were some of the other inspirations, be it books, movies, other TV shows once you figured out that there’s more, much more of a workplace show and more of a spy show, what were you looking at?

Ord: In terms of where we’re finding our stories and things?

No, in terms of other things you’ve looked at, just in terms of what has influenced you in crafting this.

Ord: I think, actually, we did a lot research beyond just visiting the CIA, trying to do as much combing through new articles as possible, finding real stories that we could use as a jumping off place. I think that was helpful to us to recognize what was out there, what would be interesting that could make the seed of a good story and go from there. We really tried to do that and have everything from Annie and what it would be like to be in her situation doing these missions.

I was wondering about the decision to make Chris Gorham’s character blind and could you talk about that and what you see is that in maybe being a positive as far as story and that sort of thing.

Corman: Chris Gorman is a really gifted actor, first of all, and he’s doing a tremendous job with it. We’re so appreciative of his efforts because it’s not an easy thing to pull off. The idea to do this character was based, actually, on a friend of ours who was an accident. In his case, he was paralyzed. He was not blinded. But the accident was transformative for him in many ways terrible, but in some ways good. His character changed to a certain extent. He became more inquisitive, more open, in some ways more emotional, so that was the starting off place.

We wanted to look at a character who in Auggie’s instance was in the military and was probably a very straight forward person before his accident. But afterwards, it has opened him up to the world, made him a little bit more vulnerable, perhaps given him a sense of humor that he didn’t have before. That was sort of our way into it.

Ord: And going from there with Chris Gorman, it was important to us as we cast the role to have an actor who could do it without sunglasses on. I think that when you put those sunglasses on, it really puts a barrier between the character and audience. It was important to us that this character could connect with both Annie and our audience.

Corman: Chris has done an amazing job of really throwing himself into trying to understand what it means to live as a blind person. He’s constantly meeting the Canadian Institute for the Blind. We shoot the show in Toronto, Canada. He’s talked to a lot of blind people. He himself is involved in crafting the space in which he works and in which he lives. He’s consulting our set designers as to how a blind person would actually have … a room and what they need to function properly. So in many ways, he himself has become an in-house expert.

Ord: And every scene gets blocked that involves Auggie. It’s all determined on what he could do or not do in that situation. So if he doesn’t know that someone has left the room, well, he’ll play that. He’s a really gifted actor and he always has that in his mind and it’s been a great help to the show.

Also talk about launching the show in this world of social media where Twitter is such a big deal and Facebook. I know USA does a lot with both. Have you guys had a hand in that? Are you guys Tweeting? What’s the impact?

Ord: We’re both semi-… I think. I think we have not been Tweeting. We’re both on Facebook, which is a pretty impressive if you knew us.

Corman: I think it’s great. What we do appreciate is that it’s actually really helped launch the show and get the show to people in ways that you couldn’t do before, like this phone call and like the USA Network Web site, where you can see previews and things and interact with other fans of the show. We’re all for it. I think it’s really just helpful in terms of putting the show out there and having it actually interact with the world.

Ord: Chris Gorman is huge on Twitter.

Corman: So he’s all about it.

Ord: And Gallagher is on there, too, which ought to be interesting and Anne Dudek, too, so we feel the show is well represented on inter-webs.

We’re curious to hear more about your relationship as writing partners and how you started, how you met and how your past led you to where you are now.

Ord: Both Matt and I met in college. We went to Brown together. We started writing over a decade ago together. We were friends first and not all friends make great writing partners, but we really felt we clicked and had the same ethos and the same sensibility and it grew from there.

It’s been great. I think we recognized the value of writing as a team. We’ve actually taught seminars on collaboration and how to find value in it and it’s been great. I don’t know what else to add. I think it’s been very fruitful and productive for us and we’re really appreciative of it.

Can you talk a little bit about the casting process on the show?

Corman: We started first and foremost with Annie. It was critical that we get an amazing Annie. When Piper came in, we immediately knew she was the person. It was like a light bulb went off and then we couldn’t think about the character in any other way. She just inhabited it in such a natural way that it became self evident immediately that she had to be the person.

Ord: It was a challenging character to cast, too, in the sense she always wanted her to be beautiful and smart and athletic and charming and gifted and sweet. It was a big ask and when Piper came in, she answered all those questions and it was a … complete.

You mentioned where the idea of Auggie came from. I just wanted to know when you guys visited the CIA, did you … any agents like him? Or was there any agents that had disabilities?

Corman: That short answer is no. We didn’t see any blind people working there. There are certainly people with disabilities within the CIA, but we did not have the chance to interface with any of them in our visits. They’re intrigued by the character. They think it’s credible. Certainly a character like Auggie, there some limitations on what he can do, but we like to think that he’s always succeeding expectations and doing things differently than a sighted person might.

We actually have an episode coming up down the line without tipping our hand too much, where he’s going to get out into the field. And it was an exciting episode to write and I think the audience is really going to enjoy it.

Speaking of getting out into the field, is the show mostly going to be based with domestic issues, or will we see future episodes with North Korea or Iran or other countries?

Ord: Well, we haven’t hit the axis of evil yet, but we’re definitely getting out internationally. I think it’s going to be about 50/50 in terms of whether we’re DC based or out into the greater international world. We have episodes set in Zurich. We have episodes set in Venezuela so far, London, and then we also have ones that are more domestic related. So we wanted that mix and we wanted the ability to do that mix. We think we found it with this show.

Can you talk about what guest stars we’ll see this season?

Ord: Sure, we have some great stars. This coming Tuesday, you’ll see Steven Brand and Rya Kihlstedt who are fantastic actors. We have Oded Fehr coming up in a few weeks, who is great and really a pleasure to work with.

Corman: He plays a Mossad agent.

Ord: D.W. Moffat is coming up in a few weeks after that.

Corman: Lauren Holly.

Ord: Lauren Holly… I’m trying to think of who else… a very young gifted beautiful actress named Liane Balaban is coming up.

Corman: Eriq La Salle.

Ord: Eriq La Salle, we have some goodies.

You just talked about guest stars. Is there any kind of dream people that you’d like to work with on the show, if you could pick anyone?

Ord: I don’t think we’ve been so audacious as to dream too big. I think we have a great casting director with Susie Ferris, who cast the pilot and now she’s casting the series. She just has the ability to find very talented actors and bring them in front of us. So we trust her judgment and so far we have had just a phenomenal string of guest stars who can all not only act, but they’re great people and they brought a lot to the series. So we’ve been very blessed with Suzie.

M. Corman: And I would say for our main characters, we are working with our dream cast. Everybody that we got as a main or recurring character is sort of our first choice. And many of these people have or could carry their own show before. Chris Gorman had his own show. Peter Gallagher could absolutely have his own show if we wanted to.

Ord: Kari had her own show with Invasion.

Corman: Yes, and … is amazingly skilled and we’re lucky to have her. So we sort of feel like we have this murder’s row of people on our show that any one of which could carry their own television program.

What’s been your favorite moment so far, either during filming or just in general with working with the show?

Ord: It’s all been a really fantastic experience, so to pick out one moment, I would need a moment to think about that. So you have one?

Corman: Yes, I think it’s all been in aggregate a lot of fun. I think week in and week out, this is a bit of a general thing, but we’re doing some really amazing big action set pieces. So when we t-bone a car, that’s exciting. When we’re doing a big gag in an elevator shaft, that’s amazing. When we’re doing stuff on open water or big shoot-outs involving multiple people and the fact that we’re able to pull this off on eight day schedules on a TV budget and have it look authentic is exciting to me whenever we do it.

I’ve been really pleased thus far with the action we’ve been doing. The credit to that goes to our episodic directors, but also to our executive producer, Doug Liman, who’s been really involved in working with the directors week in and week out and prepping them on the action sequences and the template that we have for action on this show. He’s flown in several times to work with the directors and it’s made a huge difference.

Is there anything you’ve wanted to do, though, but you couldn’t? It seems like obviously you’ve done a lot of actions to scenes, but maybe because of budget, but maybe even just … they say you can’t do that. Is there anything like that?

Corman: I have to say we’ve been able to do everything that we’ve wanted to do. It’s been remarkable string of episodes. They’ve all been very ambitious from a production standpoint. We have a great crew and team up in Toronto who just find ways to get it done. It’s really satisfying to be ambitious and then pull it off. I think we couldn’t do that without our crew up in Toronto, but so far we’ve never had to compromise.

Like other USA shows, I’m thinking Burn Notice in particular, you have a series of episodic adventures, but there’s this ongoing arc revolving around Annie’s mysterious ex-lover. I’m just wondering is that going to be a full season arc or will it be more or less, and what happens with her once that ends since that’s really what got her into the Langley?

Ord: We don’t want to tip our hands too much, but it’s obviously a big part of her past. It will continue to play out for some time. When you say what happens when it ends, you presuming that it does end. So we want to leave that very open ended and we want to have the mystery that we established in the pilot continue on going forward. So I know that’s not the most specific answer in the world, but that is intentional.

I’m also wondering since Annie has this great rapport with Auggie, he’s kind of in way mentoring her because she’s not even completely trained. Will there be any other relationship like that within the office? I’m thinking will Joan mentor her as well? There seems like there could be something there – of a little more fractious nature maybe, but—

Ord: What we love with the dynamic with Joan and Annie and both Kari and Piper play it beautifully, is that they both see themselves in the other. So Joan is looking at Annie and saying that reminds me of me when I first entered the agency. And Annie is looking at Joan saying, wow, this is a strong, smart, powerful woman, but she’s pretty intense and is that going to be me in ten years. And so it’s that relationship and that dynamic that we really feel offers a lot of opportunities for great scenes between them and that will be ongoing throughout the series.

Also, I was wondering Arthur and Joan. Besides the stuff we talked about already, they kind of seem like they could be Mr. and Mrs. Smith 15 years down the line. Are we going to get a look at how they rose to the positions that they’re in?

Ord: Potentially, yes, maybe we’re definitely going to get into their back story more. I think it’s really interesting to see people that are both powerful, both within the same industry, try to navigate that. So absolutely, we’re going to get into their backstory a bit more.

Corman: And in our research, one thing that really came out of the CIA in terms of relationships is that working at the agency is very hard on relationships. I think when we asked everybody there that question to a T, they said no doubt, it’s very hard on relationships. We’ll watch Joan and Arthur go through those ups and downs and we think that’s really in those sort of character relationship moments is where the heart of the show really lies.

Speaking of relationships and the CIA, I thought Eric and Piper would make a good looking couple. Is there any chance that Conrad and Annie would get together?

Ord: That would be much further down the road.

But it’s a possibility.

Corman: When we brought in Sendhil, I think we had to… Eric Lively did not stay on the show and so it would have to be way down the road for them to come back together.

Again, talk about relationships, I don’t remember who it was, but I think somebody last night mentioned something about they prefer the relationships to be within the CIA as opposed to people that they don’t know about. Is that true or is that just something that you put in for creative license?

Ord: No, that is true. They actually encourage dating and relationships within the agency. The reason is from a national security, it’s a national security reason, which is when you have two people who are together in the agency, A, those are two loose ends that can be tied up. And then, B, it’s easier for those people to empathize with one another. They can recognize the challenges of working in this job, even if they can’t exactly talk about classified information with each other. At least they can recognize what the other might be going through. Does that make sense?

So, you both write and produce. Have you ever been interested in acting or directing maybe later down the road?

Ord: No.

Corman: No, we have enough on our plates.

Now, when you created these characters, is there anything that you took from your own life that you infused the show with? Obviously, you’re not CIA agents, at least I think not.

Ord: Not that you know of. Yes, I think whenever you write characters, you pull little bits from one’s own life. All these characters have little pieces of us in them. To be really specific about it would be hard, but everything we do informed by our own experiences. I think that’s what all good writing is. You’ll pulling from the full pantheon of your human experience and using things as you see fit. But none of the characters are like specifically based on us.

Corman: No, no, the closest we go is the inspiration for Auggie with a mutual friend, but that’s as far as we really base anything on life.

Do you have any advice if people wanting to get into the kind of jobs you have?

Ord: I think the key is always reading, always be writing. I think the more original you could be in your writing, the better off you’ll be. Oftentimes people try to write things with an eye towards the marketplace and that’s very difficult. It’s better to just write from your heart and the marketplace will find you if things are really specific and really interesting.

Over the last few years, Tim Matheson, best known for playing Eric in the original Animal House, has become a fixture on USA Network shows. Besides directing episodes of Psych, Burn Notice, White Collar and Covert Affairs [where he directed the pilot, thus setting the tone for the series], Matheson has also guest starred as arrogant bank robber Edward “The Architect” Walker on White Collar and recurred as the charmingly dangerous [or is it dangerously charming?] ex-spy/freelance mercenary, Larry Sizemore over five episodes [so far] on Burn Notice. Little known fact: Matheson is big on Asian films!

I had the great good fortune to take part in a teleconference Q&A session with the former voice of Jonny Quest [yes, Matheson has done some legendary work] where, because of an unusually small turnout, I was able to ask more than usual couple of questions. Thanks to Matheson’s energy and enthusiasm, it was one of the most enjoyable interview experiences I’ve ever had.

My first question for you, in finding out that you’ve done all of these USA Network shows, do you approach directing each episode differently, like say, the Covert Affairs premiere versus what we saw in White Collar?

Tim Matheson: Oh, totally. And great question, Matt. And first off, I’d just like to say hi to everybody. I’m so happy to be here and talking about my favorite shows that I get to work on and my favorite network.

With Covert Affairs, there’s two separate things. When you come into a show like White Collar or Burn Notice, you are coming in as a guest in their house and you really just want to give them an episode that’s been established by their pilot director and in the mold of the shows that they have already established, and that was the case with White Collar and with Burn Notice and Psych, the shows that I’ve done prior.

And then Covert Affairs was the first time I’d ever done a pilot, and because I sort of had a good rapport and understanding with USA about the kinds of shows they do and the tone of the shows, they offered me the opportunity to direct that pilot, and it was thrilling and exciting for me to get to set the look and the tone of the show, and with such a wonderful cast. I was very pleased with how it all turned out, and I must say, just the opportunity to work with Doug Limon, David Bartis and the guys over there at their company. It was a tremendous opportunity and it was a great script and I just had a ball creating the world that they all operated in and it was a real treat.

It was actually a thrill to watch, too. I was really happy to see you on board with it. So, moving on to the Comic-Con, I have to ask, have you ever been to Comic-Con before? If not, what are your expectations, or if you’ve been, what kind of memories do you have?

Matheson: I’ve never been. You know, I’m a big comic book fan. As a kid I used to collect them until there was a horrible mudslide in Hollywood and I lost my collection, but I was also at an early age the voice of Jonny Quest; it was a cartoon; so I am kind of a latent fan boy. So I’ve always followed it, but never been there and I’m just very excited to get down there.

I don’t know what to expect. I think I’m as much of a fan as a lot of the attendees, so I’ve scheduled some time for myself just to wander around and sit in on some things, and I know that—I think that Simon Pegg is going to be there and the guys with Scott Pilgrim are going to be there, and I’m excited to see anything and everything about that. But I just want to hang around the place and see what’s happening.

Since you’re doing both acting and directing, do you consider yourself—I mean, if you just had to peg yourself in one word, would you be more an actor or a director?

Matheson: I think at the moment—that’s so hard. I think right now I’m more of a director and just in a certain way it sucks up more time because you’ve got to prep a show and then shoot it and then post it. Whereas as an actor, you prep on your own and then you just show up for the production of it, the shooting, and then you’re done. So it’s shorter and sweeter.

Equally rewarding, if the part’s really good, but the rewards from directing; especially directing something like Covert or when I did the pilot for The Good Guys for Matt Nix on Fox it was—it’s really a chance to be wholly creative. As an actor, you’re a member of the orchestra, even if you are first violin. But as the director, sometimes you are the conductor and sometimes the composer; you help the composer with certain passages, perhaps, shall we say.

And so it’s totally enveloping; directing. And acting, if it’s a great part, is equally as enveloping. One’s a performance art, one’s not, and so there’s total distinction and I’m just thrilled that I can do both.

I like your analogy with the music. So, my other question is a follow-up. So far you’ve been sort of not tied down to any of these shows. You’ve been working on them, moving around and, as you say, directing or acting here and there. If you were offered, on a regular basis, to be tied down just to one of the shows, would you be interested in that?

Matheson: Yes. I mean, I think that with the right people—the trick is to work with the right people, and in that situation, with talented people, yes. I decided a few years ago that after I’d sort of gotten my sea legs and figured out—because I think episodic is the best film school there is, and to go from show to show as a freelance director is the best training you can get.

But at some point I said, “You know, I only want to work with the people that I like, that are good, nice people and fun people, and value what I do.” And everybody’s got different expectations and likes and dislikes. So, if there was a situation that wanted me to participate on a bigger level? Yes, that’d be fun. That’d be great.

Now, you’ve worked steadily as an actor from the time that you were a kid, so I’m wondering how did you become involved in directing?

Matheson: Well, you know the oddest thing is I always wanted to be a director, and there were periods—I made films when I was a kid, shot them on 8-mm, I shot them on video. I tried to get into film school on a couple of occasions, and what usually happened was that a good acting role would come up and I’d drop everything and just go off and do it, and then that window of opportunity would close and I’d just—honestly, I never got back to it.

In the mid 80s, I think I produced a movie called Blind Fury for Tristar, and I sort of got bitten by the bug, and so I just dual-tracked it; I kept producing and directing, ultimately directing on television movies and I’ve always wanted, always been fascinated by that and love it, and it’s so fulfilling to get an opportunity for where my thoughts and feelings about the way things should to be done sort of parallel the way USA feels that they should be done and to get on shows where they appreciate what I bring to it. It’s a great convergence.

As a director, you’ve become pretty involved with USA. Tuesday, for example, as mentioned, you did both shows and so the evening was essentially a Tim Matheson double-feature.

Matheson: Sorry about that. [laughs]

I’m wondering how did you become involved with USA and how do you feel about being seen now as a master of their “blue sky” style?

Matheson: Thank you. After I’d done it a couple of years—I’d done a lot of procedural stuff and a lot of really good procedural cop shows on television like Cold Case and Third Watch and Without a Trace, and I’d had some really good success with those. But I just said—you know, after I got through a couple of years and I just wasn’t having a lot of fun with it, and I wanted to focus more on comedy. And I was fortunate enough—Mel Damski over on Psych, it was very fortunate—was very generous and invited me to come over, and I just said—it just felt like home.

To work with James Roday and Dule Hill who I knew from The West Wing, and I had such a good time. And it’s so much fun to go to work and laugh and work with funny people, and people—and it was more my sensibility. And I mean, I love action-adventure, and I always wanted to do comedy-action movies; action-comedy movies, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

So it just fit perfectly into my desire to that, and going from Psych to Burn Notice and then to Covert Affairs; it’s just opened a lot of doors for me because it was a perfect fit and it came at the right time and I was just very excited and happy to be there.

What responsibilities do you feel you have as a director with establishing a show versus coming in and just directing an episode?

Matheson: Great distinction. When you come in and do a show that’s already on the air and the look has been set, then my obligation and my function is to distill what that is, and to give them a version of that with some special topspin that maybe you bring to it.

I love working with actors and perhaps I’m good with actors because I am an actor and I appreciate what they do and I try—I’m there to help. I’m there to help them and I’m there to help the writers. When you come in as a pilot director, then I serve the writers first to try and find out and distill what’s the heart of the show, and then use the actors and support the actors to get to that part in their characters, and then use the camera to help tell the story so that the actors don’t get caught acting, and it sweeps the audience up in it and hopefully it will be over before they realize it and it will leave them wanting more.

Excellent. And whenever I’m either watching TV or a movie, actually your name or James Widdoes or Peter Riegert—It’s like, welcome home. Would you ever want to collaborate with these Delta brothers again on another project?

Matheson: Any time, anywhere. I love those guys, they’re good friends of mine and Jamie is a wonderful director in his own right. And Bruce McGill—

Everything you see on tv has his name on it.

Matheson: Yes, I know. And Bruce McGill is a wonderful actor. He’s in this new TNT series and was the best man at my wedding, so yes. We’re all still very close.

Now, you’re a fan favorite on Burn Notice as Larry Sizemore. You’ve just had a guest appearance on White Collar. I wanted to know what type of character would you like to play on Covert Affairs?

Matheson: A double agent. Anything to work with Piper. I just was so—I’m such a fan of hers [Piper Perabo]. She’s just the most talented, cooperative, creative actress I’ve worked with and she brings so much that it was—she was just great. And so was Chris Gorham, all of them were, but especially Piper. Anything that had a lot to do with her, I would be thrilled.

Next, can you talk about how your acting background helps you with directing episodes of the three shows?

Matheson: Yes. I understand, I think, the problems, maybe, of the actors a little better than a lot of directors. And you know another great thing about being an actor was I’ve been—and especially as a kid actor; all my life I’ve been an actor –I’ve been on a million sets and I’ve worked with and seen a million directors; good ones, bad ones, mediocre ones, middle, and great ones, and most other directors have not had that opportunity, because most other directors don’t go on other directors sets. They just don’t feel comfortable there. That’s my experience, I’ve seen that. I love going on other directors sets because I can always learn something.

