SAN DIEGO “" Elizabeth Mitchell, whose character Juliette on “Lost” was a part of the cliffhanger season finale, took a few moments to talk about her role on “Lost” as well as her new show “V,” also on ABC, in which she plays a single mom FBI agent named Erica.
Word of caution: spoilers for “Lost” and “V” to follow.
On the nature of “Lost” and her character’s fate:
“My theory is what it always has been “" that it’s some kind of place where people who have done bad things go to redeem themselves. But I could be wrong, but that’s what I’ve always thought. With or without me, or with me as the case may be.”
On how many more episodes in which Juliette will appear:
“I’m not sure, but it’s more than one.”
On her decision to join the cast of “V”:
“One of the reasons I chose it is because I don’t like to be bored. And I truly believe that it’s almost limitless. For me, as a woman against the bad guys kind of thing, which I am drawn to, but you also have a lot of interpersonal relationships. I haven’t even met on camera half the actors that I’m working with, so truly you have things that are the way they are now and could go in any different direction. So I think that the fact that they’ve made it a character-driven action show is exciting. I think it’s limitless. I cannot stand when things go into a formula. It’s starts to make me crazy. I like things to be active, I like to be interested, I like it to be sexy.”
On the differences between Juliette and Erica:
“Juliette has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She spent three years basically being tortured. She is someone who is shell-shocked yet still strides through life, continues to push through. And I’ve loved that about her. And playing someone who is that broken and yet is still walking around has been an incredible joy for me. What I enjoyed about Erica and how it kind of came to be is a little bit of the flip side of that. It’s someone who is not broken “" yet. It’s somebody who every single day of her life spends every second trying to protect her world, trying to protect her people. She puts herself in harm’s way, she is very active in her life. She’s active with her son. She was probably so active in her life that her husband left her. She is not someone who has made these crazy, horrible choices so as a result it’s almost like we get to see someone at the beginning of this journey, which I like. And I like the fact that she’s tough, I like tough women, but she’s outwardly tough. She’s an FBI agent. She walks around. You don’t want to mess with her. You know what I mean? I love that Juliette was sneaky and I love that Erica is out there.”
On Erica’s relationship with her son:
“He’s fallen in love with the visitors, and who wouldn’t? They’re coming here, they’re curing diseases, they’re beautiful, they’re peaceful. All of these that we crave and we want so much, they’re going to just hand to us. Anyone you ever love who died or who is dying or who is sick, they’re gonna make all that better. So of course you love that. And the sad thing about this is that it’s not true, there’s a horrible price for that. And I think that that’s kind of what makes it fun for me is to think that here is this insignificant woman with a little bit of combat training, and she’s going up against people who are far superior in every way. Intellectually, their weapons are more superior, their technology is more superior. You know they probably think faster. (laughs) They definitely move faster. I think it’s neat.”
On the original miniseries “V” and its re-imagining:
“I don’t know what it’s gonna be. I know that they’re going to try and take the most iconic moments and make sure that they do service to them. That’s what I’ve heard. Although I’ve heard that Morena (Morena Baccarin who plays V leader Anna) say that maybe she wouldn’t be eating a guinea pig. And I think they said, maybe you will.”
On the degeneration of Erica’s FBI partner, played by Alan Tudyk, and the impact that will have on her character. Tudyk’s character is revealed as a V when he attacks Erica and she hits him with a bar, splitting the scalp to reveal reptilian skin beneath.
“That’s part of what I was saying and I love that you asked, what I was saying about the deconstruction of the character. Yes her husband left her, yes she does this, but she’s still a relatively active person. That’s gonna rock her. That’s gonna rock her to some degree. We’ll just have to see how she handles it. I think that the way it looked and the way it was set up is that he was the only person she trusted, he was the only person in her life. Everyone else had gone. And now that he’s gone, I don’t know. It’s gonna be really interesting. She may be angry, she may be bitter. Maybe not. Bitter’s hard to play. (laughs)”
Catch the final chapters of “Lost” next mid-season. “V” will air beginning in November.
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