Your first episode was the intense Blood Ties. Was that based on any experiences of people you knew?
All the teens I grew up with pretty much knew where they came from. When I originally got the job as a freelance, it was scheduled out that I was going to do a stand-alone episode, something along the lines of Triangle that could stand by itself and wasn’t a major arc point.
By the time they actually called me in to do it they had moved past that point and they were already into big arc stuff. I had no idea when I came in which episode I would get, I was still assuming it would be a big bad monster rampaging through town and fun had by all. After about the first week of being here it became apparent that I was about to get the ‘Big Dawn’ episode.
I was terrified, because at this point in the season her character really isn’t that well defined yet. We’re still kind of figuring out her character, the way she talks, her attitude and so on, and she was the only character out of the show that I didn’t have a handle on. So I was pretty nervous about tackling that.
But once Joss gave me the metaphor for the show of adoption, it just all fell into place. None of us on the show were actually adopted, but the feelings she goes through are so natural. You can just imagine how you would feel if you found out that your parents and your family weren’t really your family. Beyond the supernatural aspects it’s just that grounded feeling of all of a sudden you don’t know who loves you and why and we took that and really ran with it.
She did a really great job in that episode, didn't she?
I always tell Michelle, every time I see her, "Thank you for getting me hired full time on the show" because I’m convinced how well she performed had a big impact on how well the episode did and Joss’s reaction to the episode and hiring me. So, thank you Michelle.
