You can now listen to The Wayne Ayers Podcast interview with Daniela! She spoke about the show and directing, and answered some fan questions.

You can listen to the entire interview on Apple Podcasts (CLICK HERE), Spotify (CLICK HERE), or by clicking play below.

Source: TVInsider.

Daniela Ruah stepped behind the camera to direct her fifth episode of NCIS: Los Angeles with the November 6 “Flesh & Blood.”

Her approach to directing hasn’t changed since she did so for the first time in Season 12. “I think I’m just as obsessive with the details as I was in the beginning in the sense that I want to make sure I don’t miss anything,” she tells TV Insider. (The Directors Guild of America provides a workshop for first-time directors, then she evolved from there.) Something she’s learned is to “make sure you have an answer for people,” no matter which department might have a question, and she tries to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

“Every episode that passes I fall more and more in love with the craft and I’ll never leave acting because I’m too much of a show-off and I love being in front of the camera, but visually storytelling through a camera is definitely a passion that has been growing exponentially for me,” she shares.

Here, Ruah shares more about directing and previews “Flesh & Blood.”

Do you enjoy directing action or more emotional character driven scenes more?

Daniela Ruah: I like both. I love the intimate scenes, but I think that comes from my own experience as an actor and how fun it is to dive deep into your emotions and feelings and interpret a situation and play that. And then maybe the other actor gives you something a little bit different, and so you’re listening to them, so you shift what you thought you were gonna do and it’s an animal that finds its own shape in the room in the moment, especially in a show like ours where there’s very little rehearsal time.

But the action sequences are so fun and I tend to be pretty loud and excited when we get a good shot. I will say that the action sequences and bigger days like that are definitely still more challenging for me, I think just because I have to grow my skill set. Fortunately I’m surrounded by a really, really experienced crew and they always are very helpful with everything. Our special effects teams, the Frazee family, they’re unbelievable, and Troy Brown, our stunt coordinator — everybody is just so good at working together as a team and pulling off really hard days in very few hours. I want to do more action sequences just so I can learn more. It’s a lot to think about, a lot of logistics. You need to be very on it with your prep and when people are fighting and falling and blowing things up and shooting, safety is a huge concern always.

This episode you get both. Set up the case.

Because of the cold open — there’s blood on [the victim’s wife] and she’s trying to open the door and he’s dead on the floor with knife wounds — we presume that [she] killed him, but really his death has nothing to do with her at all. … Some episodes, the case is the focus and some episodes like mine, the characters are the focus, their personal journeys. We explore some really important issues here and we allow ourselves as well to get to know Deeks [Eric Christian Olsen] a little bit better and his life experiences, which he connects with Marnee Carpenter’s character and her experience with domestic violence.

It’s always so much fun when Roberta (Pamela Reed) is around, and we got some great scenes with her and Kensi, including one about parenting, which was sweet in a Mama Deeks way. What can Kensi learn from her about being a parent?

Both Kensi and Dani are going to learn things from Mama Deeks. It’s funny, the scene where I’m like, “I feel like I’m always missing something,” that doesn’t happen to me personally as much as my kids are much younger. I think when they become teenagers, they maybe open up to their friends, not always with you as much as you’d want them to — hopefully my kids will. But you do feel like you’re missing out on a little something here and there. And when she’s like, being a parent is like being pecked by something. And I’m like, I thought that was gonna be a more positive piece of advice. And she goes, “What are you talking about? It’s a slow death.” As horrible as that sounds, she means you have time, enjoy the time you have with your kid because it’s not short. Enjoy every day, enjoy every moment, learn from it and move on. She just decides to describe it as a slow death.

Pamela’s wonderful. I wish I could put in every single take that she does. And then the end of the episode, [part of the conversation between Deeks and his mother] was written [but then she added some] improv.

Speaking of parenting, I have to say how much I enjoyed the chaotic feel of Kensi, Deeks, and Rosa (Natalia Del Riego) getting ready in the morning early on in the episode.

I felt like being on a steady cam adds a little bit more movement and allows the camera operator to move around in a more flexible way than if he’s on a dolly or something like that. It’s representing the hecticness and people are coming out from different parts of the house and she’s tying her shoes and looking for a backpack and Kensi’s trying to shove food down her face quickly before she needs to go. And oddly enough, Deeks is the one, after he catches a bag, who just kind of stands there and is looking at everybody else running around like headless chickens, kind of cool as a cucumber.