And as an actor, I sometimes would give a great performance, or what I thought was like, “Wow! I nailed that!” And then I’d go see the film and I’d just realize, “Wow, it wasn’t well-directed because the camera wasn’t in the right place, it just didn’t look good.” And then I’d say, “Wow. Sometimes I didn’t do the best work I’d ever done, but it came across well because it was well-directed.” So I just want to provide the actors that I get to work with the best support and put the camera in the right place that emphasizes and enhances their performance, and create an environment where they can do their best work.

And that’s my job. You’re sort of like the coach on the sidelines at a football game with a playbook, and you just talk to them and say, “Well, you could try this, you could do this, or what do you think?” And any way they want to work is fine with me. I don’t have one particular way of working so I’m just there for the writers and the actors, to get the best out of everything.

So when you have an acting gig, in a sense, you’re like a double agent because you get to watch the director, right?

Matheson: That’s right. And I realized really early on, “Should I pay any attention to this guy?” But you know what? I learned something from Donald Sutherland when I was younger. He said, “I give myself totally to the director on every job I do, and sometimes to great effect and sometimes not, but you really ultimately don’t have control. You have control over what you do, but you have no control over anything else, so why even pretend you do?” And I thought, coming from Donald, who I think is one of the finest actors alive, I took that to heart. And so I just give myself to the director’s visions that I work for.

When you joined the White Collar crew, you directed and acted in the same episode. What is it like switching between actor and director?

Matheson: I was more nervous on White Collar because it was the first time I had done the show as a director, and so I was a little focused on that, and you’re trying to balance—as an actor, you really want to stay inside the scene, and as a director, you’re totally outside of it observing everything and making adjustments.

So I was a little nervous, and the first day that I acted, I would say that it was a little rocky, maybe, for me. I don’t think—with the way everything cut together, it worked well, but it was not the most comfortable day for me. But it all worked out. I love their crew. They’re so supportive and so helpful and Russell Lee Fine, the cinematographer, is a true artist, and he was very helpful to me.

I find somebody on the set; either the producer or the director; there were a couple of people on this show. But Russell was great, and Jeff King, the producer/director on this show, was very helpful to help me; guide my performance.

Great. And now that you’ve been in a few, been involved in all these USA Network shows, will you be appearing in any other series, or is there one that you specifically—you really, really want to be in the show as a character?

Matheson: Gosh. I never acted in Psych. I just think James Roday is one of the most talented actors around, and having directed him and watched him, I just was knocked—I’m always flabbergasted by how easy he makes it look. So he’s a performer that I would like to work with at some point.

We want to know, we want to get to the bottom of what’s up with the pineapple? Can you tell us how that started and what the deal is?

Matheson: At some point I knew, but I forget. They just, it was one of those in jokes on Psych that just took on a life of its own, and now it’s a game between Easton and Steve Franks, and they’ve got a Burn Notice thing going with Matt Nix and so it’s those guys; their way of winking and nudging at each other and having fun. But I’ve actually forgotten the genesis of the pineapple in Psych. I don’t know.

Also, you seem to be on Twitter a lot. So, do you feel like that’s a really valuable tool? What it is that attracts you to using Twitter?

Matheson: Well, my daughters and my wife use it a lot and I sort of felt so out of the loop—and Chris Gorham on Covert Affairs was a friend of Alyssa Milano’s, who is like the queen of Twitter, and so when I was in Covert, he sort of said, “You’ve got to get into this, man. You have to try this.”

It’s just gotten to be fun, you know? I’m always amazed and amused by who’s on, and when I can sort of listen in on Simon Pegg’s musings and John Shue, and any number of people and Rob Delaney is a comic that I follow. It’s just so fun to play with that, and I don’t think there’s much significance to it for me at all other than I just enjoy doing it.

I know you briefly touched on the Comic-Con thing, but did you happen to see the panel from last year for Burn Notice? Did you see what Bruce did?

Matheson: No.

Okay, well he was passing out money for everyone that was complimenting him. I was wondering how you were going to—he’s obviously going to be back this year. How you were going to …

Matheson: Oh, no!

The insanity of Bruce?

Matheson: Oh no, that’s just too good. You know what? I don’t think I can compete with Bruce. First off, he’s a cult favorite. He’s so great. I was just looking at Spider-Man the other day and it was a number one, and he was just so great in that. I mean, he’s great in everything he does. He’s a joy to work with. He’s the biggest ham and the most fun, and totally gets the business and understands it and understands his job as a performer, and I think if he wasn’t an actor, he’d probably be a wrestler.

You’re just going to play off him. You should probably bring some money along too, just in case anyone compliments you.

Matheson: Absolutely. I’ll check and raise him. Thanks for the tip, though. That’s great.

Yes, definitely check out the YouTube videos.

Matheson: I will.

Are you nervous at all about Comic-Con?

Matheson: No, I’m just excited. I mean, I’m a huge fan of comics period, but in anime and cult films. I’m just excited to be there and to see what I can find to drop in on and listen to as a fan, you know? I’m just going to go undercover and try and get in on the zeitgeist of it all.

I was on the Covert Affairs set and one of the producers said to me that you produced the Asian side panel at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. That seemed like a very fascinating angle. So I looked it up, and I noticed that they’ve got films like Castaway on the Moon and Mother. How did you get into that?

Matheson: You know what? I grew up in LA and had a Japanese girlfriend at an early age, and we used to go this theater called Telelebrea, that showed all the classic Kurosawa and Japanese Woman in the Dunes, and all those things. At an early age, I was heavily influenced by that as well. I mean, I was a big movie buff as a kid anyway, but got turned on to the Japanese, and then broader and broader. I used to, long before John Woo was known in America, I was a huge fan of his. And I think that the Asian cinema—On Bak and the Thai films and the Hong Kong films, even Johnnie To today—

He’s got great stuff.

Matheson: Oh my God. So I learned so much as a filmmaker from watching these guys, who I think are on the cutting edge; more independent and more, sort of, out there taking chances than American directors get a chance to now, and it allows me to bring new stuff to what I do. So it’s a win-win and fun. And also, there’s a great—Fantasia, up in Montreal, is a great festival, and it’s going on right now.

They’ve also got the—Vancouver has the Dragons & Tigers every year, too.

Matheson: I don’t know about that.

You should look at it. They’ve got about 40 or 50 films every year. It’s huge.

Matheson: That sounds great.

Yes. Anyway, how are you going along with the Art of Fighting American remake?

Matheson: I wrote a draft and then my draft was a little hard edge, Gran Torino kind of style, and then The Karate Kid came out, so it’s sort of being held back at the moment, like five years.

I can see why.

Matheson: They’re saying, “Gee, it’s not The Karate Kid.” And I said, “No, it never was.” But I’m a huge fan of Art of Fighting, and hopefully we’ll find a way to get it made. It’s a small movie, and it’s a tough movie, but it’s just a down and dirty little kind of film noir, cinema verite kind of film, and I should call it “Not the Karate Kid.”

There’s a certain style you bring as an actor to your roles on USA. I’m thinking the term charmingly dangerous adversaries might be a good description. So, what’s the key to playing quality bad guys like Larry Sizemore and The Architect?

Matheson: I just try to—well first, I’m fortunate enough to have good writers. And Jason Tracey and Craig O’Neill and Matt Nix on Burn Notice are just the best, and Jeff Eastin on White Collar, so I was fortunate to have those guys. Each show has a different style to it, and Burn Notice; you don’t know who that guy is. There’s more of a mystery to the character. On White Collar, the guy is sort of unmasked right from the start. So there’s a little difference in style there.

But it’s just—I don’t know that I approach it anywhere differently than what’s on the page, but I just try and bring some sense of reality and fun to the character, and Larry on Burn Notice—I’m actually going to go back down there, I think at the beginning of September; I’m acting in another episode, “Larry Returns”, which is going to be fun. I directed the episode right before that, so it should be a lot of fun.

Terrific. Thanks very much.

Our friends over at the hit teen webseries “Anyone But Me” are throwin’ a party! It’s a Web-a-Thon, let’s make enough cash to fund Season 3 party! I thought a chat with Rachael Hip-Flores (Vivian) would be a great way to kick things off. The Web-a-Thon starts today at 4:00pm EST at www.AnyoneButMeSeries.com but you can check out my chat with Rachael right now!

Rachael, what is this show for you?

Rachael Hip-Flores: “Anyone But Me” is pretty much the best thing that can happen to an actor. Not only am I working with extremely talented and dedicated people on a regular basis, but I also get to do work that actually means something to a lot of people. For me, it’s a cross between a ton of fun when we’re on set filming (and, of course, the promotional stuff like the Web-a-Thon) and this sort of beautiful sense of…I want to say responsibility, but that’s a too heavy a word…it’s a strange sort of security, knowing that you’re doing something that matters. To be honest, I’m not sure I ever expected that feeling from a career in acting, but I’m certainly thankful that it’s happened!

What does playing Vivian mean to you?

RHF: Oh man! Playing Viv is completely fun and completely painful! She’s almost as awkward as I was in high school, and it’s kind of a masochistic joy to go back and go through it all again. I love Vivian because Tina Cesa Ward and Susan Miller give her such humanity and vulnerability, that, reading a script, you know exactly where she’s coming from. She’s very much at my emotional core, who I am at my most vulnerable, and it’s scary and exciting to get to play a character like that.

What type of response have you received personally? Letters, email, etc.

RHF: I’ve received the best response I think a girl could hope for. I get Facebook messages every day from people all over the world telling me how much they love the show, how it’s changed them – wonderful words of encouragement. Like I said, I didn’t really expect to be able to reach so many people in such an intimate way starting out (or ever, if you want to know the truth of it) and it’s such a boon to be have such an immediate and loyal community built around ABM. This whole internet thing? It’s kind of remarkable!

How do you feel ABM makes a difference?

RHF: Honestly, I think the most fundamental way ABM makes a difference is that it makes people feel less alone. I wish I could tell you the number of people who have written to me saying that they live in a place where being out means being marginalized and that ABM is one of, if not the only outlet they have to explore their feelings. On the other hand, there are also messages from people saying that they’ve actually come out because of the show, and that that has strengthened their relationships with loved ones. Honestly, I think the love that has very clearly gone into the creation of ABM allows it to reach and connect with people on a level that not a lot of mainstream shows achieve, and the fans pretty obviously respond to that.

Why is it important to have portrayals of LGBT teens out there?

RHF: Oh man. Because, whether people want to acknowledge it or not, sexuality is such a huge part of being a teenager, and when you’re growing up and figuring yourself out, I think, for the most part, all you’re looking for is people that are like you, who are going to help you grow up and figure yourself out. If you don’t see anyone out there who has the same questions, insecurities, passions that you do, the vast majority of us will quash all those differences out of ourselves and end up as different people than who we’re meant to be; and I think that’s just a tragedy.

Has Nicole played an important part in how you portray Vivian? After all, she has really nice lips so I’m sure that’s pretty important!

RHF: AW NICOLE!!! [big grin!] Seriously, I love Nicole so much that playing her girlfriend is a breeze! She’s so open and honest, both as a person and as an actor that it’s completely easy to fall in love with her, build a relationship with her, and just allow whatever is happening between the two of us on screen to happen. She does get lip gloss all over my face every time we make out, and we have had rather heated disagreements about the new Star Wars trilogy, but I guess nobody’s perfect ;)

Do you know anything about Season 3, can you give us a sneak peak? What would you like to see happen in Season 3 with Vivian and Aster? Should Vivian explore other relationships?

RHF: I know absolutely nothing about season 3, not even enough for a sneak peek! I have to be totally honest, I know I’m going to upset a lot of Vivsters out there, but I would be so interested to see what the non-romantic Vivian and Aster are like together. JUST FOR A SECOND. What kind of exes would they be? Friends? Bittersweet frienemies? Would one constantly be trying to talk to the other who just couldn’t handle it (and which would be which?) I’d love to see what Viv is like in other relationships because I think they’d be a growing experience for her, but the romantic in me really does want to see Aster and Vivian together in the end :)

Who do you think should guest star on ABM? What type of role would he/she have? Who would be your dream choice?

RHF: Well, ideally we’d find out that Vivian is, in fact, a Vulcan (how could we not have known, with those ears?) and then Zachary Quinto shows up as Spock, to help me – er, her – navigate these “emotions” and perhaps outfit me with a laser gun… But I get the feeling that would alienate (pun!) a few viewers. I’d take ZQ or Joseph Gordon Levitt as a long-lost, never-before-heard-from brother… Viv is missing a mom… Now, stay with me here, I don’t know if anyone’s noticed, but I’m not blonde. And both my dad (played by Dan Via) and maternal aunt (Barbara Pitts) are, so I’m thinking Yunjin Kim (Sun from Lost, adopted into Aunt Jodie’s family) has to show up and explain how I got Asian. And if we’re not interested in explaining that away, it would be kick-ass to work with Tilda Swinton. She doesn’t even need to be my mom, she could just show up. Actually she could be Aster’s mom. That seems to fit. But of course, we all know who’s playing Aster’s mom. OH MAN AND ALAN RICKMAN! Is he old enough yet to play Viv’s grandfather? Can we age him up? Oh! Or Michael Emerson, as the private eye who Viv’s mom hires to find out what’s going on in her life! Can Emma Thompson be the really understanding librarian who takes Viv under her wing? This could go on…

LMAO…I dig you so much right now!

Why should people help to keep ABM alive?

RHF: Because it’s a wonderful show, a genuinely solid work of art, that makes people around the world feel a little better about who they are and who they can be. It’d be a shame to let something that beautiful and that meaningful waste away. Come on folks – if grassroots financing worked for Obama, it can work for us, too!

How can people help? Where can they go to participate?

RHF: Well, you might have heard we’re doing this Web-a-Thon – you can tune in at www.anyonebutmeseries.com July 27th-29th at 4pm EST (the video will be up for quite some time afterward too) and there will be items you can bid on, videos that will be released as we hit mile markers, interviews, walking tours, and, I believe, a Donate Now button – you’ll be thoroughly entertained. Also our DVD is on sale on Amazon, and there’s merchandise galore on the site’s store. Please help us make Season 3 – it was a cliffhanger ending, and I can’t stand not knowing what happens!

Visit AnyoneButMeSeries.com to participate in the Web-a-Thon. Make a donation, buy something from the store or head over to the ebay auction and bid on one of the crazy cool items for sale. Help make “Anyone But Me” Season 3 a reality!

Interview by Tiffany N. D’Emidio
Twitter: TiffanyDEmidio

Long before there was Twilight or The Vampire Dairies with their handsome young vampire guys, there was the sexy blond Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer played by the talented James Marsters.

James Marsters has moved on from vampires to spaceships and out of this world political drama in the new Syfy series, Caprica where he plays Barnabas Greeley.  At this past weekend’s San Diego Comic Con, Marsters talked to members of the press about his role in Caprica.

EM will have more coverage of Caprica in the days to come.

Eclipse Magazine’s coverage of  Comic Con 2010 continues as we sat in on the The Syfy channel’s double billed press roundtable of Eureka and Warehouse 13.
We’ll have lots of goodies to share with Eclipse Magazine readers from this very informative combo, but right now we leave you with a video treat: Colin Ferguson talking about working on season 4 of Eureka and the drawbacks to wearing period piece costumes.

I have to admit that one of things I was excited about covering at Comic Con was the new AMC horror/drama show, The Walking Dead which is based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Robert Kirkman.   The Walking Dead tells the story of life following a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors, led by police officer Rick Grimes, traveling in search of a safe and secure home. Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually, Teachers, Strike Back) will portray the lead role of Rick Grimes while actor Jon Bernthal (The Pacific, The Ghost Writer) will portray the character Shane, who worked with Rick in the police department before the zombie disaster. Other cast includes Laurie Holden (The Shield), who plays Andrea, one of two sisters who join the survivors of the zombie plague, Steven Yeun as Glenn, an expert scavenger and Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), who plays Rick’s wife Lori.

Reporters in the round table interviews got the chance t o to sit down with writer/director/executive producer Frank Darabont, executive producer Gale Anne Hurd, special effects/makeup designer Greg Nicotero and stars Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes), Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes), Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh), Laurie Holden (Andrea), and Emma Bell (Amy).   After listening to the writers and cast talk about the show, I was not disappointed at all.  In my opinion, this new series is going to rock!

Check out the video with writer/director/executive producer Frank Darabont and special effects/makeup designer Greg Nicotero.

Being the Eclipse Magazine Comic Con Roving Reporter has some of the best perks to it liked getting to talk to some very interesting people who live exciting lives – like the guys and gals of The Stunt people!

The Stunt People was founded in 2001 by Eric Jacobus, Ben Brown and Chelsea Steffensen, who are all trained in the marital arts and fighting.  The three of them spent time amusing themselves by making short videos  of them creating fight scenes and posting the short movies  online.  The videos drew the attention other locals and visitors to the website alike  who became interested in creating action films. This nbrougot only brought more members to the crew, but led to the filming so such independent action films as The Fighter, Bound by Blood and Detour, all of which are available on The Stunt People’s official website

Check out Eclipse Magazine’s exclusive Comic Con Video interview with Chelsea Steffensen and other members of The Stunt People Crew.

Eclipse Magazine was on hand at the press panel for the latest release in the Warner Brothers line of animated Batman movies, Batman: Under the Red Hood. Your roving Eclipse reporter had a chance to speak with the writers, producers, directors and voice talent Bruce Greenwood to get the inside scoop on this exciting new installment of the Batman legacy.

Batman: Under the Red Hood is an upcoming direct-to-video animated film based on the Batman storylines “Under the Hood” and “A Death in the Family“. The film is the eighth in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line released by Warner Premiere and Warner Bros. Animation. It is set to be released on July 27, 2010. The film stars Bruce Greenwood as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Jensen Ackles as the Red Hood.

In this this teaser video, Bruce Greenwood who plays Batman/Bruce Wayne talks to reporters about his take on bringing this iconic character to life and jokes with me about video taping him during the talk.

Eclipse Magazine had the opportunity to participate in the roundtable press interviews with the cast of Red.  Interviews to follow soon, but right now we’re going to whet your appetite with some exclusive photos from the press panel.

Attendees to the panel included BRUCE WILLIS, HELEN MIRREN,  and KARL URBAN

Based on the cult D.C. Comics graphic novels by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, RED is an explosive action-comedy starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren.

Frank (Bruce Willis), Joe (Morgan Freeswering man), Marvin (John Malkovich) and Victoria (Helen Mirren) used to be the CIA’s top agents – but the secrets they know just made them the Agency’s top targets.  Now framed for assassination, they must use all of their collective cunning, experience and teamwork to stay one step ahead of their deadly pursuers and stay alive.  To stop the operation, the team embarks on an impossible, cross-country mission to break into the top-secret CIA headquarters, where they will uncover one of the biggest conspiracies and cover-ups in government history.

Bruce Willis answering questions at the press conference for the Summit Entertainment’s new action movie, Red.

Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Helen Mirren answering questions at the press conference for the Summit Entertainment’s new action movie, Red.

Carl Urban answering questions at the press conference for the Summit Entertainment’s new action movie, Red.

Today, I had a fun talk with The Cleveland Show’s Kevin Michael Richardson. For those that don’t know KMR is quite the industry veteran voice actor, he plays 13 different voices on the Fox Television show including Cleveland, Jr. and he’s won two Emmy’s for his voice work as The Joker in the recent animated series The Batman. He’s going to be at Comic Con this week partaking in panels for The Cleveland Show and the upcoming movie The Penguins of Madagascar. We spent the first 10 minutes of the call just shooting the shit about life and stuff before we got into the guts of the interview.

It’s times like this when I really wish there was an App that would let me record phone conversations. Because it’s always difficult to cut my long winded questions down for these transcripts, plus you don’t get the good give and take. I was honest with Kevin and told him I never watched the show, but after this interview I’m now a convert.

So, The Cleveland Show?

I’m glad we came back they picked us up for a 3rd season. It shows Fox really believes in the show and we’re really jazzed about the show in confidence the Network showed us. We went gangbusters with all of our table reads and are having a lot of fun now that we know we’re going to be here for awhile.

How Did You Come Up with the Voice for Cleveland, Jr.?

I worked with The Family Guy and Seth McFarland and I had no idea that Mike Henry (who is white) was the voice of Cleveland. I thought he was some Fox Executive who was just always hanging around the set. I originally auditioned for Lester the Redneck Neighbor and there was no thought of me doing Cleveland, Jr. Seth said think of a young version of Cleveland. I once played a mentally challenged character on ER years ago and that’s the voice I ended up using.

How difficult is it to come up with an original voice?

It took about 20 minutes to a half hour before I came up with a voice that really worked. It’s can be difficult to create an original voice, especially if you have an idea of what they really sound like and the producers disagree. If you go to a voice audition and there’s more than one person there and you do a character that is supposed to be funny and the audience is laughing that’s a good sign. Also if you are having fun doing it, it makes it really enjoyable.

One of my big peeves with American animated films is that at some point it went away from having unknown actors with distinct voices to relying heavily on big name Hollywood actors who don’t even seem to try and change their voices or bring something to their animated characters?

