
Already well-known in her native Canada2, she shot to cult stardom in 2003 with Battlestar Galactica, in which she plays the robots-in-disguise Boomer/Athena3. (We hear you laughing—go frak yourself, it’s a good show.) Right now BSG is in its final season, which makes this an interesting time for the 34-year-old beauty: What happens when the show that made you a star ends? (Richard Grieco, anyone?) The thing is, even though she’s got another show starting in July—A&E’s extreme intervention drama The Cleaner4—fame isn’t the name of the game. For her, there’s such a thing as “too famous too fast,” and she’s willing to put the brakes on acting if that happens. Keep your 100 mph Hollywood hoes; we’re going to slow our roll and put it in Park. Well, not literally. You know what we mean. Reeeeal respectful-like.
1. Her Hollywood debut was “Asian Dancer” in Romeo Must Die. The director tried to change her role to “Bisexual Asian Stripper” and have her disrobe for the camera; Grace negged the nudity but did kiss another girl. That’s a compromise we can get behind.
2. Grace first became famous on the Canadian teen drama Edgemont, along with Smallville star Kristin Kreuk. Canadian-Asian fetishists, rejoice! Yeah, you know what we’re talking aboot.
3. See, there are all these robots that look like people, but there are only 12 different people they can look like, so there are, like, a gang of robots that all look like Grace Pa—you know what? Ignore us. Just go for a walk or have sex or something.
4. To prep for the show, Grace toured a drug-prone area in Vancouver and learned the Hastings Shuffle—the side-to-side wobble that junkies stumble through after a fix. More efficient prep: Amy Winehouse videos on TMZ.