Syfy hosted a Digital Press Tour back in October where reporters were given insight on
programing both old and new. One of the shows we were introduced to was Lost Girl a new acquisition that has already gained a following around the world. The panel consisted of Mark Stern, the President of Original Programing for Syfy, Anna Silk who plays Bo and Zoie Palmer who plays Bo’s friend Lauren.
“Lost Girl” stars supernatural seductress Bo (played by Anna Silk, “The Ghost Whisperer”), a Succubus (a powerful female entity in folklore) who feeds off sexual energy. Raised by human parents, Bo had no reason to believe she was anything other than the girl next door — until she “drained” her first boyfriend to death.
Bo has since hit the road alone and afraid. She discovers she is one of the Fae, creatures of legend and folklore, who pass as humans while feeding off them in secret, as they have for millennia. She is faced with choosing an allegiance between the Dark or Light Fae clans. Bo decides to take the middle path between humans and the Fae while embarking on a personal mission to unlock the secrets of her origin, protecting humans along the way.
“Lost Girl” co-stars Kris Holden-Ried as Dyson, a shape-shifting Fae, homicide detective and Bo’s love interest; Ksenia Solo as Kenzi, Bo’s human confidante and street-smart survivor, Zoie Palmer as Lauren, a human doctor who competes for Bo’s heart; Rick Howland as Trick, the mysterious owner and bartender at The Dal Riata tavern, with a secretive past that is yet to be unlocked, and K.C. Collins as Hale, a handsome male “Siren” who is the eternal bachelor, ultimate wingman and Dyson’s partner on the force.
Here is the transcript:
MARK STERN: Okay. Let’s begin. Welcome back from lunch. We
are in that home stretch. Like, don’t lose me in the 3:00 lull
here. Let’s just keep pushing forward. I’ve got all of these
new sound effects that I got at lunch. I realize I totally,
like, screwed myself because there are some really great ones
that I didn’t know about because there are 140 in here. And I
was like, I’m an idiot because if I, like — and now, of course,
I can’t find it. Oh, like this one for Christmas — the
Christmas episodes.
(Telephone app plays sounds of jingling.)
Shall I go back? I know. I was like, “Dangit.” All right.
There’s lots more in here. So let’s begin. Next panel, “Lost
Girl,” we are really excited about “Lost Girl.” This was — by
May, we were very excited to acquire this series. We’ve got two
seasons of it, 26 episodes. I think Anna and Zoie will talk
about the fact that they are actually shooting some additional
ones as well, but this really — I have to say, the production
value of this show — and some of you may be familiar with it.
It’s obviously been out there for a while — really blew me away.
I was unfamiliar with this. I just started watching it and got
totally hooked in. It is really quite amazing what they pull off
every week. And believe me. I know how hard that can be. And I
have news. Hold on.
QUESTION: Did you save a lot of money on your car insurance by
switching to Geico?
(Laughter.)
MARK STERN: Ooh, that wasn’t me. Let’s just do this one.
(Telephone app makes a buzzing sound.)
“Lost Girl” is going to premier on Monday, January 16th, at
10 p.m., right after “Being Human” at 9. So Powerful Mondays are
back, starting with “Being Human” and then segueing right into
“Lost Girl.” We think it’s going to give us a block of really
interesting, edgy programming that we are very excited about. So
I think, without further ado, what I’d like to do is actually
bring up the stars of the show. And they can actually talk a
little bit more about what the show is, and then we’ve got a
really cool clip to show you. So please welcome Anna Silk and
Zoie Palmer.
(Applause.)
ANNA SILK: Hi.
MARK STERN: Hi. How are you?
ANNA SILK: Good. How are you?
MARK STERN: Good.
ZOIE PALMER: Hello.
MARK STERN: Welcome.
ANNA SILK: Thank you.
MARK STERN: They have you holding your — they have you holding
your —
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah, you’ve got it.