Oh, man do you have a couple of hours? I agree with you about the idea of using named actors in animated projects. I remember saying to a producer once that it was unfair to professional voice actors to use a big name star. I asked them why don’t they make great voice actors like like Frank Welker (original voice of Fred in Scooby Doo) who did Curious George, or Jim Cummings who did Winnie The Poo household names, instead of hiring mainstream actors? It’s unfair to the people who have been doing this for years.

Kids usually don’t care who is going to be playing the voices in major animated films. Some can bring it and some can’t. Eddie Murphy who is a great voice actor, because he uses his personality to sell his animated characters. I would also blame the directors who don’t bring out the characters in some of these films. I do my best to try and change it up.

What’s it Like Working on The Cleveland Show?

It’s a lot of fun and a lot of work. We do 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off where we do a Table Read and then a Record. We usually have the Read in front of the network executives and sometimes it’s a little nerve racking when I have to do 13 different voices but it’s fun.

How do you keep the voices straight in your head?

Insanity. I have to rehearse at home and practice a lot.

Is it materially different working as a Voice Actor vs. Live Acting?

Number one you don’t have to memorize your lines. You are reading your script. It’s 50/50 if you record alone or if you work with a cast member. When you are alone you really have to be conscious of what you are doing. You rarely have to wash (he’s kiding people). It is very casual and relaxed. Sometimes it’s easier to work with others. On camera there’s a lot more pressure and you have to be physically and mentally present.

Are there Any Rivalries between your crew and the Simpsons folks? Do you guys have knife fights?

(laughs) We get along pretty well and god bless em for getting paid, it helps us all out. Seth and Matt are friendly with each other and I’ve seen them hang out at events like Comic Con and the Upfronts.

What’s it like playing such an Iconic Character like The Joker?

The Joker has to be one of my favorite characters, because there are no limits to him. I’ve been doing him for 4 1/2 years. I loved his highs and lows.

What was your first reaction when you read him?

I was coming home from a long day on the set of a TV Show I was doing and I stopped by my agents office, out of the blue they asked me to read for The Joker. I said I thought this was Mark Hamill’s (A friend of Kevins’)part. They told me this was for a totally different Joker and Batman series. At the time I read it, I was so frustrated and annoyed that I let it all out during the reading. I didn’t think anything else about it, until a few days later when they said they loved what I did.

Did Mark give you any pointers?

(laughs) Mark didn’t verbally say it, but he said it with his eyes that his was still better…

We lost track of time and the clock ran out on us, but I’m going to try and get him back in a few weeks, maybe by then I’ll finally have the EM Radio show up and running.

Matt Bomer on the Set of White Collar

A few weeks ago the fine folks at USA Networks treated yours truly to an overnight stay in the Big Apple to visit the set of their hit show White Collar. I tweeted live from the event at the time. If you saw my Tweets you’ll know I’m a terrible tweeter, but beyond that not much happened during the visit. We were ushered into a plain windowless conference room for most of the day, we got a chance to do a quick five minute walk through of the set. What little we saw was quite impressive, especially the FBI Office – just a beautiful big, open set. We also saw the various apartments and Peter’s FBI Office. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures which was disappointing.  But I do love talking with fellow TV Bloggers, we generally all get along really well.

Hillarie Burton on the Set of White Collar

USA Networks treated us like a million bucks, the swag bag they gave us was incredible and they treated us all to a NY Breakfast Buffet at the Hilton before we left. We got a chance to interview the cast and crew (Tiffany wasn’t there but we’re getting a phoner with her this week).  Sheldon has been posting interviews from the Cast and Crew over the last few weeks. I will post audio from the Set Visit over the next few weeks. We had a surprise guess interview from Hillarie Burton, at first no one recognized her name and we were all like who is she? When she walked in and I realized it was “Peyton” from One Tree Hill I went all fangirl on her. She was so cool about it. She called Matt Bomer the 7th Wonder of the World and then she laughed when I said she’s worked with some of the hottest guys in Hollywood.

Marsha Thomason on the set of White Collar

I asked Marsha Thomason about her part in Black Night particularly the dance scene and the fact that she wasn’t allowed to get her groove on, she laughed. Peter was fun to talk to, but the disappointment came when Matt came out he only had a about 10 minutes between takes so he wasn’t as relaxed as everyone else. He seemed like he’d be a cool guy, but it was rushed.

Tim DeKay on the set of White Collar

Tim DeKay was easy going and relaxed on the set. Notice my iPad there? I point it out for folks who don’t believe me when I say I own one and hate it. Apple finally released the WiFi fix! So after 3 months it finally works the way it’s supposed to.  I’m not sure what I asked Tim so you’ll have to listen to the audio in a few days.

Sharif Atkins on the set of White Collar

Like I said be sure to check out the site over the next few days and weeks, I’ll be posting audio and transcripts from this set visit. White Collar airs on USA Networks, Tuesday nights. Be sure to check it out.

Last week, I had the opportunity to take part in one of those teleconference Q&A’s that are becoming a way to connect networks and shows to a grassroots audience – in this case, with creator and executive producer of USA’s White Collar [9/8C], Jeff Eastin.

The witty, offbeat series is just into its second season, and Eastin talked with the usual gang of bloggers/journos about what to expect in terms of story, character development and how he and his writing team create worthy adversaries for the FBI/con artist team of Peter Burke and Neal Caffrey.

Can you kind of talk about how you got started on the show, where your ideas came from and that kind of thing?

Jeff Eastin: Sure. I’ll step back until, I guess, until just before the writer’s strike. I had just come off a show, Hawaii, that we had done almost a full season, and NBC cancelled it, so I was trying to figure out what the next show I wanted to do was. I had actually come up with this idea I called Redemption that was going to be a much darker show. I was a huge fan of The Shield, and it was sort of in its last season, and I had this idea that you take a Vic Mackey type character, sort of a cop who was probably a dirty cop, was accused of killing his partner, he ends up in jail, and then some crime happens where the DA has to let him out to help solve this one particular crime. So they let him out, put his on a track anklet and assign him to a detective. I was pretty excited about the idea. I kind of like the darker, edgier version. A friend of mine called and said, “You should check out a show called Life.” And I did, and I went, “Oh, wow, that’s exactly the same idea.” So at that point, I shelved it.

Then Burn Notice had the pilot just come out, and I had a little bit of a relationship prior to that with USA, because NBC and USA are owned by the same parent company, so I knew everybody over there. I knew Jeff Wachtel and I knew Jackie de Crinis, Bonnie Hammer a little bit. When Burn Notice came out, Matt Nix was looking for a second in command and he had read a script of mine and we had a sit down and talked and he seriously considered whether I was going to come on and be his second in command for Burn Notice. It didn’t work out. Nix decided to go a different way, but we’re still really good friends even so.

But within that meeting, USA had asked me, “Hey, do you have anything?” And I actually pulled out the Redemption idea that I had and said, “What if we run that through the USA Network blue sky filter?” And that’s what I did. So my dirty cop who may have killed his partner became Neal Caffrey, charming con man, and the detective who’s custody he’s released into became Peter. So that was really the origin of the project.

Can you tell us a little bit how this season is going to be different; what we can expect?

Eastin: It will be the same and the season will be different. I think we really hit a stride sort of in the back half of our season last year. It felt like things were really gelling and the cast had really come together. The writing, I think we really figured out the show. So going into season two, I kind of resisted the temptation to change everything. What I really wanted to do was stick with what was really working, and for me what really worked were the interactions between the characters. We’ve never really been a big, complicated whodunit. On our show we usually know pretty quickly. You know who the bad guy is in the first act, and it’s like, it’s usually about how Neal, Peter and Mozzie, in some incredible way, go take that person down. So that’s what we really wanted to stick with.

In terms of what’s different, now that Kate got blown up, Neal’s overall objective has changed a little bit. It’s shifted from trying to find the woman that he loves to trying to find the killer of the woman he loves. So it’s a small thing, but it’s definitely a subtle different, and I think a noticeable difference in how it shifts his character. I think he also is a little more grown up this year. There’s a maturity in his attitude towards the FBI. So those elements will be different, but the … back, and hopefully what made people like the show last year is still there.

You have a habit of giving the shows’ fans relatively quick reveals, so I’m wondering how long will it take for the music box arc to play out. Could you give us any teasers about what’s coming up in that respect?

Eastin: I’ll be careful of my teasers. I’ve been accused of giving too many. The music box arc will play out in the first half of season 2, so by season 2.5, we’ll know the answer to that. Let’s see, what other teasers? Any specific teasers you’re looking for?

The revelations of need to know, how long will it take, do you think, for Peter to realize that Neal really needs to know?

Eastin: We’ll play that out a few episodes. We spent some time and decided that last year we had done that. I mean, coming off of season 1.5, where we had revealed that Peter might be the man with the ring, we revealed very quickly that he wasn’t. That one was by design. We had decided, it’s going into the back half of season one. What I didn’t want to do is crash the dynamic between Peter and Neal, so we figured we could do a pretty good episode where we held that off. I didn’t want to end up doing three or four different episodes.

But this year it’s a little bit different, because really, again, Neal is searching for who blew up the plane, but Peter is also searching for who blew up the plane. So the real interesting thing this year is we sort of have dual mythologies. I won’t spoil too much of it for those who haven’t seen it, but Peter and Diana have their own goals this year, and they’re keeping secrets from Neal.

Tim Matheson has become kind of a fixture at USA and I was wondering, what with him directing the second season premier and playing The Architect, how did you come to him for those roles in the premier?

Eastin: Tim—great guy, by the way—he’s been around USA doing everything, and he had just done the Covert Affairs pilot, and he had gone over to do The Good Guys for Matt Nix, and he was doing some Burn Notice over there. So I was well aware of Tim. We tried to get him on a directors slate for season one, but schedules just didn’t work out. So he became available for our season premier this year.

We got him in, and we were actually trying to cast somebody else to play the architect. We were all sitting around one day and Tim was sort of reading dialogues from within the script, and at one point he read one of the lines and we all looked at each other and said, “Hey, Tim, do you want to do it?” And he hesitated for a few minutes and said, “Yeah,” but at the same time, he’s been doing an arc on Burn Notice, so I had to call Matt Nix and ask him. I said, “Hey, I know he’s doing an arc over on Burn. Do you mind if we use him for an episode?”

Nix told me as long as we did a little shout out to Matt Nix himself, that we could use him. So in the episode, at one point Tim’s character says, “I was just over at the Nix Towers,” so that’s our little shout out to Matt Nix, which got us the permission to use Tim in the episode.

I wanted to know, when you were doing the first season of the show, it hadn’t aired yet so you didn’t know if it was going to be a big hit, but going into season two you knew exactly if the fans had really embraced it. How did you approach that, as far as kind of sculpting the second season? Was that in your mind at all, thinking about that?

Eastin: Yes, quite a bit. As you guys probably know, I’m pretty active on Twitter and stuff, and so I pay quite a bit of attention to the fan reaction. When the show is airing, I’ll usually be searching the White Collar hash tags on Twitter to see what the live reaction is, and that definitely influences you in terms of storylines and things like that.

I think going into season two, what it did was really, I went back and wanted to do something that didn’t mess with what we had working. That was probably the biggest influence, I think, in terms of people liking a show, going into it this year. It’s strange, but there’s a very strong temptation—I’ve heard this from other show runners—to sort of change up everything in season two. I think it’s partly because people have seen 14 episodes of White Collar, but I’ve lived with it for coming up on 2 years now, so the story and the characters and things like that, I feel a lot of times in my mind it’s like, wow, we’ve really gone there a lot, but in reality, no, we really haven’t. I mean, there’s less than 14 hours of the show out there. So the temptation is to sort of branch out and try all these different things. I think my biggest reaction to people liking the show was to sort of curtail that and just really try to stick with what worked last year.

My next question was actually about Twitter. How important is that now for you and what you do, and also just in the big scope of television, because there’s so much you can glean from Twitter.

Eastin: It’s interesting. Some of you may know, we do dial tests. Whenever we test the pilot, like when I worked for NBC they would dial test the first couple of episodes. What it is is you’ll put 100 people in a room, you’ll air the pilot, and people will sit there with little dials, and if they like something they’ll crank it to the right, if they don’t like it they’ll crank it to the left. You watch it in real time and you’ll see this overlay of the numbers going up and down, and that pretty much determines your fate a lot of times. We tested really well in the pilot, which is good, but I’ve had tests where you don’t do particularly good, and I found that being able to watch Twitter reactions is the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a live dial test. But you’re talking a much bigger sample of people. So for me, that’s really nice because I can get that immediate feedback. If something is not working the reaction is pretty quick, and when something is working the reaction is pretty quick, so that’s really nice.

USA has really embraced the digital media and the social networking stuff, in terms of getting the word out about the show. For myself, I’ve got I think around 6,000 followers on Twitter, which, relative to several million who hopefully will watch tomorrow night, that’s really small, but I think it sort of represents a larger population and gives me a much clearer view of how people are feeling about the show. I think it also helps—I’m not sure, but we really built up on Facebook. I think we nearly doubled the number of Facebook fans from the end of season one to now. I don’t know if things like, I’m always trying to post photos from set and shout outs from the cast and crew and I assume those things get re-Tweeted and they help. So I think just in terms of kind of a grassroots marketing for the show, and getting people excited about it, I think they’re all really important.

And pictures of Matt Bomer helped too.

What would you say has been one of your biggest challenges while working on White Collar, and how did you overcome it?

Eastin: Well, interestingly, going into season two was much easier than going into season one. I mean, going into season one was a pilot—everything is a challenge. You create the world on paper and then you try to populate it. I think what really made the show work is I think the day we cast Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay together, I think that kind of sealed our fate and made us a show people wanted to watch. So that was probably the biggest challenge, was finding that chemistry and making it right.

After that, the other challenges have been on a smaller scale, but they’re there. There was a big debate for a long time about whether we were going to go to Toronto, whether we were going to shoot it for—some of you may know, the original script was set in San Diego, and it’s hard for me now to imagine the show out of New York. So things like that, looking back on it, were huge challenges. There were debates that raged for months about where the show would be shot, and we finally, at the end of the day, got New York. So things like that, I think, were huge challenges.

In terms of the structure of the show and things like that, that really wasn’t too bad. I think once we pushed it in the pilot we realized how important the relationship between Neal and Peter is, and found that counterpart in real life with Tim and Matt, that’s been fairly easy.

As a follow up, is there a dream actor that you would like to see guest star on the series?

Eastin: Oh, wow. That’s a tough one. Yes, there’s several, as a matter of fact. There’s a lot of actors we’d love to get. This year we’ve done really good. We’ve got John Larroquette who does a guest spot, he does an amazing job. We have Aidan Quinn this year, who will be in our third episode, who is absolutely amazing. We’ve been really doing good, especially this week, we have some really great guest casts. A dream, boy that’s an interesting one. I think Clooney should come and play Neal’s father, that’s what I think.

We are wondering, we want to ask for all the ladies our there if Neal is going to have a love interest this season?

Eastin: Not really. I mean, it’s sort of interesting. It was reported that Hilarie Burton, who’s doing an arc of six for us, came on and it was reported she was going to be Neal’s new love interest. The truth is we’re not playing her that way. We’re playing her as an old adversary who comes on the show. What I had wanted for that character is, Neal has Mozzie and Peter and Diana and Elizabeth, but there’s nobody that really can walk between the two worlds, and what I was looking for is to try to find a character who could sort of walk in between those two worlds.

So I came up with Hilarie’s character, who is named Sarah Ellis, and she’s an insurance investigator, which is similar to Rene Russo’s character in The Thomas Crown Affair. What I liked about it is it gave her the ability to come in and kind of do things that are sort of on the gray side with Neal, and at the same time, she can walk into the FBI any time she wants to. So to have a character that can kind of walk between those two worlds is what we were looking for.

Now, that’s not to say that at some point there may be a romantic interest between the two of them, because they’re both very attractive people. Luckily we’ve done two episodes with Hilarie so far and her chemistry with Matt is really phenomenal, so we’re pretty excited about that. A very interesting relationship to me, for those of you who have seen the second episode, is, the more fun relationship for me is between Diana and Neal. We’ve got Marsha Thomason back this year, which I’m really happy about, and the relationship they develop over the course of the season is great. I mean, Diana being the one girl who can sort of … Diana’s charm is really nice.

Beyond that, with Kate sort of out of the picture, as it were, Neal has always—this is the question people ask me a lot. Neal has always been a flirt. The main way of pursuing Kate, he was a flirt. Now whether he’ll fall in love again, I think he needs at least a half season to get over Kate’s death.

Will we be seeing more of Mozzie this season? Will he be more involved in the cases?

Eastin: Yes, quite a bit more Moz this season. One of the things we realized last year is Willie Garson was sort of our stealth weapon last year. At least for me, every time a scene comes up with Mozzie in it, it suddenly gets more interesting. So we ended up, for those of you who have seen the first episode, “Back,” that episode was going to be done, we found out sort of a little later in the process that we were going to do a limited commercial premier with it. What that meant was suddenly we had to come up with six more minutes of content. So our scripts are normally, usually around 42 minutes, and suddenly we needed 48 minutes, and so we needed something that could be done pretty quickly.

So I sat down and I wrote two scenes with Peter and Mozzie meeting in the park, and I think they’re really good scenes. For those of you who have seen the first episode, I think they might be my favorite scenes in the episode. And as we expected, for the later versions, which will air at 42 minutes, we have to cut something down and everybody said, “No, no, don’t cut the Peter/Mozzie scenes.”

So once we did that we started saying, “We need more Mozzie this season.” So yes, more Mozzie this season. Our fifth episode in will be a Mozzie-centric episode. It’s about Mozzie has a crush on a girl and she goes missing, and Mozzie sort of has to jump in and work with the FBI to get her back. It’s a really good episode.

Now that Kate’s gone, you said Neal has different focuses, and the jewelry box will be solved, what will be next?

Eastin: You’ll have to wait and see on that one. It’s pretty much what we realize is, the music box was really designed to contain some sort of mystery, and what we find out ultimately is what mystery it contains. I think it’s actually pretty cool. I think people are going to dig what it points to.

After season one did so well, was there more pressure on you going into season two or was it off because it did so well?

Eastin: Both. The pressure was there but in a different way. In season one the pressure is to get people to watch the show. In season two the pressure is to keep people watching the show. I think what we really did is, the mythology for the show, ultimately, people seemed to really like. It helped us gain a lot of regular viewers. It’s a show where I think you can watch White Collar and enjoy it on a week to week basis. You don’t have to always watch ever episode. But with the story of Neal and Kate and the box and things like that, I think people tended to come and watch it a little more regularly than they might have if we were just a straight episodic. So this year the real split was where do we go with it?

I mean, Burn Notice, a show I love, they’ve definitely gotten heavier into their mythology, and for me, the temptation to go heavy into the mythology was there, but we decided ultimately that what we wanted to do was keep it about like we had last year, which is, it’s really a show, if you tune in, you’re not going to be lost. You’re not going to say, “Oh, my God, I didn’t see last week.” You’ll be able to follow it, but there’s enough of the mythology, the ongoing story, that hopefully will hook you in and make you want to come back next week. So that was probably the biggest pressure, was to keep that balance and not start adjusting.

What is the latest on a White Collar/Burn Notice crossover?

Eastin: The reality of it is pretty tough. The biggest problem is just the shooting schedule. We’re pretty much on the same schedule right now, so the idea of getting Jeffrey Donovan up to New York and Matt Bomer down to Florida; with the schedules right now I don’t know how we’d do it. If we wanted to cross over and have—we keep joking that Mozzie should go down and turn out to be … nephew or uncle or something like that. But if the schedules ever flexed up, I think it would be great to do it.

So will Neal and Peter’s relationship change this season, with Kate being gone, and as you mentioned, Mozzie being more involved this season?

Eastin: Neal and Peter’s relationship, I won’t say it changes, but it definitely evolves. There is definitely some turbulent times ahead. Again, one of the things I didn’t want to do, and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how not to really mess with that bromance, as I guess everybody is calling it, between the two guys. But within that, we even get into season one, there’s a few episodes where there’s freefall, where we really played with the idea that they can’t trust each other. For me, what was really important is the fact that Peter and Neal are friends, but there’s always some aspect of Neal’s life, usually involving Kate, where Peter can’t trust him. To me, that’s the core of the entire thing. Neal will do anything for Peter, but when it comes to that, all bets are off.

I think he’s sort of a creature of the id, and I think when he’s presented with things like that, there’s almost like a child-like reaction, where he will react without thinking of the consequences. And it’s those moments that will put his relationship with Peter in jeopardy. Like I said before, this season, Diana and Peter are holding back some information from Neal, which is something we haven’t done before.

The other thing is, one of the things we’ve been careful of, and you can go back and watch every episode and this is true, that Neal has never directly lied to Peter. He will never actually lie to Peter, but Peter hasn’t made the same pledge. Peter will lie to Neal and he does this season.

I never noticed that, actually.

Eastin: He’ll say things like, an example I can think of is in the finale, he says, “June is having a champagne brunch. Can I take off early?” And he goes to meet Alice. Now it’s not a lie, because June may very well be having a Champaign brunch. He never said, “I’m going to June’s champagne brunch.” So whenever we write Neal, we’re always very careful to make sure that whatever he’s saying may be a half truth, it may be something that he leads Peter to draw his own conclusions, but it’s never a lie.

