TV Tango Asks Tricia about ‘Dark Blue’

TV Tango sat down with Tricia to discuss her upcoming role in Dark Blue.


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Question: How did you get your role in DARK BLUE?

Tricia Helfer: I got involved through the normal audition process. It was pilot season in Los Angeles and I auditioned for the show and was offered it after auditioning. So I didn’t have a script to work off of. There was just four pages written for the audition. So after I was offered the role, then I spoke with the producers and writers about what they saw for the character for the season and I liked what they had to say and they held up their end of the bargain.

They definitely said she was going to be involved with the team and be a smart, fun, strong character and not just the FBI finger-pointer or that kind of thing.

Question: What drew you to this particular character?

Tricia Helfer: I’ve always had a desire to play a cop or FBI agent. I’m a bit of a tomboy so it’s fun and I think there’s a lot of challenges — emotionally and mentally — playing a role like that and trying to get into the character. This role is fun because there’s also going to be some undercover roles — so roles within the roles so to speak — which as an actor are a lot of fun to play. And then of course just the team that’s behind it — the Bruckheimer camp and Warner Horizon and TNT it’s a great group of people and companies to work with.

Question: Did you know from the beginning that you’d have good on-screen chemistry with Dylan?

Tricia Helfer: I think you never know. Chemistry is a hard thing. I don’t think you can force it and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have great chemistry outside or whatever. It’s just something that kind of sparks on screen or doesn’t. And so when you’re kind of playing it you don’t really see what other people are seeing obviously behind the monitors.

But Dylan’s a great actor. During the scenes and working with him, it was great to work off of him and he gives you a lot as an actor and hopefully it was reciprocated.

It’s always hard stepping into the second season of a show because everybody else is already a team and working together and they know each other already so it takes a little bit of time to kind of settle in and get to know everybody personally. But it kind of worked for the first episode anyway because Alex was sort of just thrown in there, they meet undercover and the characters have chemistry but don’t really know each other.

And so what I was going through personally — and them as well getting to know me — kind of worked for the first episode because it was a bit what the characters were going through. Obviously without the one-night stand at the end — or what they thought was going to be a one-night stand.

But Dylan’s just a great actor and is somebody that offers a lot to be able to work off of. And I think that’s the most important thing when playing characters with chemistry is being able to work off the other actor and be supported in that way.

Question: How has the rest of your experience with DARK BLUE been so far?

Tricia Helfer: I had a great experience on the show. I really like the character. I really like Alex. I really like playing her.

And it’s already done. We’re already done filming. We’ve been done for about a month now so it happens quickly. Ten episodes goes by really quickly, especially when you’ve got a really tough shooting schedule of seven-day episodes. For the three months you’re filming, you’re so immersed in it that you just eat, sleep and breathe it and then it’s done. So hopefully people enjoy what we did.

Question: How is your character going to challenge Carter?

Tricia Helfer: Alex is challenging Carter because he’s used to being the boss. I mean he’s headed the team in a joint task force between the FBI and LAPD that the FBI has the final say. And so Alex comes in and essentially is the boss but she’s smart enough to know that that’s not going to work with this team to just come in and say, “This is the way we’re doing things.” And so she knows and she wants to be part of the team and work with them, not just be their boss.

There’s definitely going to be moments of tension when they disagree on something or disagree how a case should be handled, and that’s a definite challenge for somebody as a strong character like Carter to be able to take an order to stand down or something like that.

But generally they have a pretty good working relationship. They respect each other and I think that’s the key to successfully working with each other is that they respect each other and their abilities.

Question: What did you find challenging about the role?

Tricia Helfer: What I find challenging is just trying to bring a truthfulness and a realism to it. Obviously not having been undercover FBI myself — you obviously want to bring a truth to it — it’s great to have a consultant on set. We have a consultant that was an undercover cop for many years. And aside from doing reading myself and reading on the role — the type of job you really obviously haven’t done the job yourself. So you just want to bring a truth to it and you kind of always challenge yourself that way.

Physically, I guess it was fairly recent after I had gone through massive back surgery a couple of months before and so I was still in recovery. I had four discs replaced with artificial discs. So I could do some stunts, but luckily for me it just worked out that the ten episodes there wasn’t that much. I could pretty much do everything except for a fall down the stairs. I couldn’t do that but I wouldn’t have done that anyway even without back surgery. So physically I just had some challenges going in. But it’s been a fun character to play.

Question: How did you hurt your back?

Tricia Helfer: How I hurt my back is a mixture of things. I think being very tall and thin growing up and being very athletic and kind of abusing my body in some ways, crashing into walls, diving on floors to hit that volleyball and things like that. And then just a mixture of a car accident that got whiplash and doing all my own stunts on BATTLESTAR really helped kind of solidify needing surgery.

So, yeah, it was just a mixture of a few things. And then somebody dropped a suitcase on my head on an airplane and that didn’t really do my neck any good. So unfortunately just a series of things that resulted in four discs being replaced.

Question: Can you tell us about your future plans and whether they include another season of DARK BLUE?

Tricia Helfer: If DARK BLUE comes back, fingers crossed, yes, you’ll be seeing more of me. Unless something happens or stuff I don’t know about, I will be back and glad to be back.

What I have coming up next? I have a couple of independent movies coming out — one with Brian Geraghty from the “Hurt Locker” and Stephen Moyer called “Open House.” It’s coming out on DVD in I think August. And I’ve got another film that we’re waiting to hear if it gets into Toronto with Harvey Keitel and J.K. Simmons and Scott Caan called “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings” that I shot last Fall and so I’m looking to shoot a few more independents this Fall.

Question: Did you get to wear any wigs in Season 2 of DARK BLUE?

Tricia Helfer: No, I didn’t have to wear any wigs. A couple of different hairstyles mostly in the first episode but no wigs, which I’m not too upset about it. It’s quite an ordeal putting a wig on.

Question: What drives you to succeed?

Tricia Helfer: I want to be challenged. I want to be proud of what I do and I want to learn. I want to learn new things and keep learning and growing. I kind of am a bit of a workaholic and I like to keep busy and active so I think that’s what drives me.

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