Jolene Blalock Interview

[master_q 0]

Jolene Blalock Interview

News on Season 3, “catsuit,” and more

 

A new look for a new season : "[T’Pol will be wearing] a new wig - two inches longer….Probably be the same colour. It may go a variation lighter but you wouldn't be able to notice. They're looking for something a little cuter, not the bowl that we've been using. That's not the easiest thing to pull off, you know!"

 

There must have been days on set when Jolene looked at herself in the mirror and says ‘What is this bowl-thing on my head?’ : "Yeah, yeah! Sometimes! But I also have to remember that it's a character and the character doesn't change until she changes. So you have to live with it whether you like it or not, and I do like it. I actually didn't dislike anything about the bowl wig - wore it for two years - I guess because we've already been there for a while I'm looking forward to moving on."

 

New uniform, too : "She's not going to have her usual uniform. No catsuit. I get to have input into the designs of her outfits and in the design of the wig this time, so I'm very fortunate as an actress, trying to stay absolutely true to her character...they will be ensemble sets instead of a one-piece suit. There will probably be several different outfits, colours and patterns throughout the season. [Although] the desert away suit remains the same - the white one - which we only used once."

 

What other changes can we expect in Season 3? : "Being our third season, it's time to evolve, and I'm very, very ecstatic about the changes they are looking at, because they are drastic with my character alone... As far as the third season goes, we're going be changing characters a little bit. Just a little bit. We're going to be moulding them."

 

"If I were to guess, Captain Archer is going to be more decisive. His decision-making - whether right or wrong - will be respected. We'll carry out his orders instead of taking the wishy-washy attitude like we did this past season. He will definitely step up and take command of the ship. That's a major evolution for his character.”

 

"I can almost guarantee there's going to be more action... because of the way we've ended this season: we're heading into the Delphic Expanse, where the laws of physics don't apply, so anything is possible. As a crew, we don't know what's going to happen."

 

T’Pol has changed over the years : "Now there is loyalty. We ended the second season with her giving up her commission in order to stay on Enterprise. She continues as the science officer, but is no longer commissioned by the Vulcan High Command. She's sort of... hanging out!"

 

"...a huge thing about her foundation is her loyalties. Where do her loyalties lie now that she is a bit of a rebel? When you're out there in deep space, it's nice to know that you are backed up by the Vulcan High Command, but now she's courageously off on her own. She has taken herself out from under that Vulcan protective wing and put herself under the protective wing of Captain Archer and the crew. We'll see what happens..."

 

Will T’Pol be laying in a course heading for romance with Archer/Trip/Reed? "To be honest, I don't see them bringing in a relationship for T'Pol, because there are only two aliens who are consistently aboard Enterprise. And I believe it would be in the show's best interests to do experimental situations rather than an ongoing, consistent situation. I think there's a lot more freedom and flavour in `What could happen next?', rather than a consistent relationship that the audience would grow accustomed to."

Baby-sitting the humans : "T'Pol was sent on board as a baby-sitter, as an overseer of the crew. And because of her commission, she had a certain amount of authority and therefore was threatening to the crew. There were a lot of things that were threatening: her attitude, the way she held herself, everything about her just irked you. So there's been an evolution from the beginning, until now of loyalty and friendship between her and the crew. You watch that relationship develop, which I like, because in the original we never got to see the development of Kirk and Bones's relationship. It was just always there. [in Enterprise] we get to see the formation of these types of relationships."

 

T’Pol does seem to show a bit of passion now and then – does she have a true range of emotions? "No, and I believe she never will, and that can be difficult for an actress. I just have to remember that. But the one thing that helps T'Pol is how she is just sits back and observes the human species. They tell all, and that's really how she's learned to communicate well. Trial and error is really how she has learned to communicate with them; by observing how they act, how they react as individual characters, which makes them each unique. The key to her leaning is through observation."

 

Of course, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock was the model for all Vulcans : "I grew up with Spock as a character and he birthed Vulcans - along with Gene Roddenberry. He was the first. So when first stepping up to this job, it weighed heavily on me. I was at a bit of a loss as to how to present this character, which has already been so well-established. Realistically, what I'm doing is filling someone else's shoes, and the evolution of those shoes. So yes, it did weigh heavily, but you jump in, cross your fingers and hope to God. It was received well, and I'm very happy for that."

 

Does the ‘*buttocks*-kicking’ T’Pol (seen in Marauders) physicality fit her character? "It very much does. I don't think another body in that catsuit would be quite the same, and I use it for my character to find her alien-esque ways. You can only find that through physicality, and the way you hold yourself. Each one of the cast members is fit. You have to be, what with the action that we do."

 

Did Jolene get a buzz out of filming the action scenes? "I really did. We have a stunt co-ordinator who is amazing. He talks to me like I'm a two-year-old and walks me through it, step by step, until I'm practically dancing with him! It's really cool! I love that kind of stuff!"

 

Despite her supermodel looks - she got the role of T’Pol the regular way, "No agent spotted me walking a dog down Sunset Boulevard or sitting in a drug store. No flea markets, no waitressing."

 

Does she see this job a huge step forward, or simply one small stepping stone in her career? "Looking at it with an ounce of perspective, it's a huge milestone for an unknown actress to receive a job like this, because it is ongoing - enormous exposure week after week. It has catapulted me from the gutter of no-man's land to the corner of some casting director's office, on the corner of his desk! My resume could have been stuck in a stacked-up pile somewhere. It's been a huge thing."

 

Is she worried about being typecast? "I try to choose character parts rather than bubblegum roles. Commercialised roles as a curvy female with all the typical features do come my way, but I always try to steer towards character- driven projects."

 

In her summer break, she’s been working on "an episode of Stargate SG-1. It's my first time on the show and I'm playing a very different character She is the leader of some fierce female warriors. Good guys. They're very much rebels and living in secluded areas while engaging in guerrilla warfare... but with a Greek mythology twist."

 

So, absolutely no danger of being typecast, then? "I'm not necessarily being typecast in sci-fi and fantasy (smiles), but if I were I'd be elated, because that's want to do!"

 

"...anything to do with fantasy, mystery or science fiction, I am a sucker for. That's my genre. I had everything from my first favourite books, my first favourite movies...Everything revolved around fantasy, and I hold sci-fi very close to my heart. I love promoting and encouraging science fiction and fantasy. It's so huge when it comes to art, because only in these categories can you make anything possible. You know reality doesn't apply."

 

Alright then, pop quiz time. What's her favourite movie? "That's hard, but Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of them. And I saw Alien before Aliens, both fantastic. It's hard because there are so many movies in this category."

 

And what kind of books does she read? "Irving Stone [writer of books about the lives of Vincent Van Gogh and Michelangelo - literary SFX Ed], HG Wells and, of Edgar Allen Poe, I also loved all of the stories of Sherlock Holmes."

 

Sounds like entering the Trek universe has been nothing but good for Jolene : "Definitely. I got a house! I have a dog and it has affected the entire quality of not only my life, but my entire family's life, and all of my loved ones around me. It’s like a pebble in the lake, and it just ripples out."

--http://www.greatlink.org/dcisV2.asp?url=http://www.greatlink.org/showtglinterview.asp?id=128

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[TrekkieMage 0]

Cool! Thanks for the update MasterQ!

 

Everytime I read more information on the third season, I get more exited about the next episode, I can't wait!

[Klingonmike 0]

I recently saw her on MTV,she was at the Metallica tribute introducing one of the acts,Her hair was all done in corn rows,she looked great! And she is a big heavy metal fan!