You’ve been mentioning earlier about Mozzie having more of a part in this season, are we going to learn more about his and Neal’s past this season?

Eastin: Yes, definitely. We learn little bits and pieces, but we’re actually, what I’m very excited is, what we’re working on right now is a flashback episode, where we actually get to see the first time Peter catches Neal, the first time Neal meets Kate, and the first time Mozzie and Neal meet, so I’m pretty excited about that one.

You were talking a lot about Twitter and getting direct response from viewers as it happens. Is there anything that’s ever gone on in an episode that you’ve gotten a really bad response from Twitter, and you abandoned it right away … anything that was like really great that you were like, you have to do more of that?

Eastin: I’ll start with the second part first. I think the biggest surprise reaction I had that was in the positive spot was Neal singing in “Vital Signs.” Matt’s a big musical theater guy, and we kind of joked about doing it for a while and we came up with the idea for that episode, partly so we could work that in. I was really stunned by the positive reaction on that. That one really surprised me. So we did that and we said, “Huh, okay.”

What I thought was interesting is that episode was never designed to be a heavy mythology episode. I think Kate, her name is mentioned once, maybe, but there’s really no other mythology in the episode, and I think it’s because of that moment where Neal says to Peter, “You’re the only person I can trust.” Most people cite it, and I saw it on the reaction on the boards and on Twitter and on Facebook, people were, “Wow, what a great heavy mythology episode.” So that was probably the most positive reaction that we saw that kind of left us scratching our heads and saying, “Okay, how can we do this more?”

The negative stuff, I’m trying to think of what the biggest—the interesting part, I guess for me, was judging when Kate blew up in the finale. I don’t think I was surprised that most people said, “Thank God she’s dead.” But I was sort of surprised by how many people said, “Thank God she’s dead.”

You mention looking at the boards. What sites do you read?

Eastin: I’ll go check the reaction on IMDb, Hulu, the White Collar Facebook page. That’s probably the ones I check the most often, and then obviously just the White Collar hash tags for Twitter.

You talked about how when you were short on time and you didn’t cut the Mozzie scene. Is there any scene that had been cut before that you wished they hadn’t cut, or maybe something that maybe they left in that you wish in hindsight that they had cut out?

Eastin: Are you talking the entire run of the show, or that particular episode?

Yes, just in general.

Eastin: That’s tough. To be honest, we don’t shoot a lot of extra scenes. I mean, I believe we have a couple of deleted scenes on the DVDs that are out tomorrow, but for the most part we don’t really shoot a lot of scenes. Surprisingly—well, I don’t know if it’s surprising—but like in the editing room I feel very comfortable. So I would say between me and Matt Loze—he’s one of the executives over at Fox—we have a pretty good tag team in terms of what we edit. So we’ll cut things, but rarely will we cut an entire scene. And most of the scenes that we cut seem to be things that are just more expository, where you’ll get a lot of expo about the bad guy or something like that. It will be usually stuff that we cut out that they’ll be sitting around the conference room talking. At the end of the day we’ll say, “You know what? I think we know enough about the architect. I don’t think we need that scene.”

Rarely, rarely do we cut character stuff. I would say probably, for those of you who have seen the second episode, there’s a great moment at the end where Matt is doing a Mario Brothers impression that’s really hysterical. Have you seen that episode?

No.

Eastin: Well, at the end of it there’s this really great thing—I won’t give the context—but he’s doing an impression of Mario Brothers, and the hard part there was in the editing room. We had so much good stuff, because some of the great directors will just let Tim and Matt, once they get the scene as it’s supposed to be, they’ll let them just play. And that’s the hard stuff. It’s really tough when you see all this extra stuff Tim and Matt have done and we can’t use all of it. I mean, we probably could have got five solid minutes of Matt doing his Mario Brothers impression, and at the end of it, I think it’s 15 seconds.

So those are the things that really are tough for me to cut. Those are the things that I wish would be on there, but I guess, hey, that’s what DVD extras are for.

Now obviously, you write a lot for these characters. When you created them or even when you write, are there often things that maybe you incorporate that are from your own life in the characters or from yourself?

Eastin: Oh, yes, all the time. Little things that will happen. A good example was in one of the upcoming episodes Mozzie comes in and is griping about Neal not having a particular wine that he likes. He says, “You had a … I wanted to drink,” and Neal shoots back and says, “The pinot is fine. Drink that.” It’s a small thing, but that happened to be some friends just got me a couple of bottles of wine and they happened to be a Sera and a pinot.

So the gist of the scene was I had just gotten some wine and I had gone in the kitchen and was looking for it and I could not find it and I said to somebody, “What happened to that … that was in there?” And they were like, “Just drink the pinot. It’s open.” So stuff like that is constant, in terms of when I’m looking for something for Neal and Mozzie to do, and there you go. That happens a lot. Obviously, I’m not usually involved in too many extortion scams and things like that during the day, but it’s usually the small details that make their way into the script.

I was just wondering, because there has to be a challenge each week for Neal and Peter, how do you go about sculpting adversaries to test them?

Eastin: We have a pretty simple rule for that. It’s like, the better the bad guy, the better Peter and Neal look. And again, our show construction, one of the criticisms I think we got a lot in season one was that our A stories didn’t really require the use of a lot of brain matter to figure out, and it’s true. We were not trying to be CSI, we weren’t trying to be a really twisted mystery. What we wanted to be was a character driven show.

So for us it’s usually, the bigger the bad guy the better. The bigger the scope, a little bit iconic, arch-villains work pretty well for us. And we usually know who they are within the first couple minutes of the show. So that’s our usual rule; make ‘em big, make ‘em bad. Let you know who they are but make it tough to take them down. That’s kind of the marching order we go through, and I think our most successful shows are when we do that.

Do you have anything else coming up in terms of arch villains that will match The Architect for pure hubris as well as intelligence?

Eastin: Oh, yes, I think most of our guys are full of hubris. That’s usually just to kind of counter Neal. The John Larroquette character I mentioned is pretty awesome. That’s going to be a big card playing, poker playing episode which our director, David Straight, shot incredibly well. I’m mentally going through the episodes right now. In our fourth episode, which is Hilarie Burton’s introduction, we have a very rich guy with a pretty cool twisted back story. Mozzie’s girlfriend gets kidnapped by a big Columbian drug lord, which is a little bit of a change for us. Let’s see, Larroquette is in six. Actually we have a pretty cool one in our eighth episode in, where we have a federal marshal turned bad that’s kind of nice. Other than Fowler, we haven’t seen our guys go up against other federal agents, so that one is a pretty nice pairing with our guys.

Can you talk about how you got started in the business in general, with producing and writing?

Eastin: Sure, I’ll give you the short version. It’s not that short. Basically, I’m from Colorado. I went to school out there, and I worked as a director of photography on two really low budget movies for Roger Corman that were being shot in Boulder and this was really low budget. Corman was the producer; a guy named David Pryor was directing them. They’d come out and they’d shoot them very quickly—a couple weeks each out in Boulder. It was enough for me to think, I think maybe I want to try to go out to Hollywood. I mean, I hadn’t really ever been outside of Colorado at that point. I knew I wanted to be in the show business industry but I didn’t know what that meant, really.

So the summer I graduated college I packed up an old Volkswagen camp bus and I drove it out to L.A. It was my first trip out here, and a friend of mine, who knew a little bit about the film industry than I did said, “If you want to direct, what you really need is a script. Those are the things in short supply.” And I was always pretty good at short stories and stuff, so I sat down and I long-handed a story, just as I drove out. It took me five days to drive out in this little Volkswagen camp bus.

I finished it up once I arrived in L.A. I mean, for those of you who are new to L.A., coming from a small town in Colorado it was serious culture shock. I went through trying to follow the … patterns. I thought I’d go over to USC and check it out, not realizing that it’s not a particularly nice neighborhood over there. So I parked off campus and walked around with my backpack, and when I came back—it was my first day there, and my van was gone. It had been stolen.

So I had nothing. There was a cashier’s check for two grand that I had that was all the money I had in the world. Every other possession I had was gone. So I walked around that area for a little bit, which again is not too nice an area. I walked around and I found an old mansion that was sort of a flop house. There were about 20 people living in it, and I talked to the landlord, who was an old German guy. He was very nice, and he told me he’d give me a room for like $300. He said, “Hey, when you get a job pay me, until then you’ve got a place to stay.” I did that.

Actually, the first night I walked around and there was a Kinko’s over by USC and I had fallen asleep in there. This nice lady woke me up about three in the morning and I talked to her and she was the manager and she offered me a job. So my first day there I had my van stolen and I had a place to stay and I had a job at Kinko’s. The other thing I had was the script that I had long-handed on the way out; I’d held onto.

I didn’t realize what I was doing, but it was a thriller about a doctor who has a patient with multiple personalities, and he falls in love with one of the personalities and starts sleeping with another one of the personalities. And at some point in the show the two personalities start passing notes to each other and videos and realize what he’s doing and plot to kill him. So again, I had no idea what I was doing, but I had it long-handed in a notebook.

Through a friend of a friend of a friend, it got to Zalman King. Zalman was doing a … a lot of work, and he just started doing the Red Shoe Diaries. I didn’t even know my friend had taken the script, because it was the only one I had. It was in a notebook. He gave it to Zalman, and two days later Zalman called and said, “Hey, we’d like to buy that.” So that was how I started my future writing career.

So Zalman bought it. It never got made, but I made a little money off it, got an agent off it, went back and wrote another show, which was at the time called Inconvenience. I was going to take the $5,000 to $10,000 I made off the first script and I was going to shoot it myself, and I ended up throwing that one to Trimark Pictures and that ended up coming out as Held Up with Jamie Foxx, which was the first feature I’d done that actually got made.

And then off of that I got a couple of other things, a couple other small things, and then Neal Moritz, who had produced Fast and the Furious and I know What You Did Last Summer was the producer on Held Up. He came to me and said, “Hey, I’m doing TV, do you want to do it?” And I said, “Why would I want to do TV?” “You’re just a writer; you get to be the boss.” I liked that idea so I started doing some TV.

I did a show called Shasta with Neal over at UPN, which was my first show. Then off of that, you meet people and you do things, and I got Hawaii over at NBC, which is how I met everybody at USA, which led directly to White Collar. So that’s the short version.

Is there anything in White Collar that you wanted to do that you couldn’t, like because of budget or some other reason?

Eastin: Oh, yes. Look, I’d love to blow stuff up and have helicopters every week, but we can’t do that. The one thing I’m really proud about this show is we do it on a seven day cable budget and I’m really proud of how good the show looks. Part of that is because we shoot in New York, a lot of it … came off the wire and is absolutely amazing. I think the show looks as good as anything on networks, where the budgets are probably twice that they have an extra day.

So I would say that yes, I wish we could do action better. I’d love to blow more stuff up. I’d love to get in a little more action circumstance. That’s about it. In terms of Jeff King, who is my co-executive producer in New York, with him out there and Russell, there’s really nothing in terms of the look of New York, locations, things like that, that we haven’t shot. I think we’re incredibly lucky that way.

Would you ever be interested in acting or directing, as opposed to just writing?

Eastin: Yes. I mean, I wanted to be a director when I first came out, and once I realized how early they have to get up, that kind of stopped my desire to direct. Yes, I wouldn’t mind. We’ve discussed it. The studio has told me if I want to come and direct an episode I can, and maybe in season five I might do that. The problem I’ve got is I think in terms of writing I can be a really good writer. When I look at some of the directors we have, Kevin Brady is doing an episode for us right now and John … and what I realize is, I’m not as good as they are. I could probably direct a decent episode of White Collar, but I don’t think it will be a brilliant episode of White Collar. So at this point I want to leave that to the pros.

One of the things I’ve always kind of regretted about the path that I chose just creating the show is I don’t get to spend much time on set. I just got back from New York last week, where I can sit there, I can sit next to the director and watch how these guys work. Watch some really great directors do some really good stuff. But I don’t get to do that too much.

Most of my life is spent in the writers’ room, working with the writers, getting the scripts together, and in the editing room putting the final pieces in. But it’s that middle chunk, where it actually comes to life, that I feel woefully disconnected from a lot of times, which is tough, but it’s the life of a show runner. It’s like there’s the episode we’re writing, there’s the episode we’re editing, and there’s the episode we’re shooting this week. You always have those three that you’re working on, and to be successful, I think you get to pick two of those, and for me it’s the writing and the editing. And it means I just don’t get to spend time on set.

As far as acting goes, I did some theater in high school and college, but no real desire. I’ll watch Matt Bomer and Tim on screen and think, man, there’s no way in hell I could be that good.

What’s been your favorite moment or scene or something from the show?

Eastin: There’s a number of those. There’s probably episode to episode. The moments I think I like the best are, I’ll write it a specific way. When I write a script, I block it out in my head and I have a pretty good idea what it’s going to look like. The moments I love are when I’m watching the cut and I see the guys do something that I wasn’t expecting, and those can be very small, little moments. I mentioned again, have you seen episode two yet?

No, just the first one.

Eastin: There’s a moment in there that really surprised me. Even in that one, it was like, there’s the second scene with Tim and Willie sitting there in the park, and that was really nice, because I had knocked those things out really quickly. And the second one, Tim had set up this circular dolly track going around the guys, and just the park setting, Willie and Tim, they found these really great moments within the scene and that was really cool for me. Those moments are always great, to see those.

In episode two there’s a really great moment, which was Matt doing the Mario Brothers impression, probably because it wasn’t scripted like that. It was a nice little moment, but suddenly he turned it into a really great moment. And those ones that can really make me just laugh out loud, those are always my favorite.

Do you have any advice for other people wanting to get into this?

Eastin: That’s interesting. I don’t want to say I fell into it, but I sort of have. How about this as advice; don’t worry about the odds. I think if somebody had told me what the odds of creating a TV show and actually get it on the air, it might have stopped me back when I started, but I never really thought too much about the odds, and just sort of did it, sort of moved forward.

In terms of writing, my best advice is read everything out loud. I keep telling my writers, “Read it out loud, because if the dialogue doesn’t come off your tongue, it’s not going to come off the actors’ very well.” Think hard about it. What I usually do is I’ll jam through a draft and then I’ll go back and question every single line. It takes a lot longer than a lot of writers; I’m not a particularly fast writer, but I think by questioning every line and saying, “Do we need this line? Is there a better line? Is there a funnier line? That’s a little bit of a cliché, can we turn that around?” I think it does help the final product.

And then in terms of actually getting a show on the air, I’d say probably watch a lot of TV. There’s nothing that annoys me more than meeting somebody who’s talking about they want to be a TV writer or a feature writer and they say, “I don’t really watch TV,” or “I don’t watch movies.” Then how in the heck do you know what’s out there? And inevitably, those are the same people, when they start pitching me something, I’ll say, “Well, it’s a great idea, and James Cameron did it great three years ago.”

So that’s probably my best advice. Just write a lot and pay attention to your chosen medium. For me, I may not like a show, but if it’s doing really well, I’ll make myself watch and at least try to understand why people like it. What are they coming to? What is it about this show that’s appealing to people?

Note: You can learn more about White Collar at the show’s website:  http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/

USA’s new spy series, Covert Affairs [Tuesdays, 10/9C] channels the world of espionage through what some have called “USA’s blue sky filter” – resulting in a fast-paced dramedy with roots in the details of the real CIA and the flights of action film imagination that spawned the James Bond and Jason Bourne films.

Covert Affairs is particularly notable for casting Piper Perabo, who has worked almost exclusively in film [give or take a guest star role on House] for a little better than a decade. Perabo kindly took some time to speak with a number of bloggers/journalists between adhering to her hectic shooting schedule and a meeting with executive producer, Doug Liman.

How important are social networking and online sites for the show promotion?

Piper Perabo: Well, that may be a better question for the studio. Chris Gorham is Twittering from set and while we’re working and we also have pages on Facebook and our Web page. Doug Liman, our executive producer, has been up and visiting so he writes about coming to the set and the action sequences that he’s been doing with us. So we’re pretty active on the Internet.

There’s early buzz on the show that’s a little good, a little bad. But is there going to be a link to viewership based on that buzz?

Perabo: I don’t know. I hope so, but I don’t know. This is my first television show. I’ve never done press at the same time as we’re shooting, and in a way I think it’s really exciting because hopefully fans of the show can give us input and tell us how they’re feeling about the story and it can affect how we continue.

Obviously, you’ve been doing a lot of interviews lately and it seems that everyone’s favorite question to ask you is about Alias. I’m sure you’re kind of tired of talking about Alias at this point. I’m just wondering, personally I see a lot of differences between the two shows and I’m wondering, being lumped together with that show so frequently do you think that that’s something that’s going to help or hinder the show?

Perabo: When I first got working on the show and I was speaking to actor friends of mine about what the show was about and how I was going to create the character, people said, “You should watch Alias.” I had never watched the show, don’t ask me how I missed it, so I got the pilot and I watched the pilot and I thought it was genius. I didn’t really want to watch anymore because I don’t want to in any way imitate what Jennifer was doing and I want to make sure that Annie is her own woman and dealing with her own world. But I thought that what I saw of the work on that pilot was really exciting and the fight sequences were really dynamic and she was just a really powerful, smart, intuitive woman who can make decisions on the fly, she’s brave, and she’s still a real person. I think those parallels can be drawn to Annie.

I think in our show, though, you see a lot more of the real life of a spy, what kind of car you drive and what it’s like when you get home at night after you’ve just been chasing an assassin all day. So in that way I think we are really different. I think that if people come and watch our show because they like Alias, then that’s great, but I think they’re going to get to see a much bigger world than they saw and so hopefully they’ll keep watching.

You said that this is your first foray into series television. If it was a movie I’m sure there would be a premiere, but with this being a television show what sort of exciting plans do you have for the premiere night?

Perabo: The premiere night, I’m going to be shooting actually. We’re trying to work out this—I don’t know if I’m telling you secrets that I shouldn’t be telling you. That’s another thing I don’t know about television, I don’t know how to keep a secret. But there’s a really intense action chase that we’re going to be shooting on Tuesday night in Canada, so I won’t be watching it. But I have two brothers, and they are having a party for the premiere where everyone has to come as spies in trench coats and sunglasses. So, they’re representing the premiere party aspect for me.

My question, I actually posed it to the people on Twitter and the person who responded was your lovely co-star, Chris Gorham. He suggested that I ask you to tell us about your day at the CIA and how you took notes.

Perabo: Oh, that’s interesting. Yes, Doug Liman, our executive producer, was in the middle of editing Fair Game when I got cast in the pilot, which is the story of Valerie Plame Wilson, so I knew he had contacts down at Langley. And I asked him if he could get me an introduction so that I could go there and see what it’s really like and talk to real people who do this for a living. So he did, and this sort of shows my naiveté, but I brought a notebook with me so I could take notes. I had a lot of questions that I wanted to ask.

When I got there they told me, of course, you can’t bring a notebook into the CIA. … number one is … take notes in the secret agency. I said, “Oh, okay when we get inside could I have some paper and a pen?” And the agent who was taking me around said, “Sure, but you have to leave it inside when you leave.” Of course you can’t take notes out of the CIA either. I said, “Well, how am I supposed to keep all this information?” He said, “You have to be like a spy and remember it.” It was interesting that before I even got inside you can feel how tight and secret the whole world is. It was an amazing day. It started there and it was incredible.

For my follow up question I want to know if you ever got your bedroom closet all fixed up, because they had those ugly slippers in there.

Perabo: Oh my gosh, that’s so funny, because there’s a scene that’s coming up where someone ransacks my room, and I had a long meeting with wardrobe and set dec to make sure that all Annie’s fancy shoes and pinstripe suits and all that, I said, bloggers came in and looked at Annie’s closet and there’s a pair of ugly slippers and there was an exercise ball and a tablecloth in there. It didn’t make any sense. Set dec had just done something colorful in the … so we took it all out and now it’s very Sex in the City, her closet.

What I’m wondering is how did the role of Annie Walker come to you? Doug Liman, when we were talking with him, he mentioned that he likes to tailor characters to the actors who play them, so I was wondering how Annie was tailored for you and what part you played in that process.

Perabo: The way that the role came to me was I was doing a Broadway play, I was doing Neil Labute’s new play, Reasons to be Pretty, and we were almost done with our run and I was reading movie scripts and I wasn’t finding anything that was really speaking to me and my agent suggested that I read this. And I hadn’t thought about doing television, but when I read it, it kind of changed everything for me. She’s such a powerful character, she’s so smart, the action is so intense, and I really thought it would be fun to do.

Then I met Doug and I went to the CIA and I started creating the character, and I met the creators, Matt Corman and Chris Ord, and we did a lot of talking about how – because the pilot is Annie’s first day at the CIA. And so as the show continues Annie’s really a rookie, and so what she excels at and what she isn’t very good at, I think is in some ways tailored to me. I really like driving. I really like action. I really like stunts. And those are things that I haven’t gotten to do in the past and so when I told them that all of a sudden that stuff started getting more and more intense and more creative. And Doug has been very active in ramping up the action sequences for each episode we do, so I think in a lot of ways the action was even kicked up a higher notch because I was so excited to do it.

What’s it like on the set? You’ve got a pretty high powered cast.

