Emily Rose stars in Haven which airs Friday nights on Syfy.
What do you enjoy most about working on Haven?
Emily Rose: I think for me this year I enjoy the depth of where we go with the relationships of the characters. I don’t get my, what’s the word, creative energy or batteries are recharging from the sort of trouble of the week thing. That to me is kind of what keeps people – well, it’s kind of like the laundry line on which everything else hangs.
For me, what’s enjoyable is the mythology and the characters and the deeper mystery behind this town and so when we get to do really like – when we get to scenes to me that have a subtext and we’re not having to explain things exactly on the nose or that involve relationships and history and what’s not being said, that to me is my favorite part of working on Haven.
Thank goodness I get along with my cast mates and enjoy the people and think that the place is beautiful. So I enjoy all those things but to me the real reward is working really hard on a scene with the director in the limited time that we have and then watching it really effect people and then watching the fan videos later.
How do you think your character has evolved this season from the last and where do you think that it’s going?
Emily Rose: I think last season was really about why should I stay in Haven and what’s my connection to the place and why have I been brought here and this season’s been more about who am I. Sometimes I get side barred because we have to focus in on the trouble of the week and it’s always a challenge to try to portray the duality of that but you know anytime that I can find Audrey being effected by the trouble in a personal way then that’s sort of my way in.
And what I think this year is different for her is there’s a bit more of a comfort. Last year she was circling all of her other characters to kind of get an idea of who they are and this year she’s at home with them and is circling them and is thrown off by them when there might be a situation that occurs that she’s not really familiar that they would handle it in a certain way or you know what she knows about Nathan and he reacts in a way she’s not expecting, things like that.
That to me is the different side of it and just what’s exciting about being able to stick with the series and I’m so excited that our ratings are holding strong every week and that we have an audience that’s returning and coming back because they’re getting to know the characters just as well and maybe will have the same reactions as Audrey does when those different situations come about.
Without revealing any spoilers, are we going to find out why Audrey is immune to some of the forces in Haven?
Emily Rose: I don’t know if we’re really going to find out why that is as much as we’re going to find Audrey searching for her identity and clinging onto that as being something that’s really unique to who she is. I think that’s more in the long term mystery of the mythology of the show but it’s definitely something that we really cling to as part of her identity for sure.
How did you feel about the relationship growing between Audrey and Chris?
Emily Rose: It’s always a little weird because you know you’re introducing a guest character and that’s going to kind of tear you apart from the subtext that you’re creating with other characters but I’m always a little leery of it because you’re always like well how’s it going to be written, what’s going to happen and ultimately it’s kind of neat because I think I’ve been reading a lot of the reviews lately of the last episode. And one of the things people are talking about is Audrey’s sort of oblivious nature towards Nathan and how he’s feeling towards her.
And I was talking with one of the writers and they were talking about how normally that’s a guy thing, that’s a guy attribute that the guy would be oblivious to the girl who really likes him. And that on our show it’s Audrey who I think is oblivious in so many ways because she’s conditioned to not connect with people and the only way that she connects and the only time that her connecting is good or that she experiences is when she’s actually able to help troubled people. But when it comes to relationships, she doesn’t know anything about that and even if she might sense something from Nathan, she’s not. It’s too important to her and her job and she doesn’t know how to function.
So I think when I read about this relationship it was kind of exciting. This is the first time we get to see Audrey actually being the girly-girl and in a relationship but it’s almost like she said screw it. I think I’m going to try whatever everybody else is trying and if bad Audrey can have a relationship why can’t I and who am I in a relationship and this is a kind of fun place to try that out.
And then also Chris is like opposites attract. He’s all about science and he’s all about scientific explanations and she’s all about safe and her instincts and her intuition and so it was interesting. It was really fun to play and it was really fun to see what that did between Nathan and Audrey and what that did with Duke and Audrey especially when everybody else is so enamored by him and she isn’t but then sort of she is. So it’s a lot of double edged swords to play but that’s always fun and deep and more interesting ultimately I think.
It’s obvious that Vince and Dave know a lot of what’s going on about the past. Why do you think it is that they won’t tell her? Will see that soon?
Emily Rose: I definitely think that there’s a big reason behind it. I don’t know the reason. My own speculation is that I feel like they’re either ultimately afraid of something or it’s like with a child that you think they can only handle so much or they don’t really know all the answers and so why tell some of the answers if they can’t tell all of them. Or they’re being held accountable to someone else behind the scenes in some kind of way. I really don’t know.
