Former farm girl takes on big guns
Alberta’s Helfer relishes role as tough Texas Ranger in new series
One evening after a long day filming the action- packed pilot of ABC’s new drama Killer Women, actress Tricia Helfer compared notes with her lawyer husband on how they spent their day.
Helfer did a driving stunt racing down a street and pulling a 180- degree turn to run one of those lethal ladies off the road.
“He said, ‘ This isn’t fair,’” says Helfer with a laugh. “‘ I’m sitting in an office all day and you’re doing 180s in the middle of Austin.”
Helfer has never been the fragile sort. As cowboy- hatted Texas Ranger Molly Parker, the 39- year- old former Alberta farm girl looks quite comfortable shooting guns, kicking down doors and chasing down baddies in her dusty SUV. And that’s just in Tuesday’s season opener.
“There is a lot of action,” she says. “I grew up a tomboy and I love doing all that stuff. It’s 95 per cent me. All the driving stuff, I love doing it.”
A high- profile mid- season entry from ABC, Killer Women is a strange hybrid loosely based on the Argentine truecrime series Mujeres Asesinas.
It mixes typical police procedural and modern- western elements with family drama, throws in a tough but vulnerable female protagonist and even delves into the psychological makeup of women killers.
Sofia Vergara of Modern Family fame is one of the show’s producers.
Helfer, who grew up on a
Quite often, when strong female characters are written, especially if they are in law enforcement, they tend to be very one- or twodimensional. But Molly isn’t.
TRICIA HELFER
ACTRESS
grain farm outside of Donalda, Alta., seems perfectly suited to play what ABC gamely refers to as a “badass” heroine.
For much of her career, the five- feet- 10- inch Helfer has seemed determined to prove there is more to her than her origins as a statuesque supermodel would suggest.
Discovered at age 17 lining up outside a movie theatre, she became a top cover model for Vogue, Cosmos and even Playboy before turning her attention full time to acting in 2002.
She’s become known for playing tough and often mysterious women, most notably the leggy and villainous “Cylon” Number Six in Battlestar Galactica from 2003 to 2009. She played a dominatrix in 2007 indie film Walk Over Me, a shadowy corporate lawyer in the short- lived TV adaptation of The Firm, and an equally shadowy intelligence handler in the series Burn Notice.
But while Helfer was attracted to Molly Parker’s toughness, she said she was also impressed with the character’s depth.
As one of only two female Texas Rangers, she spends at least part of her time proving herself worthy of what is basically an old boys club.
The Rangers only allowed females in in the 1990s. On top of that, Parker is in the middle
of divorcing her abusive husband, who also happens to be a powerful senator.
“She’s a very likable character,” Helfer says. “Quite often, when strong female characters are written, especially if they are in law enforcement, they tend to be very one- or twodimensional.
“But Molly isn’t. She definitely has a fun and quirky side. She is dealing with vulnerability ... and is hiding some shame.”
On the quirky side, Molly plays trumpet in a mariachi country band and occasionally boasts about her 1992 Miss Texas Pageant win.
On the tough side, she is an expert interrogator and possesses sound investigative instincts.
Those instincts kick into gear early on in Tuesday’s season opener, when Parker investigates a high- profile case that finds a gorgeous high- heeled killer marching into a church during a wedding ceremony and gunning down the bride.
Male investigators think the killer is simply a jilted lover, but Parker wants to dig deeper.
“Most of the cases Molly will be following have to do with women,” Helfer says. “So it has a unique take on female crime and why females kill and, of course, they are chased by a strong female character.”