The video as follows (you’ll recognize Tricia’s Isabel Marant jacket from her May appearance at the TEN Upfronts):

As always, some medium-res screen captures of the clip have been uploaded to the gallery.

Speaking of caps, we’ve also updated the gallery recently with a couple of other random cap items and gallery things. Without further ado…

New Photo Albums:

• Event Screen Captures > Kiehl’s LifeRide for amfAR in San Francisco on Aug 7
• Magazines in 2008 > ‘L.A. Confidential’ (US) March 2008 Scans
• Talk Show Appearances > ‘Good Day LA’ Aug 23 2010 Screen Captures
• Television Work > ‘Battlestar Galactica: The Plan’ (2009) Deleted Scenes Screen Captures

The Black and White of Dark Blue

They make interesting pairs—the colleagues and the characters they play on the TNT series Dark Blue. A veteran of the long-running legal procedural The Practice, Dylan McDermott is now playing an LAPD lieutenant who heads a highly covert team. This season he is joined by Tricia Helfer, veteran of the sci-fi drama Battlestar Galactica, who plays his new superior on a joint task force between the police and the FBI. Sparks will fly on the series, but here the two actors congenially discuss their early struggles, work on the show, and thoughts on day jobs.

Back Stage: Tell us how you broke into the business.
Tricia Helfer: I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor. I thought you had to be kind of wild and crazy to do that and didn’t realize there was a whole other side to it. I started modeling. I was discovered, as they say. And toward the end of my modeling career, I was thinking, “Okay, this isn’t really doing it for me anymore.” I got into acting classes strictly to help with commercial auditions. And I fell in love with it from the first class. It terrified me, and I found it a huge challenge. I was living in New York City at the time. I started studying at Penny Templeton Studio and doing night classes while I was still working. About a year and a half later, I quit modeling and moved out to L.A. That was January 2002. I came out with representation. I was with a commercial agency in New York, Innovative Artists. I had my commercial agent come to one of the showcases my class did. They took me on theatrically from that. I got CSI that year, just a guest role, [through] auditioning.

Back Stage: And then you auditioned for Battlestar Galactica?
Helfer: Yes, in January of ‘03. It was the same casting directors that had done CSI. So they took me straight to producers. Being brand-new and green, I didn’t really know anything. But I auditioned for it, and I thought it went pretty well. But I didn’t hear anything for about two months. And then I got called back to test for it. And we had a work session. I had to ask what a “work session” was. It went extremely well, with the director Michael Rymer. And then tested the next morning. It was just a terrifying experience. It’s five hours long. No food. You don’t eat before you go in, because you’re nervous. They went through all the girls, and then all the guys, and then started pairing everybody up. I was the last group, and I ended up with James Callis, who played Baltar on Battlestar. And I’m about 5 inches taller than him. By this time I was exhausted, as he was. We heard it was the sexy role, so the other girls are all in cute little outfits with high heels, and I’m in flats and trying to be short. I just went, “Well, I’m not getting that role.” But James heard somebody say, when we were in the room, “That’s it.” That was the next five years of my life.

Back Stage: Dylan, how did you get started?
Dylan McDermott: I had the good fortune of having Eve Ensler, who wrote The Vagina Monologues, be my stepmother when I was very young. When I was 15 years old, she walked me over to HB Studios in New York to become an actor. It wasn’t something that I really was even thinking about back then. She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. I’m eternally grateful to her, and she continues to be my mentor. It was really serendipity that she believed in me. So I started studying at a very young age. I think I needed a lot of studying. I went to HB Studios. I went to Fordham University and started taking acting classes there. And then I went to the Neighborhood Playhouse and studied with Sanford Meisner.

Back Stage: “With.”
McDermott: Yes, which was pretty scary. He was one of the last master teachers who was alive [at the time]. It was an incredible experience to be in front of him, ’cause nothing could be as scary as acting in front of Sanford Meisner. I think they asked an actor one time would they rather go to Vietnam or put a scene in front of Sandy, and they said go to Vietnam. Then I went to the Actors Studio after the Neighborhood Playhouse and became a member and studied for about a year there. And then I felt like I was ready to work. I needed all that time of studying and finding myself before I really wanted to take a job, to tell you the truth. And then I felt like I was ready, and I recommend that more than anything else: being absolutely ready, so when you do get your shot, you can stay there.

