A Chat with “In Plain Sight’s” Nichole Hiltz and Joshua Malina

After chatting with Nichole Hiltz (Brandi Shannon) and Joshua Malina (Peter Alpert) in a conference call last week, I find I’m looking forward to watching these two together on In Plain Sight. The chemistry between them should be very visible, although, to tell the truth, they were so funny on this call that any serious moments of drama on the show may be ruined for me.

Before In Plain Sight, Nichole was seen on Bones as Angela’s love interest, Roxie, on Desperate Housewives as Libby Collins, and on The Riches, playing Ginny Dannegan. Her list of credits is extensive. However, Nichole claims that, out of all her roles, Brandi is one of two favorites. “…and not because we’re on this conference, but how can I not say Brandi? This whole show has been pretty life-changing altogether. I’ve gotten such good stuff, such good writing. In addition to that I did a movie, surprisingly called Trailer Park of Terror that had been; it was so great to play because I got to be a comic book character so had that aspect of it. I got to play sort of three roles in one. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t seen the film. It was great; it was great for a female. You don’t get a lot of opportunities like that. Brandi and Norma, my favorites.”

Nichole Hiltz as "Brandi Shannon"

Nichole goes on to say, “Brandi is trying to change her life, but she doesn’t really know how to do that over night. So she’s still getting into trouble and challenges and bumps. It doesn’t help that my mother is asking me to go to AA meetings for her when I’m trying to get my own life together. It’s challenging because she wants to be better and doesn’t really have the tools to be that yet.”

Nichole talked a bit about getting into acting in the first place. “Well, Punky Brewster inspired me a lot, loved her. I was always in love with film and becoming a character and playing something else and nobody ever told me no so I just followed it and here I am, having a ton of fun.”

Joshua Malina is also no new-comer to tv and film. After parts here and there in numerous projects, Josh landed a regular role on Sports Night in 1998, which happened to be his favorite role. “I think for me it might have been Jeremy on Sports Night, not only because it was an incredibly great character that Aaron created, but that combined with the fact that it was my first major TV role and I was just a couple years married and my daughter had just been born. The entire experience of playing that role and having that show and the time in my life when it occurred I think made the whole thing kind of a special golden memory.”

Joshua Malina as "Peter"

Hopefully, working on IPS will make for another special golden memory. “For me it was pure fun. As I mentioned, it came out of the blue as a text from Mary McCormack, one of my favorite people in the world. So it was really along the lines of, “Do you want to come play in my sandbox?” It was a pure delight for me, completely unexpected. This came out of the blue and then happened very quickly and all of a sudden I was shuttling back and forth to Albuquerque with Nichole, whom I love, and all these nice people and great material.”

“So for me it’s just pure fun. I like working altogether and being an actor. With my career there’s a lot of downtime. So just having a job is a wonderful thing, but when it’s good material, which is rarer still and good people and the set is relaxed. I literally would just fly out there and play with my new friends and fly back home. So the whole thing’s been a joy for me.”

We always love to hear what the fall-back career would be for actors when we talk with them.

Josh: “My standard answer is that I would be a novelist. I never possibly actually could, but I’m a big reader and I’m always blown away by novelists and their ability to create entire worlds. That being said I never could actually so a more realistic answer, I think I would still stay in the business as maybe a screenwriter or a TV writer or something like that.”

Nichole: “Either that or a rock star, but I’d have to see if I was good at it. I have no other skills. This is the hardest question you could ever ask me. I’m not good at anything else any more. I put all my eggs in one basket. I’m good at being fun.”

They were both fun! Watch Nichole and Josh on In Plain Sight, at 10/9 CT, on USA.