Canadian actress and former model Tricia Helfer is one of Hollywood's rising acting talents, best known for her portrayal of the humanoid Cylon Number Six on Syfy's critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica. More recently, Helfer has starred in e.g. Andrew Paquin’s Open House and appeared as Alex Clark on NBC's The Firm. Helfer is also an active benefactor of animal rights and environmental causes.
Tricia and best friend Katee Sackhoff's charity initiative, The Acting Outlaws.
In the new clip, Tricia talks about, among other things, pilot season (hell), her recent guest appearance on Community, her upcoming Lifetime movie Deadly Visions (which according to Tricia should be premiering some time this summer), her role in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (just released Stateside) as well as an upcoming “blurb” in another, mystery video game, and last, but not least, Max, the latest addition to her feline family (from Kitten Rescue according to Tricia’s Twitter account @trutriciahelfer) — and yes, that should be 11 cats now. 8D
Community: Tricia Helfer on Going from Battlestar Galactica Cylon to Inspector Spacetime Fangirl
by Eric Goldman
Helfer discusses her ‘Community’ guest role and her animation and video game voice acting work.
On this week’s Community, the Greendale gang will go to a place near and dear to Abed and Troy’s hearts — an Inspector Spacetime convention.
Inspector Spacetime is of course an ongoing Doctor Who parody on Community, and a real life sci-fi icon will be appearing on the episode, as Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer guest stars. Helfer plays Lauren, a beautiful woman Jeff (Joel McHale) encounters, only to learn she is a huge Inspector Spacetime fan herself. Which suddenly makes Jeff a lot more interested in Inspector Spacetime…
I spoke to Helfer about appearing on Community and working with McHale. We also chatted about her work in animation, such as The Spectacular Spider-Man, and video games, including the upcoming StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm expansion pack.
IGN TV: You haven’t done a lot of comedy. That being the case, was it pretty exciting for you to get the chance to be on Community?
Tricia Helfer: Oh, absolutely, yeah. I hadn’t done much comedy, and it’s something I’d certainly like to do more of in the future. It was just fun, and it also had kind of a fun tie-in to have a sci-fi genre actor in one of the roles, because of the episode being at an Inspector Spacetime convention. But for me, just a chance to work with Joel, who I think is absolutely lovely and very funny… It’s why I signed on, no questions asked.
Big update from last weekend’s Sci-Fi Expo in Dallas, Texas! Hope you’re ready for it. :)
Kicking things off with some terrific fan photos of Tricia from both Day 1 and Day 2, which you can now check out in the gallery. Most of today’s new expo photos are courtesy of G. Espinosa, H. Hernandez, Honey Bunny, A. Johnson Dowling, M. Netherland, D. Pike, C. Skiles and R. Valerie on Facebook, RevG14 on Flickr, nicoleanell and rococoms on Tumblr and WesPrime on Twitter.
Moving on to videos, here’s a quick PJTV interview with Tricia about her time on Battlestar Galactica and motorcycling from the Day 1 autograph table:
A really nice video of the complete Day 1 Battlestar Galactica panel with Tricia and her BSG co-stars Edward James Olmos and James Callis. At the panel, Tricia talked about among other things portraying the numerous Sixes on the show, filming sex scenes with James and pairing motorcycling with charity work. A great, packed panel.
Fresh and insightful article and interview with Tricia Helfer from Global Toronto in which Tricia talks about among other things family, acting, filming Deadly Visions for Lifetime and tensions between cast and producers on the set of NBC’s The Firm, which concluded its first and only season last summer. Definitely worth a read! Full article under the cut.
Canada’s Tricia Helfer is ready to soar
By John R. Kennedy
TORONTO — Tricia Helfer is back home in Los Angeles after spending time in her native Canada, where she shot a TV movie and spent the holidays with her family.
The 38-year-old actress can finally cruise the canyon roads on the BMW F8000GS motorcycle she got from her husband for Christmas. “It’s a fantastic bike that I’ve wanted for awhile,” said Helfer, who also owns a Harley Davidson 1600cc Rocker C.
Helfer relocated to Los Angeles in 2002, after spending a decade in the modeling industry, to focus on her acting career.
