Exclusive Interview: Continuum’s Rachel Nichols
Continuum star Rachel Nichols gives us a preview of the upcoming third season of the hit series.
Continuum star Rachel Nichols was in Toronto this past week to meet fans and show them an exclusive airing of the third season premiere at Comic Con. I met up with Nichols the following day during her publicity tour to discuss the new season, support from the network and how it feels to be starring in a female-centric sci-fi hit.
How was the screening at Toronto’s Comic Con. The fans lined up for hours.
A lot happened. How was the fan reaction?
We left off the last season with Kiera being betrayed by Alec (Erik Knudsen) once again.
Do you think she’ll have be able to work with him or trust him again?
Well, you won’t be running around with two Kiera’s for too long…
Laughs
] Well, they’ve shown it in one of the trailers already, so yes – there’s two live Alec’s, one live Kiera…and one veryvery
dead one, with a bullet between her eyes.In the season premiere, Kiera is introduced to Katherine, who is played by Rachael Crawford (Alphas), who is the head freelancer and essentially telsl Kiera that “You have to decide which Alec is going to bring about the future that we want.” Well, that is a very complicated task and we’re shooting episodes 10 and 11 [at the moment] and Kiera still hasn’t made the right decision yet.
Let’s discuss Kiera’s relationship with Carlos (Victor Webster). Usually when a show’s got these two attractive leads, they pair them together, but Kiera and Carlos have kept things platonic. Could anything happen between them?
Alias
, everyone desperately wanted Agent Vaughn (Michael Vartan
) and Agent Bristow (Jennifer Garner
) to kiss and then the first time that they finally kiss, it’s like “Yay! Finally.” We won’t have that moment on the show. I think Carlos will have his love interest come and go. There may be room in there for Kiera to do the same. But it’s not the show. I like them as friends. Scully and Mulder – I like doing something that’s not obvious.
Kiera also has a husband back in the future, but then there was that tryst with Kellog (Stephen Lobo). We’re not exactly sure what happened between. Will that be explored? What really happened?
The thing with Kellog is never answered. Did they or didn’t they? I always thought that they did. Most people that they didn’t. Simon Barry (the show’s creator, executive producer and writer) says that they didn’t. So, I don’t know. But, I will say that the Kellog relationship is still present in the “He still likes to think that he’s charming me” kind of way. But I won’t be visiting his boat, so to speak.
How does it feel to be a part of one of the many Canadian sci-fi shows with strong female leads? In addition to Continuum, there’s Orphan Black and Lost Girl.
Orphan Black
andLost Girl
. I think it’s what we needed. For a long time, people thought women can’t do all these shows and that there isn’t a big enough fan base. I think we’re proving that wrong. We have a fantastic fan base and hopefully they stick around for a long time to come.We also have such a great ensemble cast on the show. Whether it’s Brian Markinson, Hugh Dillon or Victor Webster, there’s just so much there for everybody that although yes, I’m the female lead, there’s a huge ensemble as well.
Do you feel that shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alias helped to pave the way for these shows? We’ve even got Bitten now.
Alias
myself, which was one of my favourite experiences, I learned a lot about being a lead on a show from watchingJennifer Garner
. Every time that I get tired, I think to myself, “Well, when I shotAlias
, we were in season five and they shot 24 to 26 episodes a year! And oh yeah,Jennifer Garner
was eight months pregnant!” So any time that I’m tired I just imagine being Jennifer. She was always friendly and so nice. The crew just adored her.I took a lot of pages out of her book when I went to do the first season of Continuum because it is a lot of work when you’re shooting a one-hour drama, you’re literally shooting half of a full length feature in seven days. So yes, your Jennifer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar’s, or any of those shows that are centered around women, did pave the way for the current ones. You have to thank them for doing that because I’m not sure if we would have been given the chance otherwise.
There’s also a lot of support from the network. Showcase is putting you guys up on Sunday night, which is the busiest night on television. Syfy in the U.S. will also air it on Sunday. Are you nervous about that? Is there a lot of pressure?
Canadians get the premiere a few weeks before it does in the United States, how do you feel about the delay? Technology has made non-simulcast a bit hard for those who miss out.
Laughs
]
Is there anything else the fans can look forward to this season?
Well – will you be losing a cast member? Because, like we see in the season premiere, a character can still die but come back from another timeline.
Would you have wanted to play two Kiera’s?
Erik Knudsen
do it with Alec vs. Alec and I was jealous. I really wanted the opportunity to play Kiera vs. Kiera. Sadly, Kiera vs. dead Kiera is nowhere near as much fun!Well, there’s always hope…
The third season of Continuum premieres Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase. Fans can catch up with the first two seasons at showcase.ca.