Back Stage: How did each of you turn your training into your first screen role?
Helfer: Exactly what Dylan said about being ready. When I started, in one way I was going up against girls that have been acting a lot longer than me, and their résumés are a lot longer. But I wouldn’t have been ready earlier. I was very shy. The modeling business is hard enough as it is, mentally. But acting is worse than that. You can really get torn down and really pumped up, and you have to be in a stable-enough place within yourself to know that this is what you want to do. I probably would have been a psychologist; that’s what I was aiming for in school, until I got sidelined. But that’s what I find fascinating about acting, is getting into the character. My first role in L.A. was on CSI, playing a model. I had no lines. The model had body dysmorphic disorder. I auditioned for the schizophrenic sister. The director said, “There were only two of you who came in here, and you look more like a model than she does. Will you take the role?” I found that a challenge for the first job: no lines but a deeply troubled character.

McDermott: My first role was in Hamburger Hill. It was an open call. I had enormous freedom, because I never thought I would get the role. They kept calling me back. I took it seriously. It was an open call, so everybody was in fatigues. I wore jeans because I knew, you ask actors to come in for a role and they always put on the costume, right? And they kept calling me back, seven times. They kept calling me back for bigger and bigger roles. I got the telephone call, and I think it’s still one of the happiest days of my life. And they told me I got the role and that I was going to be a lead in a movie, which was astounding to me. I was doing a play on Broadway at the time, and I was committed to a life of being on the stage. So I thought movies were out of my scope. I did so much research on that movie. I must have read 25 books and interviewed I don’t know how many vets. I stayed in character the entire movie. I loved it. I didn’t understand film acting, but it was one of the best roles I’ve ever done. It was three or four months in the Philippines. I lost 25 pounds. Two people died during the movie. It was a brutal, brutal experience. We had no trailers. We would be all muddy, and they used to hose us down. We had no idea. We were like, “This is making movies?” And then my next movie after that was Steel Magnolias. So it was, like, the exact opposite. The craft service in that movie was like a feast.

Back Stage: You mentioned staying in character. Do either of you do that these days, or does it depend on the role?
McDermott: You know, on a series like Dark Blue where you’re working four months, you’re more the character than you are yourself, because you’re working so many hours. You’re working 16, 18 hours a day. You have no choice but to be the character. I try to stay as much as I can nowadays. This is a grueling schedule, when you’re doing 10 episodes in four months, trying to squeeze an episode in seven days, of really difficult work.

Helfer: I think it depends on what you’re doing. If you’re doing more of a lighthearted scene, like Dylan said, when you’re doing a character for a long stretch of time or for a series that goes five, six, seven years, you kind of can snap into that character so quickly after a while. There was a scene in Battlestar that was a drastic change from the kind of more glamorous character that I usually play. I was supposed to have been gang-raped and tortured, and I wanted to stay in character for that scene. So that day I didn’t want to be taken out of the chains between setups; I wanted to be on the floor. I wanted to be uncomfortable. Everybody keeps coming up to you, “Can I get you this, can I get you that?” “No, I just want to be here. I want to feel uncomfortable.” That brought out something that wouldn’t have happened if I was getting up and joking around in between scenes. But if it’s more of a lighthearted scene, then you may take more liberties and go off into your trailer and be your own self.

Back Stage: How did you get your roles on Dark Blue?
McDermott: It came from [series executive producer] Jerry Bruckheimer. I had known him over the years, and he requested that I come in for a meeting for this show. So I just sat down with him and [series writer-director] Danny Cannon, and we just talked about the show and what it would be like. They were making a gritty cop drama for TNT. That was music to my ears because the game has changed so much for actors since I first started out. I think now cable is really the place to be—for many, many actors—because network television is in flux, trying to discover what it is. Cable has really taken over television, and movies are cartoons and sequels and comic books. And independent movies are coming back, but since the financial crash, they went away. So now it’s about where you’re going to find your voice and your avenue.

