Fringe’s Jasika Nicole, who plays Astrid Farnsworth, was the first of our roundtable guest. This lovely young lady answered all our questions, except the ones that would have given spoilers. She was also surprised that we were fans and knew so much about the show.

ComicsOnline: Is there anything exciting for your character next season?

Jasika Nicole: She had a really slow build and I thought that that was because they weren’t sure they wanted to keep her. Every time I get a script I check the pedia file to see if Astrid dies. I read the script starting at page 1, because you know, there’s no loyalty in TV. But I was patient, because look who I get to work with, I get to work with John Noble, who is as wonderful off camera as he is on camera. And so I thought ”This is great, no matter what it is I’m doing, no matter if they don’t give her any background, this is kind of like the master class, and it’s really great to be working with people that you really respect. And so anyway, in Season 2 they started showing more with the episode with Walter in Chinatown which was really amazing and so much fun for us to play. And now there’s two of her so we have to do more just by the sheer idea of doing whole episodes in one universe and in another universe, which is the format we’re doing right now in Season 3. She’s been doing lots of stuff and even as alternate Astrid, cause you haven’t seen her that much yet, she had like just one scene in the finale. I’m learning more about her, she’s a tricky one. She’s really cool though, she’s so guarded that it’s a little bit easy to play her because I don’t have to relate to anybody; it’s kind of like performing monologue, which is interesting on a TV show. It’s cool, I’m happy, even with the slow build, it’s cool because the people really want to see more of what she’s doing, and that feels really nice to have people want to see more of the character and not just because I want to see more of the character.

CO: Are we going to see more of alternate Astrid?

Jasika Nicole: Yeah and her little beret.

CO: What’s your favorite thing about playing alternate Astrid?

Jasika Nicole: You probably haven’t seen it in the finale, but she doesn’t make eye contact with anyone. She speaks toward them and she’ll look at them, but not when she’s speaking. That’s a fun way to play, 'cause it makes people uncomfortable when I’m doing that in a scene, and she doesn’t really respond to their facial expressions or what they’re doing. She’s not interested in that, she’s only relaying information that she has for them. That’s really fun 'cause it messes with people a little bit, Lance [Reddick] in particular, at the end of every scene he’ll start chuckling (makes chuckling sound).

CO: Did that [way of playing alternate Astrid] come from you or somewhere else?

Jasika Nicole: That came from me. That was something that my sister does, that I always thought was really interesting. She doesn’t have Aspergers; she’s not quite as high functioning as Aspergers. That was one of the first things we knew, that something was off with her. She would talk to you, looking at the side of you, and then she would look at you, and when she would start talking again she would look away. We just thought it was a quirky thing, and come to find out it’s one of many, many things that kids that have Autism tend to do. So I’m trying not to incorporate everything about my sister, but just things that I know really well to take from my own experiences, to put into alternate Astrid.

CO: As an actress is it tough to separate the two roles?

Jasika Nicole: This one’s really easy because they’re so incredibly different. They look the same; I would imagine that for Anna [Torv], she probably spent a lot of time going through the scripts because they were talking about how she drops her “G’s”. She has to dissect each part of her dialogue that she gets, to make sure those nuances are complete. But with my Astrid, she’s so incredibly different it’s really just playing a completely different character. Almost in a different show because the alternate universe is so different too, and none of the characters she interacts with are the same. Her Broyles is different, and the Walter there is different, and there’s a Charlie and she didn’t even have a Charlie for a long time. So it’s kind of like doing a regional theater show for summer stock, where you’re doing several different shows at the same time, and you’re rehearsing one show during the day and performing another at night. It’s a little bit like that; it’s like two separate entities.

CO: Have you looked into a second contract?

Jasika Nicole: Yes, of course, are you kidding me? Absolutely, but they said no.

CO: So you just put on the beret and that’s it?

Jasika Nicole: I put on the Beret, she doesn’t wear any make-up, they do a little bit for on camera. But that’s another interesting thing is not sitting in the make-up chair for a long time and hair. I’m kind of in and out, and so it’s an interesting dynamic when you go in the make-up/hair trailer. All your friends are there and you’re talking and catching up, and you’re having this social time, and this alternative Astrid doesn’t really have that, and she goes into her trailer and put on these combat boots. She’s the complete opposite of our Astrid would wear. There’s all these things just about getting ready to start my day on the set that are different that make it really easy to slide in to what it is I’m doing in the scene.

CO: Has your sister seen the show?

Jasika Nicole: Oh, my sister watches the show, and she knows it’s me, and she gets really excited when she sees it’s me.

CO: Do you have any insights that we may be able to expect from Astrid next season? Any more Chinatown episodes?

Jasika Nicole: I wish! That was one of the most fun things to do, that and when I was in the HazMat suit, even though I had swine flu when I was in the HazMat suit. So there was this whole I just got it all of a sudden. I had a fever in the suit and it was really hot in the suit, but that’s a whole other story. Anyway, I start Season 3 and they’re enhancing this relationship between Astrid and Walter, because of the rift that has been created in his support system that he had with Olivia and Peter. And they’re acknowledging it. Before it was kind of understood Astrid knew that Walter was mad, Peter was mad or Olivia’s mad, but they talk about it now and that’s really cool because I want to see them have more conversations where she’s not just there and reading his mind and understanding what he needs, and she’s talking to him and he’s asking her. He’s probably more vulnerable then she’s ever seen him before. And that’s really, really nice to see too, because he [John Noble] does it so well, all you want to do is go and hug him. He gets this little twinkle and a tear in his eye. He’s so great; I’m just his biggest fan.

CO: Will there be an Astrid episode so we get to know where she’s from and what she’s like?

Jasika Nicole: I heard a rumor last year that they are formulating an Astrid episode for Season 3. I think it’s coming because everybody’s had one.

CO: Will there be a back story for Astrid?

Jasika Nicole: I formulated one myself tentatively, because I don’t want to get married to something that becomes super important to me and how I portray her, and then have them say “no, that’s not how it is”. And you don’t want to feel like everything you’ve been doing is false. The cool thing about it is Astrid is a workaholic, and whenever she is in her moment that’s what she’s doing. I think she leaves her baggage at the door, like what theater people are supposed to do when they get to the stage, leave their baggage at the door. That makes it easy to say “she’s here in this moment and this is what she’s doing". I think the most of a back story is when Walter stabbed her in the neck with a syringe in Season 1, and she was giving him the silent treatment, and that was the most he ever got about her – that she stopped coming to the lab and she was only in the FBI offices and I thought that was interesting. Other than that, there hasn’t been a whole lot about her until this season when you get to see her apartment, which is cool. Her apartment is like a hippie den and she has like eight rugs on the floor, all these lamps, and rich colors. I would never have known her apartment looks like that, see that’s the cool thing that I wouldn’t have guessed that she lived like that. It would be funny if she had a bong in her apartment. How could she be admonishing Walter for smoking his stuff? Maybe that could be an episode, with Astrid and Walter smoking together.

Thank you guys.

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