And that phone call, oh my gosh. We were very particular about the car we chose for Pam, by the way. That was a very conscious choice to have the one with the wood on the sides, that like old school, soccer mom car.

It fit her so well.

Perfectly. And then with all her camping stuff and all her stuff behind her in the car. Those things become a little bit of background, but at the end of the day in prep, those are the kind of things that we put more thought into than you would think. What car would she drive? Now we’re establishing that car for future episodes. What kind of junk would she have around her? I remember specifically saying she wouldn’t have a loud speaker in that car because it’s an old car, so let’s get one of those phone holders and put it right in front of her on the windshield. Details like that that really sort of show what kind of a character she is.

What can you tease about the three-show crossover?

It’s been shot and it went really well. It was extremely fun. Some of the actors I already knew. For example, I’ve known Wilmer [Valderrama] for a few years now and it was so fun to catch up with him and show pictures of the kids and the spouses and all that. And then I got to meet the people, for example, from NCIS: Hawai’i. They came over, I hadn’t met any of them before, and it was just wonderful. Everybody was just happy to see each other and happy to be together.

I was happy to see that LA is involved because it’s mostly been single characters for your show.

Yeah. The thing is logistically, it’s kind of a nightmare for the producers of every show because you have a set of characters that are coming to our show or whatever we’re doing, [but] they have to maybe be on our show in the morning and then, for the regular NCIS, drive back to Santa Clarita to finish off the day up there. The coordination of schedules was a big, big deal for the producers and kudos to them for making it work.

What else is coming up for Kensi?

On a less emotional note, I got some really good fight scenes coming up.

I love when Kensi gets fight scenes!

I know, me too. It’s one of my favorite parts of playing Kensi is the fact that I get to do a bunch of fight sequences. I have an amazing stunt double Kim [Shannon Murphy], and she choreographs everything for me. She does all the really dangerous stuff, but she’s very kind to let me do large portions of the fight sequences. I’m not allowed to get flipped over on my back or be in the car in driving sequences.

And I’m directing Episode 14, so we’ll have another directed episode by me this season.

Is there anything you can share about more with Kessler (played by writer Frank Military)?

Not that I’ve heard of, but bringing back Kessler is definitely one of my hopes.

Those two in an interrogation in the boatshed would be amazing.

I think so, too. And Frank Military is a very good friend of mine, so it’s always fun when you already have that trust and comfortability with another person and to just see where it goes in the scenes.

O telefilme “Os Vivos, o Morto e o Peixe Frito”, baseado na obra de Ondjaki e realizado pela @danielaruah, estreia a 7 de dezembro, às 21h, na RTP1.

Este pertence a “Contado por Mulheres”, um projeto que reúne dez telefilmes baseados em contos, novelas e romances da literatura portuguesa dos séculos XX e XXI, e que foram adaptados por argumentistas e dez realizadoras.
O primeiro é apresentado a 16 de novembro, e todas as quartas-feiras estreia um novo.

Clique na imagem ou aqui para obter mais informações.

———

The telefilm “Os Vivos, o Morto e o Peixe Frito”, directed by @danielaruah, premieres on December 7, at 9pm, on RTP1.

It belongs to “Contado por Mulheres”, a project that brings together ten TV movies based on short stories, novels and novellas from 20th and 21st century Portuguese literature, which were adapted by screenwriters and ten female directors.
The first film will air on November 16th, and a new one premieres every Wednesday.

Tap on the picture or here to learn more.

Source: TV Insider.

NCIS: Los Angeles is officially back for its 14th season, and while there might have been a scare in the premiere about Hetty (Linda Hunt) — the body with an ID of one of her aliases’ was not hers — there are more of those to come (not involving her).

After all, the team will once again be dealing with a case that was left very open-ended from Season 9, and for Kensi (Daniela Ruah), the threat of Kessler (Frank Military) is very much ever-present. When will he make his move?

When TV Insider recently caught up with Ruah, who directed Episode 5, she teased what’s ahead there and more.

The serial killers from “The Monster” in Season 9 are coming back — that’s the most terrifying episode of the series.

Daniela Ruah: Yes! You can thank Frank Military for that, and Adam George Key, who wrote it with him.

I’m not surprised considering Frank Military is Kessler.

Right? Yeah.

What can you say about their return?

Thus far the episode that we shot will once again finish with an open ending. So that’s pretty fascinating. Yeah, it’s kind of scary, but the conclusions we come to at the end are pretty terrifying. And I don’t want to say anymore because I really want people to watch. [Laughs]

Speaking of Kessler, I need something to happen with him because that threat’s just hanging over them.

