After Nikita‘s New York Comic Con panel, I found myself lucky enough to participate in the press room chatting with Albert Kim, Maggie Q, and Shane West.
Each individual traveled to our table for fifteen minute roundtable interviews, giving us enough time to throw out questions. I thought I had grown impervious to people’s looks, but I have to say that Maggie Q and Shane West are ridiculously gorgeous people. Maggie Q is way too pretty for words. She hit the press room rocking a cat-lady ensemble complete with a ruffled collar leopard-print dress. And I literally turned into a 13-year-old girl when Shane West’s wavy hair, hazel brown eyes, and rippling biceps hit my table.
Albert Kim isn’t any slouch either. While I love talking to the actors who make our characters tangible, I typically prefer listening to the writers/producers who create the characters, guide their story lines, and provide their words more.
Maggie Q Roundtable Interview
The main thing I noticed during Nikita’s season one surrounded the similarity between Nikita and Percy (Xander Berkeley). I loved their oppositional chess master relationship. They basically served as two sides of the same coin. Despite having different goals, both used the same means to achieve them. I admitted to Maggie that I loved watching her interact with Xander Berkeley, and asked if season two would return to their oppositional relationship. She stated that Percy will stay caged in Division for now, but that he’ll possibly return in a position of power, much scarier than Division head. She enjoys how this season slowly draws him out of the box with each increasing trinket acquisition. She loves working with Xander, but joked about their relationship as two ships passing in the night while miming a scene from Ghost.
I also loved season one’s developing relationships between Nikita and Owen (Devon Sawa), and Nikita and Ryan (Noah Bean). Brittany already covered this week’s Ryan-inclusive episode. However, I always felt that Owen and Ryan served as secondary contenders for Nikita’s hand, after Michael. Considering Ryan shared an early kiss with Nikita and sacrificed his career for her, while Owen went from menacing assassin to adorable puppy beneath her charms, I find it difficult to assume we won’t see possible future chemistry flare between any of those characters on-screen. When asked about Devon Sawa’s post-episode two return, Maggie laughed that Owen’s “always popping up” and will return in ten.
When asked about her interactions with Alex, which I believe another writer asked, Maggie discussed her personal theory on relationships. She feels the world provides two great loves: friendship and intimacy. Both are equally important, but how do you choose? Nikita has both: Alex on the friend side and Michael on the intimacy side. She feels that what pulled Alex from Nikita is a good, adult reason. Side note: Both Maggie and Albert used “adult” when describing the show’s various relationship complications. Maggie continued, pointing out that Alex and Nikita have different perspectives and experiences despite their season one allegiance. Although Nikita trained Alex, Alex had a good life growing up, which she missed and wanted back; by contrast, Nikita didn’t have a childhood that she missed or wanted to recover.
In response to additional questions asked by other writers, she admitted the romantic scenes with Shane are different in season two because they’re more comfortable with each other. Regarding the show’s overall tone, she loves when Nikita rocks the darker side and always pushes for that. She used a phone conversation with friend Oliver Stone as an example. After watching a spate of Nikita episodes, he urged her to tell Silverstein to go darker, because “you can handle it.”
For Shane West’s interview and a video snippet click on to the next page!
Clacked by An Nicholson 
on Nov 07, 2011 @ 15:35 EST5EDT
