The Season Finale of “Burn Notice” is on USA Network Thursday, March 5th, 10pm/9c.
Tricia Helfer, courtesy of USA network
In the finale, Michael learns some surprising facts about Victor's past, and is forced to take on Carla in a final showdown.
Cast member Gabrielle Anwar plays the role of Fiona and Tricia Helfer plays the role of Carla on USA’s hit series.
Monsters and Critics was on a conference call with both actors who talked about their Burn Notice experience and the upcoming season finale.
Tricia, when you joined the cast of Burn Notice, was there instant chemistry when everyone came together, or did it take some time to develop?
T. Helfer: I’d say there was instant chemistry, but I really only worked with Jeffrey Donovan. I met Gabrielle and I met Bruce and worked with him a little bit. Bruce is just such an easy going guy it’s impossible not to get along with him, and Gabrielle is really sweet.
Jeffrey had actually emailed me prior to going down there the first time to welcome me and say he was excited that I was joining the show. So I went down knowing it was going to be a great cast to work with and they didn’t let me down, they were just really wonderful to work with.
What have you found the most challenging aspect of your role as Carla?
T. Helfer: I think the most challenging aspect was actually similar to sort of the first question about Battlestar, it’s kind of not knowing the end. With Carla, I didn’t know who Carla worked for.
I didn’t know who management was the entire time I filmed, so you’re just kind of filling in the blanks yourself, but at the same time you don’t really want to say, okay, this is who it is or make too strong of a back story yourself in case it is revealed. But that I’d say was the hardest thing is Carla being pretty much as elusive to me as the actor as she is to the audience.
What is your involvement beyond the season finale next week? Are you on board for next season?
T. Helfer: I’m not on board for next season, no. As I like to say, I was the baddie of the second season, so yes, my last two episodes are this week and the finale, March 5th.
What kind of resolution might we get?
T. Helfer: I think the first two episodes back from the midseason hiatus definitely showed that Carla had been taken by surprise a bit, she’s been rattled, which she’s not used to.
It definitely comes to a culmination in the finale where she’s been trying to get information from Michael Westen about who tried to kill him, who tried to blow up his apartment, and it really comes to a culmination with management breathing down her back.
And she’s put her neck on the line in terms of vouching for Michael Westen and Michael hasn’t really fully come up with anything to help her out, so it comes to a culmination point in the finale.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you first got involved with Burn Notice?
T. Helfer: I first got involved with the very rare, but very wonderful situation where you get offered a job. I was up in Vancouver filming Battlestar and I was approached by my agent or my manager about the job. I actually hadn’t seen it, the show, because being in Canada a lot in Vancouver filming Battlestar, Burn Notice doesn’t air up there yet, unfortunately.
So they sent me DVDs and I was hooked from the first episode and gladly signed on to join in for the second season. But it came in as an offer and I was hooked from the first episode.
Even though your character is not going to be in the third season, are we probably going to find out more about Carla’s character in that terms about how her and Michael are working together?
T. Helfer: You’ll get to see a little bit. You do see her, Carla, soften a little bit. She’s been rattled and she needs to rely on Michael a little bit more and she puts some trust in him. So she’s hoping that he doesn’t let her down.
And like I mentioned before, she has management breathing down her back, so she’s definitely putting some trust in Michael and hoping that he steps up to the bar. But you really don’t learn—Carla still stays pretty elusive to the audience even through the finale. She’s certainly not—her whole history is not going to be revealed.
Tricia, are we going to find out more about what the organization is?
T. Helfer You’re definitely going to get a big clue, a big hint in the finale about who management is. I won’t say for sure if you’re going to find out who, what the organization is, but there will be another piece to the puzzle and you will definitely meet Carla’s higher ups, you will meet management, yes.
Tricia, you made the jump from modeling to acting. What was the biggest challenge you faced in making that transition?
T. Helfer: To be honest, to be taken seriously. Models have a stigma that they can’t act. You’re also, to be quite blunt, you’re tall and not a lot of actors are tall and when you are starting out you’re obviously not the first one cast, so you’re trying to fit into a mold.
You’re quite often not cast as the quirky best friend, but you don’t have the experience to be cast as the lead. So it can be really tricky. One of the biggest things is just to get your people, so to speak, your agents and managers to take you seriously. That’s one of the issues I had when I came out to LA.
