How surprised were you by the FRINGE season premiere that had your character Nina Sharp locking lips with Lance Reddick’s Agent Broyles?
Blair Brown: Yeah I think both of us were taken aback. But the beauty about acting in FRINGE is that there is a great narrative with lots of stuff going on, leaving lots of room for actors to act. So what you really need to do is act the possibilities of anything. Last year, Lance [Reddick] and I would be sitting around and wonder who these people are to each other because we’d get lots of stuff that sort of indicated that we’d known each other for a long time. Nina had spotted Broyles in the FBI, mentored him and now this kiss. Yet the beauty of FRINGE is when will it be dealt with again next and what cost does it have?
Speaking of cost, everyone involved with Fringe Division seems to have had to pay some sort of steep price. Olivia was experimented on as a child, Walter spent a lifetime locked away and Broyles lost his wife. What, aside from her arm, did Nina lose?
I really wonder about the arm. I know we say it’s due to cancer, but I’ve always felt it had to do with Nina crossing over. Was I one of the guys [William Bell and Walter Bishop] guinea pigs? We know my arm was used as a storage unit by William Bell which is why I was targeted last year. But there’s a whole lot of mystery out there that has yet to be sorted out.
With episode six revolving around Broyles backstory, should fans expect a Nina-centric episode to unravel some of the character’s mystery?
I’m assuming there is a Nina episode coming down the pike. What I sense from the writers this year is that FRINGE kind of works on two tracks. There is the dense one with all the fringe science and espionage. And then there’s the more emotional track with the characters and what all this has cost them. Which is more what this is about — things get more and more intense as the group becomes tighter and more inter-connected.
One connection fans just recently made was Olivia and William Bell. Will Nina be connecting with William Bell in the near future?
The only question I have asked the writers is: Can William Bell and Nina be in the same room at the same time? They said not this season. Which is very interesting because I know I’m communicating with him, that’s quite clear in upcoming episodes. But again, what is the nature of the relationship and why was Nina left to be the face of Massive Dynamic?
Have you met alter-Nina?
Not yet, although I hope I do. None of us have met our alternate universe counterparts yet. I figure she will be the antithesis of Nina though. I imagine either a Donna Reid-esque happy mother of six with a station wagon. Or perhaps she could be hanging out with Johnny Kennedy at the White House. Nina does like to associate with powerful men! 