I know, me too, trust me. I have no idea when he’s coming back. But I really hope he does. Frank Military created that character, which is so funny because Frank Military as a human is the lightest, most positive, kindest person you’ve ever met. And he really goes down the rabbit hole of creating these awful characters, dark characters. I hope that he comes back and plays him again because I think Frank was brilliant and it was such an interesting dynamic with Kensi.

So it sounds like you haven’t done anything with that yet, but do we see Kensi doing anything to protect her family in the meantime? Or is that kind of just falling to the background because of everything else?

It’s always there. We always know it’s there. But it has fallen ever so slightly to the background right now because there’s so much else going on.

Callen (Chris O’Donnell) and Anna’s (Bar Paly) wedding is coming up and chances are it will be as exciting as Kensi and Deeks’ was. So do you know anything about that?

What do you know about that?

I don’t know anything yet.

[Laughs] I don’t know anything either. I wish I did. I was trying to get a scoop from you. It is discussed in Episode 5. And Callen is concerned that Hetty is not present and this makes him hesitant, if you will.

I hope we get some good Kensi, Deeks (Eric Christian Olsen), and Arkady (Vyto Ruginis) scenes leading up to it because those three together…

Oh my gosh, I love Arkady. He’s such a phenomenal actor and character. How often does the character like that get called back over and over and over again? He’s so wonderful.

Will we see him in the early part of the season, say in the episode you directed? Since you mentioned the wedding…

He’s talked about, but he will not be physically in the episode I directed.

Is there anything you got to do as a director you haven’t yet with that episode?

Here’s the interesting thing. It’s a network television show, which means that we have certain aesthetic parameters that we tend to stick to and the place where most directors are going to have a lot of fun with tends to be the cold open because it typically is different than the stuff we do throughout the episode. It’s usually not in the OPS Center, it’s usually not in the boat shed. It’s a new location. It’s might be at night. You can get super creative. And so every time it’s time to shoot the cold open of an episode, I think that’s where I have a lot of fun because it’s just a little bit more open-ended aesthetically on what you’re allowed to do.

A couple of seasons ago, when we had the sailor who was on an LSD trip — he took too much LSD, he was supposed to be micro-dosing — and it was written by Indira Wilson and the whole opening was him on a trip. And so he’s in the ship and he’s coming down and we have smoke and then we filmed it in a way where the camera sort of goes over him and ends upside down as he’s running away from camera. Little details like that from a directing standpoint are really fun to do. There’s probably not much of a reason in a regular episode or while we’re doing a case for the camera to be flipped upside down. So things that may not seem a very big deal to an audience member, to me as a director it’s like, oh, I got to play with the camera. I got to play with its direction. I got to play with what it’s looking at.

Will we see Sabatino (Erik Palladino) again this season?

We will see him this season, yes. We have not shot it yet, but I believe we will see him, so I’ve been told.

I like the way that his relationship with the team has gone over the years. It’s crazy the paths it’s taken.

I agree. And the fact that we met him working with Kensi in Afghanistan in Season 5 and that relationship developing, that banter. Erik Palladino, the actor who plays him, has chemistry with everybody. Put him in a scene with Callan and Sam [LL Cool J], put him in a scene with Kensi and Deeks, he’s gonna be funny and he’s gonna be good at action and he’s just a really good, fun actor to watch, and I love him as a human.

What else can you preview about the season for Kensi?

We’re only on Episode 8. I think it’s just so far struggling with the parenting aspect of it, having to deal with a mother-in-law [Pamela Reed’s Roberta] who she does love, but watching the dynamic between Deeks and Mama Deeks is very funny. They go a little bit into Deeks’ past, his father being an aggressive person towards his mom and him when they were little. We explore that a little bit in Episode 5.

So are we getting the “Deeks, M.” episode this season?

He’s the one person we’re missing. I don’t know when that’s happening, but it should happen, for sure.

Source: TV Fanatic.

Daniela Ruah has enjoyed playing Kensi Blye, the most enduring female agent in the popular NCIS franchise.
NCIS: Los Angeles returns for its 14th season at 10 p.m. Sunday on CBS, and Ruah has been there from the beginning, as have LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell as partners Sam Hanna and G Callen.
In this exclusive interview with TV Fanatic, when she calls from her home base of, not surprisingly, Los Angeles, Ruah admits she feels a kinship to Kensi.

