2019's Biggest Emmy Snubs
Quotes of the Week for July
TV Stars Back at Work: Fall
Memories from the Set: Morena Baccarin
Playing courtesan Inara Serra on the gone-too-soon sci-fi Western, Baccarin remembers Nathan Fillion as not just Captain Mal "Tightpants" Reynolds but also the leader of all tomfoolery. "Nathan's a total prankster. There was always something going on on set — stupid things like greasing people's trailer doors so we couldn't open it, to, like, just popping up behind people on set to freak them out. It was my first TV show, and it was constant joking around on set!"
Though Baccarin ultimately wasn't available for the FX comedy's for-broadcast reshoot, she appeared in the original, unaired pilot as Carmen, a male-to-female transsexual who was, um, packing. "My most memorable moment from that set was trying to figure out what I could put in my pants to make it look like I had a bulge," the actress recalls. "I think we went with some socks and a spray bottle of some sort." (Watch a scene here.)
In the Season 2 episode "Swarley," Baccarin had the honor of being the first/only woman Marshall dated during his separation from Lily. Thing is, coffee store clerk Chloe had a bad case of "Crazy Eyes." "I have never laughed so hard on set," she shares. "I had a few bar scenes with 'the gang' – Jason Segel, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan…. Everybody was just incredibly sweet and nice."
On the short-lived TNT drama, Baccarin played Nurse Jessica Kivala to Treat Williams' organ transplant whiz. "The biggest problem," she recalls, "was that since we were constantly wearing those masks in the OR, we could basically say anything, because we were going to have ADR [loop in dialogue] anyway, since they couldn't hear anything that we were saying. We would f—k around all the time, which was pretty great!"
Although the ABC series' Queen V, Anna, was stingy with her (reptilian) smiles, Baccarin was on at least one occasion prone to a giggle fit as she navigated the massive "green stage" onto which the spaceship interior would later be CGI'd. "Chris Shyer, who played Marcus, and I usually had to do these crazy walk-and-talks through what was supposed to be the hallways on the ship, but was really just a green screen. And once, at the end of a very long day, I suddenly realized the insanity of what I was doing and I couldn't stop laughing! I just could not get through the scene without laughing."
This Dec. 14, Baccarin will put in her third appearance as Erica Flynn, Patrick Jane's comely recurring nemesis. "I was really glad to come back one last time before the show went off the air," she says, and with this final encore, "Erica doesn't disappoint. She's of course getting into trouble and conning people all over again, which is nice. It'll be a fun one for fans to watch."
Working alongside what she hails as the "sweetest, greatest group of people," Baccarin played Jessica Brody, the resilient yet beleaguered wife of "turned" U.S. Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody (played by Damian Lewis). Given the weighty subject matter, "It was a very different set than I've even been on," she notes. "Everybody was incredibly focused, and we were all doing such difficult work that a lot of concentration went into every single day." Immersed into a "crazy, crazy world" where a national hero has been refitted as a potential powderkeg, his wife for so long none the wiser, "It was not an easy shoot," she says, "but it was really enjoyable."
On the morning that she was to start filming her second appearance as the girlfriend of Dylan Baker's slithery Colin Sweeney, "I had found out I was pregnant with my son — and I couldn't tell anybody," Baccarin shares. "I was like a deer in headlights, I couldn't believe it. I was just trying to get through the day." (And despite Sweeney's sordid past, "Being Dylan's girlfriend doesn't suck," she winks.)
The Flash and Other Voice Work
When not working on camera, Baccarin has been known to lend her voice to the animated likes of Justice League's Dinah Lance aka Black Canary, Son of Batman's Talia al Ghul and, most recently, The Flash's AI computer, named "Gideon." With voice work, "You get to stretch yourself in a different way – plus, it's really nice to go to work and not have to put makeup on!" she laughs. "Unless they say they're bringing in cameras to videotape you doing it, and then I'm like, 'Dammit, why?!"
The two-part Lifetime miniseries (airing Sunday, Dec. 7 and Monday, Dec. 8, at 9/8c) serves up a sweeping tale set during the times of the Old Testament and told through the eyes of Dinah (Rebecca Ferguson). Baccarin plays Rachel, one of Dinah's father Jacob's four wives. The titular tent "is where the women would go, at that time of the month, to hang out, tell each other stories, braid each others' hair, knit and teach family fables." Compared to the other wives, Rachel "is sort of an impulsive lover," Baccarin says. "She's incredibly open and charismatic, and she thinks a bit less about the logic of things and more with her heart."
When the Fox freshman returns from its holiday break on Jan. 5, Baccarin will kick off her recurring role as Dr. Leslie Thompkins – though the DC Comics faithful should expect a wrinkle or two. "We're not sticking too close to the original mythology," the actress says, "in that I've been brought on to sort of be Jim Gordon's love interest," as they work alongside each other at Arkham Asylum just as the good cop's engagement has gone bust.