If you haven’t been watching REAPER this season, I think you’re missing out.  I’m a huge fan of the show, and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a last minute reprieve!  The cast is also terribly proud of their show and hopes to see it keep going.  I had a few minutes to chat with Jenny Wade – the demon with a heart of gold Nina – last week and here’s what she had to say!

I am loving this season of REAPER.  Everyone I talk to, I tell them how creatively smart I think it’s been this season!
I agree.  It’s come leaps and bounds.  And I think, it’s one of those shows that really grows on people.  Every TV show needs a little bit of time, to kind of hook people, and people fall in love with the characters, and this season has been ramped up to the Nth degree.

Why was Nina a character that you wanted to play?
When I got the audition for Nina, I was so excited about it, because it’s not a character that I see every day.  You don’t often see the demon with the heart of gold [laughs]. I felt like I could do so much more with it, and compliment the writers so much.  I immediately saw the humor in it.  The audition was written a little bit seriously.  The first episode with Nina is pretty intense.  She’s trying to kill Sam.  That was just her job.  She’s in it for love [laughs] and I love that.  I love the dichotemy of that, and being able to kind of maintain a little bit of suspense.  Is she good, is she bad?  Do we believe her, do we trust her?  Oh she’s sweet, or wait she’s trying to kill Sam!  Or she loves Ben, oh wait she’s trying to kill him.

I think the writers and the cast have done so well with that – there are a lot of characters that you really don’t know if they’re all good, or they’re all bad, or what their role is.
Exactly!  It keeps people interested!

I really want to talk about the last few episodes this season – what can you tease for us that’s coming up?
Well, Sam is really keen on getting out of his deal with the devil and has been since he found out that he belongs to the devil.  He’s really keen on keeping his relationship with Andy together.  Now that his dad is in Hell, I’ve been trying to help him out with that, he realizes that he can utilize Nina for the same thing.  Nina has been in Hell for eons.  She knows the ins and the outs, the way the Devil works, the way that his contract works, so Nina’s going to play a big part in seeing what she can do to wrangle that situation.  She’s afraid of the devil, obviously, because he can destroy, so vascillates between that fear and the loyalty to her new friends.

When this started, did you know that Nina would serve such a big purpose, have such a big role and did the character grow more than you expected it to?
It absolutely grew!  When I started the show, I had 7 episodes lined up, and it was just one of those things that seemed to click.  I clicked with the cast immediately.  The more stuff that we did, the more stuff we thought about doing, and it got really exciting, so I ended up doing 11 episodes, and I wish that I had done all 13!  It’s been such a great experience for me.  Nina has grown exponentially, more than I think the writers and creators intended it to.

Why should people tune in to these last few?
We’re not really this surface-y, teenage melodrama, formulaic stuff that you see out there.  The characters on the show, we’re not the most beautiful people in the world. We’re kind of quirky, we’re kind of funky, we all have our weird things that make us real, and relatable.  There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up from Season 1.  I think that people are going to want to see what happens to Sam, people are going to want to see if Nina’s good or evil.  People want to know if Andy’s going to stick around.  If Sock is going to find love, which he might [laughs] before the season is over!  I think we come into poeple’s houses, and we just seem like dudes that you know.  We’re hoping that it’s going to keep us going!

What are you hearing from the networks and studios?  What are the feelings among you guys going forward?
Well, there have been a lot of rumors going around, about whether or not the show is going to be picked up by The CW.  Whether that’s going to be happening or not, Tyler just got a new pilot [the recently picked up SONS OF TUCSON]; I also had a new pilot.  Michele and Tara, our creators, just went over to FOX.  It hasn’t affected the morale of our team in any way.  We’re all in contact on a daily basis.  We all want the show to keep going, and it’s our first priority.  If REAPER gets picked up, Tyler’s back….I’ll be back as a guest star.  Tara and Michele, that’s their baby.  They’ve been with this show for 10 years, so I know that’s their priority.  We’re in it to win it!

It’s funny that you’re doing moderately well, ratings wise, and for a lack of promotion, it’s quite surprising!
Oh yeah, we’re definitely sticking the landing.  We’re hoping that somebody sees that.  We have no promotion whatsoever.  I have never seen a commercial for REAPER.  We were gone for 8 months off the air.  The fans are not going away.  They believe in what we’re doing, and I guess we’re making people laugh.  I guess that’s good!

What else besides your shows do you have coming up?
I just finished a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman called BROTHERS, directed by Jim Sheridan.  I’m not sure when that’s coming out.  It’s kind of been in post production limbo for a little bit. It’s looking right now like it’ll be the end of the year, so probably October, November.  And there’s another indie film, called THE STRIP, and we’re waiting to see where that’s going to go as well.  Right now, the focus is really on this upcoming week, seeing where my priorities are going to lie.  Hoping for the best!