Perabo: It’s going really well on the set. Sendhil Ramamurthy joined us for the season, and Sendhil, Chris Gorham and I really get on like a house on fire, which is good because a lot of times when we leave the CIA those are the people I’m leaving the CIA with to go abroad. It’s really long days because the action sequences, if you’ve ever been on a set where they’re shooting action, it takes a long time. It goes in really long pieces so that you can get the angles you want and that everything is safe, and so I’m really lucky that I really love the people that I work with, and it’s not bad doing a 17 hour day with these guys.

You mentioned that you were at the CIA, I’m assuming Langley. What sort of special training did you get while you were there or did you have to undergo to play this character?

Perabo: The fight training that I went through to play this character wasn’t at Langley. They go to the farm to do their fight training and I wasn’t able to go there. The fight training that I did was with our head of stunts, and they hired different martial arts and hand-to-hand combat teachers.

So, first, the creators and Doug sat down about what kind of style of fighting Annie would have. Doug is a real fan of close hand-to-hand combat that you shoot on a steadicam, the way that Jason Bourne fights, but you have to tailor that to a woman because obviously when I’m fighting a man, if we’re going to keep it real, which is what we’re going for, Annie Walker isn’t a super hero, then you have to find styles of fighting that could give her an advantage and make it plausible that she can win or at least hold out in some of these fights. So we ended up with Krav Maga, which is [the] Israeli army style of street fighting, and Wing Chun, which is a martial arts that was developed for women. So we were working for weeks and weeks on that and training on that, I was training on that before we started the pilot.

When I went to Langley a lot of it was really I couldn’t train there and they can’t really show me the technology they have. So a lot of that day was about asking the agents about their personal lives, because that they can sort of share, they’re not telling me their real names anyway. So, does your boyfriend know what you do, and what kind of car do you drive, and how much do you make; those kinds of questions are really important when you’re creating a character, and they were really forthcoming with that kind of information.

We’ve heard mention of a lot of different guest stars that you’re going to have this season and I was wondering, is there anyone in particular that you’ve especially enjoyed working with?

Perabo: Eriq La Salle did an episode … and I really liked working with him. I watched ER a lot, especially when I was in college studying acting was when ER, I’m sure you remember, they did that episode once that was live and they did it live on the East Coast and live on the West Coast. As a theater student we all sat down as actors together and watched it together, the East Coast one and the West Coast one, and it was so cool and it was so brave and it was so exciting. So I wanted to really pick his brain about that and about how you shoot for such a dynamic emotional one-hour drama, and he was so patient and generous and also just a really good actor.

I wondered if you could talk a little bit more about the time you spent with Valerie Plame and what insights she gave you that you took to Annie.

Perabo: Valerie Plame was our consultant on the pilot, which was incredible to have her insight, because since she’s no longer in the CIA and because of the way she left it, she is more willing to share things than someone who’s from the agency can’t really talk about it. Also, just being on the ground, she can walk through the set of the CIA. We were shooting a scene that had extras, there’s an induction ceremony situation, and there were extras that came in to the CIA and in their wardrobe they had purses, but that’s impossible because you can’t carry anything in or out of the CIA, so having Valerie around to continually say well, these are the kinds of ID cards. And another thing was the CIA is a giant office, like any other office, and so there are reams and reams of paper. They’re can’t be regular trash in the CIA because obviously that paper is carrying all kinds of top secret documents, and it’s not just shredded at the CIA, it’s all burn bagged. So then all the trash cans were taken out and all the burn bags were brought in so everyone has burn bags under their desk. It was just again and again her attention to detail that was really, really helpful.

Yes, I remember those burn bags on set.

Perabo: … right?

In the pilot we saw a lot of different sides to Annie, the vulnerable side, the tough side, and is there a lot about her that we don’t even know yet?

Perabo: There’s a lot about her that you don’t even know yet. Annie’s whole family life and also what happened in her relationship is still to unfold. And actually going back to talking about Valerie for a second, Valerie was also really generous with me about emotionally the toll that it takes keeping all those secrets from your family and your friends. And I think that her personal story that she told me was also very helpful in kind of folding into Annie’s secret and how that plays out in her relationship with her sister and her family. So as Annie weaves the lie that she has to tell so many people, the secrets start overlapping and overlapping, and it just gets very complicated.

My first question to you is what film or TV characters were an influence for you, or did influence you as a reference point for Annie?

Perabo: There were two. One is the original La Femme Nikita that Luc Besson did. I thought that film was a great balance of the pressure of the job and the real emotional pull that it takes. Also, I loved how he handled action with a woman and I just think that movie is so beautiful and she’s so strong, and it just was a big influence on me for Annie.

Then Lee Miller, who was an artist and a war photographer, she was a beautiful journalist who put herself in the middle of these battles in order to take photographs. So I had read a lot about her and how she maintained her integrity and still was a beautiful woman amid the battlefield, and I thought that was really inspiring thinking about Annie.

Can you talk a little bit about working with Christopher Nolan in The Prestige, and if he called would you want to play Cat Woman?

Perabo: If Christopher Nolan called I would play anything he wanted me to play. It was amazing working with him. I had been such a fan of all his films and I didn’t know how he worked until I got on the set with him the first day and how closely he works with Wally Pfister, his DP, and how fluid and alive his sets are. Also having Christian Bale, who has worked obviously multiple times with Nolan and Hugh Jackman, it was kind of a dream experience. I would do anything to work with Nolan again.

I read that you consider yourself more of a tomboy than anything. What puts you in that category and have you ever considered yourself the girl-next-door type?

Perabo: I don’t know if anybody considers themselves the girl-next-door, because you’re the girl. Do you know what I mean? I grew up in a neighborhood of all boys, so I was the only girl in the neighborhood so I guess that’s makes me the girl-next-door. But running around with a bunch of boys on the coast in New Jersey it just makes for a certain … lifestyle, your BMX bike and the beach and everything’s in your backpack, and you’re sunburned. I guess however you grow up creates in a way who you are, and living in a shore town with a bunch of boys makes you a tomboy.

I’m wondering, why do you think we’re seeing more and more film stars making a transition to TV? This isn’t really something that we would have seen 15, 20 years ago.

Perabo: Yes, that’s an interesting question. I’ve been thinking about that a lot too. One of the things is I think there’s a lot of great writing happening in television, not that there hasn’t been great writing in television before, but there seems to be a burst of new writers, young writers writing for television and writing really dynamic, complex characters, so that will always draw actors is good writing. I also think there seems to be a surge of dramas helmed by women, which wasn’t the case before, so that draws great actresses to the screen. Damages is one of my favorite shows, and to watch Glenn Close and Rose Byrne do those scenes, it’s great writing. I think maybe that’s what got them there in the first place. I don’t know, but I would assume so. Then when you add that talent to it, it just makes for great television. So I think creating these powerful female characters is changing television.

What is it like to be the original character in the premiere of a show, as opposed to appearing in an established show?

Perabo: Certainly it’s a lot more work on the show because of the action component and whether it’s fights or car chases or explosions, and also Annie Walker is a language expert, so right now we’re up to nine different languages that Annie can speak. So between lessons and stunt choreography and training, I’m there all the time setting the tone and creating the character. I think creating a new character always takes a lot, because you want to make sure that you’re making someone who’s full and dynamic. You don’t want to give everything away at the top. You need to have a layered performance filled with history.

So it’s a lot of work but it’s also really fun because new things come up in each episode, we’ll come to a crossroads of a decision about what would Annie do, and then there’s this big conversation with the creators and the writers and the actors about well, what has she done in the past and where do we want her to go and what would she base her decision on? And so it makes for a really dynamic and artistic set.

I know it’s really early, but what would you say are Annie’s strong points and shortcomings?

Perabo: Definitely language is a strong point for Annie. Then she has things that can be both a strong point and a shortcoming. Annie’s a little bit of an adrenaline junkie, and so that can help sometimes but it also can take her off track. She’s also quite a flirt, and so although that can get her in the door at some of these embassy parties, I think she can be a little distracted by all the beautiful men and she’s not always paying attention to the mission at hand, depending on how handsome the guy in the tuxedo is. Hopefully that won’t get her into too much trouble. I have that problem as well, so I can really sympathize.

Annie is very stylish, which I love and respect. I think it’s great. You mentioned your closet as being very Sex and the City. So I’m wondering, are you interested in fashion and what do you think of Annie’s clothing so far?

Perabo: I am interested in fashion. I really like it. I live in New York City and I think the women here are dressed so beautifully. I think the glamour of fictional characters and of the spy world have always interested me. I’ve never played a character who wore suits before, so that’s really an interesting thing diving into that whole line of fashion. But it’s really fun because there’s a certain fantasy element. Obviously on a government salary you can’t have this many Louis Vuitton shoes, but it is really fun to pick the ones that go best with your pinstripe suit in the morning.

To reference Annie’s softer side, they mentioned a perfume that she wears, the Grapefruit perfume. Do you ever wear the actual perfume to get more in character or anything?

Perabo: I think Jo Malone makes the Grapefruit perfume, don’t they?

Yes, that’s the one that they say that she wears.

Perabo: Yes, Jo Malone, Grapefruit, right. God, I forgot about that. …. I never wear perfume on set because I never know if it’s going to bother the other actor. I’ve seen it happen on other … where some actors will come in doused in perfume and you can see the leading man’s eyes start watering, so I’ve always been nervous about it since I’ve seen that. But I should do that to Chris Gorham one day when we have a racier moment. That’s a good idea. There should definitely be a bottle of it in Annie’s room. I’m going to make sure there is one.

Yes, get some kind of candle or something, Grapefruit, to trigger your Annie senses. I don’t know.

Have you ever had a really disastrous fix up like that and what happened?

Perabo: Oh my gosh, yes. I have had some disastrous fix ups. Oh my God. Once I was set up, it was actually here in New York, a friend of mine set me up on a date with someone and we met at a movie theater. It was a first date and it was a French movie at one of the art house cinemas downtown and he fell asleep. About five minutes into the movie my date fell all the way asleep. Not just a little bit asleep, can’t keep your eyes open asleep, but like snoring so that other people in the movie theater had to say “Be quiet.” It was so humiliating and disheartening. Yes, I’m not really into fix ups anymore ….

Also, I read that you’re an action movie fan. I was wondering, I know this is probably your first really action based thing, but how crazy was it acting through that whole sniper scene in the pilot, which was so intense? Was that hard to do?

Perabo: It was really hard and it was really crazy. They buried … in the wall so that when you built the set there are little, for cameras when you’re doing marks they have all these rolls of tape and they’ll use the tape where all the … are , so that in the rehearsal you know what parts of the wall are going to blow up. But when we shoot everybody else on the crew puts on face shields and packing blankets over their bodies, and they take away all the marks where the explosions are going to happen, and the only person who’s not protected is me. Then they say, “Go,” and the room explodes. So it took a little getting used to.

Annie is a member of the CIA and she can’t tell her friends and family. In that respect you kind of have two roles on the show, the CIA operative and a regular person who has to keep that other side of her secret. Is it fun to play two different personalities on the same show?

Perabo: It is. The actress who plays my sister who doesn’t know what I do for a living is Anne Dudek, who is on so many television shows I can’t keep track. But she’s a really great actress and she’s very aware of the kind of balance that I’m trying to strike between my relationship at home with her and then my relationship with work. She and I have worked a lot on that and what our family is like and who our parents were and how we deal with each other, and as the season goes on we spend more and more time together. You get a glimpse of her in the pilot, but you see a lot more of her as the season goes on. She and I have worked a lot on that, about what it’s like at home for the Walker sisters.

This is your first starring role in a TV show. Were you nervous when you started, and did either Chris or Peter or anyone else really give you any advice since they’ve starred on shows before?

Perabo: Yes, both of them did, actually. Both of them are so talented and successful and confident with their work on television and they understand the speed of it. You shoot television much faster than you shoot a film, and so you have to have a certain fluid quality to the scenes and be able to change them really fast and be really confident about your choices, because there’s not always time to try it ten different ways. I think our director took a real cue from that in how confidently they approached a scene and they really know how they want to do it. I’m really lucky to have both of them on the show.

You’ve touched a little bit on how physical your role is and we’re wondering, do you have a stunt double or do you do all the stunts yourself?

Perabo: No, I have a stunt double. I have different doubles because not everybody can do all the … do it this way and as the season continues Annie is getting wilder and wilder and the stunts are just getting more and more intense. I think each director is trying to top the last one, so we keep having to find some girls who can do things that I … do. So there are definitely multiple pinstripe suits for certain days on set.

We were also just wondering if you’d heard of the Canadian … band named after you and what you think of them.

Perabo: I have heard that there’s a band, but I haven’t heard their music. Is it good?

Yes.

Perabo: Do they have a MySpace page or something? I should listen to them.

They do. If you look up Piper Perabo MySpace then you’ll find them and not you.

Oh, cool. All right, I’ll have a listen.

Actually, I just wanted to first start off by saying as a fellow Jersey girl I’m very excited that someone from New Jersey has made it so big in the TV and music business.

Perabo: Where are you from in New Jersey?

I’m from… County, so it’s like north Jersey, but … Beechwood area near…

Perabo: Oh, cool.

Yes, I saw that online and I was excited to speak to you about that. My question is, on the show, I know it just started and you’re probably getting into the swing of things, but how much creative freedom do you have in regards to… adlibbing or maybe if you see a scene, there’s a direction that you give your input into, like maybe if you see how you might want to change it.

Perabo: I actually have input, although it’s not necessarily always on the day. Because of the action we get our scripts fairly early, and so there is a lot of time to have a dialogue with the writers and the directors while they’re in prep about ideas that come up in scenes and maybe is it possible if we do it this way. We even have a chance as actors to rehearse our scenes on our own before the day, so there is a big dialogue going on about it, but it’s not just me changing it on the day because we have our scripts so much in advance that it’s a dialogue that goes on with the creators and the stunt coordinators and the director and everybody.

The second part of my question kind of goes back to what you were describing like the stunts and the arm-to-arm combat that you mentioned before. My family, we’re a big fan of the movie The Cave –

Perabo: Oh my gosh, cool.

Yes, we loved your part of Charlie. Does that at all help you with the stunts you have to do today or … swinging on the…?

Perabo : The Cave is one of those things that I did that has come in useful, is doing these falls. Before that movie I had never done really big stunt falls before and so I learned how to do it for Charlie. It’s come up already in the show, I go jumping into an elevator shaft, I don’t know how many episodes back, but I think we’re … in an elevator shaft from pretty high, and knowing how to do that gives you a lot more confidence …. If you’ve never done a big fall by running and jumping into an elevator shaft, it takes a lot of guts.

I was wondering, in the series beyond the first couple of seasons how will your character adjust to essentially being a much more experienced agent at that point, since a lot of the show seems to be based on your inexperience right now?

Perabo: That’s a really interesting question and that’s come up with me and the creators already. It’s funny that you noticed that. Because one of the things that I really like about Annie is how inexperienced she is, and obviously the longer we stay with her, the more she’ll gain.

What’s fun about being an inexperienced CIA agent is that you don’t follow protocol because you don’t know it. So that comes up again and again with Annie, is that it’s not that she’s particularly flouting authority, she just hasn’t had the training to know how she’s supposed to do it. So she has to come up with her own ideas. I hope that Annie will be successful enough that eventually she’ll be allowed to give it a little bit looser range, because the creativity that the writing department continually comes up with as to how Annie solves a problem is really fun to watch her do. So hopefully even with her experience she’ll just get better at creative solutions, but not necessarily become an expert. Do you know what I mean?

How do you feel about it being on the USA Network where most shows do become a big hit? Is there any pressure for you with that?

Perabo: It’s a combination. Because they’ve had so many successful shows, they have a great idea about how to create successful shows, because it’s their original programming that’s so successful. So I put a lot of faith in network notes and ideas they have about character and also about how we’re bringing the show out, like doing calls like this and talking to you guys. They have such a great track record with introducing new shows that it makes me really excited, that the show that I think is really good and going really well is going to get out there.

Did you actually do the skydiving scene in the pilot?

Perabo: No. I wish I had. I wish that the first reporter that asked me, I wish I had told them yes and I’ve just been lying all the time. But once I told one of you “no,” then I know that I can’t tell another one of you “yes,” because it’s like you guys all know each other. It’s not me. It’s just my ponytail …. The network would never have let me jump out of a plane, especially when we’re only on episode one.

Now we’ll go to the line of Mark Bower from Spoiler TV. Please go ahead.

I have a strange question. You work with Chris Gorham on the show who’s playing a blind character. Is it harder as an actress to work against somebody who is normally sighted but has to not make any eye motions and make eye contact with you?

Perabo: No, it’s not hard because Chris Gorham is such a good actor and he’s so emotionally available, that it’s really not hard at all, because the character of Auggie is really Annie’s foundation in the CIA, I trust him and I have my most intimate discussions with him. No, it’s actually not difficult at all.

Do you find yourself tempted to try to make him break character because you know he can see what you’re doing?

Perabo: I started saying to him that if we are so lucky to get to another season I think that the reveal should be that he’s not blind and we should do a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon moment where I throw something at him and he catches it. But I don’t think anybody’s listening to me.

I wanted to talk to you about the love affair that Annie has that’s kind of becoming the central secret of her character. What was it like playing that? Did you draw on any inspiration for that?

Perabo: The love affair?

Yes, the guy and the island and you know who’s becoming the character as part of her back story.

Perabo: Unfortunately, I’ve never been to Southeast Asia so I have yet to fall in love with a man running down a beach. So I’m living a little bit through Annie’s fantasy life at this point. Also seeing Ian Dailey run down the beach, I haven’t seen anything quite that good in my ….

What about your own love life? There were some pictures a couple of months ago of you and Chris Pine. Is there anything going on there?

Perabo: I don’t really ever discuss my personal life. I like to just keep it for myself. I don’t think I’ll comment on that.

Well, you know I have to ask.

Perabo: I totally understand. I did an interview once where an interviewer said to me, so tell me who you’re dating. And I was like “Yes, I never say anything about that.” And she said, “Okay, well just telling me you’re dating somebody mega famous like Prince William, because I … go back to my editor.” And I was like, “I promise you, I’m not dating Prince William.”

Note: To learn more about Covert Affairs, check out the show’s website at: http://usanetwork.com/series/covertaffairs

Wherever they go, White Collar’s [USA, Tuesdays, 9/8C] FBI Special Agent Peter Burke [Tim DeKay] and con man “consultant” Neal Caffrey [Matt Bomer] are the smartest guys in the room. This season starts off with one of the pair’s biggest challenges in a character called The Architect.

The comedy team of Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay [who joined us in progress] sat in on a truncated teleconference Q&A [when they have to be onset, they have to be onset] to talk about White Collar’s second season.

Watching the two episodes that were coming in, you did some time again.

Matt Bomer: Yes.

That’s kind of interesting. Then as that particular episode progresses, obviously Willie and Tim’s character have a conversation at the very end about how they’re kind of watching your back and making sure that you’re being able to adjust to the fact that Kate’s been killed, which is all this new information all in one episode that one has to process, and how is your character dealing with this?

Bomer: What I think those particular events sort of set in motion this season is that Neal’s big struggle is between doing what’s legally right and what he thinks is just. So his big struggle this season in terms of avenging Kate’s death is whether to do the right thing legally or what he feels is right and just.

Okay, and that’s pretty much how the season’s going to go?

Bomer: Well, in terms of that particular storyline; yes. Is that what you’re asking?

Well, yes, kind of. What I’m asking really kind of the justice that he is seeking versus what is legally doable given his personal situation, and having a nice little tag around his—the little thing around his ankle, makes it difficult to do that.

Bomer: Well, I think you just asked and summed up your own question.

Yes, I think I did. Sorry about that.

Bomer: Is there anything else I can answer for you?

Yes. You’ve got new additions to your cast.

Bomer: Yes. We’re very excited about that. First of all, we have Marsha Thomason back on a regular basis, which is wonderful. She’s a fantastic actress and gorgeous and so great to have on this show. And then we have Hilarie Burton who makes a recurring guest arc this season as sort of—I guess from my character’s eyes, she plays a high class repo man, an insurance repo man, who’s basically out to settle an old score between herself and Neal. So it’s kind of fun and contentious and slightly flirtatious and all those things, hopefully.

Matt, I just was wondering, so many of my magazines coming in the mail these days have you on the cover or featured very prominently. How does it sort of feel to be the center of the cable universe these days?

Bomer: Well, I don’t perceive myself that way in any light. Thankfully, I’m so busy with work that I don’t have time to process too much of that stuff. But it’s great that people are responding to the show and Jeff’s writing, most importantly, and know we’re hopefully getting the word about our show out there because we work really hard on it, and I speak for myself and Tim and the cast and Jeff when I say that we’re really proud of the stuff we’re working hard to put out there, and thankfully, or hopefully, the word is getting out.

I want to ask you sort of a, I guess, philosophical TV question. I really enjoyed season one, but there were a couple of things that I was kind of surprised to see. I mean, obviously you’ve been around TV. You know sort of that it takes a long time usually for there to be payoffs in a series, and I thought there were fairly big payoffs last year. You know, Peter, you guys had the mid season break. He could have been a bad guy. You sort of wrapped that up in the next episode. Neal and Kate; obviously that’s not going to happen now. What do you think about the payoffs and I guess the quick reveals for the audience?

