Tonight on Syfy, on the fourth episode of season two of 12 Monkeys, we see more of the aftermath of what happens to time when a primary is killed. In the episode, Katarina Jones, played by Barbara Sukowa, gains a better understanding of how time works after drinking Red Forest tea with Jennifer Goines (Emily Hampshire).

Sukowa recently talked to Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision in an exclusive interview about her work on the series.




SCIFI VISION: Can you talk about how you first became involved in the series?

BARBARA SUKOWA: It was the director of the pilot who asked me if I wanted to audition for the role, and I put myself on tape, sent it in, and that was it.

Is there anyone specifically that inspired your portrayal of Jones, or did you take everything from the script?

It came pretty much from the script, but I had done a movie about Hannah Arendt, a social theorist and philosopher, who was also a very driven person, who I saw as very passionate for her mission that she was following. So I saw some parallels in there, but mostly it came from the script.

Well, you know, in the beginning with the script, you get like two episodes, so you kind of go along with what's happening. That's the difference between doing a TV series and a movie. In the movie you can kind of develop the character from the end; you know all the development. In a TV series, it's really like an adventure; you kind of have to rely more on your own experiences, and you bit by bit develop the character.

Can you talk about Jones losing her daughter Hannah and how that shaped who she is?

Well, I think losing a child is probably the most traumatic event that can happen in one's life. At least it would be in my life, and I think I would speak for most people, and I think that when she was younger, before Hannah and before the loss of this child, she was probably a much more communicative person with the world. I think she was a more fun person probably, and I think when she lost Hannah she really withdrew. She kind of withdrew from the world, and it kind of makes her in a way mysterious to others. She didn't let her thoughts or her feelings out. I think she mourned in isolation, not with others. I think she didn't talk about it, and she focuses even more on her work. I think [she doesn't have] much of private life, or if she has it, she lives very private so people don't see it. So I think all the energy of the trauma goes into her work.

Jones can be cruel at times. At one point she basically tells Ramses (Kirk Acevedo) that she's going to let Deacon (Todd Stashwick) kill him. She won't even give him a chance to say goodbye to his son. Obviously she's done bad things because of Hannah, but it's been for the betterment of the world compared to him. Can you talk about that?

I think you said it. She focuses on a mission, and sometimes she forgets the personal relations with people. I mean, her goal is more important than any personal relation with anybody.

I do think though what really worried her with Ramses being there, is that the balance of power in the facility was threatened, and I think she still wants to keep control of that, so that's why she reacts to Ramses in that way. It's an explosive component in him being there. She's afraid of that I think. She talks about her beginnings at Spearhead where there was an equal amount of military, scientists, and civil people, and that worked out well, and she feels that that balance of power is jeopardized by Ramses and by the Ramses/Deacon connection.

Would you say then that she can probably eventually forgive him as long as he doesn't cause trouble and it works out?

I think he never really got so close to her that there needs to be forgiveness, though I think she keeps people pretty much at a distance. She uses them for what she needs them for to reach her goal at this point. And her goal is not only like an egoistic one, it does involve the whole world, and her daughter, of course, but I don't think he got close enough to her that she was hurt or she had to forgive him for something.

You talk about the balance of power. With Deacon, is it kind of the same thing? She's okay with him being there as long as he keeps order?

Yeah, it's the same thing. He is a necessary evil, I think she says. And she acts like a politician in that way, you know, she just has to see how she can keep things running most effectively for her needs, and for that she uses people as pawns as much as she can, but she's obviously also losing some power in that whole scenario.

You talk about Jones being obviously very private. Can you talk about her relationship with Dr. Eckland (Michael Hogan)?

Well, I think that was a real shock for her, and it would be for anybody, that you're suddenly confronted with somebody with whom you had supposedly a relation - a physical relation, an emotional relation - and you don't remember it, because it was in this other universe, in this other reality. So I think she's trying to make the best of it, and there is a slow approaching of each other, but it's still I think very confusing for her, and she is not used to being emotionally confused. I think she tries to keep things in her life kind of clear and organized. So this is a factor that confuses her, and I think she does develop again a relation[ship] with him...but it's a confusing, very unusual kind of relation. That they work together of course helps, that she respects him as a microbiologist. Also, again, it helps her in her work. He is useful in her work.

Can you talk about working with Michael Hogan?

I loved working with Michael; it was a lot of fun. He's a wonderful man, a wonderful actor, and he's so spirited. I mean, he has like an aliveness about him and a [sense of] humor and fun. I just really enjoyed working with him; I wish I would have had more with him.

In this week's episode Jones has the scene with Jennifer and the Red Forest tea, where she sort of explains to Jones what's going on, and she becomes more enlightened. Can you talk about that and how it's going to affect her?

The thing that I find really fascinating about the whole second season, for all the characters in a way, not only for Jones, is that they really experience some life altering changes. They really are all confronted with something that they didn't expect in their lives to happen.

And Jones keeps being such a straight scientist and really believes in what's provable at this point in science and what science means, and to all of a sudden to go to this woman, who in her mind is kind of cuckoo, and to be talking about these alternative possibilities, is really a big step for her.

But I think at this point she's so desperate, that she doesn't really know where to go with her science and feels it doesn't help her, that she tries anything. And she really has to overcome her convictions to go to Jennifer and work with her, and even listen to her about her solutions and her ways, and actually trying them. I think that was a huge step for her. You know, like a doctor who all of a sudden goes to alternative medicine. There is so much resistance to anything that seems to be irrational and not proven, that to overcome this resistance is a real big step for her.

And I find it fascinating, because those two women are on such different ends, where Jennifer at times is so free and so wild and also fun, and Jones is this kind of, you have the feeling from the outside, emotionally repressed. And to see them together and to actually work together is I think a really wonderful thing.

In that scene there is obviously some green screen work, and there are of course other visual effects. Can you talk about working with some of the special effects on the show?

You are always under time constraints. In a TV series, I mean, things go pretty quick. It's sometimes not easy to be in front of a green screen, but then I don't know; I didn't have problems with it.

We also imagine so many things in our profession; so much goes over via imagination of things that are not there, or imagining things that are there that they wouldn't be there. Like all the people who stand around you on a set you have to at times imagine they are not there. So to sometimes imagine things that aren't there that would be there is kind of the same thing. So I think it was fine. I didn't have like big difficulties with it.

Would you like to get to see Jones time travel at some point?

Yeah. I would love to [laughs]. I would love to, just because I'm sitting all the time in that bunker. I wouldn't mind going time traveling. Wouldn't anybody want to time travel?

Can you give me three words to describe your character?

Driven, I would say. Smart. Unconventional.

**UPDATE: Be sure to read part two of this interview!**