Helfer relishing the mother of all roles in ‘Lucifer’
Tricia Helfer finds strength in devilish roles, writes Rick Bentley.
TRICIA Helfer is attracted to a specific type of acting role: strong characters. A glimpse of the Canadian’s ability to handle such a role came in 2004 when she became the breakout star on the revamped
Battlestar Galactica with her role as the mysterious and manipulative Number Six. That was followed by a steady stream of roles in Burn Notice, Dark Blue, The Firm, Tron: Uprising and Killer Women.
Her latest series, Lucifer, has given her the chance to play two strong characters. She joined the cast in the second season to play Lucifer’s (Tom Ellis) mother. If you think the devil is to be feared, you should avoid his mum. It looked as if Helfer’s character was not going to return for the third season of the Fox series when her character was sent into the Void by her son at the end of season two.
What appeared to be a sad departure ended up being a great opportunity for Helfer, as the human side of her character remained behind. She is now getting to play a character who has her own special strengths. Helfer is not only excited she gets to continue working on the series based on the comic books by Neil Gaiman and Sam Kieth, but the role is completely different than the one she played last season.
‘‘The first couple of episodes back were really fun because the character is a woman whose intellect and highpowered job means everything to her,’’ Helfer said.
‘‘To not know anything about what happened in the last four months of her life really has her questioning herself.
‘‘She finally decides to be a better person, but then she ends up floating for a while. But by the end of the season it is a real shakeup for her again. It’s fun for me to play a human character who is really struggling with identity.’’
Getting to return to Lucifer came as a surprise to Helfer, as she had signed on for only one season. Her costar, Ellis, is happy Helfer’s back. (And it has nothing to do with sheepishly admitting to having a crush on Helfer when she was on Battlestar and how weird it is she’s his mum.) He says Helfer’s addition to the cast ‘‘elevated the show to a new place’’. That comes from how differently a person will act around their mother, even if that person is the devil.
Helfer’s character was an original creation, so she could get little help from the comic books in putting together her characters. She did read some of the works to get the overall tone of the story and have a better idea about the
Lucifer universe.
But Helfer is always cautious about how much research she does. The last thing she wants is to get pulled between n the script and what she knows about the background.
‘‘It’s a real balancing act. You want to pay homage to the other, but you also have to really focus on the project you are doing,’’ Helfer says.
That balancing act has been done in a wide variety of roles. When it comes to selecting a project, the first rule is the bills have to be paid. But, after that, Helfer tries to mix up the work she is doing as much as possible. There are very few acting jobs Helfer will not do, but it does help when she can make a connection with the role.
She has played everything from a robot to a Texas Ranger.
‘‘If I only played one type of role, how boring would that be? To me, the fun part of acting is getting to play all facets of humanity and in that finding facets of yourself you can draw from. In many ways, it’s like therapy,’’ Helfer says.
The third season of Lucifer screens on Mondays, at 9.30pm, on TVNZ 1.
If I only played one type of role, how boring would that be? To me, the fun part of acting is getting to play all
facets of humanity and in that finding facets of yourself you can draw from. In many ways, it’s like
therapy
— Tricia Helfer