“That’s like asking what is your favorite part about playing yourself because that’s how close I am to Kensi at this point,” she says. “She is me, except I don’t catch bad guys for a living.”

Try harder, Daniela.

The floodgates open: “I love her spontaneity. I love her sense of humor. I love her relationships with all the other characters, especially her relationship with her husband, Deeks. I love how much of a well-rounded human being Kensi is. I love how she’s matured and undergone life experiences in front of an audience.”

The NCIS: Los Angeles writers have taken Kensi on quite a journey, Ruah explains.
“She started off being kind of a loner,” she says. “I can do it myself. I’m independent. I lived on the streets, and I can fend for myself. Then she found someone she could truly share her fears and concerns, and worries with, someone who makes her laugh and brings her joy.
“At first, she didn’t want to be a parent because all she knows is this job, and she’s fearful of not being in this job because of being a parent. Then she runs into infertility when she decides she does want to be a mom, a struggle that is so true and so difficult for many would-be parents. Then she found a solution to that.
“I figure she’s about the same age as me. So she started around age 25 and is now turning 39. A lot can happen in that period of time.”

In the new season, Kensi faces perhaps her biggest challenge, as she and Deeks serve as foster parents to Rosa, who she rescued from Guatemala on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 8.

Ruah explains that Kensi has no blueprint for being a parent, as her beloved father died young, and her mother wasn’t present for her. As a result, Kensi puts too much pressure on herself.
“I love how insecure she is as a brand-new foster mom,” she says. “She loves so much and cares so much that she just wants to get it right and sort of ends up overthinking and being nervous about everything. She tries to be the perfect foster parent. One, nobody’s perfect, and two, you’re more likely to fail if you try to be perfect.”

Some would argue that Kensi has always had to be the responsible one in her relationship with Deeks. But Ruah refused to see Deeks as childish.
“I don’t agree with that,” she rebutted. “In spite of Deeks being a total goofball and he’s funny, at the end of the day when you watch Deeks turn on his mature, intelligent self, he can hold the room. When he wants to put on his lawyer hat for the suspect, or he wants to dive deep emotionally with something, we’ve seen him do that.
“He is no child, even though he makes some silly moves and says some silly things,” she added. “At the end of the day, he knows exactly what he’s doing. Also, I don’t think Kensi would fall in love with a man-child.”

One of the series’ many hanging storylines is David Kessler, who began stalking Kensi on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 Episode 5. He’s been mentioned once in passing since then. Ruah is game to tie up that storyline.
“I’d love to see Kensi stepping out of character and making more erratic decisions,” she says. “She’s become more logical through the years. Earlier, she was more likely to be a loose cannon and go off and do what she needed to do. I’d love to see her being driven by instinct rather than being driven by logic.”

Other teammates also have lingering storylines from NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13.
Sam is caring for his curmudgeonly father, Raymond, who is slowly developing dementia.
Callen is preparing to marry Anna. Hetty’s absence will weigh heavily on him, and that will cause tension between them.
Roundtree is still dealing with the fallout of mistakenly being stopped by racist police on NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 15.

After years with motherly Hetty, Ruah says the squad has adjusted to Kilbride’s management style, even if some viewers haven’t. Pointing to an episode she directed, “Live Free or Die Standing” (NCIS: Los Angeles Season 13 Episode 19), she says that Kilbride will do what needs to be done.
“Even though Kilbride is his brusque self, he’s still coming from the Hetty generations-of-experience way of doing things,” she added. “He’s by the book until he can’t be because he’s also the guy who’s going to do the right thing. He’s a good guy.”

Ruah has been working more as a director. She has directed her show for three seasons, directing two episodes this season. She also has directed in her home company of Portugal.

Much of the core group of lead actors have been together for the entire run of NCIS: Los Angeles.
“We’ve become a family that’s been cemented throughout the years,” Ruah says. “Us being together for so long as a cast has brought people comfort. Being in people’s homes every week for 14 years is a big deal.
“A lot of people have said, ‘This is a show we sit down as a family to watch every Sunday.’ That brings me so much joy.”

Source: Parade.

Daniela Ruah teases the opening episode of season 14 with Kensi and Deeks as foster parents to Rosa and a body that matches Hetty’s description found in Syria.