It was a good move – Helfer quickly landed guest roles on series like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Chuck, Burn Notice, Two and a Half Men and — of course — a starring role in Battlestar Galactica.
Her most recent project was the Lifetime movie Deadly Visions, in which Helfer plays a mother with premonitions that her daughter is in danger. “My character is struggling with believing herself when everyone around her is telling her that her daughter is safe,” she explained.
“It’s not hard to draw from within yourself to play someone protective of her daughter. I have animals and I’m a daughter, sister, wife, aunt and friend, and I can be fiercely protective.”
Helfer hasn’t played many mothers. “Sometimes, if you don’t have kids yourself, it’s assumed you won’t understand or know how to play a mom,” she said, “which is kind of silly if you think about it. I’ve played robots and killers and I am a lot further from those than I am a mother!”
Has playing a mom made her think about being one? “No, it hasn’t made me want kids of my own,” she said. “Never say never, I guess. But I don’t see it happening.”
Moving on to videos, check out this great quality video of the full TRON: Uprising panel hosted by Variety‘s Josh Dickey from InsideTheMagic.net. Tricia, who voices The Grid in the animated Disney series, was joined on stage by co-stars Elijah Wood and Bruce Boxleitner as well as director and executive producer Charlie Bean, consulting producers and series’ writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, art director Alberto Mielgo and lead character designer Robert Valley.
Save Game Online has a terrific interview with Tricia Helfer from last weekend’s Sydney Supanova, in which Tricia talks about her career and acting, doing voice work, working on the Mass Effect video games and more. Full article under the cut.
Supanova 2012 – Our interview with Tricia Helfer
Recently at Supanova, our resident Sydneysider staffmember Rebecca had the pleasure of interviewing Tricia Helfer, an accomplished actress and best known to us as the voice of EDI in Mass Effect 2 and 3. From the differences between on-screen acting and voice acting, to discussions of EDI and her relationship with Joker, Tricia covers many interesting questions and reveals some surprising asides.
First of all, how are you enjoying Supanova?
It’s been lovely. It’s very calm and very well run.
Have you been to many conventions in the past?
I haven’t been to any in Australia but I’ve been to a few. I do one or two a year.
You’ve had a really diverse career with modelling, charity work, acting and voice acting. What aspect of your career are you most proud of so far?
I don’t still model; that a separate career but in terms of acting I think probably what I’m most proud of is that I’m continuing to act. It’s a very tough business and I started relatively late because I modelled for ten years before this so I think a lot of the people that I’m up against for roles have a resume three times as long as mine because they’ve been acting since they were five or twelve or twenty or something and I started acted at twenty eight, twenty nine. So I’m just proud that I’m getting a foot in the door. Just building blocks and I see progress and I’ve said that I’d be happy as long as I was seeing progress. I have a lot more to accomplish. A lot more I want to do but I’ve been really lucky getting roles like Battlestar Galactica and things like that and getting to work with some amazing people.
What else would you want to do?
Oh, tons of things. It’s too hard to just say one because there’s tons of things I’d want to do. I mean I want to do a big studio action flick. I want to do an amazing, heart-wrenching indie flick. You know, I want an Oscar! I want an Emmy! I want to work with this person and this person and this person. If I had my choice I’d have the career of Cate Blanchett or Charlize Theron. But being realistic I’m just happy as long as I keep building and keep working with good people.
BREAKING NEWS: Battlestar Galactica‘s Tricia Helfer is A Crazy Cat Lady
Tricia Helfer, living legend of the Sci Fi landscape, is coming to Australia very, very soon. As I’m based in Sydney, I was lucky enough to have a chat on the phone with her before she comes to our fair town as a guest of Supanova in Sydney at The Dome on June 16-17, and then on to Perth, at the Claremont Showgrounds, June 23-24.
Hopefully we’ll be chatting with her very soon for The Sci Fi Show. Fingers crossed.
If you didn’t know that she created the central role of Six in what is generally regarded as the best Sci Fi TV series ever made, the revamped Battlestar Galactica, then you may not be as excited as your usual Sci Fi fan. Her character was literally at the beginning and the end of Ron Moore & David Eick’s epic achievement.
