IGN: Maggie Q Keeps Kicking Ass


Written by Alexa on January 25 2011

Here’s another fantastic interview with Maggie, she goes into great detail about what we can expect to see in the upcoming episodes and other exciting developments. Be sure to take a read!

IGN: After the events of the last episode, it looks like things are definitely changing on Nikita.

Maggie Q: Well, things have gotten a little more complicated. Alex graduating was premature, to say the very least. Nikita wasn’t planning on it being that early. She trained her well, but I think a little too well. Obviously she certainly is more valuable on the inside, but it would be okay if she left and they could become a team. But they can’t do that either. Not yet. Alex is being monitored and there are things you’ll find out when we come back from the break that doesn’t really allow them that. They do get to see each other from time to time, but the logistics have just been upped for Nikita, in terms of keeping her safe and their relationship and all that. It was a little bit easier when she was in Division.

IGN: Nikita is slowly gaining support meanwhile, with Owen and now Ryan.

Maggie Q: I kind of love these allies that are happening for her, because she has to have them. I mean, she can’t do it by herself, number one. And number two, I like the introduction of these guys – that you’re just sort of like, “Hmm?” What’s he around for? Is he just going to help? Is he going to be someone? What is it?”

I love the idea of the guardians being exposed and Owen being the first guardian, which is really cool. He’s very manly and he’s kind of gruff and different from Michael and the other guys in the show, which I like. It brings something different. And then Noah Bean, who plays Ryan Fletcher, he grounds the show in a way that I think is really nice. He’s a fantastic actor. He’s really smart and he’s sort of her eyes on the inside of an agency that’s going to become very important on this show. So I think he’s going to be around. So I’m excited about her allies, because it’s not just allies who help her fight and sort of supply her with armor or this, that or the other. It’s not that kind of ally. It’s the kind of ally that she can kind of have eyes on the inside, in places that she wouldn’t normally have.

IGN: Nikita and Michael had a bit of a truce building, only for it to completely fall apart. Is he continuing to just see her as enemy number one?

Maggie Q: Absolutely. He’s so angry. So angry. And I’ve been getting a lot of things from fans and people going, “But why is he so mad?!” And you know, Michael has sort of had one purpose since the death of his family, and that’s to get this guy back. And it’s why he’s been in Division for so long. It’s why he’s put up with Percy’s s**t for so long. It’s why he’ll be his number two. But I think when it’s that one thing that means the most to you, you’re not going to see it any other way. You’re not going to see it as, “Well, Nikita cares about me, so she didn’t want me to sacrifice my life for this. She thinks we can do it in a smarter way.” You’re not thinking in that sort of realm when you’re that emotional about something. And I don’t think either of them realize how much they care about each other and what that actually means. Because they don’t say it and they try not to show it as much as possible.

We’re filming an episode right now – and it’s five or six episodes later – where they finally have a conversation about what went wrong and why he’s so angry and what she took from him and why he doesn’t forgive him. But we are building the road now to possibly them trusting each other again. And we’re gonna have some pretty big shifts for the two of them towards the end of the season for sure.

IGN: That last episode, “All The Way”, had such great, kick ass action for you. The chain thing…

Maggie Q: Oh my god, the action was killer wasn’t it?!

IGN: When you beat up all the recruits!

Maggie Q: Holy s**t, was that not crazy?! When I saw the previews for that fight, I was like, “What?!” I fought like fifteen people in that fight! It was ridiculous! That fight almost killed me. Honestly, I remember on the day, I did two camera rehearsals and I thought I was dying. I was like, “How am I going to get through this day?!” And we milked that cow. We shot that fight for probably eight hours, at least. I was dead. I didn’t think that I could move after that day. I mean it was awesome, but also just really… oh my god. Because you don’t know what’s gonna happen! You’re like, “Oh my god, how the hell is she going to get out of this? There’s no way!” And somehow, she does it.

IGN: Well, it was just a wonderfully ambitious fight for TV. I’m guessing if it was a movie, you would probably take a couple of weeks to shoot something like that.

Maggie Q: Absolutely. It was in one day! It was crazy.

IGN: Are there more big action scenes coming up?

Maggie Q: There is. There definitely is. We have a new coordinator who came on around episode seven. He’s from LA and he’s somebody that I trust, that I’ve done movies with. He trained me for different films and I love him. So it’s that quality. I fought to get him up there in Canada, because I felt like one of the things that we have to offer on the show is we’re the real deal, dude. This is no joke. When we do action, we do not mess around. And I want movie quality action, because that’s my background. This is the first time I’ve done TV and I’m not going to cut corners because it’s an hour and not an hour and a half, or because we don’t have as much money or because we don’t have enough time. I think every week, our audience still deserves the quality that I expect from me and from the crew. So we’re going for it!

IGN: I really enjoy the flashbacks and the glimpses we get into different parts of these characters and their lives, such as Nikita and Michael. And I’m curious about Birkhoff…

Maggie Q: There’s an episode coming up, the first episode after the break, where we’re gonna deal a little bit with who Birkhoff was. How Percy got him and what he did wrong and what Percy’s got on him. Which is really cool, because I love that character so much. He’s so fun and he brings a joy, almost. You’ve got to have your humor! And Nikita has it a little bit and Birkhoff has it a little bit. You’re not going to get it from Percy and Michael. You get it a little bit from Amanda, because she’s so wicked and weird and awesome! But other than that, you don’t really get a lot of that. So Birkhoff is a nice payoff for this kind of series. But his background is extensive, so we’re going to go into that and we’re going to go into… Birkhoff gets into a situation in the next episode that he’s not sure how to get out of. So it’s going to be really, really cool to get into his backstory.

And you’re going to see more of finding out where Alex came from. We’re going to solidify that and move forward with it. Because that’s a current story and there’s not a lot to know in the backstory, we’re going to kind of get that out, like I said, so we can move forward with her.

Then what we’re really going to do is just go back to the early days of Division, which is going to be really interesting, because that’s the stuff that I want to know. I want to see how Michael and Nikita developed. I want to see how close her and Birkhoff were. They were good friends in Division!

IGN: He calls her Nikki!

Maggie Q: [Nods] He calls her Nikki! He would have been closer in age to her and he would have been almost like a brother. Besides Michael, the person she had an intimate relationship with, Birkhoff would have been the closest person to her. So the threat that she’s fighting… They have a lot of history. And so does Nikita and Amanda, and we’re going to be seeing a lot more of that too.

IGN: There are some interesting potential love interests brewing. With Michael, Owen and Ryan, it occurs to me you now have three possibilities!

Maggie Q: Yes, yes!

IGN: Is there anything developing on that front?

Maggie Q: I think the thing that people want to see much is going to happen soon. And I think that with the Ryan Fletcher character and with the Owen character, they are coming back and they are going to be there, and I think we’re going to see a little bit of jealousy happening. And a little bit of, “Whoa, why is she so close to this person?” sort of thing. Which is going to be kind of exciting, because whenever you evoke emotion in a man, your ears go up. Because women are very emotional, but when you see a man sort of feel threatened and kind of wonder where that’s going, you start to see sort of what he’s been living with and what he really, essentially wants but can’t show or say.

Source: IGN

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