Bomer: I love that Jeff Eastin answers the question he asked in the first episode, and I agree with you. There were big payoffs and I think Tim and I were both were looking at each other going, “Where are we going to go from here?” But then we did, and now we’re at the mid season finale this season going, “Oh my God! Where are we going to go from here?” So, fortunately we have a great writer in Jeff Eastin who likes to answer the questions he presents pretty concisely and pretty briefly, so I’m just happy to be along for the ride.

This question actually goes out to both of you and that’s how do you guys see Neal and Peter’s relationship kind of shifting and evolving now, especially with kind of the changing dynamics with Kate, and even with Mozzie having a little bit more of a role now?

Tim DeKay: I think it’s like any other relationship that changes and evolves, but at the base of it, I just get the feeling that these two care for each other very much, and with that, they’re going to have a good time together. They’re going to be hurt by each other, and are going to possibly not trust each other to greater degrees than previously or lesser degrees than previously. But I think that’s to Jeff Eastin’s credit, in writing a very complex—you know, people have said, “Oh, this is a buddy-cop relationship that these two have.” I think yes, it is. But, I think it’s much more than that and that’s because Jeff Eastin has said, “No, no, no. I want it to be more than that.” And I think he’s written something more than that.

Bomer: I would echo that sentiment and just say yes, it’s about two guys who have a mutual respect for each other, who have a lot of differences but who compensate for each other’s differences in interesting ways, and who always end up, at the end of the day, having a pretty good time together. But the one dynamic that’s always shifting and changing between our relationship and between the series at large is that of trust.

DeKay: Yes.

Well, my final question is just kind of a quick thing to satisfy both the White Collar and Chuck fan in me, and that’s Matt, do you think that Neal Caffrey could take down Bryce Larkin in a fight?

Bomer: Oh! Neal could outsmart him, but if you’re talking about a UFC cage match, Bryce would definitely win.

Hi guys! I’m happy that I have you both on the line. What’s up? My first question is for Matt. Jeff Eastin teased us that you and your fabulous co-star, Diahann Carroll, would be singing on an episode this season. Has it already been shot and what can you tell us about it?

Bomer: He teased me too. I’ve heard rumor. It would be an honor. She’s a legend and it’d be really, really fun to get to do something like that. I have no idea if it’s actually going to come to fruition. We still have eight episodes to find out or seven episodes to find out. So I guess as soon as I know, I’ll let you know.

And Tim, in episode two of season two, there was that running gag about you and the mustache. Was this the creation of the writers, or did you just show up one day a little fuzzy and inspire the episode?

DeKay: Yes, I showed up—that happens a lot. I’ll show up fuzzy and it will inspire people. No. It was completely by Jeff. I honestly think the twisted mind of Jeff Eastin thought, “Oh, I bet DeKay would look goofy with a mustache. Let me write that.”

It was a great episode. I’m really excited to see how the season— season one was such a solid season, but it just seems like, with these two episodes that we have been able to preview, the show is just getting better. And I’m really loving the banter between Peter and Neal. It’s just coming out to be—and we’re seeing a lot more Willie Garson, which I love. I’m very excited for the season. Good luck.

With a lot of these plot twists that come up anywhere in this season, do you guys always know they’re coming ahead of time so you can play that, or are you guys kind of in the dark too as well as the upcoming plot lines?

DeKay: Jeff Eastin is good in that he’ll tell me a plot twist that’s coming up if he thinks it would be something Peter would know ahead of time, and if it’s something that would be a surprise to Peter, I’ll tell Jeff, “Oh, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” And then it’s exciting to read it and exciting to play it. This one kind of came up on me, the one for the mid season, only because I think we’ve been so entrenched in shooting these first eight episodes, that when I got the next episode—Oh wow! Oh right, this is the mid season, and then it was a page turner, I have to say.

Matt: I like not to know unless it’s something that I need to know specifically for how I color a performance, but at the beginning of the year, basically I just talk with Jeff and say, “What’s the overall motivation for Neal for this season?” And then we go from there, and I get pleasantly surprised when I get the script, five minutes before we shoot it.

And Matt, the show’s definitely put you out there and everybody kind of knows who you are now. Have you adjusted to the kind of scrutiny on you and your personal life through all this?

Bomer: To be honest with you, I don’t really pay any attention to it. My personal life is a source of incredible happiness for me, but it’s just that; it’s personal and I would never—it’s not for me to hock, or shop around to the highest bidder, and plus, it could never live up to the amazing mythology that everyone online has created for me. So, I’ll keep mum about it.

The two of you have this great onscreen chemistry, and I was wondering, what is your relationship like in real life and do you spend time together outside of the show?

Bomer: I don’t let Tim look at me, unless we’re shooting.

DeKay: Yes, it’s just better for me, that way I know the rule. Matt will have other production assistants come up to me and remind me, “Mr. Bomer does not want you to make eye contact with him.”

Bomer: Until they call action.

DeKay: Until they—

Bomer: No, Tim is actually my life coach. He doesn’t know it, but he is.

DeKay: Oh, likewise.

Bomer: I rely on him for advice and information on life on a seven day a week basis basically.

DeKay: We have a good time.

Bomer: We do.

DeKay: Yes, we have a very good time.

Bomer: There aren’t many days when we’re not laughing pretty hard, so how could we complain?

DeKay: There aren’t. Matt Bomer’s the funniest man—

So let’s just say that you guys were put on the stand and asked to be a character witness for each other’s characters. What would you say about them?

DeKay: Ah, so Peter would be a character witness for Neal?

Exactly, and vice-versa.

DeKay: It’s going to seem odd, but this is my first instinct and I think I have to go with it. One is smartest individual I’ve met. And two, one of the most devoted. Yes, he’s one of the—oh my gosh! I think because of this question, I’ve hit something here that I think that Peter sees in Neal; that he respects and adores, for lack of a better word.

Bomer: Oh, s…. We’ve got to do these blogger calls on a more regular basis.

DeKay: Yes. He sees a strong devotion in Neal. And it makes sense. Look how devoted he was to Kate. Look how strong he stayed with Kate and was devoted to her. And if he can do that for her, he can do that for the bureau, and certainly for his friends.

Makes sense. And what about the other way around? What does Neal think?

DeKay: Peter the player.

Bomer: He’s a player.

DeKay: He’s slept with every single woman in the bureau.

Bomer: One lady to the next, Peter. I would say that Peter is incredibly intelligent, dedicated, devoted, a family man. I mean, he has the white picket existence that I completely admire and respect and wish that I could have, but don’t really ultimately believe that I can.

DeKay: And Peter’s funny.

Well, yes.

Bomer: And he’s funny!

DeKay: And he wears really good ties.

Bomer: And he puts up with my bull….

I wanted to ask what it’s like having Willie [as] Mozzie in more scenes and working with Peter, and you know, that for the season.

Bomer: He’s a real pain in the ….

DeKay: Yes, he is. It’s great because—I just love the relationship of Peter and Mozzie. He’s this nuisance, but we need him every so often, and he’s good to go to. And he’s also one of these guys who does some—he goes above and beyond every so often, and Peter hates to say it, but he says thank you to him.

And here’s the other thing about the world of White Collar is that even though Mozzie is a conspiracy theorist and there is a combative element between Mozzie and Peter, never, never, never would Peter ever not trust him with—no, let me rephrase this. There isn’t that element of violence, and because that element is not there between certainly Neal and Mozzie and Peter, it gives it great flexibility. It gives that relationship a great flexibility. Peter’s never worrying, “Oh, Mozzie might draw a gun on somebody.” That’s just not there. And because of that, you’ve got much more leeway in the relationship.

Bomer: I think Willie is great and fun and he always brings something extra to the role, and it’s been fun for Neal to get to bridge two worlds that were very different for him in the first season, and to see people who he respects and admires and likes working with in two very different ways, come together and sort of being the intermediary in their dynamic at times, and also watching them get along famously at other times.

The followup: Tim, when are we going to see you in a wet t-shirt…

DeKay: I don’t know what you’ll—if this weather keeps up, you will see Tim in a wet suit because I will just sweat through everything and you’ll see Peter dripping as he does a walk and talk with Neal.

Note: You can learn more about White Collar at the show’s website: http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/

When Eureka [Syfy, Fridays, 9/8C] begins its fourth season tomorrow evening, the main characters find themselves in Camp Eureka, three years before the town was founded – and their return to the present has a little, teensy glitch [or six].

Series Co-Creator Jaime Paglia and series star Colin Ferguson [Sheriff Jack Carter] went well beyond their allotted time on the teleconference Q&A, they were so happy to be talking about what sounds like it will be Eureka’s strangest and most entertaining season yet.

Jaime Paglia: I just wanted to say thanks everybody for joining the call. And we hope that you are enjoying the season so far, I know you’ve seen the first two episodes, that you’re enjoying watching it as much as we have enjoyed creating it.

It’s been a really exciting departure. I think that we’ve managed to kind of go back even to Season 1 and bring back elements of our show that we were missing and sort of take the best of the journey so far and really kind of launch into Season 4 with sort of a renewed enthusiasm and creative vision. And I think we all sort of share that sentiment. So anyway, we look forward to your thoughts.

So the first question is for both of you. Can you talk about how you became involved in Eureka at the beginning.

Colin Ferguson: Sure thing. Jaime you predate me.

Paglia: Okay. Well it was, you know, it was a concept that was generated by Andy Cosby and myself. We co-created the show together. We had been doing some feature films before this one and we sat down for lunch one day.

And so what we – if we were going to do a TV series what would we do. And I think that the sort of show concept was a perfect blend of our particular personalities and interests. I think I was sort of more of the Northern Exposure sort of character dramedy kind of mindset.

And Andy was more of the sci-fi geek lover and, you know, we both enjoyed shows like Northern Exposure and Twin Peaks and X-Files. And by the end of lunch we had sort of dug through some old concepts and made some changes to them.

And we pretty much had the premise of the show. You know, Pacific Northwestern town that doesn’t appear on any maps and [a] US Marshal stumbles onto it and, you know, finds himself assigned to be the town sheriff. That was pretty much the most productive lunch meeting I’ve ever had.

Ferguson: And then I guess (unintelligible) part of the casting of it back in the day. And, you know, we did – I guess the final casting was the most interesting one because it was myself and Jordan and there was another guy – Ed Kerr. I don’t remember who the girl was.

And we did the mix and match. And it ended up being Jordan and I who got the role. So probably she’s arguably as important for me getting the job as anything else.

Paglia: Yeah, I have to say we, you know, Andy and I were dividing and conquering in the early days of getting the pilot going. And I had seen – I was doing casting first with our director, Peter O’Fallon. And Colin came in I think on day two of casting.

And Andy was scouting locations in Vancouver and I called him up afterwards and I said I think we found our guy. You’ve got to get back here and see him.

And, you know, there was obviously a lot of pressure to stunt cast with, you know, feature film actors and all of those sort of pressures that you’re under when you’re trying to launch a new series. But Andy came down, he literally walked over, talked to Colin for about 30 seconds and he came back over to me and he said yeah, that’s our guy. So we knew.

Ferguson: And it’s a funny thing too because I was, you know, as an actor you go in the room and you do what you do. And I have a very quirky sensibility. And Jaime has a very quirky sensibility. And Jaime was the one in the room who as I just said, you know, he was the guy I met.

And typically on my end, you know, you go in and you do your quirky thing and they go that’s weird. Why – no, you know, and that’s – you’re sort of going through and they cast someone else. So it was a refreshing change of pace for Jaime to sort of go yeah, actually you know what, that’s right.

Paglia: That’s the guy.

Ferguson: Yeah.

Paglia: Colin’s quirky matched my quirky.

Great. And for a follow up can you talk a bit about the crossover that’s coming up with Warehouse 13?

Paglia: Sure. You know, we’re thrilled that Warehouse has been doing as well as they have. And, you know, most of our staff and cast and crew are friends with the Warehouse folk, you know, from other jobs previously or just from being in the same, you know, world.

So we were at Comic Con last year and I ran into Jack Kenny who is the executive producer and Saul Rubinek who is of course the lead on that show and had played a very pivotal character for us, Carl Carlson in Season 1. And I said we should do a crossover where we can have, you know, Saul play both characters or we could send, you know, (Carter) and (Joe) over to help out with you guys or he could send someone else to us.

And, you know, we joked for a little while about well if we send our characters to your show then it’s your headache not ours. So we – until the network I think finally said no, this is actually a really – something that we want to do.

So we ended up realizing that it would – we sat down, you know, (Bruce Miller) is co-show running with me this year and as we were sort of crafting our season and Jack and his team were crafting theirs, we sat down and met and said okay, look this is what we’re doing. What are you guys doing? Let’s figure out if there’s a good, you know, a good place for this to work out where we could send a character to you and you could send a character to us and maybe have it be almost, you know, not quite a two-parter but at least sort of – it felt like there was some continuity.

And we worked it out. So it worked out in the timing of the schedule that we could have Allison Scagliotti on our show when they were on their production hiatus and we were able to schedule it so that Neil Grayston could go over to their show during an episode where we were a little bit lighter on this character. And I think by everybody’s sort of estimation they both did such a great job. I think they’re the best friends now. They’re dying to work together more.

So Colin, you know, Jack obviously is in the midst of some very, very intelligent people, some very, you know, heavy hitters, people that have done a lot obviously with their lives. But yet he seems to be the one that’s always solving the problems, always saving the town.

You know, what is it about the character that you think enables him to sort of see what all of these very intelligent people don’t see or get things that they don’t get?

Ferguson: What would it be about the character? I think – well I think he still has a good moral compass to him. And he has a good logical head on his shoulders but no real facility with information. So I think he’s a follow the numbers sort of guy in a town where people are so bright, they’re so used to being ten steps ahead, you know, or 20 steps ahead that sometimes it is the little things that he’s good at focusing on.

But he also – and he’s a – or was a federal marshal. I mean he’s good at what he does. I think he sort of Columbos it sometimes. And pretends to be a little, you know, more clumsy than he actually is. What do you think Jaime?

Paglia: Yeah. I mean I sort of – in terms of sort of the characters that we have on our show and who they in some part have been patterned after I had a job for a while where I was program manager of this public affairs lecture series in Cambridge where I got to interview all of these amazing minds from MIT and Harvard and around, you know, the country. And, you know, people like (Rodney Brooks) who was the head of the MIT, you know, robotics lab and, you know, (Tim Burnersly) who actually did create the worldwide Web. And I really found that a lot of them – their minds just work differently.

I mean they can barely – their mouths can barely keep up with their brains because they go so fast. And they have an ability in certain domains to be just unbelievably, you know, facile. But then they – it’s not seeing the forest for the trees. And I think that Carter has always been that guy who doesn’t get, you know, bogged down in minutiae. He sees the big picture and he picks up the small details that other people might not notice. That his intelligence is – it rivals theirs. It’s just in a slightly different domain.

He may not be, you know, amazing at physics but he can read people and he can take in, you know, the details and put puzzles together in a different way. So I think that, you know, he can see any situation and he just sort of sees it slightly differently than the others do.

Right. Yeah, obviously your show has a fairly large will they or won’t they between Carter and Allison. You know, I thought that the chemistry last year between Colin and Jaime Ray Newman was very good. I imagine that she’s probably not coming back to this season or to the show at all this season. But what is sort of the overall game plan for Carter and for his love life for this season?

Paglia: Well you might be surprised about who comes back this season.

Ferguson: Yeah, no Jaime’s back. Jaime – Jaime’s back – Jaime – she’s back in some capacity this year for a good part of it. I guess I’m not allowed to say what’s going on. So I’ll just shut up but Jaime…

Paglia: No – there – what I will – what I feel comfortable saying is that there is definitely a love interest for Carter this season and maybe a bit too much of it. So decisions will have to be – decisions have to be made. We’re not going to string you guys out any longer. Let me just say that.

I have a couple of questions. One – Zoe left for college at the end of last season. Does that mean we won’t see her much at all or if any this season?

Paglia: You will definitely be seeing Zoe this season.

Ferguson: Yeah. She comes back for a bunch. There’s – she was heavy I would say, in the episode that I directed in the first ten and that’s always great for me. I mean she’s such a great sort of presence on set and I think brings so much to the show that it’s nice – it’s nice that she always comes back.

Paglia: That relationship has always been I think, you know, a really, you know, vital, central focus of our show. And, you know, and in terms of just, you know, the reality of contracts and things like that, we just don’t have Jordan Hinson for all episodes produced this season because she was striking out and doing other exciting things as well. But she is definitely still a part of our show.

Great. And then my follow up question – what has been your favorite type of – I’m not sure what to call it – science-y thing so far in the show. And can you tell us anything about anything that’s coming up?

Paglia: Colin do you want to go for it?

Ferguson: Sure, yeah. I mean I like the more basic stuff. I mean the intense stuff is fantastic, you know, if you’re going to go into the (unintelligible) field and all of that stuff. But I like the serum that makes you run really quickly. I think that would be fun.

I like the hover board. I think that would be fun. Ending up in another dimension – I think that’s fun. Jaime what’s your favorite?

Paglia: Yeah, I think that, you know, things like the biosphere that we did underground and, you know, the ability to mind link with somebody else and, you know, relive memories and things like that. Those would all be great. I think that the – in terms of the storytelling for me and I know for Colin, I mean this is something I think he and I both have felt very strongly about and it showed in episodes like the one that he directed last season, Your Face or Mine.

You know, the concepts that really lend themselves to learning more about our characters that are much more about our people and less about, you know, either town wide or worldwide jeopardy, that those are the ones that we really enjoy the most. They’re certainly the most fun to write and I’ll let Colin speak to the, you know, his feelings.

Ferguson: Yeah. And as for this year the stuff we have coming up, fun stuff, we have sort of what did they call it – what did you guys call it, metamaterial cloaking?

Paglia: Yeah. Which is what Colin – in the episode the Colin directed for us this season.

Ferguson: Yeah. The – where we’re I guess in some forms it can match any sort of item to another item. And that goes horribly wrong. And what else did we have – we had the mind meld this year. We had what are some of the science stuff? We had – oh, we had a race around the moon.

Paglia: Yep.

Ferguson: What did we have?

Paglia: And I’m thinking – and I think that, you know, there is an episode that we’ve wanted to do for a while that was sort of my – one of my sort of passion episodes that we got to do this year in coordination with (Matt Gorr) our visual effects producer, called (Momstrosity) which I always wanted to do our version of Jurassic Park. And we’re finally kind of getting to do that this year which is fantastic.

Ferguson: And we also went into the science of Santa for a little while.

Paglia: And we did. We are doing a Christmas episode which will be a standalone episode that will air in December. And (Bruce Miller) had a concept for that one that at first thought he- it scared me to death but he convinced me it could work and it actually did. So I – my hat’s off to him for I think – and (Eric Tuckman) who wrote the episode. It’s going to be a great one and we have some returning people in that episode – Matt Frewer who is fantastic.

Hey guys. Fantastic two episodes back. I really enjoyed them. And I was wondering if you could talk – I know we don’t want to spoil anything but talk about your motivation to switch things up with this big – this big thing that happens with all of the – with the main characters and, you know, why you decided to do that. How long is that going to play out?

Paglia: Well, you know, the – obviously when you’re reaching sort of a Season 4 and then, you know, in terms of the actual chronological time that’s passed, Season 5 because we split our last season in two.

You know, if you want – if you want your series I think to have, you know, multiple seasons more you want to do something that’s going to be sort of exciting and change things up but not, you know, takeaway the essential, you know, core of what your show is. And there was a concept that we wanted to do since Season 1 that, you know, Founder’s Day. It is one of the original episode ideas that we gave to the network when we were – were basically trying to convince them that this was a series that they definitely wanted to green light to pilot.

It was an episode about Carter and at the time it was going to be Kevin, accidentally – Kevin accidentally transporting the two of them back to Camp Eureka and then having to figure out how to get themselves back and solve a mystery there without changing the future. And we were talking about doing that as, you know, over the seasons the reason we couldn’t do it is because it was so expensive to do a real – a period piece. You know, the amount of extra money that goes into costumes and sets and all of those things obviously can be a budget buster.

But we were going to do it as a two hour movie this time around. And then when our schedule changed around and we couldn’t do that we thought well what if we do it as our season opener? That could be interesting. And then in kind of kicking it around the idea came up that well, what we could do is have, you know, maybe a couple of little things change when they get back.

And then it just sort of hit us which says no, everything could change which is a different concept that we had wanted to do as an episode where we would start the episode and, you know, Vincent would be the head of Global Dynamics. And, you know, Allison would be working at Café Diem and Henry would be the sheriff and Carter would be the mechanic, where everybody was sort of in a different role and over the course of an episode you would discover how they got to be in those roles and that they would get back to normal by the end of the episode.

But it just – it just sort of hit us I think that this was an opportunity to have our same town and our same characters but in new dynamics and relationships. And get to play the fun of that out for, you know, a 20 episode arc. And it just sort of I think for everybody here it reenergized us because it was a chance to really kind of reboot in some ways and again embrace the aspects of the show that we’ve loved, change some of the things that I wasn’t necessarily as thrilled about.

You know, some might think patterns that we fell into last season that I wanted to move away from. And then I’ll let Colin talk to the acting side. But I think that, you know, from our cast it was just new stuff to play and they seemed pretty excited about it.

