Ask any fanboy if they're familiar with Moon Bloodgood and we guarantee they'll give you her entire filmography, and possibly a link to their fansite dedicated to the 35-year-old actress. That's because, for the past several years, Bloodgood has been cementing her spot in sci-fi history. From roles in Terminator Salvation to Day Break to Journeyman, the Anaheim, California, native has always embodied the action heroine who wields automatic weapons and makes time-traveling look as routine for her as driving a car.
Yet now, in arguably the new hit sci-fi series Falling Skies, TNT's alien invasion drama from executive producer Steven Spielberg, Bloodgood is playing her calmest and least ass-kicking role to date, that of Dr. Anne Glass, the only trained medic left in a colony of human survivors.
Complex caught up with busy, and hotter than ever (in more ways than one), actress about getting into a new kind of character, why she can't escape science fiction, and whether or not dudes who frequent ComicCon actually have a shot with her.
Complex: Congratulations on the success of last Sunday's Falling Skies debut! You've done a couple of canceled sci-fi shows but Falling Skies premiered to this year's best cable ratings for a new series. Does that give you any more confidence in the show being picked up for a second season?
Moon Bloodgood: You know, I don't know. I'm so cautious about celebrating too quickly when we still don't know how the show's going to fair over a certain time. But I do feel like the numbers give me a bit of confidence about the second season. I think it's a solid show and it's a good human drama and I would certainly be excited for a second season. I think it's looking like it's going to go in that direction.
You mentioned in past interviews that self-awareness comes with playing the action chick, which you've done many times before. But what does it take to play a more maternal character like Dr. Anne Glass?
I guess when you're playing someone who is a doctor, a pediatrician, there is something that instinctively... Yeah, you have to be more maternal. You have to approach it from a very mothering kind of state of mind. Because there's not as much physicality and it's not a sexualized character, I feel like it was inherently easier for me to be more maternal and more emotional. When you're written that way, it's much easier to get into that character and also, I did my own research. I tried to kind of tap into that woman in me that is mothering.
Noah Wyle, your co-star, played a doctor on ER. Did he give you any tips?
He absolutely did. He gave me tips that would make me look like a really good TV doctor. I don't think that they're the kinds of things you'd really want to do when you're actually a real doctor, but certainly they make it exciting when you're doing it on screen. But they weren't so different from what you'd need to do in real life. They weren't really exaggerated things I was doing.
He definitely told me how to make the CGI look more effective, how to take my gloves off quick, how to make me look like I actually knew what I was doing, which of course I don't. He's a master. He's been doing it for so long. We had a medic on set who was also giving me pointers on how you need to execute certain things.
But also, I'm supposed to be a doctor who was a pediatrician. I don't necessarily know nor am I supposed to know how to perform surgery or how to do some of things that my character ends up doing, so I use that to my advantage so that the Moon playing it, who didn't know what she was doing, would be perfect for the character.
What did you picture in mind about Anne's backstory and where she was when she lost her family? Did you create any scenarios?
I did. I remember sitting down and talking to my acting coach. I named my child and my husband. I knew what his vocation was. I pictured where we were the day the spaceships arrived and where we were the day they actually decided to attack because there's a time frame in there when we didn't know they were hostile in the beginning. I was at the hospital and they were at home.
I pictured what they looked like and how they were killed. There were bombs that went off so they were killed by the bombs and I came home to see it. I did all that kind of stuff. I even wrote a song about my kid and was playing it on guitar. I was just trying to emotionally invest in a world that is imaginary.
Given you invest so much in that world, does it ever really hit you as if it were real?
I'd like to think that when you're an actor, it's not a lie, it's truthful for you. Everything you do, you try as much as you can to make it truthful and honest and as organic as possible. Anytime it's forced, then you know that you're "acting." That's always a challenge, to get an authentic experience in a fantasy world.
strong>You've also said in past interviews that you used to put Alien on to help you fall asleep. What is it about sci-fi that'ss so relaxing for you?