MARK STERN: Nothing but fanciness here. “Welcome to the Syfy
Channel. Hold your Mike.” So we have a clip that we wanted to
show, but I thought it’s better for you guys to tell us a little
bit about what the series is about —
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: — and how it works and —
ANNA SILK: Okay. Well, “Lost Girl” follows the story of Bo,
which is the character that I play, and Bo grew up thinking that
she was human and like your every girl. And when she became a
teenager, she had, you know, urges, sexual urges that went beyond
normal teenage urges.
MARK STERN: Go on.
ANNA SILK: She discovers at the beginning of the series, in
Season 1, that she’s not human, that she’s actually a succubus
and part of a whole Fae underworld that live and feed among
humans. So, you know, the adventure unfolds from there.
MARK STERN: I can sissue (ph)?
ANNA SILK: Yes, exactly. And Bo gets to learn about — in one
sense, it was a great relief for her to find out that — you
know, what she is, but at the same time, it opened the door to a
lot of questions. And those questions get answered and
challenged and answered and challenged throughout the season.
MARK STERN: Wow.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: I couldn’t have said it better myself. Let’s watch
a quick clip, actually.
ANNA SILK: Okay.
(Clip shown.)
MARK STERN: A very special Christmas episode.
(Laughter.)
ANNA SILK: It’s certainly a Romicon feel.
ZOIE PALMER: Certainly a Romicon feel.
ANNA SILK: That clip stresses me out.
MARK STERN: First of all, I’ve got to say, like, amazing, —
right? — the amount of just technical, like, expertise in that.
How — let’s just talk about that scene for a second because I
was watching that going “Wow.”
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: I mean, was it —
ANNA SILK: It makes may heart race actually watching it because
she was really strong. But it was really — I mean, it was an
amazing sequence to shoot, and, you know, she was this incredibly
talented stunt woman, but it was challenging.
MARK STERN: Yeah?
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: And so give us a little bit of your character, and
what do you do in this show?
ZOIE PALMER: I play Dr. Lauren Lewis, and what’s interesting a
little bit about her is that she’s one of the few humans that
work directly with the Fae. And I work — in the beginning, Bo
and Lauren meet up, and there’s a few sparks perhaps maybe. And
we have a bit of a triangle with another character on the show,
Dyson played by Kris Holden-Ried. And I sort of help Bo control
the urges scientifically. So she comes for periodic injections
and the like. And, yeah, so Lauren sort of — and she works for
the Fae, and you never, sort of, learn — well, the season sort
of opens with you are not sure why she’s working for the Fae and
why there’s a human doctor and not a Fae doctor, and so that’s
where the story sort of unravels, and the season does, too.
MARK STERN: It’s a really interesting character because you
definitely want someone like that in this kind of show because
it’s like, as a viewer, it’s like, “What the hell is going on?”
ANNA SILK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: There’s a lot of questions around that character
and why she’s there and why she’s so indebted to that group, the
live Fae.
MARK STERN: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
MARK STERN: But I think it seems like — and I think this show
very nicely is able to get through a lot of that expositional how
it works, all of the different types of Fae —
ZOIE PALMER: Uh-huh.
MARK STERN: — in a very organic way.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: Do you find that —
ANNA SILK: I think Bo has all of those questions. You know, she
just learned that she’s not human, that she’s a succubus and
about the Fae and that they exist, you know. So that sort of —
those questions are asked by her and by the audience as well.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah. You guys sort of have the same questions —
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: — the audience and Bo.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: That’s always nice. Trust me.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: And something else I’ll say about the show, too,
because Zoie just brought up the light Fae is that the other
thing that Bo learns is the Fae are divided amongst light and
dark, and what that sets up in our show is this very interesting
political system and divide. And that creates a lot of conflict
on the show and is just a really — another really interesting
thing about “Lost Girl.”
MARK STERN: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: That’s absolutely right. Especially the second
season, it really does seem to kind of take off in that way.
ANNA SILK: Yes.