Ferguson: Yeah. I guess from my side Jaime called me in and I guess I went in sometime in December or January, to the office. And I’ve told this story before. And they, you know, he pitches this idea for going back in time and I say oh that’s, you know, that’s great. You’re going to get shot down at network. You know, there’s no way you’re going to get green lit on that. And he said no, actually we were there this morning and it’s a go. They’re excited about it. So for us right out of the gate it was instantly fresh.

I mean it was huge – it was a huge sort of boon for us because it was a statement of faith by the network. It’s a monstrous thing to do. It’s a monstrous reboot to do in Season 4. So the fact that they would sign off and show their faith in Jaime and the writers and all of that stuff on that level, sort of gave us a bunch of confidence and a bunch of energy. And then it sat in the writers’ room – we didn’t see the – I mean the concept sat in the writers’ room.

And so the entire ten episodes were sort of filled with this sort of new sense of well if we could do this then we could do this. And if we can do this then we could do that. And it sort of redoubled on itself over the course of the season. And it made for probably the best ten episodes we’ve done.

Paglia: I totally agree. And what has been exciting is it’s not just, you know, the writers and the actors. It’s the entire team. Our crew, our production designers, our visual effects guys, our writers and directors up there, the network and the studio.

Everybody has just been so excited by the opportunity and they’re all doing their best work. I don’t think the show has ever looked as good. I don’t think the stories have ever been as compelling. And the performances just across the board by everybody, have been really phenomenal. Everybody has sort of stepped up to I think a new level this season. And it’s a really exciting energy to be a part of. I keep on hearing from other aspects of, you know, my life, agents or executives who have talked to other people associated or who work on our show.

And they say god, you know, we keep on hearing all of these amazing things from your staff and people and your crew. And it’s like yeah, it’s exciting. So, you know, we hope that that translates to people enjoying it as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.

Well I think it has a new edge to it almost. And I love that the five main characters know what’s going on. Because that’s like a whole other element instead of just being sort of brainwashed and not knowing what’s happening. Can you talk about working with James Callis?

Ferguson: Sure. Jaime or me? Do you want me to…

Paglia: You. Why don’t you go ahead?

Ferguson: Sure. James – first of all, he was – way back when Battlestar and Eureka were on the same lot James was one of the first and definitely most vocal people to come forward and be so supportive and encouraging and, you know, helpful. So it was really fitting that he was the one who gets to sort of, you know, come on our show and do ten episodes. And we were really, really happy about that. Working with James, I mean it’s sort of preposterous how nice a man he is.

He’s like the sweetest guy in the world. Like oh, you can – he just extends himself so above and beyond for everybody. So that alone is a pleasure. And then plus he comes at it, you know, it’s nice to get a different energy on the set because he’s such an actor – you know, where like my character and this and, you know, what about this? And he’s always digging, you know, through (unintelligible) or history through, you know, his own research to come up with different angles for things.

And it’s really nice, you know, in a season where we are sort of reinventing or rebooting, to have someone doing all that work again. You know, and sort of reminding you yeah, you know, dig in. See what you can find. So as an actor it was fantastic and as a person it was fantastic.

Paglia: Yeah. And for us obviously, you know, as writers we were – we – as Colin was saying, you know, we have the same soundstages next to each other with Battlestar Galactica up north in Vancouver. And our writers’ offices for the first three seasons were next to each other here and our post production offices were here together in Los Angeles. So, you know, we’re friends with all of those guys over there – (Ron) and (David) and everybody.

And we love their show. I mean it’s an amazing accomplishment what they did with that show. It’s sort of in a category by itself. And, you know, James is the consummate actor. So to have him, you know, embrace the character that we created for him and to come over and be a part of our series, was really exciting for all of us.

Since [the last guy] asked my questions for you Jaime I’m just wondering maybe if you could expand a bit more on Claudia’s visit and the circumstances that bring her there and whether or not there will be any ongoing repercussions from it.

Paglia: Well we kind of created an interesting, you know, I think romantic dynamic with Claudio’s character and Fargo’s character. And it’s something that starts in the Warehouse 13 episode that will air the same week as ours as a sort of crossover event week.

So, you know, her visit to Eureka is almost in some ways manufactured by Fargo to get to spend more time with her because he likes her. And, you know, he’s created a real thing for the Warehouse that they could utilize which is their, you know, supposedly the reason that she’s come here. And then of course as things are wont to do in Eureka, something goes awry and she gets caught up in it with Carter and everybody in terms of trying to help figure things out.

So, you know, at the moment it was a nice sort of two episode arc that leaves the door open for, you know, future potential if we decide to do more.

Allison was fantastic. I think everybody loved her. I would totally keep her and if I could figure out a way to steal her away from Jack Kenny without him coming over and pummeling me I would do it.

Cool. Colin this will sound like an odd observation but the more I watch Eureka the more I am thinking that Sheriff Jack Carter is the Sheriff Andy Taylor of this generation. And ny that, I mean he’s the town fixer essentially.

Ferguson: Yep.

And like Andy Griffith, you come from a comedy background. So I was wondering if you could speak to how your comedy experience works for processing drama and I was wondering if this season might shall we say, pose unique challenges.

Ferguson: Yeah. I mean how I process drama I come from I guess a Second City background. And when you do as much comedy as I did sort of coming up, the comedy is easy. The comedy is the – you can always throw a joke in. You can always fix something with a bit of levity or reaction and all that stuff, but you cannot sacrifice the drama to serve the comedy. And I know Jaime feels the same way. So on a show like Eureka I think the reason it has a sort of parental (unintelligible) Andy Taylor aspect to it is that the drama is very precious to me.

And the drama is, you know, the situations of other people’s lives and the situations that they’re going through and the emotional stakes that them as people are going through, that’s always sacred to me. So the jokes will come – and to Jaime. And so the jokes will always come outside of that. And I think there’s something really parental about that, something very sort of caretaker. You know that, you know, you’re safe. You know that you won’t be – nothing will be at the expense of you, you know, in a big way. In a little sort of poking fun way, yes but nothing, you know, you’re okay.

And then this season what posed, you know, unique challenges – what was fun about this season is the best writers we’ve had, it’s the best scripts we’ve had. So in some senses it was the least work I’ve ever had to do because everything was so good right out of the gate. So then the problem is all of a sudden I’m left with like well, I guess I’d better start thinking about what to do on take two, you know.

And it opened up the door for all sorts of like well great, this is just – we’ll just nail this in one take and then maybe I can improvise this or, you know, maybe give you another option on the end of the scene with this. And it made it really, really fun this year that we as the actors could then give the writers, you know, A, everything they wanted and then oh, and then there’s this ending and this ending. And we threw this joke over here if you want this.

And it became really, really fun to feel like we were giving them, you know, maybe more than they had hoped or different things and that was a fun exercise for us all season long. And that was a challenge to do that.

Just one more thing. Jaime will there be any more Eureka comics?

Paglia: You know, I don’t think that they’re planning on doing anymore Eureka comics. But the novels are going to be coming out in conjunction with the release of the show. I think actually they’re being released god, it might be actually this week or next week. So the first I think two novels are going to be coming out pretty much back to back. And then…

Ferguson: Wow. Who’s publishing – are you doing those? Jaime, are you involved in those Jaime?

Paglia: I was involved with sort of the early conceptual just sort of, you know, helping select, you know, the writers and some areas for them to explore and sort of the general approach to how we’re going to do it. And once the season started I had to take a step back and…

Ferguson: Busy? You got busy? Really?

Paglia: A little busy. I had a couple of things going on. But I think, you know, the nice thing about them is that they get to explore, you know, sort of different stories in more of the internal, you know, thoughts of our characters. Obviously it’s a different style of writing. And it’s a different experience of the town. And we’re keeping them largely to the, you know, the sort of more current present day where we are in terms of the evolution of our series by the end of last season. But it’s going in new directions and not necessarily incorporating the newer characters that we have on our show this season.

Oh dear god, is it Penguin? I think it might be Penguin. I have – I have been going back and forth with this. So don’t quote me on who’s publishing the books. But…

Ferguson: Sorry Jaime.

Paglia: Yeah. (Unintelligible) and I blew it. Well done.

Colin, have you ever read like a script and seen where they’ve asked you to do a crazy stunt and you thought oh my god, I’m not doing that? And how did it work out for you.

Ferguson: When have I not read a script where I’ve had to do a crazy stunt? Yeah, I mean sometimes, you know, you’re – it’s usually later on in the season because at the beginning, you know, the first two or three you’re like yeah, this is going to be awesome. Let’s do it. You know, sure kick me in the face? I hope everyone kicks me in the face. You know, and you’re just going – you’re going to do everything that’s requested of you. But, you know, by Episode 8 all of a sudden you’re going like so in the scene where I get hit by the car that’s – we’re getting (Heath) to do that right? You know, you start seeing if you can maybe not – as your body doesn’t heal quite as fast as you were hoping.

I mean some of the (unintelligible) is more curious for me technically how we’re going to pull it off. Like okay, so he crashes into the side of a car. Are we going to use an air ramp? Are we going to use CGI? What are we going to do? Is that going to be like sort of a two day thing, second unit? How much of it are you going to be wearing a helmet? You know, that for me is more where my mind goes – the technical of how we’re actually going to pull it off. And then within the technical where is it going to be the window to put the character in there.

Because the stunt itself is very, very quick. So you – you’re left with okay, so is it going to be on the fall? Is it going to be on the reaction to the fall? Is it going to be – because that’s the stuff where I have to – where I feel like, you know, you can get a laugh. You can maybe make the scene a little better by putting some character stuff in. So that’s where I like to do my work.

Paglia: Well I mean Colin is particularly good at the physical comedy also. I mean his – the ability to control his body in the way that he can – I mean one of the – my favorite moments in the series ever was in Duck Duck Goose when he comes walking into Global Dynamics and he gets hit by the field that makes him lose control of his body. And he kind of just does this, you know, un – it’s completely unnatural to any human body, arc back and falls flat on his back on the floor. And we laughed at that so much that when it came to the, you know, when I was writing the season finale last year and he has to go and turn off the device that’s inside the garage and all of the things are flying around and the magnetic poles are swirling and all that stuff, you know, it was the opportunity to, you know, use him as a puppet essentially, with a remote control.

I just thought, you know, at first I mean there were – I think there were, you know, there was that potential that in most series you were like okay, this is your big dramatic climax. You’re really going to go for the funny with this. And I absolutely knew that Colin would be able to make that funny and dramatic at the same time. And it was. It was great.

Ferguson: And that’s a funny – in situations like that because in response to the question, I get really, really nervous because I mean obviously Jaime and I know each other really, really well but this one show I know that he’s sort of going oh, do this. I’m like oh, you know, he’s sort of raising the bar and sort of going and do this now, you know, so you get nervous because you read it and you’re like oh, okay, okay, okay. You know, you start thinking on the weekends and you’re like okay, how am I going to – okay, how can I – what can I do? You know, and it’s – I know it’s a challenge that he’s sort of throwing my way and it’s really nice.

Sometimes I don’t think things through when I do that sort of stuff. Like I’ll say like oh, I’ve got this great idea. I’ll throw myself off the stairs and I’ll land on my face. And I’ll do it and it’ll work and then, you know, I’ll have a mild concussion.

Paglia: So he’s like okay, you’re not going to get another take on that one. I’m done.

Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah, I’m like ow. But I get so married to the idea because, you know, they write it and I think oh, that’s hilarious. We’ve got to do it. We’ve got to do it. And I get so excited about it that I forget sort of the ramifications of what happens right afterwards.

Paglia: But we have fun.

As a follow up to that maybe you can comment as a director when you directed a couple of these episodes, if you take that into consideration as far as like the physical challenges for your fellow actors.

Ferguson: I’m a bit pigheaded about it to be honest. I don’t. I feel like I take the body so many times that when someone else has to do it I sort of relish it and I’m not really like, you know, oh you have to wear knee pads? Oh okay. Sure. All right, whatever.

I’ve said I’m not a soft guy when it comes to that stuff. I sort of think it’s part of the deal. And I do – I have a really childish sense of humor when someone gets hurt. I mean not injured but hurt. You know, like you’re doing a stunt, you know it’s going to hurt and you can see that they’re hurt. It just tickles me the same way that I laugh when I get hurt. I – we were doing something what episode was it when the – it was recently – when my face was too close to the explosion.

Paglia: Yeah. We had a spark explosion from an electrical transformer and Colin insisted on getting like right down in there, you know, to be – he wanted to be in the moment and that thing went off right in his face.

Ferguson: Yeah, so I get, you know, you get this, you know, you get – you burn. You burn your eyelid or whatever and, you know, it’s a stupid thing. And then about an hour afterwards I’m like what – who – that’s the dumbest, you know. So we tend to get really excited about our ideas and not really think about how hard they’re going to be or how much they’re going to hurt.

Paglia: I should – let me jump in so that I don’t look like a complete moron. The Berekely Publishing Group – Berekely Books [note: a quick check of amazon.com reveals the publisher is Ace Books, which is part of the Berekely Group] is doing our novels. So (Lance Patterson), who is our editor over, there would kill me if I had gotten that wrong.

We were wondering if you maybe Jaime, could talk a little bit about some of the guest stars this season like Wil Wheaton and Jamie Kennedy. And also if you have any dream guest stars that you’re dying to get on the show.

Paglia: Oh yes. We are – it’s been I think what, you know, what Colin was saying earlier about, you know, having scripts that are polished and ready and all of those things, early, that has all kinds of benefits. And one of them is that you get ahead enough in the game. You know, obviously your crew has more time to consider scripts on the creative level so that they can prep those episodes and make them look the best that they can. But it also gives you the option of actually going out to guest actors and having something that’s done and ready for them to see. Where you’re not just saying okay, we have this episode idea that we want to, you know, do for you. But you’re not going to be able to see any pages before the week before it shoots.

And, you know, Wil Wheaton is somebody that we’re all, you know, we were all I think everybody on the staff, you know, loved Next Generation. And he’s good friends with some of our writers, (Amy Berg) in particular. And we had the potential for this particular character that we thought would just be perfect for him. And was designed to be potentially recurring. And the plan is hopefully that that was – is going to happen in the back ten episodes as well.

Jamie Kennedy was a friend of (Matt Hastings) who is one of our co-APs and he’s up there on the ground in Vancouver. And he’s also directed many episodes for us this season. And Jamie was a fan on the show and wanted to come over and play so we found a role for him that we kind of tailored a bit more in terms of the personality, to him. You know, we – I – in terms of some of my dream cast, you know, I’ve always wanted to have William Shatner play Carter’s dad.

That’s just me. You know, I know that that’s going to – that’s a long shot probably. But (Felicia Day) is on our list, Eddie Olmos is on our list. Gosh, I know that – I know I have many, many more but those are at least a couple of the people that I would love to have…

Ferguson: And we have people coming back as well.

Paglia: …come over and…

Ferguson: We have a couple of regulars coming back.

Paglia: I’m sorry. Say that one more time?

Ferguson: We have – we also have some of our regulars coming back. Our – well you said earlier Frewer is coming back.

Paglia: Yep. We’ve got Frewer coming back and, you know, Jaime Ray is going to be back. And Jordan Hinson is going to be back. And we might have some surprises in store for you as well.

That’s excellent. Thanks. And Colin this is a little bit off topic but we read online that you are the West Coast regional champion Canadian Duck Duck Goose player – champion. And we were just wondering if that was true and what that’s all about.

Ferguson: That’s – wow. That’s (Kaya Ericson) who – he and a buddy of his were – they were doing that to each other and somehow I got looped into this. And so now they’ve put it up on IMDb every – I don’t every couple of weeks they throw it up. And I have a team of people who try to take it off. So no, it’s not real. It’s (Kaya Ericson) harassing me is what it is.

Excellent. Well we like it.

Ferguson: Yeah, it’s pretty funny.

Paglia: I should add to our – some of our – one of our wishlist – Ming Na is also on that list. You know, somebody that we’ve been talking to potentially coming over and seeing us.

Now, Colin, I want to know how is the introduction of Dr. Grant going to affect Jack and Allison?

Ferguson: He’s a bit of a thorn. You know, it’s one of those really difficult things because, you know, they have feelings for each other and, you know, I haven’t made a move and, you know, she’s single and he’s single so you don’t really have a right or any leg to stand on to object. But when emotionally you do object it puts you in a really strange place. So yeah, he’s a bit of a thorn but he’s also a very nice guy and yeah, it’s a nice – it’s a nice little triangle.

And what was it like to direct Jamie Kennedy?

Ferguson: It was great actually. It was really, really great. When they said they casted him I was nervous. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get, you know, because I wasn’t sure if he was going to want to go crazy with it. And I didn’t want him to go crazy. But he showed up and he was actually the opposite. He – the first take we always as scripted, right on. He nailed it. He nailed the drama of it. And then from them we ratcheted it up. He was an absolute fantastic guy to work with because he could put jokes in wherever you need it.

You know, you’d sort of go okay, do the scene – I think there’s something here. I think there’s something here and I think there’s something over there. He goes yeah, yeah, yeah. So we do again and he’d boom, boom, boom and throw in three. We’d do it again and he’d throw in three different ones. So he was an absolute pleasure to work with and I was really, really pleased.

Jaime you mentioned the Warehouse 13 crossover and how that happened. What will determine if you guys continue doing that?

Paglia: You know, well there are a number of factors. I think that it was a good experience for all of us, you know, on both shows. Obviously we’ll see how the audience likes it. I know the network has, you know, has a lot to say about whether they want us to do more.

Part of it is honestly just logistics. It’s a challenge just making your own show. It’s a bigger challenge when you’re trying to coordinate your production calendar and schedules of actors and what days they’re working, with another show’s calendar and actors and directors and all of those things. And you’re looking for windows, you know, if we have one of their characters come over we know that out of our seven day schedule we’re going to need them for four or five days.

If they’re in the middle of their shooting cycle as well that means that they have to be, you know, missing for four or five days from their calendar unless they’re on hiatus. So those are just, you know, the nuts and bolts, you know, moving parts that you just have to coordinate. So – but I think it’s something that, you know, we are – we’re all definitely interested in possibly doing again.

So Colin I – I know Carter, you know, obviously has a pretty weird gig saving Eureka all the time and everything. And I’ve also heard many times that you have your own weird gigs before breaking into acting, particularly being a window mannequin.

Ferguson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Can you tell us a little about that?

Ferguson: Sure. I mean I, in a weird way I can link it back to the character which is sort of bizarre.

Oh yeah, do that.

Ferguson: Yeah, do that. Well it’s sort of, you know, whatever gets the job done has sort of always been something that I’ve tried to live by. And, you know, when you’re coming up through university and in your early and mid 20s you have a – you need money. It’s really important. So whenever anybody offered me something I was just – I would just sort of say yes. You know, could you do this? Like I – they – I worked as a DJ for a little while.

I have no business being a DJ. I can’t – but, you know, you get talking to someone who says oh, we need a DJ. I’m like oh, I’m an amazing DJ. You know, so I was always very quick to sort of put myself in that sort of horrible situation to try to make it all work. So yeah, it was – I was a substitute teacher, I was a mannequin in a window, I was a DJ, I was a – yeah, you name it, I did it. I moved a school. I worked planting trees. I worked – I danced on a stool. I mean it was like I did the oddest things. So yeah, but it was always about getting the job done and that was about paying rent.

So a lot like Carter in that sense that he’s just determined to do the best?

Ferguson: Exactly. You know, it’s all about sort of, you know, setting, you know, if you want to, you know, setting a goal and having a problem and overcoming the problem. And however it gets accomplished is great. You did it. You know, it’s I think a lot of people in my world could say yes a little more.

Yeah. And with the mannequin job I mean it was just for like a department store or something like that?

Ferguson: Yeah. I was in a store window and, you know, I was wearing a toga and I was spray painted white. And it was a girl named (Angel) who was organizing it. And we then would go out into the department store. And the things that – dirty people – I mean like the things people say to you. And like the old ladies and they’re sweet and they’re trying to get you to move and it’s like filthy. Just like are you kidding? But it was fun. And yeah, I mean your feet go numb. I don’t think I’d do it very often. But… there was a group of people who did all the time. That was their gig. And it’s an amazing thing actually for how long they can just stand there and be completely content. I was miserable in my head but I did it.

Jaime I’m kind of wondering about the fan base for Eureka. I mean I know like Comic Con gets a lot of big fans. What have you seen as far as the followers on the show?

Paglia: You know, I think that we’ve been really fortunate that we sort of inadvertently created a family show. And, you know, we have dark elements that appeal to certain viewers. We have the comedy that sort of takes the sting off. And there’s, you know, a little bit of sci-fi mixed in. but ultimately it’s really a show about these characters and their, you know, their connections to each other and our connections to them.

And I think that the thing that I’ve heard from, you know, so many fans that I, you know, appreciate the most is when I – it’s – this is – what I love about Eureka is that I can watch this, you know, with my dad and my daughter. And you get, you know, multiple generations who have found something for them in the show, you know, sort of age 7 to 70. And, you know, our, I think our median age of the viewer is, you know, mid 40s. So it’s great.

