via UGO TV Blog

Warehouse 13, SCI FI-soon-to-be-SyFy’s latest original offering, takes the old television paradigm – the skeptical, straight shooting female cop/government agent/investigator paired with the unorthodox, rule-bending rougish male cop/goverment agent/investigator, and places them in a very interesting predicament – reassignment to a place known as “Warehouse 13,” housing a cornucopia of oddities and artifacts that defy conventional science, and described by its caretaker, Artie, as “America’s attic.” Canadian actress Joanne Kelly, whose imdb profile reveals stints on Supernatural, Castle and something called Mafia Doctor stars as Myka Bering, the aforemention skeptical, straight shooting female Secret Service agent. Eddie McClintock, whose television resume includes Bones, Moonlight amd Desperate Housewives plays Pete Lattimer, the jovial Jack to Myka’s stoic Jill. The pair, along with executive producers Jack Kenny and David Simkins, got on the horn recently to take some questions on the show’s creation, cow manure and comparisons to another male/female duo on a certain sci-fi show of long ago…

On the audition process…

Eddie McClintock: “I was coming off my sixth or seventh test refusal and basically I was in tears in the waiting room and Joanne kind of talked me down off the ledge and this is right before she and I went in together.  So when we went in together, you know, I just – it was – to me it was like I’ve known Joanne for years and we just kind of hit it off and this was before we had even, you know, started to read together. So I think that there was just a natural chemistry that came across in the room, at least that’s how I felt.

Joanne Kelly: “Yeah, I screwed up a line and he started making fun of me in the audition and I stopped them and told – tried to restart the audition again and those were the two characters. I mean, it was kind of right on the money.

Eddie McClintock: Yeah, Joanne/Myka taking control and Pete/Eddie McClintock acting a fool basically. And as far as what attracted me to the role, it was definitely the money. They said, you know, you’ll make a bunch of money and I was like I’m in.  No, you know, for me the character, the Pete character kind of encompassed all the things that in one character that I’d always wanted to play. I’ve been able to play pieces of this character at different times but, you know, Pete to me, he kind of gets to do everything. He gets to be smart and funny and he gets to be heroic and, you know, to me that’s the dream job. So I love the character.

On of initial challenges of crafting Warehouse 13

Jack Kenny: “My approach has always been that – every show I’ve ever done is a family show whether it’s a workplace comedy or an actual family show. And so in building this family of this brother and sister and father team that we’ve got going we wanted to sort of bring who they were to the roles….It’s got all these elements and so we didn’t want to do a strictly procedural show because there’s plenty of that on TV. And these actors are so much more interesting than just, you know, standing around with a notepad asking questions. So we, you know, our challenge was to not – rather than have them investigate and just follow a trail, our challenge is to make them experience the adventure at the same time as we are.  In other words, I don’t – we don’t really want the audience to learn much about what’s going on ahead of when our characters do. We want our audience and our characters to be on the same ride. So that’s been something we wanted to do and we’ve done it kind of differently in every episode.

On comparisons to The X-Files’ Mulder and Scully…

Jack Kenny: “Just in terms of my observation of noticing the difference between Pete and Myka from Mulder and Scully…You know, the thing that I love about like the character of Indiana Jones is he always feels like he’s kind of not lost, but vulnerable. He always feels like – he never feels like he knows much more about the situation than you know as you’re watching him but he manages to get through and find his way.  And that’s the sense I get with Pete and Myka. They’re sort of thrown into these situations, a different one every time. They don’t know what’s going to happen, they don’t know how an artifact works, they don’t know all the ramifications or possibilities what could happen but they’re getting through it anyway using their wits and their observation powers and all those things. And that to me feels more like an adventure than Mulder and Scully went on. That was a more – a darker kind of a feel. This is more of an adventure for them.”

On taking Warehouse 13 the webisodes route…

David Simkins: We actually have considered Webisodes but at the moment the production is sort of taking all our energies and all our imagination to sort of make sure that we line up those ducks properly.  I’m not sure yet if Webisodes are going to be part of the first season package. My sense is it probably will but right now we’re really focusing on the show and making sure they’re as good as they can be without sort of draining off resources for the Webisodes at this moment. But I would say keep your eyes peeled. They’re going to be on the Web pretty soon.

On standing atop a pile of cow manure in the pilot…

Joanne Kelly: Oh cow manure? Yeah I grew up on a farm. I didn’t care.

David Simkins: That was part of the initiation. It was kind of a cow manure boot camp when we showed up. That was the first day of shooting so I was going to just shovel all that cow poop as a…

On working with character actor Saul Rubinek (Artie)

Eddie McClintock: You know, not to sound too trite but it’s like a dream come true for me. You know, True Romance is one of my all time favorite movies and Saul played this character Lee Donowitz and, you know, for years I have been quoting this man who I’ve never met. You know how guys do that. They love to quote – do movie quotes.

On the possibility of a real “Warehouse 13″

Joanne Kelly:  I’m Canadian so I don’t think our government is hiding much. I don’t think we have much to hide. But I’ve always been suspicious of the government. I mean, there’s conspiracy theories floating around especially after 9/11 and all that kind of stuff. I mean, and I think it’s fascinating, I mean, that there could be certain people in power that are hiding things from the masses…I want to know about Area 51, I want to know about stuff like that, you know?