Helfer: I auditioned. I didn’t have a script to go on. There were four pages that they had written just for the audition. I had about a week or two to prepare. While they were working on contracts and everything, I immediately went out and got books on the FBI. I watched the series, all 10 episodes practically in a row. I thought it was a different take, and I liked the character pieces the actors got to work with. But I didn’t know what my character was going to be. I had a call with Danny and a couple of the writers, and they told me what they were thinking of the character. It’s great to sign on because you want a job, but in the other way you’re thinking of the next five or six years of your life, and you don’t know what the character is. But they told me about their idea of the character, and I liked what they had to say. So I took them for their word, and they held up their end of the bargain.

Back Stage: Did you ever have day jobs?
McDermott: I was working in the restaurant business when I was 22. I used to wait on John Belushi and William Hurt and Ray Sharkey—all people I ended up working with years later—and I said, “That’s it, I’m going to be an actor.” And I had no idea how I was going to make my money. And I walked away. Put the apron down, and boom. And you know what? I got a little play with Joanne Woodward, and I had no lines in it, in upstate New York somewhere, and I never stopped from that point on. If I had said, “I better have a backup just in case it doesn’t work out,” guess what? I’d still be busing tables. Never have a backup. It’s a very dangerous thing.

Helfer: I did that as well. Slightly different. I wasn’t busing tables. I was 28, and I had a modeling career behind me. But the same kind of emotion behind it is when I was moving out to L.A., I said I’m giving up modeling, cutting the ties. I sold my apartment in New York and moved out to L.A. I didn’t know a soul. I felt like it was going to be too easy to run back home to New York whenever things got a little tough. I knew I had to immerse myself. I also had to get rid of that stigma of model-turned-actor, so I had to shut off the modeling—so much so that a few casting directors were like, “Did you model?” “Yeah, years ago.” It’s really not a bad thing, but I was so against that sort of stigma. I knew I had to cut ties to devote myself and feel I didn’t have a safety net.

McDermott: We’re reaching for something I’m not even sure exists. We’re sold this thing of “when I make it.” But there is no “there” there. The “there” is here. The “there” is the love of this, of working. There is no “there” of “When I make it, I’m going to be happy.” ‘Cause it ain’t there. I don’t get happy so much from watching things that I’m in. I get happy when I’m doing them. That’s what Sanford Meisner taught me. Art is in the doing.

Thanks to the SAG Foundation for coordinating and hosting this interview.

Tricia Helfer joins Dark Blue, and we talked about leaving Battlestar Galactica behind, whether she’ll show up on Sons of Anarchy, and more.

Getting It On The Regular
“I’ve done recurring appearances on Burn Notice and some guest roles, but this is the first series regular since [Battlestar Galactica]… I was certainly looking before that and have done a pilot or two before that, but to me, Dark Blue was kind of a no-brainer. It’s got an amazing producer line up with Jerry Bruckheimer, and there’s Warner Horizon. I think cable is where it’s at with drama, so I was certainly excited to be joining a cable network and TNT. It was an easy decision to be part of it once I was offered the role. And, I always wanted to play a cop or FBI agent. It was a great opportunity.”

Coming In On Season 2
“It’s definitely hard coming in the second season as a season regular because the cast and crew are already part of a team. Everybody knows everyone’s quirks and everything all works in a way. So when you come in, and you often come in as a role that is an equal, or you have the final say, coming in as an FBI role dealing with LAPD. It’s like okay, how am I going to fit in? But everyone was great and it takes awhile to get to know everyone, obviously. It’s a really good group of actors.”

“I went on a motorbike ride with Omari [Hardwick] over one of the weekends, early, so you get to know each other a little bit outside of work. It’s just a great bunch of actors to be able to work off of.”

