When actress Anna Silk read the pilot script for Lost Girl, she says her first reaction was, “This is totally written by a guy. Bisexual succubus who has to have sex to heal? Oh, my God. I just thought, ‘What is this?’”
However, Silk kept reading and was won over to the series, making its U.S. debut on SyFy Monday evening.
“And then I read the script, and it was written by a woman named Michelle Lovretta, who’s a fantastic writer and creator of our show,” Silk tells Blastr. “And she wrote Bo with so much heart. And the sexual content of the show is … it’s who and what she is. It’s not gratuitous. It’s really character-based. And I think that’s a cool power to have. It’s such a sexy power, yeah. But it’s also something she’s had to really grapple with … The vulnerability and sensitivity of Bo is what really drew me. I don’t think I would have been cast if it was a different kind of leading female. I just don’t think it would have been me,” said Silk.
The series has been a hit in Canada, where it’s wrapping up a second season and prepping for a third.
The show follows the story of Bo, who learns that she’s a member of a magical race of beings called the Fae. Beyond that she’s a succubus who can drain a human’s life energy with a kiss, which presents problems for her character, considering she was raised by humans not knowing who or what she was.
However, things don’t get any less complicated once she discovers she’s a Fae succubus. The Fae are split into two groups, Light and Dark, and they want Bo to choose a side. When she refuses, it complicates everything for everyone. Joining her in her journey are her human roomate, Kenzi (Ksenia Solo), a human doctor named Lauren (Zoie Palmer) who studies the Light Fae, and a Light Fae cop named Dyson (Kris Holden-Ried).
Lauren and Dyson present another issue for the bisexual Bo. “She’s involved in a love triangle in the first season with a man and a woman. One is Fae, one is human. It’s very complicated,” she said.
“She’s just attracted to those two people, Dyson and Lauren. There’s just an attraction that just exists right from the get-go. And as actors we have that natural chemistry. I mean, Kris and Zoie are both amazing to work with and really attractive people. They’re charismatic and attractive. They don’t really have to do much to be like, ‘Hey, I like you,’” she adds.
However, it isn’t the sexy scenes as part of the love triangle that Silk finds the biggest challenge in the show.
The biggest challenge in playing her for me is to make sure that the stronger moments come out of [her] vulnerability, because I think that’s where they come from with Bo. I think that she’s had to learn to be really strong. Her past is rather shameful to her,” she said. “But her greatest source of shame became her power. And that’s been the growth for Bo, and that’s what’s been challenging to play, certainly, but also the most rewarding thing to play, is to grow with her. And I got to do that as an actor. I got to be really scared and unsure and then grow into somebody more confident at the same time. So the show gave me that luxury of being able to learn and grow along with her.”
Lost Girl debuts Monday night on SyFy.
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