MARK STERN: How did you get involved in the show?
ANNA SILK: Well, I live — I’m Canadian, and I lived in Toronto
for quite a few years. That’s where our show shoots. And I live
in Los Angeles now, and I — the script came my way, and I saw,
you know, females, sex sci-fi babe. I thought —
ZOIE PALMER: She came running.
ANNA SILK: Right. I came running. I said, “That’s for me.” I
think I actually came into the process a little late in the game.
And, you know, I loved what I read because, you know, Bo, she’s a
sexual creature. She’s a sexual being. So right away I thought,
“Okay. What’s going on here? What is this about?” But it
was — what I loved is that it’s Bo’s greatest sense of shame
grows into her greatest strength. And that’s something that
appealed to me, and I think as a — you know, I think it appeals
to young women watching the show. Our audience is so broad. I
mean, we are in our second season in Canada. We are airing in
the U.K. and Australia, and the people I meet that watch the show
are such a broad audience, you know. We have different
generations, and all different kinds of people are really drawn
to our show.
ZOIE PALMER: Shy girls, young girls.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: It really seems to have hit, you know, a good, big
group.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: It’s been lovely for us.
MARK STERN: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: But that’s what drew me to the show was a strong
female lead who — and female character who is scared a lot of
the time but can’t be.
MARK STERN: Right.
ANNA SILK: She has to figure it out, and she does.
MARK STERN: That’s great.
ANNA SILK: Not always, but for the most part, she does.
MARK STERN: And, also, you get a little sense of — I mean,
there’s nothing like the “fried bitch” line, but you also do get
a sense that there’s a certain tongue-and-cheek quality with
Lauren, too.
ZOIE PALMER: Oh, yeah.
MARK STERN: It doesn’t take itself too seriously.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah. There’s great, great humor in this show. I
think that’s one of my favorite things about the show is that
they have — along with some really intense moments, there’s tons
of fun and lots of — sort of — you know, it’s witty. And I
think all of the female characters on the show are really
interesting written. Kenzi played by the very talented Ksenia
Solo, who can be —
ANNA SILK: Who was the “fried bitch” line.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
MARK STERN: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: She’s fantastic on the show. Like, what a great
character, you know.
MARK STERN: Yeah, yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: She has a good time playing that character.
MARK STERN: You can tell. I mean, it is. She gets all of the
great lines.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: Well — but she does them — no one else can do
them better. She does a great job.
MARK STERN: Yeah. We had some experience with that with Claudia
on our show. Allison Scagliotti on “Warehouse” is the same way.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: Like, she just has that zinger that you wish you had
said. So are you — and you are now doing nine more episodes,
right? You have additional episodes you are shooting?
ANNA SILK: We did. We left the back nine. So we are actually
currently filming Episode 15 of Season 2, and we started airing
Season 2 in Canada as well.
ZOIE PALMER: Right. So we are airing a shooting.
ANNA SILK: Yeah. We are airing a shooting.
ZOIE PALMER: That’s right.
ANNA SILK: That never happens, not often to us.
ZOIE PALMER: No.
ANNA SILK: But it’s great.
MARK STERN: Are you on that zone? It’s funny because I was with
Colin yesterday, and he said there’s a point at which you
suddenly start to get recognized, and people” — you realize —
like, something happens. You reach a threshold where people
start to just stop you in the street. Are you at that point now?
ANNA SILK: Yeah. And it’s great because people want to come up
and tell you why they love the show. They don’t just say, “Are
you that girl?” They say, like, “Oh, my mom watches the show,
and this is why she loves it,” or “My brother watches it.” It’s
cool.
MARK STERN: That’s great.
ZOIE PALMER: It’s funny, those moments, though, because it never
occurs to me anyway that that’s why someone might be looking at
me, and so I always have to go, “What? Oh, right, sorry.”
MARK STERN: “What do you want?”
ZOIE PALMER: Yes.
MARK STERN: That’s great. Well, wait until it airs on Syfy.