Sons of Anarchy?
“I want to! I definitely told my manager last year that I wanted to be in Sons of Anarchy! I would think I would be a good fit for that because I actually do ride, but hopefully in the future.”

Favorite Guest Appearance
“It’s hard to say because like you just said, they are varying. I think I could have a favorite if they were all the same type of show, but since they all have different tones, it’s hard to pick a favorite. You like them for different reasons. If I had to pick… It would be Two and a Half Men, strictly because I never did comedy before. I never did a sitcom, a three camera half hour show; it was definitely a challenge and something new. I’d certainly like to do more of that and it’s obviously great to have the number one sitcom comedy show on your resume. That was definitely something I was glad to do.”

Trapped In SciFi
“It depends… There’s a couple reasons that I don’t feel like I’m going to get trapped into it because one, I don’t look like my character. I don’t look like Number 6. Maybe during the first two seasons I did, but when my hair fell out, from all the dye they put in my hair, I had to wear a wig from that point on. People don’t recognize me.”

“Even last night, I was doing a screening at a panel in the SAG building and I had a huge Battlestar Galactica fan come up to me and say he didn’t even know it was me until they announced my name on stage. So people say I’m a bit of a chameleon. I don’t walk into a room and someone says, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s Number 6.’ I’m not that recognizable and I think that’s what can keep you in a box is when you look so much like the sci-fi character you play.”

“After Battlestar Galactica, I was offered a lot of science fiction roles but you turn them down because you’re building a career. Unless they were up to the level of quality that Battlestar was, you don’t want to go down this slippery slope where you might get stuck into a bad sci-fi world. In the stage of your career where you are building… I’ve only been doing it since 2002; you have to be really careful not to be put in that box.”

Would You Play Black Cat in a Spider-Man Movie?
“Absolutely, because I’m literally a crazy cat person. I have tons of rescue cats at my house and I work with animal shelters, and help them with fundraising. My Chinese sign is a tiger so I am a bit of a cat, I think. I would definitely tune in to their movements and the way they think.”

Craziest Fan Question
“I actually had one, I didn’t even see it. My sister is my website manager and she sort of gets the questions. She didn’t even send this question to me, but I found out about it. I had dinner with my back doctor, I had back surgery last December, and he told me that I never answered a question. He went on my website with his daughter and saw that I did a PETA ad. He went on saying something about changing the letters around along the lines of people eating something, I can’t really remember. He was upset that I hadn’t responded to it. He did it as a joke, but I don’t see most of them because my sister filters them.”

Dark Blue Teases
“I think it’s a great show and this year is a little bit lighter than last year. Last year it was quite dark and brooding, which was fun, but this year… Even in hard times and certain tough situations there can be some humor. I think my character definitely lightens things up. Carter Shaw has been dealing with the death of his wife from last year and so while there will be some business tension because I come in as a superior role… There’s going to be some conflicts, but there will also be some chemistry between the two characters. It’s kind of hard to stay mad at someone when you want to go out to dinner with them. There’s going to be a lot of ‘will they or won’t they,’ mixed in working on the cases together. Dark Blue will be a little shade lighter this season.”

‘Dark Blue’ premieres August 4th at 9pm EST on TNT.

Report from StyleList.com:

Get your motor runnin’, Kiehl’s fans. The socially-conscious company, along with a brigade of entertainment types, took to California’s coastal roads by motorcycle on Tuesday to raise both funds and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Kiehl’s LifeRide for AmfAR, a six-day philanthropic trek up the scenic coast of the Golden State, roared up to the brand’s Santa Monica store located on uber-trendy Montana Avenue to celebrate their inaugural journey with a kick-off party.

The ride drew participation from a wide array of high-profile motorcycle aficionados from film legend Peter Fonda to Queens of the Stone Age rocker Josh Homme to Battlestar Galactica hotties Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff. [...] Helfer, who became an avid motorcycle rider three years ago, is thrilled to combine one of her favorite pastimes with such a worthy organization.

