WAREHOUSE 13: Allison Scagliotti Previews Tonight’s Gamer Episode

Tonight on Warehouse 13 , Eureka‘s Neil Grayston returns when Fargo’s Warehouse-based video game runs amok. Pete, Claudia, and Myka must rescue him and in the process they turn into avatars. Warehouse 13 star Allison Scagliotti previewed the episode with reporters last week, talking about what we can expect tonight, how much fun she has working with Neil, and Claudia’s relationship with The New Guy, Steve Jinks.

Q. What’s it been like to work with work with Neil again on Warehouse 13  and what can you tell us about the episode? I hear it’s set in a video game?

Allison Scagliotti: It’s always a pleasure to work with Neil. I’ve said in the past, Neil is one of my best friends, and so having the opportunity to work with him on set is just a joy. It’s like summer camp but we’re getting paid to run around in crazy costumes.

He’s an incredibly professional, hilarious comedic as well as dramatic actor and is never afraid to have fun. I think I speak for the entire cast and crew of Warehouse 13  when I say that being able to bring Neil Grayston onto the show is nothing but fun.

And, in terms of this episode, this is probably our biggest concept episode that we’ve ever done. There was a lot of green screen, a lot of special effects. It’s airing sixth in our season but we shot it third in terms of shooting order because there were so many elements to capture and it took a lot of prep and we were directed by the incredibly gifted Chris Fisher, who’s also our supervising producer. And I can honestly say it’s my favorite episode this season so far anyway.

Q. I’ve noticed that Claudia is getting out a lot more in the field and you do enough work with the new character, Steve Jinks, Aaron Ashmore. Do you think Claudia is going to be going out in the field a lot more?

Allison Scagliotti: Yes, I think so. You’ll see in plenty of episodes that the relationship between Claudia and Steve becomes very pivotal emotionally as well as professionally, you know, in terms of the Warehouse teams.

Claudia’s at this point in her life where she wants to prove herself as an adult and she’s sort of like all 20 year olds, figuring out who she is and what she wants to be. And that’s been really, really great for me to be able to bring that sort of part of my life and me discovering who I am to the character.

So in terms of Claudia’s destiny, I know last season we sort of touched on her becoming an ex-friend with Frederick, and what happens to her at the end of this season is really emotional and intense. I think the world is sort of Claudia’s oyster. We can see her go in a couple different directions, so I’m really excited to explore that going forward.

Q. Can you talk about some of the things we’ll see inside the Warehouse 13  video game?

Allison Scagliotti: Yes, it’s really – it’s a very tongue-in-cheek sort of lampooning of video games in general and their depiction of women as well as what the warehouse could look like to an outside viewer or from an outside perspective.

The theme of the Warehouse video game, it’s called Fortress 13, and it’s the sort of castle medieval feudalistic aesthetic. And so all the women have cartoonishly large breasts and the theme inside is very – it’s actually a little bit conflicting because there’re gladiators as well as knights and wenches and – what you’ll get to see is your sort of staple Warehouse characters but as Fortress 13 avatars, so cartoonish representations of our normal characters.

It’s really fun. Fargo sort of plays with the mythology of purple goo and artifacts. And I don’t want to give too much away but given that Fargo had seen the inside of the warehouse, you know, don’t be surprised when you see the disco ball from Studio 54 make an appearance. And is there a dragon? Maybe. I’m not saying there isn’t.

Q. So you guys will actually be pixilated then, not as live action people.

Allison Scagliotti: Well, what’s interesting is we shot it in live action and then in post, the image was given a treatment so that we do look – we look stylized. We look animated in some way. But it wasn’t motion capture and it wasn’t animation. It’s just that the digital – I don’t even know what you call it – but the digital image was altered in post so that we look at least a little bit more like a video game.

Q. With the recent news about Eureka, has there been any talk about getting Neil on Warehouse 13  as a regular?

Allison Scagliotti: I honestly have no idea. I really – I don’t know a lot about the news about Eureka. I mean, it would certainly be great to have Neil on but I think it’s really early to say that kind of thing, and more than anything I hope that Eureka fans just tune into this episode of Warehouse because I think they’ll really like it. Neil gets a lot of screen time.

Q. Can you talk about working on the Warehouse 13  Web series?

Allison Scagliotti: Oh yes, the Web series. So that was really interesting. Part of it was live action and then the rest of it was, emotion comic, as you probably saw. We had one day where we had to shoot but the rest of it we were just in the studio in Toronto where we record ADR when we’re out there, and just sat in a circle and it was like a table read.

And we were directed by Andy Sepra and it was just a really fun sort of extra thing to throw at the fans a little bit before the season started. Very different from our typical shooting schedule. I think – we actually had to film on a weekend in order to get it done because our episodes follow such a sort of strict schedule involving prep and locations and everything it takes to make a TV show, that this sort of had to be squeezed in between the real work that we had to do.

But I think it was really fun. It came out well and I haven’t really heard a lot of feedback from the fans about it but I think they enjoyed it. So it’ll be up to Syfy whether we do it again next year.

Q. I know you also had to kind of share the screen with Eddie’s pecs for most of that episode. What was that like for you?

Allison Scagliotti: Well, you had to be careful not to bump into him because you’ll bruise. And I was worried that his pecs were going to be scene stealers but in terms of augmented body parts, I had pointy elf ears for much of the episode so I felt like I could contend to a certain degree.

Q. I know that you’re pretty close with Neil and working with him again, I’m sure is a great thrill. You know, what were your thoughts when you learned about the fate of Neil’s show?