I mean I think that it’s nice that we’ve – I think sort of managed to find a place that there isn’t a whole – there aren’t very many shows that sort of fall into that category anymore. And, you know, we’re happy to – that they’ve embraced us.

Is there any part that either maybe it was like a deleted scene or maybe just that you couldn’t quite afford to do something that you wished like had been in the show that you had to cut? Or on the other end, is there something maybe you wish you had cut in hindsight?

Ferguson: Oh god! Every week – every week there’s something we wish we could fit in that we don’t get a chance to fit in.

Paglia: Yeah, that is really the challenge. And, you know, we’ve made an effort to add more and more deleted scenes to our DVDs. This last season I think I’ve added more than we ever have before just because even if it’s like a portion of the scene there are times when there’s, you know, just a really interesting exchange or some great performances that you miss.

But, you know, I think that the hardest part of, you know, making the show is you know, you right something that you love and the performers give you something fantastic and the production design time gives you something great, you know, to look at. And then you realize okay, I have to squeeze this into under 43 minutes and we have, you know, 48 minutes of footage. Something has to go. So it’s a weekly – it’s a weekly dilemma.

I think for me, you know, probably one of the times that it – that a scene that got deleted that was of, you know, the most importance was in Phoenix Rising last – I guess that might have been in Season 2. It was a scene where Carter confronted Henry when he – when – the sort of memories – these little pieces of memories of a relationship with Allison and Henry having done something to him were kind of coming back in fragments. And he realized and confronted him when Henry was behind bars.

So I guess actually that was at the top of Season 3. And it – it was – it was a really emotion scene where Henry basically had to admit to him that, you know, I took your memories of her away. And Carter was saying well, you know, you’re not going to play the martyr for me. You know, you behind bars doesn’t help anybody. And we’re going to work through it. And it really was a chance for them to kind of confront this dark thing that Henry had done out of grief over losing Kim. And it really tested the relationship.

And it unfortunately did not make it into the final cut of that episode. So it was something that, you know, I think was sort of a slightly unresolved thread that, you know, we’ve tried this kind of, you know, put to bed in, you know, smaller ways over the course of the series.

Ferguson: And as an actor it’s really hard – let me just jump in on that. As an actor it’s hard because you act an episode that you love and you, you know, you do it all the way through and then because of the nature of post production you don’t find out that that scene isn’t in there until three weeks later when they actually get to the point and they go oh, it’s got to go. And so all of a sudden you’re going I’ve been acting the two episodes after like that scene has been – like that scene is a part of it.

It then puts a sort of a strange, you know, strain on you like oh well I hope my stuff is – I hope it’s going to work. You know, oh god, you know, you feel badly that, you know, you did it. But it – I mean it’s the nature – the bit that I can’t understand as a non-writer, you know, being able to write an episode and fit it to the second into the slot that they have for you. I mean you can’t – you can’t shoot too little. I mean you have to overshoot. Because you shoot too little and you’re (not-really-unintelligible).

They have to split it too.

Paglia: Yes.

Ferguson: Yeah, and then so it – it’s even the little sacrifices that kill me where it’s like there’s this little joke that has to go. And it’s a great little joke. That’s the stuff that kills me. It’s not the big stuff, it’s the like – it’s this great little joke that you read in the script and you’re like oh, that’s a great joke. And you got on set and it just killed. And for the two seconds that that joke is it’s got to go to get it down to time. And that’s the stuff where you’re just like oh, part of you dies.

Paglia: Part of you dies. And that’s what we try to maintain. There’s a – there are, you know, there are a couple of deleted scenes from Founder’s Day that – one in particular with Carter, Grant and Henry and – when they’re walking out, it’s after the – since you guys have all seen the episode that – it’s after the satellite dish goes down and Carter has to go climb up the tower.

There was actually a scene where they leave all three of them and go outside and they’re looking up at the tower. And it’s the discussion about you’re going to have to climb up there and you’re going to have to adjust to ten degrees and Carter has – wants nothing to do with it because of his fear of heights. And it gets into the sort of slightly, you know, digging exchange between Grant and Carter.

And they were hilarious. I mean I – in writing the scene I, you know, it’s always such a pleasure to write for our cast because you know what they’re capable of doing. And, you know, we craft the dialogue that, you know, that we feel like, you know, best fits them. And, you know, Colin just completely nailed the joke exactly how it was in my head when I wrote it and I loved the scene and I had to cut the whole scene to get that episode down to time. And it pains me greatly but it will definitely be on the deleted scenes reel.

Ferguson: And the hard thing about that is like the scenes can go in but you can’t include sort of – on the DVD you can’t include, you know, 45 two second jokes.

Paglia: Right.

Ferguson: Everyone will be going what is this you know?

Very true.

Paglia: Maybe I will – maybe I’ll just string them all together this time. That could be…

Make it like a blooper reel thing.

Ferguson: Exactly.

Quickly I wanted to ask you Colin, you sort of said that with Jamie Kennedy that he did it on the show but when – from an acting standpoint do you and the other cast generally stick to the script or do you sometimes kind of add your own jokes and, you know, which do you find harder if you do?

Ferguson: Well we all lean on each other definitely. I mean it’s, you know, sometimes if we catch a mistake, you know, yeah, we’ll definitely go oh, gosh there’s a thing. And sometimes we don’t catch it even until it’s on its feet. You know, and all of a sudden we’ll be doing the thing and at the same moment everyone will sort of turn to each other and go there’s a mistake right here. and so yeah, so obviously we’ll have to fix that. And, you know, the – we have a great relationship with everybody so that’s – we all lean on each other to do that. this year has been the best scripts we’ve ever had. So as far as having to fix things it hasn’t really happened this year.

I find what’s hard is if there is something to fix it’s then really hard to improvise around because you’re all focusing on fixing a problem either like, you know, the space is huge that you’re in and the way the scene was written it doesn’t play right in a big space. You know, something like that.

Paglia: I think that becomes – that’s often more the kind of situation that arises that is the most challenging. Is like, you know, you’ve written a scene that’s supposed to be a walk and talk through the rotunda and down the stairs or, you know, or whatever, up in Parker’s office. And you get there on the day and, you know, for whatever time or blocking or, you know, some reason the director says you know what, I need to play this all in one spot because we don’t have time to do all of the coverage that we’re going to need to set this all up and light the whole thing.

So now all of a sudden you have to fit the scene into a completely different sort of timing of a location. And – or vice versa. And then you’re like okay, so now we have a whole bunch of extra time that we have to fill while the actors get from point A to point B before we really start the scene like we thought we would.

Ferguson: Yeah. Or the scene where it’s like a four line scene that’s 4/8 of a page and the way the production is sort of – the location that we got has the car, you know, 50 feet from the door. You know, you need more lip flap to get from that door to the car. So it’s all of a sudden it’s like great, fix it, you know.

But that’s obviously a rare occurrence. I don’t – no one really enjoys that sort of thing but it’s fun because it sort of gets everybody’s gears going. What we do prefer is sort of you get the script, you do the script and then if you can give the writers more for the edit then you do. Because that gets really fun where it’s sort of like okay well let’s do a different version of this joke and let’s, you know, and – because you know you’ve hit it right out of the gate on the first one. So that’s hard.

Paglia: Especially like for buttons on scenes, you know, where you might have that last joke as the out of that scene before you cut to something else. And, you know, our guys are, you know our cast is so quick on their feet and funny in their own right that they, you know, they’ll come up with something else just as another option to have as – at the tag. And that’s always great if you can have options in the editing room you’re always in good shape.

Ferguson: And sometimes that’ll just never make the light of day. It’s something that’s so extreme that, you know, Jaime will be on set and he’ll go (unintelligible) you can do it. But I mean really, you know?

I just wanted to ask do you guys have any plans to bring Stark back to the series at some point?

Paglia: You know, we’ll have to see. I mean obviously that’s always a challenge with, you know, when you kill off a character I was always of the mind that, you know, if we can manage it to leave, you know, we have a Sci-Fi show. So ultimately at the end of the day anything is possible and we love Ed Quinn. So, you know, I think if the circumstances are right we’ll – I’ll never say never.

Ferguson: I’m really good friends with Ed and we always joke about bringing him back – well I have no say in it but it would be really funny to bring him back as his brother and call him Tony Stark and then just get mileage out of him having the same name as Iron Man.

Just bring him back as Iron Man (unintelligible).

Paglia: There you go.

Ferguson: Well he’s big enough. That would work.

Paglia: Seriously. He doesn’t even need the suit.

Ferguson: No. Oh, you know, he was working out, he was doing all that work working out and he lost – Ed had a child this year so his wife and him had a child. And he said being a dad for three weeks, he lost all of the weight he got at the gym.

Paglia: Yeah. That happens.

Ferguson: Yeah, that happens. You’d know.

Colin, I was just wondering as you directed a couple of episodes, if directing and learning about that has influenced how you act at all.

Ferguson: Yeah, it has. I mean not in – not stylistically but the more information, the more you learn about all aspects of production, the more you can astutely get your creativity in where it should be. I think a lot about acting in television and on film is about getting acting in the right place.

We move very fast, like really fast as a show. We’re a seven day show that has visual effects and comedy and drama and big locations. And so it – if you don’t know where to put certain beats they’ll get lost. And so becoming a director and then directing a couple of episodes and a movie now, it’s – you just get better at what you do. So I’m incredibly grateful for the experience. It’s made me a better actor absolutely. And, you know, more helpful I would think because I’ve been in those places where a director is sort of going dammit, you know how do I, you know, and I actually have more help now where I can go oh actually we can – I can help you out by doing this. Does this help you out?

So I know where to help better.

Jaime, Colin mentioned earlier that you obviously had to get approval and backing from the network to shake things up this year. Does having such enthusiasm behind that kind of give you the creative freedom to know that maybe you can break your toys a little bit more and not necessarily have to put them back the way they were?

Paglia: Absolutely. I mean I think that one of the primary things that we, you know, that we presented to them that they really were supportive of is wanting to have there not just be stakes but actually ramifications to what happens in these episodes that last for more than just the episode. And I think that that was, you know, sort of fundamental in them getting behind us for this reset. Is, you know, it wasn’t like oh great, so they all come back and you’re going to change the roles and then you’re going to fix it all up in the next episode.

It’s like no, no, we’re actually going to – we’re going to mine this. You know, this isn’t – we don’t – we’re not doing a – and then we wake up and everything goes back to normal like so many shows I think – or, you know, films have done that I think ultimately make your audience sort of feel kind of cheated. It’s like, oh wait, we went through all of that and none of it really matters. So when they, you know, it’s – (Mark Stern) is, you know the head of the network here on the West Coast development. And has been, you know, the champion of our show since the beginning.

So I think it may have been his first original program that he green lit. You know, when he challenged us to really push boundaries and then we said, you know, we – this is what we want to do, you know, he owned it. He said, you know, I challenged you guys and you’re stepping up so I guess I have to – I guess I have to keep my word, you know. And he has. And they’ve all been really, really amazing and supportive of us not, you know, not being afraid to take risks.

And I think that, you know, in every episode, especially I – I mean wait until you guys see Episode 3 which is another departure I think and sort of shows that if we’re going to do sort of a genre homage that we want to push it and really kind of go to those places. It might have been the first episode…

Ferguson: Oh, that was insane. That was a…

Paglia: Yeah.

Ferguson: Yeah.

Paglia: I mean visually and stylistically it’s unlike anything we’ve done. Content wise it’s actually – it’s a little scary. It might be the very first episode that I might, you know, want to put a warning on the front of it that it may not be – it might be a little scary to some of our younger viewers. But, you know, it’s not like we’re changing, you know, the core of what our show is. But we’re feeling, you know, much more emboldened to paint outside of the lines. And that’s what – I think what has made this season so exciting.

Well, whether you fix it or leave it as it is, you’re going to have characters happy and characters heartbroken so that’s an interesting conundrum. So the only last thing I have is add to your guest star wish list Lee Majors.

Ferguson: Yeah.

Paglia: He was on my – he is on my guest star wishlist. Actually he’s even on the wall in the writers’ room. He was one of the people that was considered for Sheriff Cobb in the pilot. So…

Ferguson: Lee Majors could be my dad.

Paglia: He could be. It’s been discussed. It’s been discussed.

Ferguson: Okay.

Colin, I talked to Erica [Cerra, who plays deputy Jo Lipo] last week and she told a funny story…

Ferguson: Oh, I’m sorry.

She told a funny story about how your episode last year you directed where she had to sing, how relieved you were when she could actually sing…

Ferguson: Yeah.

And how excited you got. And then she also talked about how you speak Erica. I was wondering if you could talk about that and maybe tell some stories.

Ferguson: Erica is funny. She’s – well first of all I’ll talk about the singing thing. I mean that’s something that Jaime and the writers do all the time. They’re always sort of in the best of ways, sort of saying, you know, do this, you know, and do this. And really sort of pushing the actors to do more, different, better things than was done before. And so getting Erica to sing was – because I remember when I got the script I went to Jaime and I said are you kidding?

You know, I’ve got to shoot her on a piano and she’s singing. It was like let’s talk. Let’s talk. So we do this thing and Jaime was insisting. He was like no, this is what we want. So we recorded it. And Erica was terrified and she said she couldn’t sing and all of this stuff. And we get to the studio and she’s got this great raspy, sexy, sultry voice that fits completely the song that she’s being asked to sing. So it worked out brilliantly. I mean for us because, you know, she could have just as easily been tone deaf.

Paglia: Yeah.

Ferguson: Which would have been interesting. But yeah, (Erica) is – for the character she plays she plays a sort of hard, you know, business, you know, focused, everything aligned, everything arranged sort of girl. And she couldn’t be more the opposite. She speaks about 100 miles an hour, she – anything shiny she’s gone and looking at it. She just scatters all over the place. You know, now take my part, do this now, run over this hill, got to go to the bathroom, take it to the top and do this. I mean she’s always bouncing around in circles.

So she reminds me a lot of my sister. So yeah, we get along…

Paglia: She’s like everybody’s sister I think.

Ferguson: Yeah, pretty much. So she’s – so yeah, I do speak (Erica) which means I can speak very quickly and yeah, about anything.

All right. And I was wondering if you guys can tease anything about the zombie episode we’ve seen a clip of.

Paglia: It will definitely feature Erica and obviously it features Wil Wheaton’s character. And, you know, we had wanted to do a little bit of our sort of version of 28 Days Later and this is going to be that episode.

Ferguson: I do love that about our show, that we can do – you can choose your favorite movies and you sort of do I want to do a Eureka version of that.

Paglia: Yeah. I mean we, you know, we always sort of concede of the show as being, you know, a love letter to science fiction where we can sort of take our favorite concepts or stories or homages and, you know, genres and do our sort of, you know, Eurekafied version of them. You know, when it made sense for what was going on with the characters. And it totally fit in with what was happening to our characters in this particular episode.

Our readership aren’t sci-fi fans and I constantly have to say this is the best show on TV that you’re not watching. So I was hoping that you, Jaime could speak to that. Maybe just sell the show for a different audience.

Paglia: You know, absolutely. I – this is – I mean I think that the funny thing is that I’ve never thought of our show as a sci-fi show. And when we pitched it to the Syfy channel what (Mark) said was I didn’t realize what we were missing in our programming until we heard the pitch.

I think we are first and foremost a unique character dramedy. We approach every episode from the characters first and what’s happening with them. And after we know what we want to do with them and those relationships over the course of an episode then we choose what the sci-fi concept is that would sort of thematically fit and help, you know, be the catalyst for those, you know, the conflicts that we want to have arise over the course of an episode.

You know, so I think for us, you know, every episode needs to live or die based on the character stories first. And, you know, it’s – we just have the sort of added benefit of this little bit of science fiction that we can throw in to, you know, change things up and tell stories in way that you can’t tell in the traditional drama or comedy format.

I would never before – if you had asked me, you know, when did we sell this show, 2003? That was seven years ago. And if you had told me that I was going to be, you know, running a sci-fi show and people were going to be looking to me as the sci-fi guy in that realm, I would not – I would say there’s not a chance. I don’t think that I am particularly, you know, sci-fi oriented in terms of how we approach the show.

And the biggest number – I mean I think we, you know, in the first two seasons we brought over 5 million new viewers to the Syfy channel. You know, the – our premier, you know, set a record for the channel that has – that still stands in terms of, you know, the numbers of people who tuned in. And I think that they tuned in because it wasn’t a traditional sci-fi kind of concept. So I would definitely say to anybody, you know, who wouldn’t normally watch the Syfy channel, this is a show that could be on NBC and I think it would still have the same kind of following. So check us out.

Bill Brennan [Syfy]: Just a little ratings background I’d just like to give you guys. I was just – anytime I get somebody’s ear – where Eureka has followed a very unique trend of each new season has grown year over – season over season with the audience than the one prior. So I think we left us at averaging over 3 million a week last season with Season 3. So…

Paglia: Wow.

Brennan: Yeah. It keeps growing.

Paglia: And that’s (unintelligible).

Brennan: So I always like to get that out there, you know, there’s always time for new viewers, especially this season, you know, to have to get on board. So…

Paglia: Yeah. And we particularly kind of crafted this season to be really, you know, open to new viewers coming on board. You know, it’s always great to be able to see a series from the very beginning. But you could come into, you know, I think Founder’s Day and very quickly have the relationships when characters are established. And then we actually give you the history of the town now and how it came to be. So it’s a great time to actually check out the show and not feel like you’ve missed the boat.

Now you guys have both talked about, you know, the whole reboot of the season and everything. So this is for Colin. Since it’s changed so much does that kind of change your approach from an acting standpoint of how you’ve, you know, done so this season?

Ferguson: No. No, I always approach it sort of the same way. I mean it’s always script first. You know, you get a story and then you figure out how – what you know how to do is going to help tell that story. What I’ve enjoyed about this season is that going to new places. With what we can deliver I find that the scripts this year are more open to comedy. They’re more open to a little joke here and there than I guess last year or the year before. And that’s really exciting. It feels like there’s a lot more – everything’s grounded in a new way this year. Which is really exciting. There’s more subtext going on and I like that. So no, I wouldn’t say it changes how I go about it but there’s always different things that are called upon to execute it and that’s what’s been great about this year.

Now, I know that you’ve directed. You’ve talked about it. Are you ever interested in writing? And Jaime, are you ever interested in directing or acting?

Ferguson: Yeah, I’ll answer that real quick for me. I’m a good – I’m a good rewriter. I’m not a good creator. I’m not a good from scratch guy. But once a concept’s there I’m good at sort of tweaking it. So I would be interested in a writing partnership but I don’t have the creator aspect to me.

Paglia: As for directing I’ve been asked this for a couple of seasons now, when am I going to finally do it. And it may potentially happen in these back ten episodes. It’s, you know, we’ve been discussing it and hopefully, you know, planning for it. I think it really depends on where we are with the scripts by the time we get to, you know, the time slot that would fit for me to do it. I would love to do it. I think it would be an amazing learning experience. And I know that the team that we have will help make sure I don’t crash and burn.

Ferguson: Yeah, I mean the problem for Jaime is obviously as a director you need to be up there for seven days, and you need seven days of prep, so that’s three weeks. So that’s asking him to not be a part of the writers’ room for potentially three weeks and that’s, you know, you just can’t lose a member like that for that length of time.

So I mean I know that’s the battle that he fights regularly as sort of, you know, being asked and wanting to sort of go up and direct. But then to leave the writers’ room is – I don’t even know if you can do that.

Paglia: And I’ve been fortunate that with (Bruce Miller), you know, running the writers’ room while I’m rewriting and traveling back and forth and doing other aspects of it. You know, when I can’t be in the room with him has made this a real potential thing for me this year. And if we’re sort of aiming towards like Episode 18 ideally. Then that way we will have written the last two episodes at that point probably. And I could still potentially write the finale and then still direct this episode. So we’ll see. You know, it’s my hope. I’ve got fingers crossed.

Ferguson: That’d be great.

Paglia: Thanks very much. And with that I actually get to go and watch the midseason finale right now – the cut that just came in which is going to be unlike anything we’ve ever done on the show. I’m so excited. So I’ll just tease you guys with that. Episode 9 is going to be amazing.

Ferguson: Oh wow.

Yeah, just make us jealous now.

Paglia: All right. Thanks everybody so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

Brennan: Yeah. Thank you guys. I just wanted to mention a few dates because we mentioned the guest stars. Wil Wheaton – I just want you to know that episode airs July 23. The episode with Jamie Kennedy and also Jordan Hinson’s in that one, that’s the one Colin directed, that’s July 30. And I know we’re going to see a lot of you guys at Comic Con. I look forward to seeing you there. The Eureka panel is Saturday at 4:15. So hopefully you’ll make it then.

Ferguson: And if we bump into each other at Comic Con just let me know that you were on the conference call because sometimes names and faces don’t collide for me. So just go oh, I was on the conference call.

Paglia: And for me as well. And Wil Wheaton on Friday night at – I think we’re – we’re doing the screening for Eureka it’s either 8:30 or 8:45 on Friday night. Wil Wheaton is actually going to introduce the screening with us.

Ferguson: Oh, great.

Paglia: Thanks everybody I’m going to say goodbye. I’ll talk to you guys hopefully at Comic Con.

Ferguson: Yeah, me too. I’m out. Later everybody.