Exclusive Interview: Paula Malcomson (Syfy's Caprica)

It felt like forever that Battlestar Galactica (TV) fans had to wait for Caprica (TV), the Galactica prequel, but the wait ended in late January with the premiere of the show on Syfy. And the result? Caprica is a keeper, an entertaining, thought-provoking blend of sci-fi and family drama, the events of which set the stage for such iconic Galactica faces, places, and things as the Adamas, New Caprica, and the Cylons. Among the stars are Eric Stoltz, Esai Morales, Polly Walker, Alessandra Toressani, and Paula Malcomson.

Malcomson, an actress whose credits include Deadwood (TV), Lost (TV), ER (TV), John from Cincinnati (TV), and more, plays Amanda Graystone, the wife of powerful industrialist Daniel Graystone (Stoltz). The Graystones lost their daughter Zoe (Torresani) in a terrorist explosion -- an act in which Zoe was a key figure. Now, Daniel is seeing to it that Zoe will live on, which she does as an avatar and as the world's first Cylon. TVStar recently caught up with Malcomson for an exclusive interview. Read on as she discusses what makes Amanda tick, the show's mission to expand its audience, and her thoughts on just how perilously close to reality the situations in Caprica are becoming.

What makes Amanda interesting to play and, in your opinion, to watch?

I'm not sure what makes her interesting to watch, other than that she's got the same problems as everybody else. Maybe it's just a little bit more exaggerated. She's watching these rich people kind of fall from grace in some ways, and that might be interesting for people to watch. For me, she's just enormously interesting to play because of all the complications that she's going through. That's always interesting to me. It's always interesting to me about playing anyone. What are their problems? What's their pain? Where is their pain? How does it affect them? And then, how do they deal with it? How do they conquer it? How do they arm themselves in the world?

In the upcoming weeks and months, what are you eager to discover about Amanda and about the story in general?

I think that what we're trying to do is make these characters really real and easy to empathize with, the loss in Amanda's life being easily identifiable to everyone. But the thing I love the most is wondering if, eventually, she'll get to see Zoe in whatever form it takes. I think the idea of being able to see your loved ones after you've lost them is pretty appealing. People would literally kill to do that. They'd give anything to be able to spend two minutes with someone they don't see anymore. I think that's the most beautiful plot part of playing this role, but there are 100 other reasons why I love playing Amanda.

You've said in other interviews that you're unpredictable as an actor playing Amanda, that you like to mix things up, change things around. How open are the show's powers that be to your unpredictability?

Well, let's just put it like this: they're in L.A. and I'm in Vancouver, so what are they going to do? It takes them at least six hours to get there with security these days.

The show has some seriously hardcore fans, but not a ton of them yet. What are your thoughts on that situation?

That’s what I'm being told. I'm maybe not terribly surprised. Many of the shows that I've loved the most haven't been huge hits right out of the box and they become discovered by word of mouth. It's sort of more satisfying in some ways, rather than just assuming that you have this massive audience just because, when you have to earn them. I feel like we're trying to do that, really trying to earn an audience. We're stepping into really big shoes in terms of our legacy. We took it seriously. We didn't want to assume that just because people loved Battlestar they're going to watch our show. We'd love them to. I think the Battlestar fans would love it, but we can't make the assumption that they're just going to follow.

How close to reality do you think Caprica is?

I think it's alarmingly close to reality, and I think what we've done so far is just a little teaser for what's to come. The more we get into the show, the more it will become really, really interesting, as the idea of artificial intelligence being so close to us hits home. It's not years and years away, and the possibilities of it are absolutely beautiful and absolutely terrible.