SCIFI AND TV TALK: Warehouse 13's Allison Scagliotti - Sense of Responsibility
By Steve Eramo
08/08/2012
As far as techies go, Warehouse 13’s Claudia Donovan is among the best. More than once she has come up with a last-minute solution to help resolve the Artifact-induced crisis of the week and save the day. Just as Claudia can be counted on in a professional crisis, the same is true with her friendships. In last year’s penultimate episode Emily Lake, Claudia was devastated when friend and fellow Warehouse agent Steve Jinks was murdered while working undercover. She vowed then to use an Artifact to set things right, no matter what the cost.
Claudia’s reaction to Steve’s death and her subsequent resolve to bring him back to life gave the actress who plays her, Allison Scagliotti, the opportunity to show audiences just how good her acting chops are.
“Shooting Emily Lake was a rollercoaster ride and emotionally taxing,” recalls Scagliotti. “Every actor has a different approach to handling emotional content on-set in a scene, and mine changes. Sometimes I use my imagination, while other times I use a piece of music to evoke emotion. However, with the Claudia and Steve [Aaron Ashmore] dynamic, just rounding the corner in that hanger and seeing her friend lifeless was enough to trigger everything.
“Claudia’s and Steve’s friendship developed so beautifully as well as honestly last year, that to have the culmination of that be an untimely death was all I needed for all that emotion to sort of flow out of me. I loved that the writers then gave my character this purpose with regard to Steve and giving him back his life. We know Claudia is incredibly loyal to the people who she loves and that she will go to the ends of the Earth to save them, as we saw when we first met her.
“So I certainly enjoyed Claudia’s dedication to bringing Steve back. As far as episode two [An Evil Within] of this [fourth] season and filming his resurrection scenes, I thought I would have to prepare more, but I didn’t. I got to the set and all the built-up anticipation that I’d been sitting with – just like the show’s fans had to sit with for so many months of wanting this character to return – just swelled up. In fact, Steve’s resurrection episode is actually my favorite episode thus far in season four...”
Warehouse 13 airs Monday at 9/8C on Syfy.
