Actress Jamie Ray Newman has a good problem–she’s currently starring in two genre series. The first is her recurring role as Tess on SyFy’s hit series “Eureka,” and later this year, she’ll be one of the three stars of ABC’s “Eastwick.”
“Jaime Paglia and Charlie Craig, the creators of the show, sent me an e-mail when Eastwick got picked up,” Newman jokingly told SciFi Wire. “They said, ‘We hope you get canceled. Love, Charlie and Jaime.'”
However, should “Eastwick” be a success, Newman says the schedules for both shows coordinate enough that she won’t have to miss time being on either one.
“They start up in March, I think, so hopefully we’ll get to play the whole season , and on hiatus I’d love to come back [to ‘Eureka’].”
The girl power of “Eastwick”‘s witches stands in contrast to “Eureka”, Newman said. “‘Eureka’ was definitely a male-centric show, but there are powerful, strong women on that series as well,” she said. “It was a really easy transition for me. There were a lot of effects on ‘Eureka’, and we were working 16 hours every single day. So this is kind of a similar genre in that sense. But I am so grateful we’re in L.A., because “Eureka”‘s in Vancouver. I like being home.”
“Eastwick” has a more magic-based premise than “Eureka”, which is more sci-fi, and Newman will miss that. “I loved the science of Eureka,” she said. “It was kind of an education in and of itself. Joe Morton was kind of our local scientist. He was our local encyclopedia. We’d always come to him, so I learned a lot on it.”
Eastwick won’t have the same level of visual effects as Eureka, she added. “Eureka has probably more,” she said. “At the same time, it’s a show that’s been on for four seasons, so they’ve gotten to kind of find themselves and figure themselves out. We’re just amping up. We’re just finding our legs.”
” Eastwick” premieres Sept. 23 on ABC.
That’s interesting that Joe is the go-to guy off the set for stuff sciency because on the set his character, Henry, is the sciency go-to guy. Life imitating art.
I’ve really enjoyed her on Eureka. She a very charismatic actress and has added some fun tete-a-tete between Tess & Carter. I hope they can make her a regular in the future.
I am not wishing ill will, but I think she will be back on Eureka full time when Eastwick flops. Eastwick is nothing more than a reimagined version of Desperate Housewives.