A lot is going on for Nikita these days, as Michael deals with the shocking loss of his hand and being benched from the field. In the midst of this, Owen (Devon Sawa) has been called upon to begin accompanying Nikita on missions.
I spoke to Sawa about this current storyline, Owen’s mysterious, Wolverine-like past and more… including on-set conversations about Boba Fett.
IGN TV: This storyline is an interesting one for Owen because he’s really being made Nikita’s partner in an official way for the first time.
Devon Sawa: Yeah, Owen’s out of his element. He’s always been a solo guy, so partnering is kind of new to him. The dynamic works well. I mean, it would work better with Nikita and Michael, but he can’t be out there, of course, so Owen is filling in. Michael’s coaching him through it because it’s not his world - art galleries and all this stuff. But that’s where we’re at. Owen’s kind of Nikita’s sidekick.
IGN: It sounds like you’re working with Maggie quite a bit during all this.
Sawa: I love going to work with Maggie. She’s a trip. It’s great to be a part of that Batman and Robin duo. It’s a lot of fun.
IGN: Can you talk about this week’s mission?
Sawa: We’re after one of these Dirty Thirty guys who has broken the cardinal rule of Division, and that’s contacting your past. I guess because Division has gone down, he feels he can go after his past. So he goes after his girlfriend, and we want to stop him before the world finds out about Division. We want to get to him before the world does.
Devon Sawa in Nikita.
IGN: It’s interesting because while Owen doesn’t know his entire past, when we met him he was in love with someone outside Division – and then lost her because of them.
Sawa: Yeah, and that’s always something that bothers him. That’s why he wants to find Amanda so much, because he wants to find out about his past. And that’s his tie with Nikita, really; they both lost their loved ones.
IGN: How are Michael and Owen getting along in all of this?
Sawa: It’s tough for Michael to see Owen with his fiancée. If I put myself in Michael’s shoes, it’s got to be tough. But how I’ve been playing it up until this point is Owen isn’t really trying to go anywhere with Nikita in a romantic way.
IGN: You guys seem like a pretty friendly group on set. I don’t know how enjoyable it was for Shane on the technical side, but did you guys have some fun with the introduction of Michael’s robo-hand?
Sawa: We had a lot of fun with it. He’s got this series of gloves that goes on, and we make all the hand jokes you can think of. We reference Evil Dead… Idle Hands, even -- it’s been a lot of fun for us. I don’t know whether Shane [enjoyed it] or not -- I think he did!
I didn’t know they were going to chop off his hand. When I got the script, I was blown away. It was episode seven! How could you do that in episode seven? But crazier things will happen in upcoming episodes. The hand stuff is a lot of fun but things start getting really crazy from here on in.
Devon Sawa and Maggie Q in Nikita.
IGN: How much do they tell you guys beforehand about what’s to come?
Sawa: I think they tell Lyndsy, Shane and Maggie a little more than the rest of us, you know, because they’re the three leads. But I think Craig [Silverstein] wants to keep Owen in the dark, so he keeps me in the dark. I’ve really tried to master the way of getting stuff out of writers. I could never. I asked Craig once, “Is there going to be an Alex/Owen thing?” He goes, “Oh, we’ll see!” I was like, “That’s it? That’s all you can tell me?” So at this point there’s a script that I should be getting any day now that’s going to talk about Owen’s past, but I am 100 percent completely in the dark.
IGN: They’ve given him this kind of Wolverine dynamic this season...
Sawa: They gave me that note. I think I did episode four, and Craig was like, “We want him to be more like Wolverine, more like that guy. That’s the past he has.” So that’s been my reference.
IGN: So there’s an episode coming up with some pretty big pieces of that history?
Sawa: I’m hoping! I’ve been told it’s going to reveal some Owen stuff. There’s an episode coming up with Ari in two or three episodes, and he spills a little bit of stuff to Owen -- not enough to give him anything substantial, but enough to make him want to know more.
IGN: Melinda is such a great presence on the show. What’s it like working with her?
Sawa: I’ve had that one episode with Melinda, and it’s very comfortable to go to work with her because she’s such a pro and a great actress. I know this next episode [I’m waiting on the script for] is probably going to be Owen and Amanda, and I’m confident that I’m going to get there and have an amazing actress to work with. She’s so great at that character. Melinda’s awesome.
IGN: We talked at the beginning of the season about the whole funny Alex and Owen thing and the fact that there could be fans pushing for something between them when these characters had never met. Now that they are working together, will we see more of their dynamic?
Sawa: There’s an episode coming up where Alex and Owen go off on a little mission. They’re in a car together – I have some cool little scenes with Lyndsy. What makes it so brilliant is that there’s a comm in the car, and Sean’s listening to the whole thing on his headset. You can just see the smoke coming out of his ears. But that’s it for that. There’s no romance. I think the writers are making it action first, with drama. There are dabs of romance every once in a while. So far, Owen hasn’t really ventured into that romantic world.
IGN: Putting Owen in Division obviously allows him to interact more with all the characters. I’m hoping for more Owen/Birkhoff interaction, because you guys have had a couple of fun little moments – I loved Owen’s line about dissolving him.
Sawa: That’s the one episode I want. If I could request one episode, it would be an episode with me and Aaron, where it’s kind of a good cop/bad cop thing. I’ve gotten to work with Maggie and Shane and Lyndsy, and they’re all great, but I’d love some more Birkhoff/Owen. I think they would complement each other well, comically.
IGN: Last time we spoke, we ran out of time before you could tell me a quick story from the set. It involved Boba Fett and Maggie...
Sawa: Oh my God! Maggie had to endure this really long conversation -- it was me, Shane and I think Aaron. We were talking forever about the first Star Wars trilogy and Boba Fett, and I think she was in hell. So the next day we went out and got her her own Boba Fett action figure, and she now keeps it taped up to her fridge. But we allowed her into the Star Wars club after having to endure our hour of Boba Fett debating. It was a lot of fun.
IGN: Obviously you guys can have some long days on set, with lots of downtime. Suffice to say, there can be a lot of those types of conversations?
Sawa: Oh, yeah. We do all the time. We’ll be in Hamilton, Ontario -- a little tent in blizzard weather, space heaters, all bundled up -- and we’ll still be laughing and talking about the most bizarre things. It’s a good time.
Nikita airs Fridays at 8pm ET/PT on The CW.
Source : ign[dot]com