I was with an agency in New York, joined the agency out here and they just wanted to put me up for walk by in a bikini role kind of thing, and that’s certainly not me because I’m not built like Carmen Electra or Pamela Anderson, so I found I was in a weird spot of not getting sent out for the roles that I wanted. That’s when you have to just take charge and you walk into the agency and say, “I want to go on this.”
You just have to be persistent. I think that’s one of the biggest things about this industry and this career is being persistent and believing in yourself and also being ready when the timing is right. So much of it is about timing and luck, so to be ready when you get the opportunity.
Is there anything else you tell us about your last two episodes on Burn Notice without giving too much away?
T. Helfer: It’s kind of hard without giving too much away. I will say I’m really excited to see the last episode. There’s a great stunt at the end that I’m just so excited to see. It’s not even my stunt, but I’m really excited to see it and I think it’s going to be a great finale.
It really comes to a culmination point and Carla has kind of had it with Michael Westen and she realizes he’s just basically run her around in circles after she’s put some trust into him that he’s going to find the bomber and help give her the name, which essentially is a rogue agent, but she knows it is, and he disappoints her, so it comes to a culmination.
If Carla did come back on Burn Notice perhaps for next season or after, what are the ways you’d like to see her maybe develop and maybe even become an ally to Michael in the future?
T. Helfer: Oh, that would be a lot of fun to become an ally of Michael. It would be great to have that. I’d obviously like to find out a little bit more about what makes her tick and find out a little bit more about her.
Tricia, could you ever see your character as being a possible love interest for Michael?
T. Helfer Yes, sure. No, I think Fiona and the Michael relationship is too kind of complex. I think, my own opinion, is they’re made for each other and it’s only going to take them time to figure that out. I certainly wouldn’t turn down a relationship with Michael Westen. I don’t think any girl would.
What do you love the most about playing her?
T. Helfer: I think that it is empowering and that she’s strong and smart and she’s gotten to where she is by her own gumption, her own dedication. I like the fact that she’s very similar to Michael.
Although you don’t get to see her fun side like you do for Michael, but maybe she has a bit less of one. I like being on par with that level of agent, the fact that Michael Westen can pretty much do whatever he wants, as can Fiona and Sam, to some extent.
That’s how I feel that Carla is. Carla is not one to be taken advantage of, which I think is what’s interesting about coming up to the last two episodes is, she doesn’t trust anybody and she’s finally put a little bit of trust into Michael and I think that’s probably backfiring on her. I like the fact that she’s strong and she’s as good at her job as Michael is at his.
Tricia, What has been your most memorable moment you’ve had from filming Burn Notice?
T. Helfer: Most memorable moment, there’s quite a few. One of my moments that I disliked the most was, I’m not sure if it’s in the next episode coming up or the finale, but we’re shooting a limousine scene where Carla is trying to get a little information, offer a little and get a little from Michael Westen.
I had stopped drinking coffee and I’ve been doing green tea, on a personal note I had stopped drinking coffee, but we started early and I just grabbed a cup of coffee off catering and we got inside this limo, which, of course, you can’t have air conditioning on because you’d hear it with the filming, and you’re in a limo with the camera, operator, the focus polar, a couple of other guys.
Jeffery is in there. I’m in there. It’s Miami. It’s humid. It’s really hot. I’m in a pantsuit and I got the jitters from the coffee so bad that I could barely speak. I was sweating. Hair and makeup can’t fit in there, so I’m trying to do my own powder and my hair is matted to me and shaking. I had to hand Jeffrey something and I’m shaking in the scene.
And we finished it and I’m like, “Jeffrey, I don’t know what got into me. I had coffee and this is insane and I’ve not been drinking coffee.” And Jeffrey looked at me and he starts laughing. And he’s like, “Yes, you stop drinking coffee for a while and then you drink again and you realize why you shouldn’t be drinking it.”
“Yes, Jeffrey, that makes sense.” But I was horrified by the scene while I was shooting it because I was so uncomfortable, but at the same time, I’ve seen it in ADR and it turned out fine. But Jeffrey stayed calm throughout even though I was a mess, so that’s definitely one of my memories from Burn Notice.
Gabrielle, what’s the best part of doing scenes with Bruce Campbell?
G. Anwar The hysterical laughter that it is inevitable. I think I may have cracked plenty of neatly executed make-up applications on my cheeks from the kind of laughter that goes alongside with working with Bruce.