“I got invited to join the ride and I was very excited about it,” the actress told StyleList. “I’ve been very vocal about being a motorbike rider and it just seemed like such a wonderful opportunity to ride up the coast to benefit such a great cause. Kiehl’s is doing so much to try to raise not only money, but also raise awareness for it.”

While Helfer admitted to us that she was a self-proclaimed tomboy growing up, we still had to know how a girl, especially an actress, keeps up her beauty routine while out on the open road. “When you’re doing a ride the key is sunscreen,” she says. “You really just pare down. It’s just about cleansing your skin at night when you get back since you’re among cars and the exhaust. When you’re on the open road it’s better, but you still get dirty. So you want to clean your face at night. Normally when I’m riding I don’t wear any makeup at all.”

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > Kiehl’s LifeRide for amfAR on Aug 3

There are no downsides to playing a character so iconic even their repeating red dress becomes recognizable. There are no downsides, that is, until the series ends. Yet Tricia Helfer has never been boxed in by her Battlestar Galactica’s Six — continually finding work on the small screen since that historic series wrapped last year.

Chalk it up to her chameleon-like abilities to seamlessly embody a wide berth of characters or the fact she looks little like her robo-vixen without that bleach blonde bouffant, there’s no denying that Tricia has made the most of her character’s iconic status.

Now, for the first time since Battlestar Galactica, she’s sticking with one show: TNT’s Dark Blue. The introduction of Tricia’s character — F.B.I. Agent Alex Rice — also marks a turning point for the series that took mood cues from its title in season one. A slight lightening up is a welcome change, as is the promise of romance for Dylan McDermott’s Lt. Carter Shaw. That’s just one of the plotlines she teased after ringing up PopWrap. Tricia also revealed why her first week on set was so odd, what her live TV survival kit includes and if she ever plans to slip back into Six’s red dress.

PopWrap: I hear your character gets introduced to the Dark Blue team in a very unorthodox way.
Tricia Helfer: Yes, we meet my character during an undercover operation – I’m fronting as a tattoo parlor owner, so I’m all tatted up.

PW: I know you don’t have any tattoo’s in real life, so was it fun to see what you’d look like with full sleeves?
Tricia: Totally. [laughs] Although I’m glad we don’t have them for the whole season because it’s an extra two hours in the makeup chair every morning. It’s amazing how much wardrobe – costumes, makeup — can affect you. All of a sudden you stand a little different when you’re covered in tattoos.

PW: What about people’s reactions to you?
Tricia: I actually had to get my Warner Bros. keycard that gets me on the lot when I was dressed like that and the girl wouldn’t even look at me [laughs]. Even silly things like being in the commissary on the lot – you’d think they were used to seeing people in costumes. But I was getting stared at by everyone. It’s hysterical compared to being in your normal everyday clothes.

PW: From what I hear your character adds a bit of levity to the second season.
Tricia: Yea, Alex comes in and while she’s not comic relief, she definitely lightens things up a bit. In season one, the team was all dealing with heavy stuff, but Alex comes in and doesn’t have a lot of personal baggage. I think that rubs off a bit.

PW: What attracted you to Alex?
Tricia: She’s complex and tough and smart. She comes in and — unbeknownst to her — gets roped in to this joint FBI/LAPD task force. So there’s chemistry between Carter & Alex that they have to deal with on an every day basis because they’re working together. Plus, because the FBI has final say, she’s kind of like his boss now. What’s good is that Alex is smart enough to come in and not try to take over, she wants to ingrate into the team.

PW: So there’s sparks between Alex and Carter?
Tricia: Certainly. I think they challenge each other. Alex coming in now makes sense because Carter was still very brooding and damaged over the thing with his ex-wife last season. Alex is like the light at the end of the tunnel and helps, inadvertently, bring him out of this emotional funk. They try to deny their chemistry and feelings, but that’s hard to do when you click and are unattached.

PW: Sounds like the show isn’t going to be so angsty this year.
Tricia: Not to scare off fans of the first season, because it is the same show, it’s just a little lighter. That’s not to say it’s going to become a farce, it’s still a gritty cop show, but instead of going off and brooding into the night at the end of each episode, you’ll see the team have a life, grab a drink. Do things that make you understand how they do what they do, because even in life, there are lightness in the dark moments.