“The personal side has always been very present in the show,” Ruah tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “That’s what differentiates us from a lot of other procedurals. And if you think about it, after 14 years, we have literally matured and aged in front of an audience, and so they knew the more immature, younger side of us. Both as actors, but also as characters. And they’ve seen us making changes and pivot in different situations to become the people they are today. I think that’s a large part of the beating heart of our show.”

Speaking of hearts, one well-known quote on becoming a parent is that your heart then walks around in the world outside of your body. Such is now the case for Kensi and Deeks, who when they drop Rosa off to school in the series premiere, are way more nervous than she is, and as they try to reassure her, only ramp up her anxiety.

“I have no experience raising a teenager because my children are still quite young, but I also know that I’m getting to know my kids and their personalities from birth,” Ruah says by way of explaining her character’s parenting skills. “And then once they become teenagers, I will know exactly who they are and what they’re capable of and what they need help with.”

But for Kensi and Deeks, they’re just getting to know Rosa, who as mentioned, Kensi shared a super intense experience with while in Mexico as they escaped from some very bad guys, and now she’s their foster daughter.

“So, they’re having to get to know an older child and trying to be the best parents they can,” Ruah continues. “I think anyone who’s a parent knows you put way too much pressure on yourself to do everything perfectly when all they want is somebody to watch over them and keep them safe.”

Also, in the season premiere, Callen and Kilbride (Gerald McRaney) get troubling news about a body found in Syria, the description of which matches Hetty (Linda Hunt) and they await news as to whether the body is actually Hetty or someone who resembles her.

(…)

“I think Scott keeps that in his own mind pretty tightly wrapped,” Ruah says when asked about the return of Hetty. “I think what I am allowed to say is that a body is found in Syria, somewhere around Hetty’s last location, and we have to try and explore and find out what that’s all about. But I don’t have a future to be able to tease to you because I don’t know.”

But what she does know is that in addition to the importance of the characters, the cases matter, too.

“That’s what drives the episodes if you will, but there’s no doubt that the beating heart of the show is the personal side of the show,” she adds.

(…)

Also in the premiere episode, we see Kensi meet a woman who has just lost her father. That’s happened before, but now she is a mother. Was there a moment where she stopped to think that maybe she needs to be more cautious because Rosa could end up being given the same news as she was giving this woman?

That’s really interesting. I don’t believe that was written in, but I think that just goes to show that we all watch something and maybe put in a little bit of our own experiences and interpretation. I love that you identified that because you truly are understanding Kensi’s current experience. But, obviously, we know that Kensi’s father also passed away, so she also has empathy for somebody who loses somebody very important to them, in this case, a father.
So, I think, Kensi feels empathy on a lot of different levels, and that tends to be who Kensi is, you know what I mean? I agree with you that the maternal side has kicked in. I don’t think she was maternal until she found Rosa. I can identify with that myself, I don’t think I was maternal until I had my own children, and I know plenty of women who have a maternal side to them even before they have their own children, so it’s a journey.

Last time we talked, we talked about how important it was for NCIS: Los Angeles to deal with Kensi’s fertility issues. Now that she and Deeks are fostering a child, will that continue? Do they still want to try for a baby? Or now having Rosa, is that changing their minds?

I think having Rosa has filled the parent hole in their heart. I think that Kensi came to the conclusion that she’s just not meant to bear children of her own, and that’s a very true realization for lots of women. On the other hand, there are women that try 15-20 times and finally get the much-desired baby. But it also took a huge toll on her body. It was hard for her to work; it was hard for her to function. I think that they’ve made the decision that Rosa will fill that gap in love that they were feeling.

How many episodes will you be directing this season? And what satisfaction do you get being behind the camera that you don’t in front of it?