Now that Carla’s in the fold how does that change Fiona for you?
G. Anwar I think that Fiona is as threatened as Fiona can get. I don’t think it’s about necessarily how attractive physically a woman is. I think it’s how much a monopoly she might have on Michael Westen’s mind and livelihood and thinking. So I think she is perhaps threatened by Carla more so than anybody else she would be threatened by.
We know very little about Fiona’s past. Does she have a life outside guns?
G. Anwar I don’t think Fiona’s the type of gal who takes lunches with her BFF. I don’t even think she gets her nails done. I think that any attempt at being aesthetically feminine goes to the wayside when handling all these black market weapons. I think that perhaps she doesn’t really settle anywhere. So as far as an apartment is concerned, I’m not sure she has many trinkets other than her snowglobes. She’s not your average woman, let’s face it.
Will we learn more about Fiona’s background beyond the fact that she’s a former IRA agent—well, maybe not even former?
G. Anwar I don’t know. I’d like to because of her narcissistic connection...but it’s really not up to me. I have my own secret fantasies of who she is and where she came from and where she’s going. But unfortunately that life hasn’t connected to mine.
Perhaps once we go back in a couple of weeks I’ll have a different story for you. But as of now what you all will be seeing tonight and so on, not so much.
What about your role continues to challenge you?
G. Anwar That I still have to speak the American dialect.
And when you’re struggling to be like them, and most of the audience for Burn Notice are indeed American, so I feel like I have the worst critics watching and listening to my every move.
So I think I struggle with it because I like to not be thinking about what I sound like, what I look like, what I smell like for that matter. But it’s difficult to do that when you’re trying to sound like somebody other than yourself, at least it is for me.
What has been your most memorable moment you’ve had since filming the show?
G. Anwar I don’t know if I have just one moment. Every day that I’m working on that show I really feel incredibly blessed to be there. And I’m really not kidding you. I know that’s an awful cliché to hear, but I really mean it. I just have a series of memorable moments that are strung together which makes me very happy, because otherwise I’d just be hoping to relive the lost memorable moment. But I’m actually looking forward to going back to work. It’s something I haven’t often said.
You have such great chemistry with both of your leading men. How do you continue to maintain it?
G. Anwar Because I’m a woman.
I enjoy people, I really do. I enjoy men for a variety of reasons. So I’m fortunate enough to be working with two members of the opposite sex which I think lends itself to an interesting chemistry whether it be sexual or otherwise. There’s always something going on, and I’m fascinated by what’s really not being said more than anything else.
How do you want to see this relationship play out?
G. Anwar I think there’s a certain amount of tension that is inevitable when a relationship isn’t really predictable. Obviously, Michael and Fiona have consummated their affection for one another. I think that the likelihood of their hooking up in a conventional manner with an engagement or a marriage or something, it’s just not in their cards. I don’t think it would appeal to either of them actually. They’re out of the box.
So I don’t think that would be an issue as far as...just not have any kind of predictability. I find that much more intriguing. When you start taking someone for granted in real life or in make-believe it loses a sense of passion, particularly in my eyes. I can’t see Gabrielle for those both.
What are some of the things that you like about the challenges that the role offers you?
G. Anwar I’m very glad that we have a wonderful weapons master who knows what he’s doing with a weapon, because I’m clueless. Without the crew, I would look absolutely ridiculous, which is basically the way I look when the camera’s not rolling. I’m really enjoying the fantasy of it because, obviously, it’s not really a role that I’ve been offered in the past. So I’m really relishing the fact that I think I’m tough. It’s challenging to really make it look like I know what I’m doing.
Jeffrey’s actually pretty good with self-defense, and he’s quite technically minded. He’s very logically minded mostly because he’s male and I am sort of a mishmash between being super feminine and being super feminist. I’m enjoying that aspect of my character in both Fiona and in myself.
Do you have input with the costumer department?
G. Anwar Rather a lot actually. I’m fortunate to have a wonderful costume designer and costume department who are very patient with me. As I mentioned, I’m quite small so I have a hard time shopping for myself so I can imagine anybody who isn’t me would too. So I tend to sort of storm the big department stores and do a big old shopping spree and sign everything up to Burn Notice Production, which is quite possibly one of the most fun things to do in the world. So yes in answer to your question, I have plenty of freedom.
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