Tricia has guest-starred on Human Target, Chuck, Lie To Me, Warehouse 13, Supernatural, Burn Notice and has done voice work on Mass Effect 2 & 3 (as EDI), Halo: ODST, Starcraft 2 and the brand new TRON: Uprising.
In any case, you can learn a little bit more about the actress behind everyone’s favourite sexy lethal (and sometimes invisible) Cylon in this casual chat, where she reveals, among other things, her literally neck-breaking experiences in aeroplanes, riding around on motorcycles with Starbuck and that she is, in fact, a crazy cat lady, which is a tremendous juxtaposition when you’ve made a name for yourself playing robots*.
OH: Hello Tricia, how are you?
TH: I’m good thanks. How are you?
OH: Very well, thank you. It’s been a long time since we last spoke. I was in Sweden the last time we were talking about the season finale of Battlestar Galactica.
TH: Oh wow.
OH: The first question everybody wants to know is ‘How would Tricia Helfer survive the Zombie Holocaust?’
TH: [laughs] Oh gosh, I don’t know. I’m a bit of a tomboy so I would certainly do my best to fight them. But without an arsenal of weaponry at my beck and call I would probably succumb to them. I would join all the zombies in becoming one.
NOW Toronto has a small but terrific feature with Tricia Helfer and her A Beginner’s Guide to Endings co-star Jason Jones on the making of the film, which just landed in select Canadian theaters. Full article (with audio clip) under the cut.
Q&A: Jason Jones and Tricia Helfer
By NORMAN WILNER
Jason Jones and Tricia Helfer don’t share a lot of screen time in Jonathan Sobol’s A Beginner’s Guide To Endings, but they’ve been paired up to launch the film at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival.
Fortunately, the two Canadian actors — he’s best known as a correspondent for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, she for her work as various Cylons on Battlestar Galactica — have bonded over their work on the movie and are happy to discuss their trial by fire in Niagara Falls. Jones, Scott Caan and Paulo Costanzo play doomed brothers; Helfer turns up as Caan’s old flame who’s not exactly thrilled to have him resurface in her life.
For a comedy, this is a movie with a pretty dark heart, opening with three guys learning they could drop dead any minute. How did you find laughs in that situation?
Jones: I can only speak for myself, but you never set out to be funny. You just set out to play the scenes real, and hopefully the funny comes.
Helfer: Yeah, it’s a tough tone. If you go one way, it’s too dark and not funny; if you go the other way, it comes off as cheesy and stilted. But Jonathan [Sobol] had been lovely enough to write a whole synopsis of how he wanted to film it. So I read that first, and then read the script, so it just kind of clicked.
Jones: That’s right, he sent you guys all letters, right?
Helfer: Yeah.
Jones: Yeah, he just called me. It was like, “You want this?” [laughing] I didn’t get the respect they all got.
Sobol talks about making this movie by the seat of his pants. Is he exaggerating?
Jones: I showed up, did a costume fitting — did it in the trailer. Nothing fit; I had, like, jeans that were pinned together. I wore a hat throughout the movie, except for the first scene [we shot] because they didn’t have the hat. They threw me into the most emotional scene in the movie, so it was rough. You were just, like, run or get left behind. I think we ran.
Helfer: I was finishing up something in L.A. and was going to another film right afterward, so I literally had four days. Got in, did the fitting, had dinner with Jonathan and his wife and Scott Caan, and started filming the next day. So at least I got to have dinner.
… a clip from The Hollywood Reporter, in which Tricia talks about the differences between onscreen acting and voice work and how she prepared for the role of Alex Clark in The Firm:
Tricia talks about her role in TRON: Uprising, how she got it and doing voice work in general. From YouTube:
New “Ask Tricia” fan Q&A video from Tricia Helfer’s official site! In this clip, Tricia talks about among other things her notorious “baby neck-snapping” scene in the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, her dream motorcycle ride and her desire to appear on Breaking Bad, Damages, Men of a Certain Age, Justified or Sons of Anarchy. The current series of “Ask Tricia” vids was filmed in March 2011. Courtesy of Tricia’s official site:
Tricia regularly answers fan questions online via her “Ask Tricia” video series. If you have a question for Tricia, don’t hesitate to send it over to asktricia@triciahelfer.com. Please me mindful that Tricia’s web team moderates all questions before they reach her, and not all questions will be answered. Good luck!