Then that a whole other level.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: We are totally thrilled.
MARK STERN: Then you in, like — then you are in that little
tram in the airport in Orlando and people are stopping you in the
tram. I was like, “Oh, my God.” He’s like, “I know.” Right? I
was like, “I’m glad that’s not me.”
ANNA SILK: As long as they don’t expect a succubus kiss, I’m
okay.
ZOIE PALMER: I will inject people, though.
ANNA SILK: Yeah, she will. She will.
MARK STERN: Okay. And with that, let’s open to questions.
QUESTION: Okay. My question is actually from your fans on
Twitter. Do you expect Bo-Lauren relationship to be as popular
as it was — as it is, rather?
MARK STERN: Did you guys hear that? Did you — do you expect
the —
QUESTION: Lauren and Bo — thank you. Did you expect the
Lauren-Bo relationship to be as popular as it is with the fans?
ZOIE PALMER: I certainly didn’t, no. That came as a bit of a
surprise, yeah. It’s been a great surprise, too, like, what a —
but no. That blew up a little bit, didn’t it?
ANNA SILK: Yeah. I mean, for Zoie and I, it was really
important — and we talked about it in the beginning — that this
relationship be very real. This was a very, you know — Bo is
involved in a love triangle in the show, and we wanted this
relationship to be a truthful relationship between these two
women. I mean —
ZOIE PALMER: And to stand up against —
ANNA SILK: — if one is not — yeah, exactly. It has a rival,
the other love relationship, and it certainly does. And the fan
response has been —
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: — amazing.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
QUESTION: Two quick ones. One is with the action, the
supernatural humor, do you think the show, in a sense, fills a
void that’s been there since “Buffy” went off the air, “Buffy,
The Vampire Slayer,” went off the air?
ZOIE PALMER: It certainly comes up, like, as a comparison for
sure.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: So I think perhaps for some people it might.
ANNA SILK: And I think the humor — it’s funny because, on the
weekend, I was watching reruns of “Buffy” all afternoon. But I
think that the humor that existed on “Buffy” and the — how much
the characters, the central characters cared about each other,
that exists on “Lost Girl,” too. I mean, these people and
nonpeople really care for each other, and I think that that seems
to be the biggest comparison, I think, that we get. So it’s
flattering.
ZOIE PALMER: Oh, it’s a huge compliment, I think, yeah, if
people feel that way, for sure.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
QUESTION: You said in the airport people stop you and tell you
what they think of the show. What do they think of the show?
What are they telling you?
ANNA SILK: Oh, gosh. People love the sort of political system,
like I talked about a little bit, that exists. They love to kind
of get angry at one side or the other. You know, a lot of
younger women love to see a character whose sexuality is a big
part of who she is but is really strong and empowered by that.
So, I mean, people talk about that a lot. People love Kenzi’s
one-liners, you know.
ZOIE PALMER: Uh-huh.
ANNA SILK: It’s really mixed. I have to be honest. It’s
really, really mixed. There’s not something really specific.
ZOIE PALMER: It’s a pretty passionate audience, too.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: They have very specific opinions on how they feel,
where the story line should go and the characters should be
developed in.
ANNA SILK: Yeah. They have taken ownership.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah, which is great. Yeah.
QUESTION: I’ve got one from Twitter as well here. We haven’t
heard much about the Faye human aspect of Bo and Lauren’s
relationship since Season 1. How do you think these dynamic
factors affect the relationship itself and your portrayal of it?
ANNA SILK: The Fae human-specific relationship?
QUESTION: Yes.
ANNA SILK: Well, it was really addressed in the first season,
and it’s a complicated relationship for that reason, for many
reasons, but that being the primary one.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah, because of Lauren being injured —
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: — originally by —
ANNA SILK: I mean, Bo drains people to death, is what she can
do, which is not something she necessarily wants to do.
ZOIE PALMER: Not necessarily.
