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ARTICLE: Morena Baccarin takes charge in ABC’s new V..

MORENA BACCARIN 05

WEBSITE: ReadingEagle.com

WRITTEN BY: Ian Spelling

DIRECT LINK: http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=163724

How’s this for scary? Morena Baccarin, star of the upcoming sci – fi series V, was only 4 when the original miniseries debuted in 1983..

” I was living in Brazil at the time, so we got it a few years after it came out in the States,” Baccarin said.. ” So I was old enough to watch it by the time it got to Brazil.. I remember watching it with my brother and being freaked out..”

” I think it was dubbed over in Portuguese, actually..”

ABC’s re – imagined V kicked off this past Tuesday with a premiere that echoes the original miniseries, the follow – up mini V: The Final Battle ( 1984 ) and the weekly show, V ( 1984 – 1985 ).. The reboot, executive produced by Scott Peters of The 4400, depicts alien ” Visitors “ – reptilian creatures with humanoid skins – landing on Earth and proclaiming that they have come in peace..

Baccarin is wildly popular among sci – fi aficionados, thanks to her roles as Inara in Firefly ( 2002 ) and its big – screen iteration, Serenity ( 2005 ), and as Adria in several episodes of Stargate SG – 1 ( 2006 – 2007 )..

V casts her as Anna, leader of the Visitors, who is charming and charismatic with humans, but cunning and ruthless when among her own kind..

Other key characters include Erica Evans ( Elizabeth Mitchell ), an FBI agent with the counterterrorist division, and Chad Decker ( Scott Wolf ), a reporter who forms a mutually beneficial relationship with Anna. Logan Huffman plays Tyler Evans, Erica’s troubled, teenage son, whose attraction to Anna could prove deadly.

“I wasn’t sure how to play an alien,” Baccarin said, speaking by telephone from Vancouver, Canada, where she films the show.. ” One of the first notes I got from Scott Peters was, ‘ Do not be robotic..’ He told me that so many people came in ( For auditions ) playing a robot, somebody from outer space, and they’re not like that..”

” These people are like people.. They’re smart..”

” Yves Simoneau, the director of the pilot, was very helpful and instrumental in helping me figure out what I could do to make her different, but relatable..”" Obviously she walks like a person and talks like a person, but there’s definitely something behind the eyes, something a little off, something a little different from everyone else, a calculation..

” It’s almost like Anna, as she’s seeing things happen, is always learning from them and from her new interactions with humans..”

” I think emotion is something they feel differently, if they feel it at all.. So that’s something they’re learning.. There’s maybe a little hiccup, a little something when it comes to feelings.. The differences come in that way..”

“I played it more like a cultural difference.. That’s how it felt to me.. I thought of it more that way than thinking of her as being from outer space..”

Longtime V fans hope that Peters and his writers will re – create some of the classic V bits.. Chief among them is the infamous scene in which Diana ( Jane Badler ) opened her mouth wide and swallowed a guinea pig whole..

So is there any rodent devouring in Baccarin’s near future?

” I’m just waiting to see,” she said..

There has been concern among the V faithful with rumors of production shutdowns, cost overruns, the show being broken into chunks, etc..

” It’s been a nice set, a nice place to work,” Baccarin said.. ” I have heard that there were some creative difference in the writing, with the studio and the network..”

” So now they’re doing it as a ‘ miniseries event ‘ with four episodes at a time.. That’s what I’m hearing..”