PW: Did you actively want to switch to the side of good after playing Six on Battlestar Galactica for five years?
Tricia: [laughs] I don’t think it was a conscious good versus evil choice, but I’ve always wanted to play a law enforcement character in a grittier show. It’s great to play on the fun side and not be the one everyone hates. I remember when I first started BSG thinking, “everybody hates me!” and my husband said, “You’re bad, they’re supposed to hate your character. That means you’re doing your job right!”

PW: I dunno Tricia, I’ve never seen a bad guy be so loved!
Tricia: Well, it got so complex by the end, you couldn’t tell who was bad and who was good, which is what the show flirted with. Just because they’re against us doesn’t mean they’re the bad guys – I mean, the humans were doing some awful things too.

PW: Do you think you’ve worn that red dress for the last time?
Tricia: [laughs] You know, it’s a difficult question because BSG for me, and I think for the cast, was such a rare experience. Being two years removed from it, you realize what a special unit we had. They’re still some of my closest friends. It’s rare that you have a cast, crew & production team that really becomes a family. So it would be hard to go back unless it was the same group – maybe that will happen down the road.

PW: What would it take, you think?

Tricia: I mean first we’d have to discuss how the Cylons suddenly started aging [laughs]. I think we’d all be open to it if there was a great story to tell and the whole team came back together. But I don’t think anyone would want to go back if you have only a couple people. We saw some of that in The Plan – some of the team was there and it was weird being on set in a way. Yes, it was Brother Cavil & The Cylon’s story, but it did feel a little different. I think to come back after time away, it would have to be the same team and a great story.

PW: Speaking of the BSG family I chatted with your friend Katee Sackhoff about your little tradition…
Tricia: [laughs] She told me you’d ask about that! We were having martini’s I told her that I was speaking with you and she told me that she revealed that story to you.

PW: So, do you still knock back a baby bottle of tequila before anything live?

Tricia: Absolutely! Certainly not to say we get toasted before doing live TV, but it started when I did Letterman. Someone suggested that since he keeps the studio so cold, so I took a bottle out of the mini-bar and it helps calm the nerves. It’s our tradition. Katee was so sweet when I did Two and a Half Men, the night of the live taping – which I’d never done before – she showed up with a teeny bottle of Patron. That’s what friends are for.

‘Dark Blue’ airs Wednesdays at 9pm on TNT.

“So you used peroxide, needle-nosed pliers, and they dyed your hair every ten days. You and I have just met, but I wanna make you an Honorary Latina… Número Seis, welcome to the club.”
- George Lopez, to Tricia on Number Six’s platinum blonde hair

Hope you were able to tune in last night to Tricia Helfer looking absolutely stunning on the TBS late night talk show, Lopez Tonight, as hosted by George Lopez. On the show, Tricia talked about among other things Battlestar Galactica’s Number Six, her recent back injury and surgery (and how someone dropped a suitcase on her head on an airplane), Dark Blue and traveling around the world as a model. She also mentions that she is, in fact, a vegetarian (except for the occasional fish)!

If you happened to miss Tricia’s great segment or were unable to tune in, here is the video embedded for your viewing. You can also check it out in fabulous 720p HD on YouTube:

Update: 264 720p HD screen caps of Tricia’s appearance on the show at our gallery!

New Photo Albums:

• Talk Show Appearances > ‘Lopez Tonight’ Aug 2 2010 Screen Captures

Question: How did you get your role in Dark Blue?

Tricia Helfer: I got involved through the normal audition process. It was pilot season in Los Angeles and I auditioned for the show and was offered it after auditioning. So I didn’t have a script to work off of. There was just four pages written for the audition. So after I was offered the role, then I spoke with the producers and writers about what they saw for the character for the season and I liked what they had to say and they held up their end of the bargain.

They definitely said she was going to be involved with the team and be a smart, fun, strong character and not just the FBI finger-pointer or that kind of thing.

