Crystal Reed and Jill Wagner in TEEN WOLF - Season 1 - "The Tell" | ©2011 MTV

On MTV’s TEEN WOLF, which has its season one finale tonight at 10 PM (a second season arrives next year), it may be a toss-up as to which character is the scariest. Sure, that soft-talking homicidal Alpha wolf is menacing in monster form, but Jill Wagner’s beautiful, fanatical, gun-wielding Hunter Kate Argent seems just as capable of destroying the life of good-hearted young werewolf hero Scott McCall (Tyler Posey).

North Carolina native Wagner is known to TV genre fans for her roles on BLADE: THE SERIES and STARGATE: ATLANTIS, while reality competition show viewers also know her for her hosting gig on many seasons of ABC’s WIPEOUT.

At this summer’s cable TCA’s, Wagner took time to speak with ASSIGNMENT X and sounds very happy about playing werewolf hunter Kate.

ASSIGNMENT X: Is Kate Argent the most butt-kicking person you’ve played so far?

JILL WAGNER: I don’t know. Krista Starr on BLADE: THE SERIES – she was I think more ass-kicking. Kate is more psychotic. So Kate’s got a good mixture of being a complete psychopath [and] being a badass.

AX: Is Kate’s psychopathology liable to get more intense as the series goes on?

WAGNER: Oh, yeah. I was talking to some of the producers the other day, and they were like [laughs], “Your character is completely nuts.” She goes bonkers by the end of the series.

AX: Does family loyalty trump anti-werewolfism for Kate?

WAGNER: No. Anti-werewolf trumps everything. She does not play by any rules. I actually think she would probably sacrifice a family member if they got in the way of her killing a werewolf.

AB: Kate has started training her niece Allison in how to fight werewolves. Has it occurred to Kate that Allison might not be as anti-werewolf as Kate is?

WAGNER: I think Kate only sees one side of the story and it’s her side. And I think she is prepared to convince Allison in any way possible that she needed to be a killer of these horrible beasts [laughs].

AX: Did you start out being a very physical person and then get these very physical roles, or did you get these roles and start working out like crazy?

WAGNER: I was raised by my dad and he was a Marine and he’s always taught me. I had a gun collection when I was fifteen years old and I think it stems from being raised by a really alpha father. He taught me pretty much how to act like a boy and not a girl [laughs]. I played with G.I. Joe, not Barbie, and I think that just goes right into where I want to be, and that’s, you put a gun or a grenade in my hand, I’m good. I know how to be a character with a weapon [laughs].

Jill Wagner and Tyler Hoechlin in TEEN WOLF - Season 1 - "Formality" | ©2011 MTV

AX: What’s Kate’s attitude toward werewolf Derek, played by Tyler Hoechlin? She seems to enjoy flirting with him, as well as torturing him.

WAGNER: I think she’s out to get Derek, because she knows [he’s a werewolf], and she’s out to get the Alpha. Actually, I don’t even think she wants to kill Derek – I think she wants to mess with Derek. There’s a relationship there, and there’s something that’s in the past with those two characters.

AX: J.R. Bourne plays Kate’s werewolf-hunting brother. Did the two of you as actors discuss the sibling relationship between your characters?

WAGNER: You know, it’s so funny, because now, every time I talk to Wendy O’Brien, who cast both of us, I’m like, “You just gave me another brother.” We now are really close – in fact, I’m going to see him to go bowling. I wish we could have just known each other like we do now at the beginning of the season, because we really didn’t discuss anything, it was more, it just happened on screen, but from the minute we met, we had this chemistry of, you would actually probably think we were brother and sister if you didn’t know us. But now we’re just completely crazy. Now we can hit each other if we want [laughs]. It’s okay, it’s cool.

AX: You were on STARGATE: ATLANTIS and J.R. Bourne was STARGATE: SG-1 – do you guys compare STARGATE stories?

WAGNER: No. We never compared any stories, but my dad asked me the other day, “Can’t you just get a normal role?” I’m like, “No, this is what I want to be doing.” Give me a third eye or something, I’ll be good, as long as I can be something that’s really interesting to play. And I think the more I dug into Kate and found out that she’s a bit of a sociopath, the more it was actually fun to play.

AX: How do you get into that state of mind for the character?

WAGNER: I listen to a lot of heavy metal music, a lot of Marilyn Manson. You just have to psych yourself up, try not to talk to people, try to get into your own little head. I think music is something that really helps me. Before everything that I do, I just put on the song that’s the soundtrack for that scene and there was a lot of Marilyn Manson in there [laughs],

Tyler Hoechlin and Jill Wagner in TEEN WOLF - Season 1 - "Formality" | ©2011 MTV

AX: Were you a sci-fi/horror genre fan before you started getting these parts dealing with werewolves, vampires and aliens?

WAGNER: Yeah. I’ve always been a bit of a comic book fan and the whole world of sci-fi has always intrigued me, because it’s something that I think everyone kind of wonders, does it really exist in another world? Maybe there’s a whole planet full of vampires. I mean, we don’t know. And I love the fact that a writer like [TEEN WOLF creator] Jeff Davis can create whatever is in his head. I love that there are those infinite possibilities and they can do whatever. And it’s fun to read the script that way.

AX: And do you feel that the genre – because it does have these very physical confrontations – may offer better roles for women?

WAGNER: Absolutely. But I’ve never wanted to play the hot girl at the bar. When I first came out here [to Los Angeles], that’s what everybody wanted to cast me as, the bimbo at the bar. It never appealed to me. There are those parts, and some girls can really play those parts well. I like it when it’s a tougher role and I like the strong female characters. I’ve always been more drawn to that. It’s very hard for me to play the victim.

AX: Do you think Crystal Reed, who plays Allison, will get more badass roles down the road?

WAGNER: I think Crystal in general is such a great actress and she can play anything. I’d love to see her in a more physical role, but then I think she’s just such a sweet face and so beautiful that it would be a natural move to see her go toward romantic comedy. I would love to see her go towards a badass action movie. I don’t know if that’s what she’ll do, but I would love to see that.

AX: How has it been working with TEEN WOLF executive producer Russell Mulcahy as a director?

WAGNER:. He’s awesome.

AX: Do you have any other projects you’re involved in right now?

WAGNER: You know, I just gave up my [job hosting] WIPEOUT so I could start acting again. I just now told [the WIPEOUT producers], “I think it’s time for me to move on.” Acting is where I started. I loved doing that show, but I think that you’ve got to go where your heart is. My heart is with grenades and guns [laughs].

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Click on link: for AX’s Exclusive Interview with TEEN WOLF star Tyler Posey
Click on link: for AX’s Exclusive Interview with TEEN WOLF star Dylan O’Brien
Click on link: for AX’s Exclusive Interview with TEEN WOLF director/producer Russell Mulcahy

Click on link: for AX’s review of the series 1 premiere of TEEN WOLF – “Wolf Moon”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Second Chance At First Line”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Pack Mentality”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Magic Bullet”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “The Tell”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Heart Monitor”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Night School”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Lunatic”
Click on link: for AX’s review of TEEN WOLF – “Wolf’s Bane”

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive interview with TEEN WOLF executive producer Jeff Davis – Part 2

Click on link: AX’s Exclusive interview with TEEN WOLF executive producer Jeff Davis – Part 1

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Article: Exclusive Interview with  MTV’s TEEN WOLF star Jill Wagner

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