Jaimie, Stephen stumbles onto the secret research taking place at Madacorp. How much will that part of the story unfold in the new season?
JA: In the next few episodes, they kind of explore what’s happening to Madacorp or what’s going to happen to Madacorp. The fact that he found all that information, it’s really his battle, like he either he’s going to stay there or he’s going to go away from that company. You’ll be surprised how much Madacorp has to do with Kyle and Jessi in this season.
Coming from a fan site, one of the questions I get most often is there a way that fans can contact you through MySpace Web site or mailing address? Or how can fans get a hold of you if they just want to tell you thank you for doing what you do?
It’s www.myspace.com\batinthesungirl.com. I know that sounds really weird. And don’t ask me how I came up with that one.
How you would like the character of Jessi to evolve?
JA: That’s open for so much. I really, really want her to be just evil. I don’t know if you guys watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but between Angel and Buffy. Angel in a sense is a little like my character. He had dueling sides. It’s something that he couldn’t help. He would try and be good. I just for some reason loved it when he was really bad.
I was like, “You know, I really wish Jessi would just…” Like I did in the beginning where I kill a hunter without really knowing and all this stuff? There were scenes that we had filmed throughout last season that had to be cut because they were too brutal for ABC Family. I just wish that my character could go back to being that kind of evil bad ass type of character, but it wouldn’t necessarily fit into the storyline that is taking place right now.
Jaimie, talk a little bit about your role in Watch Over Me.
JA: Oh, Watch Over Me. Nobody has asked me about that in awhile. This is the only time I’ve ever played a character like this. I was the younger sister, kind of troubled-well, I guess I always do play troubled people. Never mind. But I was kind of the troubled promiscuous younger sister of the lead and I caused a lot of people to die.
That was a fun role, but I’ve got to say it’s more like a crash course. Learning how to memorize lines fast to shoot 66 episodes out of order was the hardest thing I’ve ever done because I didn’t know what had happened before and what was going to happen next. We had to make charts and that kind of stuff. So that was really hard but again, it was like great prepping and practice for getting the role of Jessi on Kyle XY.
Pretty much my character was just like young, naïve, cute girl who would get herself into these horrible situations and her older brother who is an ex-marine would have to save her. And she would unintentionally get herself into these situations and then, even if she knew something bad was going on, she couldn’t pull herself away from whoever she was in love with or whatever was happening. She caused lots of harm and hurt to her family and to her friends, even death. So it was like a soap opera version of 24 pretty much.
I kind of like the good side of Jessi. I like her goodness because there is some of that in there. Is she going to be any happier in the rest of the season because, while she does do some good things in the last episode, she’s still very traumatized? It was very sad for me and a lot of the fans. So is she going to have that happier time and even glimmers of actual happiness coming up?
JA: She ends up having some glimmers of happiness, but again, that’s her internal battle to find like what would make her happy. When she figures out what that is, she goes to find it. Now whether or not she finds it, that’s up to you guys to see.
But yes, there are a few moments throughout the season where you get these real happy moments that you’re like, “Wow, this girl is finally getting something that shows her what good and happiness is.” But again, as quickly as it comes, it’s taken away. But through Kyle’s help, she’ll find kind of where she fits, I guess would be the proper thing to say.
RTVW: Here’s a follow-up to that, do we get to see Jessi kind of experience some of the typical or normal teenage life in the last half of the season?
JA: That is something that they explore a lot more. When we would get the scripts, we were like, “Wow, I didn’t know they were going to go this route.” So it was actually kind of a pleasant surprise.
You’ll get to see that she gets to experience a lot of what like high school is like. For the viewers, its going to be like watching these kids go through high school. They have the same issues as most of the kids that are in high school right now. And that’s what I think I like the most about it and they don’t sugarcoat anything.
But Jessi is an outcast and she will go through certain things like normal kids go through everyday in high school, but you’ll get to see how she deals with it. There’s a lot of shows that are so After School Special and they’ll show, “Oh, this is how you get away from this.” No, not with her. You see the worst of it and the best of it. But yes, she gets to experience high school life and what it’s like to be a high school kid and a normal teenager. I like that they did that this season.
I know it’s different coming into a new show that already has a season. You came in in the second season. How did that transition go for you, as far as coming into a cast that was already made? Did you come in and fit in right away, or was it a little bit harder to take and how was that transition?
JA: I’ve heard horror stories of people who are joining casts after their first season or second season and how it was really difficult. But when I got up there, everybody was pretty nice and pretty warm and welcoming. And I think they knew this girl is going to be here for awhile. We’ve got to sort of try. When I realized I was like, “Look, I’m easy.”
We all kind of have the same sense of humor. There are times that some of us would sort of butt head on set, but that’s normal. You have that in school, if you’re in class or at work, and it’s really on a small scale, that we’d ever have a disagreement and whatever. And sometimes it’s just in the heat of the moment in a scene. If I’m doing something really horrible to somebody that cannon might linger in the air just a tiny bit and then it goes away, but because your emotions get high and things get crazy.
But it’s seriously the best group of people I’ve ever been around and they’re so easy going. The best thing about them is that they’re very genuine. They’re not superficial and Hollywood at all. That’s something I was worried about. I was like, “Look I don’t want to have to be around a bunch of Hollywood jerks for 10 months.”
But when I got up there, it’s just like being at home in Texas. We get together and have dinner parties and stuff where we’d bake like homemade macaroni and cheese. It wasn’t like tea and crumpets or whatever. I love those guys up there and, actually, I miss them a lot when I don’t get to see them that much. They’re good people.
That’s it! Like I said before, it was great talking to Jaimie and learning more about her. I actually have little stars and exclamation points in my notes where she started using Buffy and Angel’s relationship as a comparison. Ha. I love it when I find out people are Buffy fans. Anyway, I’d like to thank Chrissy Fehskens at New Media Strategies for setting up this opportunity and Jaimie Alexander for taking the time to talk to us.
Here’s a full list of the blogs and sites who participated in the Q&A and came up with such great questions:
Don’t forget we’ll be talking to Chris Olivero next week. If there’s anything in particular you’d like to know, let us know in the comments.
[...] Original post by ~ ramblings of a TV whore ~ [...]
[...] Rae had fun talking to a fellow Buffy fan and the woman behind Kyle XY’s Jessi XX, Jaimie Alexander. (RTVW) [...]
[...] Rae had fun talking to a fellow Buffy fan and the woman behind Kyle XY’s Jessi XX, Jaimie Alexander. (RTVW) [...]
[...] Rae had fun talking to a fellow Buffy fan and the woman behind Kyle XY’s Jessi XX, Jaimie Alexander. (RTVW) [...]