Episode Report Card Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Bitchelle Speaks
By Gustave | Season 2 | Episode 20 | Aired on 04.26.2003
Yeah. Actually a lot of that is the editing and the camera work. By that I mean, they catch things. Little things. Originally I was only signed up for thirteen episodes. Now I'm in all of them. It's because there was this one scene early on where I was just standing around but my hair was in my face so I tucked it behind my ear and everything sprung from there. A lot of viewers started asking, "Is she evil?"
So it's not like you are trying to act a certain way. You're just doing what comes naturally, and certain gestures are highlighted by the editing process?
Exactly. The way it's shot makes a difference too. The camera guys are so good at voyeurism. They're constantly shooting through the slots of the wall divider or from behind a doorway or something. It makes the audience feel complicit. And then once you begin to see how it looks in the final edit, you start playing it. [laughs] When you realize it's going to keep you on longer, you keep up the ambiguity. Plus it's better to be ambiguous since it serves the storyline, since nothing's set in stone.
Also there's just this sexual charge to everything because of the urgency. "We have to stop the bomb, now! This might be our last day on earth! We're all going to die, let's get our rocks off!" That kind of thing. And then you've got Kiefer and his velvety voice. He's got chemistry with…the lamppost…anything.
Last year, I got the feeling from the actresses I talked to that the writers were "making it up as they went along" so they had to act ambiguously, just as you said. However, this year feels like a lot more planning went into it. So are they not telling you stuff because they don't know where your storyline is going? Or are they deliberately keeping you in the dark so that your performance doesn't give too much away?
Both. Definitely. From what I hear, they have it planned out at least six episodes in advance. Meanwhile, we only know what's happening when we get our script. There were a lot more loose ends last year, but this year they're looking further ahead.
You are still filming now? I'm allowed to ask that, right? You haven't died or anything?
Yeah, I'm still filming. I was shooting episode twenty-two today.
So do you know what happens?
I'm not supposed to know what happens, but I sort of figured it out. They wrote a dummy script for the last couple of episodes -- you know, so that the crew could start setting up the locations, sets, and costumes. But they're giving us the real script at the last minute. Last year they shot alternate scenes. This year they're just not letting any of the actors know what's in the script until the day they shoot.