Fangs For The Fantasy

Coordinator: Our first question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby with scifivison.com. Please go ahead.

Laura Mennell: Hey there Jamie.

Jamie Ruby: Hey. Thanks for talking to us today.

Laura Mennell: Oh no problem. Nice talking to you.

Jamie Ruby: Can you talk a little bit about some of the changes with Nina because she is kind of getting out of control this season.

Laura Mennell: Yes. I mean there’s a big change from last year obviously arch-wise. I mean, she’s, last year she was in a pretty good space. Nothing was perfect but her life was pretty much coming together. With Rosen’s therapy it was - she was sort of working and had some walls up but they were starting to come down. She was having relationships with her team. They were like a real family to her. She was having more of a purpose in her life.

And then obviously with Rosen being outed - sorry. Excuse me. Rosen outing the Alpha phenomenon to the world and being institutionalized and taken away, things changed, you know. The team disbanded and Nina pretty much lost everything that was important to her. She felt alone. Everything she worked for, you know, getting her life back on track. It was all gone. So now she pretty much has this emptiness, this void that her pushing fills. It’s the only thing that really makes her feel good if only for a moment.

So unfortunately it’s becoming more of an addiction.

Jamie Ruby: Okay. And is there - I know it said in the press release that your character has a lot going on in the next episode. Is there anything that you can tease us about that?

Laura Mennell:  Oh my goodness. There is so much going on in the next episode. Pretty much it’s a really great episode for the audience to get to know Nina a lot more, to get a better understanding of here, you know. Who she really is, where she came from, why her past is so troubled and a lot of it lies in her adolescence, you know, her formative years. She was particularly close to her father but had a very turbulent family life. You’ll learn more about her family and her earlier years experimenting with her ability. And all these little pieces from her past help shape how Nina came to be who she really is today.

So, yes, the audience will get to know a lot more about her. And it is a great show written by Adam Levy who really outdid himself with this episode. So I was pretty thankful and happy for him to give me all sorts of wonderful things to play with.

Jamie Ruby: Okay great. And really quick - if you had Nina’s powers is there anything where you have ever thought, you know, wow that would be so cool to do that and not get caught.

Laura Mennell:  Not get caught. You know, I would probably have a sneaky day, a really good sneaky day and probably do my favorite types of things to do like go traveling so, you know, get on a plane, go somewhere great, go stay at wonderful beautiful hotels or what not. I’d probably just have a nice fun luxurious day but it would only really be able to be enjoyable for me probably for the day and then I’d feel guilty. I know I’d feel guilty. I know myself to well. I couldn’t be Nina although it would be fun. It would be fun I have to admit.

Jamie Ruby: Alright. Well thank you so much.

Laura Mennell: Thank you Jamie.

Coordinator: Our next question comes from the line of Renee Martin from fangsforthefantasy.com. Please proceed with your question.

Renee Martin: Hi. Thanks so much for doing this today.

Laura Mennell:  No problem Renee. Nice speaking to you.

Renee Martin: One of the things I wondered - I noticed in the first season that the rules for the female characters are very, very passive and the male characters have the active powers. So I noticed Nina’s ability…

Laura Mennell:  I think that…

Renee Martin:  Go ahead.

Laura Mennell: Okay continue. I’ll answer in a second. I have a little not to add to that but, okay.

Renee Martin: What I noticed is that Nina’s ability - well Nina’s ability is to push people. So what I was wondering this season are we going to see it escalate to the point where she is more on par with a (Barrow) or a Cameron so there isn’t sort of this rift by gender?

Laura Mennell: Well, I mean, in some ways sure. I mean, she’s not going to be as physically strong as, you know, Cameron and Bill. That’s not her ability. But I think the thing with Nina you know, is her ability of pushing is a mental strength in many ways. That is her strength. That is what she can do.
So I wouldn’t say she is necessarily weaker in that way. She just has a different power, a different ability and her strengths comes from somewhere else. But you will get to see her use it in different ways this season for sure.

Renee Martin:  Okay. I was wondering is she going to develop a relationship with (Cat) the new character that was introduced last episode.

Laura Mennell: Yes. She does have a little bit of a nice - they have a nice segue into sort of the beginning of their relationship starting maybe not this fourth episode we are going into. I guess the fifth they will have some kind of relationship starting there. Nina is able to do something very significant for (Cat). But I can’t quite go into that right now.

Renee Martin: Okay. And I have just one final question. I’m thinking Nina and Hicks - is there any reason to hope there at all?

Laura Mennell:  Well I think Nina would be as well obviously. Nina can’t quite get over Hicks so that’s a tough spot for her. Right now things are looking pretty difficult. I mean, things aren’t really in that ballpark. You never know in the future. You never know but right now things are looking a little tricky.

Renee Martin:  Oh that’s not fun at all.

Laura Mennell:  Keep watching. You never know. I’m sorry. I know, I know.

Renee Martin: Oh, (Danny) has got to go if she’s going to stay with Hicks.

Laura Mennell:  I’m sorry. Nina would feel the same way.

Renee Martin: Thank you so much.

Laura Mennell: Yes. Thank you.

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