I think I find that it's not only a philosophical reason that I watch it, but I find it comforting. It's really strange. Something about the darkness, something about the eerie quality of science fiction, it's quite beautiful and haunting. I've always been more comfortable with my dark side and I feel more grounded in that world. When I watch science fiction, I find it hopeful.
Depending on the science fiction, I mean. Certainly, there are some that make you feel so much sorrow. When I read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, I wept but it's still my favorite book. For me, it puts a lot of things in perspective. I watch a lot of things that put my life in perspective and that's how I kind of reflect.
I'd say my three favorite genres are horror, science fiction, and documentary. I find with comedy, I can kind of see the joke coming and it's harder for me to get lost in it.
As if there's that element of escapism that you don't have in comedies and other genres that are basically true to life.
Laughs.] But anytime Alien is on—I watch it every single time it's on—it's really beautiful. It's well-acted, it's a piece of art. It's well crafted. There's a certain stillness in sci-fiction. Not the sci-fiction now where it's become a little hokey. I want classic Blade Runner—movies like that.
Would you consider yourself a sci-fi geek?
Do you ever read any fan fiction about the shows you've been on before?
What is that?
Fan fiction is when fans of the show recreate their own storylines about the show and post their stories online in forums and stuff.
[Laughs.] No, I don't! But here's the dichotomy, I think, about my personality. I don't spend a lot of time on the computer, I don't Twitter and so I don't really know about fan fiction. But I would be so honored if they did that with one of my characters! They can play it out. They probably do better than I did.
I looked it up before this interview and ther's actually a lot of fan fiction with your characters featured prominently.
Really? There's stuff about me? What shows?
You in Journeyman, you in Terminator Salvation.
Oh, that's awesome! I'm looking this up. You piqued my curiosity.
You should. It's kind of funny because you have love interests and everything.
I do?! That's so funny. I've never heard of fan fiction.
There you go. Now you have a reason to go online.
I'll look it up, man. That's such a compliment. That's so flattering. That's so super cool. Well, one of the coolest things I just saw was that someone had a comic book about Falling Skies and on one of the pages, they were showing the artist trying to drew my face. He said it was hard to draw the Asian part of my face and I kept looking Caucasian. I gotta tell you that was the moment that floored me. I'm so flattered. That's one of the moments that are just cool to be a part of.
Do you find any appeal in guys who like sci-fi? Would you ever consider dating a fanboy?
Well, what's your definition of a fanboy?
I think it's someone who's highly engrossed in a certain world or devoted to a character and pretty much lives in that world.
Certainly, I wouldn't want to date someone who's too obsessed. Well, no, let me put it this way: I don't know if I would or wouldn't. I find that often times people at Comic-Con are some of my favorite people. They're some of the most educated people and they care about the story. They're really protective about science fiction, which I like. I wouldn't be opposed to it, no.
I wouldn't necessarily want them to be obsessed with me. But I like anybody who's passionate about anything. I love escaping into another world. That's why I'm in entertainment. That's why I understand people who love video games. The only things I couldn't get too into is The Sims. Is that what it is, that alternate world?
Yup, that's what the game's called.
Yeah, that alternate world. It's funny, though, because on Star Trek, I don't know what it's called, but they have these rooms. You go into them and you can recreate your own reality and you can be anywhere you want. You can be at the Grand Canyon, flying as a superhero, you could be back with your sixth grade lover. It was like these hologram rooms and I was always like "That! I want that." So I do kind of understand that. You can kind of change whatever you want in your real life in these worlds and we all want that.
Do you personally believe in aliens and the possibility of an attack?
I don't know if I believe in an attack but I definitely believe that there's got to be some other life form other than us. I don't know what it is. I think we get a little dramatic about what aliens would look like. We have all these alien shows and I used to be obsessed with those shows. Now, I don't know, but I certainly don't think we're the only ones. There's just too many possibilities and too many things we don't know.
Yea, I imagine a billion other kinds of Earths out there with humans wondering the same thing about us.
Yeah, absolutely. I can't imagine it's just us.