I do know that there is a great moment in the season where Audrey confronts them about that and it’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve been able to play this season as well. So I definitely think that’s a legitimate question and that’s one that she has too.
How do you think filming in an actual small town setting differs from just being on a generic sound stage?
Emily Rose: Hands down. It is a major character of our show. I always say it should be number one on the call sheet. When we moved here and we were from L.A., the way that you felt in a small town that everybody was sort of aware of who you were also with having the stigma of being an actor and what everybody thinks you are or how much money you have they think you have or what they think your life might be.
You absorb all of that and I said okay, Audrey definitely feels under the microscope as well and she definitely isn’t sure of where to go to get certain food and she definitely doesn’t know, you know, how to really get settled and she definitely feels like a fish out of water like she has her work which she finds comfortable and homey and she knows how to do that but other than that, she feels under the microscope.
And it was really kind of great, being in season one and then season two to come back the second year and the warm reception we had from the town and everybody being so excited about Haven and being so enthusiastic about wanting to help and loving watching us film and all this stuff. It’s sort of similar parallel lives with Audrey about being there still and now having everybody sort of accept her more and know who she is and be excited about who she is and all of that it definitely parallels and I think that if I was doing on the WB lot back in the day in L.A. I wouldn’t have the feeling of getting pouring down slanting rain on me while I’m doing a scene and being on a boat that likes rolling up and down and the hard rocks and the beach and just the grittiness of finding a body on the beach, all these things that help for the texture and what aides us in the scene. It would definitely be lacking if we weren’t here.
Can you expand on some of the things that are coming up later on this season?
Emily Rose: I mean that one is one that I’m really, really excited about, this next episode but yes I think there’s an episode coming up that takes place completely in the woods which is really, really creepy and some night stuff that is directed by Lee Rose who is amazing, an amazing director and couple that with our VP Eric Cayla and in the woods at different times of the day. There was a shot where we were sitting there I think I tweeted about it. There was a sunset that we were shooting there the day before our premiere date and it was absolutely stunning and taking up the level of creepiness of Stephen King in that episode is really cool. So I’m looking forward to that episode.
I’m definitely looking forward to some moments in the finale and – with Vince and Dave and between Audrey and Nathan – that are some cool developments. I mean those things are really cool to me. Any kind of heightened emotion and high stakes and stuff that deals personally with the characters to me is great but I think that episode in the woods is episode 10 I believe.
And then also there’s a cool episode that actually working with Jason Priestly, the one that he directed, was really neat and that was fun because his character came back for a little bit and that was a blast.
But looking back, Lucas and I were talking about it over the season where we were thinking about okay is this going to be as strong a season, is this going to up the ante this year and as we started going through the episodes out loud and kind of tracking some of the major events, we’re like wow, there’s some really big things going to happen this season. So it’s going to be a great gift to our fans which I really hope they continue to watch for.
There have been crossovers with Alphas, Eureka and Warehouse. If Haven were a part of that shared universe, which one would you like to visit?
Emily Rose: I was so excited when I went to my first Syfy event and met Eddie McClintock and Matt Cullen. They came out of the woodwork to welcome me to the Syfy family and I was really amazed by that. I just thought there I’m standing just kind of nervous about being new on the show and new to this network and everything and they just came right up to me and were like, “Hi, you’re Emily. You’re on the new show. Congratulations. So good to have you.”
So I would love to work with either one of them. I always thought that Eureka and Haven, if that was to ever do a crossover that would be really interesting as in like neighboring towns or something weird like that or because there is this sort of small town mentality with the cops and that kind of deal or if they had to work together on something I always thought that would be really interesting and funny.
So yes that’s great but we’re so thankful to be on Syfy and to have the viewership and people tuning in for our show and everything and that’s fantastic. Sometimes I think because we’re all the way up in Nova Scotia, Canada, we’re sort of like away from everything. We’re kind of tucked up into this neck of the woods that we’re kind of a little outside of the core shows on Syfy so I don’t ever know if that would actually happen but I think if it did especially with Eureka wrapping things up that that would be a really fun thing and I’ve got to try to think about, you know, would there be a trouble in the Warehouse or something like that. I can see the possibility. It definitely would be a lot of fun and it would just be one of those episodes where you just would be laughing I think the whole time. So that’s a good, interesting question. That’s funny.