Question: What drew you to this particular character?

Tricia Helfer: I’ve always had a desire to play a cop or FBI agent. I’m a bit of a tomboy so it’s fun and I think there’s a lot of challenges — emotionally and mentally — playing a role like that and trying to get into the character. This role is fun because there’s also going to be some undercover roles — so roles within the roles so to speak — which as an actor are a lot of fun to play. And then of course just the team that’s behind it — the Bruckheimer camp and Warner Horizon and TNT it’s a great group of people and companies to work with.

Question: Did you know from the beginning that you’d have good on-screen chemistry with Dylan?

Tricia Helfer: I think you never know. Chemistry is a hard thing. I don’t think you can force it and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have great chemistry outside or whatever. It’s just something that kind of sparks on screen or doesn’t. And so when you’re kind of playing it you don’t really see what other people are seeing obviously behind the monitors.

But Dylan’s a great actor. During the scenes and working with him, it was great to work off of him and he gives you a lot as an actor and hopefully it was reciprocated.

It’s always hard stepping into the second season of a show because everybody else is already a team and working together and they know each other already so it takes a little bit of time to kind of settle in and get to know everybody personally. But it kind of worked for the first episode anyway because Alex was sort of just thrown in there, they meet undercover and the characters have chemistry but don’t really know each other.

And so what I was going through personally — and them as well getting to know me — kind of worked for the first episode because it was a bit what the characters were going through. Obviously without the one-night stand at the end — or what they thought was going to be a one-night stand.

But Dylan’s just a great actor and is somebody that offers a lot to be able to work off of. And I think that’s the most important thing when playing characters with chemistry is being able to work off the other actor and be supported in that way.

Question: How has the rest of your experience with Dark Blue been so far?

Tricia Helfer: I had a great experience on the show. I really like the character. I really like Alex. I really like playing her.

And it’s already done. We’re already done filming. We’ve been done for about a month now so it happens quickly. Ten episodes goes by really quickly, especially when you’ve got a really tough shooting schedule of seven-day episodes. For the three months you’re filming, you’re so immersed in it that you just eat, sleep and breathe it and then it’s done. So hopefully people enjoy what we did.

Question: How is your character going to challenge Carter?

Tricia Helfer: Alex is challenging Carter because he’s used to being the boss. I mean he’s headed the team in a joint task force between the FBI and LAPD that the FBI has the final say. And so Alex comes in and essentially is the boss but she’s smart enough to know that that’s not going to work with this team to just come in and say, “This is the way we’re doing things.” And so she knows and she wants to be part of the team and work with them, not just be their boss.

There’s definitely going to be moments of tension when they disagree on something or disagree how a case should be handled, and that’s a definite challenge for somebody as a strong character like Carter to be able to take an order to stand down or something like that.

But generally they have a pretty good working relationship. They respect each other and I think that’s the key to successfully working with each other is that they respect each other and their abilities.

Question: What did you find challenging about the role?

Tricia Helfer: What I find challenging is just trying to bring a truthfulness and a realism to it. Obviously not having been undercover FBI myself — you obviously want to bring a truth to it — it’s great to have a consultant on set. We have a consultant that was an undercover cop for many years. And aside from doing reading myself and reading on the role — the type of job you really obviously haven’t done the job yourself. So you just want to bring a truth to it and you kind of always challenge yourself that way.

Physically, I guess it was fairly recent after I had gone through massive back surgery a couple of months before and so I was still in recovery. I had four discs replaced with artificial discs. So I could do some stunts, but luckily for me it just worked out that the ten episodes there wasn’t that much. I could pretty much do everything except for a fall down the stairs. I couldn’t do that but I wouldn’t have done that anyway even without back surgery. So physically I just had some challenges going in. But it’s been a fun character to play.

Question: How did you hurt your back?

Tricia Helfer: How I hurt my back is a mixture of things. I think being very tall and thin growing up and being very athletic and kind of abusing my body in some ways, crashing into walls, diving on floors to hit that volleyball and things like that. And then just a mixture of a car accident that got whiplash and doing all my own stunts on Battlestar really helped kind of solidify needing surgery.

