For the past two years, Allison Scagliotti has been helping bag and tag dangerous artifacts in her role as the super-smart, resourceful, steampunk-attired techie and agent-in-training Claudia Donovan on Warehouse 13.
In real life, the actress herself is just as cool as her TV alter ego. On this unseasonably warm Tuesday in Toronto, she along with one of her fellow castmates and the show’s crew are on-location working on the upcoming third season episode “Shadows.” Scagliotti, who is in every scene today, including one inside a second-floor apartment, graciously comes down between takes to sit under a shady tree and chat about her work on the show this year. It only makes sense that the conversation begins with her involvement in this story.
“The episode we’re currently shooting is number nine, and in it Claudia goes out into the field to help investigate a string of mysterious disappearances in Portland, Oregon,” reveals Scagliotti. “We have a couple of familiar Sci-Fi faces to look forward to in this story. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose their identities just yet; my knowledge of that is kept under lock and key,” jokes the actress. “Claudia’s involvement in this particular case is important because she’s close in age to the young woman who is being affected by this strange phenomenon, so she’s able to talk with her and level with her in a way that Pete [Eddie McClintock] and the others wouldn’t be able to. So there’s a sort of peer element to that relationship.
“Yesterday we got to shoot at a cemetery, which I expected to be creepier than it was. I think there’s something to be said for visiting a cemetery in the daytime in that the vibe is different, although I wouldn’t have been against shooting there at night. As for today, it’s like someone flipped a switch here in Toronto and all of a sudden spring is over and summer has arrived. So for example, right now we’re in this tiny, cramped apartment building and [cool] air is being pumped in from the outside through these giant hoses, only between takes, though, because of the loud sound that it makes, which wouldn’t work at all in the final cut. This story has been a lot of fun to do and I can’t believe we’re already on episode nine. This season is definitely flying by.”
At the end of Warehouse 13’s second season, Claudia along with fellow Warehouse agent Pete Lattimer and their boss, Artie Nielsen (Saul Rubinek), as well as their boss’s immediate superior, Mrs. Frederic (CCH Pounder) reluctantly said goodbye to Agent Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly), who handed in her resignation after what she felt was her misguided trust in a former Warehouse agent, H.G. Wells (Jaime Murrray), almost resulted in a catastrophe. Despite missing their former colleague, our heroes must carry on as usual, and in the season three premiere, “The New Guy,” Agent Steve Jinks (Aaron Ashmore), is assigned to fill the gap left by Myka’s departure. For Scagliotti, stepping back into Claudia’s shoes this year was, at first, slightly daunting.