That’s a really interesting question. I’m doing two this year. I’ll be doing episodes five and 14, unless people get shuffled around because that can happen, too. But I’m doing two this year. You know, I think, ownership. In a weird way, I’m very proud of taking ownership over good things that happen but also mistakes that happen. I’m quite fresh; it’s only been about three years at this point. This year I’ll be doing my sixth directed episode, so I have so much more to learn. But I think I thrive off of learning something new and I just really feed off of the excitement of, “This is new.”
I feel like I’m in film school but it’s with people that I’ve known for years, and it’s people that I trust and who put trust in me. And so, therefore, I owe them the message that you trust me and you should trust me. It’s just exciting that it’s new and it’s a different angle of telling a story because my perspective has to be that of all characters and has to be that of how will this cut together so that it will make sense. And how can I make something feel powerful? How can I take a really good script and elevate it visually?
And how to take full advantage of the strength of my actors. In this case my colleagues, the regular cast of the show. They all have such incredible strengths that are so different from each other, how can we take advantage of that? As an actor, you’re functioning on one level of a building where you only see what’s there. And then when you’re put in a writing or in a directing position, or producing or whatever it is, in my case, directing, it’s like somebody allows you to step further up the ladder and just have a bigger visual of the geography of an episode.
It’s like you have to see the full map, you can’t just look at one thing, this ocean or that country. You have to see the full map because you’re telling the story that’s on the map, and it has to make sense and be cohesive throughout. How one scene opens, where did we come from before this, the energy that goes from this scene into the next scene. Is there a particular transition I’d like to do that helps to tell the story or move the story along?
It’s really exciting to go to the drawing board and storyboard some scenes or a shot list or whatever it is. Both of our first ADs on our show also direct, and just to sit and brainstorm with them and be like, “I was thinking this, this, this, and this. Do you think we’ll have time in our day to do this?” “Well, you will, but you might have to…” There’s so many logistics. You can tell how talkative I just became.

How excited you are, yeah.

I am. And I think that I would be this chatty if I was playing a brand-new character that I had not been playing for 14 years. I love change. I love learning something new. Yeah, it all feels very, very exciting and I’m excited at the possibility of directing other things outside of this show just because it would be a new challenge. I wouldn’t know the people, I wouldn’t know the team, and to do that as well.

Do you find Kensi fresh enough, and the stories fresh enough, that you would keep going to say, Season 20, like regular NCIS? If CBS keeps picking you up.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

You’ve been talking about new things, so you would want to stay?

Kensi is a human being who is constantly developing and growing and learning from whatever she’s living, so, of course, it’s exciting to do that. When I say excitement on something new, when you call “Action,” I become Kensi, when you call “Cut,” I’m back to Dani, and it’s a seamless transition because I’ve been doing that with that character for so long. I would have to stay 10 times more focused if I was playing a brand-new character. And that’s the kind of excitement that I’m talking about.
This may sound awful at first but listen to the whole thing. I was going to say I love being married. This will make sense, I promise you. I love being married as Daniela to David. What we do as a family, how we evolve as a couple, all of that is amazing to me. But I also loved the butterflies in the tummy when I first started dating Dave, when it was new, and we were getting to know each other.
And it’s the same thing as a character. I’ve been married to Kensi for 14 years, but I still remember the excitement when I first started playing her. That’s what I mean. So, it has nothing to do with whether I keep playing her or not, it’s just that’s what I mean when I talk about excitement and a character.

Speaking about excitement of new characters, of course we miss Nell (Renée Felice Smith) and Beale (Barrett Foa), but now we have Roundtree (Castille) and Namazi (Rahimi) and they bring a totally different energy. How does their addition open up the show for new story ideas?

First of all, I want to say that I absolutely adore both of them as human beings, and I love them as actors. I’m speaking more from a directing perspective now, but I love working with them. They’re so open to experimenting and they ask such great questions like, “Do you think my character would do this or that?” There are things that only they have an answer to, and I can only guide them there.
Obviously, their being new characters, it means that there’s lots of life stories to explore that we haven’t done. So right there, of course, it gives you plenty of space for new storylines. And then exploring the relationship between them. Are they best friends? Are they like brother and sister? Would it be a flirty thing at some point? I have no idea. They haven’t explored either way. Obviously, right now they’re very close. They’re such great additions to the show.

It looks as if COVID protocols are still affecting the show. We haven’t seen any group shots in ops, so like maybe no more than two people can be in there and group shots are mostly outdoors?

I want to say that we have moved a little bit away from that. We are way more back to normal. There’s definitely op scenes. Maybe not in the first episode, but there’s definitely op scenes where there’s quite a few of us in there. So, that has shifted for sure.
I think the COVID protocols are still very much felt in terms of the actual production aspect of it. We were reduced to 10-hour days to avoid people being together more time than that. And they realized that we were capable of finishing our days in 10 hours and so we’ve stuck to it now.
So, we have 10-hour days. Nice as an actress because it’s like, “Yay, the day’s done, I get to go home.” But when you are, again on the production side, or on the directing side, or writing side, it’s like you have to adapt all of your ideas to not having much time in a day to get them done. So, it definitely is more anxiety inducing, but hey, it’s the most amazing school for efficiency that I’ve ever been to. I mean, wherever I go after this I’ll be more efficient than I ever was.