So, yeah, it was just a mixture of a few things. And then somebody dropped a suitcase on my head on an airplane and that didn’t really do my neck any good. So unfortunately just a series of things that resulted in four discs being replaced.

Question: Can you tell us about your future plans and whether they include another season of Dark Blue?

Tricia Helfer: If Dark Blue comes back, fingers crossed, yes, you’ll be seeing more of me. Unless something happens or stuff I don’t know about, I will be back and glad to be back.

What I have coming up next? I have a couple of independent movies coming out — one with Brian Geraghty from the Hurt Locker and Stephen Moyer called Open House. It’s coming out on DVD in I think August. And I’ve got another film that we’re waiting to hear if it gets into Toronto with Harvey Keitel and J.K. Simmons and Scott Caan called A Beginner’s Guide to Endings that I shot last Fall and so I’m looking to shoot a few more independents this Fall.

Question: Did you get to wear any wigs in Season 2 of Dark Blue?

Tricia Helfer: No, I didn’t have to wear any wigs. A couple of different hairstyles mostly in the first episode but no wigs, which I’m not too upset about it. It’s quite an ordeal putting a wig on.

Question: What drives you to succeed?

Tricia Helfer: I want to be challenged. I want to be proud of what I do and I want to learn. I want to learn new things and keep learning and growing. I kind of am a bit of a workaholic and I like to keep busy and active so I think that’s what drives me.

[An excerpt from co-star Dylan McDermott's interview in the same article, on Alex Rice and working with Tricia:]

Question: How does Tricia Helfer’s character challenge Carter this season?

Dylan McDermott: This is exactly what I thought this show should have — a love interest for Carter. I think it’s just much more dynamic to have him in a relationship. I think Tricia is a beautiful woman, and she’s really talented, and she can stand toe to toe with Carter, which is not an easy thing because he is brooding at times. He is difficult and you need someone who can come in and go toe to toe with him.

So I think that she’s going to challenge him in ways that I don’t think he was actually prepared for. In season one, he was sort of closed down and not willing, and we find him in season two in a garden, which is really a metaphor for him that he is attempting to change, and he is attempting grow, and she is a big part of that. You know she is going to open him up. I think that something had died in him long ago and he had given up on himself somewhere, and I think that she brings all of that back to life.

To begin with, according to Tricia Helfer’s official site, Tricia will be attending the 3rd Annual Fur Ball at the Skirball Kitten Rescue fundraiser Saturday, September 11 2010 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA. The event will once again be hosted by The Office-star Jenna Fischer. Tickets are $125 apiece ($1250 for an Angel Table with seating for 10); details and ticket purchases are available via KittenRescue.org. Be sure to book your seat, if you’re able to attend. It’s for a good cause, after all, and you’ll of course have a chance to meet Tricia in person!

Speaking of events and good causes, a couple of days ago on July 15, Tricia attended the BTC and Artists & Athletes Alliance-hosted Evening with Philippe Cousteau in Beverly Hills, CA, a briefing on the ongoing BP oil spill catastrophe on the Gulf Coast. Battlestar Galactica’s Edward James Olmos was also among the attendants. According to Tricia’s official site, she and Battlestar Galactica co-star Katee Sackhoff are working on an oil spill fundraiser; additional details should be coming soon. If you’re interested in the Cousteau event and want to learn more about the subject, there’s a great and informative report on it at ServiceNation.org.

We’ve also updated the gallery with a first photo from the Rodeo Drive Vintage Car & Bike Show from June 21 as well as a new motorcycle-themed photoshoot, with best friend Katee.

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > BTC and A&A Alliance Host an Evening with Philippe Cousteau on Jul 15
• Appearances in 2010 > Rodeo Drive Vintage Car & Bike Show on Jun 21
• Photoshoots & Outtakes > Photoshoot #031

New Photo Albums:

• Appearances in 2010 > Indian Motorcycle California Store Launch on Apr 18