ANNA SILK: Not necessarily. Sometimes. But I don’t know. I
don’t know really how to answer that.
ZOIE PALMER: Well, he kind of got — I mean, because Lauren is
the scientist and the whole — part of their whole dynamic, the
beginning of it, is that she comes to Lauren for help, and
because Bo’s character hasn’t picked a side, that’s a little
awkward because Lauren works for specifically the light Faye. So
I do begin to kind of help her out a little bit, and because I
do, she becomes less of a worry that way.
ANNA SILK: Yeah. I mean, Bo is so grateful. Someone that can
actually help her control these urges, like, this is a new thing
for her. So the way that it sort of plays out in Season 1, I
mean, I don’t know — they kind of dealt with that, I think, the
Fae human aspect of it.
ZOIE PALMER: They do in the first season.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: And it’s not really addressed again, I don’t think.
ANNA SILK: Yeah. It’s not really addressed on a continuous
basis.
QUESTION: I had a question from Facebook, from one of the
Facebook followers, who wants to know how do you prepare yourself
to be a succubus? What kind of research do you go through, or do
you?
ANNA SILK: Well —
ZOIE PALMER: Do you really want to talk about what you did?
QUESTION: Yes, we do.
ANNA SILK: I can’t talk about it. No. You know, in terms of
Luckiest guy in the room
research, it’s the human side of Bo that is really sort of the
heart of who she is. A succubus is who and what she is as well.
In terms of getting ready to play it, I actually knew what a
succubus was. And some people asked me that question, too, like,
“Did you even know that that was?” And I did because I used to
have these recurring nightmares and had read about the
incubus/succubus phenomenon. And so, in terms of playing that, I
think you play the human side, if that makes any sense. In terms
of the succubus, you know, the first episode that we had where I
had to do a succubus kiss, that guy got a lot of kissing and air
time because we really had to figure out what that kiss was going
to look like, what draining someone’s chee (ph) meant and how
that would play out. And we sort of came up with something that
would then be the standard for the succubus kiss on the show.
Now I’ve got it down.
ZOIE PALMER: Oh, yeah.
ANNA SILK: This is what it is. This is what you do. But in
terms of playing a succubus, I think that you played it human
side.
QUESTION: Okay. Thanks.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
MARK STERN: That’s quite a day that guy had.
ANNA SILK: Yeah. He had — yeah. He had a lot of lip time.
ZOIE PALMER: A lot of people have quite the day.
MARK STERN: We have time for one more question.
QUESTION: So we’ve seen ghosts on TV. We’ve seen vampires,
werewolves. And this is fairly new, a succubus. So what is it
about these supernatural, paranormal creatures that connect with
audiences and make something like “Lost Girl” popular? Why do
you think that there is a need for it?
ZOIE PALMER: Well, I think it lends itself to the world of play
that we all still sort of, — you know, the part of ourselves
that likes to fantasize about, sort of, craziness and chaos and
all of that. You know, it’s a whole different world that you can
really lose yourself in. And so I don’t know if it would be
specifically for everyone, but I feel like that’s probably part
of the draw of being able to kind of imagine yourself in that
world that’s nothing like the one we live in.
ANNA SILK: Yeah.
ZOIE PALMER: Do you agree?
ANNA SILK: And I think that, you know, that supernatural world
that Zoie is talking about, what appeals to the audience, too, is
the central relationships between the characters. Like I said,
they really care about each other. They’re real relationships.
It’s real friendships. It’s real heartbreak. It’s real hurt.
And then I just happen to fight a headless guy with a sword. And
that’s kind of part of our day, and we have to deal with that
world as well. And I think that it’s such an imaginative and
broad world, which is really cool.
ZOIE PALMER: Uh-huh.
MARK STERN: Excellent. Okay. Well, thank you. They are going
to be down here at the side of the stage for 10 minutes to sort
of chat with you further, but thank you so much for being here.
ZOIE PALMER: Yeah.
ANNA SILK: Thank you.
