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	Andromeda

SPACE.com: That’s okay. I won’t take any cheap shots.

LB: That’s okay, ask away.

SPACE.com: Where were you on November 13? Why is this toxic waste here? Don’t you know that your performance is hurting rabbits? Little tiny rabbits?

LB: [LAUGHING] I didn’t know that.

SPACE.com: You didn’t? You have to answer the hard questions now, babe.

LB: [LAUGHING].

SPACE.com: All right, so let’s start off with who is your character. Who is Trance Gemini?

LB: When we find Trance with the crew, she’s been working with Beka Valentine for I guess the better part of a year. I think Beka came across her, and she just kind of volunteered herself to help out on the crew.

She’s pretty mysterious actually, there’s not much known about her. She’s also very unwilling to surrender answers to people who ask questions. She rather skirts around inquiries into her past. She’s very reluctant to share her history.

So she just tries to help her shipmates along without indicating her capabilities. So instead of demonstrating what kind of power she might have, she’d rather just participate alongside and share. There’s a lot more to Trance than we know, but she’s not willing to surrender that information at the time.

SPACE.com: Now the big question, do you know all there is to know?

LB: I don’t think I know all there is, no. I think that would be a gross assumption to assume that I knew all there is to know about Trance, because I think for all intents and purposes, she kind of does things on a whim. I know generally the idea of who Trance is, and possibly what her motives are, but, it’s the in-between part, we have yet to figure it out.

Actually, that’s kind of what’s funny about Trance, she has a good idea of what’s going on, but between Point A and Point B she has no idea what’s going on. She knows what Point B is, and she’s at Point A, but she doesn’t know what comes in-between.

SPACE.com: What would that look like? I’m having a hard time following you on that.

LB: I can’t really say too much about who she is, except that she is a greater power than most people on the ship. Because she has knowledge of what can happen. She has the opportunity to make good choices, and she guides people along in their choices. Possibly by mistake, though.

She’s very clumsy about it, she doesn’t guide too well, she’s inquisitive and she makes mistakes, and as a result the mistake turn out to help the crew along. But she is known for her mistakes. She’s a rookie in her helping skills, we could say. It’s accidental help. She’s an old soul, but very young in her body. She’s still getting used to being who she is.

SPACE.com: With such a complex character, what sort of emotional work did you do to get into her head?

LB: I think Trance is quite simple. Not simple-minded, simple-hearted. She knows that she wants to help, and all she wants to do is experience life from the best way possible, and she works alongside all of these people because they’ve taken her in and, I think for her own benefit, she enjoys doing what she does, and hopes to do it well, and that’s pretty simple, I think.

I know that, I think Kevin [Sorbo] has described Trance as behaving kind of ditzy. And I think what she is, maybe perhaps not ditz, but definitely not showing her capabilities of intellect. I think she doesn’t go out of her way to sound stupid, she really doesn’t know certain things, and it’s because she’s young.

She’s a very young character in this body that she has. And she’s just, inquisitive, so she’ll ask really stupid questions without intending to be stupid. So I’d say that she’s quite a simple character in that sense. I haven’t done too many preparations in the sense that I have to mentally jump in, I just kind of play her as inquisitive, for better or worse.

SPACE.com: Sort of perpetually "in the moment"?

LB: Oh yeah, she gets immersed in everything she does, even if it’s just the slightest thing as asking a question like what marshmallow means.

SPACE.com: Do you and Trance talk?

LB: I am Trance. I think there’s a lot of me in Trance. And a lot of Trance in me. Of all the roles that I’ve done, I always try to bring an element of myself, whether or not that’s a good choice is up to whoever you ask, but, I always try to make it a touchable character.

SPACE.com: What has shooting been like?

LB: Shooting’s been great. It’s been really exciting to get into the whole sci-fi, I’ve only done one other sci-fi [project], and that was much different from Andromeda.

SPACE.com: Which one was that?

LB: It was [Canadian series] Deepwater Black. I just did like one episode and I was just like a guest that came on. But I didn’t actually work any of the equipment and stuff.

This has been really cool actually, I’ve learned a lot. All of the consoles are written in Vedran, so we don’t know exactly what things mean, but we’ve been given packages on what the buttons mean and how to operate them so we’ve had the chance to learn a little bit more about aerospace technology in that sense. But most of the time we’ve been directed on how to operate things, because apparently we have a couple of engineers that have instructed us on how to ride the slipstream, how to properly drive.

If we were to turn this way or that way, or to do a Crazy Ivan or whatever, they show us how to operated manually with the piloting skills, so it’s been a good learning experience, in that sense.

SPACE.com: Do you want to learn to fly now?

LB: I would love to. I don’t know if I have the guts.

SPACE.com: Well, you’re flying spaceships. . . .

LB: Well. It would be exciting, I would love to learn how to fly. I don’t think they’ll let me, it’s in my contract. I’m not [even] allowed to snowboard.

SPACE.com: Are there any other activities you are now forbidden to do?

LB: They just ask you to list what you like to do and then systematically said you can’t do that, can’t do that. Basically it was snowboarding [that] was the big one. Obviously putting yourself into peril or in an uncontrolled situation puts you at higher risk and it’s not in anyone’s best interests.

SPACE.com: Right.

LB: So, basically, my biggest hobby that was dangerous in that sense was snowboarding, so I had to agree to not do that. I think bike riding, at least mountain bike riding is totally forbidden, I think that recreational bike riding is okay. But I can’t ice-skate, roller-blade, stuff like that is just too unpredictable. Of course I could step out on the street and get hit by a car but that is not quite the same thing, I guess.

SPACE.com: Right. Yes, you can’t shower.

LB: No, no. I have to stay purple forever.

SPACE.com: Right.

LB: They suggested that I jump into a vat of purple dye, and I thought, "that’s a good way to make friends in a new city, walking around purple."

SPACE.com: You really haven’t been a blip on the American radar yet?

LB: No, not at all. I love that.

SPACE.com: So, are you enjoying your anonymity?

LB: Love it.

SPACE.com: You know that’s not gonna last?

LB: I don’t know, do you think? I don’t know if people will recognize me at all. You haven’t seen what I look like without my makeup anyway, maybe, but, I don’t know. It won’t terribly bother me if I don’t get recognized actually. I kinda like going grocery shopping and going out and not having to worry.

I mean people like Kevin and Keith [Hamilton Cobb], obviously are already known, well known, so they’re gonna have a harder time with it, but, I don’t take for granted the fact that I don’t get recognized. I love it, I love that I can just do whatever.