Nikita returned last week for Season 3, with a very different new scenario for the characters, as they are back inside Division – albeit a Division under new management.
I spoke to Lyndsy Fonseca about what’s to come this year for Alex, who’s had quite a few dramatic changes occur of late. We discussed Alex’s celebrity status, her dynamic with Sean and Amanda -- and a popular non-relationship with Owen -- and more. We also chatted about this Friday night’s exciting new episode, in which Nikita and Alex discover a young girl who has been taken by a former Division agent and apparently been brainwashed. Plus, will Fonseca be able to reprise her role as Katie in Kick-Ass 2?
IGN: Things have changed for everyone on the show, but for Alex, this is really the first time she is allowed to be herself – she’s not a double agent, she’s not a rogue agent, and everyone knows her true identity. What is this transition like for her?
Fonseca: I think in the bigger picture, her being this kind of public persona has brought a lot of power to her and this maturity. It hasn’t come easily. I don’t think Alex is the kind of person that enjoys dressing up like that and being in that public way. But I think what it does is forces her to grow up a little bit and kind of take charge on her own. As the season continues, we’re not going to be focusing a lot on her public persona, but I think she brings a lot of that to Division to help her deal with being there.
IGN: The premiere used her celebrity in a very fun and funny way, but going forward, how do you deal with someone who’s been trained to be a spy being very publically known?
Fonseca: Well, Alex is going to go in a very different direction than I think most of the audience is going to expect. We start off this season with her in this really great place and her using her celebrity to benefit the mission. But it’s going to go in a very different direction. She’ll end up really having to deal with certain things that… You know, I think that a lot of things have been cleaned up, like her relationship with her mother, and Nikita and her are on such good terms. It’s like the final thing is her addiction self, and she’s really going to have to struggle with.
IGN: So that's going to be coming back into focus?
Fonseca: I think that's been a little bit buried, because there’s been other things to deal with. Now that she’s in this new place where they’re all agents, they’re all in this together. But she gets hurt and there’s pain and it’s going to really force her to deal with things that she thought she had resolved before.
IGN: I’ve seen the episode airing Friday, with that great young girl…
Fonseca: She was amazing.
IGN: It seems as though this girl brings up a lot of emotions and memories for both Nikita and Alex.
Fonseca: I think that it’s kind of shocking to see a girl her age in Division, because she is the age that Alex was when she was sold into slavery and then a few years later was on the streets, doing drugs. You see this girl who’s just such a shell of herself. You don’t know if it’s Stockholm syndrome. You can’t really figure it out. And the pain in her eyes, everything that she’s dealing with, it’s so similar to Alex’s life and I think she sees a lot of herself. And I think Alex just doesn’t want to go there. What she ends up doing is going to the parents a lot and the mother and I think that is something that she can relate to as well. Because Alex’s mom didn’t know that she was alive and I’m trying to find out all this information, but I can’t tell them that I know that their child is alive. So dealing with the mom really is difficult in a lot of ways for Alex.
IGN: The first episodes this season touch upon a lot of the big emotional points the show has set up in the first two years, but as far as overall mythology goes, they’re more standalone. How is this season mapping out compared to the first two?
Fonseca: Especially at the beginning, it is a little bit more standalone and kind of bad guy of the week or a mission [of the week] at first. But there are going to be recurring storylines that we’re going to be doing that wall continue through all the episodes as well. It’s kind of a little bit of both. But it’s gonna be different, because there’s no Percy, you know? We’re in this together and Amanda is going to come in and out and we’re trying to figure out where she’s coming from and what her plan of action is. But it is a little bit more standalone than it has been in the past.
IGN: You mentioned Amanda and when I asked on Twitter if fans had questions for you, quite a few seemed to enjoy the interplay between Alex and Amanda.
Fonseca: I love that!
IGN: Will there be more of that this year? Obviously, it’s more difficult, because they’re no longer co-existing inside Division.
Fonseca: Right. Yes, they’re definitely going to be in a storyline together, but we have not shot it yet. I know that it’s in the future for the season, but in all honesty, I don’t know how it’s going to come out. I think the writers are still figuring that out! [Laughs] But it’s going to be good, because she’s going to have a hold over Alex in some way… So it’s not going to be taken lightly. It’s not going to be fun thing. Amanda is going to go all out.
IGN: And we know Amanda can be very scary when she goes all out.
Fonseca: Oh my gosh… She’s so good!
IGN: How are things going for Alex and Sean?
Fonseca: Well, it’s funny, because at work today, the only scene that I have to do is to make out with Sean Pierce in a closet. It’s a very hard day at the office. [Laughs]
But no, it’s not going to be an easy relationship. There’s going to be this thing where Sean really puts it out there and makes an ultimatum and says, “It’s me or Division” and “Why are we here? What are we doing here? We have a life to live.” And I think that contrast is totally confusing for Alex. It’s like, “What do you mean? This in my life. What am I going to do? Go sit on a beach somewhere and drink Mimosa?” That’s not reality, you know? And that’s going to cause problems because they want different things, even though they want each other.
IGN: Meanwhile, it’s funny, because a sect of Nikita fans have been curious about this whole Alex/Owen dynamic, even though they’ve never met...
Fonseca: I know. It’s so weird how there are shippers for that, when we’ve never even met! It’s very flattering! It’s great. It’s so cool.
IGN: So that being said, this season they will finally meet and interact. What do they make of each other initially?
Fonseca: You know, it’s kind of cool… I made the decision that there’s always been this kind of animalistic part of Alex. There’s this kid that’s not a celebrity… the really down and dirty part. And I feel like Owen can be like that. This guy is very, very animalistic in many ways. And I think they kind of connect in that and sense that about each other. And I don’t mean that necessarily in a relationship kind of way. It’s more that he comes back in the picture and it’s like, “What is your deal, man?” There’s definitely sparks and some sort of understanding that they have with each other.
IGN: You mentioned Alex’s addiction issues. Owen recently got over his own addiction to the regimen. Could there be some bonding there?
Fonseca: There is that. We haven’t really touched on that topic as characters yet, but absolutely. That would be a really cool thing to play as well.
IGN: So at San Diego Comic-Con, you were crossing your fingers – has it worked out with your Nikita schedule to do Kick-Ass 2?
Fonseca: It has! CW and Warmer Bros. and the creators here at Nikita, they’ve been so wonderful about letting me out for a week to go to London and do a little bit in Kick-Ass. I’m very limited in my time that I can go there, but the fact that they let me do it at all… I actually leave on Saturday to go shoot for a week there. And I’m really excited!
IGN: My last question comes via your costar, Devon Sawa. When I asked on Twitter if anyone had questions or you, he asked if himself, Shane West, Dillon Casey and Aaron Stanford were Ninja Turtles… who would be Raphael?
Fonseca: [Laughs] Well, that’s funny, because they were having this major debate two nights ago over dinner. And honestly, I had no idea what they were talking about, because I’ve never seen Ninja Turtles! I don’t know… If I’d seen it, I’d have an opinion! Sorry!
Nikita airs Friday nights at 9pm ET/PT on The CW.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on on Twitter at @EricIGN and IGN at ericgoldman-ign.
Source : ign[dot]com