Allison Scagliotti: To be honest, he and I haven’t had a conversation about it yet. I will say that this is sort of the natural order of the way television works. They’ve had a long run. I know they have a great fan base. And I hope that their fan base tunes into this episode of Warehouse next week because it’s a great episode for Neil and for all of us.

Q. What are some of your favorite scenes so far? And is there one that you wanted to do that they haven’t done yet?

Allison Scagliotti: My favorite one this year has definitely been Jimmy Hendrix’s guitar because it was the first opportunity they gave me to sort of play guitar on the show, which is actually something I want to add.

For those of you who’ve seen the episode, you’re expecting this. But for the people reading this article who haven’t seen it yet, the writers and the network has been really supportive of my wish to play guitar and sing on the show. And this episode that’s about to air is the first time I do get to do that.

So at the end of the episode, Claudia goes to an open mike and gets out on a limb and covers one of Claudia’s – I mean, Allison’s favorite songs. So that’s – but in terms of episodes – or rather, artifacts that I would like to see, I think I pitched the red shoes this year, based on the ballet.

I mean, before that, the short story of the girl who dances herself to death on a pair of red shoes. I think that would be really interesting if some shoes sort of wound up on Claudia and she had to find a way to get out of them and they have some sort of emotional resonance.

But yes, the great thing about this show is that it’s kind of past the limit. I think we can almost do anything in terms of artifacts, and even this year, we explore so many different themes that I don’t think any two episodes are alike.

We’ve got this video game sort of Tron-esque episode and then two episodes later we’ve got a sort of Die Hard-type story line going on. So we’re keeping it fresh.

Q. Now that you’re out in the field with Jinxy and forming a relationship there, it seems like the focus has shifted a little bit from the Artie/Claudia dimension. We saw it a little bit again this week when Jinxy was not in the episode. But I did want to know, because you mentioned something about the finale. And it’s going to be sort of a pivotal one for you. Is it also going involve the dynamic of you and Artie?

Allison Scagliotti: It absolutely does. It – well I think the relationships between all of us are really hanging in the balance with what happens at the end of this season. The great thing about this season has been that we’ve been able to explore how our characters’ pasts and their histories effect them in the present and effects what they do.

The Claudia and Artie dynamic is still very important and it’s still very much in play. But in order to just stick with Claudia’s role, the relationship between Claudia and Steve Jinx has been given a bit of a spotlight, which I really enjoy.

Q.  What do you think Claudia’s clothes and her physical appearance say about her on the show?

Allison Scagliotti: What I hope they say is that she’s her own person and she doesn’t concern herself with societal standards and what other people expect of her to look like or expect her to behave like.

I think Claudia’s a self-starter. I think in addition to being insecure and figuring out who she is as an adult, she knows what she likes and the thing that I’ve been really flattered by in playing her is a number of, like, moms and young girls who reach out to me and tell me what a role model she is for young women, just sort of learning to love themselves.

So I hope that what people get out of the way that Claudia presents herself is there’s nothing more beautiful or fun or comfortable then just doing what you like.

Q. What are you looking forward to the most about working with Kate Mulgrew?

Allison Scagliotti: Oh my goodness. Kate – well we finished shooting our season so I’ve already worked with her. And she was such a force to be reckoned with and a spectacular actress. It was an honor to watch her work, to be in scenes with her.

We have a really intense scene together in the finale that I can’t tell you anything about because there were a lot of spoilers. But I hope she comes back on the show. She’s such an important character and a fantastic energy on our set.

We’ve been really lucky with the guest stars that we’ve had like Neil, Greg Sand, and Lindsay Wagner and Kate Mulgrew, that they just seem to get our show and they get the way we work. And they’re fast and they understand our dynamic and they fit right in.

So she’s fantastic. She’s a great addition to the cast and I hope to see her come back because I just adore her.

Q. Is it more fun being a pointy-eared elf or an enhanced princess?

Allison Scagliotti: Oh my god. I don’t want to spoil that for the fans. The elf – the thing with playing an elf is that – so pointy ears was really good, right? Putting on those ears was an hour and a half process and that was before the hair and makeup. There were a lot of mornings filming that episode where I had to be in at, like, 4:00 a.m. which meant getting up at 3:00 and going to bed early and oh god.

But it was really fun. The hardest part was running around in those fancy gold heels while they pumped dry ice through the stage. A lot of us fell. A lot of us got hurt. A lot of us got bruised up during the filming, but I think all of that madcap energy really shows.

Q. In the B part of tonight’s episode, Artie and Jinxy encounter the dirty FBI agent whose name escapes me at the moment, that we’ve seen earlier. I’m just wondering will Claudia encounter her at some point? And is there anything you can tease about that?

Allison Scagliotti: You know, as a matter of fact, Claudia and Sally Pecalski never meet at any point in this season. However, what you will come to realize in upcoming episodes is that Pecalski does not remain the villain. She’s definitely working for someone as we probably already established at this point.

And it goes even deeper then what we’re sort of letting on now. And Claudia does become involved in the villain storyline in this episode. It deeply effects her at the end of the season. But she doesn’t actually meet the main puppetmaster ever.

Q. So even though she doesn’t meet either the agent or the fellow in the back of the car, they play a large part in big pivotal moments in her life in the final episode of the season?

Allison Scagliotti: Yes, absolutely. It effects all of us.

The “gamer” episode of Warehouse 13 airs tonight at 9/8c on Syfy.