Tricia Helfer appeared on The Morning Show on Global Toronto yesterday morning to talk about The Firm, for which she is currently filming new episodes in the area. Her interview below:
Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff's documentary about their October 2010 Acting Outlaws cross-country motorcycle ride from Los Angeles, CA to New Orleans, LA to raise funds and awareness for the BP oil spill cleanup, the "LA La Ride", is now online. Purchase your digital copy now from store.actingoutlaws.org!
Acting Outlaws 2013 Calendar
Check out Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff's smoking hot 2013 calendar for Acting Outlaws, featuring 12 never before seen photos by photographer Dennys Ilic. Now available exclusively on Redbubble!
Tricia appeared last spring in a recurring role as Alex Clark in 13 episodes of the NBC legal drama The Firm. Our coverage of all her appearances on the show:
Filming in Toronto, Canada. Director: Harvey Crossland Genre: Christmas Role: TBA News | Info | IMDb| Official Site | Photos
Film (TV): Dangerous Intuition (2013)
Premiered May 11th; reruns on Lifetime.
Previously "Deadly Visions". Director: Roger Christian Genre: Thriller Role: Kate Aldrich News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
Film (TV): Mistletoe Over Manhattan (2011)
Out on US iTunes; reruns on Hallmark. Director: John Bradshaw Genre: Christmas, Romance Role: Lucy Martel News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
TV (Pilot): Scent of the Missing (2012)
Not picked up by TNT. Genre: Drama Network: TNT Role: Allison "Ally" News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
TV: Community (2013)
Episode aired February 21st on NBC. Genre: Comedy Network: NBC Role: Lauren (ep. 4.03 guest) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
TV: Criminal Minds (2012)
Season 7 out on R1 & R2 DVD. Genre: Crime, Drama Network: CBS Role: Izzy Rogers (S7 finale guest) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
Canceled; Season 1 out on R1 DVD. Genre: Drama, Legal, Thriller Network: NBC Role: Alex Clark (S1 recurring guest) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
TV: TRON: Uprising (2012)
Season 1 complete; pending renewal. Genre: Animation Network: Disney XD Role: The Grid (voice) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
Web Series: BSG: Blood & Chrome (2012)
Complete series online. Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi Website: youtube.com/MachinimaPrime Role: Humanoid Cylon (voice cameo) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
Web Series: Husbands (2012)
Complete Season 2 online. Genre: Comedy Website: HusbandsTheSeries.com Role: Pillow Girl #2 (ep. 2.01 guest) News | Info | IMDb | Official Site | Photos
More:
MV: The Black Keys "Howlin' for You" - IMDb
SF: PostHuman - IMDb
VG: Mass Effect 3 - IMDb
VG: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - IMDb
WS: The Nerd Machine: Trailer Park Heroes - IMDb
Legend: AS - animated series; MV - music video; SF - short film; VG - video game; WS - web series.
Acting Outlaws:
In August 2010, Tricia Helfer and best friend and former Battlestar Galactica co-star Katee Sackhoff founded the charity company The Acting Outlaws. With periodical causes of choice, the purpose of the company is to raise funds and awareness for causes Tricia and Katee find important to them. For details on the company and how to participate in advancing the ladies' causes of choice, please visit www.actingoutlaws.org.
Besides an actress and former model, Tricia is also an avid animal rights supporter and environmentalist. Please visit some of the below websites for more information on Tricia's supported causes and charities.
Tricia Helfer Fan (located at tricia-helfer.org/.net/.com) is an unofficial, non-profit fan-operated website dedicated to actress Tricia Helfer. We are in no way in contact or affiliated with Helfer or her management, nor do we claim such affiliation. This website was created for information and entertainment purposes only. Tricia Helfer Fan is proudly stalkerazzi-free.
Completed; pending release.
Out on Region 1 DVD.
Out on R2 DVD. Previously "Phase One".
Out on Region 1 DVD.
Premiered May 11th; reruns on Lifetime.
Out on US iTunes; reruns on Hallmark.
Episode aired February 21st on NBC.
Season 7 out on R1 & R2 DVD.
Coming 2013-14 to ABC.
Canceled; Season 1 out on R1 DVD.
Complete Season 2 online.
