BROTHERS, WAREHOUSE 13 and Jim Cameron’s upcoming Avatar. I suppose this would be one of those situations where when it rains, it pours?
CCH Pounder: Yes indeed, but I think that the one thing that connects them all is different shades of rather powerful woman. A woman who has a great sense of who she is. Each of those roles, although they are completely different is showing not sexy, bumbling, vampy woman, but WOMAN. One is a mother [BROTHERS], one you can relate to as a boss [WAREHOUSE 13] and one who you can relate to as a Queen {Avatar]. And it just so happens that they’re all coming out — because AVATAR took two years to film a very short role — at the same time.
How much more do you know about Mrs. Fredrickson than the audience?
Nothing. I know absolutely nothing and that’s the way they [the writers] keep it. In fact, when we first started WAREHOUSE 13, everybody on our show was given a packet revealing “this is where you came from, this is your history.” For Mrs. Fredrickson all I got was from the writers is, “we are not disclosing anything!” We don’t even know what quality of life is in her, whether she’s real, whether she’s a hologram (which by the way, is my theory), whether she’s lived 100 years or a 1000 years, they won’t tell me anything. Which for this story, works. There’s something kind of fantastic about keeping the mystery of her. Mrs. Fredrickson is an absolutely mysterious woman when she appears and that part is fine, for any other role it would be difficult to not have some kind of backstory.
Would it be safe to assume you know more about your character in James Cameron’s equally mysterious Avatar?
Although I think fans have seen more of the finished product that I have, I know a great deal more about Avatar because Jim has created a an entirely new world And because I have to inhabit that world you’re learning everything from the first seed just so it makes it normal for you, it’s huge. In this world, your vessel doesn’t look like the vessel you’re accustom to, it’s the most amazing film I’ve been apart of. You’re acting in no makeup, in a grey box, and you’re creating a world. It’s so much fun.
Have you ever worked with Jim before?
Nearly, I nearly got there in The Abyss, but you had to be able to swim to do that film! That’s when I first met him. But the person that I met in The Abyss to me is a completely different person to me that I met in Avatar. In The Abyss, I was just talking with him, being interviewed, where as in Avatar, I’m working with him, we’re partnering, creating something so it was much more fascinating.
BROTHERS is such a change of pace for you, what attracted you to the world of situation comedy?
I had done seventeen years of drama, i came from the theatre where you could do anything, comedy, drama, musical, whatever. But in this town [Hollywood], if you do something fabulous and you do it well, they say “No, no, no that’s what she does.” BROTHERS is my opportunity to break the spell and challenge myself and challenge the way people see me. I’ve gone from crime victims to authoritative woman and now to comedy. Let’s see how it goes. 